The injured fitter could close his hand around a cup before he could close it around a wrench.
He demonstrated the difference to Sera on the morning of day 1232. The cup sat easily in his palm. The tool required a pressure that made the new skin pull. He put it down before she had to tell him.
“Better,” he said.
“Better is a useful word. It is not the same word as ready.”
His name was Sennit, and his paid place in Jori’s regional crew was still his. He had spent the cooling-bank restoration checking the measuring book with his other hand. It was useful work and his actual wage, not an apology dressed as a volunteer task. Sera set the next examination for day 1240 and gave Jori a short work-limit note with his permission. The private treatment details stayed in the clinic’s care record.
Iven carried the cup back to the washing table. The little scrape on his own knuckle had closed. His shoulder moved freely. He had no comparable reason to make Sennit’s healing into a lesson about his own endurance.
Outside, the return line carried warm water toward the cooling frame. Its measured working setting had held overnight. Verit’s assistant was in charge this morning while Verit took her first full day away from the yard since the restoration began. That absence was a test the machine could pass without anyone secretly calling its keeper back.
