At nine in the evening, the four-point Conditional Availability Accord was ratified across the Courtesy slate. The document was an extraordinary proof to the principles of voluntary labor. It explicitly affirmed that neither the High Senate of Lathmere nor the existential threat of a three-river flood could compel a single to risk their life against their own judgment.
‘If the air in that vault smells of boiling copper, we don’t go down the ladder,’ Ada Morland stated through the audio horn, her voice firm and measured. ‘If Sorell’s wardens draw steel, we pull our tabs and leave. We’re plumbers and riggers, Pella, not hired blades hired to fight an archbishop’s private war.’
‘You will never be asked to bear arms, Ada,’ Pella replied, her hand steady on the speaking horn. ‘And you will never be asked to take a step you can’t justify to your own conscience. Your power to stop work is the cornerstone of everything we’re building.’
‘Then we’re with you, lass,’ Ada said. ‘Imran has the sensor channels mapped. Jo has her slings inspected and tagged. When you reach that inner platform tomorrow morning, you blow that whistle, and we will be standing on the threshold ready to go to work.’
