Chapter 378: Deep Stone, Open Air

The trial section stood on the unused rock beside the lower ledge, with the block where Ren had left it.

He lifted it onto the end he had not yet tested, keeping most of the weight in his hands while he followed the pressure through the stone. The broad feet took the load. The narrow middle carried its share without pressing into either opening.

Ren eased his working away and checked the width marks. The Nightfire guide came off the path and passed a hand through each opening.

"Three times," it said.

"Three placements with one block. The cover will load more than one part at once."

The guide looked toward the marked ledge, then gathered its measuring cord.

"The tenders are waiting for you."

— • —

They brought him beneath the existing overhang while the wind was blowing in from the sea. Ren had brought light cloth strips, as Joss had used beneath the Kilnreach garden.

The tenders helped him tie one at the low opening, one at the high gap and another in the back corner where the shallow tray had stood.

The low strip drew inward. The high one lifted outward, occasionally brushing the stone. The corner strip moved after a gust, then hung nearly still while the other two kept lifting.

"Less reaches here," the guide said, beside him.

"Show me what happens when the wind crosses the face."

They waited. One tender went onto the shelf, watching the water while Ren remained by the strips. When the wind shifted, it called him to the upper gap.

The strip fell against the stone, then pressed inward. At the low opening, the steady draw broke into short flutters. The back-corner strip stopped moving.

"That is when we come out," the tender said.

Ren returned to the corner. Warmth gathered beneath the overhang, and he could feel little movement against his raised hand. When the wind changed again, the strips recovered; the corner was last.

"And in a calm?"

"Slower. The rock stays warm, and the fire. Air still goes through the openings. Less comes here."

He stayed through a lull to check. The upper gap still let out a warm current, but the corner strip barely stirred. He marked its position on his sketch beside the tenders’ working places. The new cover would extend farther landward, where the breeze already reached poorly.

— • —

The Nightfire agreed to the bearing positions before the slabs were cut. Ren walked the lower ledge with the guide, marking sound rock and leaving the path beside its end clear. The water opening under the old screen lay outside the work area.

At the cove, the craftsperson examined his sketch before marking the stone.

"What carries the middle?"

"A shared pair of supports. One pair at either end. Rails joining their tops, with two slabs over each bay."

"Wide seats under the slabs." It indicated the central pair. "And room for both ends here. Don’t crowd them onto an edge."

It cut four slabs. Tarin arranged two crossings on Ward, with the guide leading through the channels. The loads came ashore beside the work area, clear of the tenders’ route and the opening used by the Lawfires.

— • —

Ren formed three pairs of supports, each rooted in sound ledge rock. Their openings followed the trial section’s pattern. Two broad rails joined their tops along the ledge, connecting the end pairs through the middle one.

He checked the bearing seats against his sketch before lifting the first slab. The guide kept the tenders back while he lowered it across the outer bay.

Pressure traveled into the end pair and the shared middle supports. Ren followed it around the openings, adjusting until the slab rested fully on its seats. He withdrew his working and checked the marks.

The second slab went over the inner bay, meeting the first above the central pair.

He lowered it gradually. Before its full weight reached the seats, one of the middle supports began pressing inward at the upper opening. Ren lifted the slab clear and set it back beside the others.

The first slab was still holding. He followed its load again, then examined the connection to the inner bay. He had directed both loads down through the middle too soon. The rails joined the supports, but the new weight had scarcely reached the far end pair before pressure gathered beside the opening.

Ren took the first slab’s weight in his working while he restored the opening to its marked width. He worked outward through the rails and their connections, widening the narrow bearing that had concentrated the load on one side of the middle support. Before bringing the second slab back, he let the first settle again and checked what the altered connection carried.

On the next attempt, he lowered the slab in smaller stages. The middle pair took weight first, then more reached the far pair through the joined stone. He felt the first slab’s load shift too. Correcting one bay changed what the other carried; he had to follow both.

This time the upper opening held its width. He released the remaining weight, waited, then withdrew his working.

The guide crouched outside the bay to check the marks.

"Still there."

Ren kept his hand against the central support. Through the bedstone graft he had followed pressure around connected recesses, but at the workshop he had only needed to carry one bench foot past a drain. Here, changing the route beneath the new slab had changed the bearing beneath the first. He went back along that rail before lifting another piece.

Ren put the remaining slabs in place. With each addition he followed the changing pressure through the connected supports, leaving the central pair carrying its share while the ends took more. When the cover was complete, he released his working and walked around it with the measuring cord.

