Sigma-4

Sigma-4 is the second of the Descent Protocols Sigma-1 through Sigma-9 to enter force and the third in the received ordering of the Sigma Descent sequence, governing the quarrying of Sigma-Glass Precursor between the provisional bounds established by Sigma-6 and the inner threshold of Line Sigma. It is administered in practice by the Sigma Regulator through Material Filing Sigma-9, though the Third Concordance records a standing objection from the office of Sigma-1 as to the regularity of its promulgation.

Promulgation and Sequence

Sigma-4 entered force on the 14th of Dismount, Year 882 of the Lower Recension, some eleven years after Sigma-1 and prior to Sigma-6, which the Descent Protocols Sigma-1 through Sigma-9 name as the fourth to enter force. The apparent inversion of ordinal and sequential position has been the subject of three separate rulings by the Sigma Regulator, none of which has been entered into the concordant margin without amendment. The Scriptorium of the Ninth Spiral holds that Sigma-4 was withdrawn and reissued under the same numeral following the collapse of the Stairwell Sigma-44 approach, an event recorded in the marginalia of Material Filing Sigma-9 but absent from the principal register.

"No protocol subsequent to Sigma-3 shall be read as subordinate to its own number, provided the number was cut into the wall before the quarrying commenced."

— Third Concordance, Annex 4

The Sigma-1 jurisdiction has maintained, in a sealed deposition held at Dock Sigma, that Sigma-4 was never lawfully posted on Line Sigma and therefore binds only those clerks who descended past the Aperture Sigma-7 stairwell before the second winter of its currency. The Sigma Regulator declined to affirm or deny this in the recension of Year 904.

Provisions Concerning Quarrying

Sigma-4 establishes the permissible depth of cut for Sigma-Glass Precursor at forty-one span below the marked ledge of Annex Sigma, and requires that all extracted material be logged by Sigma-Class Logging before transfer toward Dock Sigma. It further provides that no quarrying party may exceed nine members, a limit that the Office of the Peregrine has interpreted as inclusive of the pack-beast, a reading rejected by Peregrine-Sigma in its own internal circular of Year 911.

A noted incident occurred in Year 897, when a party of ten descended under a temporary Reroute Authorization for Line Sigma and returned with a single pane later filed as Sigma-Glass Panes. The Sigma Regulator ruled the pane lawful but the party delinquent, and ordered the extra member struck from the Sigma Array roster without erasure of the pane's provenance.

Relation to Security Protocol Sigma

Security Protocol Sigma governs the application of Annex Sigma and enforces confinement to Line Sigma, and Sigma-4 is held by the Office of the Seals to be subordinate to that confinement in all matters of egress. The StairwellĠSigma-44 record shows that a dispute arose in Year 903 as to whether Sigma-4 authorized lateral quarrying toward the Aperture Sigma-7 stairwell; the Sigma Regulator determined that it did not, citing Security Protocol Sigma and the sole jurisdiction of Sigma-1 over Line Sigma.

"The precursor rests where the line is drawn, and the line is drawn by Sigma-1 alone."

— Security Protocol Sigma, Clause 2, as recited by the Sigma-1 deposition

Scholarly Disagreement

The Lower Scriptorium contends that Sigma-4 and Sigma-6 are in mutual contradiction as to the holding limit at Dock Sigma, since Sigma-4 prescribes transfer without delay and Sigma-6 governs provisional holding up to that dock. The Third Concordance resolves the matter by priority of force, while the Fourth Concordance resolves it by priority of wall-cut, and the two are cited interchangeably in current filings. A clerk of Material Filing Sigma-9 is recorded as having observed, without attribution in the margin, that the contradiction had not delayed a single shipment in sixty years.

Incidental Provisions

Sigma-4 closes with a prohibition, repeated from Sigma-1, that no quarrying under its authority may commence while the Aperture Sigma-7 stairwell is being swept. The Office of the Broom has noted that this clause has never been invoked, as the stairwell has not been swept within recorded memory.