Stavenbruck is Marta Velska's home city and Kaltbruch's civilian supply anchor. It stands outside both prison and containment perimeters. A freight railway and service road reach a basin junction where prison and containment traffic diverge. River supply supports fishing and municipal water treatment. Distances are described in relative terms.
The civilian city and its basin junction: railway and service routes connect Stavenbruck to institutions beyond the town. This is a scenic interpretation, not a surveyed map.
Open full-size illustration ↗| District | Everyday function |
|---|---|
| Old Exchange | Municipal offices, public communications and the pre-Event Stimmwerk Central Signals Tower |
| Pump Ward | Water treatment and associated workshops |
| Canvas Square | Dense bazaar aisles, food sellers, paste cooks and exchange |
| Freight Ward | Railway sidings, stores and cargo handling |
| Northbank | Worker housing and shared domestic services |
Five districts, more than five kinds of life
Old Exchange contains official counters, private professional rooms and narrow older streets whose street-level shops still serve residents. The Stimmwerk tower is a landmark and working communications hub, not a magical view into every home. Ledger Steps, the broad approach between counter buildings, fills with messengers, waiting applicants and sellers offering hot drinks. Leva Dorn knows its queues from inside; Teren Vale knows the evening stream heading towards the Reading Exchange. Better-paid clerks sometimes claim their district is quieter because its residents are more orderly, overlooking the services and maintenance they receive.
Street-level shops and professional rooms continue to serve residents beneath the offices of Old Exchange.
Open full-size illustration ↗People in this picture · 3
Yelka Stren
left, repairing a small mechanism · Goes by Yel
Residence: Old Exchange, Stavenbruck. Yel repairs clocks and desk machines in a rented shop bay. A dependable stock of springs matters more to her than fashionable replacements. Oskar supplies her with old technical books; Dena is his customer.
Dena Kovren
centre, holding a book · Goes by Dena
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Dena is a wage clerk who buys used repair manuals for the lamps in her building. She is browsing Oskar’s stall beside Yel’s workbench.
Oskar Jelvik
right, the bookseller · Goes by Oskar
Residence: Old Exchange, Stavenbruck. Oskar sells used books and loose technical sheets. He remembers which customers return to explain whether a diagram worked. He trades beside Yel and is showing Dena a book.
A working communications landmark, maintained through physical connections, instruments and recorded media.
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Kira Danek
right, at the tower controls · Goes by Kira
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Kira maintains Stimmwerk patch panels and signal circuits. She prefers a marked repair to a neat-looking temporary bypass. The distant service crews are colleagues; no companion is individually foregrounded.
Applicants, messengers and hot-drink sellers share the broad approach to the counter buildings.
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Renata Vossel
foreground left, holding the paper · Goes by Rena
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Rena takes in coat linings and is seeking payment for a completed municipal order. She has brought her own copy. Ivo is her neighbour, helping her locate the correct counter.
Ivo Darsen
foreground right, pointing at the paper · Goes by Ivo
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Ivo delivers documents between workshops. He has learned that knowing the building does not always mean knowing the right desk. Rena is his neighbour; this errand is a favour rather than paid advocacy.
Leva Dorn understands the queues from the other side of the counter. Paperwork and personal attention shape an ordinary encounter with authority.
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Leva Dorn
right, writing behind the counter · Goes by Leva
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Leva handles municipal counter work. She tries to translate a resident’s problem into a work order a crew can actually act upon. Her visitor is Boran, a resident seeking a usable answer.
Boran Kelt
left, leaning toward the counter · Goes by Bor
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Bor replaces pipe insulation and wants a disputed repair visit recorded accurately. He is weary of being sent back for another form. Leva is handling his request; they are not relatives.
The Municipal Reading Exchange, where Teren Vale helps residents find books and listening copies.
