The parts came together over the course of the next two days, and no one lost any fingers or larger extremities.

Once all the pieces had been cut, Lori had switched from operating the water cutter to helping the blacksmiths set up an impromptu forge for making nails once it became clear joinery would be insufficient to the task of affixing all the pieces together. They could have used the nails that… someone… had brought with them, but… well, those seemed too good for this project. Those nails were high-strength steel! Best that they keep that for their own use. Lori had retrieved some iron from one of the dragon scales in her stores for the purpose. At least, she assumed it was iron. It was starting to rust a little, after all.

With the impromptu forging area and herself providing heat, the smiths were able to start making nails. It was loud, ringing work, and it involved her walking from anvil to anvil putting on bindings of firewisps to heat the metal to the point it became malleable and then taking off the binding once it had been shaped and could be cooled. She also had to make adjustments to ensure the metal wasn't too hard or too soft. Fortunately, Lori had experience there, though it hadn't involved making nails specifically. Still, she had some experience in annealing and hardening metals, and with the constant heat and some extra malleability afforded by a concurrent binding of earthwisps, they were able to produce a lot of nails before lunch that day.

Afterwards, Lori had to reconfigure the stone she'd used to build the water cutting tank to act as a steam box so they could bend wood into a frame for the fan. The frame could be used to anchor a leather hood so the air could be funneled into the ventilation system. She had less experience with this, since most workshops that hired Whisperers didn't need them for their steam box. Indeed, if it weren't for the time constraints, the carpenters could have simply build a wooden steam box to prepare wood for bending. However, that would have taken time, time which would divert from the parts they needed, so after Rian relayed the problem to her, she set about building a stone box they could seal with a lid. After that, all she needed was water to turn into steam for the box.

It was a busy two days that left her little room to bring down her sunk board to get Rian to play. She just finished eating, took a not-quite-a-nap until the dining hall was quiet—which meant everyone had gone back to work—then went back up to the work site. The water wheel was assembled, first with joinery, then with the nails she had helped make. The water wheel was attached to the axle using multiple spokes, which had been lathed to make room for ball bearing for when it was mounted.

More stone had to be dragged to the site so they could test-mount the waterwheel and axle, and to ensure that the ball bearing were not simply crushed by the weight. Then they mounted a counterbalance on the end of the axle so that the wheel wouldn't wobble…

The most difficult and tedious part was carving holes along one rim of the water wheel and inserting square pegs into it to act as teeth. The teeth would turn the gear attached to the fan so it would spin quickly enough for what they needed. It was relatively quick work using the steel chisels that the carpenters had, but there were a lot of them all along the wheel…

"I saw the parts," Rian began as she sat down at their table at the end of the second day, face and hair still a little wet from the quick wash she'd had to get the sweat off her. She could have dried herself with waterwisps, but Lori enjoyed the cool feeling of the water drying on her skin. "I think we'll be able to test putting them together tomorrow."

"We can hope," Lori said absently, her mind still in the memory of the carpenters quickly and systematically making square hole after square hole. A sort of cylinder with protruding teeth to catch those pegs had already been made for the fan's own axle. It had been interesting, watching the smiths and carpenters take so many measurements of the circumference of the wheel at various distances from the axle, and watching them calculate the exact number and distance between the pegs to be mounted. "Otherwise all that work would have been a waste."

"Not waste, I think," Rian said. "Just… a foundation. I mean, the wheel works, the fan should work, so getting the two of them to spin together is the last hurdle. At worst, tomorrow they have to remake the gear for the fan, to make sure it meshes with the wheel properly, or they'd have to make more gears because the fan isn't spinning quickly enough."

Lori grimaced. "More time lost," she said.

"Hey, at worst you go back to River's Fork and spend a day basically sitting around and doing nothing but putting magic on the rock you have there already so we have more time to work," Rian said with a shrug. "That's hardly work. That's practically a break."

Lori scowled. He had a point, but she didn't like it. "I'd rather not leave home." Her test with the bowl she'd left in River's Fork had been a success, as she'd maintained the connection even after exiting that demesne and returning to her own. Even now, she was still connected to it. It proved that after setting up this equipment, she wouldn't have to leave again to imbue it.

Rian opened his mouth, then paused. "Well… our carpenters are good," he said, sounding awkward. "Maybe you won't have to."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Lori ignored that for the shallow platitude it was. "Remind me to make a permanent structure for the smiths as well once this is finished."

"Will that be before or after you build the third bath house?" Rian asked dryly.

"After," Lori said.

"Oh good," Rian said. "I didn't want to bring it up, but the baths have been pretty full lately. I'm worried people haven't been able to bathe properly. In fact, at night, the laundry area becomes an outdoor bath for people in a hurry and don't mind the cold."

Lori frowned. "What?"

