Volume I — Arc 1 — Epoch I
[Cycle 007 | Pulse 28:50:00 — Probation start / Supervised intake week — Log: deputy mark enactment → supervised duties → apprentice rota → trustee monitor / Crosspath trace watch — Channel: secure → public digest on close]
Aurelius: "A mark is a job wrapped in a promise. A man who takes it must show habit every day, not once for a festival. Proof is not a speech; it is the repeat."
Aurelia: "Exactly. Let the mark be heavy with duty and light on vanity. Teach the town the motion again and again. The judge will trust a hand that repeats a small rite."
Clerk (soft): [TASK] Probation roll — Mode: enact conditional deputy mark + supervise intake duty schedule + apprentice oversight + trustee monitor plan. Team: Magistrate Korran (steward cue), Crosspath lead Halek (trace watch), River Step trustees Mira & Len (liaison), keeper Halen (supervise), tutors Kalen & Bryn, apprentices Nia & Tomas, deputies Mina & Jor (escort/witness cradle), courier guide Morn (deputy-in-probation & intake lead), apprentice Jorren (attest & assist). Objectives: start Morn's supervised week; publish public duty list; set trustee monitoring checks; keep Crosspath trace active on faint echoes; anchor: CL-0079.probation.start. Channel: secure → public.
The mark had been given in a small, careful voice. It never became a shout. Now the real day began: a week of work under watch. The mark's condition was plain and practical — three repeat anchors on intake procedures, supervised intake duty, apprentice oversight, and visible tutor steps when a contested lot required repair. Morn understood that a mark meant a ledger of small moves every day.
Morn stood at the clerk bench at first light, not as a man who had been lifted but as one who had to prove himself yet again. He donned the deputy ribbon with a steady hand and then folded it back into a pocket as if to say the ribbon would not make him. He placed his mirror pouches where Halen could see them and stepped into the first shift.
Halen: "You keep the chain in the sight of the town and in the sight of the steward. Seal, pin, mirror — the same act. Do not change the motion for show. Repeat it, and the mark will hold."
Clerk: [POST] Probation enactment: CL-0079.probation.start — Morn deputy ribbon logged; duty schedule published CL-0079.duty.schedule; public notice posted CL-0079.public.notice.
The day's first duty was intake at the ford: a steady stream of traders, one courier with a small sealed chest, a maker with a parcel and a boy who watched more than he worked. Morn took his place at the temper slab and began to run the routines that had become his life since trials began. He did not move with pride. He moved with method.
Morn (low): "Two seals each intake. Two witnesses where possible. Mirror triplicate posted before a pallet leaves the lane. Apprentices watch and learn the fold."
Clerk: [LOG] First intake shift: CL-0079.intake.shift1 — lot checks x14; mirrors set x14; witness pins placed.
Jorren stood to Morn's right as apprentice aid. The boy's fingers were steady now; the leather strap at his side held the mirror slips he had learned to fold. He handed slips to Morn, tied a witness pin, and learned the clerk's cadence. Where once the boy's hands shook, now they matched the slow drum of routine.
Jorren: "I lay the mirror and call the code. Morn checks the wax and I pin. We read the lot and the buyer note aloud."
Clerk: [RECEIVE] Apprentice assist log: CL-0079.appr.assist1 — Jorren present; Nia backup.
Not all the day passed smooth. In the late hour a trader arrived with a manifest page that bore a faint difference — a scrawled ink where the maker mark should have been. Morn stopped the line and called Bryn. Tutors do not arrive to scold; they arrive to turn a gap into an act. Bryn guided a repair demo, the maker filed a tooth, pressed twice, posted a hash, and the trader left with his lot flagged for later follow. The probation week rules demanded public fixes, not private deals.
Bryn: "Teach, test, post. If the press repeats the third-bite tomorrow, we set a comb. If not, the lot stays in hold for trace checks."
Clerk: [ACTION] Lot hold & repair: CL-0079.repair.hold1 — tutor demo run; hash posted; follow slot set CL-0079.follow.slot1.
Crosspath kept to a quiet loop. Halek's tracers watched for the faint echo at Ferry North and any threads that might stretch under the weight of new movement. He did not broadcast every ping; he recorded them and alerted trustees only when a line needed human guard. Probation weeks are fragile if hunting begins; Crosspath knew this and kept tools ready, not torches.
Halek: "We keep traces tight. Probation is a time to test habit, not to fling old nets. If a trace stiffens, we flag; if it widens, we answer the steward."
Clerk: [FLAG] Trace watch on Ferry North echo: CL-0079.trace.watch — ping checks scheduled x3/day.
