Chương 30

Mason Ellen"Are you sure this is what you were looking for?" Hunter Ellen's voice was skeptical, her arms tugging at the last of the overgrowth. Vines and creepers covered the arched opening in the slope, requiring a lot of yanking to get everything cleared out. The stones forming the arch were aged and weathered, yet still showed signs of the soot from when the kiln had been used.

"Absolutely," Ellen answered with a firm nod.

"Now that I can see it, I know this is it. The man in the village described something like this and I can't imagine it would be anything else."

"AHHHHH! GET THEM OFF GET THEM OFF!!" Ellen and Hunter Ellen both paused the messy work of clearing out the access arch to look up at the top of the mound. Several jackdaws were fluttering around Apprentice Ellen, whose screams and flailing arms didn't help the irritable birds protesting their eviction. She'd volunteered to clear out the chimney, probably not realizing that it wasn't like a house's chimney.

Apprentice's vaunted 'magic' didn't help when she couldn't focus at all, so she was quickly driven back up the hillside, screaming and ducking assaults from the aggressive birds. While the birds were distracted, Healer Ellen calmly bent over the opening and went about digging out the nests. Hunter Ellen looked at Ellen.

"… anyway. That's the last of them I think. You can handle the rest yourself?" She tossed some of the thick vegetation down the hillside, then dusted off her hands. Unlike most of the Ellens, Hunter had managed to acquire a sturdy pair of gloves. Much better to let her do the clearance in case one of the vines or plants had some kind of irritant in the sap or something. Ellen clapped her hands together.

"I'm pretty sure. Some of the other Ellens offered to carry materials for me, but I guess if Merchant Ellen isn't out of town we can use Melissa to haul the limestone. The river's just down there so that has everything else I need. Except maybe a cloth for my eyes, I'd better tell Merchant to get one for me. I'd rather not go blind. Or find out if my duplicates end up blind if I die that way."

"Don't talk like that," Hunter Ellen grumbled.

"I think that's part of why we're dying so often. You just get used to the idea so you get reckless and careless. Just look at Apprentice." She gestured up the hill, where a distant screeching just out of sight could still be heard.

"If you just assume you'll die, it's more likely. Try to keep yourself in one piece."

"I'm not going to get careless handling this stuff! It burns!" Ellen frowned.

"I understand what you're saying, I'm just not sure that's what's going on. Maybe we're cursed or something…" Hunter Ellen tugged her gloves off and tucked them into her satchel… only to rub her temples with her fingers.

"I'm pretty sure it's not a curse. I mean it is a little odd that three of those were accidents, and one was pretty preventable with a little more care. But I'll point out that aside from going into the dungeon and adventuring—which I did a little of once—I have the most dangerous job here and I'm somehow the oldest. Stop rushing everything and learn patience."

"IT POOPED ON MY HAND!" Apprentice Ellen screamed from somewhere nearby.

"Not like her," Hunter finished. Ellen squatted down next to the entrance and slid her hand along the scarred surface of the inside. Just like Builder Ellen before her, she'd taken the Material Sense Perk when she reached Level 6, and what it told her was reassuring. She nodded to herself and stood up again.

"Well, we need to be patient anyway. Except we also have to hurry and get this started." Ellen gestured to the kiln.

"It still needs some cleaning, but everything is intact. No repairs needed. Now all we need is a lot of wood, so we can toss it in the charcoal pit. We're going to need a lot of fuel even for a small kiln like this." Hunter Ellen frowned and crossed her arms, staring at the open mouth of the kiln where the fuel would be fed.

"How long until this is ready? This is just for the mortar, right? I know I'm the first to talk about being self-sufficient, but maybe we should think about what's easier to buy."

"I've already spoken to Merchant Ellen about this, and that's a lot more complicated than you think." Ellen crossed her arms as well, meeting Hunter's stare eye to eye. Elder or not, Ellen knew she was right about this.

"If we have to buy clothing and such for every Ellen, that gets expensive. If we had a tailor, it'd be a little cheaper. If we made our own clothes, even cheaper. But at some point that's impractical. How many Ellens would need to be here to justify herding sheep for wool? Maybe we can make some kind of plant-based cloth, but we'll need an Ellen for that and I don't know the first thing about that." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

She uncrossed her arms and pointed toward the charcoal pit Hunter had found.

"We have a lot of resources here, but we have to save where we can, at least for now. So we make our own mortar, we make our own charcoal. That gives us ash and lye. You can use that for your tanning. Healer can use it to make soap. All things we don't have to buy. Because we burned a bunch of wood."

"Okay, fine." Hunter Ellen raised her hands in defeat.

"You've convinced me, I'll stop bothering you about it. I have things to do, anyway." The tanned Ellen sighed and trudged off, leaving Ellen behind with the kiln. The stone structure was very simple, but being almost a century since any maintenance Ellen had worried it would have cracks or damage to the stones. They were fortunate that only debris had collected… otherwise they would have needed to buy their own mortar.

