The eastern service road had six drainage channels cut into the embankment along its length. After the terrace failure, the Academy's maintenance office had flagged the stretch for routine inspection — not because anything was wrong, but because the route change meant fewer people were walking it, and debris accumulated when nobody was looking.
Halden gave them the assignment at the eastern gate. Same slate. Same expression.
"Clear and verify channels four through six. Debris removal, flow check, stabilization if needed. Stay off the terrace side. If something looks structural, mark it and report it. Don't fix anything you're not sure about."
Drake took the map. Halden started walking.
---
Channel four was shallow and mostly clear. A thin layer of leaf litter, a few loose stones. Xander checked the airflow along the channel bed — the same way he'd check any airflow. Nothing unusual. Just moving air over moving water.
Drake pulled the larger stones out with his right hand. Luna crouched at the channel edge and worked her fingers into a mat of roots that had grown across the intake. The roots came free without resistance.
"Clear," Drake said.
Halden made a mark.
---
Channel five had backed up.
Not blocked. Just slow. Water was moving, but it was moving wrong — pooling at the mid-point instead of running clean to the outlet. A fan of sediment had built up along the western bank, and a section of collapsed soil had slid into the channel from above.
Kara crouched at the edge and looked at the water.
"It's not draining," she said. "It's just sitting there."
"Blockage downstream?" Xander asked.
"No. It's clear downstream. It's the middle."
Drake tested the bank with his boot. The soil shifted under him — not much, but enough.
"The bank's loose," he said. "If we pull the sediment out, the rest of it comes with it."
Luna knelt at the eastern edge and pressed her palm to the soil. She was quiet for a moment.
"There's water behind it," she said. "Under the bank. It's holding the sediment in place."
"So if we clear it," Xander said, "the water behind the bank goes with it."
"Probably."
James looked at the channel. Then at the bank. Then at the outlet downstream.
"If it goes," he said, "where does it go?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Drake checked the map. The channel ran east, away from the terrace. But the outlet fed into a lower drainage line that ran back toward the main campus.
"If we push the blockage through," Drake said, "it ends up somewhere else."
"And we don't know what's down there," Xander said.
---
They stood there for a moment.
Halden watched from ten paces back. He didn't say anything.
"We could clear it," Kara said. "Carefully. Small loads."
"That's what I was thinking," Drake said.
"It'll take all afternoon."
"I know."
Xander looked at the bank again. Then at the channel. Then at the outlet.
"If we're wrong," he said, "we won't know until it's already moved."
James didn't say anything. He was looking at the collapsed soil — the way it had slid, the way it was resting, the way the water behind it was holding it in place.
"We stabilize it," he said.
Drake looked at him.
"We mark the section. We clear what's safe. We submit the rest for maintenance."
Kara frowned. "That's leaving a job half done."
"It's leaving a job done safely."
She looked at the channel. At the water pooling in the middle. At the bank.
"Fine," she said.
---
They worked the safe section first.
Drake cleared the loose sediment from the western edge, staying on the firm ground, never pulling more than the bank could hold. Luna bound the exposed soil with a shallow root network — not to fix it, just to keep it from moving while they worked. Kara pulled moisture out of the upper layer of sediment so it would lift cleanly instead of sliding. Xander watched the airflow along the channel to make sure nothing was backing up behind them.
James moved between them. He didn't assign anything. He just filled whatever gap was open at the moment.
Nobody talked much.
When they reached the point where the bank was too unstable to continue, Drake marked the section with a short wooden stake and a strip of red cloth from his pack. He wrote the channel number on the stake with a charcoal stick.
Halden stepped forward and looked at the mark. He made a note on his slate.
"Safe section's clear," Drake said. "Rest goes to maintenance."
Halden nodded. "I'll file it."
---
They walked back along the service road.
The terrace was visible from the upper bend — still roped off, still marked with chalk, the maintenance crew's tripod still standing at the drainage channel. Nobody looked at it.
Kara wiped her hands on her trousers. "That was boring."
"Yeah," Drake said.
"Good boring."
"Better than the alternative."
Xander didn't say anything. He was watching the road ahead — not for anything in particular, just watching it.
James walked beside him. Neither of them spoke.
Halden walked ten paces behind them, slate under his arm, making no sound.