Saran had her documents spread before Batu came through.

Khulgen was already there, his case closed and resting on his knee, his hands flat on top of it. The scribes worked in their row beneath the south window. Mahmud stood near the shelving with his document case open.

Through the building’s walls came the sounds of Torghul’s formation preparations, steady and distant, an army nine days from moving.

Batu sat down.

"The city needs settlers," Saran said. "We have the stalls and the scribes and the market district going up, but we do not have the people who make a market work."

She had a piece of felt set apart from her other documents.

"Three years of exemption from tributary obligation for any household that registers and settles permanently within the first year. Plus a land allocation for what they build on. We invest in early arrivals. The population density is worth three years of foregone levy."

Khulgen did not pick up his case.

"Three years requires three years of tracking per settler household."

He looked at her.

"Who checks those dates, and when?"

"That is what the scribes are there for."

"The scribes’ current tasks covers the tributary submission records. I have given Orel a capacity projection."

He paused and tapped the top of his case once.

"Two more scribes are expected before the river freezes, however, it is still not enough to supply the workforce for your task."

Saran looked at the felt. She did not argue the capacity estimate.

"One year," Batu said.

They both looked at him.

"One year of exemption. One annual review. Keep the land allocation. That is what gets people to build."

Saran considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"One year. That is workable."

She slid the felt slightly aside and made a notation.

"What qualifies as settling down permanently? For the land allocation."

Khulgen opened his case and found a sheet.

"There is a construction benchmark in the building survey records already. Minimum floor area, a stone or brick base course."

She wrote it down and set the felt aside.

The next topic came from Khulgen. He took out a different sheet and laid it on the table.

"The Persian merchant from before asked about tanning workshops. Two travelers on the Ayas relay have asked about craft goods since. One about ironwork, one about finished cloth. We have the demand, but not the supply."

"Then we build the supply,"

Saran said. She straightened her documents slightly. "Fund the workshops from the civil account. Find the craftsmen, bring them here. We collect a craft tax once they are running."

"The civil account is allocated."

He set the sheet flat on the table.

"And a workshop without craftsmen is a building."

His voice stayed even.

"We need specific arrangements with specific people before any of them come. Not empty buildings."

"If you build the space and the workers follow."

"We have not seen that happen here once."

Saran held his gaze for a moment.

"Then what is your answer?"

Batu had been listening to both of them through this. He leaned forward slightly. "A craftsman program. One year’s exemption. Plus a materials credit from the city stores, repayable over two years from the workshop’s production."

Saran picked it up at once.

"The craftsman builds the workshop themselves."

"Yes," Batu said. "The city provides materials, not infrastructure. The workshop is theirs."

"Is the materials loan enough without additional funds?" Saran asked.

Khulgen answered before Batu could.

"For a tanning setup, the raw materials are the larger cost. The funds outlay beyond materials is a smaller part of what a craftsman needs to start."

Saran nodded once.

"Put this into a single enrollment document with the settler program. A craftsman addendum for the materials credit terms."

"I will have it to Mahmud before the end of the day," Khulgen said.

The third topic had more documents than the other two.

Saran set them out carefully.

"In a good harvest year, the clans produce more than the standard levy taxes. I want to add a surplus addendum to the submission format."

She set the relevant sheet on top.

"When a clan’s reported production exceeds their levy amount, the city takes an additional percentage. We build a granary buffer in the good years and draw from it in the bad ones."

Khulgen waited until she had finished. His hands remained flat on the case.

"The submission format removed estimation from the process."

He looked at her directly.

"A surplus addendum adds an estimation step back in. How does it determine surplus when the submission does not include a harvest figure?"

"Add a harvest field. The headman reports their yield in standardized units. The addendum taxes a percentage above the levy threshold."

"The headman will report exactly at the levy limit. Every headman in a surplus year will. There is no way to verify a harvest figure without sending riders to count grain sacks."

He let the point settle before continuing.

"More expensive than what the surplus would bring in."

Saran looked down at the sheet in front of her. She did not answer right away.

Khulgen did not move.

Batu spoke after a moment.

"Do not increase the levy. The civil account buys grain at market price when prices are low. It stores what it buys. When prices rise, it sells from the store at a fixed price."

Saran looked at him.

"The initial purchase needs funding. Where does it come from?"

"Mahmud’s fund. The tributary levy from the first collection season has been accumulating there."

"How much is in it?"

Mahmud spoke from where he stood by the shelving.

"Enough for a first purchase. Short of what would cover a full winter reserve on its own."

"The account replenishes itself after the first season," Batu said. "It buys cheap. When prices rise, it sells below the peak. The difference funds the next round of purchases."

Saran sat with that for a moment.

"It is smaller than I would want to start."

"It is what the first year produced."

Khulgen was already working through the idea.

"I can track this as a separate line in Mahmud’s ledgers. Purchases on one side, sales on the other, inventory in the middle."

He looked at Batu.

"What price level triggers a purchase?"

"When a tributary headman is selling surplus at market. That is the signal of a good year. When they are not selling, it is not."

"The submission obligations does not capture commercial activity."

"Add a field. Whether the clan is selling surplus commercially that season. One notation per submission."

Khulgen wrote it down.

"I will have the revised format to Orel’s office before the departure."

Mahmud opened his document case.

"I will set the reserve up as a standing account in the ledger. Separate from the general civil fund."

He began writing.

Saran watched him for a moment.

"When does the first buying opportunity come?"

"Watch the tributary reports through Orel’s office," Batu said. "As the autumn tributes arrive."

She organized her documents into a stack.

Khulgen’s case was already closed. The scribes’ pens had not stopped through any of it. What had been decided was already in the records.

The autumn tributes had not arrived yet.