A heavy iron wrench clanked against the bronze valve casing in the center of Stone-Willow Lane.
Two guild array wardens in thick leather aprons strained against the five-foot turning bar, their boots slipping on the wet gravel. With a deep, grinding groan of metal threads, the massive subterranean shut-off wheel turned three full rotations.
Deep beneath the cobblestones, the muffled roar of the underground Earth-Fire conduit sputtered, coughed, and died away into total silence.
Linnea sprinted from the courtyard entrance, her turquoise sleeves fluttering in the cold wind.
“What are you doing?” Linnea demanded, pointing an ink-stained finger at the wardens. “That conduit feeds the domestic heating and alchemy hearths for this entire block! By guild treaty, residential Earth-Fire lines cannot be severed without a full tribunal hearing!”
The senior warden wiped grease from his forehead with a rag, spitting onto the valve cover.
Without a word of apology, he unrolled an official parchment stamped with thick black wax.
“Emergency safety decree from Magistrate Titus Vane,” the warden said, his voice flat and bored. “Under Article Twelve of the Municipal Safety Charter, Stone-Willow Lane is designated an uncertified fire hazard. All subterranean heat conduits are shut down immediately, and all spirit charcoal wagons are barred from entering the district.”
