With his left forearm still locked in Paxa Sel’s rigid willow-and-leather splint following the Hushwood iron-staple trap on Day 72, nineteen-year-old Fellis Dain couldn’t haul heavy stone sleds or tension heavy anchor winches.
Yet what he lacked in two-handed muscle, he more than compensated for with his organizational rigging craft. Throughout the late afternoon of Day 144, Fellis transformed the chaotic inner bailey of Stonewake Citadel into a care machine for the dawn bonding muster.
Fellis had learned his trade in the timber framing yards of Kilnstep under Master Corve. Corve had always taught him that when a heavy roof truss was being raised, the danger lay not in the weight of the timber, but in the confusion of the men holding the guy-lines. If five men pulled left while six pulled right, the whole structure would twist and crush the walls. The solution was always clear markings, defined lanes, and simple, unambiguous signals.
Using three coils of tarred hemp rope, forty iron survey pins, and whitewash from the castle upkeep shed, Fellis laid out four parallel muster lanes across the central cobbles. Each lane was exactly three paces wide, demarcated by taut guide-lines anchored to the flat stone slabs, leading directly toward a long pine frame stand table set before the keep archway.
