Sava waited until the meeting at the granary had broken up before he approached Ning. The village leader’s coat was well made, but the hem had been mended twice. He had spent most of the gathering standing near the door.
“I won’t sign the coalition roster,” he said.
Ning set down the sheets she was collecting. “What part of the plan concerns you?”
“We need our storm barrier. It protects the river district. Every time someone asks us to choose a side, they start talking about taking it apart.”
He explained that the river district had grown around the old barrier. Markets, workshops, and crowded housing sat beneath its western ward. If the Registry stopped maintaining the seal, the town would have to send its own cultivators to keep it active. If the coalition seized the relay, residents feared they would lose control of the defense entirely.
“The barrier is not a symbol to us,” Sava said. “It keeps the flood water off the lower street. I will not trade that for an argument about who owns the road.”
“No one asked you to,” Ning said. “The route plan is separate from the defense.”
“No one has asked you to dismantle it,” Yan said. “You can keep the barrier.”
