The quarry clinic key reached Marrick's ledger beside a request for two guards, though Hans crossed out both names before the ink had dried.
"A guard at the clinic hears the bell after everyone else," he said, pushing the page back with his remaining hand. "Put one on the ridge where he can watch the whole road below him."
Hajin followed him outside, where sixty workers had gathered between the registry and the eastern wall for the first full bell drill.
The morning smelled of coal smoke plus cut ashwood, the town's two newest industries announcing themselves together.
Loccy waited near the mine-road choke point with her hammer across one shoulder, surrounded by blocks she had stacked into a straight barrier.
She had squared every edge by hand, then swept the sand beneath it so nobody could accuse the wall of luck.
Hans stopped before the wall and looked through its single cart opening before turning toward the workers assembled behind it.
