Ferra spent the entire morning building a measuring course out of the silo's outer yard, and by noon it looked like a festival designed by an auditor.
The course had been her idea, argued over dinner with the one argument that ended all others.
If the engine itself would not wait for anyone's comfort, then the measurements could not wait for comfort either.
Marker posts stood at every hundred meters along the canal road, plus a bell line ran the whole perimeter.
Loccy had painted distance numbers on flat stones, wearing the gravity of a woman labeling explosives.
"Ground rules before we touch a single Ring," Ferra said, walking Hajin through the course with her charcoal already out.
"We measure three things today. We measure how far it can walk from you, how long it can stand in the world, plus what it can and cannot carry."