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Teren Vale
right, behind the reading counter · Goes by Teren
Residence: Old Exchange, Stavenbruck. Teren catalogues the Municipal Reading Exchange. He wants a useful collection that survives his retirement, including its unfashionable music. He is helping apprentice readers Anik and Hedi find a usable edition.
Anik Sorell
left, standing with a notebook · Goes by Anik
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Anik is an apprentice panel fitter who studies after work. He copies diagrams only after asking which edition they came from. Hedi is his study partner; Teren is helping them find a text.
Hedi Malek
centre, reading the sheet · Goes by Hedi
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Hedi repairs relay housings and wants enough theory to challenge instructions she cannot reproduce. Anik is a fellow evening learner, not her sibling or partner.
Pump Ward is a place of works entrances, spare-parts traders, modest housing and laundries that depend on reliable water. Nine-Valve Row takes its informal name from a conspicuous old manifold on a works wall. Visitors may not know what the valves actually do. The Institute of Applied Measures occupies repaired buildings close enough for students to encounter working crews rather than learning industry entirely from diagrams. A tea room called The Level Mark survives on early shifts and lengthy arguments about measurements.
Works entrances, spare parts, laundry and homes occupy the same working district.
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Gregor Valen
left, holding the heavy coupling · Goes by Gregor
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Gregor repairs water fittings and keeps odd-sized washers sorted in reused tins. He wants an apprentice paid for learning time. Nika is the younger fitter working alongside him.
Nika Olt
beside Gregor, supporting the fitting · Goes by Nik
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Nik is a junior fitter who is learning when force will spoil a repair. She records the worn dimensions before filing metal away. Gregor is her workplace mentor.
The nine-valve manifold gives this row its familiar name, even to neighbours who do not know what each valve does.
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Karel Brev
left of the pair, closest to the valves · Goes by Karl
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Karl is a retired pump attendant who still notices a fresh leak before the row’s commuters do. Esma is his downstairs neighbour.
Esma Retz
right of the pair, in the scarf · Goes by Esma
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Esma works in a laundry and wants the morning pressure to reach its upper taps. She has no patience for reassuring noises alone. Karl is her neighbour and a useful witness when the supply changes.
Students encounter working crews and practical measurement beside the Institute’s repaired buildings.
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Adem Norvik
left, at the measuring bench · Goes by Adem
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Adem is an Institute workshop demonstrator who makes students explain how they held a part before discussing its measurement. The three learners are his practical-class students.
Leon Vasken
blond learner beside Adem · Goes by Leon
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Leon is a first-year instrument student. He wants to stop treating every doubtful reading as a personal failure. Adem instructs him; Sami and Ilse are classmates.
Sami Drenov
dark-haired learner writing near the centre · Goes by Sam
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Sam studies materials and earns evening wages as a packing assistant. Keeping legible notes helps him return to a problem after a missed lesson. Leon and Ilse share his class, not his household.
Ilse Brann
right, holding the large drawing · Goes by Ilse
Residence: Old Exchange, Stavenbruck. Ilse studies technical drawing and argues for diagrams that a workshop can use with cold hands and poor light. She is comparing class work with Adem, Leon and Sam.
The Level Mark provides a place for early-shift tea and arguments over measurements.
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Viktor Halm
left, back partly toward the viewer · Goes by Vik
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Vik is a shift foreman who comes to the Level Mark for tea before his decisions start costing other people time. He supervises Yara and Petr at the works.
Yara Senn
centre, facing the viewer · Goes by Yara
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Yara maintains measuring instruments and brings written observations to arguments that otherwise run on seniority. Petr is her bench colleague; Vik is their foreman.
Petr Kavel
right, leaning over the table · Goes by Petr
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Petr is a pipe fitter with a talent for finding the inaccessible joint. He likes a warm seat before the early shift. Yara is his colleague; neither is related to Vik.
A shared laundry inside Pump Ward, showing how everyday care depends on water, heat and skilled maintenance.
