《Magic is Electricity?!》 Magic is Electricity?! Part 1 "What a long day at work!" Ethan mutters to himself, closing the laptop lid and leaving it on the desk. Mentally exhausted from his work at Hydro One, prepping distribution construction drawings for the expansion of the power grid in Northern Ontario, he heads out of the office and heads towards his car in the parking lot. Walking through the snow with his coat on, he stops for a moment to enjoy the cool breeze and setting February sun. Continuing walking, and staring up at the blue sky, the next thing he realizes he is falling. Not because of slipping on ice, but because he stepped in a rather large bucket. Now a bucket in of itself outside is somewhat unusual, especially on a snowy February day, but the main thing that Ethan realizes before whacking his head on the ground is that it is made out of wood with a metal band around its top and bottom, and is way too large to be a bucket, and too small for a tub. ???? "I told you it wouldn''t work!" the very tall, graceful woman shouts at the comparatively shorter man. "It must have worked! The engravings all lit up, and the 50 people around us are passed out and unable to move from the energy drained from them!" He snarls back. "Maybe you didn''t press the Glyphstone properly!" "It''s a glyphstone! It takes no special function. Hell we even have this exact one as one to flush the plumbing in the castle!" "My point still stands!" "You calling me Incompetent you blithering old rockhead" "No..." "Good" "but the similarities in traits are quite related, knifeears" "Why I''d never do this in formal company, but " The woman stands up, arms outstretched and dumping the contents of one of her many pockets into her hands, sets off a massive fireball in the stone room, directly at the man" "THA Tis ENOUGH o THAT" an elderly green man, hunched with age wheezes his way up the steps to where they were arguing, using the last of his energy to blow the fireball into the wall, where it explodes harmlessly. "Now I know yous get along as well as o''l an'' ''ellfire, but coul'' ya at leas'' try ta kill eachotha afta we''s move the channelas" Resentful, the other two look around the room and realize an all out battle in the middle of the most powerful summoning circle for the last 2000 years would probably be a bad idea, as even though it is dead, enough manna flooding it may cause it to misfire, and who knows what it would pull, or use for its source for the next summoning. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Over the course of the next half hour, they move all of the channellers to the hospital area to give them some rest and let them rebuild their strength before they try again. As they walk down the main stairs, they hear the howls, screeching, and snapping of last month''s failed summons. The elderly green man mumbles "The council wil'' na b'' happa ''bout this. We needsa ''ero. hopefulla we''s get one so''n."
Ethan Mitchell, location: half in a bucket Waking up, all I can feel is my head. It hurts. Real bad. Not, "I got nailed in the back of the head with a soccer ball" bad, but still pretty bad. Staggering to my feet, I quickly lose balance and fall into the bucket. Bracing for landing on its metal band, I put my hands out to try and catch the sides so I don''t end up with a ring shaped bruise on my chest, I end up moving too quick and have plenty of time to move my hands as I fall. Grabbing the bucket as I continue to fall, I feel reassured that I won''t get a major bruise. The bucket just broke in half from me grabbing it. The bucket... broke in HALF. From me... grabbing it. Quickly stumbling to dodge the now splintered bucket still looking like it will hit my chest. I manage to clumsily roll to my side to not be impaled by it. Carefully standing up, I am glad that I avoided becoming that newspaper headline "man killed by being stabbed by bucket" and "Man vs Bucket, bucket won" Looking around I notice the rest of this room is dark, with the only light I can see coming from a window in the back wall. Looking at the floor, it is finely cut stone. Now I don''t know much about architecture, but finely cut stone is not something used much today, so I either fell into the old district of the city or someone spent way too much money in this section of office space. Turning around to see if I can see my office, I faintly see a very large door on the wall behind me. "Must of really hit my head and someone is now making a joke of it" Walking towards the door, I realize it takes me many more steps than I expect to get to it, and it is dark here. Reaching for my phone, I quickly shake it to turn on the flashlight. Looking around, I am in a giant room filled with a few oversized buckets, mops, brooms, rags, and unmarked glass flasks. Still confused on why the janitor''s closet has wooden buckets I head to the door, and search for the handle. I find the handle, It is right in my face. A big brass knob the size of an orange. Grabbing it, I open the door and shine my light into the dimly lit room. Looking inside, I immediately slam it shut as the cacophony of animalistic snarls and growls alerts me that they are very much awake, and seemingly very hungry. I hear several thuds and crunches against the heavy door and it shakes a few times from the impact. Leaning back on the door, I feel it bow, but not inwards as I expect, but me leaning on it slightly causes it to bow OUTward. Panicking slightly, I sit down and try to make sense of it all. Staring blankly at the cleaning shelves for a few minutes, I cannot think of anything sensible. No joke this complicated would be pulled on someone with no friends within 200 km. Those animals looked, sounded and smelled way too real even if it was slightly off. Everything is way too oversized and flimsy, and things look almost correct but the anacroisms do not make much sense. Glass unlabelled jars of stuff in what is definitely a broom closet. Buckets the size of washbasins. I must be having a stroke! I quickly pull out my phone and start dialing 9-1-1. Only for it to ring, and ring and ring. It clicks, sayingcall could not be completed. Looking at the bars, it says none. Quickly going through all of my options again, the only one left makes absolutely no sense, but however unprobably, it must be the truth. I''ve been Isekai''d! Magic is Electricity?! Part 2 Ethan Mitchell, in the closet, but not THAT one ... ... I awake again, hoping it was all a dream, or a stroke. Preferably a stroke, so I know that this is a drug induced stupidity while I am being operated on, rather than something that can come up in my regular sleep schedule. I open one eye, and see the stone floor. "It must be Isekai," I mumble to myself. "Great, the one genre I only read 4 stories of. I probably could have pulled a better attempt at living in the Roman era or the 1800s, but of course, it''s isekai. So from the 4 stories I ever read about this, I have 2 main concerns, this is either going to get me into a major hero complex of a land of snake people or dragons, or into a "definitely not a harem" of mostly platonic relationships with a lot of girls on a halo ring, or a "base defense with your elven lover and a swarm of orphans whilst the powers that be want to go to war". I am not sure which is more terrifying, being the hero, or having to talk to women! I could not do either on Earth! How can I be expected to do either here?! And being around kids?! I can''t stand squeaky voices! First things first, from the little known of this topic, whatever pulled me here is probably mad. Both from just spending an ungodly amount of energy to get me here, and that I am in the janitor''s closet and not doing their bidding already. Considering that is where the "hero" path lies and probably the highest chance of death, I need to skedaddle out of here immediately. Second, due to the large door for a janitor closet, and that I bend stuff from leaning on it, I am short. They are tall. They are probably lighter too if they think this is enough door to stop anything. I stand up again, still with a sore head, but less sore than it was last time. I try to just take a light jump, and end up over a meter off the ground. "And gravity is low. Great, now I have to exercise just in case the magic bullshit that pulled me here is on a timer or something". Let''s see what I have with me. Lunch pail with no lunch. Scratch that, 2 old granola bars in it. Still in date at least. 1 generic brand ibuprofen, in a snack ziploc. 2 plastic containers that contained my lunch. 1 pepsi can (empty). 1 large tupperware water bottle (empty), a leather paper holder, 1 notebook. 3 pens, 1 working from heights training manual. 1 pair of winter boots (dress). 1 set of regular clothes I am wearing. 1 winter coat with tuque and mittens. (I like having fingers more than having access to individual fingers). 2 phones (1 personal 56% battery, 1 work 71% battery). 1 laptop (personal 100% battery). 2 USB cords Jumping up and peering out the window in the back of the janitor''s closet, I see that it is still snowing, so no luck on being in a "temperate but never snows" biome like the other 4 isekais I''ve read. Great. Ok, main plan. Get out of this building. Odds are I am in the dungeon, which is the basement due to all the animals here that they don''t want. Step one. Flee upwards. Step 2: do not get eaten, maimed, bitten, stung, etc. Step 3: If given chance, look at animals on way out to see what type of world this is. Maybe these are the animals they keep for being hungry for a gladiator arena? I hope not. If so I am DEFINITELY on the wrong level. By the way, considering some form of bullshit pulled me into this place, should I not have some form of connection to it? I should be getting a system prompt or magic voice in my head about "welcome to fantasyia" "choose your stats" or "you are a secret being that has access to stupendously over leveled spells, and here they are!" No, nothing?! So, just to be clear, I have been summoned, dumped in a bucket, stuck in the closet, and have either hero or death as my 2 main options right now?! I vote nay on that logic! This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. I storm to the door, and then, stealthily turn the handle. Well. as stealthily one can turn an orange made of way too thin brass. The door opens, and using the light of my work phone, I see that many of the animals are asleep. Looking across them, some look like things that would fit right into Avatar the Last Airbender, while the one in the back looks like a toy version of an illithid, but the size of the bean bag stuffed animals that sit on the floor. Walking quietly, I get about half way across the room, before I hear a snarl. "Sabre-tooth tiger?! Really?!" No sudden inspiration on how to fight it appears, so I run as quick as I can to the far end of the hall and plow my way through the door, not taking chances on having time to open it properly. Coming through the door, the sabre tooth tiger that is way too big for the room paws at the door the same way Tom paws at Jerry through the mouse holes. Seeing that mostly dealt with, I see that I am in another animal room, but this one is filled with things closer to sizes I expect. The room is still massive, but the animals are at least the right scale, and I think I see a deer in the background. Moving over from the door, I realize that me barging in did not go without consequences. These animals seem docile, but it seems like I squished what could only be described as the mathematically assumed spherical rat. Instantly it reminds me of another HFY story containing something about busy rats, zizi rats? I can''t remember, just that they go squish real easy and are supposedly good to eat. Considering I just killed this one, it counts as fresh, so as soon as I get outside I can start cooking, smoking, or freezing it depending on what I find. Walking out of the room, towards a spiral staircase, I suddenly feel warm breath on my shoulder. Carefully looking back, its the tiger again! I run with the zizi rat in my hand being squished and turned into ground beef in seconds. Seeing no use for it now, I drop it as I run as fast as I can. I turn to climb up the stairs and pause on the curve. Looking back just long enough to see that the sabre-tooth tiger stopped to eat what ever the zizi rat was. Climbing up, I notice that I can jump and take 2 steps at a time. Given the tread height, and depth, these must be some very tall people. I notice it getting brighter, and with the glow of sunlight ahead, I scramble up the steps faster and faster. until suddenly I am in bright daylight. I look around the room. It is circular, and has massive windows that overlook the area around. The carving of the walls is nonexistent, seeming quite plain. Looking at the floor though, it is the most intricately carved anything I have seen. I quickly take a picture of the floor, and scan for more doors. Finding no obvious doors, I walk to a window. WHY ARE WE 50 STORIES OFF THE GROUND?! Suddenly overcome with nausea from the sheer height we are at, I sit down on the floor, only to get a static shock off of the floor. Stone does not shock normally, so I look closer at the floor. Now that I spend some time with it, I get deeply entranced and hyperfocus on the sigils and runes carved into the floor, that are sealed below the surface. "Itheca dynaewn haode heafeas thesda" Startled I quickly stand up and pivot towards the sounds of what seems like speech. In front of me is a 12 foot tall rake of a green old man. Like someone put an ork through a stretcher in kidpix. He starts swirling his hands and pulling stuff out of his pockets, and sensing that this is either the summoner or the cleanup crew, I bolt. Suddenly, my face hurts. Looking down at my nose, I already am bleeding red. Trying to see what hit me, my right arm and hand suddenly really hurt. Realizing that I was just shocked, I bolt for the stairwell, and start descending as quick as possible. I should have really exercied sooner as I now have a 50 story spiral staircase to descend. As I pass the 10th landing, I hear yelling, followed by more sounds of spells richocheting off the walls. I see a number of guards ahead, on alert with blades drawn. Quickly taking my options, I hurl myself at the window. It cracks, but does not shatter. Stupid magical glass! I crash into it again, and this time the glass turns to dust, like tempered glass. I feel the wind of something pass near my neck, but I jump out of the window before I can find out what that was. I then realized that these stories are quite tall. And trees are weak as well. Crashing through the window, I am greeted by the vast nothingness of open air, and a terrifying drop of 20m to go. "So this is how this ends. Huh. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" THis is taking a lot longer than normal, right low gravity. I faceplant the landing, leaving a cartoon splat shape in the freshly fallen snow just passed the door, surrounded by broken branches and tree limbs. Hurt, but not broken, I run. Not being an idiot, I run around to the back of the building, and run the opposite way of the road. Somewhat obvious? yes, but still better than being picked up by any shmuck coming down the road, and alerting everyone there. Magic is Electricity?! Part 3 "So it was not pointless afterall!" "Shutup rockhead. He could not have gotten very far, we are quite aways up, and given the fact that he''s bleeding out, it should not take long to find him" Up the stairs comes one of the guards, this one wearing multiple stars on the left breast pocket. "Sirs, ma''am. I take it your summon was a success, but there have been.... complications." "Complications how?!" "Well, he ran down to the second floor, where we were stationed, and thinking we had another terrified animal, we were ready to subdue it or kill it, mainly ensuring it does not go out the door." "And..." "And... it, he.. ran into the window. Just boing. Shook the floor and wall too when he did. " "So he''s knocked out from the impact glass? Good, should be an easy recovery for him" "Well, no. We charged at him, not knowing what it is, and it acting like a crazed animal, we were ready to put it down. One of my crew, drew their halberd and swung-" "You meathead! you killed the summon!" "LET ME FINISH! NO! He darted for the window again... and .... broke through...." "HE WHAT!" "He broke through. Yes, that is the strongest impact glass we have, and on hitting it a second time, he broke through. Also, this was the second floor. He then fell through a tree into the snow" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. "So he''s dead by falling?" "We think so" "What do you mean "We think So"?! We just nearly killed 50 of the best mages and magicians the world has to offer, you let him slip through your hands and he is possibly dead, and you cannot confirm it?!"'' "The issue is, there is blood, but no body. There is nothing showing his presence and he did not stand up, so he''s probably dead, but the snow is too deep for him" "Go investigate further! There has been too much day in this day already. And it is only high sun. I am off to bed!" "About that... that window frame was load bearing, and he clipped it. This tower''s coming down now. We are evacuating immediately"
???? In the snow, sun is starting to set. Good thing it is cold. There is no way I would have survived this long if the snow was wet as well. I think to myself, as I walk towards a small hut with smoke rising from the chimney. Normally, I would avoid all contact with anybody within three days walk of here, knowing that the law of plot means that the hero plot will want to come and rope me in, but I don''t feel a literal plot hook in my spine yet so I should be ok. Hopefully the summoners turned out to be some dumb cult that no one likes that will deal with itself. As I near the hut, I see another man. He too has pointy ears, but his face is worn, yet clean shaven, definitely a subsistence farmer. Probably not knowing what the giant tower 6 hours of walking away is. After some very bad hand gestures, I think I got him to understand I am cold and need warming up, as well as food. Sitting down, he offers me a bowl of soup and lets me dry my winter coat and boots by the small stone fire pit. Noting it is stone, I realize that metal manufacturing must be pretty light if it is not used for fire pits here yet. Now that I am warm, I realize that this place is oversized too. But that does not make sense, the man is my height! Suddenly, there is as pounding of way too large sounding boots outside the door. I quickly dive under the blankets he provided and hopefully hide. While hiding, I realize my winter clothes and boots as well as my backpack of supplies is obvious in front of the fire. While they are talking (I have no clue what they are saying) there is a low rumble which builds in sound to that of a freight train and then stops. They both look away, towards the sound. I quickly try to dress, but while I am getting my boots laced up (stupid eyelets) I am seen. A much taller, woman, definitely elven but with a worn face stares directly at me, and suddenly squeals in delight at seeing me. They ramble on a lot more, with the now much younger than I thought male shakes his head vigorously but it seems like he is having none of it. I try to get my coat on, but the elven woman, who I can only assume is the mom, grabs my coat and starts rambling on, with what I can only assume are questions. Not wanting to give away that I am not from here, in case the guards that I ran into track me down, I give basic hand gestures of cold, hungry, home, safe that the boy picks up immediately and explains to his mother(?). Mom, for I do not have a better name for her now, in a flurry of blankets and pillows, turns the chair near the fireplace into a bed, which is the size of a double for me. and I fall asleep nearly instantly. Magic is Electricity?! Part 4 Ethan Mitchell, daylight, some random cabin Waking up and stretching, I am still hoping that it was all a dream. Seeing rough hewn timbers way above me, and feeling even shorter than yesterday quickly dispels that idea. Standing up, I realize I do not have to jump down to the ground, hoping that something was the right size for once, I look at the chair, and groan in displeasure. I snapped the legs of the chair. By sleeping on it. Walking across the floor to my stuff, I carefully step, hoping there is no basement or hidden deathtrap of a cellar. Suddenly, Mom comes in the room, and seeing me, quickly attempts to pick me up. I hear a pop, and she grimaces. At least I don''t have to worry about being carried away by anyone soon! She gestures to me to sit at the table. I hop up, hungry, and hoping that whatever they have for food is edible to me. Looking down at what is served, I get my hopes up a bit. Grey mush, like oatmeal, and some form of fried smoked meat that looks kind of like peameal bacon. Starting with the oatmeal, it tastes like oatmeal! At last! Finally something familiar and actually the right scale! The flavour of it is a little bitter, but quite good. Could use some syrup though. Looking around the table, the boy? man? I don''t know? runs off and grabs a clay jar of something. Looking in, it looks like jam. I put a bit on the oatmeal and it''s good! Reluctantly, he puts some on his oatmeal as well, and his eyes light up as well. Must have been a long time since he''s had that! Thinking about earth''s history, the fact that they have jam means they must have good trade to somewhere warmer that has sugarcane, or a really good industry to process sugar, or some magical plant or system that works in colder climates, but is still rare enough to be a treat. I try the meat. It is quite soft, closer to barely cooked boiled chicken in texture, or bean paste, rather than an actual meat like structure. It is not terrible, although I cannot eat much of it due to the level of grease it has. About a quarter of the way through, I bite something hard within it. Thinking it is a fishbone, and trying to not be rude, I chew on it some more. Looking at the other 2, they have no issue, and are talking about something. I really wish I knew the language here! After a good 5 minutes, (according to my watch) I still cannot break the bone, and it starts tasting like pennies. Carefully extracting the bone from my mouth, the other 2 look at me funny. Looking at what I pulled out, I am immediately shocked! "WHY is there a WIRE in MY MEAT?!" There before me, is a piece of some shiny metal, about an inch long, and as thick as a strand of braided wire, IN my COOKED "NOT BACON"! Thinking I literally bit the plot hook now, I quickly grab my coat boots and bolt for the door. Only to run into Mom. She is looking quite angry, and starts barking at me, pointing at the kidman behind me. Kidman, good name. Through a bunch of gestures, she wants me to eat the wire. Pushing past her, she grabs my collar and hollers at me. