Chapter 138 Fault

Joren's narrowed eyes softened when Alicia waved at them, an excited look on her face.

"Master Joren, I asked Lord Lucien if I could come see the scorpion." Her eyes drifted to the weapon. "It's hard to believe something I drew would take shape like this."

The blacksmith crossed his arms, his tight posture loosening. "It's got a ways to go before it's ready. We fired it once, and..."

"It nearly broke the frame holding it together," Harlon finished, puffing smoke from his pipe.

Lucien walked over to where the men were, Alicia standing off to the side, her gaze moving over the siege weapon curiously.

The frame rested across two heavy supports in the middle of the fenced yard, longer than a man was tall and broad enough that two people could stand shoulder to shoulder behind it.

Its central stock ran down its length, the upper groove cut straight and deep enough to cradle the thick bolts stacked nearby.

At the rear, a winding handle had been fitted to a crude drum. Bundled cords sat to either side, twisted tight around the arms that jutted from the frame. They were not yet fully covered, leaving the raw structure exposed.

Chalk marks covered nearly every part of it.

Some were neat measurements. Others were circles around joints, arrows pointing toward stress points, and short notes written in Harlon's hand. Several had been scratched out so heavily that the pale dust had collected in the grain of the wood.

A discarded support beam lay near the fence, split along the grain from the first firing, which explained why Harlon's expression looked worse than usual.

"That's the one, Lord."

At his words, Lucien turned to the carpenter, who exhaled faintly.

He walked over to the scorpion before gesturing to the replacement beam now fitted into the frame. "After the beam broke, Joren reinforced the next one as much as he could."

Joren gave a nod. "Maybe I was in a rush forging the brace. Took my time with this one, so it should fire better for the second test."

"As long as you aren't using pig iron for it," Harlon added dryly, causing the blacksmith to give the older man an annoyed look.

Harlon's eyes remained fixed on the beam, his brow creasing. "Still doesn't explain why the bolt drifts so much, Lord. Though it could be the frame shaking too much that's the cause of it."

"I don't think that's where the problem is, Master Harlon."

The carpenter's pipe stopped near his mouth as he turned slowly to Alicia, who had been standing behind them with a scrunch in her brow.

"It nearly broke there, yes?" Alicia asked, her eyes drifting to the side.

A huff escaped Harlon's lips as he gave a nod. "You can see the crack, lass."

"But it doesn't begin there," the maid replied before pointing to where the bundled cords sat twisted around the arm. "I think the problem started there first. When you fired it, that side moved first."

Both craftsmen went still.

A dark look flashed across Joren's face before he quickly composed himself. Harlon, however, was now watching Alicia closely, his expression unreadable.

Lucien could understand why the craftsmen had reacted so strongly.

They had not mentioned which direction the bolt had drifted, and neither he nor Alicia had been there for the first firing test.

Harlon plucked the pipe from his mouth. "Hmm...the cords..." he murmured, eyes following the direction Alicia had pointed.

"Which part specifically do you think it is?"

Alicia glanced at Lucien, who gave her a nod, before walking over to the part she had pointed out.

"This is where...torsion? Lady Talia said this was the torsion, it's where the force gathers, yes?"

At the carpenter's slow nod, Alicia continued, her eyes fixed on a specific spot. "After turning the drum, this part here begins to pull ahead of the rest first."

She placed a hand on the frame, though Lucien couldn't see anything different from the rest.

"That's why the bolt drifted and why the frame broke. It looks...uneven."

While she had been explaining, Harlon and Joren had walked closer, nearly hovering over the maid.

It seemed Alicia hadn't noticed at all until she stiffened at the sudden presence of the two men.

They both took a step back before Harlon plucked the pipe from his mouth again. "Can you draw out which part you think might be causing the problem? You can use the sitting room in my workshop."

Beside him, a furrow formed on Joren's brow at the carpenter's words.

Harlon's eyes flicked to the man for a brief moment before returning to Alicia.

"I think so," Alicia replied, glancing at the chalk marks around the frame. "Do you want me to include all of your notes as well, Master Harlon?"

"If you can make sense of them. Let me get the notes I've got written down somewhere first," Harlon muttered, beginning to walk toward the side where a table had been set up.

Alicia shook her head, causing the carpenter to stop mid-step. "That's fine, Master Harlon. I can draw what's on the frame itself. It would make it easier for you too, yes?"

For a moment, Harlon did not answer.

His gaze moved to the chalk marks scattered across the frame, then back to the maid.

"...It would help if you can do that, lass."

Turning toward Lucien, the maid dipped her head. "Then, My Lord, may I be excused? I shouldn't take very long since it's only part of the frame."

Lucien kept his expression carefully neutral. "I will wait here then. We can head back together once you're done."

Alicia dipped her head once more before making her way out of the fenced area. For a moment, Harlon watched the maid leave, then his gaze shifted to Joren.

"Only part of the frame, she says." The carpenter's brow rose as he crossed his arms. "You know something, both of you do."

He glanced at Lucien, who had walked over to them. "I wanted to wait until she came back with the drawing to confirm it, but looking at Joren's face just now..."

Before the blacksmith could respond to that, Harlon spoke again. "Been thinking something was off. You said the weapon came from your idea, Joren, but you don't look at it like a man who knows how the thing should hold together."

