The limping sailor had us take a barge to cross the river.

The emperor's bridge had since long been rebuilt after the damage the leviathan made on it but it was still far away and would make quite the detour.

The barge was a large flat bottomed boat, ideal for manoeuvring on steady waters and transport as many goods as possible per travel. Currently on board with us were only goods, fish for the worker's meals, and tools they needed for their work. Except for the few sailors, Gel, Melodi, Aruko, and I were the only passengers.

This also meant we had dropped our bodyguards. I asked Melodi if she could tell if they were following us. She sniffed at the air and felt the wind through her whiskers for a long time before concluding, “they are following us, don't worry,” she almost patted my shoulder with her small paws, she sounded like she was reassuring a scared child.

This left me to reflect on what methods our invisible guards were using? Were they becoming fog? Were they using Chi to walk on the water Naruto-style? Or were they running so fast that they were like common basilisks?

The crossing was event-less but slow. I had the time to enjoy the calm river and a soothing breeze. Days will become colder soon enough but this was one of the last warm days of fall. The river was more secure than ever, this year there were more tridents patrolling and we could spot a lot of them when either a fin or a trident were surfacing.

Gel was training her Chi during the crossing, using it to create ripples on the water surface without touching it directly. Melodi soon started imitating her, but with much fewer ripples and that annoyed her.

The sight was still a bit painful for me. I had tried to meditate more than once, hoping that I would finally feel my Chi. A few times, I could feel something. I knew how Chi “felt”because the old lord and the Marshall had used some on me, but it was different. If their Chi felt warm, what I was feeling when focusing on me was cold. Not “cold” like fresh, but rather “still”. Instead of something flowing it was like there was a massive chunk of granit inside of me, pushing against it was like trying to move a mountain and I still couldn't say I could feel the world's Chi.

To distract me away from this sad rehash, I talked with Aruko about life in the palace and how the egg farm was doing. He had an epidemic last month. Because his experiment was still under the watch of Charavatkeh's priest they had a Fusaad priest take care of the infection but this wouldn't be the case forever. At some point, I would have to start the production of antibiotics.

I also wanted to study more about this world's animals, especially the monsters but I just couldn't find either the occasion or the time. For now, I had to rely on books before going to sleep when I wasn't just working till exhaustion. This childish body's stamina was still on the low side and more than once I just blacked out at my desk. If I had Chi, I could just draw in my reserves to work longer... but enough about this.

When we reached the kilns it was already past noon, third daybell was about to ring. Aruko limped his way to the workers, calling for his kins. He came back flanked by two men that were looking like younger versions of him, less the peg leg and plus soot all over them.

“This one is ma younger brother, Kanko and her' is my cousin, Siroz,” he introduced the two black faced men covered in coal dust before introducing me “And this here his the genius kid blessed by Charavatkeh that found meh work. Mr, Telerios, mandated by the Shieldlord himself!”

Both men were looking at me with a mix of apprehensive respect and disbelief. I was a child but Aruko just introduced me as a free citizen, that he was working for me AND that I was a pantheon's blessed one. That sounded a bit too much for them to take in.

“Don't believe everything the old man says. I'm just Telerios, a commoner from the east district and Charavatkeh didn't bless me for saving this old drunkard's ass,” I laughed and both men looked relieved, I wasn't some scary blade child or whatever, just a kid from the east block like they were probably too. “But I am indeed working for the Shield right now.” This brought them back on their toes again. “I want to see you kilns and know a bit more about your work, is that fine with you?”

They both nodded. Arukko was satisfied and dragged all of us to the nearest stall where we could have a drink. He hadn't forgotten that I was his happy-hour all-you-can-drink ticket.

The three men had a round of barok while we kids opted for a simple lemonbalm-like tea.

If the two charcoal burners weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, they were at least proficient in their job.

Quickly it appeared to me that their kilns wouldn't be of much help. They had great knowledge of temperature and combustion control, so as to not burn the wood but just keep the right fragile state that would turn it into coal. The problem was that it was a low temperature process.

After a few drinks that made them more comfortable around me, they showed me the kilns: round, large ovens with a protruding entrance that made them look like snails with fume coming up their shells.

They had multiple vents to precisely control the air output at any given time and thus the combustion and temperature so they could adapt to the weather, humidity and quality of the wood. This was at most a 500°C combustion, perhaps lower. Far from the thousand degrees needed for the calcination of lime.

“Could you guys be able to reach a higher temperature?” I inquired with them.

Siroz was the most quick-witted and answered me “Maybe. 'f we burned coal 'stead of wood it should be doable. Whata you planning, if I may ask?” He corrected himself at the last minute.

“I have an experiment to make about the shells of monsters and animals. I'd like to burn some and observe the combustion,” I lied. I wasn't sure about those two and didn't intend to explain my main goal to them.

They both looked a bit surprised but then shrugged it like it was the whim of a kid but if there was money to make out of it, why not?

Again Siroz was the one to talk. “Fo' the right fee we can manage that.”