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Sitting back down, I try to eat it, and even when I get it partly down, I cough and choke it back up. Mom, eventually fed up, lets me go. Finally with my freedom, I head out, and turn left, following a trail that leads from this house to... somewhere . Somewhere where crazy ladies not wanting me to eat literal plothooks exist. I get about 5 minutes down the road before I hear someone running up from behind me. I quickly hide behind a tree. Once the running stops, I hold my breath trying to not make a sound. "Boo!" I jump. I''ve never liked jumpscares, let alone real ones! Fight or flight kicks in and I attempt to punch the offender, only to hit Kidman right in the knee as he jumps upwards into the tree. His foot comes flying at my face due to striking something within, and I grab on. "OOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!" Not realizing my strength, I panic, thinking he is building up rage to do more damage, pulling him down, I yank him out of the tree and onto his back. Eyes wide in shock, he quickly limps off and out of site. Calming back down, I continue towards what appears to be a small town. Walking into it, I see a poster on what I can only assume is a questboard, showing a picture of one of the guards, one of the mages and the outline of the tower I came from. I cannot read it, but it seems like they want as many mages and guards as possible. The entire image is surrounded by a black void, with the tower acting as some form of light source overcoming it. Seeing this, I quickly pull my coat closer to me, and try to act small, as this feels like another plot hook trying to get me killed, not unlike the literal one in my bacon. I hear a handbell being rung, and next thing I realize I am in a swarm of similar height elves. They swarm over me and run into the building behind the sign. Sighing, I turn away from that building and start heading towards the far end of this village. Where I am stopped by the guard. Fortunately, he''s dressed differently than the ones I saw at the tower. Unfortunately, he and his buddies are blocking the road. After more gesturing and some spear thrusts offered by them, I end up being escorted back to the building I just came from. Entering in, the guards depart, and I stare out the door as it closes again. Facing inwards, I am faced by a swarm of kids? all staring at me. Some suddenly get up, and of course the larger men who are starting to tower over me approach, while one of the girls is wrapping the foot of Kidman. Kidman looks at me with hatred in his eyes, and I can suddenly piece together what they think. Random kid stumbles in from forest injures another kid, but does not seem that tall. Bracing for the worst, I tighten my backpack straps, and stand palms forward in a defensive but hopefully nonthreatening way. It does not work. I am suddenly surrounded on all sides as about 7 of the older kids circle me and start kicking and punching. At first I am feeling the impacts, and take a deep breath out to deflate my lungs and stomach in case they end up trying to knock the wind out of me. I slowly spin, trying to dodge as many impacts as possible. But I am a terrible dodger. After the second punch, I am glad that I breathed out, but not from the pain, or the threat of being knocked over, but from how it feels like they are just poking me and pressing on me. Suddenly remembering my backpack and the much more delicate laptop within. I start acting quite defensive of it. but also knowing that this is the max impact, me falling over is more dangerous than them hitting me. Weighing my options, and not wanting to cripple another person, I take off my backpack, and curl up into a ball around it. The kids, thinking they are winning, try to rip it out of my hands, and kick me in the back. Those that kick end up with sore feet, and those ripping it out end up with sore hands, due to my death grip on my only possessions I have. "Iqua gnowleth la!!" I hear shouting from the front of the class, and looking up, another rather tall, elven man is there. Looking sternly at those attacking me. Eventually, they all sit down, glaring at me. The man up front, Mr. Teacher suddenly barks at those around me, making those attackers appear beet red, as I can assume what has been said in such a verbal lashing that some of the other kids cover the littler one''s ears. Turning to me, the teacher says something much softer, probably some form of apology. Looking around, and knowing that there is a poster for mages out the door, I do not respond verbally, but sit down, near the front, acting shaken and rocking back and forth as if I am stressed. Doing so for a few minutes, The feeling stressed turns out to be real. Here I am, somewhere where buckets break, floors bend, and no one speaks English, and I am stuck in public school! Magic is Electricity?! Part 5 Mr teacher continued on with his lesson after that. At first it was interesting trying to guess what they are talking about, but when the only content that is written on the chalkboard is what must be their very fancy language, it gets tiring quickly. I soon lose focus of what is going on and my mind starts to wander. Normally this is tolerable at best, and suicidal at worst, but this reached a whole other level. I have felt lonely before, but this, this is different. For all I know, there is not even a human on this planet, and looking at their tech base, my knowledge will not be useful for another two hundred years, and given how silent the magic system has been, if it even talks, I''ll probably be long gone before then. When you are this alone, is it possible not to cry? I don''t know because I did. As quiet as possible. Deep in thought, I lose track of time. I only snap out of this from a gentle hand on my shoulder. Expecting Mr Teacher, my last expectation was a guard dressed similarly to those of the tower, but all in robes. Panicking, seeing the plot come back so quick, I jump to my feet, causing the wooden desk bottom to crack from my knees hitting it. I suddenly feel a jolt of electricity shot through my shoulder, causing my back to tense up and right arm to spasm, smacking myself in the mouth. In a panic, I lash out at my attacker, and with all the strength I can muster, and the 2 weeks worth of baseball throwing knowlege I have, throw my closed fist at his chest. I feel pain. I am pain. All I can see, hear and taste is pain. It tastes like licking a 9V battery but all over. I cannot move, and my mind is trying to block as much as possible. Before passing out yet again, I hear the sound of a helmet hitting the floor and footsteps storming away. ????? another random timber framed building I wake with a groan. My everything hurts, but my need to go to the bathroom is higher. Stumbling around I do not find the bathroom, but beside my bed is a very basic drawing of an outhouse, and an arrow pointing out back propped up on a mug of water. I realize that I do not have my coat on, nor my boots, mittens, tuque or shirt. I quickly find my coat and put it on, and run out to do what I need to do. As I walk out, I notice the stars immediately. The stars are completely unfamiliar, so there goes the idea of planar shift bringing me here. So whatever pulled me here is more complicated than single dimensional travel. Re entering the building, I notice it is the back of the school. As much as I can see of it when it is this dark out though. I guess I did not get night vision either upon arrival, and these elves must have at least a little due to the fact that there are no lights as I look down the street. Just a few candles in the windows, and the stars above. Relieved, I crawl back into bed, stiff as a board, and try to sleep. My mind wandering to how I know no one, cannot even talk to them, probably destroyed my only chance of a friend and am probably going to be thrown out of town come morning. Sleep comes fitfully between sobs, as I try to cry again, but can''t. I awake to the sunrise. Still very sore, I stay still to not worsen whatever happened to me. I see the silhouette of someone near me, and I lay perfectly still, trying not to be seen. They reach down, and lift up a cloth of water and gently brush water over my forehead. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I sob. That''s something mom would do. But I''ll probably never see her again! Whoever this person is, pats my head as I roll over painfully and go back to sleep. I awake late in the day, still without my shirt and feel less sore. My muscles no longer feel like they are screaming. I carefully stand up, look around and see my shirt. It has a patch on the left shoulder, right where the shock entered me the first time. Remembering what happened, I look to my hands to see if I broke anything as I am definitely not a fighter. My right wrist still hurts, but no more than if I fell on it, so probably only sprained or strained. But the thing that sticks out to me the most is the colour. It is red. Now by red, I don''t mean bruised and swollen. I mean dried blood red. Using my left hand, I check my nose. No, I did not punch myself in the face this time. Then I remember, I punched him. Really hard. reliving the moment, I can now imagine each rib popping, the sharp slicing motion of his ribs trying to bite my arm. And then nothing. Did I kill the guard? Did I KILL SOMEONE?! Hyperventilating, I crawl back into bed to try and process this. and let out an animalistic roar of anger, sadness and rage. I killed someone. That someone could have had a family, and definitely had parents. Odds are they were at the peak of their life being involved with whatever that tower was, but I killed him. Me, a nobody from nowhere with no martial training. Me. My mind starts to loop, digging itself deeper into all the ramifications of this. Hauled off by the town guard, executed, fought over for power, just being another dumb mook in someone else''s story. An NPC. Suddenly, the comforting pats occur again, this time with my head under the covers. I start wailing. Too many emotions, too much everything. These last 48 hours have had more happen in them than I have had in months before. I wiggle my way through to the top of the bed. Before me is an elven woman with long red hair. She puts her finger to her lips, shushing me, and she leans into me to hold me close. I try to remain quiet but sob away. She does not run. Nor scorn. She just hugs me. I calm down and she lets go. Staring at her, she gestures to her mouth, seeming to ask if I am hungry. I nod yes. Shortly later, I hear a male voice. It''s Mr Teacher''s! This makes sense. I am in the back of the school. Oh no. The kids! What will they do hearing me like this?! Too exhausted and weak to care. I fall back onto the straw mattress and try to forget everything. Well, everything except that hug. The comfort there is what I need. A few minutes later, Mr Teacher comes in with a bowl of oatmeal, and vegetables. I dive into the oatmeal, eating like I have not eaten in 3 days. The vegetables are a little tangy, more like citrus, but still good. He looks at me, with care in his eyes. He then points outside. I look. He is pointing at the sun. He then points at me, and the bed, and then holds up 3 fingers. I ponder for a bit. He repeats the actions, this time pointing at the sun, the horizon, and then the horizon on the other side. I''ve been out for 3 days! I fall too my knees in shock and grief. "WHY CRUEL WORLD!!!" Looking at me, now in shock, Mr Teacher stands up, and gets some paper. I guess I am still a kid here, living with the teacher. and now revealed that I can talk. Now am I learning, or am I teaching? Magic is Electricity?! Part 6 The bad news is that today is a school day. The kids heard all of that. As I struggle to walk to the classroom, the students stare at me. Most with distrust, many with fear, and some with pity. I managed to put my shirt back on before entering, but am in too much pain to put on my coat. Mr. Teacher has me sit by the central cast iron fire place. So they do have metal working, but it is a little crude and must be costly still, if it is for public space only. I stay warm, but the cold feeling of numbness washes over me like a glacial river. Shivering from the thought of what I just did, I don''t even pay attention to the morning lesson. When it comes to lunch, one of the really little kids (meaning about 3 ft tall) beings me a bowl of soup as directed by the woman with red hair. I smile at her, with teeth covered, hoping to not scare her even more. She scampers off quickly. I pick at it, trying to think of next steps. After lunch, the class resumes and my mind begins to wander off again, until I hear the sound of chalk drawing.long lines on the board. Looking at it, it''s a right angle triangle. More symbols surround it, but the triangle is definitely a triangle. Mr teacher stops talking, looking around the class, I am guessing he just asked a question? His eyes lock with mine, and hesitantly, he tilts the piece of chalk towards me. Picking it up from his outstretched and lowered hand I walk to the chalkboard, hoping I guessed correctly. Reaching up, I realize I cannot reach the top of his triangle. I hear snickering and giggling from the class. I spot a stool in 1 corner of the class, and quickly pick it up and move it to near the triangle on the board. Carefully, I climb up onto the stool. It creaks and groans, but seems to hold my weight. Not wanting to spend too much time up here, I add a 90 degree square box denoting the 90 degree angle. Showing that, I then label the shorter vertical side attached to the 90 degree angle ''a'' and the longer ''b''. I extend the sides, forming squares, labelling the new sides ''a'' and ''b'' respectively as well. The snickering has died down, and most of the class is paying attention, Mr Teacher nods at me to continue. Reaching up, I label the hypotenuse ''c'' and draw its square as well labelling the sides like before. I then write out a^2 +b^2=c^2 Mr Teacher stares for a bit, and then nods politely, then claps celebratory. The rest of the class joins in half heartedly as well. Feeling embarrassed I sit back down. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! For once in my life I probably need to prove Pythagoras correct and I cannot remember how! Stewing to myself, I see him replace my a, b, and c with some weird symbols, but he does not erase my drawing. I at least did something right. Reaching into my backpack, I pull out my notebook and tear a sheet out and grab my pen. If they do not know I am not from here by now, no amount of school will help them. As I reach for one of my pens, I see my phone. My phone! Sure, it cannot get me home, and it is probably dying, but other than almost being an electrical engineer, I am also a data hoarder. Now my phone does not hold much, but it does hold a copy of the text of English Wikipedia! It''s only 40gb so not much to carry the entire world''s knowledge with you. I should be able to find a good proof that I can explain to them, showing I know something! I dig out my phone and find the page for Pythagorean theorem and find the section on rearrangement proofs. I sketch out what I read as there are no pictures and eventually find the tip to tail triangles form a square who''s sides are a +b with a c^2 sized hole in the middle. By dragging the triangles to form rectangles, 2 holes are made, a^2 and b^2. I have my proof! I shutdown my phone, pop my neck as I was staring at it under the desk (old habits die hard ok?) And tentatively raise my hand. I walk up to the chalkboard and sketch it out. I see several eyes light up with clarity this time, and even a few of the older students pay strict attention, some even trying it on their slates! Mr Teacher seems impressed, nods at me and I sit back down, knowing that I showed them I know something. I slowly zone out as he explains it in what I assume is more detail, along with easier methods for the younger (not always smaller) ones to understand. Dread returns. My mind wanders again. I take deep breaths but my mind does not clear. I try doodling various things, but that adds homesickness to the feelings as well, making it worse. Eventually, my thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the sound of clinking. Looking outside through the small window(the school has glass?!) I see the kids playing with the red helmet I saw before I passed out. I get off the chair and curl up into a ball and rock beside the fireplace. Time passes. I don''t feel any better..the kids all leave and the fire is dying down. In my peripheral vision, I see a stick reach toward me and I snap my head up, thinking it is another one of the red guards. Instead it is Mr teacher and the red haired woman, looking at me with worry and pity. He holds her hands out showing he is not going to hurt me, but shows me some weird coin sized trinket in my hand. He closes his hand around the trinket, stands up straight, and suddenly looks a little pale He opens his mouth, and speaks "Can you understand me?" Magic is Electricity?! Part 7 "YES!!!" I rush up to Mr teacher and the red haired woman and hug them both out of joy of finally being able to talk. "It feels so good knowing that I won''t be alone forever, stuck with only my thoughts and unable to understand anything. I was thinking I was going to need to learn an entire new language that shares no common root to my own but that looks like it is a thing of the past. By the way, are you feeling ok? You seem a bit pale and.... oh, I am rambling. Is everything okay? Here, I''ll ease up on the hug a bit, but I can finally understand and be understood by someone! Of course I am excited! By the way, I am not a kid. I am an adult! I don¡¯t want to be in school any more!" "Le ausitiqcua paterneera deminsuge" Mr teacher replies, hesitantly. "What?!" "We cannot understand you. We found this on the guard. It only translates the wearer" I put my hand out, hoping that I can use it. Mr Teacher understands what I want, and places it in my hand. "Can you understand me now?" Blank stares. I reposition it in my hand. "How about now?" Still blank stares. Mr teacher starts looking at me quizzically. I swap it to my other hand. "Can you hear me now?" Still blank. I frown, thinking why can I not use it. I continue to poke it, placing it in my hand, trying to see if I can get it to activate. Looking closer, I notice something. There is a small hole in the surface of the device on one side, and from what I can see by tilting it back and forth, there are fine traces running through it. Entranced by the object, I fail to notice red haired woman run off and return shortly with a highly polished wooden box that she carries reverently. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Mr Teacher coughs. I look up and he gestures for the device back. I pass it to him. "This polished box holds the school''s greatest treasure and tool. A tester. Each student, upon coming of age, gets to hold this device as they cross the threshold of the school symbolically for the last time in front of the entire town. Whilst doing so, this device lights up, showing their capacity. This is the source of all power within a being, and greater strengths represent greater abilities, some even stating that it is the very strength of the soul itself." "I am running out of to power this translator, but I am going to demonstrate it Lena will have to do the talking after that" He hands the trinket to the red haired woman, whom I guess is Lena. Mr teacher then respectfully opens the box, lifting out a polished brass sphere with a flat side. Looking at the flat side, there is an analog needle resting as well as an incandescent light? Mr teacher, with great gravitas, places the device in his hand, and briefly the needle swings to the right, and the lightbulb lights up to the brightness of a candle temporarily and then fades out. He then carefully, gently passes it to me. I place it in the palm of my hand, mimicking as close as possible to what he showed me. He nods slightly. I feel a slight tingle as I touch it, similar to that of when I was eating the vegetables. Hoping beyond hope that I have something of use in this otherwise fantastical world that I currently cannot interact with properly, I try and push the needle by moving something through my arm towards my hand. I focus for seconds, I shut my eyes hoping to channel my max strength and desire into the device. Opening my eyes, both Lena and Mr teacher are in shock. I try again. Still nothing. I try again, and again, switching hands, putting it on the pillow in the box and pulling it back out. Still nothing. I flip it over, and looking in it, I see the same small hole that the trinket/translator had, and faint traces emanating around it. Looking up again, they are still in shock. I look to Lena, who, realizing that I am staring at her, places the trinket in her hand and begins to speak with the smoothest, most endearing voice. "Sorry about staring off just now. But according to this tester, you are dead, not even undead. Dead dead." "WHAT?!" Magic is Electricrity?! Part 8 "What do you mean dead?! I am very much alive! Could a dead person do this?!" I stand up, grabbing the leg of the chair I snapped during the night, and snap the branch it was made from with all the effort of snapping a match. They look at me, terrified "N-n-n-no. I don''t know what you are saying, but you are clearly alive. Alive and angry. P-p-please don''t hurt us." I sit down on the chair, still closer to my ideal size than there''s. My anger subsides and realizing what I must''ve looked like, let out a huff and hold back tears. "I don''t want to hurt you. I don''t want to hurt anyone. Yet here I am, wherever here is, knowing no one, completely lost, being hunted by the most stereotypical looking villains and mistaken for a kid. I am strong physically compared to average, but mentally, I feel bad pulling up dying tomato plant, and I just killed a guy, and you''re saying I am as dead as him? The guy I put my hand through?" Lena crouches down, stares at me sitting, and then joins me on the bed. "I still don''t know what you said, but you calmed down. You''re distressed. Not from here based on your ears and chased by the national guard. You''re scared and cannot even speak. My Is almost out so just lean on me. Everything will eventually work out " I sob again. Man is she good with reading emotions, and calm under stress. Considering she thought I was looking for blood a few seconds ago. I eventually fall asleep leaning on her. I wake up in the night, terrified of my dream but unable to remember it. She is still there beside me, sitting quietly and staring at me, quickly comforts me and I fall back to sleep. The next morning, I wake up to the sound of sizzling. It''s more peameal bacon. I eat it, carefully carving around the wires. This time I am not bugged for not eating them, so they must have communicated with Kidman''s mom. Or realized I am not them, and cannot eat wires. Either way, not more trying to eat metal. Stolen novel; please report. Most of the way through eating, Mr teacher clears his throat, holds up the translator, and the places it in his hand and starts talking. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Thalion. Thalion Emberwind. I am the teacher here as you already know. We know that you are alive, and not from around these parts at the very least. We extend our hospitality to you for as long as you need to find where you are again. As for the mishap with the translator, I believe it is prudent to hypothesize that you are incapable of utilizing it due to biological differences. For example, you don''t have a in your palm." I look down at my palm, and sighing Mr teacher, Thalion sighs, lifts up the translator and shows a very tiny shiny point, no bigger than a needle tip just below the first joint in the middle finger. Placing the translator back in his hand, he continues, "And you survived destroying that mage''s Without any more damage than being curled up in a ball for 3 days, you probably don''t have these organs." He reaches down and pulls out a sheathed sword from under the table. I immediately step back. "That is why our swords have such strong insulation on the grip, to prevent death by release." Lena, while he is talking, pries the translator out of his hand. "Honestly Thalion, that is one of the dumbest things you have done. He is already terrified, has seen too much, killed someone and now after having a real night''s sleep, show him a sword like you plan to kill him with it?! I am surprised we are both alive after that stunt." Hearing the tone from her and seeing her actions is quite jarring, after experiencing her motherly side. I point between the 2 of them, questioning their relationship. "Now let me actually introduce ourselves. I am Lena Emberwind, herbalist and plant specialist, but have been this idiot''s sister for far longer. I usually collect plants at dawn and dusk, make minor potions during the day, experiment in the evening, but since you''ve arrived, I''ve been thinking about getting you settled, as you are the newest kid here. Although you raised quite the stir in math class I heard, knowing something far above your age and then proving it in a way that transcends language, it is amazing. You should have heard him ramble on about that." "Anyways, we''re planning on going to the magic shop. We want to see if you have any at all, and verify that the tester still works and is calibrated correctly after...that. ready to come?" I nod vigorously, grabbing my coat, boots and backpack before heading out. If anyone knows anything about my predicament and how to undo it, it''s a magic shop owner! Magic is Electricity?! Part 9 "Good morning Lena! Here for some more shock resistant gloves? You were... oh. Thallion. Hi. And who is the new kid? Please keep your hands off the materials, and the counter. I cannot stand cleaning up after you lot." "Good morning Silvra! No, my brother is not here to try and convince you to allow the school to come here on a field trip. No, we are here for some help," Lena states, leaning on the counter, obviously comfortable with the surroundings. "You see, we had this kid wander his way into town a few days ago, and have noticed some weird things about him. We are trying to figure it out. "If you are looking for medical advice, I would recommend talking to the doctor, not me. He has the medical knowledge to know what''s right and wrong with him." "Still salty about the kid finding his father wasn''t his due to the field trip incident?" "Don''t...even mention that day." ... "Anyways, the issue is that the tester could not read him, and we want to make sure it''s still in calibration. Something about specialized realignment of the dingle arm and parametric fam? I don''t know, that''s why I came here." "No problem! But there will be a fee!" Silvra says in a sing-song voice. "No issue, just the regular tuneup. Also, we have come across a high grade translator, which brings us to the next question. Do they make listening based translators?"
