Haven's Conclave Hall had been chosen for its light: a wide, domed room whose skylights turned morning into a slow, honest witness. The Loom arrived with a modest retinue—Thorne with his sigildamp tiles, Keeper Sera with Remnants witness packets, Marcus with a small escort, and Luna with a handful of children who had learned the chorus. Aria carried the Spiral Log and a public framing that had been drafted with the guild and the neutral magistrates: a demonstration of the stabilization rite, a notarized record of the devices seized so far, and an offer of training modules for towns that wanted to learn the cadence.
They opened with facts. Aria read a short, plain summary of the inquiry's findings to date—Saltport ledger seizures, Greyhaven fragments, the intercepted device from the Corrections convoy—and then set the terms for the day: consent, witnesses, and public teaching. The Conclave's magistrate stamped the Remnants' seal on the witness packets and the hall filled with people who had come to learn, to watch, or to hold the Loom accountable.
Thorne's demonstration was technical but careful. He explained cadence keys and sigildamp geometry in plain language, then showed how a device's imprint could be measured without revealing microetch diagrams. A volunteer magistrate read a short, notarized passage while Thorne fed a countervariation through the tiles; the device's response—recorded under warded tiles—made the harm legible. The room listened as a neutral delegate asked precise questions and as Keeper Sera read the Remnants' notarized witness statements. The demonstration did not teach craft; it taught consequence.
Then Luna led the public rite.
She stood at the center of the hall with a small ring of anchor stones and a scent order threaded through a length of jasmine. Her voice was small but steady as she taught the cadence: a three‑line chorus that changed its last line each time it was sung, a simple swap of stones between neighbors, and a breath pattern that made the rhythm deliberately awkward. The point was not perfection but improvisation—noise as defense.
Marketkeepers and magistrates were given small lighthouse kits to carry: five stones, one scent, one word. Thorne placed detector plates at the hall's edges and tuned them to register rapid concentration spikes. Keeper Sera notarized each participant's consent and recorded the rite in triplicate. The Conclave watched as the crowd practiced the cadence, laughed when they missed a beat, and learned how to hand an anchor to a neighbor without losing the pattern.
The rite did two things at once. It taught a civic skill—how to hold a seam in public—and it made the act of stabilization visible and communal. Where the committee had tried to run trials in private, the Loom taught towns to make protection a public habit. That visibility was political: a market that could stabilize itself was harder to manipulate, and a town that carried witness packets could not be quietly corrected.
The public framing mattered. Aria read a short petition the Loom had drafted with the guild and Haven's magistrate: expedited Remnants custody for artifacts; temporary trade protections while the inquiry proceeded; and a phased rollout of training modules for neutral towns. The petition was not a demand for power; it was a civic contract—trade protected in exchange for transparency and witness custody. The guild's emissary signed in public. The Conclave's magistrate agreed to present the petition to the Council with a request for an expedited vote.
Not everyone applauded. A conservative delegate warned that public rites could be institutionalized and used to shape civic memory. A merchant fretted that public exposure might scare clients. The Loom answered with patience: the rite was a tool, not a policy; it belonged to towns, not to a committee. If the Council tried to codify the cadence into law, the Loom would insist on local consent and on Remnants oversight.
The day's final act was practical and human. Thorne and Marcus led a small team to a nearby market node where a seam had been reported. They taught magistrates a rapid diffusion module—three breaths, two scent swaps, one anchor pass—that could be deployed in minutes. A magistrate who had once feared correction units now practiced the module with a vendor and left with a lighthouse kit tucked into his satchel. The change was small and immediate: a town that could stabilize itself without waiting for distant permission.
When the Conclave closed, the public record was clear: a demonstration of device harm, a notarized public rite taught in plain sight, and a petition co‑signed by guild and magistrates asking the Council for expedited protections. The Loom had not only shown the ledger's teeth; it had taught towns how to hold them.
That night, in the Conclave Hall's quiet, Aria and Keeper Sera cataloged the day's outcomes. They had gained political leverage and public trust; they had also sharpened opposition. The Loom's moves made the inquiry harder to suppress, but they also made the sanctuary a visible actor in a political fight. The cost of visibility was real: threats would come, trade would twitch, and procedure would be used as both shield and blade.
Aria closed the Spiral Log with careful hands and a steady pen: Haven public rite taught and notarized; Thorne's demonstration recorded under Remnants tiles; petition co‑signed by guild and magistrate for expedited protections; rapid diffusion modules deployed to market nodes; public training rollout scheduled; political pushback noted and logged.
She walked the Conclave's steps with Luna at her side. The child's small hand fit into hers like a promise that was also a demand. "Did we make them safer?" Luna asked, as if the world's complexities could be answered in a single breath.
"We made them more able to choose," Aria said. "That's the work. Teach the rite, protect witnesses, and keep the ledger legible. The rest is patient law and stubborn care."
They did not pretend the path ahead was simple. The Council's vote on the petition would be a test; the committee's higher patrons might still be hidden behind layers of procedure. But the Loom had changed the terms of the fight: stabilization was now a public skill, and witness packets were a civic currency. Memory, once a commodity, had become a shared responsibility.