Magnar did not return that day. I was left with more than half of the rocks to chisel by myself. I took care of them slowly. Working absent mindedly… ‘What were the chances for rings to signify the same thing in this world? What am I even supposed to do about it…’

  Before me lay neatly ordered the hollowed blocks that would make up the chimney. I went to fill my bucket of water. I needed more to finish building it all. Then I’d have to go buy the bellows and the other tools necessary.

  I pulled on the string that would release the water through the pipe. The water rushed forth with a gurgle but stopped short of even half a bucket.

  “Ha… Nothing seems to go my way today…” I muttered. “And I have to take a shower too after this… Damn it, I have to go fetch water…”

  I grabbed the second barrel, the intact one, and went out. I started drawing water from the well. The bucket shook as I was pulling it up, each time some water would go over the edge and fall back in. Each time it felt like the water hit me in the head. For some reason I remembered, years ago, how water kept dropping on my head.

  My jaw clenched and I stopped, my muscles tense. I madly poured aether through the rope making it sit solidly still. I started pulling again. Slowly my fingers, whitened by the strength I was putting in my grip, returned to normal. I heaved out, my shoulders dropped. I pulled out the bucket and poured the water in the barrel.

  I repeated the process until the barrel was full. I carried it back to the tower. I filled my work bucket, then leaped and poured the rest in the suspended barrel. I took my bucket back to the forge area. One cup at a time and one block at the time I fixed the chimney in place.

  Stacking more blocks next to it. I kept adjusting the height to reach the top comfortably to grind the stone unto each other. As I got higher the blocks started to shift together so I had to rearrange them top to bottom. While trying to fix the top one however, I pushed too hard; I barely managed to get the chimney to not fall.

  In the process, I pushed my foothold down. Several blocks of volcanic tuff shattered under me as I started to fall. The sharp endings and edges were getting closer and closer as I reinforced my body. I fell on them and further shattered them.

  Stirring a cloud of dust with each sweep of my hand, I dusted myself off, then I brought a few more blocks and carefully rearranged everything from top to bottom. Checking the alignment one last time, I decided that it was time for the final step. Lighting it up with wood to get it to dry up faster.

  I took all the wood leftovers and put them in the inverted pyramid cavity. Using aether to light it up, I waited. Soon playful light danced on my face as flames rose from the wood. The side draft also did its job, drawing the flames and raising smoke towards it.

  I left it alone. There was no need for me to stay next to it any longer. The design was of such a nature that no matter what all the wood would burn. With the fire starting from the lowest point, rising igniting everything above. As it burned it sucked in air from below.

  The lowest piece of wood would burn fiercely and fast. As it loses volume and turns to ash the pieces above fall and lower themselves, collapsing towards the lowest point with an intense air flow. The process repeats itself until nothing is left.

  Ignoring the burning wood, I went to wash. The cold, fresh water drops hit my skin, absorbing heat from me upon impact, splashing around further, trickling down. The spreading coldness deepened my breath, rousing my mind. My awareness growing.

  So many mistakes today… All descending from my talk with Cassia. I stopped the water and dried myself with aether, a surge of warmth blanketing me.

  “Ha…” I sighed as I got dressed. I entered the tower and went up the stairs. Throwing myself in the bed I got lost in thought. ‘Why do people care so much about power? Why do they care about extravagance and comfort… Is there nothing else they can do? How could anyone push their kid like that…’

  For the first time since I came in this world, I felt like skipping my meditation session. I wasn’t all there with my mental state… ‘I could fall into qi deviation like this…’ But I couldn’t accept my thoughts either. In the end I flipped myself over on my belly and pushed myself up.

  I positioned myself on the floor. Crossing my legs in the lotus position, overlapping my hands palms facing upwards and touching my thumbs I started going through the five healing sounds, trying to adjust my mental state, even if just a little. Concluding the session with the triple burner sound, a Heee resonating from the throat through the teeth, I let the room fall into silence.

  I closed my eyes and regulated my breath. I forgot about time as I sunk my awareness within. After about an hour or two, I switched positions, laying down and continued to meditate until I drifted to sleep.

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  The same drill followed tomorrow. Waking up, meditating and boredly going through classes. I went and visited the array room. Focusing all of my senses I once again tried to identify the reason why aether gathered like that. Even with aether poured in… The aether would only flow through the circuit and not influence the flow outside…

  And yet the phenomenon in front of me denied the notion and my understanding. For an entire hour I tried to identify the mechanism behind it, but failed… My hands started shaking again, my shoulders grew stiff, and my eyes were losing focus intermittently.

  The part of me that tried to use this as a distraction failed. Instead, my distress grew, and my mood worsened. I avoided Magnar today, my thoughts to much of a tangled mess to deal with this. I sighed. ’No point in just staying here… I can’t focus anyway.’

