Vella put Hans on a clinic cot after finding blood beneath the bandage he had reopened near the grain shed.
He sat upright while she wrapped his leg and read three bell sheets spread across his knees.
"If you stand before morning, I seal your trousers to the cot," Vella warned, tightening the final wrap, "so test me after missing lunch."
"The trousers belong to your lord," Hans replied without looking up from the eastern sheet, "so ruin his property if it improves your mood."
"Careful, he collects damages," Hajin called from the doorway, earning a mortar tap from Vella in warning.
Vella pointed her pestle at both men once, then returned to grinding medicine as though the threat had never paused.
Hajin entered with Juna and carried the patrol order they had rewritten beside the northern grate.
Juna pinned it above the clinic desk where every road lead collecting medicine would read it.
She smoothed the paper flat with two fingers, lingering until the pin held without her help.
