The second exception did not require a meeting.
It referenced the first.
At the eastern depot, a clerk encountered a problem mid-morning.
A shipment of timber meant for repairs in the southern quarter had arrived late. The delay placed it against a restricted route. The marker stood where it had been placed days earlier, rope taut, sign intact.
The clerk checked the ledger. Then the notice. Then the ledger again.
He did not send for an inspector.
He turned back a few pages and found the earlier entry.
A similar delay.A similar route.
He copied the notation into the margin.
Previously authorized deviation.
The rope was unhooked.
No carriage passed this time.
Just carts. Three of them. Heavy with timber, wheels leaving shallow tracks across stone worn smooth by use.
They moved through the junction without incident.
The barrier was lowered again.
No report was filed.
By afternoon, the phrasing appeared twice more.
In a transport log.In a routing adjustment.
Not copied exactly.
But close enough.
At the records hall, a junior scribe paused over a discrepancy.
The route listed had been closed. The delivery confirmed had not been delayed.
He looked for instruction.
There was none.
He flipped back through the week's entries until he found a similar case, marked in the same hand.
He adjusted the record to match it.
Consistency mattered.
The inspector from the Crown reviewed the day's summaries in silence.
There were no alerts.No infractions.No injuries recorded.
Movement was smooth.
Predictable.
He signed the page without comment.
That evening, a notice was amended.
Not rewritten.Not replaced.
A single line was added beneath the original instruction.
Exceptions may be issued where prior deviation has been recorded.
No signature accompanied it.
None was required.
He encountered the change the next morning.
A boundary he had learned to stop at no longer required it. The marker remained, but the guard glanced at his papers and waved him through.
"Recorded," the guard said, already turning away.
He passed without comment.
The ache did not come.
The ground beneath the junction remained unchanged.
In the southern quarter, the propped roof sagged again.
The timber held.
Barely.
A repair request was logged.
It was assigned a lower priority than before.
By week's end, the language had shifted again.
Not officially.Not in writing.
Men spoke of standard allowances.Of established handling.Of how it was done now.
No one could say when it had begun.
He stood at the edge of a permitted street and watched a cart pause at a marker, then continue on without stopping.
The guard did not intervene.
Nothing answered.
Later, when the records were reviewed, the deviation was not noted.
It matched existing entries.
And precedent, once established, did not require explanation.