“Wait, you aren’t going to start explaining your method?” Cassia asked alarmed by the change of subject.

  “I’m the only one who knows it in this world, and I never taught anyone about it before. I have to spend some time ordering it all up. I’ve been mulling it all in my head, by myself for years, I have to structure it out so I can explain it in a way you’ll understand… It’s not something I can just start sharing day one! Now, please, I did not come to my own place just to appease a little girl’s insecurities!”

  Cassia just pursed her lips in response and said nothing. Magnar looked like he wanted to say something, but I raised my hand to stop him. There is no reason to be nice, I just want to make myself cold enough towards her that she would not see me in any favorable way. If she turned out grateful for what help I’ll give, good, if not… It’s her own business.

  “So… I need to fix the roof, set up a heating system and a cooking one, and set up an actual bath… If I can figure something out for automatic lawn mowing that would be great too… Before all that though… We need to figure out a way to make a functional toilet. It’s a bit bad that we have to go to a public one when we gather here. Us two guys can still manage, but it would be really problematic for you Cassia…” I laid out the main issues I could think of right now.

  “Do you have any ideas of how to solve this issue? I’m not willing to haul a barrel of feces and other stuff away every once in a while.”

  “Not that I can think off, no.” Said Magnar after a moment of thinking.

  “Arrays. I’ve heard father say that there is an array made to handle this… I don’t know it’s details…” Cassia spoke up after.

  “Does the Academy teach us how to set it up, or do we have to find some other way?” I asked her.

  “Find some other way. You won’t see it in a course… I’m pretty sure it should be recorded in the library…”

  “Great! That means we can set it up.”

  “Not really… there’s a reason only nobles have access to it… It’s quite complex from what I’ve heard…”

  “Perfect… Then what do you propose?”

  “Hire someone.”

  My brows furrowed. ‘Why do I have to hire someone when I can learn to do it myself… But I can’t really argue… for what is worth my specialty is forging, not arrays… At least not yet. I’ll find some way to deal with that lack of knowledge… After all, if I figure out how arrays work… Then I can integrate them in what I forge and get even more money…’

  Cassia and Magnar were looking at me, their eyes filled with concern. Seeing them prompted me back to reality. A foolish grin was plastered on my face, one that I quickly wiped off as I sat back down. This also made me add something else on the list.

  “And I need to get furniture… A table and some chairs at the very least…”

  “You’ll need pots.” Added Magnar. “You mentioned making a kitchen…”

  “Yeah, that too… Damn… it adds up, I could in theory make the pots myself… I know how they’re made, but I’d need to build a kiln. I already plan to make a smelting furnace… I don’t know if I’ll have time to deal with everything… In the end I still need arrays… I need to ‘automate’ stuff around here…” As I finished speaking, I saw Magnar and Cassia look at me strangely. I let ‘automate’ slip in English, since the Aethelgardian language did not have a word for it…

  “What does that mean?” Asked Cassia confused.

  “Eh… to make things move by themselves? In a manner pre-established by the design of the construction. Like, I need the bellows to pump air by themselves…”

  “Aaah… You did mention that before. You have an idea?” Magnar voiced his inquiry.

  “For now? No. I don’t really know what arrays can do for me yet. Two classes and no explanation on why the aether just acts when arrays are turned on doesn’t help me devise a system of any kind…”

  “So, let’s go back on everything again. You want to make a toilet, that’s a priority, you want to fix your roof, I guess that’s secondary, you want to make a heating system, a kitchen, a kiln, a bath and a smelting furnace? All these on this small land?” Cassia asked again.

  “Pretty much, yeah…”

  “And you aren’t afraid the Academy will object to all the changes and structures? What if you get moved?”

  “I just have to make sure I operate at a profit and that I have more money left after each move…”

  “…” Cassia stared at me wordlessly. “But all the work…”

  “I did it once I can do it again, the second time I’ll do it faster than the first. And if it really comes down to it, I can just do my best to get the money to buy a house in town. It wouldn’t be that much of a problem…”

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  “You’re crazy, I don’t know why I’m bothering…” remarked Cassia.

  “I’m free spirited and not bound to a place. When you get bound options are lost and the mind grows heavy. Regret replaces opportunism. One gets trapped in the past and is tortured by the worry of the future. We live in the present and we have to focus our present efforts into making our immediate future more comfortable in way sustainable later.”

  “…” Her head sunk behind her knees. I heard her grumble softly. “Great, what I needed was someone else to give me lectures…”

  I shook my head in disapproval.

  “Magnar, come with me upstairs. I want you to see how the roof is doing and hear your opinion. I have some ideas, but… I’m not sure how good they would be.”

  “Alright.” He stood up and followed me, the stairs cracking and straining under his weight. ‘Note to self, add supports to the stairs… Perhaps mask them as cabinets.’

  Soon we were up at the top, the sun entering the tower through the hole in the roof. The bird nest was still here along with the old planks of the attic. They were strangely intact unlike the ones of the floors below.

  “Guess we should get rid of the old bird nest first?” Asked Magnar seeing it.

  “I don’t know… I have a feeling it’s not out of use, just that the owner is away… Who knows? It might be a good thing falling in my lap from the sky. We should just move it back.”