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Lida Varnek
left, holding one end of the cloth · Goes by Lida
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Lida takes washing shifts around care work at home. She has become quick at finding a weak seam before the wash tears it. Zora is her senior laundry colleague.
Zora Belen
centre, rinsing the cloth · Goes by Zora
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Zora runs the heavy wash tubs and watches water use closely. She dislikes being thanked for doing two people’s work. Lida shares her tub shift; Hamid maintains its machinery.
Hamid Orsel
right, working at the gauge · Goes by Hamid
Residence: Pump Ward, Stavenbruck. Hamid maintains laundry pumps and keeps a separate list of faults reported during busy hours. Zora and Lida report the symptoms he needs to reproduce.
Canvas Square is a market of dense walkable aisles, not an empty monumental plaza. The Copper Ladle, fish-part stalls and Maren's alterations bench sit near the Return Arch, where customers return containers and crates. Deliveries squeeze past shoppers before busy periods. Neighbouring sellers cooperate over shared shelter and quarrel over drainage, obstruction and who leaves waste for somebody else. Some customers come to spend; others come to meet people, price an object they cannot yet afford or hear who is hiring.
Dense walkable market aisles leave room for trade, conversation and the work of moving supplies.
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Nessa Karvik
central shopper in the red cap · Goes by Ness
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Ness mends canvas covers and prices replacement thread before spending anything. A market visit also lets her hear who is hiring. She is passing the exchange between Damir and Olek, whom she knows as market regulars.
Damir Vez
right foreground, customer with back turned · Goes by Damir
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Damir repairs loading hooks and is looking for a used instrument he can afford to have serviced. Olek is the trader negotiating with him.
Olek Tarsk
right, behind the parts stall · Goes by Olek
Residence: the streets beside Canvas Square, Stavenbruck. Olek sells reclaimed gauges and explains their faults before naming a price. Returning customers matter more than one easy sale. Damir is his customer; Ness is a neighbouring tradesperson.
Maren’s alterations bench and the stalls near Return Arch connect repair, provisions and the return of containers.
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Maren Ilt
left, at the sewing machine · Goes by Maren
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Maren alters clothing near Return Arch and shares a protected greenhouse strip. She wants daylight for sewing and payment for small alterations. The customer across her bench is Radan, a regular whose work coats take a beating.
Radan Joss
right, wearing the work cap · Goes by Rad
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Rad handles freight ropes and brings his coat back for repair before a small tear takes the lining with it. Maren is his regular tailor; their familiarity does not make the work free.
Shared shelter brings neighbouring sellers together; drainage and obstruction give them reasons to disagree.
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Tessa Vornek
left, lifting the drain cover · Goes by Tess
Residence: the streets beside Canvas Square, Stavenbruck. Tess runs a container-return stall and would rather clear the shared drain now than lose tomorrow’s trade to it. She shares the aisle and shelter with Oren and Bela.
Oren Hask
centre, holding the wheeled bin · Goes by Oren
Residence: the streets beside Canvas Square, Stavenbruck. Oren sells reclaimed kitchen metal and is tired of removing waste that his stall did not create. Tess and Bela are neighbouring sellers helping with the same blockage.
Bela Krov
right, indicating the channel · Goes by Bel
Residence: the streets beside Canvas Square, Stavenbruck. Bel repairs market awnings and knows where runoff pools beneath each sagging edge. She wants the drainage costs shared openly. She is cooperating with Tess and Oren despite their arguments over responsibility.
Freight Ward includes lodging houses, bonded stores, dispatch rooms and public streets where railway workers' families live. Hookbridge is a road crossing over sidings, named for an old lifting attachment kept on its parapet as a local emblem. Residents want safer walking access without allowing the railway to turn every shortcut into a restricted route. They are tired of city officials treating the district as empty logistics space. A scheduled dance above a repair shed can be as important to them as the arrival of a military consignment.
Freight Ward contains families, lodging and public streets as well as dispatch rooms and bonded stores.
