The bread was still too hot when Carlos tore it open but the consistency was soft, almost like homemade bread from Earth.
He changed hands immediately, earning a look from Mira before she pushed an empty plate toward him.
Hollis stood beside the new oven with flour across the front of his cloth. He was watching Carlos closely enough that Carlos realised he had become the first test.
"You already checked it?"
"Yes," Mira said. "Eat it, eat it!" She chirped.
Carlos took a bite from the edge. The outside broke under his teeth while the centre stayed soft. He tried another piece without reaching for the bowl she had placed beside it.
"Oh my god, this is good," Carlos muttered.
"I know, righttt???"
Hollis’s shoulders eased.
"The oven holds its heat well, my lord. We had to move the first tray sooner than I expected. The next one came out better."
Mira opened the preparation result for Carlos. The bread had reached High quality, without using the expensive ingredients she needed for the advanced food. Good flour, proper handling and an oven that suited the work had been enough for this batch.
Carlos looked at the loaf again. He had paid for the lodge last evening and already wanted to ask what came after bread.
"How much can you do without making yourself run between the fires all day?"
Hollis looked toward the Hearthkeeper helping him. "With her here, the ordinary bread you asked for. Once she knows how I want the dough kept, I can prepare the next batch while she handles the trays."
"Keep teaching her," Carlos said. "We will need more than one person who knows this."
Mira handed the Hearthkeeper a piece too. She tasted it while Hollis opened the next oven, then hurried over when he pointed out the colour he wanted along the bottom of the loaves.
Carlos finished his breakfast sitting on an overturned empty crate outside. Cosmic joined him with a bowl and immediately reached for the other half of the bread.
"Don’t you know how to ask?" Carlos spoke with a smirk.
"Ugh, can I have that?"
Carlos passed it over, smiling despite himself.
Their first ten-meal order for the Stonehearth agreement was ready after breakfast. Mira kept it to a preparation the Hearthkeepers already knew, with Hollis’s bread staying for Ironroot until she had decided how it fitted the buyer’s portions.
Carlos sent the accepted meals and received 66 Iron Ore. He checked the material name before putting it away. He had enough trades using Iron now that it would have been easy to read past the difference.
The original buyer’s twelve portions and Dorian’s six went later that morning. Both payments arrived at their agreed amounts. Cosmic received his 90 Copper Coins from Dorian’s order, then returned to his own warehouse before another outgoing trade needed him.
One further delivery remained on the original buyer’s current three-day renewal. Carlos told Mira they would discuss the next renewal tomorrow, after seeing the day’s work with the new kitchen.
He did not need to stand in the doorway until then. There were other things he had wanted to see.
Kaia found him near the Training Yard and handed him his shield.
"You asked for a proper formation. Stand there."
Carlos looked at the place she indicated. Brann was facing it with his hammer resting on the ground.
"Am I supposed to stop him?"
"You are supposed to see the gap before he gets through it."
The nearest Militia moved beside Carlos. A Guardian stood on its other side, shield turned just enough to leave room for the next person. Kaia made them walk forward together, then told Brann to approach.
Carlos watched the hammer too long. Brann shifted toward the Militia, and Carlos turned after him, opening a space at his own shoulder.
Kaia caught his shield and pulled it back into line.
"There. That is where the smaller enemy goes."
Carlos looked at the space, annoyed because it was obvious now she had pointed at it.
They tried again. This time he watched Brann’s body instead of following the hammer, keeping the Militia beside him until Kaia called a halt.
The Guardian on the far side moved neatly with them. One of the two summoned yesterday, Carlos remembered. It was learning the same arrangement without needing to forget all the bad habits he had gathered himself.
Brann came closer once the shields lowered.
"Slow turn," he told Carlos.
"I noticed."
"Again?"
Carlos looked at Kaia. She had already stepped back to give them room.
He practised until his forearm began feeling the shield’s weight. Brann did not swing the hammer at him, but the Guardian moved fast enough to make every poorly chosen step very clear.
When Carlos left, he was sweating and considerably less interested in telling Kaia how to arrange her people.
Rowan was waiting near the Rare fields. Tarin had brought the morning Crownroot harvest into storage, and the Dryad wanted Carlos to see the young growth beside the parent.
"Not ready to separate yet," Rowan said, lifting one leaf. "But there is another neck forming here."
Carlos crouched. He could see the difference once Rowan held the growth aside: one piece belonged to the main crown, while a smaller centre had begun making its own leaves.
"How many can you keep?"
"As many as we can root properly. I will separate this one when its roots can support it. Pulling it away now would make us wait longer, which I don’t want."
"Then keep it growing. I want a row of these, Rowan. Mira has found people who will keep buying what comes from them."
The Dryad smiled at the thought of a whole row. Carlos knew that expression. He had seen it when Rowan was an old man with a bent back, and it looked strangely familiar on his young face.
At the enclosure, Sela showed him the two plants grown from their inherited Impactburst seeds.
They were developing under the recorded conditions, but she kept their growth record separate from the three held fruits already in the padded carriers.
Carlos left those with her and went back toward the kitchens. A few residents were eating the new bread near the path.
One tore a piece off for the person beside him, then pointed toward Hollis through the open doorway.
The Baker saw them looking and gave an uncertain nod before returning to his tray. Carlos stopped long enough to watch that too.
He had wanted Ironroot to become strong enough that the people here could do more than worry about tomorrow.
"Are you enjoying, everyone?" Carlos moved forward and asked, which got him a lot of satisfying answers.
He knew they weren’t lying too as favorability didn’t lie; that was the only constant in this ever-changing lord world.