The warning board went yellow while the first family was still coming up from the lower dye rooms.
Iven saw it from the head of the service stair. A wind crew had raised the signal above the outer lane, then begun closing the low approach and directing people uphill. Beyond Mercy’s side, pale air lay folded into a shallow basin. The host’s next long step carried the lowest streets closer to it.
The forecast had given them more time.
The people at the bottom of the stair had already used it.
A runner reached Iven carrying a sealed rescue case. “Lower assembly needs carriers. Some have breathed it.”
He took the case and asked for the actual location.
The main gangways were above the affected air. Their eight lanes continued. Marshals would feed them from the higher assembly points while the lower households took the longer protected route. Closing one feeder street did not require the people already near a sound crossing to stand still.
At the first landing Iven found Rysa directing a local cage transfer.
