I went back in. Cassia was still waiting there. She looked at me going up the stairs and let out a sigh.

  “So, what is it that you want us to see?” she asked sounding tired. “I don’t need riddles and incomplete stuff.”

  I stopped. “I don’t know what you’ll see and how long it will take.” I scratch the back of my head. “This stuff isn’t exactly foolproof. What I’m teaching you now is the very basics, if you practice enough, you won’t need me to tell you anything more.”

  Her tired manner disappeared. She looked at me like a tiger ready to pounce on its prey, eyeing my throat with too much intensity for comfort.

  “Then let me rephrase. What is it that you see?”

  “Much better question, but I don’t want you to be misled by imagination. Dealing with the internal state is a very subtle matter. It's like drawing a map of a dungeon you haven't explored yet and then charging in blindfolded. If you step where you think a bridge is, but there isn't one, you fall into the abyss.”

  “You sound more and more like a scam.” She commented. “Didn’t you tell me to imagine earlier?”

  Magnar chuckled but did not intervene. The guy had a speed that put anyone to shame in meditation. I guess he’d find her doubts funny. I’ll have to ask about his progress later.

  “This and that are different. Your senses are easy to visualize. You use imagination to tell your mind it can shut them off, that it can relocate those resources to something else. Internal structures on the other hand… You don’t normally see or sense them. If you imagine you can operate on something fake and fail.” While talking I finished getting up the stairs and sat back down close to Magnar.

  It was Cassia’s turn to scratch her head. “So how are you going to teach us then?”

  “I won’t. You tell me what you sense and see, and then I will give you names for those and eventual exercises. For now, however most of the stuff I could teach shouldn’t be done anyway. It can stunt growth and damage your body now. Just focus on sensing and seeing.”

  “You just sound more and more cryptic… Whatever, my back hurts holding that position you showed us. Any suggestions on that?”

  I smile softly. “Get off the bed.”

  “What?”

  “Get off the bed.” I repeated myself. “Meditate on the floor. The bed sinks under your body that makes you change your posture without realizing. The change causes pain.”

  “Really?” She got off the bed and sat on the floor taking the position. “It does feel better… But at this rate my backside will get quite sore.”

  “You can use a cushion to sit on, just make sure it’s not too soft and that your legs are off it. This may also help avoiding back pain. Although if your back still hurts while meditating off the bed it mostly means your back is weak…”

  She didn't reply for a long time. Finally, she stood up. “I’ll go back. I need to take a bath.” She rose to her feet and walked to the stairs

  “Have a nice evening and remember. Don’t rush. It took me six years to go from Aether Gathering to Core Formation. The situation of your house can’t be solved if you build a shaky foundation for yourself or if you break another’s. It will only be delayed.”

  She stopped hearing me. Her fingers curled into fists. “You don’t know that. What could you understand?”

  “More than you imagine. Everything revolves around interests. Assets are part of it, but power can create more. If you are weak, then you can’t command interest. Only strength puts you above interests.”

  “But I lack that, and my grandfather doesn’t have long left. He is the last one with strength left. If I wait and take my time I won’t make it.”

  “If you rush you will have hollow strength that will falter in front of the older powerhouses. You will be buried just as well. We’ll see when we get there how we deal with it. I promised I’d help after all.”

  “Ha…” She sighed, her shoulders slumped, and her head dropped forward a bit. “If only it was that easy…” She left without saying anything else.

  “She might drag you down too.” Magnar spoke up finally.

  “So? I can make a life for myself no matter what. Even knowing the difference in power, I doubt they will be able to catch me. I got plenty of tricks and no one in this world should have any measures to counter my path. I just need time.”

  “You were very determined to not get involved a few days ago.”

  “I still don’t want too. But contracts don’t work just one way… I’m forced to do as promised too. Potential also commands interest. Let’s just hope I’ll be able to put enough of a show. But do tell, what made you so amused earlier?”

  “I found her doubt very… Normal. By the way you speak I’d have punched you already if I didn’t already trust you.”

  “You have no idea how hard it is to explain these teachings without sounding like a charlatan… It literally sounds like a scam even to me…”

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  He patted my back. I buckled forward. “It’s fine. I already felt that thing you told us first time. I believe you got something in store for us. I’ll just follow the instructions for now.” He also went for the stairs. “I have to leave too. The dinner is going to be served soon.”

  “Sure, eat well.” I was left alone in my room.

  ‘Finally, moment of peace.’ Just as I relaxed, the tower shook, and a loud boom sounded out. I rushed to the window, whose wing-panes were still trembling, and opened it. “Don’t demolish my fucking tower!” I shouted angrily at Hargrave who was sprawled on the ground again.

  “Yeah, yeah, got it…” He says dismissively while dusting himself off.

  I went to the ground floor and picked more of my boiled vegetables. I cut them to pieces and started eating. ‘I have to make money again… Eating like this is ridiculous…’ By the time I finished eating, Vex and Hargrave showed up by the forging terrace entrance.

  “We finished cleaning up in the back after this idiot blew up his array. There is a grassless, charred area in the back now though.” Vex told me.

  “That’s fine, I’ll build something over the spot at some point… Besides, grass will grow back.”

  “It’s all good, we’ll be back tomorrow.” Vex continued.

  I nodded and they left.

  Before going to sleep I checked up the furnaces. They were all burning well, baking the refractory clay. I returned to my room and made some more attempts at forming the array. They all failed. My frustration with this grew.

