A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

At the Council’s invitation, Mayor Cotridge made his way to Targossas to confer with the Lumarchs, an uncertain future for Jaru lingering in his wake.

In the grand scheme of things, Jaru was naught but an inconsequential fishing village with a storied past, but many understood its significance historically and its value to the people of Targossas. It would need to be protected.

The Mayor and Council of Targossas met to decide how to proceed. Given the geographical distance between Jaru and the Dawnspear, it more closely bordered the city already knocking on its western door: Cyrene. If Targossas hoped to achieve anything, something would need to change.

It was Alyzar Al’Jafri who put forth the initial idea: build a length of road that would tie Jaru to the Raphaelan Highway once more – a connection lost with the destruction of Shallam. Cotridge moved swiftly, hiring a construction foreman and setting into motion the creation of the Peshwar Pass.

The plan was simple but not easy, and time was of the essence.

Targossas would need to gather the stone and wood required for each phase: the road itself, the abutments, the cofferdams, and the bridge. The citizens of the Dawnspear quickly got to work only to encounter their first roadblock in those intrinsically bound to Nature.

As axe met wood, the villagers of Eleusis felt the familiar pain of the forests crying out for salvation. The Earthmother’s village was no stranger to logging efforts, having dealt with it in times past within the Northern Ithmia, and so they collectively moved to eliminate the danger. Some chose words, while others chose sword and spear as labourers died by the dozens, but eventually Speaker Blackwillow and her Hierophants convinced the Targossians to source their wood ethically. An uneasy truce was established, though some wondered why Eleusis should allow them to continue their encroachment upon the Peshwar Delta and Pash Valley unobstructed.

This eliminated one problem, but exasperated the primary threat to the bridge’s completion. The foreman and Mayor knew that if Ashtan should conquer Jaru prior to the Peshwar Pass being finished, then all hope of realising the bridge’s completion would evaporate. Ethically sourced wood was not only more expensive but took far more time, and time was their immediate concern.

The race was on; the foreman and labourers of Jaru needed to finish the pass before Ashtan razed it and Jaru to the ground and stifled all hope in the process. Through dumb luck, overconfidence, or a rare gift bordering on mercy, the Ashtani horde never fully turned its gaze upon Jaru as the final stones settled into place.

Following a dedication ceremony performed by Dawnlord Myrddin and Herald Elyra, all eyes turned to Yen Jaydde-Stormcrow – the lead designer of the central keystone and the conceptual mind behind Sulaiman’s Span. With a grunt of effort, she placed it down as the keystone settled; the work was complete.

No one knows what effect the new Peshwar Pass or Sulaiman’s Span will have on the conflict raging across central Sapience, but for a brief moment Jaru forgot centuries of war, blood, and death, allowing themselves to bask in that rarest of commodities.

Joy.

~

Summary: After centuries of Jaru being disconnected from the Raphaelan Highway, Targossas finalised Sulaiman’s Span to reconnect the two via the Peshwar Pass.