Two days before the bitterleaf harvest, four growers brought a cloth bundle of contracts to the White Orchard council room. The papers had been folded and unfolded enough to soften their corners. Mera sat at one end of the table with her grandmother’s receipt. Tovin and Eda brought their own contracts; the fourth grower carried a sales ledger from the previous season.
The guild claimed the entire crop as payment for an old seed debt. Mera’s family had borrowed seed money after a frost, but her grandmother had kept the receipt showing the debt had been paid.
“They say the account is still open,” Mera told the council. “The bitterleaf is almost ready. If they take all of it before the harvest, we lose the money for this year’s seed.”
Ning asked each family to tell its story separately. She took a clean page for every contract rather than writing one summary that folded the disputes together.
Mera read her clause aloud. It granted the guild a third of the bitterleaf until the seed debt was cleared. Her grandmother’s receipt listed the amount, the year, and the payment mark from the guild office. The ink had faded, but the mark remained legible.