Trustees set a monitoring cadence. Mira took the morning walk to the docks, Len took the market, and both circled witnesses with neighbor rotas and bread tokens. They would sign off twice a day on witness welfare and on post-teach buyer returns. Their signatures would become part of the probation record that the steward would read at the week's close.
Mira: "We watch witness sleep, neighbor rota, and buyer returns. If a witness says fear, we shield. If a node posts repeat buyers, we note it. Trustees will make a clear record."
Clerk: [SET] Trustee monitor cadence: CL-0079.trustee.cadence — daily check-ins x2; sign-off anchors.
Morn's first mid-day duty required him to supervise an apprentice-run mirror fold in public. He sat beside three apprentices and taught them how to tag a mirror slip with the intake code, how to call the stamp, and how to double-check the wax. The crowd watched the small lesson as if it were its own ritual. People learn by watching a method repeated calmly.
Morn: "Fold slow. Mark the node on the top line. Tie the linen band. When in doubt, call a second eye."
Clerk: [TRAIN] Public apprentice session: CL-0079.appr.session — attendees x3; Morn lead.
Word reached Lorek that buyers were watching his stall more often now. The mitigation measures were working in small arithmetic: one buyer returns today, another tests at dusk. Lorek's apprentice Jorren took a buyer test under Morn's quiet eye and then handed the mirror slip to the clerk. Small returns become the ledger where mercy is measured.
Clerk: [RECEIVE] Buyer returns & test: CL-0079.lorek.buyers — return1; test2.
A thin friction rose in the late afternoon. A courier misfolded a mirror slip, and the wax on one bundle had not sealed clean. Morn, without panic, called Mina to witness a re-seal, and the old handler pinned the stack. The clerk noted the re-seal with the same plainness he would note a tidy intake: a re-seal is not a sin if recorded and witnessed.
Morn: "We re-seal and note. A clean record beats a quick hide. If someone argues, we have a note and a witness."
Clerk: [RECORD] Re-seal event: CL-0079.reseal.event1 — witness Mina; handler pin.
As dusk fell Crosspath sent a short note: the ferry echo had a small new ping — a ledger line that matched a runner's report but not firmly enough to press. Halek advised trustees to add one extra witness sweep that night. The town's quiet vigilance tightened like a band.
Halek: "Add a sweep tonight. No raid. Just a witness check and a note. Keep the packet for the steward, not the street."
Clerk: [ORDER] Extra witness sweep: CL-0079.witness.sweep.add — night rota updated.
The first full day of probation closed with the kind of small score the town values: Morn had run three supervised intakes with triplicate mirrors; two tutor fixes had posted hashes; one buyer returned to Lorek. Trustees signed off on witness welfare. Crosspath had no new nets to throw. The steward would read the day as part of a week-long fold of acts.
Clerk: [COMMIT] Daily probation log — CL-0079.day1.commit: intakes x3 supervised; mirror triplicate verified; repairs x2; buyer return x1; witness checks completed; trace watch passive.
Morn did not sleep easily. He sat by the temper slab late and practiced seal motion until the wax pot cooled. The ribbon in his pocket felt heavy with the week ahead. He thought of the magistrate's words — a mark is duty more than honor — and he set his mind to do the small acts a hundred times if need be.
Morn (quiet): "I will make no rush for praise. I will make the motion so the bench will read habit and not only faith. I keep the chain neat."
Aurelius: "A man who repeats a small act until it is muscle will find a judge who trusts him. Keep the motion. Let steadiness do the speaking."
Aurelia: "And remember to shield those who speak for you. A witness is a neighbor first. Keep them warm and you will keep your mark safer."
Clerk: [COMMIT] Snapshot CL-0079 — Cycle 007 | Pulse 28:50:00 ▪ Ch.99 ▪ Change type: Probation week start; Morn deputy duties enacted; supervised intakes executed; apprentice training session held; tutor repairs logged; trustee monitoring cadence set; Crosspath trace watch active; witness sweep added ▪ Anchors: CL-0079.probation.start; CL-0079.duty.schedule; CL-0079.intake.shift1; CL-0079.appr.assist1; CL-0079.repair.hold1; CL-0079.trace.watch; CL-0079.trustee.cadence; CL-0079.appr.session; CL-0079.day1.commit ▪ Trustee sign: Mira + Len. Secure dossier forwarded. Public digest queued.
Post-Law Reflection: A mark becomes real in the days after a verdict. Repeat the same small moves: seal, pin, mirror; train a youth until his hands match your calm; run tutor repairs in public and leave hash anchors; protect witnesses with neighbor rotas and shelter; keep Crosspath's traces as signals, not orders. A steward reads habit, not flair. The week ahead will count each small act; keep the chain neat and the temper slab warm. The Spiral holds when a man proves his hand by steady work, not by one loud day.