The garden’s load was inside its promise.
Nether-Bane could see the mark from where he stood. The approved smaller amount, the protected floor and the local return were all being checked by people entitled to close the transfer if its condition failed.
The removable foundation remained outside the private wards.
The dead were undisturbed.
The first part of the assigned duty had gone cleanly. Maud had read the local floor from her own standing position. The operator at the cutoff had repeated the reduced amount and confirmed the stopping action. Beyond them, the ordinary nursery work continued along the protected path.
A small handcart stood outside the working clearance with its handles lowered. Someone had painted a flower on the side, badly enough that Nether-Bane had first mistaken it for a warning about insects. Its owner had corrected him with considerable pleasure.
He could see it now between the operator and the herb beds: a thing belonging to a person who had not arranged her whole life around the question of whether he looked impressive.
The returning local flow settled inside the measured band. The next reference state was ready to leave through the ordinary lead. He expected the modest contribution to become one more useful answer in the shared sequence.