  I went out of the academy, walking towards the market. ‘I needed to get my hands on some good clay and some broken bricks… Shouldn’t cost me much…’

  Soon the market unfolded before me again, with all its hustle and bustle. The cacophony of sounds that once felt lively and a sign of people’s wellbeing now hit my ears and aggravated my already disturbed mind. I shook my head, trying to throw off the sense of anger that grew for no reason.

  I reached the pottery shop. Well shop would be too much, it was a workshop, but all the selling was done outside. A large collection of stands and various pots, saucepans, cauldrons and even spoons, all made out of clay. The shop keeper threw a weird glance.

  I was wearing the uniform of the academy, but no glittering thread adorned me. As such I was a commoner coming over. Usually, commoner kids wouldn’t have money. It would be only around the third or fourth year that most students of common blood would start earning money through missions.

  I was also younger, the average recruitment age was around eleven-twelve years, which in return only furthered my weirdness. But his face soon turned into a smile, and he clasped his hands, who knows what conclusion he reached?

  “What may I help you with, little one?”

  I barely resisted rolling my eyes. “I want some clay and some broken bricks if you have any here.”

  “Oh? And how much clay would you want?” The shop owner asked me intrigued.

  “How are you selling it?”

  “We aren’t usually selling clay… Few would even ask for it. Follow me.”

  We headed in the building behind the big stall.

  “Oi, Orvan, go outside keep an eye on the wares.” He led me further in as another voice answered him. “Sure!” We entered the workshop, and he stopped before a pile of sacks. They were all roughly the same size. I picked one up and weighed it in my hand. About twenty-thirty kilograms per sack…

  “I’ll take two of these. I still need any form of baked pottery or broken bricks you might have.”

  “You can grab those from outside, take as many as you want no need to pay, rather we spend a lot on having them hauled out every once in a while, so take as many as you need.”

  “Good. Do you have any more of these sacks that are empty?”

  “Yes, but those will cost you.”

  “No problem. I need four. How much would it be?”

  “Four coppers per full sack and five small coppers per empty sack.”

  I pulled out a large copper and gave it to him. He then took me to pick the empty sacks I wanted. Going outside I filled two of the sacks with pottery shards then left. I carried all these back to the tower then went back into the city.

  I approached the city gates looking for an inn with a stable. I needed horse dung. It was the last needed ingredient for high quality, dark ages refractory material. It would enable the mixture to hold together even if it cracks due to the temperatures, allowing me to finish my work without worry. Then I can just take out the unburnt coal and replace with a new layer.

  But the layer of safety it offered was essential for a good forge. If by any chance my forge cracked it would be harder to repair than if this small protective layer did. It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. Now came the unpleasant part…

  The acrid stench of the stables however sent me reeling. The skin on my nose creased, my brows furrowed, and my eyes started watering. ‘What is this? How could it stink so hard?’ I did not want to spend more time than needed here. Luckily it didn’t take long to find the heap and identify a portion of highly fibrous dung. I grabbed a shovel from nearby and filled the two sacks I had left.

  Ignoring any courtesy or law I might break; I started running while reinforcing myself. No matter what, I did not want to let others suffer this infernal smell just because of me. Once back at the tower I was confronted with a new problem… I had nothing to mix my three ingredients in.

  Back to the city. Bringing back a manger that cost me one copper I started making the blend. Using two thirds of a sack from each material and further crushing the pottery pieces I soon got my composite material. Despite the stench, my body relaxed through the work. My shoulders relaxed and sunk, and my brows eased.

  After applying it onto the forge I started adding it in the firepot. Spreading it as evenly as I could I relished in the work. I washed my hands then lit a new fire in the finished firepot. I watched the flames spread, grow and bend towards the back, towards the side-draft.

  With the playful yet consuming dance of the flames etched in my eyes. I went back upstairs. Laying on the floor looking up at the ceiling absentmindedly. This entire day drained me. Like a gaping hole in my belly, it was eating me alive.

  ‘I was stood up on dates back on Earth, continuously. Now I did not even do anything, and I found myself with a girl trying to get engaged with me… But it’s still not because of me… Just her damn father pushing her from behind…’

  Another problem was also clawing at me. My aim was for that wonderful place where no bounds existed, free beyond what words can describe. In theory I’d live forever if I reached that point… She… Or any woman for that matter, would be just a reason for suffering once she was gone… A chain, a bind I was not sure I wanted to get in…

  I stood there staring at the ceiling. ‘Nothing… Nothing that can solve my issue… It’s not what she herself wants, it’s what her family wants. No point in thinking about it… Tomorrow is the day I finish setting up my forging setup… Thinking about her, or a relationship, is useless. I suffered enough by trying to connect, it’s time I actually direct myself towards my own plans and future.’