I soon stepped through the gate of my tower. I was beaten quite badly even when I thought I was serious. My lack of experience and practice was obvious… I only landed some hits because I followed some fighting channels and remembered to apply those principles, otherwise…

  Magnar was waiting for me seated on the edge of the forging terrace. Some tiles were lined up behind him together with the earthen ware. As I got closer, I saw that two of the bowls were cracked. ‘Must be because I didn’t prepare the clay as well, made them in a rush. Honestly surprised only two cracked…’

  “I see you got beaten well too…” Magnar said as I finished looking at the results of the kiln baking.

  “Is it that obvious?” I sighed heavily.

  “Your lip is swollen, and the left side of your head sticks out more.” He chuckled. “Did you at least win?”

  I grimaced at his question. A silent answer that spoke volumes. “Cassia beat me.”

  “How come? I’m sure she wouldn’t hold up against you… Weren’t her hits harmless when you used aether?”

  “We were forbidden from using aether…”

  “Oh… I see.” He scratched the back of his head. “What can I say… it happens… What do you think of the stuff I took out of the kiln?” He tried to divert the subject… ‘How nice of him…’

  “Did you try pouring water on them? That’s the test. Seeing if water is absorbed or if it slides off.” I replied half-heartedly.

  “I didn’t, I preferred that you were here too, I’m not sure of what is supposed to go on.”

  “Alright. Before that, however. How much did the dagger sell for?”

  “I didn’t go sell it… Wasn’t sure if I’d be able to remember everything Heston said. What if he was to give me a small price? I wouldn’t realize. I’m not a blacksmith nor do I have a feel for the value of weapons in gold. I thought it’s best not to go alone.”

  “That makes sense, alright. Did you try the blade?”

  “No. It’s too small for me anyway.”

  “I guess so… Don’t worry! I’ll make you a weapon to go into legend! Only problem is that I lack the realm to do what I want… Well slow refinement is an option too, it won’t be the kind of weapon to break.”

  “You sound confident.”

  “Of course! You’ll love it, I’m sure of it. We just need to make the smelting furnace. I need to cast it, there is no way around that in this case.”

  I went to the other side of the tower and brought a bucket of water. I used one of the cracked bowls to scoop up some of it. If these pieces could hold well the water, then the rest would be fine too. If it couldn’t, then I wouldn’t be breaking any of the other with water.

  The water stood nicely in the piece of pottery. I let the water fall back in the bucket and observed the lingering drops flow down the shard. It was perfect, absorbing no water. I knocked it with my finger, a dry stony sound answering my beat.

  “This is good! Perfect even! I can start cooking from now on… No more bad mess hall food or fasting…” I say, my words coming out like a profound sigh. One issue solved. From now on, I could eat food cooked to my standards…

  “That means we can start building up the heating?”

  “Yeah… I’ll need to make some calculations to get the best heat retention and smoke disposability… Hm… Cleaning up clogged airways will be a problem too…”

  “Well, I’ll help you with installing them, everything else is up to you.”

  “Yeah, don’t worry.”

  “JvBooom!”

  “What the hell was that?” I asked alarmed by the explosive sound.

  “Hargrave is in the back with the device. Don’t worry…”

  “Damn it! We need those blocks to keep building! I can’t have him break them all…” I stormed to the back.

  “Stop breaking my stuff! I don’t care how frustrated you are with your failures!” I shouted enraged. Then the scene in the back came into view. Vex and Hargrave were laying on the ground with blackened faces. A small black circle of clean stone was left on the block, the rest was blackened radially.

  Luckily the device was not on the stone block, but next to it, which made the blast fly past without affecting it.

  “What happened here?” I rushed to help them up, Magnar coming from behind too.

  Vex coughed heavily and spat out. “This moron did what he’s best at… Blew up an array in our faces!”

  “How was I supposed to know it would just explode!” Hargrave shot back in outrage.

  “Hold on… An array? Weren’t you supposed to replicate the frequency of the gathering formation?”

  “I managed to do it an hour after we got back here!” Hargrave answered. His back straightening as he boasted of his success.

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  “Really?” I extended my hand. “Push aether in my hand following the sequence you used.”

  A bit later I was bursting with happiness. I now had the rhythm in aether. With my earlier success and this data, I was sure to manage forming the formation in my core!

  ‘I won’t stop Hargrave anymore’ I decided this silently. Just the result he gave me was more valuable than the rocks he was breaking. After selling the dagger I’d have to buy some more but so what? Money was no longer a problem.

  “Professor Hargrave, could you help me with another problem one of these days?”

  “What is it?”

  “With materials I provide, could you set up a toilet formation? It costs too much to have someone do it.”

  Hargrave’s face scrunched up. “Yeah, sure…”

  “What is it?”

  “Is that all you could think of asking my help with?” Hargrave asked defeated.

  ‘Guess he thought I’d give him some other idea or research…’ I shook my head. “It is the most pressing matter, don’t worry about other requests from me, they will come when time is right. Just… Don’t you think it’s too soon to rush into arrays? Why don’t you instead study formations some more, find out the frequencies to copy their effects…”

  He waved his hand. “That will come, I thought I’d be able to finish the array I was working on with replacement materials, but I failed. I’ll try some more, if it doesn’t work, I’ll do as you say, since there’s no other logical solution…”

  I nodded along and left them to their stuff. Magnar left while Hargrave and Vex spent some more time in the back. I used the evening to finish emptying the kiln, then filling it back up with the rest of the dried tiles. Before lighting it however, I had to make replacement bowls.