They tested it with loose stone blocks. Ren placed them first over one bay, then the other, then left unequal loads on both. Between placements he stepped clear and checked the openings and bearing seats. The guide watched the marks while he removed the blocks afterward.

The supports held without his working. The path remained clear, and a tender checked the water opening before returning to its work.

Ren went to put the test block beside the little trial section. Alone there, he checked the result privately.

[EARTH: 11.6% → 12.6%.]

He looked back at the two bays. The middle supports carried the ends of both roofs now, with the openings beneath them still clear.

— • —

He had left space between the bearing stone for the air passages. Thin stone baffles formed their mouths, separate from the ribs carrying the cover, so he could alter the flow without cutting into a loaded support.

The inlets remained low on the seaward side. He placed the high outlets behind projecting lips toward the landward side, where a gust crossing the face was less likely to push directly into them.

They tied strips at the mouths and the back working position. In a straight wind, the new bays drew air through. When it slanted, the outlet strips faltered but kept lifting outward, while the old shelter’s high strip pressed against the stone.

"Better here," the tender said.

"For this wind," Ren said. "Keep using your old places for now. I want to see what happens when it drops."

The strips remained tied where the tenders could watch them. Before leaving, he showed the guide which positions he had recorded and asked it to note where movement stopped first.

— • —

The guide met him on his next crossing.

"The outer outlet kept moving. The inner one stopped. Its low strip moved a little, but the back one did not. The sea was flat."

"Did it recover when the wind returned?"

"At the outlet first. The back stayed warm."

Ren checked during another lull. The inner bay sat deeper against the rock, with a longer path from its working corner to the outlet. He had given it the same narrow mouth as the outer bay. What passed easily with wind behind it barely moved in the calm.

He opened the outlet baffle farther, keeping the protective lip, and waited for the strips to settle. The high strip lifted again, but little reached the corner. He widened the inlet mouth next and angled it toward the back working space.

This time the corner strip stirred. Ren checked the outer bay as well, then returned to watch all three positions as the breeze began to rise.

— • —

At Kilnreach, Joss had taught him to maintain the exchange through two passages as their heat supply changed. Here the wind could help one part of the flow while opposing another, and the back corner lay off the easiest route between inlet and outlet.

Ren brought Air to the passages. He strengthened the draw at the outlet, and both mouth strips lifted sharply.

The corner strip fell.

He followed the current across the bay. Air was taking the short route between the mouths, passing the working position with little exchange. He eased the outlet and guided part of the incoming flow farther along the back wall, keeping its return toward the high opening clear.

The third strip began moving. The outlet weakened as he corrected it, and he had to adjust again before the exchange settled.

When the breeze rose, his first attempt to keep that balance sent the inlet strip snapping against its tie. He released the working, watched the natural current, and began again with less force.

He could not hold each part at a fixed strength. As the wind supplied more through the inlet, he needed less working there, while the corner still needed attention. When a slanting gust checked the outlet, he followed the slower exchange through the whole bay instead of continuing to draw at the same rate.

The guide watched the strips with him. Ren practiced through the changing wind, stopping between attempts to compare them with the natural draft. By the time it fell calm, he could maintain movement through the back corner without sending the mouth strips sharply in and out.

He repeated the exercise on his next visit. The wind changed in a different order; once he anticipated a lull too early and lost the corner’s flow. He waited for the actual change before trying again. Later attempts held through both the crossing gusts and the weaker current in the calm.

"Now stop," the guide said.

Ren withdrew his working. The strips eased but kept moving. They waited in the new shade while the lull continued. The corner’s movement was slight, enough for the tender to feel it at working height.

"We can work here," it said.

They had also checked the shelter without his Air during the winds they had observed. The widened mouths and the outlet lips kept a usable draft through those changes. Ren left the strips up for the tenders to keep watching.

While the guide fetched the shallow trays, he stepped onto the path and checked privately.

[AIR: 9.9% → 10.8%.]

— • —

The tenders checked the shade as the afternoon sun reached the seaward face. They held their hands at working height beneath the cover, then moved to the back corner and the route between the bays. Ren watched where light fell through the openings while they tested the places they would use.

They checked the water opening once more before bringing anything in.

The tender who had moved its shallow tray out of the old corner carried it into the inner bay. It set the tray down at the back and knelt to work. The other came through with its own tray and passed behind without making it move.

— • —

Eira’s message was waiting when Ren returned to Dawnspire.

She’s with her family. I’m on my way home.

He read it before putting his slate away and heading up to the Terrace.