K: Keepsakes and katabothrons: Moving memories in the Free City of Jubylon
Katabothron (noun): An underground water-channel.
In a city (apparently) characterized by changing addresses, one of the solutions seems to have been two circular sets of underground canals branching off from the main Canal above ground, one with boats running clockwise and one closer to the edge of the City running counter-clockwise. These boats ran regularly at four times per hour at a cheap price, so they were very well liked. There was also the ability to get off at certain stops, where tunnels connected the two circles of canals. That meant that if you knew how to time it, you could get from one end of the City to another very quickly. All you had to do was step off an underground boat, walk down a dark and wet tunnel and get on another underground boat, with only slight risks of drowning or getting lost.
One tradition seems to have spontaneously evolved, where people left keepsakes, old letters, memorabilia and similar items behind in niches in the walls besides the canals. Others were left on planks and set afloat in the canals.
The City would empty those regularly, if nothing else because it was used as a way to deliver and pick up fenced goods and avoiding regulations like the salt tax on unmarried couples. The items were kept for six months in case someone came to claim them. Few usually did. The majority of the items were then burned, with the exception of the few culturally and historically significant.
One interesting aspect of the underground canals was the tunnel never used where the water came down from the mountains, flowing around in circles and towards the ocean. Few dared walk besides the water or sail down it, but it was said to lead to the old semi-abandoned airship port a few miles south-east of the old Fischer-Marinkår copper mine. A perfect shops for shady dealings, secret romances and obscure political meetings. Few dared venture down that tunnel, perhaps because those who used it always made a point of making the rumours about it as terrifying as possible. It was said that the last members of the High Circle haunted it. They were forever looking for a supposedly glorious past with no doctors in the government. A past that none in the Free City of Jubylon really missed all that much, truth be told. The ghost stories merely underscored an important truth for many citizens about the katabothrons: The flat boats and dark waters were a very fine place to go and leave the past behind you in the dark.