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Mira Kesten
left, in the lit shop doorway · Goes by Miri
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Miri runs a small freight-street provisions counter and sets aside returned containers for neighbours who need repairs. The customer is her partner, Eron; their daughter Lotte waits with him.
Eron Kesten
left foreground, facing the doorway · Goes by Eron
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Eron works on the sidings and collects household supplies on his way back. He tries to arrive before Lotte’s patience runs out. Miri is his partner and Lotte their daughter.
Lotte Kesten
child beside Eron, in the red scarf · Goes by Lotti
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Lotti knows which shop steps stay dry and carries small messages between the family’s rooms and counter. Miri and Eron are her parents.
Hookbridge crosses the sidings, retaining the old lifting attachment that gave it its name.
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Jasna Valek
adult nearest the viewer on Hookbridge · Goes by Jas
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Jas checks rail stores and has planned the crossing around the latest weather warning. She keeps her child’s gloves overlapped at the cuffs. She is taking her son Miro home.
Miro Valek
small hooded child holding Jas’s hand · Goes by Miro
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Miro attends the local school and counts the stopped wagons from the bridge when the weather allows a pause. Jas is his mother and the adult responsible for this crossing.
A dance above a repair shed gives railway families a reason to gather beyond the demands of freight.
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Nadia Svel
foreground dancer in the ochre dress · Goes by Nadi
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Nadi repairs railway upholstery and likes a fast tune after a day of careful stitches. Her dress has survived several alterations. She and Luka are partners; they are dancing together.
Luka Svel
foreground dancer facing Nadi · Goes by Luk
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Luk is a wagon fitter who is less confident on a dance floor than at a bench. He keeps returning because Nadi enjoys it. Nadi is his partner.
Elsa Runn
blonde dancer behind the main pair · Goes by Elsa
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Elsa checks freight invoices and saves occasional evenings for dancing rather than extra copying work. Her dance partner Jamil is a friend from the railway offices.
Jamil Vosk
dancer facing Elsa in the middle distance · Goes by Jam
Residence: Freight Ward, Stavenbruck. Jam works in the dispatch rooms and knows the dance organiser’s recording collection almost by heart. Elsa is his friend and dance partner; they keep separate households.
Northbank combines worker courts, older riverside houses, schools and small workshops. Rook Court is one developed building type among several, not the district's total population. Rook Lane School and Northbank Clinic share residents but have distinct responsibilities. The East Soot Gardens offer leased plots inside fully enclosed transparent polyurethane or plastic greenhouses that exclude the glowing rain, with room to sit among protected beds away from household laundry. Wealth differences exist within Northbank: a tenancy with sound wiring, a dry cupboard and a quiet window is a meaningful advantage.
Courts, riverside houses, schools and workshops make Northbank a lived-in neighbourhood.
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Hana Darsk
adult between the two children · Goes by Hana
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Hana repairs school clothing and listens closely when a child says the difficult part of the day happened outside class. Rudi and Mina are her children.
Rudi Darsk
child on Hana’s left · Goes by Rudi
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Rudi likes making small paper models and wants a shelf his sister cannot reach without asking. Hana is his mother and Mina his sister.
Mina Darsk
child on Hana’s right, in the red cap · Goes by Min
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Min is learning to read street notices and insists on finishing a word before the family walks on. Hana is her mother and Rudi her brother.
Rook Court is one shared yard and building type among several, rather than the whole district.
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Ewa Keltin
seated left, working with fabric · Goes by Ewa
Residence: Rook Court, Northbank, Stavenbruck. Ewa takes repair sewing into the yard when the light is good. She trades conversation more freely than her remaining thread. Pasko is her neighbour; Jani is her grandson.
Pasko Drellen
seated beside Ewa in a cap · Goes by Pask
Residence: Rook Court, Northbank, Stavenbruck. Pask is a retired heater attendant who likes company without being required to entertain it. Ewa lives across the gallery; Jani passes him on the way home.
