High ground

The Lift

The Lift is the high ground of Calder, the district of towers above the rain line. It is where the money lives, where the franchise Morrow-Kade has its offices, and where, as the saying goes in the Sump, nobody has ever had wet shoes.

From the Lift you can see the whole of Calder, which is the point. The towers stand on the highest ground the city has, and the terraces are built to look down: at the Shelf’s grey roofs, at the lights of the Sump pricking out through the rain, at the sea wall holding everything back.

Water does reach the Lift. It runs off canopies in sheets and falls past the railings. But it keeps moving, and it never stays, and that is the difference between living up here and living down there.

Morrow-Kade

The franchise that owns the rain keeps its headquarters in the Lift. Its brochure is on its own page, written, as ever, in its own voice.

In the story

In Gate Six the people who live in the Lift are the people who benefit most from the secret that keeps Calder dry. That is as much as this page will say.

Back down the stairs: the Shelf, or begin with Gate Six.