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The spoilage records tell the rest.

Three baskets of winter roots ruined last week because no one moved them from a damp storeroom. Two jars of preserved tizret fruit shattered after an exhausted servant dropped the carrying tray. Flour has been measured incorrectly four times. A full pot of sauce burned when the scullion tending it was ordered to fetch wood.

The errors increase as the shifts lengthen.

I copy the clearest examples onto a clean sheet. Eighteen-hour shifts. Missed meals. Lost stores. Repeated injuries. More mistakes each week.

The kitchen’s order is consuming itself.

I find Sarveth in the eastern accounting room before the afternoon bells. She is reviewing mining reports while two clerks sort tithe ledgers along the wall.

“We leave for the mining post within the hour,” she says.

“This cannot wait until we return.”

Her silver gaze falls to the pages in my hand. “Most household problems can.”

“This one is wasting food.”

She dismisses the clerks.

Once the door closes, I place the copied figures before her.

Sarveth reads without comment. Her eyes move quickly down the columns.

“The human scullions work as long as eighteen hours,” I say. “Their meal periods conflict with their assigned duties. They are making more mistakes because they are hungry and exhausted.”

“You spoke to the kitchen steward?”

“I observed the kitchen and read the records.”

“The steward is Zagfer.”

“I noticed.”

“She will consider this an attack on her authority.”

“It is evidence that her arrangements are inefficient.”

Sarveth sets down the first page. “You have been Lady Morwen’thir for two weeks.”

“The figures remain accurate.”

“You have claimed the solarium, altered supply allocations, begun treating servants without consulting the household healer, and now propose changes to the kitchens.”

“I propose that the household stop ruining food through poor labor management.”

“That is a careful description.”

“It is also the strongest argument.”

“If you speak of human suffering, the Zagfer staff will defend the hierarchy. If you accuse them of wasting provisions, they must defend the results.”

Sarveth’s expression reveals a trace of approval, quickly concealed.

“You understand more about this household than they believe,” she says.

“They have made the mistake of leaving their failures in ledgers.”