(Venn is pretty sure she can keep surprising him in small ways for the rest of their lives, actually. She hopes she gets to.)

She kisses the top of his head, and then... does he want to  play chess while they hold each other? 

That sounds good! He will worry less about her being eaten by demons while she's wandering the Worldwound if he is playing chess. Temporarily.

At the point where she picks up that his primary concern is being worried about her safety and not her deciding not to come back, Venn relaxes a bit. (She knows, by now, that his worrying will expand to fill the available space. But she's strong, and she'll be careful.)

Chess and maybe some kissing, before she leaves for her noon patrol?

Yes. And then he has some schedule shuffling to do to account for her trip and his own patrol the other direction.

Venn tells Txell afterwards, as they're removing their overcoats, that she's leaving to go on a bardic quest soon. She wants to see the rest of the forts, gather fresh material and inspiration to write songs about, that kind of thing.

"A bardic quest. Are you expecting there to be important variations in the Song of the Alcohol Ration?"

Her eyes light up. "The Mendevian version is different, actually, it goes like this -"

Well it's only to be expected that the words would be different since they speak Hallit but it is interesting that they have a related but not identical tune too, sure.