Chapter 334: The Obligation

Ren stayed a pace short of the seam. The blocks remained closed.

After the refusal, the System relayed another set of terms.

[THE CLAIMANT MAY WITHDRAW WITH THE KNOWLEDGE AND ACCESS ALREADY EARNED. A FURTHER RECORD IS HELD: THE OLDER APPROACH TO THE SUPPLY’S HEAD AND THE GROUND BEYOND IT. RELEASE REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE OF ONE NOTIFICATION DUTY.]

He could leave with what he had learned. The further record was still unearned, as the entrance’s terms allowed.

Ren looked back at the diagram on the wall. The supplier’s last recorded sighting lay beyond the works. The approach he knew took him past the stone lip, where the sect’s sheet instructed its carriers to unload. A path toward the head of the supply might give him another way through.

He wanted to know what the duty required before accepting it.

— • —

He put three questions to the System silently: what counted as sending word, what ended the obligation, and whether it bound anyone besides him.

The answer came in a single block.

[DUTY: ONE NOTIFICATION. IF THE CLAIMANT LEARNS OF A CONFIRMED INTERRUPTION OF THIS SUPPLY BEFORE ANOTHER KEEPER ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY, THE CLAIMANT MUST REPORT WHAT IS KNOWN TO THE OFFICE RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCESS TO THESE WORKS. LODGING AN ACCURATE REPORT DISCHARGES THE DUTY. VERIFIED ASSUMPTION OF THE SUPPLY BY ANOTHER KEEPER ALSO DISCHARGES IT. NO INSPECTION OR MAINTENANCE DUTY IS ASSIGNED. ONLY THE CLAIMANT IS BOUND.]

Ren read it through again.

The receiving basin could remain somewhere he hadn’t found. He was required to report through the authority controlling access to the works, and he already had a way to reach it. The survey office had issued his permit and received his reports at the landing.

An interruption he witnessed would count. So would a report that established the failure, though he would have to make clear what he had seen himself and what he had been told. He wasn’t being assigned regular inspections or made responsible for keeping the channel running.

Once the notification was lodged, his obligation ended. What the office did afterward was outside the promise being asked of him.

He could undertake that much. The full procedure on the wall would have required routes and contacts he still lacked; this duty used a channel he had already used several times.

"If I learn that this supply has been interrupted before another keeper takes responsibility, I’ll report what I know to the office responsible for access," he said aloud. "Lodging that report ends my duty. It also ends if another keeper takes over. I accept those terms."

— • —

[FURTHER RECORD: THE OLDER APPROACH TO THE SUPPLY’S HEAD. SCOPE: FROM THE BASIN TO THE GROUND ABOVE THE HEAD.]

The System relayed the record as it had relayed the procedure, one passage at a time.

The works’ road carries stone, tools, and loads for the basin. The approach to the supply’s head is kept separate. Traffic above the inlet must not disturb the bank or foul the water.

From the basin, follow the running channel upstream, keeping to the right when facing the head. A cut path climbs beside the channel. It meets the growth on the bank below the head.

Beyond the head, the ground opens around warm water beneath stone overhangs. Sightings are recorded there. The growth at the head and the sighting ground share the same water.

Ren opened his route notes and copied the passages. Warm water beneath stone overhangs matched the habitat described in the supplier’s record. This gave him a way to approach that ground from the basin, following the supply upstream instead of descending toward the unloading point.

He went back to the directions and read them against what he remembered outside.

The running channel entered the basin from higher ground on the far side. Eira had inspected the growth along its edge while Vesper drew the layout. None of them had followed it far enough to look for a climbing path.

He marked that beside the directions. The channel’s mouth was something he could find again. Beyond it, he would have to check the old route as they went.

The record also explained why the head had its own approach. Heavy loads used the works’ road; traffic near the water source had been kept apart from them. That separation could be useful now, provided the path remained passable.

He read the sighting passage once more. It placed the growth and the nesting habitat along the same supply. It gave no explanation of how they used that water, and no assurance that the creatures remained there.

On the page where he had copied the notification step, Ren wrote the obligation beneath it. He included both ways it could end, then checked his wording against the terms before putting the notes away.

— • —

He returned through the low passage to the first chamber.

Water continued through the trough. Ren checked the collar around the cracked base and the joint above it. Neither had shifted, and the outlet remained at its mark. He rested his hand on the support briefly, then went to the entrance.

The blocks withdrew when he reached them.

Outside, water slid beneath the sluice frame into the basin. The carving was dark. He climbed the maintenance stair against the wall, testing the damaged lower treads before stepping onto the firm ground above.

Vesper and Eira were gone.

Ren stopped to listen. He heard water below him, but no voices or footsteps. From where he stood, he could see no one on the ledge or the shoulder.

He checked his slate. Their departure time was still ahead. Something had caused them to withdraw early.

He followed the ledge toward the pocket, keeping below the crest. At the exposed shoulder he paused to watch the ground above it. Nothing moved. He crossed and continued along the channel, without Keep’s spore to place him on an outside report.

The deep pocket was empty. Ward had gone, and the supplies were no longer on the bank. Ren kept walking toward the road.

He passed the depot on the inland side of the paving. No one appeared along the stretch ahead. When the landing finally came into view, Ward was in the channel beside the shelf, with Keep mounted above the water.

— • —

Tarin turned toward the sound of his approach, then lowered its spear when it recognized him.

Vesper came down from the post. Eira followed with her kit, looking over his wet clothes and hands.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No. Tired." He turned to Vesper. "What moved you?"

"Voices from the hollow. Then someone appeared on the crest above the shoulder." She opened her notebook. "They hadn’t come down onto the ledge. We left while we could still pass below."

"Any pursuit?"

"None that I saw. I watched behind us while Eira crossed, then caught up. We collected the others and came here."

"Did you see anyone at the basin?"

"No. We couldn’t see the lip, either. I don’t know where they went after we left."

Ren looked back along the road. "I met nobody on the way out."

Vesper added that beneath her account. They knew he had been able to leave; it told them little about what they would find on a return visit.

Eira closed her kit. Vesper took Keep’s spore from the pouch beside her pencil and handed it back. Ren tucked it inside his coat.

"The report is filed," she said. "Under your permit, signed by me. It says you were inside when we withdrew, and what we saw. I’ll add that you’re back."

"Good."

He took out his notes and opened them to the directions.

"The record gives another approach," he said. "It follows the wet channel above the basin."