The engine was finished.
That was the first thing Beorn processed when he stepped through the foundry door. The machine occupied the room in a way the separate parts had not prepared him for. He paused just inside, taking in the configuration.
The rocking beam spanned the chamber overhead, its pivot bolted into a ceiling bracket. One arm dropped cleanly to the piston rod, while the other extended toward the pump linkage at the far wall. The boiler sat beneath the casting, compact and iron-dark. A cold water pipe ran from the overhead tank down to the injection valve at the boiler's side.
He evaluated the proportions and immediately felt it wasn't quite right. The entire device looked like a prototype, working in concept but not yet precise.
The air carried the sharp, mineral scent of heated iron. Beneath it, something harsher lingered, the scent of burned cloth and skin.
