Fifty-Fifty

Nettle stopped by the workshop later that evening, drawn less by the cable project itself and more by simple curiosity about whatever new machine had apparently gotten Bram this excited, and stood watching the two furnaces work in steady, glowing silence for a long moment before she finally spoke.

"...Would Gorthruk be interested in this?" Nettle asked, watching the two prototype furnaces continue their steady, glowing production. "The casting technique, specifically. Not just for our cable, as a genuine addition to the Republic's own manufacturing capability."

Arista sat with that, the practical implication settling in properly. "...Probably, yeah. Continuous strand production's useful for a lot more than just one cable. Wire, reinforcement rods, anything that currently requires hand-forging in bulk."

"So propose an actual partnership," Nettle said. "Not just borrowing his mithril supply again. Something sustained."

Arista turned the idea over, and a shape began forming, considerably more sensible than trying to run this entire production line herself, indefinitely, on top of everything else already demanding her attention.

She brought the proposal to Gorthruk that same afternoon.

"...Six machines," she said, laying out the furnace and grate design in full. "Four calibrated for adamantium, two for mithril, matching roughly the ratio we actually need for the cable, with extra adamantium capacity for whatever else the Republic might want to produce afterward. Have your people run them. Split the total output fifty-fifty, half goes toward finishing this cable, half stays with the Republic to use however you see fit."

Gorthruk studied the design carefully, the same patient, exacting scrutiny he'd given every previous collaboration. "...Continuous casting. This produces consistent strand material without hand-forging each piece individually."

"Exactly. Feed raw ore in, get consistent, quenched strand out, indefinitely, as long as someone keeps the furnace fed and the water supply running." Arista tapped the six-machine layout. "It's tedious to actually operate, steady feeding, steady monitoring, nothing exciting about it. But it's exactly the kind of sustained, unglamorous production your people are already excellent at."

Gorthruk nodded slowly, already turning the practical logistics over in his head. "...And the fifty-fifty split. You want half our output dedicated to your cable specifically."

"Only until the cable's actually finished. Once we've got the full 2,840 kilometers of strand material we need, the split adjusts, all six machines become entirely the Republic's, running whatever ratio and output you actually want going forward. I'm not asking to keep half your production capacity forever. Just long enough to finish this one project."

"A fair arrangement." Gorthruk considered the raw material demand next, doing the mental math on ore consumption at that scale. "Though I'll admit, we've never had reserves quite this deep before. Between the surface railway royalties and, frankly, whatever you've been quietly stockpiling in that shed of yours, the Republic hasn't wanted for adamantium supply in longer than I can properly remember."

Arista blinked. "...That explains why my inventory kept threatening to overflow before I finally cleared it out."

"Your excess became our surplus," Gorthruk said, dry. "I won't pretend I'm complaining."

"...Though I have a practical concern." Gorthruk shifted the subject back properly. "Who operates these machines, day to day?"

"That's actually the part I wanted to discuss," Arista said. "I was thinking your own people specifically, not players."

Gorthruk's expression sharpened slightly with interest. "...Explain."

"Players have to log out eventually. Real lives, real schedules, same reason Petrov built such a careful rotation for the dome crew. If I staff these furnaces with players, I'm managing shift changes, burnout, people needing breaks: same logistics problem as every other project, all over again." Arista gestured at the steady, glowing furnaces already running. "But this is genuinely, sustainably suited to your people specifically. This is their actual world. Their actual work. A dwarven smith operating a furnace isn't taking a temporary shift between other responsibilities, this is simply their life, the same steady, dedicated labor they've done for generations, just with a new technique added to the craft."

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Gorthruk sat with that for a long moment, something like genuine respect settling into his expression. "...You are proposing steady, permanent employment. Not temporary assistance."

"Exactly that. Continuous casting doesn't need to stop for anyone's real-world dinner or sleep schedule, if the people running it are already living entirely within this world's own rhythm. Your smiths can run these machines in proper, sustainable rotations, the same disciplined way they've always worked, and the output just... keeps coming, day after day, without the constant management overhead a player crew would need."

Gorthruk extended a hand, the same gesture that had sealed a dozen previous agreements between them across two years of collaboration.

