Pev broke through the last of the later masonry on the morning of day fourteen hundred and thirty-four.
The stone came away in a broad, shallow piece. Behind it lay the old service slot, dark and dry, with the upper end of the wheel frame visible through the opening. A narrow strip of original wall remained on each side. Neri ran her fingers over the old tool marks before checking the shore wedges again.
“Clear,” Pev said.
The two women lifted the broken piece together and laid it on the waiting board. Daylight entered the lower chamber for the first time in generations.
Below them, Hend looked up from his platform.
“That’s a lovely hole.”
“Try not to ruin it,” Neri said.
He passed the old bearing upward in a sling. It was smaller than she had expected, a dark collar with one side worn almost through. The replacement waited on clean cloth beside her knee. A local smith had made the outer shell; Hend had fitted the bearing surface and cut the oil channels himself. Neither part had traveled from Caldrin.