Jani Keltin
child crossing the centre of the yard · Goes by Jan
Residence: Rook Court, Northbank, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Jan carries schoolwork home carefully because replacing a damaged notebook takes negotiation. Ewa is his grandmother; Ressa is a neighbour keeping an eye on the yard.
Ressa Ulm
standing at the right by the kitchen · Goes by Ress
Residence: Rook Court, Northbank, Stavenbruck. Ress takes kitchen shifts and knows which residents are sleeping after night work. She tries to keep errands from turning into shouting. Ewa and Pask are her neighbours; she is not Jani’s parent.
Rook Lane School and Northbank Clinic serve many of the same households while doing different work.
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Dalen Rusk
teacher on the school steps at left · Goes by Dal
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Dal teaches younger pupils and checks that a lesson can be attempted with the materials actually in their homes. Feri and Ola are his pupils; he is a colleague, not a relative, of Anja Rusk.
Feri Ost
pupil left of Dal · Goes by Fer
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Fer enjoys sketching tram windows and brings questions that make a short lesson longer. Dal is his teacher; Ola is his classmate.
Ola Benek
pupil in front of Dal, with a satchel · Goes by Ola
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. A child without paid employment, Ola is learning to keep her school papers separate from the household’s ration receipts. Dal teaches her; Fer is a school friend.
Nura Olen
clinic worker on the right · Goes by Nura
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Nura handles clinic arrivals and checks whether a patient has somewhere warm to wait after the consultation. She is speaking with Sofie, a local patient.
Sofie Drask
seated outside the clinic · Goes by Sofi
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Sofi repairs bedding and brings a carefully folded account of what she needs to ask before returning to work. Nura is assisting her in the clinic’s entrance area.
East Soot Gardens shelters growers, food and flowers inside a full transparent greenhouse. The cat shares that shelter.
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Zdena Korrin
left foreground, potting seedlings · Goes by Zdena
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. A retired seed-store clerk, Zdena tends a licensed greenhouse bench as unpaid neighbourhood work. She treats its small harvest as a fragile luxury and keeps careful watering notes. Ansel is her grandson and helps on her allotted turn.
Ansel Korrin
centre, holding the small pot · Goes by Ans
Residence: Northbank, Stavenbruck. Ans repairs packing crates and helps at the greenhouse between shifts. He likes tending something whose needs can sometimes be understood. Zdena is his grandmother; their access depends on the shared enclosure remaining permitted.
Who belongs to a district?
A district is an address, a habit and an argument rather than a personality category. A clerk living in Freight Ward can dislike Old Exchange's airs while aspiring to its jobs. A wealthy household may stay near an old family workshop. Newcomers can become neighbours through shared obligations without acquiring a local surname. People leave for better work, education, partnership, service, exhaustion or curiosity; people stay for those reasons too.
A comfortable household stays beside its old family workshop: privilege can exist within an ordinary working street.
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Daria Pellin
left, seated with a mug · Goes by Daria
Residence: a comfortable home beside the family workshop, Northbank. Daria keeps the workshop accounts. Reliable contracts have bought her household privacy that many neighbours cannot afford. Joren is her partner and workshop co-owner.
Joren Pellin
right, seated at the workbench · Goes by Jor
Residence: a comfortable home beside the family workshop, Northbank. Jor restores precision mechanisms and has stayed beside the old shop despite being able to rent elsewhere. Daria is his partner; their relative comfort rests on the same workshop.
City geography is described through the relationships between places. The walking route from one named place to another becomes a measured itinerary only when mapped. For an ordinary scene, a district transition can reveal a difference in road upkeep, shop stock or who is expected to wait indoors. Those observations tell more about power than automatically making every affluent building a hidden fortress.
Protected cultivation
Growing food is dangerous because of the glowing rain. Gardens must be fully enclosed overhead and on all sides in transparent polyurethane or plastic greenhouses that keep the rain off the plants. This includes food and flower gardens. .