Location: Tardide Village
Time: Day 535 | Telia: Day 25
Realm: Telia (Mission World)
The morning air carried a tension that had nothing to do with weather. Tardide buzzed with nervous energy—villagers sweeping already-clean streets, straightening already-straight fences, checking and rechecking preparations that had been perfect hours ago.
President Andillevé was coming. Today. To their village.
Jayde stood at the edge of the demonstration field, watching Master Whitestone and his apprentice boys make final adjustments to the plow. The machine gleamed in early sunlight, polished metal and oiled wood, every joint checked and rechecked until the old smith had declared it "good enough to show the gods themselves."
"Relax," she told Torin, who was fussing with the blade assembly for the third time. "It works. We tested it yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. It's not going to suddenly fail."
