Chapter 401: Where the Weight Goes

The first bay was marked on the shoring when Ren climbed down for the next work window.

Two scribed lines bounded a narrow strip from the footing to the foundation below. The weak ground between them remained untouched. Lenna had measured the upper connections, pinned a cord beside the root crossing one corner, and laid two dressed bedstone pieces on a cloth. Tobin’s chalk ticks marked the space to leave for the lining.

Ren took the sound ledge uphill of the bay, where he could reach the upper stone and see the exposed face. Lenna stood beside the lower part with her tools. Joss kept the passage mouth clear behind her.

"These were cut from our repair stock," Lenna said, indicating the pieces. "Before I open the bay, show me where you’ll put its share."

Ren rested his covered palm against the footing. Three connections carried weight through this part of the stone. The downhill one was broad near his hand and less heavily loaded than the other two.

"There’s more room here."

"Follow it to the lower point." Lenna indicated an exposed edge beside the bay. "Compare that with the survey."

He traced the connection to the margin of the weak pocket. Its upper width had suggested room for more weight, but the ground beneath its lower end was part of what they had come to bypass.

"We can’t give it more."

"The uphill pair reach the band. I’ve checked what they can receive."

She showed him their limits. Ren followed both before taking the affected section’s weight into his working. At the Nightfire shelter, changing one bay had altered what the other carried; he watched the adjoining connections as he began the transfer here.

He directed more toward the farther uphill route, which could accept the larger share, and eased the remainder onto the nearer one. Both receiving openings retained their width.

"Holding the section above your marks," he said. "The extra share is on the uphill pair. Nothing added downhill."

Lenna checked the footing, then the contacts of the existing supports.

"That’s where I want it. Keep it there."

— • —

She cleared the weak ground between the lines in small amounts, passing the debris into a tray beside her. Ren followed each change above the excavation. His hold kept the section steady while the two uphill routes carried the diverted share.

As the bay deepened, Joss’s cloth pulled farther toward it. He adjusted the garden’s Air working, watching until the strip settled.

"The opening’s taking some of the draw," he said. "Keep the spoil on that side."

Lenna moved the tray farther from his passage and continued.

At the cord, she put down her tool and eased the soil from beneath the pale root with her fingers. Ren held the stone around its recess steady while she supported the exposed length. She kept it clear as the last loose material came away, then guided it into the hollow in the lower bedstone piece as she brought that piece forward.

"That needs room to thicken," she said, checking the clearance against her marks.

The foundation band lay exposed across the bottom of the bay. Lenna fitted the lower piece against it, adjusting its position with a wooden drift until the dressed faces met. The root lay within its recess, clear of the bearing surfaces. She checked the seating before laying her palm against the stone.

"Keep your upper hold. You can read the piece here."

Ren moved his free hand to its exposed edge. Lenna’s Earth working passed through the bedstone and into the foundation. He could feel the separate cultivated connections at the bearing face, then the change as she joined them.

The band’s working continued into the piece. Ren followed it back across the contact to the nearby junction beneath, where it met routes already carrying weight from the row. He lost those routes farther into the wall, as he had before.

What he could now follow was the continuity across the fitted surfaces. He had felt both patterns before the join; afterward, the piece participated in the foundation’s distribution. Lenna had done more than seat it firmly. He could recognize the result without yet knowing how to make that lower join himself.

"Is it taking the footing’s weight?" he asked.

"Not yet. You still have that above." She reached for the shorter piece. "The joins will keep knitting as we tend them. Today they have to carry the share we give them without our help."

The upper piece fitted beneath the footing. Lenna seated it on the lower one, then worked the contact between them. Two fitted bedstone shims closed the remaining gap at the top without lifting the footing. Ren maintained the temporary distribution while she brought the bearing surfaces into contact.

She joined the upper piece to the footing, leaving Tobin’s marked clearance untouched. Ren felt her working reach the stone beside his palm, where the new route met the existing upper connections.

Lenna inspected the contacts from bottom to top, comparing their positions with her marks. The root’s recess remained open.

"Ready for a trial share," she said. "I’ll follow it through the lower join. You work here."

She touched the junction beside his hand before returning to the foundation.

— • —

Ren began with the farther uphill connection, reducing the share he had diverted onto it. Some pressure reached the new support, but his upper adjustment still directed most of that portion toward the old route.

He stopped reducing his hold and followed the junction again.

Lenna’s join had made a continuous working through the replacement. His adjustment above it still distributed the load between the connections that had been available before she fitted the pieces. Releasing his hold alone would leave that arrangement in place.

"The upper working is still sending it uphill," he said.

"Bring the new route into it. I’ll watch below."

He kept the section supported while he worked where the new connection met the old ones. In the bedstone beside Nel’s roots, he had changed the shares carried by an existing pattern. Here he followed the connection Lenna had added, extending his adjustment into it until the footing’s working directed a small share through the new upper contact.

Then he eased his active hold on that portion.

The support retained it. Pressure passed through the two pieces and reached the foundation band, spreading into the nearby sideways connections. He followed it as far as the exposed junction; beyond that, Lenna checked its course through the ground she had surveyed.

"The first share’s stayed in the support," he said. "I can follow it across the lower join."

Lenna read the band with her palm, then checked the reference marks beside it.

"It’s reaching the receiving connections. Bring the next share down."

Ren worked back through the upper junction toward the nearer uphill route. This time he adjusted the cultivated distribution before easing his support. More of the assigned load entered the new piece and remained there as his hold diminished.

He checked the downhill connection. It had taken no additional share. At the receiving openings, the edges remained clear of their marks.

Lenna watched the lower contact through the third transfer. The new support now carried the intended portion, while the uphill pair retained their other loads. A small diversion onto the farther route eased the stone adjoining the next bay.

"Leave that adjustment," Lenna said after checking it. "That connection can keep the share."

Ren followed it back to the junction and left the cultivated pattern in place.

"My remaining hold is on the upper section."

"Withdraw it gradually. I’m reading below."

He reduced his contribution, checking the upper contact and both receiving routes as he went. The new support continued taking its share. When the last of his hold was gone, he lifted his hand from the stone.

Lenna withdrew hers too. They waited before checking the marks again.

Ren returned his palm to the footing to read it. The distribution remained through the new route and the retained uphill adjustment. Lenna examined the lower bearing, the fitted contacts, and the root recess, then checked the neighboring connections and the old supports. Their loads had changed with the transfer, but their seats held.

"This bay is carrying through the foundation," she said. "Leave the pillars and rib as they are."

Joss checked the strip beside his passage before going to compare the outlets in the gallery. The mouth and the space he needed to reach it were clear.

Lenna went up to enter the readings. Alone beside the completed bay, Ren asked the System privately for the result.

[EARTH: 13.3% → 14.8%.]

He rested his hand against the upper contact once more. The share he had directed through the new join was still there.

When Lenna returned, she brought her scriber to the shoring downhill of the finished bay. Her lines marked a narrow space on either side of Joss’s passage, preserving the mouth and the approach to it.

"The support divides here," she said. "Each side reaches the band, and we join them above the passage. We finish and check this side before opening the other."

She tapped the footing above both marked spaces.

"You’ll hold these upper connections while I fit each side. What one carries will change as we work on the other."

Ren moved his hand toward the nearer mark, then looked across the passage at its partner.

"Both sides."

"Both sides. Read them before you tell me where their weight goes."