Bai found Toma at the market kiln before noon. The old kiln worker had retired from supplying the border stations but still fired cups and roof tiles for anyone willing to wait. He received them with his hands dusty and the kiln door open.
“I won’t go inside the Registry depot,” he said. “If they want me to inspect a part, bring it here.”
“That’s why we did,” Bai replied.
Sella set the warped collar on a cloth. Toma turned it over with a wooden tool and tapped the glaze. The sound was dull along one edge. He checked the lip with a simple measure and held it beside the specification Gu had copied.
“Too thin,” Toma said. “And this color is wrong. It was fired too fast or cooled too quickly.”
He went to a shelf and brought back an older collar with a dull gray glaze. He set it beside the depot sample and tapped them in turn. The older piece rang clear. The newer one sounded flat.
“This one cooled slowly,” he said. “It had time to settle. The blue one may have been pulled while the kiln was still too hot.”
Sella measured both edges. The old collar matched the thickness on Gu’s drawing. The new one was thinner by the width of a fingernail.
