We quickly got to work. First off was modifying the floor. I couldn’t place a stove on a wooden floor, or I might risk burning down the tower. So, we brought in blocks to build up from below. Taking out bricks from the wall and placing in the new ones we chiseled on the spot we made a support on which we could build the stove.

  First step however was to cut the floorboards and adjust them to the new support. Bringing in more cinder stone blocks we started working on the actual stove. So, a side draft had to be placed on the side of the stove and throwing all the smoke outside.

  The actual cooking was done over an iron sheet which stood over the burning fire. Just like when we made the kiln, the door to the fireplace was made out of several bricks that were not stuck to the others. Another similarity was the fact that we made a grill on which the burning material was to be placed.

  This all allowed good airflow and easy cleaning, but if it remained at this there would be only one heat setting, that being: too hot to cook. As we were, it was hard to come up with anything good, but by placing a metal sheet which was the size of the air channel in the chimney of the side draft, metal sheet that was connected to a thin metal rod, we made it so that by twisting the rod, the smoke evacuation could be stopped.

  Out of wood I sculpted a handle with a clap. Putting the handle on the rod and carving a few holes on the chimney, we now had a way to control the smoke outflow and thus control temperature.

  We completed the set with an additional door for the lower opening used to clean the soot and allow fresh air intake, so that when the food was done both oxygen intake and smoke outflow could be blocked, leaving behind charcoal, that could be used to get the fire started next cooking session.

  Only problem I was contemplating was how to make the door of the fireplace fully stop smoke from leaking out inside when the outflow was stopped. In the end I used resin and a piece of rope. We coated the rope in resin and dug half a channel in the door and another one in the door frame of the stove.

  We fixed the rope in place and placed the door in. So that the rope would not thin under heat due to drying up and so that it wouldn’t somehow start burning, I made it so that one of the rope ends was submerged in water.

  This gave me a functional stove that was several times more advanced than what my parents had back home in Rovandel. The only thing missing, were the cooking ware. The knives weren’t going to be a problem, but the pots, pans and bowls…

  As the day was nearing its end, I built a proper pottery wheel. I took out some clay, got a bit of water next to me and started working. First by adding a bit of water to the clay to make it softer, then every minute while working on the first real piece of pottery I ever made I had to dip my fingers in the water.

  This continuous addition of water ensured the worked surface stayed slippery so that it could be easily molded while the wheel was spinning at great speed. The result was a somewhat good-looking bowl. It paled in comparison to other works I saw, but it would do.

  Magnar tried his hand at pottery too, and honestly? He only made the clay unusable for a while. He failed so many times because he forgot to add more water to his fingers or because he squeezed too hard that it wasn’t even funny.

  His repeated attempts only left him with an unusable portion of clay as too much water got mixed in it and was too soft as a result. It couldn’t stand at all, so it couldn’t be reused for today. After I took back the helm I used the clay, including the one he put out of business, and mixed it all.

  In the end I had two pans and two pots with three bowls that I managed to finish with greater and greater speed as time passed.

  I left them out to dry as the kiln was still too hot to open and wasn't finished baking. Besides, if I were to place them in right away, considering how much moisture they contained, they would most probably crack and shatter.

  As darkness came down and Magnar left, I brought in more water, showered and went inside. Drying up with aether was such a convenient thing to do... And it looked cool too, steam raising from the skin and all. Most of all though it gave a sense of power.

  Going up the stairs I planned out my course of action. It would have been great if I could have taken the device back... I could have started working on getting a feeling for the vibration generated by the aether gathering formation. But alas, I could only try to emulate it by remembering the geometry of the wave graph.

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  I took a seat next to my bed and let my consciousness sink deeper. My attention moved, down from the upper dan tian to the fuzzy warm glow of the middle dan tian, to the cold lower dan tian.

  I let my consciousness enter my pool of aether, where chunks of aether were floating in an unmoving state. Aether was flowing and swirling inside. It was entering from all around, a flow formed around the aether pool brought it down below, from where it rose and joined a spiraling motion. Its flow then continued upward with a spin along the vertical axis of the body. The chunks were stationary in the flow, places where it constricted, allowing more aether to course through less space.

  I focused on these chunks, nudging them slightly. I wanted to try and recreate, based on their properties, the effect of the formation, creating an always active gathering formation within my aether pool. This would mean that even asleep I'd have greater efficiency in cultivation and my recovery speed would be increased.

