1.43 Preliminary Site Visit
"Master Tosk, do you plan on having me advance while working on this?! This is huge!" Vicktor almost lost his balance from the staggering task, Re'ada's weight didn't help much either.
"You know of bigger bridges," came a voice over his shoulder, "they covered them at the academy, I'm sure of it lad, Mount Schist alone has far bigger bridges." Master Tosk said.
Vicktor sputtered, "Those weren't built in a day, this will take time. I thought you said it would be a few weeks?!"
"You'll have some help, plus you also have Rek-sha to help you. There will also be some assistance from some strong chosen and plant-mages. You'll be fine, lad. You just need a plan."
"I thought the plan was –"
Vicktor needed to get a grip, he was being unreasonable. He paused and meditated for a few breaths, letting his mind find balance before he spoke.
"Give me a few moments to inspect the site," he tapped the side of one of the toned green thighs with the top of his staff, "can you get off? I need to get down there safely."
"Hmmmph, sure!"
The goblin rolled backwards off his shoulder, her thighs rubbing past his ears as she fell. Then came quiet sounds of roiling flames from behind him.
Vicktor shrugged the pack off onto the soil. He stretched both his legs and his ankles before walking over to the edge, inspecting the slope.
"Two caravans abreast for over a hundred foot span, let's see what I can do." He said it aloud mostly to reassure himself.
With a flick of intent, a small hardened staircase wound down the side of the slope, the hard sections extended deep into the soil to support his weight.
In theory, Vicktor could've gone straight down the slope, but the nearly two-to-one slope would be uncomfortable and disjointed compared to the standard human three-to-one slope of human dwellings.
'Or goblin ones.’ Vicktor thought as he descended the stairs. He refrained from trying to show off by creating a new platform with each step. It was safer this way, and without creating a handrail too, it wasn't really up to any building code that Vicktor knew of.
The sound of rushing water on the large rocks increased as he descended, until he could barely hear himself think. The soil ended a few feet above the current waterline, where it transitioned into large boulders. Mortar still covered parts of some rectangular blocks that had once been the impressive structure.
'That soil should be a decent enough estimate for a five or ten-year storm flood elevation. Plus the rainy season is over, might even be too conservative and estimate.'
Next, were the footings of the bridge. Whatever magic that once was inscribed upon them had long since broken and weathered away. However, the old footings were sturdy and didn't seem to be too eroded by the rushing river.
Vicktor thought that they had done a good job in the past. It was an excellent starting point, less need for water control during construction.
‘Now for the materials.’
Stone was much better with compressive forces than tension. Wood was good in both compression and tension, but could be split along the grain. Rope was good only in tension, after all, you can’t push a rope. Lastly was metal, it was strong but prohibitively expensive even where ore was plentiful.
It was clear that basically only stone and soil would be used in the construction of this bridge.
Vicktor had considered several ways to rebuild it. The first would be to build a temporary bridge out of wood or have the plant Mages grow it and then lower the old blocks in place over time to slowly recreate the bridge. He would need new mortar to join them together, but the cuts had been good, it would also require the least amount of mana.
In case Vicktor's original plan would take too long or had some other unforeseen engineering hurdle, he had another main backup plan.
The backup plan was under the assumption that It might be easier to build up the footings and then lay something entirely across the bridge instead of stacking individual blocks with a keystone like the original had been. It would require less formwork and wouldn't need a keystone but it was fragiler and would likely require a new stone slab of easily two hundred feet in length and thirty feet in width.
He was especially worried about potential sabotage since they didn't know how the bridge had fallen in the first place.
'About that, I should figure out what the cause of failure was so it doesn't get repeated,' Vicktor thought.
Victor lowered himself further, pulling soil down lower to support himself as he stood right above the whitewater of the river. Now that he was even closer, he could get a better feel of the footings and the stones that had been used to construct the bridge in the past.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary or broken. No claw marks gauging it’s surface or any sign of chemical melting or weathering. The stones just looked normal, but like they had been taken apart by a giant.
'Perhaps they just tried to put too much stuff onto it? That seems unlikely though. Most people were trying to move tens of thousands of pounds in either direction at the same time.'
Vicktor was unsure, there was no trace of any embedded wood or metal from carts or wagons. There seemed to be no trace of anything crushed underneath the rectangular blocks that had once been a cargo vehicle.
'The goblins didn't use metal tools so it would be easy to find anything that remained unless...'
There, back up the cliff, near where the footings were, were a few stones that Vicktor had assumed to be shrapnel or debris from when the bridge fell.
Vicktor ascended his constructed stairway all the way up to the lip of the slope and then walked over to the rocks that he had thought were shrapnel.
With a little burst of intent and mana, he brought the stones up and cast the topsoil aside, leaving three wedges made of a hard black stone. They bore no maker's mark, but they had obviously been worked with a chisel and inscribed with soot of some kind. The black wedges could not have been part of the stone footing or bridge. They were made of a far darker stone, not remotely close to the same quarry as the bridges had been hewn from.
