After Cassia left, we continued loading the tiles in the kiln. At the end we did not forget about my earthen ware. It was fitted nicely before the door. We pushed the massive stone block that the door was into place and sealed the small cracks at the edges with some more clay.

  “Now what?”

  “This? We lit the fire, place inside a whole bunch of coal and we wait. Well, we do need to use the bellows to raise the temperature at first, but after that we do nothing. At most we check the fire every half a day.”

  “So, we’re free to do anything else?”

  “Yes. I’ll take care of making the device needed to extract the rest of the silk thread out of the sac. You can assist me with that or… Mow the weeds? I really never got around to finishing that… And we need a pit, I think, for where the toilet is going to be. I don’t know how that array works honestly… Should’ve asked Cassia for more details.”

  “I’ll cut the weeds. I’ll just observe the finished mechanism…”

  “Sure! Thanks a lot, it’s about time we remove the claustrophobic feeling this place gives.”

  Magnar nodded and got to work, kneeling on the ground and hacking the weeds with his hand. A bit of aether gave him enough edge to not need a knife or scythe. The efficiency was lower, but there wasn’t enough weed to make that a problem.

  Why would electricity make the liquid turn into thread? The spider web fluid was made from some proteins that stood curled, floating in water and salts. An electric field would straighten the proteins, allowing them to bind and stick onto each other and remove the water while driving the salts out.

  It worked faster than any biochemical pump the spider could have had. And, judging by the atribute of the spider beast, it could have been something it used itself in order to fire webbing fast.

  So, I got to work. I couldn’t use my standard grinding bases to speed the job up. The reason was the way I made them was half-assed. At each pedal they’d change the direction of their rotation, something I couldn’t accept considering the stringent and delicate conditions that must be met in order to pull the silk out in an even thread.

  The only way I had was to build a new base and reuse the grindstone. It wasn’t a waste since a better base would make my grinding job easier too.

  I mainly had to change the axle going through the grinding stone. If I wanted better rotation, I needed to have better pull. I cut the axle into three pieces. I took the middle piece and nailed it back onto the others, but off-center. It looked like a broken bone that had healed crooked, creating a 'step' or a crank in the middle of the shaft.

  When the grindstone spun, that offset middle section swung in a wide circle. It wasn’t pretty or perfect, but it did not matter. A slight tilt to the grindstone wouldn’t influence the movements of the spool.

  I assembled everything back but changed out the pedal. The old one was too short for what I needed. I used a longer one and tied the rope close to the base, giving me better leverage. Now, every time the wheel turned, the crank would yank the rope down and release it up, converting the rhythmic pull into a powerful spinning motion.

  I made a second support and placed ends on its axle. I also used thin wood straps and a burned ring of wood. The ring was well polished, and the burning ensured a smooth surface. Together with the thin wood straps I had a tensioner that would further absorb changes in speed by keeping the thread tensioned.

  Four rectangular pieces mounted on the axle acting as stops for the silk. I prepared myself a seat. I wrapped part of the sac of the silk liquid with some longer threads of webbing I managed to separate from the rest and mounted it behind the grindstone away from me, with its ed towards the spool.

  The grindstone was connected to the fly wheel with a leather strap, transmitting the force to the spool. The system was now done. I went ahead and poured aether through the silk strands, creating electricity. They were crackling around the exit of the sac. I used my free hand to press lightly on the sack and push some liquid outwards.

  The result was a thick piece that thinned out as I continued pulling. I drew the thread through the ring and hooked it onto a nail beat through the axle. I stopped pouring aether through the silk threads and pulling onto the new thread. I went back to my seat on the other side of the grinding stone and started pedaling pushing down as the pedal started to descend on its own.

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  The thread was pulled continuously and evenly as the grindstone acted as a power bank filling any moments I did not manage to pedal right. I continued to pour aether through the threads at a constant rate.

  Soon an issue appeared. The electricity was traveling down from the old threads in the new ones and was burning the axle acting as a spool. After pondering for a moment, I left it be. It would stop smoking after it carbonized a path down to the ground and it wouldn’t leave structural damage.

  Soon I was done, the sac empty. I stopped the grindstone. I rose to my feet and walked around the grindstone to the now full spool. Here came the moment of truth. I placed my hand on the spun thread and poured aether into it. Lightning started to crackle, and I couldn’t stop a chuckle.

  My laughter slowly got stronger and more exaggerated. I no longer had to care about electricity generation. I had here the key to modern day electric engines! I wouldn’t need to keep pushing bellows, I’ll make a fan!

