The new clerk looked at the scale beam before he looked at the seal. He looked so precisely that I got more curious about where he learned it than about the beam itself.

• Venerable SakDoes the scale house keeper now weigh an official's background too? A scale only needs to weigh cargo.
  Om BuaSir, this old woman has seen three households lose a whole ship from weighing nothing but cargo.
• DuangWord's floating on the water that that clerk was in and out of the Dutch trading house across the river, right up until last month.
  Om BuaFloating words are only worth something if you scoop them up before they sink. Come by before sunrise tomorrow.