Day 4: Morning/Afternoon
The grim determination that fueled the labor was most evident at the river ridge, where the Core group struggled with the complex engineering of the water channel. Following Kael's inspection, Sergeant Rylen had internalized the necessity of precision geometry.
Kael arrived to find Rylen and his lead stoneworkers using the rudimentary water level—a simple, water-filled trough and string—to sight the horizontal distance. The progress was agonizingly slow, covering less than one hundred feet since the previous afternoon.
"Report, Sergeant," Kael ordered.
"The grade is true, my lord," Rylen confirmed, pointing to the meticulously set stones. "One inch of drop for every twenty feet, maintained perfectly. But the men are struggling to acquire suitable stone for the lining and the supports. They must travel further up and down the riverbed, slowing the pace and increasing the security risk."
The problem was pure logistics: the need for uniform, high-density construction material in a desolate landscape.
Kael surveyed the area. The plain was littered with low-density shale and dust, but he spotted the faint, half-buried foundations of old structures—likely the remains of abandoned homes or forgotten border markers from centuries past.
"We cease using the scattered river stones," Kael commanded. "We scavenge. We will use the remnants of the past to build the future."
Kael ordered Rylen to establish dedicated demolition crews—skilled men from the Core group who possessed experience with heavy lifting and prying. Their task was to meticulously dismantle and haul the dense, uniform stone from these forgotten foundations.
"These stones were cut for building and provide a much cleaner surface for the channel lining," Kael explained. "This is twice the work of simply lifting river stones, but the result is a stronger, smoother channel that will minimize friction and maximize flow. The cost of labor is high, but the cost of failure is absolute."
Rylen, now accustomed to the unforgiving logic of his Baron, implemented the change immediately.
The Wooden Troughs
The second critical challenge was the trough material. The channel needed to be covered and enclosed, requiring hundreds of feet of uniform wood.
Kael walked back toward the village with Steward Elms, discussing the inventory of the old palisade wood, which was currently being chopped for fuel.
"Elms, the palisade wood is rotten, soft, and ideal for burning—the briquette crew needs it," Kael confirmed. "But we need the strongest, driest pieces of scrap wood for the troughs and the protective covers. The water channel must not leak; every drop is precious."
Elms pointed toward the collapse of the oldest part of the manor—a section Kael had already marked for the furnace stones. "My lord, the only remaining quality wood is the roof beams of the old manor. They are ancient, oak, and too heavy to move."
"The roof beams it is," Kael decided instantly. "They are load-bearing, which means they are strong. They are the only wood that will survive the constant saturation of water without warping or splitting. The building is already unstable; we salvage what we can."
The order was brutal: dismantle the manor to save the settlement. Kael assigned the last of his capable laborers to the dangerous, painstaking task of shoring up the remaining structure while carefully extracting the oldest, densest oak beams.
He gave Elms precise cutting instructions: "The planks must be of uniform thickness to prevent warping. They will form the rectangular troughs and the triangular covers. The smallest gaps will be sealed with a mixture of pitch and animal fat, creating a waterproof bond."
The entire process—scavenging the stone from history, dismantling the roof, and measuring the precise drop of the water—was a masterclass in zero-supply civil engineering. Kael was teaching Ashfall that necessity, when guided by logic, was the mother of all invention. The speed of the construction was now entirely dictated by the precision required for survival.