Night laid a damp hand on the Flats and left it there. Oakwatch blinked — . (ready) once; the cairns along Founders' Way hummed when Jory tapped them—each a syllable in ready. 🙂
— Night Brief — Novaterra• Weather: intermittent drizzle; wind E→NE; moon veiled• Audit: full string sweep—Knoll → Millcross → Turnstone spur → back roads• Cordon: posts high; sand refreshed; caltrops out (non-white)• Battery: rails oiled; NO GREEDY SHOT traced anew• After-Sight: Ready (0/1)• Spawn Window: 24–48 hrs (tight)• Morale: Work-bright, broom-angry 🙂
"Strings first, soup later," Mara declared, handing out tins and brooms like sacraments. 🧹🍲
Bryn broke the sweep into lanes: Pathfinders two-and-two with a broom patrol behind, Venn's clerks to log, Duvall's fox lads to keep eyes on rooflines, Lia's cousin to count loops out loud at junctions. Jory tuned two soft mouthpieces—one for two short (space), one for pretend thunder if a hill got ideas.
"After-Sight?" Elara asked without looking up.
Aiden thumbed the chalk under his brow, let the numbers fall once. The world admitted six string spines where roads kinked, a mirror tack on a hayloft lip at Millcross, a set of bead loops stitched into the market gutter like smug math.
"Spines here, here, and here," he said, touching the map. "Hayloft north of the mill; gutter line under Turnstone's posting board. Nail the backs."
"Good arithmetic," Elara said, and sent brooms.
The sweep moved like grammar.
At the Knoll, Pathfinders rolled a gutter spine into a tin; Venn chalked strings on road furniture = weapons; Ana of Silverbrook rapped the board with a needle and dared anyone to disagree.
On Millcross Rise, Ras flicked two mirror tacks from a hayloft lip with a hooked stick; the hay boy below exhaled like a crime had been taken out of his pocket.
At the Turnstone spur, Hale found a bead sash stapled to a cart axle; the carter tried a face like ignorance; Lia's cousin lifted three loops and said loudly, "Three is work." Pride blushed; the sash went into a tin.
*— String Audit — Sweep Log• Seized: 19 bead sashes; 11 gutter spines; 7 mirror tacks; 4 cart-axle loops• Fines: coin → Widows' Rope; work-service (brooms/latrines) assigned• Addendum posted: strings on carts/doors/fences = signal weapons *
Clove arrived like a conclusion. "Two buyers," he murmured. "Pike for the cheap mess. And a second purse—pays better, uses steadier hands. Not town. Not Fort. Their mirror writes clean."
"North spur," Bryn said. "We saw it wink."
"Twice," Clove agreed. "They'll sell timing to anyone."
Venn convened a Bridge Law curbside hearing right there in the drizzle: Marta, Lucien, Ana, the Turnstone master, two wagoners who pretended to be innocent and were outvoted by their axles. He chalked Optics & Strings v3 under the pact.
No strings on road gear, doors, fences.No mirrors within two bowshots of white or any hearing.Tins at every shrine; brooms on every lane.Violations → fines + work-service; repeat → market shun (Duvall).
Lucien lifted a brow and signed the board with a flourish. "I adore when law spares me the work of being cruel," he said, pleased. 🙂
The sweep turned toward Millcross when the night's first real problem announced itself on the west horizon: a ribbon of torchlight, low and wide, moving with a stride that wasn't Fort slink or Pike scuttle.
Bryn was on the knoll when the banner cleared the low ridge: black cloth stitched with five iron nails, point-down, catching firelight without winking. The shout rolled ahead of them, plain and ugly: "Hold the Door Shut!"
"Three hundred," Ras counted without drama. "Shields like coopers. Hammers. Hooks for carts. No drum. Two mirrors on a wagon."
"Not ours and not theirs," Elara said. "Someone hired a raid to blind us."
"Who?" Aiden asked, already measuring fields with his eyes.
Clove's mouth tilted. "Anyone who wants to sell timing twice," he said. "The unknown mirror will love this."
Elara didn't swear. She smiled without teeth. "We meet them on the Barley Flats," she said. "Diamond around the battery sheds. Measured Bite for their mirror cart; No Greedy Shot everywhere else. Don't-Chase, fox wing to herd, not hunt."
"Two short when you want the road to breathe," Jory said, already tasting the cadence. 🫡
Mara put her ladle on her shoulder like a banner. "Eat now," she ordered. "Barley lasts longer when it's in your bellies." 🍲🙂
— Action Orders — Barley Flats (Five Nails)• Standards: diamond—Garran (hinge W), Orla (E), Fen (N), Piet (S)• Battery: Thorn/Bramble behind sheds; Measured Bite at signal/mirror cart• Fox: Lucien's wing—silent serpentine; herd, no chase• Pathfinders: cut string relays along approach; broom patrols trail to tin• Clinics: stretchers staged; Night Soup moved to east shed
The Five Nails rolled off the ridge like a carpenter's bad decision given legs—three hundred men and boys with shield tubs, maul hammers, bill-hooks, two wagons armoured in stove doors and mirror shutters. Their banner shook off rain and grinned like a roofing mistake.
"Hold the Door Shut!" they shouted again, as if doors were the only thing that needed closing.
"Let's keep it open," Elara said, and the line agreed with its feet. 🙂
— System: Threat — Five Nails (Raider Company)• Strength: ~300 (tubs/mauls/hooks; mirror cart hub)• Slogan: "Hold the Door Shut!"• Intent: blind roads; break sheds; sell timing
"Novaterra," Aiden told the cairns and the tower and the road that liked being a road, "we swept strings into tins and found a hammer made of boys and wages. We'll meet them with poles, one bite, and a wall that refuses to be a story. No heroics. Just work." 🙂
— Night Snapshot — End Chapter 45• String sweep complete (41 items seized); Optics & Strings v3 posted• Five Nails sighted (~300), mirrors on wagon, approaching Barley Flats• Battle plan set (diamond standards; Measured Bite; fox herd)• Morale: Tight, broom-sore, ready 🙂