A Standings card · sold at the gate of the Ring
The Ring, Fourthday
Sold at the gate of the Ring in the Standings season, for the price of a dumpling. Whoever bought it never filled in the end. (witnessed)
An exhibition Reckoning, sanctioned, over a surfaced training site: a ferry landing's mornings. (held, the Ring)
Attestants three, appointed by the Common Table. Their account is the record. (held, the Ring)
The Claims, as stated
Tamsin Hale, of the Constant
I will keep it: the ferryman's mornings, and the gulls', and the rope's, all of it, for as long as there is a Shelf to keep it on. (told, Tamsin Hale)
Orrin Fask, of the Driftwalkers
I will hold it long enough to thank it properly, and then let it go with the tide, which is where it was going. (told, Orrin Fask)
To be entered after
Prevailed: nobody wrote it in (held, the Ring)
The Yielding, as entered: nobody wrote it in (held, the Ring)
Penciled on the back, in the cheap seats
How it goes, for whoever sits here next. (witnessed)
When a site surfaces and two Keepers reach for it meaning different things, the Ring decides whose telling is entered. The other telling is not destroyed. It is overwritten, for now, and may come back changed. (told, the Ring)
Each Keeper states a Claim first: what they mean to do with the site. That is where you learn their order, if the coat has not told you already. (told, the touts)
The Constant: the closed hand around an ember. They keep everything. They do not rank the drowning. (told, my aunt)
The Driftwalkers: an open hand, or a knot tied to come loose with one tug. They let things go well, and trust that what matters comes back in some other form. (told, my aunt)
The Deepseekers: a knot left unfinished. They go down toward the thing itself. They seldom reckon, and when they do, the Claim is a depth. (told, my aunt)
Most of the Keepers I know belong to no order: wills, charters, a sick neighbor's week. Nobody sells cards about them. (witnessed)
At the end comes the Yielding. Whoever prevails must name one thing the other's telling held that theirs did not. Stay in your seat for it. It is the part people come for. (witnessed)
Perrin Vell has been champion here four seasons running. The touts are still betting on what his First Hold was. (told, the touts)
His only word on it: they can guess-eth all they like. (told, Perrin Vell)
On the steps, most afternoons, a child plays pebbles, and half the city watches from a courteous distance. When the child drills alone, the whole crowd goes quiet. I have never heard anyone say why. (witnessed)