Ethan, Magic shop Entering in, I was expecting blue and green smoke from incense, maybe a few glass cabinets containing some high end devices and a wall of smaller magical trinkets. I was not expecting a wooden desk, and just a wall of shelves covered in little pouches. The place was messy, and smelled of the electronics lab at university crossed with a clock repair shop. Like the cross of burnt electronics and oil. I have no clue what is being said, but it seems like Lena knows this person, and Thallion and this woman do not like each other. Looking around, I find a few clocks, and start to look closely at them. I suddenly feel like I am being watched. Turning back towards the counter, I see the woman glaring. I make a point of showing my hands are in my pockets, and not planning to leave any time soon. I keep perusing the store, eventually staring off into space looking at all the clocks at once, as well as the pouches of gears slowly swaying in time with the giant pendulum clock in the back. Just like any small town, there is one clock shop, and as always, I have no clue how it stays in business. It cannot survive off of battery replacements here even! There are no batteries! Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I am pulled back into focus by loud tapping on the counter. Looking back, I see them staring at me, Thallion and Lena look red in the face, as if they were arguing. I cannot remember as I was too busy staring off into space about clocks and how a low tech society can keep this running, but also have the ability to summon me! I walk over to see what they are staring at, and as soon as I get close, the woman grabs my hand, and tries to splay it open. I immediately close my hand, thinking she is trying to do something bad as I don''t know her. She tries to pry my fingers apart, but I grasp tighter. Eventually Lena says something as most of her fingers are caught amongst my knuckles. Finally she relents. Lena, picks up the translator, activates it and starts talking. "Please let her see your palm. She is overly curious as we just spoke about what has happened to you." "The woman, seeing Lena use the device, quickly snatches it out of her hand and exclaims, "I don''t know who or what you are, but you just made me several day''s pay richer, whatever you did to the tester, did a good number on it. It barely functions now. I am going to have to tear it apart completely to see what broke and put it all back together! Let me see your hand!" With that outburst, I open my fist, showing my palm, she dives on it like a snake hunting mice. she pokes my hand, prods it, rubs it and exclaims, "Remarkable! No port at all! You are completely cutoff from it! Let me get my latent scanner. Usually I use it to test inscriptions for leftover charge, but let''s see what it does near you!" I look to Lena, who nods, and Thallion, who nods vigorously, probably more to sate curiosity rather than my safety. The woman brings it out, waves it near me and my chest and says, "I am not picking up much activity...hang on, there is an extremely faint positive charge, but most grass contains more in the negative region!" looking directly into my eyes, she exclaims "You definitely are not from here ,probably not even this planet! Slightly positively charged! You probably find most living things slightly burny to touch, don''t ya!" I nod, thinking about how all the food I have eaten has tasted slightly bitter, but mildly enough that it is hard to distinguish from sour, just...not... right. "Ha! nailed it in one! This opens up so many possibilities, like trying to understand how he moves and works! He probably doesn''t even have a central system!" "I know! I wrote several pages last night concerning the impacts of the lack of the central system in living organisms and in fact have several theories to test, including those of blood and vision!" Thallion states, brushing against the translator as he too probes the panel of the scanner. "Stop it you two! Or get a room! He is right here, and talking about him like a frog to dissect is not the best idea, considering what he did to those guards! God, you think I am the only one with a brain in this-" Zzzzt zzzzt I reflexively pull my hand away as I feel the familiar buzz of a cell phone in my pocket. Confused, I pull out my phone and notice it is still powered off like how I left it. Reaching into my pocket again, I pull out my work phone. ''WARNING Battery at 15% Charge now or powering down soon'' Great, my work phone is almost dead. I shut it down, saving the last bit of power in it. When I look up, all three are staring at the scanner, wide eyed. I wave my hand in front of their faces to get them to respond. The woman picks up the translator, and states, "S-sorry sir, I did not know you were a grandmaster magician. Please excuse the mess." "WHAT?!" Magic is Electricity?! Part 10 At that news. Lena and Thallion take a step back and head nod reverently. I am still confused, so I do what I do best. Tell the truth. I shake my head, pull out my work phone and gesture towards the workshop table where the four of us can sit down. The woman agrees and we all sit. Sighing, I place it on the table. At least this one does not hold Wikipedia. I gesture to the woman, who sits to my right, and push the phone towards her. She picks it up as if it were a holy relic that she is not worthy of being in the presence of. I then show her the button on its side. Carefully, I have her put her thumb over the button and press it. It buzzes, scaring her as she seems to expect it to hurt her. Quickly, curiosity settles over her. She reaches for the translator. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s working?! H-how?! It¡¯s not taking any from me! But it definitely is magic powered! It¡¯s also still running. In fact it¡¯s becoming more active!¡± I shake my head, thinking we have a Clarke conundrum here. ¡°Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic¡±. Shutting it down, I grab what can only be described as a spudger, and carefully split the back off the phone, revealing the battery pack and main circuit board, along with the usb daughter board. ¡°I can see that this is the inside and you are trying to prove something, but either than material, this is still the realms of magicians. Wait! Look at the detail! Look how fine those wires are! The inscriptions are dense. May I?¡± After some consideration, I nod apprehensively. She takes the opened phone, grabs a magnifying glass. Her mouth drops in awe. ¡°The detail here is nested! These wires are not even the smallest, I see holes that dive into the board. This inscription is stacked in 3d! And then there are these black squares. I cannot see more detail, but the number of metal pads around them are dense. And then this big one! There must be hundreds of wires going to it!¡± She grabs a pair of tweezers, and starts poking at the main chip. I quickly pull the phone back, and pop out the battery. I then use another pair of tweezers, and short out the 2 contacts, draining all capacitors within. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The needles in her detection devices max out and some fly off the scale and across the room from doing so. I frown. Is anything here built for durability at all? She doesn''t even notice, even hushing Lena when Lena starts to state how much broke just now. She is completely engrossed in the phone¡¯s guts. Thallion, seeing what happened, leans over and starts looking too, writing down many notes of what I can only guess are general observations. He then grabs the battery, looking at it in various orientations, making a rough sketch of it, and then starts poking the terminals of the battery. I look at him apprehensively, and then he touches both contacts together. A few sparks fly, and he immediately drops the battery back on the table. Luckily the terminals come detached upon impact with the table. Some more testing equipment hands spring off. All their eyes go wide at seeing the sparks fly, and they turn to me. ¡°You bottled ?! The grandmasters have been trying for eons to do so!¡± the woman shrieks in excitement. ¡°And you just walk in, casually show it off to me, a nobody, and you cannot even talk to me! Let me be your apprentice! Thallion, I don¡¯t care if he has to go to school, I¡¯ll come just to learn from him. Hell, I¡¯ll let your class tour here again if I have to! Let me learn!¡± I stand in shock. How do I explain I did not make this, and if anything, need to be able to communicate before I can literally do anything else! ¡°I¡¯ll give him language lessons after class given the knowledge and comprehension he has of higher subjects and direct operation of grandmaster level systems. Hopefully his learning of language will be as smooth as his grasp of geometry!¡± Thallion agrees ¡°I think we have a more pressing matter at hand though. Given what he knows, and how different he is, isn¡¯t it likely that he is a summon? Or more likely, THE summon? The one the red guards were after?¡± Lena interjects. ¡°I am not letting my only chance of learning slip through my fingers. If you blab about this, I¡¯ll no longer supply you with your resources!¡± the woman replies. They stop passing the translation stone, so I only get what the woman says now. ¡°I am serious, this change is enough to overhaul the entire system, and I am not letting this pass me by. By coming here, you pulled me into this, whether you like it or not!¡± While they argue, I reflect on what they have been saying, and what and my phone have in common, along with how they interact with the translation stone. The revelation hits me like snow down the back of the shirt. ¡°Magic is Electricity?!¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 11 So there I was, standing in what I now realize is the equivalent of a Radio Shack from back when they supplied resistors, or what a magical Digikey outlet store would be, realizing that this entire world treats electricity as magic, and just briefly I consider the fact that they see its generation like Galvani: A biological process that is storing this current. Galvani was wrong that it is stored in the muscles, but considering I was literally shocked when I punched the guy¡¯s chest in, it probably is literal as in an organ for them. And I am an electrical engineer here. Saturated with the weight of the revelation, I carefully sit on an overstuffed chair near the large grandfather clock not wanting my weighty thoughts break this piece of furniture as well. Putting my face in my hands, I rub my eyelids trying to think clearly. If the woman was able to realize what I possess, then their technology is not far off of computing, but all their devices are small. Looking through the shelves, nothing is bigger than a cookie. Considering Thallion talked about being drained by the translator, maybe the organ is like a capacitor, and it slowly fills when not in use, and drains at various rates? It would match the way he went very weak after touching the tester. But surely someone by now has put 2 pieces of metal together and licked them, and licked their palm? Surely I cannot be the only one that knows this info on a PLANET where they just pulled my from MY world somehow. What would that make me? I know electricity, but the field is huge. Also, going to the red people is probably the worst idea I can have, as it smells most like the plot, and nope, not getting involved, I am going home! I am tougher than most here, but an arrow would still be the end no matter what, and with electricity, there is so much that can be done. Sure, literal elemental fights are out of the question, unless they summon them too, but someone could easily carry black powder with them and throw that at someone, sparking it at the last moment to create a fireball! I am NOT fireproof. So here I am, in the back end of nowhere, with a teacher, an overly enthralled computer saleswoman, and a plantmaster. I have no clue where I am, no training to fight, and probably being chased by what summoned me, as that probably took days of prep and a¡­ very¡­ large¡­ inscription¡­ This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I quickly pull out my personal phone, boot it up, and open the photos app. Right there, in all the intricacies of the floor, is a massive circuit. It is all on the same plane, with no crossovers or unders, and while my picture only covers a small section of the floor, I remember that the entire upper chamber I was in had its floor covered in this singular intricate design. Looking closer, I see 2 pinpoints rising up from the plane of the embedded circuit, and join level with the floor. I grab the now abandoned translator and flip it over. It¡¯s port is a match. The thing that summoned me was not a singular thing, it was 50 people able to dump enough power into the floor to do it! I curl up in a ball, and sob quietly, thinking about HOW am I going to make that and get enough power to do so? 50 people to pull me, plus a massive circuit imprinted in stone is one stupendous amount of effort. I walk up and tap lightly on the table, the other 3 look at me as I have interrupted their argument. I shut down my phone again and start gesturing. I gesture covering my eyes, and fake running. As I try and charades my way through the phrase ¡°Hide Me! I don¡¯t want to be a soldier!¡± there is a knock at the door. I dive behind the large, overstuffed chair as I hear a gruff voice, and catch a glimpse of polished red painted boots from my spot behind the chair and looking under it. What starts as a normal discussion quickly escalates into a fierce debate, followed by barking, large gestures, and stomping. They¡¯re standing up to the guard. For me?! I hear footsteps clink across the thinly carpeted floor, in my general direction, as well as begging from both Lena and the woman, and what sounds like Thallion being logical at them again. Their defiance is a good stall tactic, but unless I can think of something, I don¡¯t know what will become of me. As the footsteps draw closer, along with the seemingly inevitable confrontation, my mind races with last ditch attempts and desperate plans to get out of this mess. With a deep breath, bracing for whatever happens next, I come up with a monumentally stupid plan, knowing that the fate of not just myself, but everyone in this room, hangs in the balance. Magic is Electricity?! Part 12 Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati When all else fails, play dead. Kind of Seeing no other options, I strip down to nothing, putting my clothes as far under the chair as possible, and place the translator under the chair as well, but closer to me. I then lie down behind it. I then try to slow my breathing and heartbeat as much as possible given the circumstances and pray that this works. I close my eyes and wait. And wait And wait The footsteps stop right beside me and I feel the chair dragged away as the floor rumbles from its movement. Bracing, but trying not to tense muscles, I feel the air stir as the guard reaches down and picks up the translator. The guard, using the butt of his sword, pokes me in the stomach. I let out a wheeze as air escapes my lungs due to relaxing my muscles as I try not to flinch or laugh from the action. The guard stands up and walks away. More talking occurs. This time much more muted. The footsteps fade away. I am suddenly poked and shaken! I continue playing dead. My lungs start to burn from the lack of fresh air, but I push onwards! Trying to act as dead as possible. I am roughly rolled over, so that I am directly on my back. Something cool is placed on my chest. I let out a bit more air from the slight pressure. I hear a sigh. The footsteps pick up again, this time fading into the distance. I wait a bit longer. My lungs are screaming for new air at this point. It is a cross between drowning and being stabbed with thousands of needles as the acid levels within my blood ever increases from the carbon dioxide. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I am petted. A feminine voice, which I cannot understand, is talking. ¡°Allo breaveis.¡± I gasp for air, hoping it is not the guard over me. It¡¯s Lena! Weak and dizzy from the lack of air, I lean against her, in a sorry excuse of a hug and crutch. I regain control of my breathing, and am overwhelmed with the feeling of pins and needles across most of my body. ¡°Ooooooowwwwwwwww¡± I groan, trying to stretch my legs, whilst still clinging to Lena to not fall back to the floor. My brain fog clears a bit, and I realize I am still naked. Naked and hugging Lena. No! Yes she looks nice, and is only 1 of 2 women you saw, but no! She thinks I am a kid, and is treating me as such. Cuddles and head pats are normal for kids, and cats! I scramble at the realization and quickly get dressed with as much dignity I can muster with all 3 of them in the same room as me. By facing the wall. Turning back to the table, They are all muttering in hushed tones while leaning over the table. Thallion tries to talk to me, but it is fruitless as they don¡¯t have the translator. I look down at the table, ready to start working on explaining my phone. It¡¯s gone. My¡­work phone Is gone. Heaving myself into the chair, I sigh deeply, as yet another thing has gone wrong because I will not take the plot hook. There is a groan, and then the legs of this chair snap and I am now eye level with the table edge. I lean my head on the table trying to think of what to do next. Without the translator, it¡¯s back to school for me, and several months to years until I can do anything. I am tapped gently on the shoulder. It¡¯s the shop owner. Sighing and ready for a verbal beatdown of all the equipment I second handedly broke which I won''t be able to understand, I close my eyes and stare at the ceiling from my now shortened chair. ¡°Hello Ethan. I am Silvra. I¡­I am glad that you are still here. Still alive. The guard, they took it. They took everything you had. Your device, the translator, are all gone. I am talking to you on my own. It works just as well, but it is much more fragile. And it is very not cheap. So given that, I won¡¯t be giving it to you to practice with. You can carry it, but I need to make a little plug for the port so you don¡¯t accidentally touch it. Or even better, a little carrying box that I can put it in so that-¡± Lena coughs. Seems like that is a constant here to interrupt trains of thought ¡°Right. Back on track. When you said you needed help, I thought just in the ¡°weird guy living in forest for years makes insane tech, needs to teach someone¡± not the ¡°help me I am being chased for unknown reasons and don¡¯t know anyone¡± type. I already stated I want to be taught by you, but I also want to be your guardian. All three of us do.¡± Surprised at not being chewed out, I nod slightly, at which point she shakes my hand.. Wait, guardian?! In what way?! Knight would be good, but I think more along parent/guardian! I am not a kid! Magic is Electricity?! Part 13 We talked in the shop until evening. Not about much, just getting to know names and jobs again. Finally I know that the woman running the shop is Silvra, and they finally know my name. No point hiding it, it¡¯s not like I told anyone when I was summoned. Shortly after that, they forgot to pass the translator and my mind started to drift off from the crazy that I have experienced for the last 72 hours. (I am not counting being unconscious, on the fact that I was unconscious and cannot know if anything crazy happened during that) Now down a phone, and a robust means of talking, I start pacing around the shop trying to see if I can make something useful. Being unable to read what is written is a pain, but it at least takes my mind off things. Silvra keeps an eye on me while she keeps talking with the others, but seems more relaxed than when I first came into the shop. I finally come across a small bag of thin wires with coloured paper around them. Being in a setting where everyone has a little electricity in them, I assume that this is some form of resistor set, and probably one of the cheapest things to experiment on. I also find a port, which I shall now refer to as power port, and bring it to the table. Going under the chair I hid behind, I pull out my backpack and pull out one of my usb cables. Back at the table, I empty the bag of resistors on the table and sort them based on colour. A few are a bit difficult to discern between, but I am pretty sure I got them in the right rainbow order. I then grab the power port, and place it on the desk. Silvra starts paying close attention and walks around the table to me, grabbing a spool of wire on the way along with a pointy piece of metal and a candle. She lights the candle by tapping the wick with her palm and then sticks the pointy end of the metal stick into the flame. Guessing that is their version of soldering iron, I continue. I make a gesture for slicing, and Thallion, now interested in me trying to communicate, catches on and pulls out his knife. Looking at it, I see it is not that sharp. I shake my head, holding up the usb cable, folding it in half and make a cutting motion through the fold. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Lena immediately catches on. ¡°Silvra, can you get Ethan here a sharp knife?¡± Silvra goes behind the counter and pulls out one, and gingerly hands it to me. Sighing, I cut one of my USB cables in half, so I now have a USB A wire and a USB C wire. I put the USB A back into my backpack and prep the USB C. I turn my phone back on, where a few of Silvra¡¯s instruments make funny noises as it does, and I look up the wiring guide for usb c. Pulling up the table on Wikipedia, I see that pins A1 and A12 are ground and are tin plated wires. A4 and A9 are red and are VBUS. Knowing this, I use the soldering iron to tack the pairs together, and heavily coat them with solder so the braided wire does not fray. I then take a red resistor and gesture to Silvra ¡°large¡± and then pick up a purplish one and gesture ¡°small¡±. She nods, and I solder the power port to a red ¡°large¡± resistor. I lightly grab her hand and nudge it towards the power port, seeming to understand, she dumps her power into it. It pops immediately. Huh. I guess they have a good amount of charge within them. Silvra looks a little tired now, and is moving to sit down. I grab a new resistor, and solder the resistor to the power port just like the one that burned up. I take my modified USB wire, and carefully place the ground on the ring, and the power in the centre pivot. I can feel everyone in the room now watching me as I shakily make the connections. Nothing happens. I reposition, nothing happens again. My phone then buzzes at me, stating it shutdown the usb power draw due to high currents. Touching the resistor, it is a little warm, but not much more than ambient. Thinking about this, I realise something. These elves are walking capacitors! Magic is Electricity?! Part 14 After that revelation, I sit back in the chair, and start thinking, mind going way overspeed. With the implications of being capacitors, these elves are closer to electric eels than they are to my phone! Everything here is powered by siphoning off of their internal capacitor! And what Thallion said about needing insulation on their swords make sense, stabbing a capacitor is a great way to get fried or guts embedded in your face. A shield can take care of guts, but a metal sword in the chest connected to a large capacitor will still arc pretty bad through you. With renewed vigor, I look back at the resistors, this time selecting a purple one. Soldering it in and connecting my phone, it still does nothing but my phone does not shut off the USB port this time. So the more red a resistor is, the larger the current! Still does not help me with my current issue of needing a way to charge my phone but it is a start. A little later, Thallion and Lena stand up, nod at Silvra and try to pull me out of the room, not realizing I am much heavier than they are. Thallion¡¯s arm jerks and bends slightly the wrong way after trying to guide me out. I quickly pack up my powered off phone and cable and follow after them. Getting back to my room, I quickly grab the paper and charcoal that Thallion left, and start writing down what I think I know so far.
  1. I am not on Earth
  2. There are elves, and Orcs
  3. All life has a centralized electrical system that behaves as a capacitor. It is in the chest for animals
  4. These animals have wires inside them to carry charge throughout their body, similar to the nervous system but actually using metal
  5. The world is roughly middle ages to renaissance, at least in the backwaters
  6. There is deep understanding of the world as they can summon, but little to no understanding of AC or DC electricity
  7. They know iron, and metalsmithing as well as glass making, but it is not large panes or used everywhere. Stone, clay and wood are still more popular for cooking utensils and ovens.