“How much are we talking about?” I could see a glimpse of greed in his eyes, the man was about to try to scam me, I didn't need Tamayoku's or Shinpilo's warning.

“Depends on how long it takes. We won't be able to make charcoal while using the kiln for you, so it has to cover our losses. I'd say a large iron coin for a day on one kiln, plus the wages of the workers.” He was trying to hold a greedy smile.

This was preposterous. The coal burners should make no more than a few coppers per day. Maybe a large copper at most. “Too costly. I'm no rich noble and I'm on a tight budget here,” I doused his greed immediately, “I can offer you 8 small irons per day, wages included, at most.”

This seemed to be more than he was hoping for because he smiled happily, his white teeth standing out on his blackened face. I was still squeezed from more than I should have.

“Oy! You shouldn't try scammin' my Tel here.” Interjected a slightly drunk Aruko. “Ye make ara(10) coppers a day. Stop trying to abuse him just becau' he's young.”

With their real worth exposed they had to lower the price. In the end we settled for half that price. Same sum but for 2 days of work instead of one. They would still be making double their usual wages.

Calcination test was set up two days from now to give me time to gather enough shells, I'll also have to grind them down to dust.

* * * * *

The fishermen at the dock were more efficient than I thought. I don't know if they dragged the river in search of old discarded shells or were just making this much every day but three big bags full of shells, beaks, and cockles were waiting for me.

I paid the dockmaster 5 large coppers for it. He would be the one to then compensate every fisherman.

It wasn't a hefty sum but it was still a lot for what would otherwise be valueless trash.

I still had to grind the thing and this was yet another problem. Not only was I alone today, Gel and Mel had their training with the princess, I couldn't just bring them with me two days in a row, but I also had no tools nor access to a mill.

There were mills in the city. There were at least two small mills on the east bank side to process what little grain and bunta the in-wall farms were producing and the goods brought by the boats. They were powered by pack beasts, bulky koati lizards that were temperature dependant, a bit like Sansho. So not much work to be done with them in the winter.

I would have to transport the shells there, then pay for the mill. Since it wasn't food I would probably have to pay a fee for cleaning the mill afterwards etc.. too much.

Aruko was my man again. He managed to round up a handful of shady but sturdy looking guys. I'm not the kind that judges a book on its cover but they really looked more like goons rather than honest workers.

They still did a good job. In a few bell's time I had a rough powder of a mix of calcium carbonates and silicates. The fee they asked for was an honest one, a few coppers each.

I had them come back the next day for the second batch. I now had four sacks of powder to calcinate.

The reaction's goal was to reduce the CaCO3 to CaO plus the release of the CO2 along the way. The addition of a bit of clay would also provide some calcium aluminate and the silicates were already in the shells of fire resistant creatures, alongside a lot of other biological impurities that I was hoping would burn without jeopardizing the final product.

It wasn't ideal. Ideally I would want minerals, either pure or that can be purified to be sure of the composition of what I would work with. My main issue was how to procure said minerals in such a short time. Not only I wasn't sure the mine had some or if an expedition would bring some back in the time frame I was given but I also didn't know what I was looking for.

My memories of my chemistry textbook told me that I would need limestone, that I could describe. Things were different for “kieselkalk” or “authigenic quartz”... what are those supposed to look like? What should I ask the miners for? My blessing was powerful but not a magical trove of knowledge, it wasn't a personal wikipedia and couldn't help me figure out things I've never read about. This was trash knowledge, there was information but it wasn't workable.

So shells will have to make do for now. When I hit a limit in the resource, I'll then task alchemists to look for a mineral substitute, by then the process would have proven worth the effort and research.

I've separated my calcination experiments in a lot of different batches. I've separated my shell powder so that the composition is more or less the same among three different colours and I'm varying the proportion of clay, to find out how much of an impact this will have.

Each calcination took more than a bell. With only one kiln, it will take a long time to get a great numberof samples but this will have to make do. There is only five days remaining till my deadline with the prince and only so much money. The two charcoalers had to vent the kiln to have it reach its higher temperatures. I'm not even sure we managed to reach a thousand degrees. I'm sure we didn't reach 1400°C because there were no aggregates formed by the melting of the mixture, only powder more or less grey.

I had about a dozen pots of varied cement composition after calcination, ranging from whitish to dark grey. There must have been a various amount of wooden ashes contaminating my samples too. We'll see if it impairs the results.

Kanko and Siroz were panting and sweaty. They were counting their hard earned coins, they deserved it and if I can afford it later, I'll throw in a bonus.

Now I had to test the thing and think about how to best use it to make a sturdy wall.

I had no steel rods available, no steel at all in fact, so reinforced concrete was out of reach.

Instead ,I was thinking of either a gravel/stone mix or pouring cement around a brick wall. They used brick for house building in some parts of the city so there was already an infrastructure that could produce enough bricks. Last test was concrete alone, just sand, cement and some gravels.

It was time to draft an experimental timetable.