The second lightstone came home later than the clear sky.
On the morning of day one hundred and six after closure, brief sunlight reached Roan's window. Sera opened the receiving table beside the empty yard support. The chest from Nerin was still aboard the existing outer supply service. Yesterday's expected arrival could not count that sunlight as its first charging day. The object needed to arrive first.
The first stone had actually returned from Najeon yesterday and remained cloudy in its dry chest. The adult worker read the morning's short brightness and the heavy cloud following it. Neither stone had completed a sufficient day of sun. Sera kept their columns side by side without merging their states: one here, one still across the water.
The man who had sent a letter to his daughter came to the low desk. Would today's boat bring a reply? Sera did not know whether one traveled on this service. Handover to Nerin's postal desk, final delivery and a reply each required their own confirmation. He would ask his postal contact first, he said.
Several waits could attach themselves to one returning vessel. A stone, a letter and crew wages did not occupy the same chest. Sera passed the designated receiving work to the next clerk instead of sitting as though every piece of Nerin's news must arrive through her.
Miran was folding a small piece of cloth in the low room, something she had chosen personally at the market. Before Sera could decide whether to ask its purpose, Miran called her over. Did she know a fold that would keep the edge from unraveling? She did not handle cloth well, Sera admitted.
Then they could look together. They spread the edge on the existing dry table without cutting thread or beginning to sew. Miran smiled and folded it again; she would find out. Sera let her knee rest a little longer. Not knowing the answer had still left a place for her at the table.
Late in the day, actual arrival reached the desk. Adult transport had carried the second chest from the outer supply service to Roan's designated receiving point. Sera ended her personal interval and returned. Varen was already in his assigned ground-assistance period. He had climbed no high stairs to receive it.
Part of the chest's outer cloth was damp. The adult carrier showed where seawater had splashed the wrapping. Sera did not move that wetness into the stone's condition. The responsible worker checked inner dry packing, chest, number and present state in order. The second stone was cloudy; no new moisture showed inside.
Tio began offering to wipe it down, then looked at the adult worker. He had no transport or repair assignment today. His finger still hurt, he said, and he sat in an empty chair. Sera was glad he had said it first without giving that small action a grand name. The adult took the wrapping to its assigned drying place.
Reading the number revealed a smaller difficulty. The cord tag had folded so only the final part was visible. Sera had the first stone's receipt beside her, but did not fill the missing part from memory. The adult opened out the current tag. The second number and its transfer from Nerin's designated chest appeared together. Only after distinguishing them did they occupy the same yard.
“Two stones,” Tio said. “The paper keeps multiplying.”
“If it gets heavy, we won't make you carry it,” Varen said.
“Write as much as you like, then.”
Sera suggested bringing the necessary number to the front in larger writing. They might need fewer searches through several sheets without making a new chest or throwing old records away. Tio smiled at the possibility of lighter reading.
The adult checked the yard again when sunshine seemed possible. An awning's shadow crossed one support. Both stones being home did not lengthen the day. Conditions remained insufficient; recovery days stayed at zero. Sera did not write the evening forecast as today's result.
On cloudy days long ago, Varen said, he used to clean the lantern-room window. Had that cleared the stones sooner? No. He had been looking for something to do because he disliked waiting. An old keeper's memory did not always contain a technical secret. Sera left the yard arrangement alone and chose its present wait.
Nerin's permitted note had traveled in a separate bundle. Maen's originals remained there. This time a small drawing from the place worker showed how the large cover had swollen into the view during the interrupted attempt. Its secured position differed from where the next piece of work would require it spread again.
An empty-yard drawing looked promising. But people still worked there. When the next task began, another object might occupy the cleared space. Nobody had promised to reserve a sea view through every working hour. Sera stopped her pen before the blank patch became an agreement on somebody else's behalf.
Liv offered two possibilities from Najeon: match a new interval at the existing Nerin position, or first examine another permitted low place locally. Sera did not write either as a departure date. Nerin's choice, people and actual view came first. Both stones remained cloudy in the question's resource column.
Edin visited the low room that evening. Changing position after a stop seemed obvious, he began, then examined the drawing. The other candidate was lower. It might look easier for Sera's knee while offering a narrower view of the sea. One person's easier approach did not decide an observing point.
“So the place to move to isn't an observing point yet.”
First they had to examine the candidate, Sera said. Naming two points on paper made her want to join them. She drew no connecting line. No new way had opened along the salt-whitened edge of the old map.
Nume could not commit another boat interval yet. Crew rest and other current obligations came first; after the place reply, the desk could ask again. Sera did not attach disappointment to the answer. People who had returned could not lend tomorrow's return margin to her today.
Five completed round trips and the sixth attempt's departure, stop and return stayed on their existing rows. She created no new sailing. Returned stones did not erase the interruption. Tio said today's completed work was receiving the chest.
“Is that small?” Varen asked.
Not small, the boy said. He had worried the wet outer cloth meant water inside. Sera had worried too. She reread the actual dry interior and cloudy stone. Without inventing a better answer, they had two real objects home in front of them.
In her room, the blue clay bell rested on folded cloth. It still had no clapper, and she had made no new alteration. Thinking of the returned chest, she almost changed the cloth under the bell. Her personal room did not need every object converted into recovery preparation. She lowered the lamp and straightened her knee.
Day one hundred and seven began clear. The adult yard worker checked the current area, awning shadow, supports, stone conditions and restraints against windblown obstruction. Both stones entered sufficient sunlight. During her assigned ground-clerk interval, Sera received the actual beginning. Yesterday's brief brightness was not added to it.
As the sun moved, a shadow approached the support. Within the permitted dry area, the worker checked whether sufficient exposure continued and made the necessary small adjustment. Sera did not bend her knee to move the stone herself. On the drawing, she retained the time and reason for the change of position. Whether the day had been sufficient would wait until evening.
A fresh Nerin reply arrived meanwhile. Maen and the local adult had examined the other candidate. From the permitted position, a railing's crossbar overlapped the required view. Removing structure or standing higher might change it, but neither belonged to today's permission. As it stood, they did not select it over the original yard. No new observing point had been established.
At the existing yard, a small gap in work time could be arranged. They proposed checking the view with actual work objects present too, rather than accepting only the empty state after clearing the cover. Sera remembered her market drawing, where blank table lines had differed from real movement. The good instant without objects could not represent the whole interval.
She sent the defined question and transferred the desk to the next clerk. Sunlight moved slowly across the yard outside. At midday it looked sufficient; she still did not write recovery complete. Both stones were passing through their first day. Varen finished ground assistance and moved his chair to rest. The high lantern room had made him no promise today.
In the evening, the adult reported a completed first sufficient sunny day for each numbered stone. Both remained cloudy, with two further qualifying days still needed. Their actual return dates differed; today's sunlight was shared. Sera wrote one in both columns without erasing their separate numbers or making yesterday's states retrospectively alike.
Edin's next request concerned drawings rather than stones. Could empty and occupied Nerin yard views be drawn at the same scale? Sera checked her next available work interval. Place permission and a fresh limited scope were needed too. A sheet of paper could not authorize another person's view in their absence.
Tio suggested drawing the boat smaller.
“Will the people we carry shrink with it?”
He laughed and left the paper on his knees without straining his finger. Easy solutions on paper disappeared before actual objects. The little drawing still had something to show them, once it stopped pretending to be the sea.
At the edge of Maen's last sketch lay a short line that was neither cover nor railing. Before the boat arrived, it had not been there. Sera read the explanation: high cargo on the vessel itself could hide a low bearing reference. Clearing the yard would not make the sea arrive as an empty drawing.