Adelphe's Convalescence

Hidden Under the Plates

Hidden Under the Plates

"Another mudslide?" Addie asked Sybille with her arms crossed, watching as her fellow paladin walked quickly across the room, directing her maids where to put things as she needed them.

Although she was moving quickly, Sybille wasn't harried. She was far too elegant and put together for such a state. However, she was quite obviously more distressed about this second tremor than she had been about the first.

She had abandoned the war room today, and instead, they were in one of the other meeting rooms where a long, empty table was available for her to spread out the district plate prints and pylon maps that she had retrieved from her family vault this morning. It included the layouts and designs for the geothermal plant under Gold and the pylon placements of all the surrounding plates.

Addie stared at the designs, a bit surprised, as Sybille's two lady's maids rolled them out and weighted the corners to keep them flat. She hadn't expected that the designs for the plates would be so complicated. She thought it was just the pylons stuck in the dirt holding up the plate, but the notes and mathematics that were scribbled all around the margins and throughout the various lines told a different story. She saw things like 'weight limit,' 'stress load,' and 'fail safe switch' written in various spots, with lines indicating to different numbers or specific places on the plates.

It took her a long moment to realize that she wasn't just looking at the pylons and how they were buried and steadied in the mountain, but she was also looking at the underside of the plates and how the bases were pieced together. Each individual district plate was made up of multiple segments that were supported by no less than two, and often more, pylons per segment. She could understand now why Sybille had said that, if it was compromised, only the segment in danger of doing so would actually fall.

More notes were brought into the room: schematics and designs for the pylons individually, as well as a general overview of the entire Iron District. Sybille's maids, two girls of noble rank and prestige, were busy around her. Unlike when Sybille was working in the war room, this wasn't information they were banned from knowing and so they were able to help her with it.

"Thank you," Sybille said when the tallest girl brought her a stack of notes. "Go and tell my father to prepare the exit. I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, my lady." The maid bowed before hurriedly leaving the room.

Addie, Elaine, and Radelle watched her work in silence, all three of them standing out of the way so that they didn't disrupt her flow. Cyrille was out trying to calm the populace after the second tremor, leaving Radelle to aid Sybille in this matter.

"I assume it was another mudslide, yes." Sybille finally answered her question, walking towards the table with notes in hand. Addie caught another glimpse of a series of numbers that she had no reference for written down the page in columns.

"Seem a bit panicky for just a mudslide," Elaine murmured, watching as Sybille began laying out the papers with the numbers alongside the designs.

"This has already happened once," Radelle explained calmly. "One mudslide won't cause too much damage - at least nothing that requires immediate attention. However, a second one could mean that the pylon bases were exposed or that the pylons have shifted entirely."

"Precisely." Sybille nodded, returning to the table. "One mudslide is survivable, a second one could mean that there was serious damage."

"That's very reassuring," Addie mumbled sarcastically. "I thought you told me that I didn't have to worry."

"Yes, but now you do." Sybille smiled at her sardonically. "It could be nothing. It could be terrible. Either way, we no longer have the luxury of waiting until the ground dries to check things out. We have to know if emergency measures need to be taken to secure the plate."