Master Tosk walked over to him and asked," what do you think lad?"
Vicktor responded, "I don't think this was a beast. These three rocks look to be wedges that were inscribed by sapients for the purpose of breaking down the mortar between the blocks. It was either human or goblin or someone else.”
Master Tosked examined the wedges, “likely goblins, humans love metal inscriptions too much.”
Vicktor nodded and continued to report, “Then, someone incredibly strong pushed the blocks apart. Likely one-by-one until the structure eventually just failed. Almost all the blocks that had been used seemed mostly undamaged. A few were a little worn from the water; it shouldn't be too bad to fix this actually. We still will need a lot of muscle and magic to do this."
Master Tosk wrapped the stones in cloth and then pocketed the three wedges into his dimensional storage."Unfortunately, this is what I had guessed too. Take a few more minutes to come up with a plan or three and we'll head back. Tomorrow we can ask for men and material from Re'at."
Vicktor nodded, already lost in thought, his mind off on two separate lines of reasoning.
"So what was that white flame earlier? I haven't seen that before from you or anyone else? Is it just condensed heat" Rey'ada asked. "I can do something similar, but it's not quite the same."
The goblin shifted uncomfortably on Vicktor's shoulders. Her small warm hands left his scruffy hair.
All he could do was see a small area of trees in front of them as well as use his earthsense. He knew where everyone was, but his vision was quite limited.
"The task was to produce the hottest flame, so I did. Threw a little bit of my soul into it, nothing too spectacular."
"Is that safe, Master? Souls are notoriously fragile!?" Nora asked.
Her master responded, "For any of you, it would've likely been lethal or crippled your magic for years or the rest of your life. It's the same reason you shouldn't try to bond anything to your soul, not that you’d know how. If you aren't careful, it'll change before it can heal up..."
The group walked in silence for a quarter hour until Master Tosk made an odd statement, "oh look, an owl pellet, maybe we'll see one."
Vicktor tried not to react, but Re'ada seemed confused as she whispered into his ear, "what's wrong?"
Vicktor lied as he tried to correct his minor stumble, "it's nothing, he just likes animals. You should see his Turquoise Anolites."
"Hmm, okay." Re'ada's arm’s weight reappeared on his head.
–It was another one of Master Tosk's code phrases. Someone was actively watching them, but unlikely to attack.
Vicktor felt his heart rate continue to rise, his physical vision was greatly reduced, though he was thankful that his magical defenses had been refreshed before they left.
While he anguished in pretending to not be aware of the danger, he tried to sense the person that Master Tosk could, but to no avail. There was no trace of anyone he could detect for the entire panic-inducing time until they returned to Tao-Ti-Cua, the dry fallow fields were a surprising comfort.
Neither the apprentices nor Master Tosk spoke of his earlier warning. To Vicktor, it seemed more of a warning that the situation was still on edge than a particular warning of something that he could immediately deal with.
Dinner was another simple communal meal with the other goblins, fowl, and sumac over rice. The flavor continued to enthrall his tastebuds as he ate with the other humans. He tried not to notice any additional glances and increased mentions of the word, 'human'.
The group spoke of little things, the weather, the oncoming cold and just enjoying sapient comforts before returning to the brothel.
"Arak-tek, some soju please!" Re'ada called the barkeep.
"Of course!" the goblin turned around and into a backroom.
"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Nora asked.
"Same as yesterday, more training, more learning.” The two nodded.
Master Tosk continued, “Vicktor needs to go to the Mages guild and begin preparations for the bridgework. Alar and Nora will cycle every other day between learning and being a part of the construction. Mainly they'll be part of the defense force in case beasts decide to get curious about all the mana usage." Master Tosk was casual in tone, but the words didn't leave any room for debate.
The prospect of working on such a large project continued to be exciting, but a part of Vicktor was trepidatious, a lot was riding on him.
"A routine! Excellent! I can work on my designs on the days we will defend." Alar smiled, his beak slightly ajar.
"Any breaks or weekends?" Vicktor asked.
"Depends on the pace of construction. There's a limit based on your ruakh, but your knowledge might be just as important."
"Fair enough," Vicktor sighed a little he had missed his nighttime excursions in Allium and Tao-Ti-Cua was certainly not the place for running around dick first.
Arak-tek returned with the cask of soju and broke the seal.
"Thank the rice fields for their blessing!" They called.
The cask was quickly finished and light conversation struck the group for an hour or two until eventually everyone seemed worn down by the whole days events. Vicktor was deep in thought when he felt a series of taps on the side of his arm, it was Re’ada.
"I thought I would spend a night with Alar and Nora. An old lady shouldn't pick sides," the young-looking goblin woman said in a kind tone.
Vicktor nodded, “No creation or destruction of life!”
The three quickly departed, while Vicktor, Master Tosk and Re'tai continued to sip from the remnants of their drinks, allowing a silence to grow amongst the slightly flushed embarrassed faces.
In conclusion, Tao-Ti-Cua was a land of contrasts...