The Standard Vigil

The Standard Vigil keeps watch beside a raised mobilisation banner until every district has answered or been named delinquent. Families bring lamps for those called to service and stones for those who abuse the call. Clerks read names. Children learn which colours mean road crew, soldier, surgeon, cart, timber, or witness. The custom is old enough that some lamp frames are inherited like funeral silver. It turns command into a public act, beautiful because no summons hides in a tower, dreadful because the whole city can see who the machine has chosen.