Day 3: Morning
The new day began not with the start of labor, but with the cold, damp relief of food. Kael had kept his word: no one ate until the process was complete. Shortly before dawn, the first batch boiling furnace—rudimentary but functional—had yielded its output: massive cauldrons of soft, thoroughly cooked, and largely detoxified Goat's Foot Tuber mash.
The rations were distributed immediately. The workers—the Core and the Contingent—received their full, if still meager, payment. The Dependent group received their subsistence measure. The taste was bland, slightly chalky, and bitterly earthy, but it was hot, filling, and, crucially, non-lethal. The immediate threat of starvation had been postponed, not averted.
Kael used the quiet time after the meal to inspect the wood pile. He found Steward Elms attempting to inventory the stock, his face etched with worry.
"My Lord Baron," Elms reported, his voice tight. "The continuous furnace is efficient, yes, but we consumed nearly half of our total remaining wood stock in the first night's operation. We are surrounded by ash and barren rock. The nearest viable forest is two days' travel east, across open ground."
Kael looked at the remaining wood pile—mostly dead, dry branches harvested from the distant, wind-beaten scrubland. It was a terrifying reality: he had solved the water and food preparation problem, but his solution was entirely dependent on a fuel supply that was rapidly approaching zero.
The system pulsed, recognizing the critical resource failure looming.
[CRITICAL DANGER ALERT: Fuel source exhaustion projected within 5 days. Consequence: Collapse of sanitation (no boiled water) and food processing (raw tubers). Mortality rate spikes (Disease/Toxicity). Threat Severity: Extreme.]
A logistical trap, Adrian thought, tracing the problem back to its root cause. The previous Barons had stripped the surrounding land entirely for both heat and rudimentary construction, ensuring nothing was left for sustained operations.
Kael walked to the perimeter, studying the dusty plain. There were no trees, only dense, low scrub that provided negligible fuel. His mind immediately went to alternatives—peat, coal, or animal dung—but the soil composition and lack of livestock ruled those out.
"Elms, we must adapt the fuel source to the local environment, not the opposite," Kael said, turning to the Steward. "What is the densest local material that burns, besides wood?"
Elms thought for a moment. "Only the thickest, hardest roots from the old vines, my lord. The ones you told the foragers to discard yesterday—too difficult to dig. And the old wooden palisade, but that is useless for heat."
Kael's eyes fixed on the rotting, useless wooden palisade surrounding the village. He also looked at the hundreds of tons of loose, fine ash that coated the landscape.
"We need two solutions, Elms: immediate supply and a long-term alternative," Kael stated.
Immediate Fuel Supply: The Palisade
"Sergeant Rylen will assign ten men from his Core group to dismantle the old palisade entirely," Kael ordered. "The wood is rotted, but it will burn for a few days. That is our immediate emergency buffer."
Elms was shocked. "Dismantle the walls? My lord, even useless walls are a psychological defense!"
"The bastions are our defense, Elms. The palisade is a fire hazard and a waste of usable fuel," Kael countered. "The knights will guard the village while the old wood is hauled and chopped. This buys us three more days."
Long-Term Fuel Solution: The Ash Bricks
Kael then began sketching a simple, technical diagram on his inventory sheet. He was designing a process for creating briquettes—compressed fuel made from readily available local material.
"This will be the task for the Dependent group, Elms," Kael stated. "We will use the finest, most compressed ash dust from the plains. We will mix it with water and any available animal waste, and then press the mixture into uniform, hand-sized blocks. We will use the sun and the residual heat from the furnace pits to dry them completely."
"This is called a Fuel Briquette," Kael explained. "It is dense, it burns slowly, and it uses materials we have in abundance. This will be the long-term solution for the furnace."
He gave Elms precise instructions on the process: "You must gather any rigid, flat pieces of wood—or even flat stones—to use as molds. The compression must be total to maximize the burn time. This task requires minimal physical strength but immense attention to detail. The Dependent group must produce a quota of fifty briquettes per person per day. Their very survival depends on this production."
Elms, already overwhelmed by the medical register and the tuber boiling, nodded weakly. The Baron's command was a relentless cascade of logistical demands.
Managing the Dependent Population
Kael then made a critical adjustment to the triage plan that integrated the Dependent group into the survival process, providing them with purpose beyond simply receiving charity.
"Elms, the Dependent group must be managed with discipline. They will receive their ration, yes, but their task of briquette creation is now mandatory. They are producing the fuel of survival for the workers."
He emphasized the psychological necessity. "Tell them that their task is sacred—that they are feeding the fire that purifies the food and keeps the sickness at bay. If they fail to meet their quota, the workers cannot cook, and everyone starves. Their work is the most valuable act of citizenship they can perform right now."
Kael was subtly shifting the psychology of the Dependent group from passive receivers of charity to active participants in the barony's recovery. This was not just about fuel; it was about maintaining morale and social cohesion within the triage system.
With the command structure for the day established—defense construction continuing, tuber digging continuing, and now the critical Fuel Contingency launched—Kael turned his attention to the one failure he had yet to address directly: the initial reluctance of the farmers.