Vessa called the quarry council together in the cistern hall. The water keepers had cleared one table for a map and another for medicine. People stood along the walls, waiting for their turn to speak.
Noma began with the cistern. “Children and elders should go first. If the furnace goes into overdrive, they will have the hardest time reaching the upper road.”
Iven, the schoolteacher, set a bundle of slate tablets beside the map. “Who will keep the school records safe? And the medicine stores? If we all leave at once, we’ll scatter what we need to rebuild.”
Deme, the carpenter, folded his arms. “The workshop is my mother’s. If I leave it open, the tools will be gone when I come back.”
A farmer near the door said he would rather leave now. “Why are we still talking? The order can be stopped or it can’t. I’m not waiting for a vote while the barrier draws breath from my family.”
The room broke into smaller arguments. One woman wanted to take her two goats. Her neighbor said the animals would slow the cart. An older resident refused to leave the quarry because her spouse was buried above the old passage. Several people had been ready to travel the night before; now that the route was real, they named what they would lose.
