The first claimant brought a cracked frame.
He set it on the temporary counter beside an estimate and waited for someone to explain why his window mattered less than the machine everybody had watched leave.
Tamsin gave him a place to sit.
“Which house? When was it damaged? Keep your original. We’ll record the submitted copy and the frame’s condition.”
Behind him waited a trader with lost work, a kitchen worker with requisitioned grain, and a woman carrying a small stack of receipts she had already been told belonged to somebody else’s office.
The categories did not make one convenient bill.
Direct damage. Requisitioned goods. Contract costs. Lost income requiring review. Gifts people had actually chosen to give without repayment.
Tamsin kept them separate before anyone promised money the fund did not have.
