During early morning at the kitchen parlor of 14 Lower Ferry Alley, the light from pale grey dawn light filtering through the lace-curtained street window cut through air heavy with fresh wood smoke, hot chicory tea, lavender water. The pungent tang of chemical reagents as the chemical sample on the slate began. Proving chemically that the water came from Sorell’s Crown bypass rather than Mira’s household washtubs before the court guards arrived. Every detail of chemical drop-testing · sample 52-b demanded that the crew treat the kitchen parlor of 14 Lower Ferry Alley as an active building site where no physical strange flaw could be brushed aside.
Pella Rook took position in the kitchen parlor of 14 Lower Ferry Alley for the chemical sample on the slate, assessing the physical toll before lifting a single instrument. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles. But her mind was crystal clear as she titrated the water droplets. Ready in her grasp were a glass eyedropper and a fine china testing tile, practical trade gear selected specifically to meet the demands of chemical drop-testing · sample 52-b without dramatic display.
Pella dropped three drops of silver nitrate test chemical into the sample well. She watched for chemical precipitation. By applying her fine china testing tile and graduated eyedropper during the chemical sample on the slate, Pella Rook established four hundred and eighty parts per million of dissolved stone salts, twelve times the concentration of city tap water. The extreme salinity and copper sulfate…