  8. Their higher understanding magic is electrically powered
Given this info, and assuming that I did not mess it up, I start thinking about why I was summoned. Maybe strength? Doubtful, yes I am stronger than them, but a soldier or even someone that has walked into a gym would be stronger. Intelligence? I know some stuff, but most is useless without electricity. Wisdom? Well¡­ probably not. How do you know if you are wise? Charisma? Maybe if they wanted a strong little kid to pull on heartstrings and punch them in the face? Dexterity? A flounder is more dexterous! Walking has been a challenge due to the low gravity, and I walk into walls and tables on Earth all the time! Constitution? Again, many better examples on earth. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I then realize that I just made my DND character sheet, great. Scratching out that section, I try to think about other combinations on why me? Thinking back to the poster, the tower is shown as a beacon driving back the darkness. Reflecting back, the darkness was depicted as wavy, as if it is sloshy? Is this area prone to flooding? I have not seen any rivers or creeks since I¡¯ve been here, but I don¡¯t think summoning someone from another realm/dimension is the answer to flooding, unless summoning is cheaper than guys with shovels. There are seven billion people on earth, where there are better, smarter, faster, stronger people than me in literally everything. So why me? I lay down on the bed, reflecting on why I am here, and unfortunately starting to think about the plot. Powerwise, I am down to 53% so at least my experimentation did not cost much. But the one answer I need will not be found in Wikipedia, I¡¯ll need to find it myself. Set with this daunting task before me, I try to sleep, between being chased, playing dead, and realizing they are capacitors, I am exhausted, but mentally I am restless. Who am I worthy to be summoned? Why am I here? Magic is Electricity?! Part 15 Coming out for breakfast, I had the startings of a plan as I spent most of the night awake after that train of thought. First, I need to be able to talk easier, this game of charades crossed with hot potato: translator edition is getting real old real quick. Second, I need to figure out how to charge my phone. Maybe a basic voltaic pile will work? Voltage is not the issue, but the current will be. Those will need to be some large plates. Third, I need to figure out what that tower is about, without being caught. Maybe it has clues on why I am here. Looking at that image of the floor, one does not make an analog computer the size of a ballroom to play Doom, but maybe¡­ no, it did pull me here, so their copy may be really broken or its designed to do something else. Also, from my quick time there, it did not look reprogrammable. Finally, while I am here, I might as well make it a bit more comfortable to live, things like running water, an actual sewer pipe, maybe some automated systems? I don¡¯t know if they grind flour by hand still, but cheap energy is the foundation of civilization. What else can I do? Make a generator of course, but it still bugs me that they have not found electricity when they are literal self recharging capacitors.I have seen different metals around, so a voltaic pile should be really easy to put together, and they already have some advance math, so maybe they have some parts of the periodic table. Then again, the greeks had Pythagoras and the 4 elements model of everything¡­ Wandering to the table, I sit down and start eating my slice of smoky not peameal bacon (do they have anything else?) and realize I am being watched, this time by 3 sets of eyes. Silvra is here today, and is staring at me, eyes eager and gleaming with anticipation on what to learn. ¡°So, as you can see, Silvra is here. And she wants to learn quite badly.¡± ¡°Talk about understatement of the century, and I suppose a forest fire is just a little out of control as well! We had to leave her in the schoolroom for 3 hours, she was ready to start 3 hours before dawn, and was waiting for any light from the back room.¡± Lena stated, pulling the translation inscription out of Thallion¡¯s hand. ¡°I was not that bad! It was only 2 hours before dawn! I know! I have a clock!¡± Silvra exclaims wresting control of the device. I nod. Not like I can say anything. Nothing they can understand anyways. The conversation quickly degrades into arguing, the device is rapidly passed around, and then left on the table altogether. Seeing that this may take a while, I gingerly pick up the device, and pull out my modified USB C cable again. I just get everything set up, and suddenly, the device is snatched from the table. ¡°You crazy idiot! I told you not to play with this one! It is much more fragile than the one we found that was confiscated by the red guard! This one also costs more than half a year¡¯s wages! No! No tinkering on this! I brought a bunch of others you could tinker on, but not this one.¡± Silvra screeches. Uncovering my ears, I nod apprehensively, Lena looks at me concerned as I take the medium bag of assorted devices from her. Placing them on the table, the first one looks like it contains the light bulb that the detector had, so maybe just a socketed lamp? Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°That there is an emergency flash. Dumping your entire supply into it will cause it to shine brightly, with some high powered magicians capable of having the bulb blow up completely¡± Yep definitely a lightbulb, or at least a poor one. ¡°This here is a tremorsense, I¡¯ve never gotten one to work for me, but it makes the sound of quiet things able to be felt. Kind of like ¡®whispers of the wind¡¯ or ¡®breath of the earth¡¯¡±. ¡°It is actually quite useful to tune your hearing to the surrounding forest so you can be one more with the environment and sense the unseen¡± Lena chimes in, finally seeming to be interested in what Silvra is talking about. ¡°And finally, this is a choke, it slows down our discharge rate so we don¡¯t fry everything right away,¡± Silvra continues, glaring at Lena. That sounds familiar. I gesture towards that one and she passes it to me. Sure enough, this is a coil of wire, forming an inductor. Being that everything is run by capacitors it makes sense that they would have found a way to slow down the discharge. Looking at the assortment of components, I point to the lightbulb, and grabbing its base, attach my phone to it. Sure enough, it glows about as well as an old flashlight. Silvra leans in close, ¡°It¡¯s not supposed to do that though! It should be much brighter, and shorter lived! Maybe that one is faulty?¡± She heads out, and returns with a box of bulbs. Lena, rolls her eyes, and I am guessing she already knows that this is how its going to go. I¡¯ve got the energy, but not the power output to fry the bulbs. Sure enough we spend the next several minutes testing the entire box of bulbs, and save for a few with damaged filaments, and a few which burned up instead of glowing, they all have roughly the same brightness. I shutdown my phone again, and starting my plan, get out a new sheet of paper, showing 2 different shaded circles stacked on top of each other. I also attempt to draw a lemon, or a bottle of wine and the image of someone making a puckered face from sour. The 2 circles, after I point at their pockets, they pull out their coins out of special pouches they wear around their waist. Looking at them, they are all iron. Turning to Silvra, I point at my drawing and circle the lighter disc I drew, and draw a happy face. Beside the darker one, I draw a frowny face. Silvra, looking back, eyes darting to Lena and Thallion, responds: ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± She places the translator on the desk and starts talking with the others. After a few minutes, she leaves and comes back with a plain looking box, that has a lock on it. Unlocking it, she pushes it gingerly towards me. I look in and see various copper plates, discs and wire. I graciously accept the box and grab one. Silvra has her hand on my wrist immediately, but after seeing me hold it, lets go of me and stares at me inquisitively, as well as nervously looking at the box. Selecting the copper pieces, and iron coins from before, I start stacking them up. This time, even Lena and Thallion are nervous. I look at them questioningly, but continue. Realizing I forgot the paper spacers, I take apart my tower and look for a bottle of wine or vinegar or something acidic. Finding a bottle of wine, glad that something like yeast made it here, I pour it on the paper pieces and begin stacking again. Everyone takes a step back. Just as I start to touch the wires to the end of my voltaic pile, all 3 duck under the table. I connect the wires, and the light glows dimly. They all come out from under the table, and look at the light, and me, and back at the light and me again. ¡°What?¡± Shakily, Thallion reaches for the translator, careful to not touch the wine I spilled on the table, nor any of the coins. ¡°Why are you not screaming from burning?¡± Thallion Questions. ¡°The pain of handling copper is that of falling into a fire! And using two different metals without years of training?! You could have killed us all!¡± Huh. Magic is Electricity?! Part 16 So after that bombshell of info, I look closer at the voltaic pile I made. The light is still working, the pile is still there as a pile. Check. It is not making any sounds, so nothing is boiling or burning. I only smell wine, which in this case is a good thing, with the entire thing drenched in it. Touching it, it is shaky but not noticeably hot. I was thinking about tasting it, but ruled that out due to not knowing what it should taste like, and that being weird. Sitting down, I ponder while the other three look at me intently, confused and still wary of what I built. I pull out my phone, turn it on and start looking at the reactivity series of metals. For an iron copper battery, each cell produces 0.777 V or so. So to reach 5V for my phone, I will need 7 cells, and my phone will bleed off the extra bit. I start stacking metal again, this time higher than what was before. I am moving extra carefully now due to the warnings that they gave before. The burning from copper could be attributed to them having iron sticking out of their hands, but the years of training to stack metal has me worried. I reach 7 cells with no issues. As I connect the wires to the light again, the other three look away and duck under the table, with Thallion writing notes the entire time. The light is now much brighter than it was before. I now unplug the light and bring in my phone. Sending up a silent prayer that this works, I plug in the wires and connect positive to the copper, and negative to the iron, matching the table in Wikipedia for standard electrical potential for half cell reactions. Once I plug it in, I lower myself as much as I can, (which is not much as the table comes up to my chest when standing anyway) and keep an eye on my phone. It lights up! And the battery symbol appears! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Finally! I have power to charge my phone!¡± I exclaim. ¡°I can now relax and share my knowledge!¡± The others stand up from my yelling, and looking at the table and seeing not an explosion, start asking questions. ¡°Given no explosions, I assume something is going right with the way your device is interacting with the pile of metal? Maybe something so we can understand you?¡± Thallion asks, leaning in with his charcoal and sketching the pile already. ¡°Never mind that, explain what that bomb to be really is! A pile of metal that burns and possibly explodes is not something I want to be around!¡± Silvra remarks, nudging Thallion out of the way. I breathe in, gather my thoughts and am just about ready to try and explain half cell reactions and batteries, when my phone¡¯s screen goes black. I wake up my phone, and the battery symbol now shows it discharging. ¡°NOOOOOOO! WHY! Why so much work and so little output!¡± I quickly dismantle the voltaic pile, and see that every single layer is heavily oxidized and galvanized, making it completely useless ¡°My copper! What did you do to it?! It¡¯s all green and powdery! It is destroyed!¡± Sighing, I sit back down and ponder what I can do. I need power. Fast, easy and reliable. An idea comes to mind. It will take some time to complete, but hopefully I can finish it before my phone completely dies. I grab another piece of charcoal and draw 2 squiggly lines and an alpha in it. Lena perks up. ¡°Yes, there is a creek just outside the village¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 17 I follow Lena out of the village, my first time out since I stumbled in here a few days ago. There is no outer wall of this village, at least that means this area is relatively safe, or the village is too small to be worth attacking. Getting out to the creek, I see that it is exactly what I need. It is about twenty feet wide, several feet deep, and moving at a good clip such that there is no ice on the surface even though it is probably -10 or so. Even better, there is a small swell in the creek where the water slows as it has to pass through a narrow part of the rock. Walking around this side of the creek, I also notice that the rock ledge continues for a ways, and I quickly jump up it, due to the lower gravity. Remembering the gravity being lower, I remember that the pressure from static water will not be as high, so anything I do should rely more on water speed. Looking around, my mind starts to wander, imagining the use of an overshoot water wheel to spin and create power for the village, my generator being used to provide long distance power, and possibly enough power here to help them all. I must have been staring off for a while, because the next thing I notice are my feet. That being they are getting cold. I do a few quick jumping jacks to warm up, and then go find the others. While I was wandering, they lit a fire and are now all huddled near its flame. Joining them, I see they look a little tired and cold, so I motion that I would like to go inside as well. Thallion grabs the translator, winces a bit and then speaks: ¡°Yyyes. Let¡¯s head inside where it is warm. This is not tolerable weather to be in, let alone traipsing around flowing water!¡± Entering back into Thallion¡¯s and Lena¡¯s place at the back of the schoolhouse, everyone relaxes as they warm up, shedding their cold jackets and shoes. I go get some paper and start sketching what I would like to make. Seeing the speed of the river, I hope to not require gears or pulleys, as that adds complexity and friction. With the sole goal to save my phone right now, I start thinking small. Due to the speed of the river, a simple undershoot water wheel lowered into the creek should provide enough power, probably only a foot or two in diameter. A basic paddle board design, with no buckets should work for now. Looking up, I see thallion nodding along. Good, they at least have seen waterwheels before. Then again, they are old, even by Earth standards. Next is the generator. I open my phone and browse my offline wikipedia to the page on DC motors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_motor Looking at it, I see that it is mainly iron, insulated copper wire, and magnets. Right. Magnets. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Looking to Silvra, I gesture to one of the iron coins, and touch my fingers together approximating a rectangular bar of metal. It seems like my charades work as she comes back with a bar of iron shortly, wrapped in a cloth. I look at her and the cloth questioningly. ¡°It¡¯s cold out there! No way am I touching bare metal with my hands!¡± Silvra remarks. Makes sense. I shrug my shoulders and grab the iron. It is a little cool, but nowhere near as bad as what Silvra was suggesting. Now, I asked for a piece of iron even though I needed a magnet because I have no clue how to charades my way through the concept of magnetism. It being unseen makes it very hard to act out. So I take the iron bar and start poking the coins with it, trying to pick them up, hoping they catch on and get me a bar magnet or at least a lodestone. Trying to lift it for a bit, I look up, and all I see are confused faces. I point to the bar, place it on top of one of the coins, and lift both the bar and the coin, holding the coin against the butt of the bar. Still blank stares. With that failing, I grab both ends of the bar and pull on it as hard as I can. I then let my left hand let go and keep going beyond the length of the bar, mimicking drawing it out. Silvra sighs, puts on her coat and boots again and comes back a little later with some wire. Upset, and a little hasty, she drops it on the table in front of me. Taking the wire, and a knife, I carefully wrap it in the cloth that I cut into strips. I then wrap the cloth covered wire around the iron bar. Booting my phone back up, I take my usb to power cable and touch the leads to either end of the wire, hoping I have enough turns to drop the current enough to work. My phone does not shut off the port. So that was good. Even better, I moved some of the very small coins. It is not a lot of power, but it gets everyone¡¯s attention. "Wait, what? How are you moving those?! You are not even touching them, nor is your contraption!" Silvra exclaimed, her eyes wide with amazement and disbelief. "With whatever you are doing, you are moving stuff without touching or making an explosion! And doing it continuously!" Her voice carried a mixture of excitement and curiosity, reflecting the astonishment shared by the others in the room. As she spoke, Silvra leaned in closer, her expression a blend of wonder and eagerness to understand the mysterious phenomenon unfolding before her. The rest of the group exchanged looks of bewilderment, their attention drawn to the small objects being moved by the makeshift electromagnet. Thallion leaned forward, his brow furrowed in deep thought, while Lena watched with a mixture of fascination and apprehension. With that response, I realize something profound that will change the planet¡¯s history forever: They have no magnets, and I can create them, if my phone lives Magic is Electricity?! Part 18 With renewed vigour of leading the ¡°discovery¡± of the century/millenia, I grab the paper again and start sketching a coil of wire. I try to illustrate that the wire itself creates a magnetic field around it, circularly, and by coiling it, it adds per coil. Looking at the others, they are nodding, but none of them are looking at me. Instead, they are looking at the electromagnet I made. Changing tactics, I pass them the electromagnet, still hooked to my phone. Very carefully, Thallion grabs the coil with another cloth and examines it. Seeing no moving parts, he brings it close to the coins, which move and stick to it. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like it! Motion at a distance. No contact, no connection. The ability to transfer energy over distance with this technology is immense!¡± I lean in to correct him that it cannot transfer energy or material over long distances, but then I remember the electric grid, and maglevs, and just nod and shrug in agreement. If only I could talk to them more easily! This is becoming painful to continue! All these ideas and no way to transfer them! Putting that aside for now, I zone back in seeing that they have all passed the magnet around and played with it a bit. I then unplug it from my phone to save as much power as possible. Going back to offline wikipedia, I open up the entry on DC motors. They are a bit simpler to make, and do not require DC power to run unlike synchronous AC, although I will have to replace it with a synchronous in the future. I start sketching a very crude example of the stator, with its 2 curved magnets inside a hollow tube. I see Silvra taking notes, doing a better job of sketching what I am making than what I am making myself. How? No clue, another question to ask once I figure out how to communicate verbally. Anyways, I start sketching the rotor. I am doing a very basic 2 pole design, with only a current in and current out, with many loops in that one section. ¡°Looking at this, it looks like it should spin¡­¡± Silvra notes, continuing to sketch. ¡°Yes!¡± I exclaim, nodding my head. ¡°But why do you want to make something spin? That won¡¯t help you. And at this scale, spinning anything is not worth losing whatever the glowy brick is doing to give you these ideas.¡± I stop. Taking a deep breath, I start a new sketch, with a river, turning into a waterfall and flowing rapidly. I then draw a water wheel, and an arrow pointing my motor sketch to its centre. ¡°Well that¡¯s not going to do much, spinning a thing in the water will not make it flow faster,¡± Silvra remarks. ¡°No¡­ but the water will spin the wheel.¡± Thallion states ponderously. Suddenly Lena bursts out, ¡°You mean that this thing is reversible?!¡± Nodding again, I finish my sketch by adding wires coming off of the motor, turned generator, and into my phone. Drawing a little battery symbol and happy face to top it off. ¡°If we can make from running water, we could power all of our devices. We could build more! We could make some that are on for more than a few seconds at a time and do more!¡± Silvra exclaims, realizing the full potential of what can be done. She continues: ¡°What do we need to do this? Materials, people, anything! This is not just a toy, this could feed an entire paradigm shift¡± Thallion, hearing paradigm shift, replies: ¡°Let¡¯s not get too hasty, so far we have just a sketch on some paper, and for all we know, this has some other limit that prevents it from working long term.¡± I shake my head, thinking of the generators whose hearts have been going for almost a century with just maintenance and a lot of grease. ¡°No?! Then how.. Where¡­ what¡­ you are very lost. You have limitless supplies of free energy, capable of doing all the things we do, but without living cost. The light you made glow, that was at the level of an elf being accepted into the mage academy, they could only maintain it for a few seconds. Your brick did more than that before you stopped it. How much energy are we talking about here?¡± I begin to draw, first a house, then multiple houses, stacked on top of each other, I draw a tower, a building, a skyscraper, each using the house as scale. I then take the skyscraper and group them together, forming a city, drawing roads between them. I then draw a map of what I have seen of the village, a few houses, Kidman¡¯s place, the schoolhouse and the river. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I draw a circle around that, showing the size of the village. Placing a smaller circle next to it, and an arrow pointing between the 2, I try and communicate scaling down. Thallion nods along. Lena, now seeing maps, catches on quickly. I then draw circles beside the first, representing small towns, cities, and finally large cities. I then draw a circle filling the entire page representing fractions of metropolises such as Tokyo, London, Toronto, New York, etc. ¡°B.. B.. But that many people¡­ each with their own brick¡­ and the ability to create that much living space¡­ you truly are the summon. No one with this much power could be on the same planet as us without seeing us as weak, conquering us in days flat.¡± Thallion stammers out. I nod as well, my facial expression souring based on the realization how much power I just showed them. ¡°But it still took centuries to get to that point, something we don¡¯t have to worry about, so let¡¯s get a list,¡± lena cheerfully interjects. I start tallying. 