Omen: 6, 15

  Karot yawned after his teeth were brushed, before he rested his head against his father’s arm. He wao return back to sleep, the festival having exhausted all the children out. The st day had been the most rexing day, but the children tio py their games while the adults rexed in the evening.

  Adam made a face as though he had just eaten a raw lemon, trying to resist the urge to skip work that day in order to py with his children, but he let out a long sigh. ‘I o work hard so they sleep easy.’

  “Yoing to work?” Filliam asked.

  “Yeah,” Adam replied, sighing lightly. “I’ve got to work, you know?”

  “Yes,” Filliam said, adjusting his gsses. “I know.”

  Adam turo face the tinkerer, blinking towards him. Adam’s face remained ral, almost tired and sad. ‘When did Filliam get here?’

  “What work will you plete?” Filliam asked, ily.

  “I was thinking about speaking with the Chief and Elder Zijin about smithing, but I’m irely sure,” Adam said. ‘There’s also the magical ons I owe Rose. I should work on those passively too. Luckily they only asked for Basihanced. I think they wa with a charge like Jurot’s?’

  Adam finished pying with the children in the m, his own children, as well as Gurot and the others. They walked together for a short time before they pyed with the balls, pushing and kig them with some effort, before they were ready to wash their hands a.

  “Adam,” Mirot said, staring at the Half Elf. “He must learn to feed himself.”

  Adam held a sliced vegetable in his hand, which was nearing Gurot’s lips. “Just one, please.”

  “Just one,” Mirot allowed, watg as the Half Elf offered each baby something to eat, but only ohing.

  Gurot waited for more, and pouted when he didn’t receive any more from the Half Elf, and he made to cry. However, his mother pced his hand over the vegetable, and he grabbed it, before shoving it into his mouth.

  “Daddy!” Jirot huffed at the Half Elf. “You!” She began to babble at him noisily, staring up at him while her mouth was covered in pe.

  “I see.”

  “Yes,” Jirot said, before returning back to her pe.

  “What did she say?” Sonarot asked.

  “She said what she said,” Adam replied, before eating a light breakfast of scrambled eggs, lightly salted. ‘Should I skip breakfast? It always feels awkward eating before w, my stomach feels so weird.’ He looked to the children, who were eating happily. ‘No, they might try to e.’

  Ohey were doh breakfast, Jirot pointed up at her father. “No!” She stared at him in shock, before looking trandmother. “No?”

  “Your father must go to work,” her grandmother said.

  Jirot shook her head, her hair boung from side to side. “No…” Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet, slowly dipping her head as her lips quivered into a pout.

  “e, Jirot, I will take you to babo,” Sonarot said, reag out her arms.

  Jirot rushed intrandmother’s arms, and as she icked up, she thought about what the older Iyrman had said. “Babo?”

  “Yes. Babo will py with you.”

  “Pay?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  Sonarot pnted a kiss on her forehead, before looking down to Little Jarot, who waited patiently to be picked up too, his eyes staring up at her expetly. The look in his eyes was the same that Jurot used to give her whenever he wanted hugs as a child, but didn’t want to ask for them. She smiled, lifting the little boy up, pnting a kiss on his forehead too. His lips formed a small smile, and he embraced his grandmother.

  ‘I’m only letting you steal them from me because you’re my aunt,’ Adam thought, narrowing his eyes at the woman.

  The Half Elf made his way from the estate to the estate in the tre. Each shared estate was only one ninth of a super block of estates, with the tral estate belonging to the Elder.

  “What do I owe the pleasure?” Elder Zijin asked, with a young Devilkin teen sitting beside him.

  “I came because I heard you’ve been stealing Churot for so long, isn’t that right, Churot?” Adam asked, shaking the Elder’s forearm before ruffling Churot’s hair.

  “No,” the boy replied, staring up at Adam. “I like maths.”

  “Aha? You’re doing maths for the Iyr?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are they paying you well?”

  “No. I am an Iyrman. I am helping.”

  Adam stared down at his Cousin, who was also far too adorable. “Right, right. If they’re not paying you, maybe I should pay you.”