  I had enough straight thread to make whatever my heart desired! Magnar came to see what was happening.

  “You’re done?”

  “Yes, here’s the final result!” I raised the spool-axle above my head. “I need copper! Or no… Silver! I can just work silver into what I need, better conductor anyway.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I could even make an induction smelter or kiln!”

  “’Induction’?”

  “Ha… You really kill my enthusiasm…”

  Magnar shook his head and threw his hands up. “I don’t get you. I’m done almost anyway. I left a layer towards the fence since it gives privacy.”

  “Oh… That’s good…”

  “So, since you are done, what else should we do?”

  “We can get started on the smelter. It’s about time I start buying ore instead of billets… Those are holding back my quality anyway, the mix they use is off. And there are too many impurities. To get a workable base I lose too much toughness from the iron.”

  ‘I can’t tell him it’s carbon that’s lost… from the iron… At some point I will, but that’s not now.’ I looked towards the empty spot designated for the smeltery by me. The only issue with this is that it consumes a lot of power, a lot of coal.

  I looked back at the thread beneath my hand. ‘Or maybe… Maybe I really bring to reality that whisper of madness…’ I fell silent and thought, weighing the threads… ‘I need to first study the throughput… The webbing consumes power from the flow of aether to create electricity… This means that a certain flow of aether can reach and power only a certain length of thread…’

  “I need to think for a while… I may have an idea for a better smeltery than before. You have no idea just how versatile lightning is…” I scratched my head thinking furiously.

  “Does that mean we won’t be building anything else today?”

  “Most probably… It’s not too late… I could try to finish the proto form for a dagger…” I said unsure looking at the sky. The clouds were still there, covering the sky and removing anyway for me to guess how much time passed and how long would still be until darkness would start setting in.

  “Hm… I don’t have money for this anyway…” I grumbled feeling discontent… “But if I do this, I most probably won’t have to invest in another smeltery…”

  ‘But I’d need to make tar and compress it with coke into a cathode… Why is it so hard to make an Electric Arc Furnace… Do I actually need that kind of power? I need tar regardless… But not coal tar… Wood tar is easier to make… But if I make a simple induction smelter…’

  “Ok… We won’t be building anything today. I’m decided on what I’ll do, and we currently don’t have what we need. The things are not expensive but there’s no point in thinking about it now. Let’s quickly turn on the forge. We have to hurry to finish before you have to go.”

  And so, we started again. It was clear the daggers were more profitable. I obtained one more gold coin per billet if I made daggers. I did not make a calculation on the coal yet, but a difference of at least a half gold still remained.

  I was not limited by modern economical constraints and was, most probably, the only happy owner of the knowledge to make advance electrical appliances in this world. Meaning there would be no fight for resources.

  Sure, I still needed a ton of gold to get all the silver I needed, but if I made an EAF (Electric Arc Furnace), even a primitive one, I had big chances of being able to produce the high purity silver needed for electronics.

  Sure, I could use copper, but I had a green power source now, and none of the applications I was going to make would be limited by the quadruple weight of the silver. Since making super conductors would be hard for me, and even unnecessary considering my work, silver would more than suffice.

  I had a spool of electric silk. This was a high-quality material, there was no need to waste it in order to make a generator. I only need a bunch of short filaments of silk, not a lot of length. I could use the silk from the collected webbing I bought along with the sac.

  ‘This thread… No array I know of will be able to provide enough aether for it, I better use it to make a weapon… It’s spider silk so it has insane tensile strength anyway… If I make some very thin threads of another material to enhance my control of them and add some sort of hook or blade…’

  For now though, hammering awaited me. Three daggers were quenched by the end of the day. Darkness set elusively and fast, making Magnar break into a run as soon as we were done. I took the bellows and checked the kiln’s fire before taking a shower.

  A coal sack emptied and some furious bellow pumping later and the kiln was back at high temperature. I wouldn’t interfere with it anymore, when the coal finished burning, that would be it. I closed it off on all sides and started my evening routine.

  Five formation making attempts later I laid down to sleep. Tomorrow another hard day would come. For an induction furnace I needed AC, I still needed to figure out how to get that with no transistors…

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Cato just unlocked the secret to generating stable electricity from aether! Now that he has the silk thread, what should be the first electrical device he builds? A motor for the bellows? An electric light for his tower? Or should he go straight for an electric furnace?

  ?? Author's Note:

  If you reached this far, it means you are a strong supporter of my story. I just edited chapter 2, I would appreciate if you visited it again and shared your thoughts on the writing style. Comment your opinion, so I know if I should keep rewriting following that style.