  “What makes you feel that?”

  “The feathers. They get messier the older they are. These are quite smooth still.”

  “Did anything come back during your stay here?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then it most probably got into trouble. Small chance it’s coming back after all this time…”

  I shrugged. “It’s not like I plan on closing off the hole in the roof anyway. I want to make a door and a balcony… Consider this a deposit and a launching ramp for when I reach the fourth stage and will be able to fly.” I replied while positioning myself to push the nest further in.

  “That requires an affinity for wind. You might be talented and have some unknown method, but determining your affinity… That is impossible.” Magnar shook his head, mirroring my position and coordinating with me to push the nest.

  “It’s only impossible because the mechanism behind the affinity development is unknown and hasn’t been studied enough. That doesn’t mean that I can’t infer and guess the most likely way to get an affinity…” As I said this, we finished pushing the nest, centering it in the attic.

  “Not going to argue with you. I’m sure you’ll find some strange, unthinkable way to use your affinities anyway…”

  “You can rely on me to do just that. I can’t promise anything else, but I’ll sure as hell mess around with the affinities I develop.”

  “Back to the matter at hand… How do you plan to make the balcony?”

  “I will add some supports on the outside. I’m thinking like eighty to one hundred marks out (200~250cm) with supports fixed at the same distance down. It should offer good stability that way.”

  “If you say so… How do we reach down there?”

  “With a rope? I guess?”

  “Someone will be needed down to keep the rope tensioned, or the one carving would sway too much…”

  “You’re right…”

  “And the door?”

  “You see these perpendicular supports? We’ll just use them. Use two hinges and connect a door on them, using planks to seal the triangular gaps between the inclined supports and the vertical ones.”

  “That seems doable…”

  “Yeah… I was thinking of adding some supports to the stairs too, I fear they will break and let you fall. If I add supports, I’ll turn the space there into cabinets.”

  “You’ll have to measure and make each and every single one independently… Where will the kitchen be?” Asked Magnar as he started going downstairs.

  “I was thinking of using the space next to the door to the smithing terrace. Good natural lighting in the afternoons and there’s smoke on that side coming out anyway. No need to worry about a bit more. Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah… Then the heating system?”

  “That I’ll have to show you.” I told him following him down on the stairs to the ground floor. “Here.” I lift the crude trapdoor I made to cover the entrance to the underground level. I throw a look at Cassia who is still contemplating squatted in the same place. “But I’m thinking that it’s hard to get good ventilation there, so it might be better to build a pillar coming up on which I build the heating system on this floor.”

  “What about the chimney?”

  “Build up vertically, let it cede heat to the entire tower. Right now, however… I’m out of wood and of stone. The few cinder stone blocks left aren’t enough for anything. Nor do I have the money right now… So first on the list is making the daggers, I guess…” I said then looked at Cassia and continued.

  “Cassia, can you find someone to install the array? First find out what’s the price of the installation, I will strive to get the money for it…”

  She nodded softly, but still said nothing. I shrugged her silence off then resumed my conversation with Magnar. Later, the giant left, having to go eat. Cassia remained behind, making me despair slightly. ‘What does she still want?’

  “Cato…” Cassia called out to me softly.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  “Do you hate me?”

  The question hung heavily in the air… I froze, not knowing what to say. “What gave you that impression? Hm… well I guess I’ve been acting like that… Anyway, I don’t have any food here. The door is over there, you’re welcome to make use of it any time you may see fit.”

  “Why are you acting like this?”

  “Haaa… It’s about focus and scope. What I aim for is so far and removed from this place, that I can’t even begin to explain. I guess, I’m simply not the right person. It’s not just you that I’ll refuse. I won’t get close to anyone like that. Or at least that’s my resolve. So, I don’t want to have you somehow, actually start liking me. Because I simply won’t reciprocate. Not to you or to anyone else, and at that point… feelings hurt.” I stopped talking and we both sunk into silence.

  It took some time, but Cassia spoke up again.

  “You speak as if you know how it feels… But you’re just eight. And you do things and think like an adult. You have trains of thought that I can’t imagine existing without an adult’s experience…A crazy adult but an adult nonetheless…” Her voice grew smaller towards the end, until her voice disappeared into a whisper.

  “Heh, perhaps, there is simply more to me than you can see. Anyway, I need to start preparing for bed, so if you don’t mind… I’d appreciate if you hurried out and away.” I gestured towards the door.

  “Yeah, yeah… I’m leaving, happy?” She rose to her feet and approached the door. She stopped before it. “Thanks for the promise…”

  “I don’t need your thanks. I did it to get you out of my hair with that marriage thing. Otherwise, I’d keep losing a lot of time just arguing with you about it. If you really want to thank me, then listen to what I’m telling you, and leave!” I said, my brows furrowing with my foot tapping the floor.

  She finally went out the door. Shortly I heard the gate of the courtyard, and she was gone. I went out to lock the gate and investigated with aether, to make sure she truly went away. I quickly bathed. I went upstairs, meditated and settled to sleep. From tomorrow, I will continue forging, and focus on arrays and formations. Time to get busy.

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Cato admits he views relationships as "anchors" that will only bring pain when he eventually transcends. Is this wisdom, or just fear from his past life disguising itself as logic?