The ministry ledger paid Elara's arm before it paid Miri Dast.
Miri's wash-yard work appeared on page forty-two under `DOMESTIC CAMP CAPACITY`.
Elara's right arm appeared on page six.
The order was not chronological. It ranked future functions by how much equipment the ministry could avoid buying.
A predicted hand replaced one clamp.
A predicted back replaced one lifting frame.
A predicted breath keeper replaced one mechanical bellows.
The ledger priced each saving and assigned the body function before a current worker existed.
Aren turned page seven.
Night Ground answered.
Three children in the medicine archive lifted their left hands at once. None had been touching the table. A wage line reading `SPLINT SUPPORT, THREE UNITS` brightened beneath their names.
One child's wrist bent around an invisible forearm. Another staggered as adult elbow weight entered her shoulder. The third dropped a cup because his fingers closed into a splint grip he had never learned.