  By the time I was finished, Vex and Hargrave prepared to leave, this time, as normal people, not as Vex dragging off a crazed beast.

  “You sure you don’t want me to fix you up? The aches and swelling will be gone by tomorrow if I do.” Offered Vex.

  “Not a chance! I can take care of it myself. I’m not giving you another chance to touch me!”

  Vex shrugged and left after Hargrave. I was finally alone. I took a piece of wood and carved my sigil into it. Then I took a nail and scratched the symbol on the blade at the base. With these steps done I went down and picked a sola fruit.

  I cut it open and squeezed some of the juice on the piece of wood, then tied the piece to the dagger so that the wood carving soaked with sour juice overlapped with the scratched symbol. After a shower and a good rinse, I finally went to bed. Another day of hard work finished. I seated myself in meditation once again. A new set of failures and I fell back, laying on the bed.

  I was a day closer to what the dream from last night showed me. I evaluated what I did today. ‘Perhaps I could have moved faster this morning to sell the dagger before going to class… Would have given me more free time tomorrow to make new bowls and some trays for cooking and to start working on the chimneys…’

  I drifted to sleep resolved to optimize things better and lose less time in wonder. I needed to grow and help others grow too. That was the only way to avoid the worse developments. No dreams disturbed my sleep that night. I slept like a log, tired from the unslept night before and the beating I got.

  Next day I jumped like a spring out of the bed as soon as consciousness returned to me. I pushed myself to finish my routine. Great speed of execution of the exercises was the best way to firm the muscles. Increasing speed was also one way to apply progressive overload to bodyweight exercises.

  After finishing I grabbed the dagger and untied the piece of wood. My sigil was now etched into it, possessing a duller grey color compared to the rest of the blade. I poured aether in the blade and the rest of the acidic juice evaporated and burned, while the etching gained a darker color.

  I took a good look at the dagger. ‘Wait… if I present this to weapon maintenance… Can’t I just skip the class after? Perhaps he’ll make me forge something in front of him to prove myself, but I can do that.’ And so, I took the dagger with me.

  I reached class earlier than normal and had to sit alone for about half an hour. I did not waste the time and kept trying my luck with the internal array, yet it remained as elusive as always. I felt a small shake in the bench and opened my eyes.

  Magnar had taken a seat next to me as usual.

  “I see you brought this here.” He said tapping the dagger I placed on the table in front of me. “What do you plan to do?”

  “Get us both freed from this class. Just think how much more we could do if we wouldn’t be forced to waste time in here every morning.”

  “Us? You forged that alone…”

  “You helped… If anything, you are my assistant and I am the master smith, you’ll learn more from me with hands on practice then he can teach you with bland theory.”

  “Then let’s hope your strategy works…”

  The rest of our classmates came in soon, a few stealing glances at the dagger on my table. A bit later Professor Varen, the weapon maintenance professor came in. He was dressed as usual, in his pristine white and red clothes.

  “Today we’ll be talking about rust removal.” He said after getting on the podium. “After the lecture I will distribute some swords for practice.”

  The lecture, useless for me, detailing the importance of cleaning the blades and the proper way of removing the rust without scratching the blade, went on for what felt like an hour. It probably took less time, but my bored part of my mind wouldn’t agree with the realist one.

  “Alright. Sherman! Bring the props.” A servant came in from a door positioned next to the podium carrying a big crate.

  Varen walked by each table, taking out a piece of cloth, a piece of leather, an oil jar and a sword, leaving them all on each student’s table. These blades all were in various condition and states of degradation, some were snapped and unusable, others were simply corroded and seemed forgotten.

  He came to our table last. Before he could hand us each a blade to practice on, I spoke up.

  “Professor Varen, I’d like to present this blade I forged with Magnar’s help. I’d like to request that we are both graduated in advance, there is no point in attending this class for the two of us…” I held up the dagger to Varen.

  He took it and appraised it. He dropped some oil on the blade, and it ran off He tried to scratch the handle, but his nail slipped on the resinous scales. Finally, he imbued aether into the dagger and it lit up, the blade bursting in dancing flames.

  “Scorch-vine viper dagger… And the union is good, the skin… I don’t understand what you did to it, but it doesn’t seem like water will be drawn in it… Feels glassy… And the blade, the oil fell off…”

  “It is a weapon of excellent quality, isn’t it?”

  Professor Varen smiled; a graceful smile that made a shiver go down my spine.

  “Indeed. Too bad it’s only of the second grade. But this proves nothing. You could have bought it. If you want to be exempted from this class, you’ll need to prove it was done by you.”

  “How would you like me to do it?”

  “First. Where’d you forge this?”

  “At my accommodations.”

  “… Let’s say I accept that answer. I will need you to forge something like this again. Let’s make it next class. I’ll talk with your other teachers and next class will be an observation class, watching a master craftsman work. I hope there aren’t any problems with this arrangement.”

  “None at all. As long as we don’t have to present ourselves from now on to class, all is fine.”

  “Of course. You may leave now as well but expect me to fail you if you do and I don’t see you next week.”

  “No problem. Come on, Magnar, we must sell this…” I dragged Magnar off and took the dagger back from Professor Varen who froze there.

  ‘He probably expected me to back down and remain… Too bad this really is a waste of time for me.’ I had to sell the dagger and continue building. The smeltery was mandatory for the weapon I planned for Magnar.

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  ?? Author's Question:

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