The next day Formation and Array Theory. Once again me and Magnar were first. Elian arrived slightly later this time, but it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to blast Magnar again anyway.

  Professor Hargrave arrived soon after. He did a quick count, sweeping the class with his gaze, then his eyes locked on me.

  “Oh, so the little researcher still has the face to show up! So did a week of research give you any insights we might have missed during over seven hundred years since the discovery of formations?” He asked looking at me with interest.

  “No. I did not find anything, but don’t you think that asking me after only one week while you guys stagnated for over half a millennium is too much?” I ask putting accent on too much.

  “Perhaps, but I also think your ambition is too big. We stagnated for over half a millennium because there is nothing more to see.”

  “Or perhaps you lack ambition, curiosity and the guts to do something even if it might fail.”

  “I’m not going to keep arguing with you. But you better find something. My colleagues aren’t happy I let a snotty brat like you roam in there.”

  I shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it. I’m trying to figure it out as well. I have a feeling it’s something that should be obvious to me but I keep spinning in circles. You don’t need to worry, you’ll be among the first I announce if I figure out what it is.”

  “Well, then, that concludes this charade. Everyone pay attention.” He proceeded to introduce the aether gathering formations and described the way to arrange three of them. Then he moved on to ways to disable them.

  “Amongst the best materials to insulate the formation and render it useless are sand, slime goo, wool, and other textiles. Usually, most array experts would carry dehydrated slime into dungeons to disarm traps.”

  My eyes lost focus again as soon as he said ‘sand’. With all the other materials my mind went into full throttle. They all share one thing in common. They are insulants. Especially for noise, or at least all of them besides the slime goo… I had no idea what sort of properties it had…

  “That’s it!” I stood up, my eyes locked on the professor.

  “What is it now?” He asked his tone forceful, his eyes also jumping to me, staring with an intensity that could kill.

  “I have an idea about how the array works, I’ll explain once I can prove it. Also, could you please show us some slime goo? I never seen a slime before and I might need some for an experiment...” I explained rapidly, feeling a bit embarrassed for interrupting like that.

  From how aether gathered around me as I sat back down I was quite sure everyone else was looking at me. It was comfortable, if you could relax under the prickling sensation it created that is. ‘This is not good… I might turn in a showman…’

  Magnar too stole a glance at me then shook his head. “What?” I asked in a hushed voice. “If I figure it out we will save a lot of money in the future”

  “You’re embarrassing!” He replied from the corner of his mouth.

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Well sorry your ass is simple minded!’ I paid attention to the rest of the lecture trying to glean any other information that might help. Unfortunately, the clues ended after the teacher took out some bluish dust and hydrated it to create a gelatinous, viscous and slippery mass. The professor moved on to connections and ways to add more supply points from it.

  As we walked to the Alchemy class I kept thinking on how to register the vibration. I needed wavelengths and amplitude if I were to prove my idea. With me sunk into thought, Magnar could only watch me as we walked.

  “What do you think it is?” Magnar asked curious.

  “Vibration.”

  “Vibration?”

  “You know how people control aether?”

  “We do so through focus, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “The brain has a vibration it emits with each thought…” I answered trying to somehow simplify the concept. “And that vibration… that vibration is what tells aether what to do. The same with the array, it creates a vibration that makes the aether gather.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Ok… But how does sand stop the array then if the sand contains aether too?”

  “The sand has sedimented aether in it, same as any other material. The vibration is transmitted through aether, but if the aether is deeply rooted and it cannot transmit the vibration further, and the space around is also well covered in that same sort of aether, then the array will simply stop working.”

  “So you are pretty sure this is what is happening.”

  “Yes. I just need to build something that can prove it. Just need a way to remove the influence of other vibrations…” I stopped in place as soon as I said that. “Or perhaps not… It is acting this way under the influence of existing noise…”

  “You lost me…” he said scratching the back of his head. “Anyway just hurry up, I don’t want to be late again, no need to test the patience of the professors.”

  I shrugged and quickened my pace into a light run alongside Magnar. None of the other students would run like me to keep up with this giant so I didn’t know what he was worried about.

  We took our seats and waited. The class passed quickly as I ignored most of it. There were some more plants introduced but nothing about how to grow them and tend to them, so it was almost useless. Information I could learn by myself in the library.

