The fire burned low, giving off only a faint red glow. He held a hammer and a small piece of fine silver, his strikes slow and gentle.
Two silver tags gradually took shape beneath his hands.
They were a little larger than copper coins, about as thick as a fingernail. One side bore names: one was engraved with "Stone," while the other was still blank, waiting for Elena to decide. A ginkgo leaf was engraved on the back of each.
Su Li used fine sandpaper to polish the edges of the silver tags again and again until his fingers could glide across them without feeling the slightest burr.
The veins of the ginkgo leaves glimmered faintly in the firelight.
The next morning, when he handed the silver tags to Elena for inspection, she took them and turned them over in her hands.
Su Li waited for her to find fault with them.
Elena raised a tag to the light. "Round the edges another half millimeter. Children will put them in their mouths and bite them."
Su Li took it back. "I'll give it to you this afternoon."
Elena nodded. When she returned the tag to Su Li, her fingers lingered for an extra moment.
"Nicely done."
Just three words, spoken very softly. Then she turned and left.
Su Li watched her back disappear at the end of the corridor, then slipped the silver tags into his pocket.
In the study, Elena took a brand-new ledger down from the top shelf of a cabinet.
It had a leather cover and thick paper, made to the same standard as her official account books.
Four words were written on the cover in her handwriting: Children's Expenses.
She placed the ledger on top of all the others, even ahead of the Iris Kingdom's quarterly