  Next morning I got bored to death again during classes. ‘These guys should really start learning about pedagogy… Pulling out any damn old mage that is stuck below fifth stage to teach doesn’t mean they are qualified to do it…’

  I kept thinking of the design of my generator. The best way to go about it would be to have a half of it be conductive to aether, with the flow directed towards bores. In the bores small nails can be fixed, the ends of the nails would be split, so that the silk thread can get between the two parts.

  Tightening the jaws around the threads would ensure the aether and electric transmission. Using a segment of the electricity conducting leg of the spider beast, we could set the direction in which the electricity would flow.

  In the end this amounted to two hemispheres of silver with a bunch of small holes and a bigger one for the leg segment, a conductor, a bunch of silver nails and the need for actual wire. The silver I had now was not enough for wires, and considering how only the generator swallowed almost five golds, I was second guessing using silver for the threads… it was only a seven percent increase in conductivity…

  Escaping classes I returned to the tower with Magnar. The big blast furnace still had to burn, but the small melting furnace I made was ready. Benefit of small quantity to be baked. With the recipient prepared I only needed a few more steps.

  “We have to prepare some coke and to clean this thing. It can’t have soot on the inside…” I told Magnar. “We need to make a sand mold too… I’ll take care of the mold and washing, you know what to do.”

  “Anything I should do with the coke? It’s kind of hard to take it off the fire.”

  “Use tongs and beat them away from the center. I need some grinded into dust… It will absorb oxygen from the crucible. Helps with silver purification. We won’t stir it into the silver, just blanket the silver.”

  Magnar shook his head at the later part of my monologue. “Why do you even want purer silver?”

  “Lightning loses less power when traveling through it…”

  “Dwarves really know a lot of stuff…”

  “Yeah…” I answered halfheartedly. ‘Hopefully Master Fjorn never visits, or he’ll be really annoyed that I never shared any of these… On the other hand, I’m blowing their skill out of proportions.’ I chuckled thinking of dwarves having to deal with a Magnar that’s used to me.

  I got to work, scrubbing the crucible on the inside with a rounded piece of cinder stone that I was holding with a piece of normal leather. Cleaning soot wasn’t easy without any modern conveniences like a sponge or metal brushes. The soot was smearing on my arm and getting under my nails.

  While scrubbing I heard the gate open, and the usual duo was back. Vex came over, while Hargrave went back to his array research using my device.

  “I’ll get started on that cellar.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Anything else you’d need my help with?” As he asked this an idea popped into my head.

  “Actually yes. I’ll give you a drawing can you make a mold of sand that has that cutout and maintain it while we pour metal in it?” I asked excited by the prospect of removing the usual casting limitations.

  “Yeah, I could do that… Why do you seem so excited? You are only adding to your debt.”

  “You just solved a big problem for me. You’ll see later.”

  “Alright. Call me when you’ve got things done.”

  I continued my scrubbing and finished soon. Then I got to work on a drawing. Using a split, sharpened, hard wood short stick I drew the technical design for the silver pieces I needed. It would be hard to cast the complex shapes I needed in one go without Vex, so his presence simplified the process a lot.

  Once I finished the drawings, I got started with Magnar on melting the silver. We loaded the furnace. First, a bed of coke on the grate. Then, the crucible—loaded with the silver ingots—settled into the center. Finally, we packed more coke around the sides, burying the crucible in fuel. We lit the furnace.

  To get things prepared in advance I looked for Vex, who by this time was already done with the cellar.

  “This is what you need me to make?”

  “No, these are the holes that need to exist in the mold.”

  “Hm… That will be harder to do…”

  “That’s why I didn’t try to make the drawing of the mold… I’ll explain to you the purpose of each detail here, so you’ll have an easier time controlling it.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “So, these two hemispheres are the poles of the generator… This one on the left, will be aether conductive, the one on the right will be the collector for the lightning. The small holes are the places where these small nails will go in.”

  Vex summoned the shape out of sand. The grains flowed, climbing onto each other, moving against gravity as they were arranged into a sphere that split down the middle. “Like this?”

  “Yes… Add a larger hole on the flat surface to both hemispheres, in the center.”

  He did as I said. “What is the purpose of this one?”

  “I will place a cut part of one of the spider legs in there. Those legs allow the flow in a single direction, either towards the body for the back legs or away from it for the front legs. As such we can determine the electric flow using it.”

  Vex nodded while Magnar scratched the back of his head.

  “Is this what you were mumbling about in class?” Magnar asked. He got closer to the sand models floating in the air.

  “Yeah.” I answered him, then continued, talking to Vex. “Add a hole on the rounded part of both hemispheres, one slightly larger than the nail ones on the center, that is where lightning conductors will be connected, then to the left hemisphere add a hole as big as the one for the spider leg part. That’s where the aether influx will enter through.”

  “Done.” The sand shifted revealing the holes, the grains rolling and flowing on each other or dropping on the ground as the shape grew more defined. “Anything else?”

  “No, this is it. Now we wait for the silver to melt… You’ll need to be very careful. If your focus wavers during pouring, we might lose both the silver and our legs.”

  Vex nodded and focused on creating the mold. “Don’t worry. I can deal with it.”

  All that was left to do was to wait a little more then add some coke dust. With the silver melting, only a few minutes separated me from an engine of free energy to power my future crafts or a pile of expensive scrap cooling on the ground…

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