The boiling mud in foundation trench number four hissed like an angry viper as forty tons of dry crushed burning lime powder were forced into the fracture.
Deep within the earth, the calcium oxide met the scalding artesian spring. The chemical reaction surged with violent, steam-generating heat.
Instead of blowing outward, the expanding slurry was trapped by Master Duncan’s heavy iron wooden props plates.
Within twenty minutes, the churning black geyser solidified into an unbending, rock-hard plug of crystal-clear calcium hydroxide and stone-glass grout.
The boiling water ceased. The foundation pit dried under the desert wind, its floor compacted into an impervious concrete floor.
“Foundation locked,” Duncan Stone-Splitter roared, slamming his sledgehammer onto the hardened plug. “The stone is cold. Set the cornerstone.”
For three nonstop days, the rise of the four Weather Pyramids was relentless.
Master Mason Orson Briggs walked the work frames tiers of the South Pyramid, his brass feeler gauge checking every level mortar joint.