1, 5 ,10 and circling the 10, I write ¡°10¡± below it. Then I show 10 ¡°10¡±s, and label that 100. Thallion clues in immediately. ¡°You¡¯re base ten as well?! Great! That will make math translation so much easier!¡± I circle the 100, and draw a picture of the sun, and a circle for the planet. I draw a circle around the sun, going through the planet. ¡°No, no way¡­ only one hundred?¡± Thallion remarks ¡°One hundred what?¡± Lena chimes in. ¡°His society went from us to that, in one hundred years. Because of what he just showed us.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Lena and Silvra interject. ¡°Yes. At least from what I understand. Assuming he drew the sun and the object going around it is us, which is still debated in research, it took 100 cycles to do that. 100 cycles is one. Hundred. Years. That¡¯s it.¡± I nod, confirming what he said. Sure there were a few large cities pre electrification, but it is due to the ability to transmit this energy we have mega cities. Thallion goes over and collapses into the chair, realizing what I just shared. Lena and Silvra are equally stunned, but remain on their feet, possibly not grasping the full impact of what I have shown them. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I want to go through with this.¡± Thallion states, forehead on hands in deep contemplation and fear. ¡°The amount of power he just showed, and if this goes wrong, the amount of power that can go to the wrong side¡­¡± I start backing away from him, grabbing my phone and backpack, getting ready to run if it does come down to that. ¡°I am not going to hurt you. The damage is done. We know it¡¯s possible. We know the scale of change this will do.¡± I settle down a bit, less scared for my life than I was a few seconds ago. ¡°Look, Thal, we saw the level of change it can cause, but it does not have to.¡± ¡°It does, energy is power. Literally, and what he is saying is that we can have limitless power with no living involvement. Next he¡¯ll say that it can occur with nothing more than a basic button and run forever, travel across vast distances and literally be nothing but water! That amount of power diverted into anything is terrifying! And to have it without needing intent, desire, or any knowledge or wisdom about it is insane! We know he does not need intent, he put the brick down and passed the device! It is alive and lives beyond his control. Technically with Silvra¡¯s readings, it is more alive than he is!¡± ¡°I want to learn more, but right now, unleashing this on the world without realizing what it could do is just asking for a catastrophe.¡± Thinking about all of the death and destruction, famine, overshoot, climate issues and how much the planet is dying, I nod slowly in minor agreement. ¡°You are a teacher!¡± Silvra suddenly interjects. ¡°Where is your love of knowledge, the thirst for wisdom, and the desire to ask why and how?! You are different than most scholars, you know what can happen, but what if we don¡¯t? Do you want to live like this forever, in some small village, teaching the same things over and over again? Never learning something new? We are here to learn! Just because we now have access to a small sliver does not mean we won¡¯t learn the lessons his people went through! In fact, he will probably tell us!¡± ¡°That¡¯s the issue! We will learn why, but not grasp it! The difference between knowledge and wisdom is not the info, but how it is held. Knowledge can be lost, made, found, used, transferred! Wisdom is structured knowledge. We need to learn the past to build the present. Sure we can get some fancy information, but unless we truly understand in our hearts what we are doing, with the full intent of it, we truly do not know. We have, but do not grasp!¡± Thallion, collapses back onto the chair, rubbing his knee and chest, coughing slightly. ¡°Then we make the wisdom on the way!¡± Lena states, talking for the first time in a long while. ¡°We may not have the wisdom, but without knowledge we are nothing, and if we have access to the knowledge, we can steer what happens. We can pass the info along, noting and teaching as needed. I would be dead if I had to figure out that the grackle berry bushes were poisonous after they turn red, but are extremely valuable as food when green or blue! I learned that from our mother! I did not need to learn the lesson directly, but by getting the full story.¡± ¡°We bit the apple long ago, might as well eat the rest, and approach with caution and humility, for this much power can corrupt, but can also be molded into something much better.¡± Sighing, Thallion repositions himself in his chair. ¡°Sister, you are right. We should not give up just because we can see a possible path. The pages of the future are not written yet, but let¡¯s approach with caution, writing down everything, good and bad that comes of this.¡± Seeing resolution and it not involving killing me, I settle back down, and continue to sketch the rotor. Magic is Electricity?! Part 19 After a few more hours, I finish the sketches, and Silvra somehow manages to make blueprint quality drawings of them. ¡°Well, that¡¯s done, now we just need to get these parts made,¡± Silvra remarks, placing the pencil down. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Eldrin¡¯s place and get these made. I¡¯ll foot the bill. It should be fairly small as these are not massive components, but just fairly intricate. I¡¯ll bring some of the wire so he just has to stretch it out. We¡¯ll have to protect it though, as he won¡¯t have the material to do that. Silvra and Lena quickly head over to where our outerwear is hanging and start getting ready. Thallion, on the other hand, is a little hesitant, but eventually follows. Suiting back up to go outside, we quickly get ready with a brim of excitement and hope as we step back out into the frigid weather. After a couple minutes walking, we come to a larger house near the gate that is shooting sparks up into the clear sky through its chimney. We enter and are immediately hit by the intense heat of the forge and smell of sweat and hot iron. Shedding our outer layers, we wait by the counter as a rather muscular, built elf is pounding away at what looks to be a railway spike. ¡°Be with ya in jus¡¯ a momen¡¯! He barks, as he plunges the spike back into the coals of the forge, and leaning on the blower lever. ¡°Ter¡¯ w¡¯go. Nao wha¡¯ cannae do fer ya?¡± He says, as he turns around. As soon as he sees our group he pauses mid turn. ¡°Sorry ta keep ya waitin master. Tis been a busy dae mendin tools. Liora¡¯s awl was dull an roun¡¯d oer so aye be fixin it now. Jus¡¯ hardenin¡¯ ¡®t off and be done in a few. Wel¡¯ome ladies as well ta mine humble abode. An¡¯ who¡¯s the new un? I have nae se¡¯n before?¡± Thallion is just about to speak, but Lena steps in. ¡°Good afternoon Eldrin. This here is Ethan, who has travelled a long way to learn about us, and give us some ideas from his area. He has graciously given us a drawing of one of his simple tools and we need some parts made.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Silvra steps in, picking up what Lena is putting down, ¡°I here have plans for a turning machine which requires the creation of 2 curved pieces of metal, as well as a tube, and a rod.¡± ¡°Oh? New plans eh? Fro¡¯ far ¡®way. Wel¡¯ let¡¯s tae a look¡±, He replies, reaching for the rolled up paper that Silvra has been carrying. Laying them out, he scans over them, then looks at me, and scans again. Turning serious, he looks at Lena and Silvra. ¡°Now, now. I mae soun¡¯ a bi¡¯ odd, bu my masta taugh me one thin well, and tha¡¯ is how ta spotta lie. This, this here is no mere simple tool, nor from this place. An¡¯ Lena, if this can do half o wha¡¯ is on this shee¡¯, we woulda been conquered by em! No, let¡¯s try this again.¡± At hearing this, Lena and Silvra wince, and Thallion facepalms. ¡°Hello E¡¯an, Wel¡¯ome ta me forge. I am Eldrin. You be clear no¡¯ from ¡®ere. My guess¡¯s one of the summons tha¡¯ got out when th¡¯tower fell.¡± My eyes bug out. The tower fell?! ¡°I guess ya did ne¡¯er hear bout that, the summoner ¡®ower fell down. Tha¡¯ was the large boom few ¡®ays ago was. Also means tha you ¡®scaped ¡®fore i¡¯ fell. Ya got sum brains kid, I give ya tha¡¯.¡± He reaches over and clasps my hand in bro grip. ¡°Oh ho! Srong ¡®un ¡®ere too! Migh¡¯ ¡®ave even brough¡¯ t¡¯ower down ¡®imself. May even be a bit orc in ¡®im, like me!¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Anyways, no lies, no half ¡®ruths, give the dope.¡± I start speaking: ¡°Well, you cut through that pretty quick, and read me like a book. No point lying now. I am a summon, not sure why. I jumped out of a window, and ran away from there, as it sounded too much like plot. I like being here, don¡¯t turn me in! I have many things that could help around here, and I don¡¯t want to be taken to be a ward of the state! ¡°I can see ¡®he passion brewin¡¯ inside ya, bu¡¯ I go¡¯ no¡¯ a wor¡¯ ya said. I gotta translator in ¡®he des¡¯ wired through the floor.¡± Looking over the desk, I see that the floor is covered in little insulated bumps, and he is barefoot. ¡°Helps with those s¡¯umblin¡¯ in¡¯o ¡®ere so I can calm ¡®em down and aler¡¯ ¡®he guards ¡®bout more los¡¯ ¡®venturers. Bu¡¯ is doesna wor¡¯ t¡¯other way.¡± Silvra pipes up, ¡° you nailed it in one Eldrin. And you really made a translation floor and work barefoot so you can talk to any one, just in case someone comes in? How did you even make that?!¡± ¡°Yeah I di¡¯. Qui¡¯e simple really, jus¡¯ use wire an¡¯ weave i¡¯o each bump in ¡®he floor. Pro¡¯ec¡¯ ¡®em from ¡®he main pla¡¯e with some leatha, an¡¯ ¡®en wire ¡®he bumps to the tap, an¡¯ ¡®he pla¡¯e t¡¯a body and it works. Did i¡¯ because I scare some of the young¡¯uns with mae accent and build afta se¡¯n a monsta¡± ¡°Fascinating! And how did you tune it to translate so well even after such a distance?¡± ¡°Tha¡¯ was a job an¡¯ a ¡®alf! S¡¯ill ¡®ave some por¡¯s not working righ¡¯! All I ¡®ad ta do was ¡®wist a live and a pla¡¯e wire ¡®ogetha and ¡° ¡°That¡¯s all very well and good.¡± Lena interjects, ¡°but we need your help. Ethan here made it very clear he does not want to be sucked into the summon job, we want to protect him, he is giving ideas from his world to us. Do you want to help or do you want to claim the bounty on him? Cause if you do, we are going to have some problems right now.¡± ¡°Now tha¡¯s more like it! I like some spice! I¡¯ll help. Bounty was ne¡¯er igh enuf for tha¡¯ anyway. An¡¯ ¡®e coul¡¯ probly throw me cross the room!¡± He looks to study the plans again, and sees the use of copper. ¡°I donna have ¡®e coppa, bu I do have ¡®e wire pla¡¯es. Ya can borrow em ¡®o make the wire. Never ¡®ouch ¡®e s¡¯uff. Hur¡¯s way too much.¡± ¡°Fair enough¡± Silvra says sighing, ¡°I do have copper, but I hate working with it as well.¡± ¡°Res¡¯ o¡¯it is simple, save for the curve chunks. I do have some pure iron ¡®o ma¡¯e i¡¯ from, but i¡¯ ill be a bi¡¯ ¡®o make it. Complicated shape, especially tha¡¯ circular¡± ¡°I¡¯m footing the bill, and you are the best we have. Especially without ordering in and answering a bunch of questions¡± ¡°Fair ¡®nough. I¡¯ll ge¡¯ ya the pla¡¯e now, and le¡¯y¡¯all know when tis ready.¡± ¡°Thank you very much. This piece will be a master work when done, and may even revolutionize how we do everything, and not just because it rotates¡± Thallion chimes in, with a little glint in his eye, and some other emotion underneath that I cannot place. Suiting back up, we head back to the schoolhouse and debrief. ¡°Well that went better than expected.¡± Lena starts. ¡°I still don¡¯t like how we had to tell him what Ethan is. Now there are 4 that know what he is, besides him.¡± ¡°I know him well, he is a man of his word and work. He¡¯s been working here as the main smith for over 5 years now, he knows how to keep business going, and trained well¡± Thallion specifies. ¡°Anyways, sorry Ethan, but I¡¯m tired from translating, we will pick up the device if we need to, but hot potato is tiring¡± As they start to talk amongst themselves. I still see the communication barrier as the big thing I need to conquer now. Turning to my box of supplies that Silvra gave me, I look at one of the tremorsenses, and start drawing what it looks like. Eventually, I draw the outside and note the little holes within the front plate. Turning back towards Silvra, I wave her over and point at the tremorsense and my drawing. She catches on and starts drawing the inside. ¡°I guess you wouldn¡¯t have this as it is pretty useless without being able to read it,¡± she remarks. ¡°It can take years to get one of these to work for you. But inside it is just 2 pieces of metal, with a piece of quartz in between. I don¡¯t know how it works, but when touched, you can feel the sound around you.¡± My eyes light up. Wait. Quartz! They know about quartz and its properties! This is not a tremorsense, this is a piezoelectric microphone! Magic is Electricity?! Part 20 I snap my head back down, with renewed vigour and hope about communicating with everyone without needing to play charades. With the knowledge that this is a microphone, my mind swims with the possibilities. If they can grow quartz crystals, they may be able to refine and grow silicon crystals, effectively making computers. Getting back on track, I add a resistor above the tremorsense and attach a ground wire below it. Tapping off between the resistor and tremorsense, I look to Silvra and gesture towards the translator. ¡°And what do you think you are doing?¡± She remarks, eying the setup with a mix of scepticism and intrigue. Her arms were folded, her brow furrowed in concentration. ¡°Just because you may be able to overhaul our entire way of life, does not mean I will give you something worth half a year¡¯s wage. You best get to explaining yourself.¡± Taking a deep breath, I sketched a quick diagram on the paper between us. I outlined how the piezoelectric effect of the tremorsense could convert sound into electrical signals that the translator could interpret. ¡°It¡¯s like turning vibrations into voices,¡± I explained, hoping the simplicity of the analogy would bridge the gap my technical terms could not. ¡°It¡­should work. Why has no one thought of this before?!¡± Silvra asks eagerly, reaching for even more paper, with Thallion leaning in to take notes as we possibly cross the language barrier. Silvra passes me the translator, and carefully I place the tap wire on the central nub, and the ground on the body, similar to how their hands work with the metallic pin and the rest of their hand. I then reach for my phone and attach the power to the resistor, and the ground to the body of the translator as well. I speak. ¡°can you hear me?¡± I ask, apprehensively, hoping I did not just blow up the device. It¡¯s faint whine either being a really good thing, or a very bad thing. ¡°What was that?!¡± Lena turns around, after staring off into space as we got technical. ¡°i said, can you hear me?¡± ¡°yes we can!¡± Lena exclaims, not through the device, but from across the table, her eyes wide with astonishment. ¡°I can too. it is a little dull, but we can hear you. and you can hear us! without us touching it!¡± Thallion remarks, I notice that yes, I can hear them, but rather than being melodic and transferring all the intent behind the meaning of the word, translating the emphasis, it comes across as dull, flat and lifeless, like text to speech readers. I find it quite painful to listen to. ¡°Perhaps it''s a minor calibration issue,¡± I suggested, already thinking about adjustments to enhance the voice modulation. ¡°maybe i can sound like a robot for now, but perhaps, you should continue playing hot potato with the translator?¡± ¡°forget that!¡± Silvra remarks. ¡°i may sound flat, but i don¡¯t have to pass the device around! i can just leave it on a desk somewhere and it will just work!¡± ¡°not only is this an overhaul in this device, but think of the implications. we can talk across species without needing to touch very complex systems. we may even be able to communicate with animals, Lena!¡± Lena perks up at this, ¡°if i could talk to them, then i may be able to convince the big ones to leave us alone, but I worry about what that means if they are truly intelligent.¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Looking back at the device, I think back to the little I remember for analog electronics. The device can pass emotion and translate it, so it is capable of doing so. Maybe there is an issue with the prefilter? I could possibly fix that. ¡°silvra, it is amazing that we can talk, but I find it painful to listen to all of you due to the robotic voice. i think i can fix it. do you have the schematics for the device?¡± ¡°i don¡¯t know what robot is, but i am guessing the flat sound, i do have drawings, let me go get them¡± Silvra heads out, and Tallion is writing down everything. Lena is leaning over his shoulder. ¡°i know you are upset, but what you did is monumental, communication without contact, translation without touch. just remember that you are using your phone for power!¡± Lena states. I cannot tell emotion but bittersweet is all I can get. Silvra enters again, knocking the snow off her clothes carrying some yellowed paper. Placing them down before me, I look across them. ¡°maybe increase the power input? That usually works for us. More space for clarity, or something,¡± Thallion adds, trying to be helpful. I shake my head no, trying to ignore what he just said, based on the fact that is how humanity killed the first transatlantic cables. It is not a power issue as the device turns on, but a warping or nonlinearity of the data itself. After a few moments of staring at the schematics, I find the input and the first thing I see is the massive choke directly after the input. ¡°a ha! found it!¡± I exclaim, reaching for the toolkit that Silvra brought over a few days ago. ¡°just need to remove the choke at the front!¡± ¡°before you go voiding the warranty on this, why would that solve anything? that is how we regulate the flow of power!¡± ¡°i make direct current from my phone, so i don¡¯t need to regulate it, in fact, that choke is destroying all high frequencies. i will talk about it if this works.¡± ¡°ok, but i¡¯ll dismantle it. just point out the part on the schematic, and provide a jumper to cross over the holes¡± Sighing, I grab the cables from the toolbox, along with the soldering iron and candle. Silvra grabs the components from me, and carefully unscrews the ground bell from around the power pin. Finding the power pin¡¯s input into the interior, there is a large coil. Silvra quickly removes the coil and puts the jumper in its place. Reassembling it, she gestures for me to talk. Taking a deep breath, and reconnecting my phone, I talk. ¡°Good afternoon everyone! And welcome to a new era! One of power for all!¡± ¡°I can hear you loud and clear!¡± Silvra exclaims, jumping up from the table. ¡°Astounding! Decoding the schematic and removing the choke did solve the problem!¡± Thallion replies. ¡°It worked before, and now it works better, I still think the first is more important to document¡±, Lena interjects, clearly getting bored of all of this tech talk ¡°So, Silvra,¡± I mention, ¡°removing the choke works due to the same way the coil of wire moves coins: magnetism. Over the next few days we¡¯ll be going over this in a lot more detail, but the choke does not choke the current, it converts it into magnetism, which is then released later. A changing current results in a changing magnet inside. It is very weak but enough to smooth input ripples, and stretch out the input spike slightly, which is probably why it is there in the first place.¡± ¡°But it comes with a downside. It acts stronger on faster switching pulses than on slow ones. My dc power has only an on pulse, but the signal of my voice is made of many higher vibrations. The choke would have killed this high frequency, and would have only passed the lower, which would be the fundamental frequencies only, sounding flat. The translator would then only be able to act on this flattened signal.¡± ¡°Now, I only got about half of that, but it stores the current as something called magnetism, saving it for later, and smoothing out the input,¡± Thallion states, looking up from his notes. ¡°Exactly. Think of it like a dam. Takes the surges and smooths them out, but you lose the changes caused by individual rainfalls¡± ¡°So what exactly is magnetism?¡± ¡°That is a good question, and contains several fields, chemistry, physics, all of what we classify as science. It will look like magic to you, but any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science. Just be ready to learn. ¡°Does this make the motor thing spin?¡± Lena asks. ¡°Yes, yes it does.¡± I reply, looking at my phone and the power slowly but steadily dropping. Magic is Electricity?! Part 21 ¡°Now that we can talk, I think proper introductions are now in order,¡± Thallion formally states, as if he were a dignitary. ¡° am Thallion Emberwind, teacher of knowledge and keeper of info for the village of Caelora, in which you find yourself at this moment.¡± ¡°You have already met my sister-¡± ¡°Enough of that!¡± Lena interjects. ¡°Hello again, I¡¯m Lena.¡± ¡°And I am Silvra, it is good to finally speak to you clearly, hopefully intent is properly being passed now.¡± ¡°And I am Ethan Mitchell, I was an engineer in training, before I fell on a bucket and ended up here crossing who knows how many dimensions. I probably am also the one to have accidentally broke the tower, survived running through the blizzard, nearly knocked out Kidman, and¡­ probably killed a guard.¡± I say, recapping how busy the last few days have been. As I speak, my pace slows and I can feel the beginning of a panic attack rising again. The room falls silent, the gravity of my unintended confessions settling like a heavy cloak around us. I can feel a tightness building in my chest, the cold of the room seeping into my bones as the faces around me blurred. ¡°I¡­ I killed someone, no thoughts, no hesitation, just¡­pow, wrist¡­ in¡­ torso.¡± My eyes lose focus, my breathing increases in pace, and the weight of everything finally comes over me. Here I am, on a completely different planet, caught sometime between 1000 and 1600 equivalent, probably the smartest person here, but with the people skills of a gnat, and the thing I know the most is not even going to be invented for at least 200 years. I¡¯ll most likely never see my family, or my friends, even though there are only a few. Hopefully my cat is ok. I also have only managed to cross the language barrier just recently, but was doing charades before that. I am useless in combat, never taking anything martial. I did swim, but not for a long time, and I was a soccer referee before that. Not only that, but I show up as dead to these elves. My phone shows more life than me! Retreating further into my head, the idea that my summoning was a complete mistake builds up, and something inside me snaps. I do something I have not done in years. I cry. And I don¡¯t mean a single tear of mourning, whilst looking at a sunset. I bawl. Here I am, knowing no one, probably hunted, and easy to be considered dead. Here on the whim of an accident that took way too much power, but not the first time they tried it, according to the holding area I ran through. I am worthless, the summoning probably targeted my phone more than it targeted me! Curling up on the floor, I let the emotions overtake me, I feel the eyes of the others upon me but I don¡¯t care. Here I am, and there is no going back. Even if I was to return and ¡°turn myself in¡± they would probably just take the phone and dump me or off me. Maybe I should just- Suddenly, I am held, not angrily, or by the shoulders, but in a full wraparound hug. My thoughts immediately fly to when I was younger and being held by my mom, which only makes me feel worse. ¡°Shhh. Shhh. It¡¯s ok.