Foundry of Small Gods

In Brindlemark, only the classed may repair public works. Rowan Vale has failed the class examination three times, which means he is allowed to copy maintenance reports but not tighten a bolt, patch a pipe, or touch the ancient systems that keep the city alive. When a drought-struck well answers an illegal diagnostic slate, Rowan discovers the old empire hid small gods inside its civic works. A clean well can teach endurance. A true road can teach speed. A living foundry can teach creation. The catch is simple: every repair must serve a community, and every upgrade creates an obligation. Hunted for possessing founder technology, Rowan flees to Ashwake, a sealed industrial district everyone calls dead. It is not dead. It is waiting. To survive, Rowan must rebuild Ashwake into a refuge for the unclassed before guilds, magistrates, and the Covenant of Nine Spires arrive to strip the place for divine fuel. He cannot outfight them. Not yet. But he can measure, mend, bargain, build, and prove that a town can level its people if its people are willing to trust one another.