Black Grass reached both houses through four letters.
`DAST` shone on Pavi's brass tag.
The first blade entered House Fourteen's water jar and removed the relation between handle and clay. A resident lifted the handle. The jar stayed on the floor and split without moving.
In House Twenty, a blade grew through heated wash. Steam left the basin and appeared beneath a workshop three lanes away.
The workshop floor began to sweat.
Elara asked Pavi to name what she was doing now.
"Carrying water."
"For whom?"
Pavi read the house names from memory.
Nine people in House Fourteen. Five in House Twenty. The old woman needing heated wash was called Bera Orro. She was awake and listening.
"Do they need Dast water?" Elara asked.
"They need water."
"Do they need you forever?"
Bera answered before Pavi.
"I need heated wash tonight. I do not need her life."
The Dast elder objected.
"The ledger does not understand tonight. It keeps the route by line because current people die."
