At the North Sluice above the Lantern Stair, Dema Orr keeps the winter count file beside a stone channel that narrows at the final bend above the lower cisterns. The two details are easy to miss in a summary: one is a line in a ledger, the other is the condition that decides whether the line is useful.
Dema Orr is the senior keeper of the north water gate. On this thaw season visit, the work begins with the gate’s release board and the ward cistern level marks; only after the entry is checked can the crew say what the rule asks of the people below.
49 measured release turns were entered this cycle, compared with 46 in the prior file. The figure is one part of a longer handoff. Tavi Orr checked the gate’s release board and the ward cistern level marks against the field notes. The method is to trace a system from its control gate to the last household it is meant to serve; it confirms the entries, but not every interpretation attached to them.
Keepers point to a steady total at the gate; residents point to a sharper fall in the last two cisterns. The current record does not settle that disagreement. Residents closest to the work describe the difference as a route, a wait or a shift that cannot be moved on a slate. Their accounts have been attached to the docket rather than folded into the total.
Residents and workers have had their first chance to question the measure in public. The entry belongs to the winter count file at the North Sluice above the Lantern Stair. A mason crew will inspect the final bend during the next low-flow window. The next visit will show whether the revision travels beyond the office that wrote it.