¡± Lena whispers in my ear, ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot. A kid like you being pulled from your world, and thrust into this position, it is too much. I don¡¯t know much about how summoning works, but why choose a kid, I don¡¯t know. Just, hold me. I don¡¯t move, but slowly my breathing calms, and I stop sweating as profusely. ¡°Now, tell me, how old are you?¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Twenty five¡± ¡°Twenty five?!¡± All shout in shock and surprise. ¡°Y-y-yes¡­¡± Lena loosens her grip on me, and starts to get up. I stand up too, but am still shaking, the hug not lasting long enough. ¡°How long do your people live?¡± She asks, slightly perturbed. ¡°About eighty or so, longest is about one hundred¡± ¡°That, that is about our length! You are no kid! You¡­you are an adult! But short! What¡­how¡­ who are you?!¡± ¡°I am Ethan, a human from Earth. I have no clue where that is from here. I am lost. My skills are not useful for this setting, and the main thing I know is not going to be invented for another few centuries at the minimum. I was summoned and ended up in the janitor closet, and all I can think of is that this is nothing but a bad nightmare and hope I wake up with a concussion from falling on a sidewalk!¡± ¡°As for my height, yes I am short. I am also very heavy for my size, making everything around me feel as if it were made out of foam, I find wood soft and spongy, and meat some of the most tender I have ever had. I work out every morning I have woken up here just to try and maintain my muscle mass, and have had to adapt to a weird walk skip hop method of moving because even the gravity is too light!¡± ¡°Gravity?¡± Thallion perks up. ¡°That word did not translate, something about general pull?¡± ¡°Not the time for that, Thallion,¡± Silvra interjects. ¡°So yes, I am a little stressed, a little high strung, and a lot suffering from anxiety, worse than what I was having before I ended up here, and I cannot even get meds for it!¡± I complain, dejectedly, collapsing into the stuffed chair beside the door to the schoolroom. ¡°It¡¯s not like I felt like I belonged much there, but I at least knew what to expect. It may have been seen as boring, but it was mine. I went to school for it for eighteen years. Here, here everything is new, and overwhelming. I am trying to make things make sense, but history was never my strong point, and again, what I know is next to worthless!¡± They all stare at me, finally, Silvra steps forth and offers a shoulder pat, and a light hug. Lena follows suit, and tries to crush me in what could only be described as an attempt of a bear hug. We stay like that for some time, Thallion looking awkwardly on the scene of the two tall women hugging a literal manchild. ¡°So aye managed ta comple¡¯te round bi¡¯ bu¡¯te olerances are a¡¯ me skill- oh. Sorry ta interrup¡¯ I¡¯ll leave ¡®his here, annnd¡± ¡°Come back in Eldrin, Just in time for some formal introductions,¡± I say, trying to sound professional, while dealing with a throat full of snot and trying not to break down again. ¡°Oi? Tha voice? Ethan! Ye can¡¯alk now?!¡± ¡°Kind of, I fixed the translator, it now works with sound.¡± ¡°Sound, eh, Well, le¡¯ me si¡¯ down here and you can ¡®alk ta me all bout it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It is pretty complicated, and involves quite a bit of various fields, some quite literally, but not the grain ones,¡± I state, half joking, enjoying the distraction from what just happened. ¡°Sounds allo like me prof before I became a smith.¡± My eyes bug out, prof? he went to school? ¡°Aye, me prof in theory phys said stuff abou¡¯ ac¡¯ion a¡¯ a dis¡¯ance and tha¡¯ our en¡¯ire unders¡¯anding of th¡¯world is cons¡¯rained by ¡®ime. Also somethin abou¡¯ sys¡¯em hardening and ¡®igh frequency swi¡¯ing. Those concepts sound more like quantum mechanics crossed with a preliminary understanding of magnetism to me, what an odd combination! ¡°Tell me, what else do you know about magnetism?¡± ¡°Magne¡¯wha¡¯ism¡± Right, that¡¯s it, definition time. I sit up, choking back emotions, and begin to explain some basics of electricity. At least I can bury my emotions in that for a while. Lena looks at me with a side eye. Maybe not that long. Magic is Electtricity?! Part 22 ¡°So, in short, magnetism is a special force that makes certain materials attract or push away from each other. Like my wire wrapped iron rod, it can pull metal objects towards it without touching them. This happens because of something inside the stone or metal that creates an invisible force. This invisible force can make things move or stick together. Inside these special stones, there are tiny particles that all line up in the same direction, creating a powerful force. When you have two of these stones, they can either pull each other together or push each other apart, depending on how you hold them. We can use this force in many ways, like making objects move without touching them or even creating energy. It might seem like magic, but it''s actually a natural part of how the world works.¡± ¡°Well, I go¡¯ bou¡¯ alf o¡¯that. An¡¯ i¡¯ soun¡¯ like magic wit¡¯ rules, bu¡¯ you say your worl¡¯ runs on i¡¯. So i¡¯ mus¡¯ ¡®e reliable,¡± Eldrin responds, a little incredulous and a little lost ¡°Yes, it does sound like magic, and looking at the way we tamed it, its symbolism looks a lot like runes, but the runes are for understanding, not operation. In fact, we regularly give kids a lightbulb, motor and battery to play with as an introduction to electricity.¡± ¡°So you are saying you are going to make a kid¡¯s toy and it will overhaul our world?!¡± Lena interjects, quite fed up with all of this tech talk and really wanting to do something else. Realizing she just continued the discussion, she sighs and puts her forehead on the desk. ¡°It¡¯s not a kid¡¯s toy!¡± I retort, ¡°Some are used in them, but some of our largest industries are only capable because of massive motors, moving assembly lines, and cranes that carry tonnes of molten steel around the foundry. Saying it¡¯s a kids toy is like saying the lever is a kid¡¯s toy. Sure it can be made into a seesaw, but it can split logs, move heavy things and so much more.¡± Thallion has not stopped writing since I started discussing, but chimes in at this moment: ¡°Anyways, now that we are all here, and we have the parts, let us begin fabrication of this mighty machine¡± ¡°So first we need an awful lot of very thin copper wire,¡± I state. Everyone looks apprehensive at the mention of copper. ¡°Since all of you have an issue with copper, I¡¯ll draw it, I just need the tools.¡± ¡°Go¡¯ ¡®em righ¡¯ ¡®ere! Pliers, drawin¡¯ pla¡¯e, an¡¯ win¡¯er¡± ¡°Good, I¡¯ll start working on that, with Eldrin as I¡¯ll need him to soften it again. Meanwhile, the three of you can start by checking the fit of the 2 magnets to the motor casing, and determine a way to hold the brushes such that they do not contact the body. Bad things happen if that occurs. Also, Try to see if you can compact charcoal hard enough to make the brushes. Originally they were literally copper brushes, but I don¡¯t want the risk of copper more than we need¡± Taking the navel orange sized translator, I head over to Eldrin¡¯s and am immediately greeted by the wave of heat, as shutting down the forge and reigniting it would take too much time and fuel. Eldrin shows me where he anchors the drawplate, and shows the attachment point for the winder. Setting it up, I feed the roughly rounded bar into the largest hole, and clamp it onto the winder using the pliers. Slowly turning it, the copper gives and stretches. After pulling it through, Eldrin grasps the spool and tosses it into the forge, heating it until it is cherry red, then quenching it to cool so it can be handled again. I unwind the tip of the new cable, and run it through the next largest die. We work in silence, just the sound of the forge, and the hiss of the cable hitting the water. Eventually, I ask the question that has been on my mind since Eldrin appeared after fixing the translator. ¡°Eldrin, why do you have a heavy accent even when translated? Shouldn¡¯t the translator remove all of that?¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Eh? Oh ya. The ¡®ranslata, ¡®tis qui¡¯e good for ¡®ransmission of non elven tongue. I¡¯ learns slowly, bu¡¯ me orc ba¡¯groun¡¯ really messes with announcia¡¯ion, wha¡¯ with tha tusks. I usu¡¯lly spea¡¯ in elvish, bu¡¯ the ¡®ransla¡¯or really despises my ¡®ee¡¯ sound. ¡®Tis ac¡¯ually surprisin¡¯ tha ¡®t works fer ya a¡¯ all. Howeva, me na¡¯ive tongue translated scares off many, espec¡¯ly young¡¯uns¡± ¡°Yes¡­yes.¡± I reply. How is english even remotely close to elvish, compared to orc? I am not even of this planet, so my language does not even descend from them! Trying to not think about that at the moment, I continue to draw the wire, as we go down in sizes, it takes longer to draw as there is more wire to pull through. Just constantly turning the wheel, my mind wanders off again eventually, after the 14th decrease. I know I should let it go, but the weight of me not having a purpose and accidentally being summoned is driving me insane. What am I to do? I cannot go back unless I make a teleporter, or whatever was in that tower that I supposedly broke. ¡°¡®Ey! Pay attention! Ya jus¡¯ snapped the wire!¡± Shaking my head from the daze, I see that I have turned the spool a few times since the wire snapped. ¡°Grea¡¯. Now I ¡®ave to work i¡¯, an¡¯ mel¡¯ the two en¡¯s ¡®ogetha.¡± ¡°Can I do it?¡± I reply, hoping beyond hope to have something mentally stimulating to distract me from that path again. ¡°¡®Ave any forge ¡®perience?¡± ¡°Well, no¡­¡± ¡°Then I ¡®ave ta do i¡¯¡± Eldrin grabs the wires by the very tips of his fingers, and bringing them to the forge, heats the ends to red again, using tongs, he guides the 2 ends together, and beats them into one. Sprinkling water over the joints, he puts the tongs down and grabs the wire, bringing it back to me. ¡°Yeowwwwww!¡± He tosses the wire on the floor, and grabs his right hand. ¡°Heavens above! I have, yet again, inadvertently subjected myself to the accursed touch of that wretched copper! The ensuing agony is intolerable. I entreat you, with the utmost urgency and alacrity, to retrieve the esteemed bottle perched above the forge, without a moment¡¯s delay!¡± Jumping up and grabbing the bottle, I rush over to Eldrin, popping the cork off of it, immediately I recognize the smell of apple cider vinegar. ¡°Now s¡¯and back, this hur¡¯s hella lot¡± He pours a small amount into the palm of his hand, I back up as I see his face scrunch up in pain, and him grit his teeth. He sucks in air through his teeth and then punches the wall. ¡°Damn ¡®rea¡¯men¡¯. No¡¯ sure wha¡¯s worse: the cause or the cure. I go¡¯ the wire back togetha, draw i¡¯ through the same die ta smooth it.¡± Seeing all that, I nod vigorously, and set it back up, seeing how he is the orc, the strong tough one and that small amount of contact did that to him, I would hate to see what it would do to others. After a few minutes, I ask ¡°I guess that is your native tongue translated?¡± ¡°Aye. Sorry ta scare ye wif tha¡¯.¡± ¡°No, no issue, just sound really formal to me.¡± ¡°Huh. ¡®Tis quite formal, bu¡¯ the large words tend ¡®o scare of the othas, ¡®specially los¡¯ venturers. Shoutin¡¯ ¡®FEAR NOT¡¯ ¡®ends ta en¡¯ qui¡¯e poorly for the both o¡¯ us.¡± I burst into laughter, here the orcs sound like gentlemanly scholars! ¡°Good ta see ya laughin¡¯ again, now le¡¯s ge¡¯ this wire s¡¯re¡¯ched¡± Over the next couple of hours, We draw the wire until it is less than a millimeter in diameter. My fear of causing more pain to others keeps me focussed for the rest of the time. ¡°Ey, ¡®fore we ¡®ead back, jus¡¯ know ¡®tis was no¡¯ your faul¡¯. You did no¡¯ summon yourself ¡®ere, ¡®t was no¡¯ your choice. As fer the wire, i¡¯ happens, and I am surprised you are ¡®anging on this well.¡± Eldrin states, caringly, sitting back on the stool he has behind the counter, forehead sweat glistening in the light of the forge. ¡°I di¡¯ no¡¯ ge¡¯ the entire discussion with the others, but you are young, los¡¯ and alone, similar ta many ¡®venturer I had arrive at me forge la¡¯e a¡¯ nigh¡¯. The danger has passed. Relax, and ¡®alk when ready.¡± Calmed down, I nod, while choking back some tears of relief. ¡°Now, le¡¯s go change the worl¡¯¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 23 We head back over to the school house where the others are working on the brushes and magnet holders of the stator, the non rotating part of the motor. Arriving, I see them sitting around the table, Thallion writing notes, Silvra fiddling with the stator, and Lena looking bored. ¡°How goes it?¡± I ask, unsure of the low level of motion. ¡°Magnets fit perfectly, and Thallion is currently working on a way to hold the brushes, but we cannot compact the charcoal hard enough to make it a solid.¡± Silvra replies, slightly dejected. ¡°That¡¯s a start at least. Eldrin and I were able to make the wire. Oh, that¡¯s another thing, we will need to insulate this wire, so it does not short out. That was done using some very advanced materials before, but let me read and see what was initially used.¡± Pulling out my phone, I open offline Wikipedia again and see that numerous sources of wire insulation were used until the invention of plastics. Reading through the page on Magnet Wire I see that cotton, paper, or silk were used, often impregnated with resin or beeswax.¡± ¡°Do the trees here produce very sticky sap, often sticking to the tree? ¡°Yes, but it tastes awful!¡± Lena states pithily. ¡°I don¡¯t want to eat it, but boiling it, and running the wire through it should produce a very thin resistant layer over the entire length. Can you-¡± ¡°No problem at all! Finally something to do!¡± Lena exclaims, running out the door. ¡°Right, as for the charcoal, have you contained it and hit it with a hammer?¡± ¡°That is the primary method we have utilized to experiment, however, all of our attempts fail¡± ¡°Le¡¯ me try tha¡¯ then,¡± Eldrin states, grabbing the small metal container, and a hammer. He heads over to the hearth, and pounds the plunger into the small container filled with charcoal. ¡°There we go. Li¡¯le puck o¡¯ charcoal¡± He announces, extracting it from the mold. I grab it, and try and put my thumb through it. Sure enough, it snaps in half and turns to dust. ¡°This won¡¯t do. We need something stronger. A finer powder perhaps? Maybe mix it with some iron powder and then bake it?¡± ¡°Wha¡¯ woul¡¯ tha do? Why woul¡¯ya make a subs¡¯ance worse by con¡¯amina¡¯in¡¯ i¡¯? ¡°It¡¯s not contamination if it is done on purpose. If heated just right, the metal will melt and glue the piece together. A process known as sintering. It is not as strong as forging it, but for many cases is strong enough.¡± ¡°Facina¡¯in¡¯. We¡¯ll talk more ¡®bou¡¯ me¡¯allurgy anotha time. I¡¯ll go try tha¡¯¡± ¡°First, let me try and make a few of the unbaked ones.¡± I take the hammer, feeling its weight, it may be equal to a standard handyman hammer, not even a roofing one. ¡°On second thought, do you have a heavier hammer?¡± ¡°Ya, bu¡¯ for bus¡¯in rocks¡± ¡°That sounds perfect!¡± Eldrin leaves to go get the hammer and some iron powder from his forge, leaving me with Silvra and Thallion. ¡°How are the brush holders going?¡± I ask ¡°Confounded little things are difficult to restrain, best I¡¯ve come up with are just wrapping them with leather and pushing them in! But that won¡¯t stop them from walking out¡± ¡°Does the word ¡°spring¡± translate?¡± ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t know how a carriage or leaf spring would help in this case?¡± Thallion retorts. ¡°What about a coil spring?¡± ¡°I ¡®ave a few of ¡®em, nee¡¯ a few?¡± Eldrin interrupts, carrying what I can best describe as a small sledge hammer. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Yes!¡± I respond. ¡°Are not those some of the most expensive components you make?¡± ¡°Aye, bu¡¯ I think I¡¯ll be doin¡¯ business for a while with ya, so migh¡¯ well consider par¡¯ o¡¯ this my accep¡¯ance to the projec¡¯¡± ¡°Very well¡± Thallion responds. While they are talking, I take the iron powder and charcoal and dump them in a mortar and pestle and grind them until very fine and uniform. As I grind, the volume of the charcoal dramatically reduces, as I break down the foam like trees into dust. I add more charcoal to compensate. Dumping a bit of this into the mold, I place the plunger above it and lightly swing the hammer down on it a few times, to get it seated. Standing up, I take a strong demolition stance and swing the hammer down from above my head into the plunger on the mold sitting on the hearth. The mold compresses, and goes flying, I steady the hammer as it bounces off the mold and catch it before it hits the hearth, hoping to not crack that too. ¡°There it is!¡± Silvra exclaims, quickly scrambling to pick up the mold. ¡°It¡¯s stuck!¡± She cries, trying to pull the plunger out. ¡°Le¡¯ me try¡± Eldrin responds. After a few minutes, he to states that it is stuck, passing it to me. Wiggling the plunger back and forth for a few minutes, I manage to unjam it, and get the compressed slug out. ¡°Right, that¡¯s one to go be heated, bury it in the coals so it does not burn, and heat until it changes colour. I¡¯ll bring the other over when it is ready¡± I state to Eldrin, who nods back and heads out with the slug. Shortly after Eldrin heads out, Lena returns. ¡°Here¡¯s the sap. Gross to handle, I am going to try and wash this stuff off my hands¡± Taking the sap, I see it is very much like pine resin, placing it in a pot, I put it over the fire with the lid on so it begins to soften and eventually boil. ¡°Now I just need a spool on a stick.¡± Silvra looks up, ¡°I have those at my place, well not the combo, but the parts.¡± She runs off, eager to finally get this going. Returning with the parts, I quickly rig up a small submergable pulley so I can run the wire under the boiling resin without sticking my fingers in it. ¡°Silvra, I need your help. I am going to uncoil the copper wire, and I want you to recoil it, I need to hold the wire under the boiling resin to coat it properly.¡± ¡°O-ok. Just don¡¯t rush.¡± ¡°It needs to go slow anyway as it has to cool and harden before landing on the spool you hold. In fact, this should result in the safest copper you can handle.¡± I dip one end of the copper wire in the resin, and fish it out gingerly with the pulley, pulling on the wire, I manage to thread it over the spool in the resin, and pass the now coated wire end to Silvra. ¡°Just draw slow, you are setting the speed. There is no rush.¡± She pulls slowly, carefully, and eventually we get the entire spool of wire rewound without any injuries. She puts it on the table, only for Thallion to immediately pick it up, examine it, and place it directly in the palm of his hand ¡°What the hell are you doing!¡± Silvra exclaims, swatting the spool out of his hand. ¡°It worked! It¡¯s completely coated and we are safe from copper burns! It even still looks like copper!¡± Thallion replies, clearly not hearing what Silvra said. ¡®Could you have come up with a better way to test that?!¡± She remarks. ¡°Well, yes, but actually no, due to speed and timing and-¡± ¡°You just wanted to find out right away.¡± ¡°...yes¡± Thallion responds sheepishly. ¡°I go¡¯ the par¡¯s sin¡¯ered. Er, uh, ¡®rea¡¯ed, tha¡¯s be¡¯¡¯er.¡± ¡°Here, catch!¡± Thallion shouts, lobbing the spool at Eldrin ¡°Wha¡¯?!¡± Eldrin remarks, dropping the slugs on the floor, and hot potato catching the spool. ¡°Wha¡¯?! I--I¡¯ no longa burns! The ¡®rea¡¯men¡¯ worked!¡± He states, looking at the spool of copper in the palm of his hand. ¡°Now, let¡¯s make some history.¡± I state, being bored with ¡®pass the spool¡¯. Wrapping the wire in a loop around the long axis of the fat bit of a rod, we quickly make the rotor component. Unsure of how much magnet wire to use, I wrap in about two thirds of what we made, leaving the rest for future use. Attaching the wires to the commutator ring, and separating the ring from the shaft with a piece of wood goes quickly. ¡°Now to magnetize the magnets. I¡¯ll need to use my phone power for this.¡± Taking the rest of the magnet wire, I form a pile of loops around the soon-to-be magnet such that the field goes through it like a plate. Unplugging my phone from the translator, I plug in the power adapter I made earlier, and hope I have enough windings to not melt everything. Nothing visible happens, but that is normal. I give it a minute, and then unplug it. I repeat the process on the other coil but this time with the field pointing the other way, so I get a north south pair when they both point inward. Placing the magnets inside the core, they stick slightly to the side walls of it, so they are at least partly magnetised. ¡°Hopefully this is enough.¡± I slide the rotor into the stator, line up the contactors with the brush holes, and place the brushes in the holes, wrapped in some cloth and with a spring behind them, pushing on the plugs that cover the holes. ¡°Well, here goes nothing¡± I state, as I grab the rotor shaft, ready to spin it. Magic is Electricity?! Part 24 Silvra quickly rushes out and returns with Lena. Thallion looks up from his notes ready to write down this historical event, and Eldrin looks on, quizzically and yet hopeful. I spin the shaft, it glides smoothly with no binding. I take one of Silvra¡¯s light bulbs, sorry ¡°Manna Testers¡±, place it in the corresponding base and attach wires to it from the generator. Turning the shaft again, the light bulb emits a faint orange glow. Spinning it faster, I get it to glow brighter, but still not as bright as my phone made it glow. ¡°Astounding!¡± ¡°It works!¡± ¡°Finally!¡± ¡°The momentous nature of this situation cannot go unsung¡± Eldrin states. ¡°Wha¡¯. O, na¡¯ive tongue, sorry¡± I look down at the generator, and with all my might, spin the shaft as fast as I possibly can. It glows brighter, but still not as powerful as what my phone managed. ¡°It¡¯s a failure!¡± I exclaim, putting it down on the table with force out of frustration. ¡°Oi, wha¡¯ ya mean failure. Ya jus¡¯ did something tha¡¯ was considered impossible 3 weeks ago. Non living electricity!¡± ¡°Eldrin¡¯s right. This is by no means a failure. It worked flawlessly first try. I was expecting to need to work on this for months,¡± Thallion concurs. ¡°You managed to combine 2 types of metal, 2 flammable substances and make sustained electricity¡± ¡°Maybe not months, but still, it worked! The light lit up¡± Silvra states ¡°How is it a failure to you?¡± Lena asks, like a stern yet caring mother, looking down on me. ¡°It its not bright enough¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± All state. ¡°IT¡¯S NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH! Look, this may come as a shock to you, but what we just saw is a sad demonstration of what this thing should be able to put out. It should easily outshine my phone on that light, and it must if I am to ever charge my phone again. There must be something I missed!¡± I open my phone and begin reading the DC generators, noting that I have 19% left of my battery. I scroll through reading as fast as I can, trying to not waste power. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Suddenly a soft hand appears and teases the phone out of my grasp. ¡°Why are you beating yourself up so hard? You did the impossible. Fall out of the tower you knocked down, survive a day hike across the landscape in winter, meet with us and tell us of a power so great it rivals that of kings, and controlled not by position but owned and used by all. You are trying to bring us that, in less than 3 weeks! What went wrong?¡± In between sobs, I settle to the floor in her grasp. ¡°When you say it that way, it sounds dumb, but from my perspective, I am a monster, strong but dumb in this society. The best I can hope for is be a beast of burden save for my knowledge that I carry. By sharing this knowledge, I feel useful. I don¡¯t want to be a burden, and I don¡¯t want to just be dumb labour. This,¡± I hold up my phone, ¡°this is my gateway to not just my knowledge, but all of my people¡¯s knowledge. Good and bad. Losing this, I have failed to carry and protect the truth, and my one last connection to who I am¡± Lena sits there quietly for a bit, just holding me. Thallion, Eldrin and Silvra all sit down too, and just sit in the quiet. ¡°I hate dumping this all on you as it makes me a burden to you as well. Unless I ran into someone that could have understood me without wanting it for nothing but power gain, I would have probably offed myself. But you are here. My burden and my joy lies in this room. I don¡¯t like owing anyone anything, but here I am, living rent free, with no skills and my only use is translating what I have with me. I could set myself up as a king if I withhold this knowledge, but that goes against my very being. Knowledge needs to be known in whole. And that is why I give the good with the bad.¡± ¡°I am lost without my phone being alive, and I have no purpose here without it. I would not be surprised if whatever summoned me grabbed my phone and I was the hitchhiker instead.¡± A few minutes of silence pass ¡°You are not a burden,¡± Lena states. ¡°You are a gift, Ethan. We don¡¯t see you as a beast of burden or someone to be used. We see you as a friend, a companion, someone who¡¯s shown us wonders we couldn¡¯t have imagined. You¡¯re more than your knowledge; you¡¯re part of us now.¡± Eldrin nods. ¡°Aye, ya¡¯ve given us ¡®ope. More than that, ya¡¯ve given us a glimpse of a fu¡¯ure we never though¡¯ possible.¡± Thallion adds, ¡°We¡¯re in this together, Ethan. You¡¯ve done so much already. We¡¯ll keep working, keep trying, and we¡¯ll get it right. We¡¯re not giving up, and neither should you.¡± I look around at their faces, each filled with kindness and determination. ¡°Still, if I lose this, then there is more lost than I can ever hope to regain. I have less than 5 days to get this to work. If I cannot-¡± ¡°If WE cannot, we¡¯ll keep working on it, just slower.¡± Lena states, glaring at the others. ¡°O¡¯course!¡± ¡°Definitely! ¡°Indublitively¡± ¡°Thanks guys, just give me a minute to calm down, and we can try again¡± ¡°No, we are going home, and you are taking the rest of the day off. No phone¡± Lena states, putting it in her pocket. I snort, a faint smile cracking my face for the first time this day. No one has ever taken my phone before. ¡°Fine,¡± I state, ¡°but let me shut it down first.¡± Lena passes it to me and I shut it down, ready for tomorrow and whatever that may bring. Magic is Electricity?! Part 25 As night approaches, I find myself staring up into the ceiling of Thallion¡¯s living room, where I have been sleeping since I left Kidman¡¯s place. Listening, I hear the gentle crackle of the fire, with not even the tick of a watch to lull me to sleep. Rolling over to face the fire, I stare at it, slowly losing focus as my mind wanders off and face warms. I have upset the balance of this world just by being here. I have proven myself to be worth keeping through knowledge and hopefully can remain hidden here for a while. The villagers do not know me, and no one else wearing red armour has come for me. I just have to be careful. Knowledge is power, and fractions of the knowledge I yield has collapsed empires, and also documents their collapse too. I have only shown them the positive, but I must brace for the negative to come. Hopefully I don¡¯t have to go deep into that, but just offer the knowledge that is sought. They are curious, just like humanity. They too must have bit the apple, getting the knowledge of good and evil. Hopefully they will focus more on the good than the evil. Whatever I do, I must approach with caution, and act more like an old crazed wizard, rather than a power hungry god who wishes to turn the world into their plaything. The loss of my work phone is not much of one to me, as it was just a phone, with no special apps, but if they ever reverse engineer it, that thing has more power than what was used to land on the moon! ¡­ I wonder if they have a moon? Being out for a few days has really messed with my perception of time, and trying to get the generator working has distracted me from learning about this world. I¡¯ll need to ask more about that. ¡­ Just even how was I summoned? The tech level here is late medieval, early renaissance at best, but somehow they managed to pull me here? How far has the research tree diverged from home meaning they get piezoelectric microphones before DC power? As these thoughts churn through my head, Thallion walks into the room, nursing his right arm by the fire. I quickly shut my eyes, pretending to be asleep. Shortly after, Lena comes in from the school room as well, holding the translator. ¡°You doing ok? You seem to be walking a bit stiff, and you are holding your wrist again,¡± Lena asks. Thallion nods back, saying something, but due to the fact that Lena is holding the translator, I cannot understand. He seems to be gesturing to his arm, and then nodding towards the window. ¡°I¡¯ll go check on that after, just get some rest,¡± Lena adds in, resting her arm on Thallion¡¯s shoulder Thallion stands up excitedly, his eyes lighting up with a spark of hope. He gestures animatedly, looking towards me with a mix of anticipation and concern. He animatedly exclaims something, getting the far off look of long term hope in his eyes. Looking down at his wrist again, he mumbles forlornly and hunches over as if recalling sad past events. ¡°That¡¯s all well and good, but if you are too cramped up or too dead, then you cannot document it any further.¡± Thallion grins and waves to his sister. As both depart to their separate rooms, I fall asleep, somewhat restless but overall, more relaxed as I have had a mild break from what has occurred. ----- The next morning dawns brightly, with the cool air seeping in and the smell of the dying fire filling the room. I wake up, and poke the coals a few times, hoping to spark enough life in it to reignite the fire. I add some birch bark like material, along with some small sticks to try and get it going again, but no luck. As I start rummaging around for matches, or flint, Lena enters the room, wearing her nightgown. ¡°You must be cold, I am freezing, let¡¯s get this fire going¡± she states with a mild chatter, leaning into the fireplace and placing her left hand on the tinder pile I made, clutching the translator in her right. ¡°Good start making the base of fire, looks like you know more than you let on,¡± she offers a slight smirk, as she sparks with her palm the tinder and it lights up. ¡°There we go, that should not take long to warm this place now that we got it going again.¡± Heading over to the stove, she does the same thing, igniting the fire within. She sits down at the table, so I join her, expecting her to give me my phone back. Instead, she begins to talk. ¡°So you are definitely not from here, and probably not even of this realm. I don¡¯t know why you are here, but there are a few things to know. Today is Restora, the day of rest and restoration. For this reason, we are going to not work on the generator, and come up with a plan to work on it again this week, as Thallion needs to get back to teaching, and Silvra needs to work again as well. I will give back your phone, but if I see the image that looks like where you get the info from, I am taking it back. Deal?¡± I contemplate for a moment, unsure what I would do with an entire day of rest to myself, but I will need the phone if I am to spend the day not trapped in my head. Reflecting on this again, this is like a kid and parent talking about tech use, laughing slightly, I nod my head in agreement. ¡°Good to see that you are in higher spirits than normal, here you go,¡± she states while passing the phone. ¡°Now, we usually have a service in the morning, and since you want to keep up appearances, I suggest you attend. It might even help if you talk to God and see what He thinks of your predicament¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°What, is something wrong¡± ¡°Just that where I am from, we have our own beliefs, I¡¯ll come but, just anxious. I have no clue how far I am from home, and whether or not I am even in the same ¡°realm¡± or universe or what. I don¡¯t know of my relationship with higher powers here, or even if they accept me, or consider me a blight on their creation¡± ¡°Just try. God is loving, and especially since you were not the one to do it, even if he saw you as trespassing, he would probably blame the one that pulled you, rather than you¡± Well that¡¯s somewhat comforting, I think to myself. Considering all that has occurred, as long as I don¡¯t burst into flame crossing the threshold, I should be ok. As we get ready to leave, Thallion joins us and we arrive outside the temple? Church? Place of worship. Thallion and Lena enter in immediately, while I hesitate. I say a silent prayer and step across the threshold, not feeling on fire, I look around, and see the traditional layout of a place of worship, with pews/benches facing the front where an ornate stand is placed. I freeze. Right at the front of the building, is a cross. Not as in math or multiplication, but a Christian cross, bare and visible to all. Originally planning to sit at the back of the building, which I now know is a church, I eagerly run over to Lena and Thallion. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± THallion whispers in a hushed tone, ¡°I have not seen you this excited since we got the translator to work for you.¡± ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re Christian?!¡± I announce, only realizing that the church is quite quiet after I speak. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Yes¡­¡± Lena replies, apprehensively and in a loud whisper. ¡°Also, keep it down, this is a day of rest, re creation, and recreation, not of yelling.¡± ¡°Yes, but¡­¡± ¡°No buts, just jump up here and sit. Hopefully some questions will be answered. We¡¯re about to start¡± After sitting for a few minutes, some people come out of the back, most dressed in robes, while one is wearing a towel across their shoulders. Everyone stands, so I stand too, only to be unable to see above the back of the pew. I look to Lena, and Thallion, who quickly look at me and just shrug. Guess standing on the pew is not allowed for kids. ¡°Please be seated¡± a deep but friendly voice states. I sit down, trying to calm my thoughts as common elements of a church service are laid before me. What sounds at first like otherworldly music begins to play, only for me to realise the sound of 70s synths and loops with a large live choir singing to it. I don¡¯t recognize the music but the tones similar to an organ crossed with an electric piano greet my ears and offer a sense of sameness, while also being unique. As the service continues, the familiarity of the Christian elements¡ªthe hymns, the prayers¡ªgives me a strange comfort, a link back to my world amidst the alien surroundings. As the pastor begins to speak, his voice is soothing, recounting stories of faith and resilience of Jesus, whilst different than the scripture passages I know, share the same lines of love, compassion, healing and forgiveness offered by God. I space out, reflecting on my own journey, feeling an unexpected kinship with these people who, despite our differences and deviating histories, share a faith that transcends worlds. At the height of the sermon, the pastor states ¡°and so, one and all, wherever you gather in Jesus name, he is with you, you are not alone. Live and love one another, not as the world loves, that of fleeting and temporary, but as God loves, unconditional and beyond understanding.¡± With the revelation that their core belief follows that of God¡¯s and Jesus¡¯ love, I feel relieved. A sense of infinite calm settles over me like a warm embrace, and I shiver slightly as his words sink in. As we leave the church, a few other villagers approach and talk to Thallion. Thallion states that they found me at the school one morning and seeing that I have nowhere to go, took me in. Something about having a family but in a Thallion way is mentioned, but I get too far to hear it. A few other families look at me strangely, and then continue walking, but nothing out of the ordinary for being new. Suddenly I feel a gentle hand on my shoulder, and remembering what happened last time, I drop to a crouch and turn around, seeing that it is the pastor. ¡°Whoa. Easy there child.¡± His baritone voice rumbling, ¡±Just wanted to check in on you as you seemed to have responded strongly to entering into God¡¯s place. I just wanted to make sure everything is alright, especially since we have not seen you here before. And that you are using a translator as well¡± ¡°I...I¡­¡± I stammer. ¡°I am well. Just a little overwhelmed seeing the faith this far from home.¡± ¡°Ah. I see¡­¡± He continues calmly, crouching down to my level and helping me stand back up. ¡°You were the one that arrived a couple weeks back. Good to see you up and about. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Hopefully everything is going well?¡± ¡°Yes. Everything is going well, considering what has happened.¡± ¡°Just remember, don¡¯t fret, take it to the Lord in prayer¡± ¡°I will.¡± As he moves on to other members, Thallion and Lena approach, both looking a little tired. I nod towards the exit and they agree. We grab our coats and head out, back to the school house. On the way, Lena speaks, ¡°So, I take it that went well?¡± ¡°You have no idea. My faith is in the same God, with the saviour of Jesus and the sustenance of the Holy Spirit nurturing the world. When God created the heavens and the earth, we got the focus of the earth. Other places exist too! Be it the same realm or universe, it is the same God. I am not alone!¡± Lena looks at me blankly. Thallion speaks up, ¡°There is lots to unpack there. Let¡¯s head inside first¡± Heading in, Thallion quickly assembles a basic meal of bread and cured meat, and we begin to discuss. ¡°So your day, Restora, is similar to Sunday for me. Both involve stopping and reflecting on God¡¯s love for people and what the relationship between God, others and nature is. God made himself known through Jesus, who was killed to take the sins of the people, and he rose later restoring our life. He then sent the spirit to aid and to guide until he returns in final victory. The names of the disciples and the empire are different, but the main line is the same. In short, your God is my God!¡± They both look at me funny, and then Lena speaks. ¡°That is probably the shortest summary of Christianity I¡¯ve heard, but it does work! This connection that you have made by being here, under the same Universal Creator means that no matter what, we are one in the spirit. One Creator, one Redeemer, and one Sustainer, all in one, for all, not just here, or around the world, but others as well.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± I exclaim, reaching for another piece of bread. ¡°I really need to write this down!¡± Thallion projects, ¡°but from all the writing, my wrist hurts too much, and I should be resting it!¡± ¡°Calm down Thal¡± Lena replies, ¡°just warm it in some water, and write at your own pace. In the meantime, I need to go on a walk outside.¡± ¡°Can I come?¡± I ask, trying not to do puppy dog eyes. Lena stares disdainfully for a bit, but finally ¡°Fine, but no talking, just walking¡± ¡°Sure¡± ----- After a few minutes, we head out, and walk towards the river. Eventually, Lena stops and leans against a tree, staring at the water. I find a nearby tree, and do the same, feeling the older sunbaked snow crunch under my feet as I sink in much farther than she does. We just stand there, staring at the water, watching it swirl and tumble along. Listening to the faint breeze rattle the trees, and the light glisten off both fallen snow and the turbulent waters. Eventually Lena talks. ¡°Ever since you arrived, my faith has weakened, as you are living proof that there is something beyond here, be it future, past, vast distances, or even other planes of existence. Yet, you just confirmed that God is not just God of the world, but of at least the universe. My faith is not for naught. There is something that made the connection work to bring you here. I have no clue what or why they wanted you, but there now is a reason for hope again, that everything is not just one big mistake. Thank you for hope¡± We sit in silence once again. After a very comfortable amount of time passe from listening to the silence of winter, I respond ¡°Where I am from, there are many religions, it is just amazing that the one I follow is here, and quite similar to contemporary as well¡± ¡°We have many religions too, but this is the first time any statement of offworld religion has occurred! We are not alone, and while different, we at least have the same creator watching over us.¡± The silence stretches between us, filled with the quiet murmurs of the river and the occasional rustle of the wind through the trees. Lena¡¯s words resonate deeply within me. Hope¡ªa simple yet profound gift, bridging the gap between our worlds. I look up at the sky, wondering if the same God I prayed to back home is listening here. It¡¯s a comforting thought, the idea that, despite the vastness of the universe, there¡¯s a divine presence connecting us all. ¡°We should head back,¡± Lena says softly, breaking the silence. ¡°It¡¯s getting colder.¡± I nod, and we begin our walk back to the schoolhouse. The crunch of the snow beneath our feet is the only sound accompanying us. As we walk, I think about the journey ahead¡ªboth the practical steps of repairing the generator and the deeper, more personal journey of understanding my place in this world. When we arrive back at the schoolhouse, Thallion is sitting at the table, a small bowl of warm water beside him. He¡¯s gently soaking his wrist, looking more relaxed than I¡¯ve seen him in days. He looks up as we enter, a smile spreading across his face. ¡°Feeling better?¡± Lena asks, taking off her coat and hanging it by the door. ¡°Much,¡± Thallion replies, flexing his fingers. ¡°The warmth helps.¡± I sit down at the table, pulling out my phone and turning it on. The screen lights up, and I navigate to the notes app, ready to jot down my thoughts and plans for the days ahead. Lena sits across from me, watching with curiosity and ensuring I don¡¯t open offline Wikipedia. ¡°You know,¡± she begins, ¡°there¡¯s something comforting about God. He¡¯s like a bridge between our worlds. Even though the narrative is slightly different, it shows that we¡¯re not so separate after all.¡± I nod in agreement. ¡°It¡¯s a reminder that, no matter how far apart we are, there are always connections to be made. Understanding to be shared.¡± As night falls, I find myself staring into the flames once again, but this time with a heart a little lighter, a spirit a little more at peace. This day of rest and reflection has given me not just a pause from the chaos but a renewed sense of purpose and hope. I close my eyes, whispering a silent prayer of gratitude and strength for the journey ahead. No matter the challenges, I am not alone. I have Thallion and Lena, this newfound family, and a faith that transcends worlds. In this strange, wonderful place, I¡¯ve found something that feels like home. Magic is Electricity?! Part 26 The next morning I woke up alone. Lena and Thallion are not in the room, but I hear murmuring coming from the school room door. After quickly getting ready, I sit down at the table with my phone and think about what to do next. Here, I have found a group of people that at least tolerate my presence, and are willing to help, but I will lose communication soon if I don¡¯t get the generator working. Looking back at the generator, I start to think about ways to strengthen its power, without massive modifications, as everything works, just not strong enough. Dismantling it, I check to ensure the rotor wires are wound tight and see if there are any signs of shorting. It looks good, so I move onto the shaft. The shaft is not bent, and it seems like Eldrin even took the time to harden it, so it would take a massive impact to bend it. Remembering how it was operating when we tested it, concentricity is not the issue, as it spun freely. That just leaves the two magnets. I gently pull them out of the casing, and pass them over the iron rods used to keep the front and back of the stator attached to the main body. Sure enough, the rods move, but very slightly and only if I have the magnets nearly touching. Sighing, I start thinking of ways to magnetise these components to a much higher level. The issue is I need electricity to get any large magnitude magnetism to exist. I could possibly use the rest of my phone battery to magnetise the metal, but that could cause the phone to die with no chance of recovery. I could experiment with more or less turns to maximise current flow to create more magnetism, but again, I don¡¯t have much time for experimentation. Thinking about the power equation, P = i^2R, and the fact that magnetism is directly compared to current, I could also drop the resistance. I could make the wire thicker, but then that limits the density of the turns. I could also try a lower resistance material, but this motor is already getting quite expensive, and after copper, there is only silver or gold that has lower resistance at this time. Cooling the wire may help, but without any form of very large temperature changes, as in tens of degrees difference or more, it won¡¯t be much. Just as I start thinking about sticking the wire in the river to cool it and magnetise the core in the river, Thallion rushes in, slamming open the door and holding his wrist. ¡°Warm water, stat!¡± Seeing that this is the continuation of what happened yesterday, I quickly get a pot on the fire and the container he was using for his wrist yesterday out. Looking at Thallion grimacing in pain, I see that his hand is contorted and unable to move. He looks like he is experiencing a charlie horse in the forearm, but it is not letting up. Once the water starts to steam, I pour some in the container, and add a bit of cold water so he can put his arm in it. ¡°Thanks¡± he says, through gritted teeth as he plunges his chalk covered hand into the warm water. After a few seconds, he is able to twitch his fingers. ¡°How are you doing now?¡± I ask, still concerned and trying to ease into the bigger questions. ¡°Doing a bit better. I can finally move my fingers. Still waiting for the wrist to relax.¡± ¡°How long have you had this?