"Don't worry, no one's been doing anything they're not supposed to," Rian said. "I asked Riz to keep an eye on things. It's cold after all, no one wants to hang around outside any longer than they need to."

"Not that," she said. "People have been bathing outside at night? Don't they know they'll get sick in the cold?"

"That's why they hurry," Rian said.

Lori sighed, stood up, and left the table, muttering to herself.

––––––––––––––––––

By the time she got back from binding firewisps into the water that fed into the laundry area so that it was as warm as the water in the bath houses, raising up a wall of darkwisps around it to give people privacy, and putting some lightwisps on the other side of the wall so people wouldn't be blind, Lori found Rian with the usual women seated on either side of him trying to get his attention in conversation. There were two bowls of stew in front of him, both untouched while he awkwardly tried to respond while having his attention pulled towards two different conversations on either side of him.

They quieted as she approached and sat down on her side of the table, grabbing one of the bowls in front of Rian.

"You," she said, pointing at the sole male at the table, "should have told me about the bath situation sooner. I thought our current capacity could handle it? Isn't that why we installed the showers?"

"We could," Rian said, "but people needed to stay up late just to be able to use the baths. We sort of devised a schedule of shifts where some people ate, some people took baths, and then they switched out. When you built the laundry area, the women claimed it for their own so they and the children could have more space for bathing."

"I'm pretty sure I made a law against that," Lori said.

"You meant people getting intimate with each other when you wrote that law, not bathing," Rian retorted. "Besides, it isn't much different from how we all bathed on the way here. And anyone who tries anything stupid would have had an angry mob on them."

"You still should have told me," Lori said sternly. "Any health benefit from being clean was endangered by being exposed to the cold. I'm surprised the medics did not tell you that themselves."

"It didn't seem like something you'd care about fixing," Rian said. "Apparently I was wrong. And to be fair, most of the medics are from a very cold northern climate. This is probably perfect outdoor bathing weather to them, all things considered." To his left, Riz nodded in agreement. "See?"

Lori glared at him. "Anything else you haven't told me?"

"Well, people have been asking about land still."

"Ask them how they plan to pay taxes on it. If they give a suitable reply, I'll consider it," Lori said. "Provided they understand that means they'll need to use that land to pay for everything they currently don't have to pay for." She ate another spoonful. "What else? Any health issues?"

"Does people complaining about the smell of the dung carts count? They're asking for the carts not to use the main road when bringing the waste to be composted."

"They're all free to make such a barrow-only road themselves, with my blessing," Lori said. "Until then, the carts go where they can be pushed."

"Cleaning the latrines is hard enough as it is," Umu muttered. "People have no right to complain!" She glared at Mikon and Riz, as if daring them to gainsay her.

"Um, yeah… well, that's pretty much it, off the top of my head," Rian said. "Can I eat now?"

"Are you sure you deserve to eat that?" she said blandly.

"I'm earning it on credit."

"Doesn't that usually accrue interest you also have to pay?"

"Is this your way of punishing me by not letting me eat? I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to deserve it…"

"I just asked if you think you deserve it," Lori said, taking a spoonful from her bowl.

Rian stared at his bowl for a very long time before he started eating again.

"You," Lori said, pointing, and the three women on either side of Rian froze. "Riz. You're making sure nothing happens in the laundry area while people bathe, correct?"

"Y-yes, Great Binder?" Riz said, eyes darting sideways to the other two women on the bench pleadingly.

"Good. Do that from now on until I can get the third bath house up. I've put some lights so people can see and a wall of darkness for privacy. The darkness won't stop anyone passing through, just looking. I trust you can take it from there? I see you've managed to have a bath already."

Riz nodded jerkily. "Yes, Great Binder."

"Good," Lori said, looking back down towards her food. "Be sure to warn everyone I've made the water warm."

Riz blinked. "I'll be sure to tell them, Great Binder."

Mikon, sitting next to the other woman, patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll keep you company so you don't have to do it alone." This was followed by an encouraging smile.

Lori blinked, and the joined the other women at the table at staring at the pink-haired weaver.

"What?" she said, very carefully not facing Lori when she did so.

"What are you up to?" Riz asked suspiciously.

"I can't be nice?" Mikon said, pouting with clearly-false hurt. "Would you really rather stand around out there alone?"

Riz looked like she was seriously contemplating it.

"I'll keep you company too," Rian offered. "It's the least I can do after asking you to do it."

Riz blinked, brightening. "Well, I wouldn't say no to that, Lord Rian."

"Good," Mikon said, seemingly satisfied, "I'm sure the three of us will be able to while away the time."

Lori shook her head and went back to eating as Umu quickly proclaimed to keep Riz company as well, ignoring the conversation that followed. Nothing that had to do with her. She ate quietly, trying to remember the number of people who'd been working on the water wheel, fan, axles and gears…