Maren found the old allocation ledger at 5:36 on Monday morning.
She did not announce the discovery. She carried the binder from the lower storage shelf, placed it beside Wren’s cutting board, and returned to the stock as though three years of kitchen history had not just landed between the onions and the morning inventory.
Wren wiped her hands before opening it.
The ledger covered the first winter of Caelum’s rule. She recognized the quarter immediately. Northern Logistics had appeared in the financial system nineteen days after Blackpine was created, and the kitchen allocation had fallen eighteen percent during the same period.
She had seen the figures.
Maren had lived through them.
“That was the year they cut us,” Maren said.
“Eighteen percent.”
“You know the percentage.”
Maren