"...A fair proposal," he said, shaking on it firmly. "Six machines, fifty-fifty split until your cable's finished, dwarven smiths operating them on proper, sustained rotation. I will select capable smiths myself, ones who will treat this properly rather than as mere novelty."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Arista said, grinning, genuinely relieved to have solved the production logistics as cleanly as the actual engineering. "Thank you, Gorthruk. Genuinely. This solves a problem I hadn't even fully realized I was about to create for myself."

"You solve enough of my problems in turn," Gorthruk said, dry, already turning to plan which of his smiths would be best suited to the new technique. "It is only fair the arrangement occasionally runs both directions."

With strand production steadily underway at Gorthruk's furnaces, Arista turned her attention to the next problem entirely, actually weaving the individual mithril and adamantium strands into a single, continuous, properly braided cable.

"...Real-world wire rope machines use rotating bobbins," she said, deep in her research, sketching the basic mechanism she'd found. "Multiple spools of individual strand, mounted on a rotating frame, all feeding inward toward a central point simultaneously while the whole frame spins. The rotation twists the strands together as they converge, same principle as braiding hair, just done mechanically instead of by hand."

Claire studied the reference sketch. "...And you're thinking steam-driven, obviously."

"Obviously. Same core principle as everything else I've built, steam engine drives the rotating frame, consistent, controllable speed, same reliability we've already proven a dozen times over." Arista sketched the basic layout, a large, circular frame, individual bobbins of mithril and adamantium strand mounted around its circumference, all feeding toward a single central point where the finished cable would emerge.

The actual ratio, at least, was already solved. Thoth's calculations from weeks earlier gave her the exact proportion needed. Sixty-two percent adamantium, thirty-eight percent mithril, twelve-degree twist angle per rotation.

"...Bobbin count first," she said, working through the practical mechanics. "If I'm feeding strand at that exact ratio, I need enough individual bobbins arranged around the frame to actually maintain it consistently. Not just roughly sixty-two-thirty-eight overall, precisely that ratio, maintained continuously, strand by strand, as the cable actually forms."

Claire helped work through the bobbin arrangement, cross-referencing strand diameter against the required final cable thickness. "...If each individual strand contributes a fixed cross-sectional area, and you need the overall ratio to hold exactly, you'd want something like eight adamantium bobbins to five mithril, evenly spaced around the frame."

"That tracks with Thoth's numbers," Arista confirmed, checking the math against her notes. "Eight and five. Alternating, evenly distributed, so the twist pulls each strand type together consistently rather than clumping unevenly."

The twist mechanism itself proved trickier, getting the frame's rotation speed to match the twelve-degree-per-rotation requirement precisely, without over-twisting or under-twisting the strands as they converged.

"...Gear reduction," Claire suggested, after they'd tested the first prototype and found the twist angle running considerably tighter than intended. "The frame's spinning too fast relative to how quickly the finished cable's actually being drawn forward. You need the rotation and the linear draw speed properly synchronized."

Arista adjusted the design, adding a geared linkage between the rotating frame and the drawing mechanism that pulled the finished cable steadily forward: same fundamental logic as the gravity bike's drive ratio, small adjustments in relative speed translating into precise, controlled results.

[Test Run: Braiding Prototype][Twist Angle: 12.1 Degrees — Within Tolerance][Strand Ratio: 61.8% Adamantium / 38.2% Mithril — Within Tolerance]

"...That's it," Arista said, watching the finished test length of woven cable emerge steadily from the machine, uniform, consistent, exactly matching every specification Thoth had calculated weeks earlier. "That's genuinely it."

Bram, examining the finished sample, flexed it experimentally, testing its give against a section of solid adamantium rod nearby. "...It actually bends. Properly bends, without any of the cracking the solid version showed."

"The mithril strands let it flex," Arista confirmed, delighted. "The adamantium strands carry the actual load. Woven together, you get the best property of each material instead of being stuck choosing only one."

Claire studied the finished braiding machine, running steadily now, drawing bobbin after bobbin of strand material into a continuous, uniform cable. "...How long will it take to produce the full twenty kilometers?"

"Depends on how fast we can keep feeding it fresh strand from Gorthruk's furnaces," Arista said, already calculating the production rate against the furnace output. "But steadily, continuously, without anyone needing to hand-braid a single meter of it. Same lesson as everything else." She grinned, watching the machine work, the whole sprawling, patient supply chain finally converging toward its actual purpose. "Build the machine that does the tedious part properly, and let it just keep going."