With Hargrave making cuts on the billets; I started working on the conductors. Pushing aether through, bracing my core while hammering them to drive out impurities from the iron. Magnar was pumping air into the forge while I worked.

  I looked at him press down then pull up on the handle of the bellows. I had so much practice hammering now I could do it without looking. ‘As soon as I get that silver purified I’ll make a generator to power the bellows… No more work for you, my friend.’

  Clanking metal, crackle of fire, the whistling of the bellows, the hum of the side draft sucking up all smoke and the heavy breaths of us two working heavily. The engraving on my hammer caught the firelight, flickering silver and red as it rose and fell. Raising the hammer with each inhale and exhaling on each hit.

  After two hours of refining and beating billets, all conductors were done. The sun, hurried by the advance in season and accompanied by a fall of coldness was almost setting. As we finished me and Magnar went in the tower, while Vex assisted Hargrave in arranging the array.

  ‘A pity I can’t be there to see everything he does and try to memorize how it’s done…’ I was crestfallen, but I did promise Cassia I’d answer her questions. We went to the second floor to find Cassia sitting on my bed in meditation.

  “At least she’s diligent.” I remarked seeing her like this.

  I paid closer attention to her. Her back was stiff, her shoulders were trembling slightly, her eye lids were closed with too much force, creasing slightly and the movements of her belly as she breathed were uneven, with a lot of pauses that shouldn’t be there. Silence filled the room however, sign she did listen.

  “We shouldn’t disturb her…” Magnar whispered, concerned that we’d affect Cassia.

  “Oh, please… If she were really that easily distracted, she wouldn’t have been able to meditate while we worked outside. So, it doesn’t matter.” I replied dismissingly.

  Cassia’s brow twitched a little. I smirked. “Someone’s failed the test.”

  Magnar looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  “She’s not that deep in focus, she can hear us, and I doubt she was in meditation before we stopped hammering earlier. I don’t need a demonstration; meditation is not something you master in a few days.” I sat on the floor and looked at her amused.

  Cassia opened her eyes and looked at me, then her eyes darted down to her legs. Magnar looked at me questioningly.

  “How’d you realize she was faking it?”

  “Her breath was hitching. If she was deep in meditation, her mind would smooth out the breath. She needs to focus on the breath so no matter what we do she won’t be affected, and she knew we came up. Considering she requested me to answer some of her questions, she shouldn’t have insisted. It’s not an honest approach.”

  Silence descended. It stretched between us, as Magnar thought about what I revealed, Cassia stood there facing downward and I looked at them unbothered. After I thought enough of the awkwardness faded, I spoke again.

  “So, what is it that is troubling you, Cassia? Aside from the inability to go deep. That just takes time.”

  “When I manage to focus, I sometime get a feeling as if my head heats up. Then I lose focus no matter how much I try not to…”

  “Oh that? Yeah… It’s normal, don’t fight it. Shift your focus slightly. Feel you exhale and think of it blowing off, cooling that sensation. It doesn’t break the state or progress, but it removes that feeling. When you get more natural that will disappear altogether.”

  “So, it’s normal?”

  “I mean yes… not everyone necessarily experiences it, but if you do, it means you are doing things right.”

  “I never felt that when I meditated…” Magnar intervened.

  “Possibly because you are a natural at it.” I continued by asking Cassia. “How are those extra exercises coming along?”

  “Aside from the fact that I feel weird while walking? It’s alright… I did understand what you were talking about, and why you were hesitating about explaining outright…”

  “What comes after this” asked Magnar.

  “You do it till you start seeing weird stuff with your eyes closed. Also place your gaze on the middle of your forehead while keeping your eyes closed. It should help you hasten that process.”

  “That’s it? You want us to do it until we go crazy?” Cassia was outraged and jumped of the bed. Her fists were clenched. “I shouldn’t have a believed a word from you!”

  “If you want more specifics, then you can also imagine threads going from the ears, skin, nose, eyes and tongue connecting to the point in the middle of your head. As you inhale pull the strings, make them thinner, make them disconnect from the world and return to their origin. Only the eyes, imagine their thread intertwining and connecting with a sixth thread connecting that spot to the place between your eyebrows.” I replied calmly.

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  “Are you going to explain what you are talking about? What does imagination have to do with anything?”

  “Haaa… Why do you have to be so difficult? As we already discussed this is done in order to train your focus. Your mind is normally split between whatever you do and your sensory organs. You need to cut off distractions.”

  “That… that makes sense… What about the seeing strange things?”

  “I told you to connect the eye thread with the one going between the eyebrows. That place is called the third eye. Basically, you are looking inside. Your centered focus will act as the first point of awareness. As you expand it, due to the fact you filter the information through the eyes you will start seeing ‘stuff’. Don’t take what you see literally, often the brain mismatches what it ‘sees’ and so you may see all kind of things.” I explained feeling tired from all the doubting.

  “That sounds like nonsense.” Cassia concluded.

  “It takes training for the things to turn from symbolic to factual. Meaning it takes time. If you don’t believe me, you can leave. I have no reason to keep you here or force you to practice.” I replied feeling offended. “You came to me.”

