‘I do not look forward to this…’ I thought the next morning as I remembered we had Array Theory. This meant I had to see Professor Hargrave again, for the first time after he turned mad. The first time after he chased me down like a beast and knocked me out almost killing me.

  I didn’t want to skip class though. I started walking towards the castle where classes took place. ‘What am I even to tell him? Damn it… To have a professor make you worry more than a woman does…’ I greeted my teeth and went forward.

  Soon I stood before the door of the class. ‘If I stop now, I can still go back…’ I raise my hand hesitatingly and push the door open. It creaks loudly. ‘Was it always so noisy?’ I step in and leave the door open. My eyes moved through the classroom.

  Magnar, already inside, looks up at me and smiles weakly. ‘He’s got it worse, huh… He tackled the professor after all.’ One step after another sounded out as I walked and prepared to take my seat next to Magnar. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to go all the way to the back?’

  “Hey, Magnar, how about we change seats for today and climb up back?” I proposed quickly.

  “Yeah, sure, sounds like a great idea!” His eyes lit up a bit, gaining more life.

  He rose to his feet and we both went to the last row of seats. We both sat down and waited. The rest of our classmates came in soon, single or in groups. ‘Never thought about it before, but… Groups here mean influence and alliances? By seeing their relationships, I might be able to tell the relationships between their houses too…’

  A brunette, thin light-skinned, was seated with two boys that were fawning over her. Hard to tell if they just liked her, or if they were followers from a subservient house. ‘If they liked her, I doubt the two would just allow each other to fawn, they’d have some conflict going on.’

  Another four were sitting to the right, close to the door. All boys, talking loudly, boasting. My eyes caught a golden flash. It was a thin chain, caught onto his vest, ending in his pocket. That was probably the guy with the watch. Their families were probably allied and on equal footing.

  My observations were cut short as the door creaked and opened again. It was like all other sounds died. All the students were in class so that meant only one person could be there. Professor Hargrave entered the class. Silence fell.

  He was missing his usual hat, his beard was messy, his clothes crumpled, and he walked without any resemblance of balance. But one thing stood out the most. His eyes. They were red and lifeless, surrounded by big, heavy dark circles.

  His face was slack. He collapsed on his chair and swept the class with his gaze. Our eyes locked and his lips moved wordlessly. He pushed himself up on the chair and arranged his position, his eyes not leaving mine for a second.

  “Cato! You don’t have to come to my class anymore. You passed already.”

  I never thought I’d see such a loud silence before. A silence that grew from respectful, to worried to stunned. One of Elian’s friends broke the silence and asked.

  “Professor, are you sure? How could a commoner absolve a class in advance? What could he possibly know?” He asked questioningly, placing a strong accent on the word ‘commoner’.

  Professor Hargrave stood up suddenly hearing him. “Vance Pyke! What gave you the confidence to question my decisions! Why don’t you come here and teach the class if you know that much more! Do you think I don’t dare contact your father to tell him about how great you think you are?!” His spit flew everywhere, and some remained caught in his beard as he bellowed.

  “Cato’s made one of the most important discoveries in the last 700 years! You’ll pass too if you can pull one off like that too…” He collapsed back in his chair, his exhaustion even more apparent.

  A new silence lasted for five more seconds then hell broke loose. Everyone was talking. Elian turned around and looked at me. I shrugged. ‘I don’t know man… I fucked around…’ Hargrave’s brows furrowed, and he slammed the table.

  “Silence.” His tone was heavy. The kids shut up just as fast as they started talking. “Cato, I recommend you still come to classes because I doubt you have any practical knowledge of arrays or on their arrangement, but you are free to do as you wish. Just make another tuning fork that interacts with aether.”

  “I doubt giving you another one would be a good idea professor… You almost killed me last time.”

  Discussions almost broke out again. Professor Hargrave slapped his table again. “I said silence!” Hargrave’s face was getting red. “How can I get you to make me another one?”

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  I didn’t answer. Hargrave seemed absolutely serious. I couldn’t just give him another one, he’ll just go nuts again… But I also couldn’t confirm that he wouldn’t go nuts on me if I refused outright… Last time they got me to separate him from it, who knows if they won’t send me again.

  “You can bring the mechanism to my tower after classes end. You can use it there, but only if you bring another teacher to restrain you. You can forget about it otherwise.”

  “That works.”

  “But why did you need me to make another? You had the last one for several days…”

  “I just need you to make it. Alright?”

  I shrug. ‘Now’s not the time to press him for answers, he was probably too engrossed in trying to recreate the formation’s vibration and forgot to check the flow in the fork…’ I listened to the rest of the class, not saying anything more.

