Restoring a Temple (Kalix)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

80th Day of Spring, 512 AV "Not over 'ere," Minerva shouted, snapping her fingers at a couple of her coworkers. They looked at her and she pointed to their right. "'Ere." she said. They moved to the right, and gave her a questioning look. She sighed, and shot them an annoyed glance. "'At look like where I's pointin'?" she asked, jabbing her finger further right. Grumbling, the men moved further over. "Ya want me ta 'ave ta come over 'ere, boys?" she asked. They stopped their grumbling and looked behind her at the Automaton she brought with her to work every day, quickly shaking their heads. The animated crutches made her coworkers very uncomfortable, and she had been using that to her advantage. She was able to run things from a seated position, her injured foot elevated and resting on a pillow atop a stool. She never had to get up, since just threatening to get up made the men work faster. "'Ere," she said, waving with a downward motion. "Put 'er down 'ere." The men finally lowered the barrel they'd been lugging around to the ground, letting out relieved sighs. It was filled with mix for the mason's mortar, and it was quite heavy. Minerva insisted on everything being kept organized at the work site. Jacques certainly didn't seem to mind; in fact, every time he'd seen her forcing the men to keep things more organized, she'd received an approving nod. "An' start loadin' the bricks over there," she pointed further to the right. They were working on repairs for one of the city's temples, and there was a lot of masonry work to be done. She wanted to make sure that James had everything he needed in easy access. Keeping things where they were handy got the job done quite a lot quicker. Once she was sure the men were doing things right, she returned her attention to her own work. She was currently working on a carving for the temple's door handle. It was meant to be a wide wooden loop, with a heavy brass knocker hanging from the bottom. The ring would be mounted to the front of the door, with a brass plate attached behind it for the knocker to bang against. The ring also needed to be study enough to double as a handle to open the door. An identical pair of such rings were needed, one for each of the double doors that led into the temple. To make them as sturdy as possible the rings were each being made from a single piece of solid wood. She had cut the wood in an octagon, then drilled several wide holes into the center. A thin saw blade had then been inserted into the drilled holes, cutting between them until the central section was removed. She now had two rough, angular pieces of wood in her lap, and was starting with the chisels, chipping off pieces of wood around the rings to smooth them out and make them rounder.