The eastern vanguard left Castra in silence. The sun came out. Shone down on the snow. It was really bright. Made the snow sparkle like diamonds. The weather was still bad. It was not as bad as before. It was like the whole area was frozen in time.Evander was standing on a platform in the citys logistics yard. He had his hands on a cold metal frame. The yard was like a maze with tracks in the snow from the relief sleds. The air smelled like wood smoke, wet animal hide and metal. The city felt different after the victory at the Iron Throat. People were not as anxious as before. They were busy and moving around with a lot of energy.Master Ovan came out of a storehouse with some slate sheets. His coat was dusty from checking the fuel bins. His boots made a crunching sound in the snow.The relief sleds came back two hours ago Ovan said. Caelum moved the wounded to the shelters. They got salt pork and blankets before the fires went out. The general wants black blasting powder to trigger

The year started with a slow and quiet morning light in the valley of Castra. The sun did not shine bright like it used to. Instead it came out slowly like a gentle warm breeze. The high mountains were still covered in snow and their sharp edges looked like old saw blades cutting into the pale sky. Down in the city people were already up and about making noise and getting ready for the day. The sound of ox-carts and chimneys filled the air and the distant thud of the water mills made a beat.Evander sat on a stool in the corner of the meeting hall holding a mug of hot chicory broth. The warmth from the mug felt good on his hands. It did not last long in the cold stone room. His woolen shirt had stains on the sleeves from the grease of the reservoir valves he had checked earlier. His boots were covered in grey dust from the limestone roads.Across the table Master Ovan was talking to two men from the lowland farms. They were discussing the imperial deeds and the new way of doing things

The snow was. Spring was coming to the high valley of Castra. This brought a lot of problems. The ice on the mountains was melting fast. The water was flowing down into the valley. The ground was soft and muddy. It was like a sponge.The people of Castra had to deal with this water. Evander spent three days at the primary convergence node. This was a room under the ground. It used to be a part of the cooling system. Now it was used to control the water.Master Ovan was there too. He was sitting at a table with a map of the area. He was using a tool to measure things on the map. The air was thick with the smell of earth and moss.The upper glacial run is changing Ovan said. The water is going a way. It is not going into the reservoir. It is going down through the quarry lanes. If it gets to the terrace walls it will be bad. The walls will break.We cannot stop the water Evander said. We have to divide it. We can use the highway to redirect the water. The highway is strong. It can handl

The summer season arrived in the mountains with a sharp and blinding clarity that seemed to bake the limestone walls of Castra down to their roots. The sky was a blue with no clouds. The valley was full of light and noise from all the living things. The cicadas in the pine forests made a loud humming noise. The mountain hawks flying above the ridges made sharp cries.Evander stood on the stone balcony of the archive room. He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The July sun warmed his skin. The valley below was no longer an hiding place. It was a place with a lot of trade, farming and industry. The lower terraces were filled with summer wheat and heavy green barley. The stalks moved like waves in the wind.Evander was focused on the river. The spring melt was over. The wild river had settled into a deep and fast-moving channel of clear water. The water was very cold. Moved with a lot of power. Evander held a piece of wood and a piece of graphite. He stared at the point of the rive

It was November and the cold was really setting in in the high valley of Castra. This was a kind of cold than the previous year. It was not a shock but a slow and heavy buildup of cold air. The northern winds were blowing strongly carrying an icy intensity that stripped the leaves from the valley oaks in just two days. The granite peaks surrounding the fortress were covered in a layer of snow and ice and the lower shelves were dusted with a fine granular snow that blew across the stone like sand in the wind.Evander stood at the observation platform of the river gorge his hands braced against the limestone parapet his eyes fixed on the water-wheel. The wheel was still turning,. It sounded different now. It was no longer an liquid sound but a deeper and more muffled thud. This was because of the anchor ice that was forming along the shaded margins of the basalt shelf. The spray from the wheel was freezing instantly coating the frame in a thick layer of ice. This was causing problems wi