The builder rejected Kellan’s first bracket before it left the tool roll.
“Too short,” she said through the interpreter. “And not into that stone.”
Kellan held it up where she could see both ends. “I was thinking of the joint below it.”
“That joint carries water behind the face.”
She brought her lamp close to the wall and showed him a pale mineral trail ending beneath the lower block. The trail was dry now, but the stone around it had been worked differently from the rougher material above. Kellan put the bracket back.
“Show me the sound course,” he said.
Her name was Eren. She had been maintaining this shelter wall since before the newest family rooms were built along its far side. She had not invited Kellan to redesign it. She had asked whether his tools and construction experience could help hold the loosened face until the community could make a lasting repair.
The boundary representative had permitted that task separately from treatment. Kellan could work at the damaged shelter wall under Eren’s direction. Eli could carry light components on the checked path. Tessa could inspect the passage width for injured users. Nobody had gained the right to enter the family rooms or follow the service openings behind them.
