The corrected reserve account reached the works before the first new spring left its forming guide.
Someone pinned a copy beside the order board. Dorra read the heading, checked that the measured range had survived the journey through the office and went back to her crew. The forge did not stop because the truth had changed. It had already been working inside the worse conditions. Now the people deciding its priorities could see them.
Halden arrived without his formal coat.
“The council wants me at noon,” he said.
Dorra lifted the long forming guide. “Then use the morning.”
He did.
The new stock behaved differently from the old. Iven had allowed for its longer working travel, but the first guide still placed the last turn too close to the mounting eye. Yen showed him where the coil would rub after repeated warm cycles. They moved the eye, changed the rear bracket and made the clearance visible from the service opening.
Rian wrote each change onto the actual drawing. He had begun asking Dorra questions before Halden answered them. The engineer noticed and let it happen.
