North's white jaw came out of gray air above the broken Middle Gate.
Ura Vem did not call it a landing.
He stood on the fixed drain stone with his splinted right forearm against his chest. His left hand held the dry vent pin while the seven House Seven residents reset the triangular brace they had built from the broken rail and two stair supports.
Eki kept both burned palms inside loose cloth and called the pin positions without touching them.
The residents loaded the brace with the same stone sacks used for the clinic model. Its upper joint bent one millimeter and stopped. They added a flat gate rail from fixed stone to the white shoulder plate, then tied two separate pull cords that could remove the rail if North moved.
North breathed once beneath the empty span.
The rail stayed inside both chalk marks.
"One person at a time," Ura said. "Fixed stone at this end. Nobody accepts the animal, its road, or the room behind you."
Tova Ruun came first.