With limestone up the slope, water and sand from the nearby river, and a good supply of charcoal, they had everything they needed.

"Bet you couldn't see this happening, could you, dad?" Ellen muttered to herself as she turned and started walking upward, along the faint trail that had likely been an actual road of some kind once upon a time. The lime kiln wasn't that far from the ruins, just as she'd predicted. She'd have to thank Bernard down in the village for telling her about the process to begin with. That had been the information that had started all of this.

Soon she could repair the mortar that time and vegetation had weakened, and then the repair of the other buildings could begin. Ellen glanced aside as she walked, passing by Healer and Apprentice just to the side of the path. Apprentice sat on a large rock, wincing and whining as Healer applied careful but likely painful dabs of something to the numerous cuts and scratches she'd collected.

"If you'd waited like I warned you, we could have flushed them out. Please don't be the one to make me any more sisters…" Healer Ellen was telling Apprentice. That conversation really bothered her, so Ellen hurried her steps to pass by them. She tried to think about the upcoming problems instead, considering the size of the kiln and how long it would take. The charcoal would take about a week to get to a usable state. The lime another week to prepare, burn, then cool.

Then came the slaking and waiting for the mix to mature. She didn't want to admit it to the others, but it would be a tight deadline to get it done before winter. If they had an early frost or snowfall, it could make things very complicated, very fast.

"Carpenter! Has Merchant left yet?" Ellen called out the moment she saw her twin working out in the barren, cleared patch of land by the town. Her other self was wearing a light hood to shield against the sun, despite the chill of the autumn day. Her hair was tied back, and the shirt she wore was clinging to her from the sweat that was leaking through. Carpenter Ellen took a short break, wiping her brow and breathing heavily. She dropped the adze to the side, stepping away from the log she'd been carving up.

It was several minutes before she could speak, giving Ellen plenty of time to approach and settle onto one of the logs.

"Long gone," the panting girl finally said. She dropped onto another log and took a long drink from a cup, then refilled it from the clay pot nearby.

"Sorry, this is hard work. Did you find what you needed?" Ellen nodded.

"Yeah, I should be able to fix up the chimney and walls just fine. And fill any gaps." She leaned to the side, peering at the large building they'd claimed as the 'Ellen House' for the winter.

"I know it's only been a few days, but you haven't even started the framing. Are you going to be able to get a roof on and the doors as well before winter?" Carpenter made a face, sticking out her tongue.

"Framing shouldn't take that long once I have everything I need. It's the thatching that would take forever. We're already drying some reeds for it, but it'll be pretty messy and need replaced after the winter. I can't do the thatching alone… I'll need at least two Ellens to help me. Probably Village and Apprentice, if I can keep Apprentice from burning down the building."

"Village Ellen will be preparing the Treetop for winter, you may not be able to get her here enough," Ellen reminded her other self.

"Hunter and I will be busy, but Merchant might be able to help instead? Maybe Healer if she finishes what she's working on."

"Uuuugh…" Carpenter groaned and tucked her head back, holding it in her hands.

"I never thought I'd say this, but it would be easier with more Ellens. How did people do all this by themselves?" A little chuckle, and Ellen gestured at the workshop, which was a much smaller building.

"They didn't try to handle an entire inn-sized building by themselves, I imagine. Start small. I don't think we can do that… we need something big enough for at least five of us—assuming two can stay down in the village—and with how Apprentice acts we should probably plan for at least one more."

"I shouldn't laugh at that, but I almost did," Carpenter sighed.

"Maybe something goes wrong in the fifth generation. Those two are just… strange. A lot different than us it feels like." Ellen shook her head.

"Are they? I think they're just more extreme. Adventurer Ellen was already a little different from the rest of us. And I think she might be doing some of it on purpose. It's not like she's dumber than us or anything." With a nod, Carpenter stood and stretched.

"Good point. So you think you can do your part before winter? Will my roofing get in the way?"

"No, it should be fine." Ellen sighed.

"Just let me handle that and focus on what you need to get the place ready for winter. I bet it gets cold in these mountains. I'm just waiting for the next ugly surprise."

"I'm not sure much of anything can surprise me by now," Carpenter muttered, hefting the adze thoughtfully. That was when Healer Ellen quietly approached, trailing Apprentice Ellen. The mostly silent, gentle, careful Healer clasped hands together as she looked at the two Artisan -classed Ellens.

"Oh good, you're both here. I'll start working on the meal." She smiled, perfectly willing to take over cooking duties from Hunter. She was learning fast, too. Ellen just didn't expect what came out of Healer's mouth next.

"And at dinner, we can talk about how we'll be taking on the dungeon."