The Waybread Hearth

A wayfarers' rest house at the Span's near end, kept by the Grey Walker's cairn-keeper for anyone stuck waiting on the toll queue, a broken axle, or bad weather over the gorge.

Old Ness keeps the cairn-shrine by day and the Hearth by night, and treats both as the same job: seeing that nobody crossing the Span goes cold, hungry, or unremembered. There's always bread, always a fire, and always a stone by the door for anyone leaving in the morning to add to the cairn on their way — the Grey Walker's prayer is a stone, not a word, and Ness has never once turned away someone who didn't know that yet. Drovers stuck at the toll for days sleep here for free; she says it's cheaper than watching them get desperate enough to try the ford.