Before an engineer approaches an unknown clockwork barrier, his body vessel and his tools must be brought to working readiness.
Lin Tao sat down upon a dry wooden packing crate near the northern row of stone pillars, forty paces from the Great Basalt Portal. He placed his glowing-bronze lantern upon an inverted iron tub, adjusting the air-flow hood so the warm, golden light lit up his work area without casting blinding glares.
He laid out his medical kit upon a clean linen cloth: a small baked-clay pot of refined sheep fat, a tin of zinc-oxide bitter pine-resin salve, two rolls of raw, unwhitened linen squeezing bandage, and a pair of brass tweezers.
With slow, careful care, Lin Tao unfastened the soiled linen wraps from his hands.
The dressings came away with a faint tugging sensation against the healing deep skin. The blistered skin across his bilateral thenar eminences had flattened, the serous fluid having reabsorbed into the interstitial tissue. A thin layer of pink, newly formed epithelial cells covered the margins of the heat burns. Even so, the center remained tender to direct palpation.
Lin Tao dipped a linen swab into a bowl of cooled, boiled mountain water and gently cleansed the skin. He wiped away dried ooze and traces of charcoal dust.
