The replacement line went into service on day 1603.
It took two days to carry the sections along the high shelf and another to fit them. The local households kept their ordinary turns through the small bypass while the worn length was isolated. Neri was there for the alignment, the cold test, and the first warm turn. Iven helped place one heavy section with an ordinary lifting frame and a short paid winch draw. Then the saddles took the weight, and his arm came away.
Below them, the clear sheets continued folding over their water pockets.
The high route cost more pipe than the low valley would have. It also left the valley’s cold seep cold.
At the junction, the new flexible mounting carried the warm load without striking the old stone sleeve on each circulation change. Kesh’s gauge still recorded the deeper repeated pulse, but the sharp local knock from their new connection had diminished. Their repair did not claim credit for quieting a source they had not reached.
The household keeper opened her ordinary draw.
Water reached her cooking room. The boy who had made the wooden sluice guide came out to watch the new line and asked whether its cloth-covered joint was weak.
