The barrier survived the storm, though one of its anchor lights had dimmed. Iven met Wei on neutral ground the next morning and brought the two city engineers who had reviewed the records.
“The council has agreed to an observation,” he said. “Not a repair. Our engineers will run their instruments first.”
Yan accepted the limit. He stood outside the marked circle while the city technicians carried their gauges toward the western anchor. The barrier stayed active. A warden held the city’s map, and a clerk recorded the time beside each reading.
Engineer Liang Sen showed them the western channel. Its current was weaker than the maintenance book predicted. One technician believed the gauge had aged. The other said the line had carried more strength last season.
“The city’s instruments read each other differently,” Liang Sen said. “We’ll compare them against a marker beyond the wall.”
Iven turned to his clerk. “Record the readings before anyone gives an interpretation.”
The two instruments gave slightly different numbers at the western anchor. The technicians carried them to a known storm marker on the outer ridge. There, the readings converged. They repeated the test, then returned to the anchor.
The younger technician asked the clerk to note the wind and cloud cover. “If the storm pressure is changing, the line may shift while we measure.”