  “No. I will do the maths.” Churot stared up at Adam defiantly.

  “Fine, fine, you do the maths,” Adam said, ruffling his hair some more.

  “Grandfather has one less leg,” Churot stated, far too matter of factly.

  “Yeah…” Adam remained silent for a moment, notig how much Elder Zijin was enjoying the awkwardness. “Since he has one less leg, you o love him more.”

  “I ot love grandfather more,” Churot said. “I already love him so much.”

  Adam covered his lower face, hiding the smile, but also doing his best not to let out a ugh. ‘Why is he so cute? Was he always this cute?’

  “We will remember that little Churot is assisting us well,” Elder Zijin stated. “The Iyr never fets.”

  “I seem to have missed your birthday,” Adam said, still ruffling the boy’s hair. “Is there something you want?”

  “No,” the teen replied, blinking up at Adam.

  “Hmmm…” Adam he ck of the tattoo on his forehead. ‘He’s still a kid, so it’s not like they refuse my gifts for him. Should I make him something cool?’ “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hmm.”

  “…”

  “Would you like another book?” Adam asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll get you another book.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Have you e here to speak with only the boy?” Elder Zijin asked.

  “No, I actually came to speak with you about…” Adam paused, looking to Churot. ‘Hold on…’ “Actually, I think ight be useful for this.”

  “What is it?”

  “I was thinking about how to bee an industrial powerhouse of a smithy for the business so we have a rge stock of ons that ump out quickly to ent,” Adam said. “It’s o have one smith who make a sword every other day, but I wao figure out a way to create more ons quickly, and sider the Iyr is the death mae of this entire nd, I realised it’s probably best I tell you how it works, so that maybe the Iyr gh the trials to figure it out?”

  “What did you have in mind.”

  Adam began to expin to Elder Zijin the cept of an assembly line, but also how to use maths to have the appropriate number of people within the same station. “I would reend finding out how many days it requires for each se of an item, from the pommel, the hilt, the bde, and so on.”

  Adam began to draw out the hypothetical into a book. “Let’s say one person make ten pommels each day, another person make five hilts each day, and the st person make one bde each day. Then what you o do is find out a number in which all these three meet up, in a reasonable way.”

  Churot leaned in to pay deeper attention to the versation, since he would be tasked with this.

  “Luckily, ten, five, and one, all have a shared hey meet up with pretty quickly. Ten. So, all you o do, is find the number of people for each task to reach that number. Which is one person for the pommel, two people for the hilt, ten people for the bde.”

  Elder Zijin narrowed his eyes slightly, slowly nodding his head, Churot doing the same.

  “Of course, there are other factors you have to take into sideration, but once you figure out that thing for basically everything you manufacture, you make double, triple, maybe even more, in terms of the ons. The thing you lose, obviously, is that people bee specialised doing ohing. However, if you have people who aren’t smiths, they still do something to help out, like assembling things, and each person assembles the same thing, every time.”

  “So we will create ons at a faster rate, but of lower quality?”

  “Potentially lower quality, but sidering you’re Iyrmen, as long as you don’t focus too mu speed, you make items of the same quality. Really, does a pommel o be the best quality? No. As long as it meets the minimum standard, should be alright, and obviously it depends on which ons you make.”

  Elder Zijin thought, furrowing his brows. The Iyr made sure they always had enough smiths, enough to repair and create whatever they needed. However, if they really could speed up their process by even a little, they could shift some smiths into this new process a it out.

  “Yoing to work?”

  “Yeah, that’s ahing I wao speak to you about.” Adam smiled. “I o repay someone for something, and it requires two Basihanced ons, simir to Phantom, although, obviously, not going to make something like Phantom. I’d like to know how much I do…”

  “As long as it is weaker, it will be acceptable,” Zijin firmed.

  “A weaker charge once per day?” Adam asked.

  “That sounds acceptable.”

  “Cool.” Adam let out a gentle sigh. ‘Politics sucks.’

  Thus begins an enting arbsp;