By the following morning, Ferra's chisels had loosened the false facing beneath the eastern retaining wall, filling the gallery with mortar dust and damp lime.
Hajin stood on the narrow stone ledge where the natural mountain bedrock met the massive foundation masonry of the third cistern retention vault.
Beside his boots, the cleared inspection channel ran along the dressed stone toward an iron hatch, following the join Varin had marked on Ferra's diagram.
Beside him, Ferra held a pair of bronze alignment rods, carefully checking the structural timber shoring that prevented the ceiling from shifting during excavation.
Varin and his apprentices had left with the civilian escort the previous evening, their chalk marks guiding Rumi as she fitted the last brace beside Ferra.
"The inspection channel stays open all the way to that hatch, though the exposed seam changes direction at the iron collar beneath it."
