The quarry council met in the cistern hall around a flour table. Vessa laid out three options: stay under reduced furnace load, move to the upper road, or split into two groups while workers repaired the roof.
Noma wanted infants and elders moved first. Iven worried that splitting families would scatter the children. Oran said the upper road passed near the station guardhouse and could reveal the settlement. Deme wanted to protect the workshop his mother had built.
The argument grew loud. A young man asked why they had to vote at all if the Registry could still find them.
“Because it is our route,” Vessa said. “No one else gets to choose for us.”
Gu explained the danger of leaving the branch active. A staged isolation might work once a new collar arrived, but it required a day of low output and a stable bypass. Noma said the clean cistern could supply them if they rationed carefully and borrowed two carts from the upper orchard.
The council voted for a staged move. Children, elders, and the infirm would travel after the bypass test. Able adults would stay briefly in an outer ward to protect livestock and watch their homes. The town would carry its water and school records.
