The replacement block arrived with one face wet.
Neri made the carrier turn it beneath the shelter so that she could see the grain. A thin dark line crossed the upper corner, almost invisible where the water filled it.
“Not that way up,” the quarry mason said.
Neri had already stopped reaching for the acceptance chalk.
The mason took a scrap of cloth, dried the line, and showed the crew where it entered the stone. It was shallow enough for wall work after trimming. It was not a seam Neri wanted beneath the new arch’s bearing.
They moved the block to the short-wall stack and brought the next one forward.
Pev watched without impatience. The lower course had been open since the thirteenth. Supporting the wall while they repaired it cost time and labor. None of that made a questionable stone become sound.
By the morning of day fifteen hundred and fourteen, the temporary platform stood firmly against its ordinary braces. A small hand capstan, refitted at Hend’s workbench and brought from the near yard, controlled the lowering lines. It was separate from the larger animal-driven rig planned for the drill ramp. Its anchor bed and second secured line had been fitted before the first old block came out.