  During the other two classes the rest of the students kept stealing glances at me. No one came to ask me anything, probably a result of my fight against Elian, or, perhaps due to me sticking next to Magnar. It was a bit more tension than I liked.

  We were the first to leave the class when Strategy came to an end. We rushed to the tower. I unlocked the gate and got inside. For a second, I felt like I got in the wrong courtyard. No longer was the path guarded by dense, tall weeds. The place actually looked bright.

  For once, this place looked open. I could see from the gate the stones, and the sacks of sand and clay stored in the back. I stepped in confidently.

  “You did a great job here yesterday. I felt like I woke up in a different tower this morning.”

  “Yeah… It feels like a different place now that I look at it from here.”

  “Actually, I don’t really know what to tell you to do today… I got to polish the dagger from yesterday and I have to think of some solutions I need…”

  “I could pump air in the kiln?”

  “No need, now it’s best to let it be. Pumping air now would just cause it to combust or would just lower the temperature… It will take about two more days until it’s done burning and another two to cool off. Only then we can open it.”

  “So, what then? I’m already here…”

  “Yeah… should’ve thought of this ahead of time.” I paused and thought. “You can mix clay and make another batch of tiles. I doubt the ones we made until now will be enough…”

  “Alright.”

  I started pedaling at my grindstone and Magnar moving his sacks of clay. Just as he was about to start mixing the clay with crushed pottery the gate swung open. Professor Hargrave stepped in carrying my intact device, missing the tuning fork, followed by the medic with his coat with too many pockets.

  “I brought along Vex, as per your request…”

  “Why’d you bring this madman here?” I jumped from my grinding stone and got ready to run.

  “He was at the Secretariat… You never told me you got yourself a tower instead of a dorm. This is actually really nice, I see the headmaster values you…” Hargrave replied, with a bit of jump to his voice.

  “There were holes in the walls, the roof was broken, the entire courtyard was covered in weeds, and there were no furnaces or any equipment… All you see is mine and Magnar’s work.”

  “That’s…” He swallowed his words.

  Vex frowned and looked at me.

  “That can’t be right, they placed you in the noble class, why’d they throw a broken tower at you in those conditions?”

  “Don’t ask me… It’s not like I’d know… And you. Vex or whatever you’re called stay away. I don’t need you to probe around my body again… Also, I’m surprised to see you next to Hargrave after your story from last time.”

  “Vex’s my nickname. As for Hargrave… I’m here for you not for him, besides it isn’t his fault I got caught up in the explosion.”

  “Ahem… Let’s get back to why I’m here… The tuning fork.” Professor Hargrave intervened.

  “Ha…” I go inside the tower and bring out the tuning fork. I throw it at him, and he snatches it from midair. “There, happy?”

  “You already had one?” Hargrave’s eyes went wide.

  “Well, yeah, I need the device too. I’m trying to emulate the formation so I can try creating something to replace the array. I couldn’t just outright ask you for the rest of the device after how you acted. But you brought it by yourself now, so all it’s good.”

  I returned to grinding, after all the daggers wouldn’t polish itself. Magnar brought three blocks of cinder stone for the professors to sit on and use as a table, then started mixing the clay. Soon enough the cinder stone block used as a table was cracked by an annoyed outburst of Hargrave.

  I looked at him annoyed. Seeing him ready to ask Magnar to bring another I spoke up. “You’ll pay for every block you break!” Hargrave looked down and said nothing.

  I continued with my activity, occasionally dipping the dagger in oil and stirring slightly, to cool off the blade and get rid of the heat generated through friction. By the end of the day Professor Hargrave had broken another two blocks.

  It seems my decision to have him pay for the blocks broken only served to make him re use the same block until it was shattered in pieces too small and yet too big, for us to use for anything. A waste of good stone… At most we could mix it with clay to make refractory ceramics…

  With the blade fully polished, I was looking at the materials I brought, trying to figure out a way to bond the metal with them. I was deep in thought when Vex popped up behind me. He snatched the blade from my hands and looked at it.

  “This is quite the good weapon… I’m surprised you can make something like this, but the balance is a bit off… too close to the tip.” He said, throwing the unfinished dagger up and catching the blade between his fingers.

  “That’s because it lacks a handle. Also, that’s an awful lot of skill in handling daggers for a medic, don’t you think?” I extend my hand, asking for the dagger. “I’m trying to pick something for it here.”

  “Why don’t you try touching the monster material to the handle? Use the one that gets its aura carried through the blade.” He dropped the info and gave me the unfinished dagger back.

  I stood there stunned. ‘He’s right, why didn’t I think of that?’

  I scrambled to test the materials. In the end the one that reacted most strongly to the dagger was the scaly skin. Just perfect… I have no idea how to use a skin to make a handle…

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  ?? Author's Question:

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