On day1697, the lower street smelled of wet wood instead of trapped mineral air.
The keeper did not open it on smell.
She checked the measured state through the morning, the afternoon change, and the cold interval after sunset. The next morning’s readings agreed. The air could move back into the low places under other weather, but it no longer lay there now at the level that had closed the rooms.
The return would be staged.
Rooms first.
People afterward.
Tavin went down with the owners and the local repair crew. Jora held the receiving list at the upper common house. Forty-six people had moved out. Forty-six would remain accounted for while some went home and others waited.
Nobody would become an empty bed mistaken for a returned person.
