The gates share the same worn stone, but what waits beyond them does not. One road may need a safer return channel. Another may need people willing to carry a difficult piece of history into a new place. There are problems that no amount of light can solve, and problems that remain impossible until someone is willing to ask for help.
The fountain square has begun to feel familiar. You know which side catches the morning sun and which stones stay wet long after the water has dried elsewhere. Beyond the next arch, that familiarity will have to be earned again.
After Founders Alley is reclaimed, the crews begin working toward the other lands. Opening a great gate takes more than filling its reserve. The old stone will not become safe simply because it begins to shine. The route must be repaired, the work paid for, and the supply made safe. Once those conditions are met, the old seal can be released.
Beyond each gate, you find a different problem.
The Terraces smell of warm stone after rain. Faint outlines remain on walls where old displays once hung. The returning makers want a showcase. Each has designed a small shelter, but together the shelters leave such a crooked passage that Bo cannot get his cart through.
Spark draws one broad canopy.
It is bigger than anything the makers planned. It is also the first design with room for everyone.
Patch walks the marked passage with the cart. Gauge tests the spans. This time, Spark's larger plan works. The makers choose it and decide which parts of their own designs to keep. Your work can help give the shared place its character.
When the rain comes, everyone fits beneath the roof.
At the Waterworks, footsteps ring through the inspection chambers. The old crews used the sound to help tell which branches were full of water. Dash brings his drawing. The stair to the high gallery begins here.
At a secured landing, Orrean stops the crew. Beneath the gallery's outer wall is a crack and a hollow missing from the old plans. Spark searches for another place to put a support. There is no sound foundation within reach. The repair will require work the present expedition cannot complete.
The gallery will still be closed when the beacons are first lit.
“It has stood all this time,” Dash says.
Gauge points to the fresh crack. “It moved.”
Dash looks at you. “There must be something we haven't tried.”
You can go through the evidence with him or take it straight to the crew. Either way, the crack is there. You help record the closure, and the unsafe ascent comes off the map.
If you had agreed to share the view, Dash says, “I thought you were going to help me get there.”
If you had made no such plan, he says, “You could have asked them to check again.”
He rolls up the drawing. Elsewhere in the Waterworks, there is useful work you can finish. You help restore a return channel without draining the neighbouring supply.
Spark.
Tuck sets a cup on the chamber floor to listen. As the water starts moving, the chamber gives a low note. A thinner sound continues above it.
Tuck lifts the cup. The sound remains.
He hums the unfinished departure song. For a moment, the answering note seems to meet it.
Then it is gone.
Spark checks the water and the light. Both behave as expected. It cannot explain the extra sound. Gauge has heard it before, but he will not guess what makes it.
On the way out, Dash helps you carry the equipment. He says little.
At the Exchange, a great beam hangs over the counters. Its hooks once held travelling makers' signs. Faded cords still hang from some of them. Now the beam blocks the only approach wide enough for the new delivery carts.
Patch wants to move it. Gauge wants it left where the makers hung it.
You compare the old plans with the present passage. A receipt shows that the beam was added later. An earlier sketch shows a market without it. Rue asks which record you want the crew to see first.
After discussing the evidence, the Keepers who use the passage agree to move the beam into the recovered workshop. Its hooks, cords and names go with it. The carts can pass.
Gauge comes back to look at the pale strip where the beam used to hang. The record is safe, but the market no longer looks as he remembers it. You help make signs for the new route, including one pointing visitors toward the beam's new home.
In the Heights, wind whistles through unfinished stone frames. The old control buildings have a fine view and almost nowhere comfortable to sit. Patch leaves a stool where a grand chair once stood.
Here you find the instruction that names who will take command when Orrean's emergency rule ends. Spark asks you to turn the page.
You have already read the name.
Spark.