Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7

Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7 is a provisional measure ratified on the 14th of Frostfall, 881, concerning the temporary sequestration of stairwells that exhibit a downward bias exceeding three floors per unmeasured interval. It remains in force under the emergency provisions of Ordinance 707 and is administered by the Office of Emergency Custodianship in conjunction with the Librarians of the Lower Spiral.

Ratification and Authorship

Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7 was ratified under the emergency provisions of Ordinance 707 during the tenure of Custodian Halverin Doess, who appended his seal at the Record of Emergency on the 14th of Frostfall, 881. The ratifying certificate notes that the measure was drafted in response to the so-called "Sliding Winter" of 880, in which Floor 1,204-Δ reportedly descended eleven floors before its numbering was re-stabilised by Stabilization Assessment. The ordinal suffix ".7" was assigned by the Scriptoria of Ordinance 707.12, which maintains that the measure is the seventh sub-amendment to the original 112-B sequence and not, as some contend, a mis-filed annex of Ordinance 889-B.

"No stairwell shall be ascended whose next landing cannot be accounted for by at least one concordant clerk and one disinterested lamp."

— Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7, Section 2, Clause i

Provisions of the Ordinance

The ordinance prohibits unrestricted passage through any stairwell certified as "downward-biased" by the Emergency Protocol Theta survey. Affected connectors are to be wrapped in grey cording and logged with the Emergency Directive 891-5 desk. During the winter of 883, Clerk Mibben Aul of the 9th Annex refused to cord a stairwell on Floor 2,011 on the grounds that the cording had been cut to the wrong length; the resulting dispute was settled by citing Third Concordance, Emergency Clause 22, which the presiding archivist noted "contradicts the cording schedule of the Second Concordance but must prevail by virtue of having been read aloud first" (Third Concordance, Annex 4).

The ordinance further requires that any expedition departing under its authority submit an inventory of un-sourced phenomena to the Emergency Measure 12: Concerning the Provisional Retention and Study of Un-sourced Phenomena within six days of return, a deadline extended to nine days by Ordinance 12.7.44 for parties travelling above Floor 4,000.

Scholarly Disagreement

A long-standing dispute concerns whether Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7 supersedes or merely supplements Ordinance 71.8, the ancient statute governing lateral drift between named floors. The Commentary on the Lower Recensions holds that 112-B.7 is subordinate, citing Emergency Powers as the root authority. The Emergency Powers Protocol, however, records a marginal note by an unnamed sub-clerk stating that "112-B.7 eats 71.8 during frost, and the rest of the year is uncertain." The Second Concordance affirms the subordinate view; the Third Concordance omits the question entirely, which the Office of Emergency Custodianship interprets as tacit elevation of 112-B.7 above all prior drift law.

Incidents of Misapplication

On the 3rd of Lamps, 886, a down-biased stairwell on Floor 3,442 was erroneously sealed under Ordinance 8871-C rather than 112-B.7, owing to a transcription error by the night desk. The seal held for nineteen days, during which the floor's inhabitants accessed the levels below by means of a maintenance chute. The Stabilization Assessment of the event concluded that "no harm was done, but the chute is not to be used for this purpose again" (Stabilization Assessment, Reckoning 442).

Visitors to floors under 112-B.7 custody are asked not to bring open flame past the second landing, as the grey cording is treated with a preservative that discolours at 31 degrees of the Tower's internal scale.

Current Status

Emergency Ordinance 112-B.7 is listed as active in the catalogue of the Librarians and was last amended by Ordinance 14,022-β, which clarified that "downward bias" includes stairwells that merely suggest descent through their arrangement of treads. The Record of Emergency shows no petition for repeal, though Clerk Aul's grievance regarding cording length remains filed under the 9th Annex and is reviewed, without resolution, every third Frostfall.