A Matter of Philosophy: Elves of Nine Ashes Short Story #1

Talenis caps the ink before the wax. There is an order to things and he keeps it — barrels counted against the slate, seals tested for the give of wax gone soft, every column balanced before the birds outside have decided about the day. In thirty years he has never once come to his own counter and found a figure waiting that he had not already accounted for the night before.
Then a neighbour mentions that the fence down the south track looks off.
It is off. Six inches off, the whole length of it, and has been since a flood twenty-odd years ago put the stakes back by eye instead of by cord. Talenis intends to have it corrected before the boundary survey is read at the Motherstone at Midsummer, because a record that disagrees with the ground beneath it is worse than useless. It is a lie with excellent handwriting.
There is one difficulty. An old leaning post stands in the wrong six inches. It has been Cask's post for twenty years, and Cask is a goat, and Cask has already bitten Talenis twice this season — once with justification and once, as Talenis maintains, out of pure philosophy.
A Matter of Philosophy is a cozy fantasy short story about fences, ledgers, and the difference between a record that is tidy and one that is true. No quest, no villain, no chosen anyone. One elven shopkeeper, one goat, and a small honest crook in a straight line.
The first of the Nine Ashes Short Stories — standalone slice of life fantasy village stories set in the world of the Elves of Nine Ashes novels. A gentle fantasy short read, low stakes, no violence. No prior reading required.
For readers who loved Victoria Goddard, Travis Baldree, Becky Chambers, Katherine Addison and T. Kingfisher.