Chapter 192 - 136 : Year 31 - 36 Sabian Veymont (2)

Chapter 192: Chapter 136 : Year 31 - 36 Sabian Veymont (2)

Sabian was nearly eighteen, and he had spent much of his life learning from the travelling craftsman who had taken him as an apprentice when he was seven. The long years had made him familiar with the weight of tools, the resistance of different woods, the properties of iron fittings, and the practical demands of building and repairing machines.

He had never possessed the martial talent of his elder or younger brother, but the weakness of one path had not left him without another to pursue.

He leaned over a sheet of parchment weighted at the corners by small pieces of wood. Lines and measurements covered the surface, outlining a revised arrangement for the lifting mechanism used to raise ore. Beside him, his master studied the drawing, his arms folded across his chest.

"If we leave the support where it is, the frame will still twist when they draw up a heavier load," Sabian said, tapping the point with a sooty finger. "The rope pulls a little to one side. The workers have to correct it every time the bucket rises."

His master bent closer to inspect the measurements. "And you believe moving the guide here will solve it?"

"Not by itself." Sabian shifted the parchment and pointed to the supporting brace. "If we move the guide and strengthen this joint, the pull should stay straighter. We can use the timber already here. We would only need to cut the new fitting and change the way the rope runs."

The craftsman remained silent for a moment. He examined the drawing, then glanced toward the wooden frame where the workers were preparing to test the latest adjustments.

"You’ve thought about the strain on the joint."

"I tried the other arrangement yesterday. The first time, the rope dragged against the side. When we changed it, the brace held, but the frame started to lean when the bucket was heavy." Sabian scratched his cheek. "I thought the guide might be the problem, but I don’t want to change it until we’re sure the brace can take the pull."

His master looked at him again, this time with a trace of approval.

"Good. At least you’re beginning to ask the right questions before cutting into the timber."

Sabian’s face brightened.

"Then we should try it?"

"We should test it with a lighter load first. If the frame holds, we’ll increase the weight gradually. If something shifts, we stop and find out why. We don’t send the miners to work with a machine simply because you think it ought to hold."

"I know."

"Do you? You were rather certain about yesterday’s version."

Sabian winced. "I said I thought it would work."

"You said it would work."

The boy laughed and lifted the parchment from the plank. "All right old man. This time I’ll say it might work."

The craftsman gave him a sideways look. "Old man, am I? Give you one bit of praise and you start getting cheeky, you little brat."

Sabian grinned. "You said my idea was good."

"I said it was worth testing. Now stop grinning and help me check that brace."

They returned to the frame. Sabian helped adjust the guide and secure the brace while the other workers held the timber steady. His master checked each fitting, then directed them to test the mechanism with a modest load. The rope tightened, the wooden frame creaked, and the weight rose slowly. The load moved more evenly than before, though they still had to stop twice to inspect the joints and correct a small shift.

It was not a grand invention, and Sabian made no such claim for it. The improvement would not uncover new gold or make a poor deposit more productive. But if the mechanism remained reliable, it could reduce the effort wasted in a task the miners had to repeat throughout the day. That was enough to make the work worthwhile.

Sabian watched the next lift with concentrated attention, following the rope from the guide to the frame and back again. He was already thinking about the parts that might need further adjustment.

His master noticed.

"Don’t begin changing it in your head before we’ve finished testing it."

Sabian glanced at him. "I was only looking."

"Then keep looking. That’s how you learn."

The remark was simple, but it pleased the young man more than he let on. His apprenticeship had begun with watching from the edge of a workshop, trying to understand why one tool worked better than another and why experienced hands seemed to know what would fail before a piece of wood was even cut. Now he could propose changes of his own, explain why he thought they might help, and test those ideas with guidance from someone who he had grown to respect and trust so much, that knew the craft.

Sabian had never been content to leave a mechanism as he found it. If something caught his attention, he would sketch out a different arrangement, test his idea, and keep tinkering until he understood what worked and what did not.

Over the years, his master had grown used to finding him bent over a new drawing or trying some adjustment he had thought of on his own. Some ideas led nowhere, while others revealed improvements neither of them had considered before.

Each new problem only seemed to stir his curiosity further. He was always eager to try another arrangement, change a part, or test a fresh idea, excited by the possibility that even a small adjustment might make something work better than before.

His martial progress had been slower. Years of physical work and regular training had brought him to Late Skin Tempering, but neither his talent nor his interest lay in competing with his brothers. He had come to recognise that his strength was developing in a different direction. Mechanisms, materials, and the problems of making them work well gave him challenges that martial exercises never had.

His master had taught him to value practical solutions over impressive ideas. A useful device had to be built from available materials, repaired without great expense, and operated safely by the people who depended on it. Sabian was gradually learning to judge his own work by those standards. The lifting mechanism was one small result, but it showed that his knowledge could serve House Veymont in a way different from the martial abilities of its other children.