Chapter 28: Workshop Terms

Brinna pointed at the dangerous east wall.

"I can repair that for material cost."

Elara narrowed her eyes.

"If we discuss somewhere for me to rebuild my workshop."

"No."

Brinna blinked.

Ren stayed very quiet.

Elara pulled a chair away from the wall.

"We discuss the contract first. Then you repair things."

Brinna’s grin returned.

"Oh. I really like you."

"That continues to have no monetary value."

They moved to the ledger table.

Brinna wanted the north storage yard for two weeks while she rebuilt the mobile workshop.

Elara wanted definitions.

"Tools?"

"Mine."

"Designs?"

"Mine."

"Outside customers?"

"Mine."

"Hall-referred jobs?"

Brinna thought.

"One part in ten to the guild."

"Gross commission."

"After materials."

"Before your labor."

Brinna leaned forward. "You are vicious."

"I have three silver creditors who send holiday cards."

Ren covered his mouth.

Elara continued.

"No forge heat until Pella approves the zone. No fixture through a wall, floor, or foundation without written permission. Your wagon remains yours. Your Artifact remains yours. At the end of two weeks, either we sign something new or you remove everything you brought."

"Rent?"

"Two silver upfront."

Brinna stuck out her hand.

Elara looked at the scarred palm.

"Not finished."

Brinna slowly lowered it.

"For hall emergencies," Elara said, "you quote before work. No assumption that ’partner’ means free."

Brinna’s expression changed.

Only slightly.

"That one matters."

"I know."

"The east wall?"

"One-time trial consideration. We pay materials. You waive labor because you offered it before the contract existed."

"Accepted."

Ren still said nothing.

Brinna glanced at him.

"You have opinions."

"Several."

"And?"

"You two are negotiating your businesses. I was not invited."

Brinna stared.

Then she smiled in a completely different way.

Elara noticed that too.

Unfortunately.

Pella Dorn arrived forty minutes later and ruined Brinna’s first wall plan in under thirty seconds.

"No."

Brinna planted both hands on her hips. "You have not measured it."

"I measured it last week."

"You did not measure my brace."

"I can see your brace."

"It is an excellent brace."

"It transfers load into the cracked upper plate."

"It distributes load."

"Into the cracked upper plate."

Brinna inhaled.

Ren leaned toward Kellan.

"This feels educational."

Kellan whispered, "Which one do we obey?"

"Both until they agree."

The argument lasted twelve minutes.

It ended with a better plan.

A diagonal timber brace would take the lateral load. Brinna’s metal ties would secure the repaired lower section without asking the old upper plate to carry anything new. Existing donated timber covered most of the wood.

New iron straps, lime, fasteners, and wall packing cost two silver and two copper.

Pella’s inspection and plan fee was six copper.

Elara paid both.

Brinna did not touch the cracked Forgekeeper’s Temper Clasp.

Kellan mixed lime.

Ren held the brace.

Pella corrected his hand position once.

Brinna corrected it twice.

"Personal attention again?" Ren asked.

"I maintain standards."

By sunset, Pella drove the final test wedge beneath the brace and leaned her full weight against it.

The wall did not move.

"East exclusion can come down tomorrow after the packing sets."

Elara nearly smiled.

"One item."

"One item," Pella agreed. "Do not become emotional with walls."

She took Elara’s inspection sheet and crossed out the east-wall line.

Then she tapped four others.

"Minimum safe-use pass still needs the damaged roof bay tied permanently from inside, not just storm-braced. Chimney needs an iron collar and a clean smoke test. Stable latch needs replacing. Medical storage needs a real lock."

Sylvaine, passing with a basin, said, "I have a cabinet. I need a room that locks."

Brinna looked at Pella’s list.

"I can make the collar and latch without Temper."

"After I draw the dimensions."

"You assume I need them."

"I assume I enjoy buildings that remain buildings."

Elara wrote FINAL MINIMUM ITEMS: FOUR in the margin.

Ren looked at the list.

For the first time, minimum inspection looked less like a cloud and more like work.

Oren was infecting the town.

Sylvaine waited until Brinna’s contract was signed before placing her own paper on Elara’s table.

"Separate agreement."

Brinna looked offended. "We arrived together."

"We are not the same business."

Sylvaine wanted the front treatment room and the small room beside it for two weeks once the current observation patients cleared enough space.

Her conditions were shorter.

Patient records belonged to the clinic.

Private symptoms stayed private.

Sylvaine set medical fees.

The guild received no percentage of treatment.

Emergency broth and immediate shelter remained governed by Bram and Elara, not by clinic billing.

She would provide her own medicines and pay for what she consumed from guild stores.

"Sanitation?" Elara asked.

"My authority inside treatment space."

"Building safety?"

"Yours."

"Rent?"

"Three silver for the trial."

Elara held out her hand.

Sylvaine shook it.

Three silver entered the lockbox.

Brinna paid her two.

That evening, fifteen non-medical travelers bought stew and bread again.

Three more silver.

The east-wall materials and Pella’s fee had cost two silver eight copper.

Eleven silver four copper became sixteen silver six copper.

"Shortfall," Ren said.

"Nine silver four copper."

"Better."

"Still terrible."

"Consistently better."

After dinner Maelis brought a blank equipment log to Brinna’s temporary workbench.

Ren sat opposite them with his right arm on a padded block.

Maelis wrote while speaking.

"Waywarden’s Cuff. Diagnostic inspection only. No activation. No external grounding. No component from provincial evidence. Ren’s Bond remains controlling. Stop if pain increases."

Brinna looked at Ren.

"Any complaint?"

"No."

"Good. I enjoy witnesses."

She worked without flirting.

That was almost more distracting.

Magnifying lens.

Copper probe.

A thin strip of paper slipped beneath the outer channel.

Her expression tightened.

"Your focus pin is cooked. Outer return channel is warped. One stress collar is cracked through."

Ren looked at the bracer.

"That sounds healthy."

"The inner Bond rails are intact."

Maelis stopped writing.

Brinna tapped the bronze lightly.

"I cannot restore it. Not with what I have, and not without the proper stabilizing material."

"Can you improve it?" Ren asked.

"Yes."

"How much?"

"Critical to damaged, maybe. Restricted use, not normal use. New focus pin. External collar. Re-seat the return channel. Then Maelis inspects it before anyone even thinks about activation."

Maelis said, "Correct."

Brinna looked pleased to have survived the sentence.

Later, after Elara had filed both contracts, Brinna caught Ren alone beside the workbench.

She planted both hands on either side of him.

"Were you quiet because you are disciplined?"

Ren leaned back against the bench.

"Maybe."

"Or intimidated by competent women?"

He leaned forward instead.

Close enough that Brinna’s grin finally disappeared.

"I was waiting until your price could not be mistaken for flirting."

Her gold-brown eyes widened.

Ren stayed there for one beat.

Then stepped around her.

"No kissing clients immediately after contract signature."

Brinna turned slowly.

"That is an extremely specific rule."

"New organization. We improvise."

Behind him, Brinna laughed.

Then she looked down at the damaged Cuff on the padded block.

"Two days," she said.

Ren stopped.

"I can make it less suicidal in two days."