The engine’s rhythm carried across the marsh before they could see anything of the installation itself. The noise spread over the open waterlogged ground in steady pulses, flattened by distance but impossible to miss. Wynn’s crew was somewhere beyond the rise of yellow marsh grass, working the main channel out of sight.

The ground here matched the rest of the marsh, wet soil under a thin crust, unstable footing, grass bending in the wind. But only three people stood on this side of the bank.

Beorn brought his ledger and positioned it against his forearm. Aestrith stood to his left, watching both the marsh and Hild with focused attention.

Hild stood with her arms hung loose at her sides as she watched the terrain.

She didn’t ask what to do. She walked directly to the bank and began.

The portion of earth she chose wasn’t part of the fully saturated interior. Since the engine had been lowering the local water for over an hour, the soil still retained internal structure instead of behaving like suspended slurry.

Hild pushed into it sideways, compressing the exposed wall inward and downward at the same time.

The earth shifted under her control. It resisted less than stone would have, but it also lacked the brittle instability she had encountered elsewhere. The compacted wall molded into a denser block and stayed there.

"It’s softer than stone,"

Hild spoke, keeping her eyes on the bank. "More like packed flour, it’s easier to move."

Aestrith glanced toward Beorn.

"Her power is stable," she said. "She’s also spending less effort overcoming the earth itself."

Beorn wrote that down immediately.

The compaction was more important than the raw displacement to him. If the builders guild crews excavated a channel and Hild reinforced the walls afterward, the banks might stay steady instead of slowly collapsing back into the channel over the following weeks. That alone justified the effort.

He watched her continue another few feet along the bank, smoothing and compacting the surface before he interrupted.

"That’s enough, well done. Try the interior next," he said.

Hild stepped away from the cut bank and moved deeper into the marsh. The ground changed within a few paces, grass gave way to dense marsh growth, and standing water filled the gaps between exposed roots.

She planted her feet carefully, testing the stability first, then attempted the same sideways push she had used on the bank.

The wet soil displaced outward.

For a moment, the pushed mass was compacted. Then the surrounding water surged back through the saturated ground, the soil collapsing inwardly from every direction simultaneously, equalizing pressure faster than she could maintain it.

Within seconds the marsh surface flattened completely, as though nothing had happened.

Hild frowned slightly and changed what she was doing.

This time she pushed downward instead of sideways, compressing from above to force the layer lower into the saturated ground. The surface dipped under the pressure.

Then displaced water flowed laterally beneath it and rose back up around the compressed portion in a widening ring. The portion of earth dissolved almost immediately.

"I can move it."

Hild said, annoyed by the failed compression, "But it won’t stay there. It just fills back in."

Aestrith watched closely.

"She can’t keep it together in the wet section. The energy disperses in every direction."

Beorn looked from the marsh to Hild.

"What do you think is the problem?" he asked.

"Not some dispersion."

Hild snorted and brushed mud from one hand against her coat. "It’s what happens after. The second I stop, the water comes back through the sides and underneath."

Beorn recorded that too.

Not necessarily a limitation of power. A limitation of medium.

The water redistributed itself through every available path the instant the pressure released and Hild’s ability dispersed. Unless she held it there indeterminately, no amount of earth manipulation would permanently compact the soil while the water remained beneath it.

Which justified the engine.

Drainage wasn’t supplemental to reclamation. It was the necessary first step. Lower the water first, then the earthwork became possible afterward.

The conclusion came easily into his mind, already expected. He wrote two concise lines in the ledger margin, then closed the book and looked back at Hild.

"Very well, come back to the bank," he said.

She returned with a sour expression.

Beorn pointed toward a stretch of drier ground beside the swamp. By itself, the portion of earth was still too wet and unstable for normal excavation, even if the engine had already begun pulling moisture away from the ground.

"Cut a trench here," he said. "Five feet long. Try to match the channel depth and banks."

Hild observed the soil for minutes, considering how much water remained beneath the surface.

Then she began.

The combined sideways and downward pressure worked here far better than it had in the interior marsh. The ground still had enough cohesion to support the displacement without collapse.

The excavation proved slower than simple compaction because the removed soil needed somewhere to go. Hild redirected it outward in steady pushes, building low mounds along both sides as the trench deepened.

One foot.

Two.

Four.

Then finally five.

The walls remained intact. Slightly rough, but stable. There was no immediate collapse, nor a water surge reclaiming the cut.

Hild straightened and exhaled deeply.

"That’s it," she said.

Beorn stepped closer to inspect the trench. It was narrow and imperfect, but technically sound. More important, it had been cut entirely by her ability in partially drained soil without requiring a full guild excavation crew.

"That’s it. We will plan for you to act after the engine drains the marsh."

He gestured toward the completed trench.

Hild looked toward the distant engine noise.

"So I follow the machine."

She said it plainly. It was hard to gauge if she was bothered by it, or just indifferent to manual labor.

"Not quite. First, the engine will work out the deeper marsh."

Beorn said. He flipped the ledger open again. "Then the workers crews perform the heavy excavation. Meanwhile, you will work in between those phases. Once a portion of earth partially clears and before the next crew arrives, you set up the trenches and the banks."

He wrote another line beneath the others.

"There will be a minor issue with the schedule, but that can be easily resolved."

The unspoken taboo sat underneath the remark. Crew rotations created the necessary gaps in time no one would be present, and they both understood why those gaps existed for without naming them aloud.

Hild watched the trench she had created. Then the open marsh beyond it. Then the distant pulse of the engine. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Whatever you say."