  If it worked, then there was a possibility I could influence the affinities I'd get too. It was a treasure trove of possibilities that I needed to unlock for my own good.

  I didn't need to move the concentrated aether that made chunks, I needed to change the places where it condensed, and this posed a far greater challenge.

  I ended the session without succeeding. I was relying on the spaces between chunks and on their size to create vibrational pulses as the aether decompressed in its flow. It would have been too monstrous if I succeeded on the first try, especially since I had no feel for the vibration.

  I drifted into sleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. Next day, after the mandatory assembly of the class, Magnar and I returned to the tower. After a quick checkup of the kiln which confirmed that we’ll be able to open it later today, we started working on the heating system.

  First, we lay a foundation for the furnace that would generate the heat, unlike the kiln or the forge, this furnace had to work for way longer periods of time as I needed the tower to stay warm day and night. That meant continuous burning and a higher risk of cracking the cinder stone.

  So instead of using as much cinder stone, we used more clay mixed with bricks and ash. For the grill I actually spent about twenty iron billets and hammered them together. This was because I had no way to avoid cracking otherwise.

  By the end of the day, we already finished making three side drafts that separated the basement in three rooms, distributed like a radioactivity sign. The air would quickly rise through them and be led up the tower. To save materials we connected the chimney from the stove to the side draft from the furnace below.

  Three more chimneys were now inside the tower half finished. They still needed to go up to the attic to allow the smoke and hot air out only after it heated the entire tower. With the chimneys taking up more space, the tower finally started looking populated.

  To finish the burning chamber, I had used five iron sheets to separate the fire from the clay, such that even if the clay cracked, it wouldn’t move and keep serving its purpose throughout the winter. The sheet that was on the side with the door had a more complex cut pattern.

  This allowed me to fold some of it outward until I obtained hinges. As such out of all the fireplaces I made, this was the only one with a proper door that remained connected to the body of the furnace. To complete it I made a simple locking mechanism using a spinning bent bar and insulated it the same way as the stove.

  With Magnar gone again I returned to meditation. Another failed attempt at building the array internally. I remained calm and tried again another possible configuration. The speed at which I could shift the focus zones grew and I felt my aether stores grow.

  After another failure I went to sleep feeling frustrated. Back to a new first day of a new week. The day of Arken, or Foundation. During our first class, history of the kingdom, Professor Hargrave’s colleague burst into the class with a desperate expression.

  “Is Cato here?” Then his eyes locked on me and Magnar. “You two! Come with me quick!” Then he stormed off. We looked at our history professor confused. Too bad that the professor was just as dumbfounded as us…

  We both rose from our seat and were about to leave when Hargrave’s colleague returned. “Do you not understand what it means to move quickly?” He grabbed the two of us and started running.

  I never thought I’d experience something like those cartoon scenes where I was dragged by the hand by someone moving so fast that I’d just be fluttering in the back like a flag. And yet here I was. The ridiculous situation was that Magnar was the same…

  Soon we were carried back to the array room.

  “Hargrave… I don’t know what you did but he turned mad! He didn’t sleep or eat in three days. He is frantically rambling on and on about the gathering aether formation. You made the mess; you find some way to fix it. He hasn’t been to any of his classes, and I have to substitute for him…”

  The professor left us there and ran off again. Magnar looked at me dead in the eye.

  “I told you. You turned him mad in a bit more than a week of continued attendance…”

  “How was I supposed to know he’d know no restraint? What do we do?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  “You hold him down, I run away with the device?”

  “Why should I hold down the old fogey? You hold him down.”

  I stared at Magnar as if he was an idiot.

  “Are you hearing yourself? I’m tiny!”

  “And I’m just in aether gathering… Besides… I may be your friend, but I won’t hug a crazy old man!”

  “Just for a few moments, please…”

  We sunk into silence staring in each other’s eyes. In the end Magnar’s shoulders fell and he sighed.

  “Ha… This is the only time! You owe me!”

  “Thanks! You wait outside and tackle him if he follows me. Block the door as soon as I’m out.”

  I looked at the door and got ready. I sure hoped Hargrave won’t throw me out the window for trying this…

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Cato is attempting to construct a physical Gathering Array inside his own Dan Tian using floating Aether shards. Do you think this will result in infinite passive mana regeneration, or is he just building a bomb inside his own gut?