Vela Ardin arrived at Ember Wash with two jars of water and no authority to sign for anyone else’s spring.
She had left Harth Bend on day 1236 and taken three days along the fifty-four-kilometer road. One jar held the town’s current reservoir sample. The other held the first hot water from the bounded diversion trial. Fen had asked her to bring the pair to the cooling works’ scheduled comparison visit, so the people selling different explanations would have to look at the same evidence.
On day 1239, the jars stood on a cloth outside Verit’s yard. Cev had come from Red House by the accepted road, leaving on day 1234 and allowing five days for the longer route through Harth Bend. The meeting contained the nearby keepers who had actually traveled. Basen was still at Pale Reach, Hona and Mara were in Caldrin, Neri was at Stonewake and the absent herders had signed nothing by failing to appear.
Fen spoke for the observations she had made, not for an unlimited Pale Reach right to dispose of other people’s water. That limit went at the top of Elian’s page.
The visit began beside the machine, not the table. Verit’s assistant started the bank from the ordinary controls while Verit stood back. The return climbed the pipe and divided across the upper combs. Vela put a hand beside the cool inspection sleeve and asked how much makeup water the falling curtain consumed.
