Chapter 41.3- The Seadragon's Roar

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“What do you have for me now, Porvella?” I asked, stepping into the warehouse set aside for cement manufacturing.

“No good news, my lord. Production continues in line with expectations, but the limestone from the Crete mine is beginning to dry up.” She said.

“And why did no one bring this to my attention?” I asked, feeling my irritation begin to mount.

“The drop is barely noticeable. We can still produce in line with expectations like I said, my Lord. But the last four shipments have been shorter than the previous shipments. The shortages are mounting as well. The latest shipment had more missing than the one before and so on” She said.

“And how does production continue at pace with the shortages?”

“Efficiencies in our process. We waste less and less in making the cement. Assuming present gains continue, we can expect that in a matter of months, we can use less than two thirds of the limestone to achieve the same amount of cement” She said.

“Noted. But you should have still brought the shortages to my attention much earlier regardless” I said.

“Apologies my lord. Shall I explore changes with the formula in case the shortages continue?”

“No need. I will be looking into it. Continue production as scheduled” I said. Parvella was unique among my department heads. For glass, I had promoted the most skilled Apprentice from Myr in the art, and done the same for shipbuilding. But Cement was a completely new material. And in truth, I had done most of the R&D personally with only a few aids so it was just a matter of appointing someone who could scale production efficiently, and so I’d taken Laena’s advice and appointed a slave who used to work for the Rogare Bank of Lys. And of all the Division Heads, Parvella had been the standout performer by some margin.

“We’re going to have to head to Crete” I said to Ben as we stepped out. My ever-present shadow easily falling into step behind me as we did so.

“To figure out what’s wrong with the mine?” He asked.

“There’s nothing wrong with the mine. If anything had gone wrong with the mine, I would have found out in hours. There’s a reason Crete is one of the only islands with a complete tower and ravenry at this point.” I said. He nodded.

“Someone is stealing from me, and we are going to find out who would dare, and why they would think it wise”