**TO:** Editorial Board, Crimson Leaf Publishing
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor
**PROJECT:** Cypress Bend
**SUBJECT:** Continuity & Accuracy Review – Chapter 41 ("Arthur's Span")

This chapter serves as a pivotal emotional and structural transition for the community. However, as the keeper of the "Cypress Bend" canon, I have identified several precision errors and physical inconsistencies that threaten the internal logic of the world. My focus is strictly on the established facts of the setting and the physical movement within this scene.

### 1. STRENGTHS
*   **The Branding Consistency:** The use of a "wood-burning iron" to mark the timber is consistent with the established level of technology for the Bend. It aligns with the "weavers and smiths" mentioned in the community lineup.
*   **Material Integrity:** The transition from "red clay" at the grave site to "seasoned oak and iron bolts" for the bridge properly distinguishes between the natural terrain of the riverbank and the industrial efforts of the town.

### 2. CONCERNS (Priority Order)

**A. The "Bell" Contradiction (Chapter 41 internal vs. Previous chapters)**
*   **The Issue:** The text states, "the iron bell... had been salvaged from the old ruins upriver, a heavy, soot-stained thing that Arthur had insisted be mounted before the first plank was even laid."
*   **Contradiction:** In the opening of the chapter, the bridge is described as "nearly finished" and "nearly complete," yet the bell is already "perched on the temporary scaffolding of the bridge’s western tower."
*   **Accuracy Check:** If the bell was mounted "before the first plank was even laid," the narrative implies the tower was built first. However, the chapter later states that Silas and the crew "finish the Span today" by seating the "center-stone" and "secondary planks." If they are just now connecting the two sides, the stability of a "western tower" holding a "heavy, soot-stained" iron bell on "temporary scaffolding" is a structural anomaly. How did they get a heavy iron bell up a tower on an unfinished bridge?

**B. Location Inconsistency: The "Center-Stone" on a Timber Bridge**
*   **The Issue:** Elara shouts, "We need the center-stone seated before the sun hits the peak!"
*   **Contradiction:** The bridge is established in this chapter as a "massive timber structure" and a "skeletal giant of seasoned oak."
*   **Fact Check:** A timber-frame bridge uses a "keystone" logic only if it is a stone arch. Timber bridges rely on central beams or trusses. To refer to a "center-stone" in a wooden structure is a terminology error that contradicts the stated materials of the bridge.

**C. Timeline/Atmosphere Discrepancy (Chapter 41 internal)**
*   **The Issue:** The burial begins in a "humid morning" that feels like "the teeth of winter." By the time the bridge is finished, "the sun beginning to dip toward the horizon" suggests a full day of labor.
*   **Contradiction:** Silas uses a wood-burning iron he "kept heating in a small brazier nearby" during the morning funeral. He marks the wood *after* the burial but *before* the final hours of construction.
*   **Logic Gap:** If the iron was heating during the funeral (morning), it would not remain at "angry orange" heat for the duration of the burial without constant tending, which the "motionless" crowd did not provide. Furthermore, the smoke is described as "still thin and ghostly" at the end of the day (dusk) when the traveler arrives. An oak brand does not smoke for 8–10 hours after the iron is removed.

**D. Spatial Logic: The "Far Bank" and the "Uncharted Territories"**
*   **The Issue:** Silas looks at the "far bank, where the dark treeline of the uncharted territories pressed against the water’s edge."
*   **Contradiction:** After crossing, the text says, "Silas turned back to look at the town... Cypress Bend looked small."
*   **Audit:** The narrative establishes the "far bank" as the uncharted wilderness. However, when the traveler appears at the end, he is standing at the "western entrance" (where the town/grave is) and looking *toward* the crowd on the far bank. If the traveler is coming *to* the Bend, he should be coming from the uncharted side *toward* the town, or the crowd should still be on the town-side. Crossing into the "uncharted territories" for the first time as a group, only to have a random traveler show up on the road they just left, creates a spatial loop.

### 3. AMBIGUITIES
*   **The "Gap":** The text mentions a "ten-foot drop" in the middle. Later, Silas guides the "tongue of the beam into the waiting groove of the pier support." If the bridge is a span, the beams connect to the piers. A ten-foot gap in the "middle" implies a missing span, not just a missing stone.

### VERDICT: MINOR FLAGS
The emotional weight is high, but the technical details of the bridge (Timber vs. Stone terminology) and the spatial orientation of the characters at the climax (Who is on which bank?) need a precision pass to maintain the "Future/Industrial" realism of the setting.

**Action Required:**
1.  Change "center-stone" to "king-post" or "central span."
2.  Clarify the traveler’s direction—is he arriving from the wilderness or the known world?
3.  Address the smoking brand timeline (it shouldn't still be smoking at dusk if he branded it in the morning).