Outside the city of Yarzat, a vast swarm of workers toiled under the hot sun, their figures scattered across the barren earth like ants in a field. Over 2,500 men, employed underthe princess , dug with shovels, sweat dripping from their brows as they labored to carve a path for progress. The massive construction were the preparation for the aqueduct—and their current task was to dig a canal to channel the flow.
This canal, stretching far into the horizon, would eventually run from Yarzat to a lower point of dislevel where the pontini—stone arches to carry the aqueduct—were planned to rise in the coming winter months. For now, their orders were clear: a trench two and a half meters wide, half a meter deep, cut precisely into the earth.