A huff left the carpenter's mouth. "Didn't take you for the lying sort, which means it's important enough that you're both keeping it a secret like this...even from the person involved."

Lucien exhaled through his nose. "I plan to tell her after we have dealt with the orcs, Harlon."

Instead of Harlon responding, it was the blacksmith beside him who spoke up next, his eyes narrowing at Lucien.

"What? You've already made your decision? Can't it wait for the next drawing or tool..." Joren stopped when the carpenter coughed deliberately into his hand.

"...Lord," he added belatedly.

Ignoring the breach in etiquette, Lucien shook his head. "Then I will only find ways to reason myself out of it. Since I am planning to do it anyway, it would be best to tell her the truth when there aren't as many problems to deal with."

The blacksmith didn't look pleased but remained silent, his jaw tightening.

"I heard about the child...a Wild Mage in Ashridge and...whatever that was just now," Harlon muttered, rubbing his temple.

When Lucien and Joren exchanged glances, the carpenter looked between them. "So you know what it is as well?"

At the blacksmith's grunt, Lucien answered instead. "Lady Talia and I think it might be the Goddess's blessing but we don't know for sure."

Joren scratched his beard roughly. "It's all folklore and rumors, but it's definitely not magic."

"Aye. If it were, then we would've seen traces of it just now," Harlon added, his pipe lying forgotten at his side as he stared at the spot Alicia had pointed out.

Their words carried the same certainty Alicia had once shown when she said that magic could always be seen, while the Goddess's blessings remained hidden from the eyes.

Lucien had remembered those words often enough after seeing her drawings, but they felt different now, standing before the half-built scorpion and the spot she had pointed out.

"...I thought it was just drawings," Joren muttered, following the direction of Lucien's gaze.

Harlon snorted, causing the blacksmith to look back at him.

"If it's truly a blessing then I doubt it's as simple as that. It's not like we have anyone else to compare to..." The older man's words trailed off as he spotted the slight stiffening of Joren's shoulders.

"Don't tell me there's another?"

Lucien exhaled faintly while shooting a dry look at the blacksmith, whose face flushed at how easily Harlon had read him.

"It's Sera, and yes, she is aware of it...hard not to be in her case."

Harlon let out a hum at that. "So that's why she always knew where I was whenever I tried to approach her about that."

At Lucien's questioning look, the carpenter gestured to the bundled cords. "Had to find her and ask about this a few times. She always knew which way I was coming from. Thought that was odd, but I didn't want to pry."

"I see...keep it to yourself for now, Harlon. At least until we learn more about what their effects entail."

Lucien gave a nod toward the blacksmith. "I had always suspected that Alicia's blessing might be more than just being able to draw out the tools that we needed. That's why I agreed to bring her here today when she asked."

He didn't know if the same could be said for Sera's as well...though he hadn't thought of how to test such a thing yet.

"If this is what she's capable of without even knowing she's using it, then..." Harlon stopped himself when Joren narrowed his eyes at him.

For a long moment, Joren and Harlon stared at each other, the blacksmith's jaw tight while the carpenter looked back at him without flinching.

Lucien was just beginning to wonder if he should interject when Harlon finally shook his head and turned back to him. "You sure about telling her, Lord? Might cause more harm than good."

The question caught Lucien off guard, and from the way Joren's brow furrowed, he wasn't the only one.

"You both thought I'd be clamoring to make use of her ability?"

Joren coughed, looking away, though Lucien continued to regard the older man for a moment longer before slowly speaking.

"Didn't you insist on making use of Sera's ability as a hunter back when we were testing the stirrup crossbow?"

"Aye. But that's regarding something mundane...not this." Harlon gestured to the suspected fault that Alicia had pointed out.

The older man looked down at his pipe, where the reddish herbs were held. "Things like magic and blessings...meddling with things we don't understand is dangerous, Lord."

At the carpenter's words, they fell silent as each of them considered what they had seen from Alicia so far.

It wasn't long after that Alicia returned with a few sheets of parchment held against her chest.

When the maid showed Harlon what she had drawn, Lucien caught a glimpse of it, noticing that there were more than just the marks the carpenter had drawn over the frame.

The cord bundle, arm, and support beam were all there, rendered with Alicia's usual precision.

But between them were thin charcoal lines that Harlon had never marked, tracing the path of the pull from the rear of the frame toward the place where the first beam had split.

Near the end of those lines, she had drawn a second brace in a place no one had marked before.

Alicia clasped her hands in front of her. "I don't know if this is right, Master Harlon...but it feels like the frame wants support here."

"We'll follow this and see if it works first," Harlon replied, his brow creasing as he looked over the parchment in his hands.

Beside the carpenter, Joren remained quiet with a conflicted look on his face.

After leaving the craftsmen to their work, Lucien's thoughts drifted. He couldn't help but wonder what exactly Alicia was seeing whenever she looked at the scorpion.

And what she would begin to see once she learned to look for it.

Lucien resisted the urge to glance back at her as she followed behind him as usual, blissfully unaware of what had just happened.

Author's Note: I’ll be taking a short one-week break from releases from Sept 28–Oct 3 while I’m away on vacation. I’ve finished drafting Book 2 on my end and will also be using some of the time to work through the Book 3 outline. Regular releases resume October 4, same time as always. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!