  “How would I know you’re not tricking me?”

  “Maybe I’d trick you, but I wouldn’t trick Magnar.”

  “That tells me nothing! For all I know he could be in on this with you!”

  “And what would I gain?” Magnar spoke up.

  Cassia was left speechless. Neither of us would have anything to gain from tricking her. At most I would be rid of a nuisance, but that was no reason to lead her to madness. She sighed and her shoulders slumped.

  “I can’t give you any proof other than my existence. You choose if you follow my instructions or if you don’t.”

  “Alright… I understand.” She fell silent right after. Another awkward period of no one saying anything.

  I nod satisfied. “Any other quest-”

  “Cato, come here for a bit.” Vex called for me.

  “Well… I guess that’s it. Think about everything, Cassia, if you have any other questions, I’ll answer them later or tomorrow or whenever you want.”

  I went down leaving Cassia and Magnar upstairs. ‘I can’t say I don’t understand her… Here aether removes most deficits meditation fixed back on earth… For her it will feel futile, like nothing changes.’ I walked to the back of the tower.

  Hargrave was already back to studying his own array, while Vex waited next to an almost built toilet room. It was missing it’s back.

  “So, what seems to be the issue?”

  “Well, I already got started on the rest by myself as you can see, but I need to know which side this will be facing.” He explained his dilemma while making more cinder stone hover nearby.

  “Oh… Well… The best would be to make a door in the tower wall, only issue is door making… I still haven’t made a door for the front or for the smithing area and this one is more troublesome since we don’t want the tower to stink…”

  “Simple, just make it face outward, there isn’t much to walk.”

  “That’s true, but winter’s coming.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Do you want to rush to the bathroom and get a frostbite on your ding-a-ling?”

  “Aether is a thing… Just warm yourself up. Also don’t tell me that happened to you.”

  “I didn’t always know how to use aether… Besides, when I need to go, the last thing I want to think about is warming my ass. I divert attention and the flush gate is open.”

  “Just don’t wait that long.”

  “It’s a matter of convenience…”

  “Look, I’m not here to play games with you! What! Is! The way! The door! Will! Face!” ‘He got annoyed’ I grinned.

  “Inside.”

  “Good!”

  The stones flew in, crackling and morphing into a wall, a floor and a seat. “Make the floor extra thick. Magnar’s not a lightweight…”

  “Good call…” Some three more blocks melted into the ground.

  I watched the spectacle. It felt just as surreal as ever. Making stone melt into stone without it glowing with heat, without it turning to dust, rippling stone that wavered like water, that blew my mind. Seeing a pebble float was fine, this… this was making my head hurt.

  But it was practical. Vex finished the toilet cabin in a few minutes. I would need about an hour to do the same amount of work. Casting mages were truly enviable…

  “Alright. This is good to go.”

  “Yeah… Actually… Could you help me with something else too?”

  “What is it?”

  “I need a cellar to keep the reserves for winter. The current room is taken up by the furnace that will keep the place warm at winter.”

  “Furnace? Kid, you do know that heating arrays are not too expensive, right?” Vex looked at me.

  “Define ‘not too expensive’.”

  “Four golds the entire thing.”

  “How big is it and how much heat does it produce.”

  “…”

  “Exactly. I know nothing about them, and if I am to invest in one, I’ll make sure it can heat up my entire tower. The system I made ensures that the heat travels up the entire structure. Even if I use an array later, it will be more efficient.” I said feeling proud of getting another one over him.

  “Let me see what it is that you’re so smug about!”

  First thing I did was to see how the toilet look. Vex made the seat smooth. Being stone, it was cold, yet it absorbed heat fast as I kept my hand on it. Having finished the toilet inspection, I led him down in the tower and down the trapdoor. He looked at my furnace and the tri-chimney system and scratched his head.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but you really just keep pulling out stuff I never saw before…”

  I shrugged. It’s not like this place would be concerned with the physics of heat… I simply used the things any household had but amplified with logic and knowledge they lacked. ‘Honestly any engineering student that paid attention to physics class can pull this off…

  “Anyway, you can see that this place would get too warm to preserve anything once I lit this up.”

  “Wont it catch fire?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The ceiling or the floor of the level above, won’t it burn?”

  “I made sure there are very little chances of fire escaping in any way, so no. Let’s get to the point.”

  I patted a place that went towards the back of the tower.

  “Here, descend for about five steps with the floor level. This will further ensure heat won’t affect anything inside.”

  “How big?”

  “Like five staves? You’ll come back so if more is needed by any chance I’ll ask you then.”

  “You really know how to work me…”

  “Did you think that earning a fifth-grade weapon was going to be easy?”

  “You learn fast.”

  “Got a good teacher…”

  “I’m not doing it today. It’s late, and as you said, I’ll come back again tomorrow.”

  “That’s fine.”

  We went back out. Vex returned to observing Hargrave while I had to go see if Cassia decided to share her other queries. Tomorrow the next set of tiles could be assembled to finish more of the heating system and then… Time to make the generator. Let this world see the rise of lightning applications that can rival aether.

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