  During the strategy class, listening to the praise the teacher mindlessly sung to nobles I remembered what I was told during beastology. Perhaps it wasn’t that only nobles achieved anything, but that anyone with the potential to achieve something had the mental capacity to breakthrough to fifth stage and establish a noble household…

  That would explain why there were only nobles mentioned in all books… Yet it did not relieve my distaste, nor did it distract me for long…

  In the end I settled on a design similar to a seismograph. Using a tuning fork made out of layered conductive and insulating materials to aether, it would catch the vibrations traveling through the flow and note them down.

  I would need first some time to gather basic environmental data so that I could distinguish the actual vibration and wave function that cause the aether to gather, but it would not take more than a few days to have enough data for a rough result.

  The difficult part was constructing an equation out of the wave diagram that the instrument produced…

  After we were freed from the last class, I quickly rushed to the tower, where I smelted nails to craft the tuning fork needed. I used a premade cast and throughout the process I infused aether in it in four layers. Two connected layers had a forward flow, another two had a backward flow disposition and one layer was insulating.

  I took a small jar of clay and fired it over the forge. A quick solution to a big problem. The jar had a small hole in its bottom. After I finished firing it, I used aether to cool it faster, then pulled a thread through the hole.

  I tied on the opposite end of the thread a nail. This gave me a way to supply ink and an instrument to leave the traces thinly. In order to further ensure clarity, I used aether to make a small groove running from top to the very peak of the nail. This created a place where ink would gather due to capillary forces.

  I made a frame using wood. I positioned the tuning fork, through which I had drilled a thin hole, horizontally on the frame and then passed the thread through the tuning fork and placed the jar at the top. I tied the nail back and the device was ready… At least its upper part. Now I needed a way to supply paper and keep its flow steady in time…

  In the end I had to carve some gears out of wood and made a stone in counterweight. The stone would slowly move down, draw the wire and turn the wheels on which paper would be furled. When the stone reaches the ground, the machine stops.

  An easy and primitive solution.

  I then hauled the device to the arrays room. I had dismissed Magnar since I needed quiet and no opportunity to let my mind lose focus through the crafting and design period. I installed everything in the array room and left for the market. I needed ink and paper.

  With the unexpected and unplanned expenditure approaching I took step after step closing in on the ink shop where I got the last grindstone from. My only hope was that they ground the stone to a powder thin enough to not be filtered out of the water by the thread…

  ‘Oh how I miss modern day… I keep having to worry about basic stuff here…’ If worse came to be I would have just used some fruit juice. If I heated the paper carefully after the lines would become apparent.

  As sundown approached I entered the shop, snoring was the first thing that hit my ears. Loud snores from a man I did not recognize. His feet were on the table and his face was covered by a hat. I stepped forward. Once at the counter, I found no better way than to slam my hand on it.

  “Bang!”

  The loud noise startled the man shopkeeper awake. Due to his sudden movements he lost his balance and fell backwards with his chair. He tremblingly got back up, leaning from one side to the other until he caught the counter and pulled himself up.

  “You brat! What do you want?”

  “Ink.”

  “How much?”

  “One measure…”

  “Strange way to put it, but alright six coppers for a bottle.”

  I took out the money and paid. “Do you have paper here?” I asked for the other thing I needed.

  “Yes, how much do you want?”

  “Can I first see the size of the sheets?”

  “Sure.” He went in the back and brought a few in the front.

  “How much for a sheaf?”

  “Two large coppers.”

  I gritted my teeth and took out the money for two sheaves. They had twenty-five sheets each. I returned as darkness started to settle. Sticking with resin one sheet to another and rolling the result up, I had obtained the last two ingredients to my success.

  I quietly prepared for sleep. During my meditation a thought crossed my mind. I could make the identification of the wave function easier by trying to produce the vibration myself with aether.

  The next months will bring a rush of study and work to finish my projects, will my eight years old body keep up?

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Cato is convinced that Aether operates on vibration and frequency, essentially treating magic like a branch of physics. Do you prefer magic systems that are scientifically explainable (Hard Magic), or do you prefer it when magic remains mystical and unexplained (Soft Magic)?