¡± I ask, tentatively, and with a touch of puppy dog eyes. Thallion stares at me, I don¡¯t blink. Eventually he sighs. ¡°Look, I am ok, I have had this for seven years, but it isn¡¯t too bad,¡± he replies, reluctantly and slightly perturbed. Even I, who cannot read emotions well, get the fact that he does not want to go into more detail about it. So I look away from him. ¡°Everytime the weather snaps cold, this happens,¡± he says. At this point, I see some of the kids in the school room peering around the doorframe to see how he is doing. ¡°Do you want me to take over for a bit?¡± I offer. ¡°If you would be so kind? I¡¯ll be here for a while with this,¡± he states reluctantly, while nodding towards his wrist. ¡°What were you going over?¡± ¡°Communication, but I don¡¯t think you can teach grammar, being that you don¡¯t even speak the language¡± ¡°Ok¡­ I¡¯ll think of something, don¡¯t want them to end up using it as a crutch like I am¡± Heading into the school room, I shoo the students at the door into it, and close the door behind me. ¡°Everyone!¡± I exclaim, ensuring my phone and translator are with me. ¡°Thallion as you saw needs a bit of time to recover. In the meantime, I will be filling in for the day. ¡°Is everything ok?¡± ¡°Why should we listen to you crybaby shrimp?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the guy that punched in the red soldier¡¯s chest!¡± ¡°I¡¯m scared¡± ¡°Why are you able to speak now?¡± ¡°All very good questions,¡± I announce. Biting my tongue, I try to ignore the ones that were trying to beat me up a few days ago. I jump up onto the chair, and sit down as best and professionally as I can, when the chair is the height of a barstool and scaled closer to the roadside attraction chairs than any useful piece of furniture.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°So, I am Ethan. Despite my size, I am 25 years old. I have a translator which is on loan to me from the magic shop¡± At mention of the magic shop, several of the older students wince. ¡°As you can tell, I have travelled a long way, and know vast things, and I am built slightly different from you.¡± At mention of this, I look around the classroom to be met with looks of curiosity and scepticism. ¡°Alright, who would like to challenge me to an arm wrestle?¡± Several kids look at me shocked, as they all turn their attention to the muscular one in the back. ¡°What?¡± He states. No way I am arm wrestling him! He punched through that guy¡¯s armour, and Faelar still has not recovered from when he ripped him out of a tree! Vaeloria, you wrapped his ankle and he is still limping! Wincing at that, and thinking quickly, I continue, ¡°right, so none of that, how about some questions and we can work on communication that way.¡± There is silence in the room. Finally, one of the little kids holding a stuffed animal murmurs, "Have you seen any strange creatures or animals in your travels?" ¡°Certainly!¡± I reply, trying to keep my long travelled adventurer idea going. ¡°One I saw was the size of a house! And had a nose that was like a rope, so long that it dragged on the ground! Another I saw was the same height as me, but so strong, it could lift fallen trees on its own and even climb them!¡± ¡°How many languages have you learned?¡± ¡°I have learned to speak fluently in one, and passibly in another, but neither are used here.¡± ¡°Try it! Try it!¡± some of the little ones shout. Unplugging my phone from the translator, I say a few sentences: ¡°Hello! Currently, I am speaking in English. Bonjour. Je parle fran?ais aussi mais ce n''est pas utilis¨¦ ici¡± Some giggle, others are a little surprised. ¡°Why do you not look like anyone I have met before?¡± ¡°I have travelled a very long way¡± ¡°How many people are there like you?¡± ¡°Last count before I left was over seven billion¡± Several ¡°whoas¡± and ¡°oohs¡± later, ¡°and how big is that?! More than a thousand?¡± Right, large numbers. ¡°Yes, way more than a thousand.¡± I smile slightly, as I am able to teach and share my knowledge. Where I am from, we draw one thousand like this: 1 000 Where the 3 zeros represent the ones, tens and hundreds respectively. This should be familiar as Thallion said that you use the same base 10 math I use.¡± ¡°Now, one thousand is probably the maximum size of a village, but a city here can be probably in the range of ten to a few hundred thousand at most.¡± I write those numbers on the board, lining up the ones column. ¡°After one hundred thousand, we need another number, when one thousand thousands gather, we call that one million. I have been to cities with one million people in it.¡± ¡°And when one thousand million are in something, that is a billion. So a billion is one thousand thousand thousand¡± ¡°Th¡­that¡¯s how many people are like you?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± I state apprehensively. ¡°How do you all fit?¡± ¡°We tend to build up, rather than out. In the same area as this village, we could probably have two thousand to three thousand easily, but often cluster together to make even larger areas where populations can have as many as ten thousand people in this same area, and the area repeated dozens of times.¡± Hopefully my statement deters them from asking more about where we are. ¡°Then why are you the first one to make it this far?¡± So much for that. ¡°This planet is quite big, and it is a long way around from the far side, currently where I am from, it is night time, and summer.¡± I state, starting to sweat. ¡°For travelling so far, you must have a vast amount of manna! How big is your manna pool?¡± One of the older ones asks, quickly being hushed by their peers. Seems like manna pool size is a taboo to ask ¡°No issue saying this. I have none.¡± Gasps are heard around the room. ¡°Yes, none. That is one of the reasons I went to the magic shop first, they wanted to check to see if I have any abilities at all. Their meter did not even pick me up.¡± More gasps and murmurs. ¡°Are¡­are you dead?¡± ¡°No! No, I am not dead.¡± I say a little to harshly, causing some to flinch back. Seeing their reactions, I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart and ease the tension in the room. "I''m very much alive," I reassure them, softening my tone. "Just... different. Where I''m from, we don''t have magic or manna like you do. We rely on technology and science instead." The room is quiet for a moment, the children processing this strange information. Then, the same little one with the stuffed animal, who had asked about strange creatures earlier, raises a hand timidly. "Can you tell us more about the creatures you saw?" ¡°Sure! Another one I saw was one the same height as the trees, but its body was near the ground. It was all neck!¡± I state cheerfully. At that moment, a very large bell rings 3 times, and Thallion rushes into the room. ¡°Thank you Ethan for running the rest of class, but something has come up. Please head to the church and find your families immediately.¡± Thallion states sternly. The kids gather their things quickly and file out. Once they all leave, and surprisingly very quickly and very seriously, I ask Thallion. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Thallion is quickly putting on his coat, and has me follow him back into his home. ¡°News runner just came in, this cold snap is going to be nasty. We need to stock, stoke and supply. We are all heading to the church to keep warm and have enough food and fuel for this event. Help me grab stuff.¡± I quickly pull on my coat, wishing I had my parka instead of my dress winter coat, and start ferrying goods across to the church. Rather than meeting in the sanctuary, we meet in the gathering hall beside it. There, a large wood stove is already lit and stoked, and one wall is already lined with wood. The pastor is running around organising the various people coming in, sending food to the far wall, sleeping supplies around the wood stove, and firewood to the same pile. He stops to talk to Lena briefly before she heads back out. I quickly head back out to grab some more wood from beside the school, and the entire village is running like someone kicked an anthill. One thing I notice heading back out, is that while below freezing, it is not especially cold. I may be Canadian, but this temperature is closer to early March than the middle of January. Magic is Electricity?! Part 27 After a few dozen more trips for wood, I am told to stop and take a break by some of the community. ¡°I am fine, let me keep helping¡± I reply. ¡°Just sit for a minute, you have moved the same amount of wood as half of the group, alone! And you are sweating!¡± The older man replies, concerned. ¡°I am fine, I just find it a bit warm at the moment¡± ¡°Warm?! This weather is getting colder! We¡¯re bracing for possibly the coldest snap of the year!¡± He exclaims, and then storms off. Unsure of what to do, I continue hauling wood, which is about as dense as hay or foam, and I am limited more by the bulk rather than weight. Eventually, I relocate all of it from the schoolhouse to the church, with a few stares of disbelief, concern, and some of disgust. I just take it and continue, grabbing a cloth bag and loading as many foods from Thallion and Lena¡¯s kitchen and bringing it to the kitchen. A few trips later, I am stopped and told to take the wood from Eldrin¡¯s forge. Many of the members of the community are showing signs of slowing down already, and they tend to linger in the hall longer and longer before heading back out. After moving about half the wood Eldrin has, I find the pile of charcoal, on my next trip I talk to Eldrin ¡°Do you want me to grab the charcoal as well?¡± Eldrin looks at me in disbelief, ¡°Nae, I donna wan¡¯ ya ta grab tha¡¯. ¡®Tis expensive, or a lo¡¯ o¡¯ work ta ma¡¯e. Bu¡¯ there be a pile o¡¯ wood beyon¡¯ the shed as well. Near the burner¡± Before I can ask what he means by burner, he heads off to help haul wood from other people¡¯s houses. Going behind Eldrin¡¯s place, I see why he did not need to tell me what the burner is, as there is a large earthen ring on the ground, with remains of charcoal dust within. Passing that, I see the stack of logs that he was referring to, and I carry that in. As night falls, I continue moving wood, but with fewer and fewer helpers. All of the children and elderly are inside, crowded around the iron stove in the middle of the room, along with a good chunk of the population. On my next trip out, I notice the temperature drop since my last trip, but push on to haul at least one more load of wood. By the door, Thallion grabs a hold of my arm and states that this is the last trip, and that they need everyone inside so they can count. Nodding, I head out, and quickly deliver the wood. The temperature has dropped significantly, and even with my good coat, My hands are freezing and I am having difficulty feeling my nose. Back inside, I approach the stove, and warm my hands near it, feeling its radiation warm the room. ¡°Drink up the hea¡¯ as ya can, ¡®tis gonna be a long¡¯un.¡± Eldrin states, stoking the fire more, to the point where there are some flames licking up the sides of the chimney pipe where it meets the stove. ¡°An¡¯ get some food and wa¡¯er inta ya, you look ¡®alf dead!¡± Nodding quickly, I head over to the kitchen, where others are serving stew and freshly baked bread. Accepting the offered bowl, I scarf it down, along with the bread, feeling better already. I ladle some water from the large basin and add it to the bowl and drink, as there are no cups. The water is room temperature, but after the amount of running I have been doing, it feels cool and invigorating. I take my coat off, and sit near one of the walls, enjoying my cool water, when one of the older ladies comes over to me, looking concerned. ¡°What are you doing?! Put that coat back on this instant! Don¡¯t you understand that it¡¯s cold?!¡± As she approaches, she continues. ¡°You¡¯re sweating! That¡¯s it, I want 3 of those cups of water in you immediately, and then you are sitting by the fire in your coat! Give me your shirt!¡± I quickly take it off, and pass it to her, who hangs it on a line near the fire to dry. ¡°Now put your coat back on and follow me¡± I quickly follow, and she has me sit on the floor with the other kids, right beside the stove. After a few minutes, I am sweating profusely, as the temperature by the stove is closer to that of a sauna. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Eldrin, who is still stoking the fire looks at me. ¡°Cannae handle th¡¯eat?¡± I shake my head no, as the heat gets to me and makes thinking and talking too difficult. Eldrin, seeing this, immediately springs to action and tries to drag me away from the fire. A few of the kids help, but I don¡¯t get moved to far. ¡°Oi, ya been ea¡¯in too much? Ya weigh more than a s¡¯ack o¡¯ wood!¡± At this point, the old lady comes back over. ¡°What are you doing?! He needs to get warm!¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, this lad is already warm, in fac¡¯, he is too warm.¡± Eldrin replies calmly, yet with stress. ¡°Too warm?! Not possible with this temperature, the other kids are just fine being there.¡± ¡°Look Maerwen, this lad ¡®ere is nae a kid. ¡®Es a man, an¡¯ a mel¡¯in¡¯ one a¡¯ tha¡¯.¡± Eldrin replies, his jaw clenched, and looking ready to drop me and throttle the old lady. I am too groggy to respond, due to the heat. ¡°Definitely not! He¡¯s short, and just about to fall asleep!¡± ¡°Aye, he be shor¡¯ and sleepy, but tha¡¯s caused by the ¡®eat! He¡¯s ¡®bout to pass out¡± ¡°None of that! Just prop him back up by the fire! He¡¯s just falling asleep by being warm.¡± At this point, Eldrin lets go of me to look eye to eye with the old lady, whose name seems to be Maerwen. ¡°Look, this one, ¡®es no¡¯ from ¡®round ¡®ere. Been ¡®old tha¡¯ ¡®e came from the wes¡¯ afta a long ¡®ravel.¡± At this point, I can no longer hold myself in a sitting position, and fall backwards onto the floor, narrowly missing one of the kids. My eyes close even though I fight to keep them open. ¡°An¡¯ ¡®ere ¡®e goes, right over. He needs to cool down, now! Seen this with a few other folks ¡®round me forge. ¡®Emps t¡¯high for ¡®em, and ¡®ey pass ou¡¯. I feel a cold hand pressed against my forehead. ¡°He¡­ he¡¯s burning?! In this weather?!¡± I feel myself slide across the floor, and then I fully pass out, hearing the fading murmurs of the room. ----- I don¡¯t know how long later, but I finally come to, with a cloth on my forehead, and Thallion sitting in a chair nearby, asleep. It is dark outside, but it is not quiet as the room rustles with light movements as everyone tries to sleep, but not very well. The glow of the fire is still going strong, and Eldrin is near the fire with his shirt off, tending it again. Looking my direction, he sees me awake and comes by, carefully walking around all those asleep. ¡°Goo¡¯ ta see ya back up laddie. Gave us a good frigh¡¯. I thin¡¯ Maerwen will leave ya alone now, but be careful with ¡®er, she may be old, but she be the ¡®own gossip as well.¡± He whispers near my ear. Now get some sleep. Temperature is dropping again, an¡¯ we may need ta close the ven¡¯s if i¡¯ ge¡¯s much colda.¡± Nodding and rolling over, I offer a thanks, and quickly fall back to sleep near the wall. ----- Come morning, I wake up late due to the amount of effort I put in yesterday, and the heat exhaustion I had as well. I quickly down more water, which is still cool, but warmer than it was yesterday. Looking around, I find Thallion just seated on the floor near the back wall. I join him with my bowl of stew as well, and just sit with him. He looks tired, moreso than the average person, and his red, bloodshot eyes has me concerned, but I don¡¯t want to ask until he is ready. A few thick minutes later, he states: ¡°You missed the count last night. Everyone is here except for two. A young kid named Rynar, who you would not have met, he is 4 and would start school in the spring. And Lena, who went out to look for him.¡± Thallion curls up and hugs his knees. Silvra joins a bit later, and just sits silently with us, seemingly knowing of this info already. Eldring passes by, and nods knowingly at me. I get up, grab my now dry shirt from the line and put it on. I start putting on my coat, and boots, and stealthily, I head for the back door behind the kitchen, which is empty at the moment. ¡°Where are you going?!¡± Someone behind me says. Turning, I see it is one of the kids, looking terrified. ¡°Rescuing Lena¡± ¡°But you¡¯ll freeze!¡± the kid replies stubbornly and now blocking the door. ¡°You see Thallion back there?¡± I whisper to her, crouching down to her height. ¡°It¡¯s his sister that¡¯s missing. Thallion is a great teacher, but Lena is everything else for him. I don¡¯t want to see him break.¡± At this moment, a rather large woman wakes up and begins crying. ¡°Oh Rynar! Where are you?! Why did I let you go out and play today of all days?!¡± Many of the other women swarm her and try to comfort her, as they too grieve, accepting the loss of both of them already. ¡°That, right there is what I am trying to prevent Thallion from feeling.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be alright?¡± She asks sweetly. ¡°Yes, now let me try and help¡± Nodding, she lets me pass. ¡°Thanks, and don¡¯t tell anyone¡± Going through the airlock style doors, I exit into the frigid morning air, and start looking for Lena and Rynar. Taking a deep breath, and staring at the fog cloud as I breathe out, I stoke myself, pull the tuque and mittens from my pocket, and begin walking over the freshly fallen yet wind stripped snow. Magic is Electricity?! Part 28 Walking through the snow, the first thing I realize is how bright it is out here. The sun is shining, and it is cold. Not super cold like the polar vortexes I have experienced, which can drop to -30 degrees Celsius, but still colder than what my coat is designed for. I pull the collar tighter to my neck and start looking for where both of them could be. Assuming that Lena found Rynar, and they would have stayed together overnight, Lena would have found a way to keep them both warm and then probably found a way to signal for anyone to find them. ¡°If I were a little kid, where would I go?¡± I ponder to myself. Running water has always attracted my attention so I head to the river. Walking alongside it, I eventually come to the ridgeline and the spot I would like to build my waterwheel. The spot is quite loud due to the falling water, and slightly damp due to the spray. Walking further downstream, I come across the bridge that the town uses to cross the river. It is not much of a bridge, more of a roughhewn log thrown across the swift river, but it is there, heavy and swept clean by the wind. Crossing the river, I head back upstream to the waterfall, along what should be the trail, but is covered in snow. Further along, I see a disturbance in the snow, of windblown footprints that are very close together, most likely by a kid. I follow them. While thinking, I get hit in the face with a branch that I did not see. Pushing it back out of the way, I note that it has some snapped twigs on its end, and they are fresh, showing that someone else has been hit by this branch recently. I continue following the path. As I get near some evergreen trees, their shade from the wind shows two sets of footprints, a very deteriorated set of shortly spaced ones, and a longer set which have a spread greater than mine. Turning left to follow the ridgeline, I smell smoke. Walking swiftly to a clearing up ahead, I look up. I see a weak tendril of smoke rising through the trees, and tracing it back down, it should be just a little further. Following the footsteps, I see what I presume are Lena¡¯s continue forth, while Rynar¡¯s veers off towards the ridge. Worrying that they split up for some reason, I continue to follow Lena¡¯s. The evergreens thin again, and I lose the footprints as well, the cold wind having blown and filled them in. Leaning against a tree in the forest, I look up, and cannot see the smoke any longer, due to the density of the trees. Starting to feel cold, and worried, I do a few jumping jacks to bring feeling back into my fingers, which even with mittens are more resembling icicles. I push onwards, following the ridgeline and hoping that I see something soon. Several minutes later, through the silence of the cold air, I see more disturbances in the snow, along with a small brown mitten sticking up out of it. Running towards it, I recognize it as a kid¡¯s mitten based on its size. It is smaller than my hand. Feeling it, it is freezing, so it has not been used in a while. Looking around again, I see pines hugging the ridge, so I head towards it, hoping they took shelter in the ridge or under one of the trees. Eventually, the clear air takes on a foggy blue haze and the smell of smoke returns. Looking up, I can see which tree is emitting the smoke and I rush towards it. ¡°Lena! Rynar! Where are you?!¡± I shout, trying to establish communication and not just barge in. As I approach the tree, there is no response. At its base, I see many footprints, but they too have been damaged by the wind, so no one has been out since morning. Bracing for the worst, I yell again, ¡°Lena! Rynar! Are you here?¡± My voice echoes off of the ridge, and through the echo, I hear a high-pitched, barely audible reply: ¡°...yes.¡± Quickly pushing the boughs of the tree apart, I step under its massive canopy. There in front of me is Lena, eyes open and curled up in a ball with Rynar in her lap. She has snow on her hair and icicles forming where it hangs down. ¡°Rynar, Lena! I need to get you back now!¡± I state loudly and slowly, hoping they are coherent enough to hear me. Carefully walking around the dying fire, and trying not to kick pine needles into it, I shake Lena¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Lena! Wake up! I¡¯m here to help you!¡± ¡°Huh¡­ yes¡­ help. I help. I found Rynar,¡± she replies, in a heavy daze. ¡°Come on, I need to get you back now! Thallion is worried about you!¡± ¡°Thallion. Yes¡­ brother¡­ I found little one¡­¡± ¡°I know you found the little one, but I need to get you back so you are both safe and warm.¡± ¡°Warm. I feel warm.¡± Uh oh, that is a very bad sign. If someone feels warm when they are actually cold, they are extremely hypothermic. ¡°Lena! Come on! You are freezing! We have soup back at the church! Let¡¯s finish finding Rynar.¡± At this point, Rynar starts squirming, and eventually, I get him free of Lena¡¯s grasp. With that last effort, Rynar mutters, ¡°Thanks,¡± as cutely as any four-year-old can, and then crawls around to my neck and grabs hold of my head. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Lena pulls her legs closer to her chest and hugs her knees. ¡°Come on, Lena. I know you are tired, but you cannot stop now! You need to get back to Thallion! You, of anyone, should realize you are suffering from extreme hypothermia.¡± At the mention of hypothermia, her eyes slowly widen, and it seems like that word got through to her. She starts trying to stand up. I quickly grab her hand and pull her upwards, and she gets to her feet. I quickly kick snow on the dying embers so it won¡¯t set the forest on fire, and then guide Lena out from under the tree into the cold, still air of the forest. ¡°Rynar, here is your mitten. Please put it on,¡± I state earnestly, hoping my sense of urgency does not leak through and scare him. We start making our way back, following my footprints and the ridgeline. We quickly come to the falls and start heading downstream. At this point, I am practically dragging Lena as she is barely putting one foot in front of the other. What¡¯s worse is that the wind is starting to gust. It¡¯s a good thing I am near known features, because with this wind, my footprints would be gone within the hour. We get to the bridge, and Rynar, warming up from sitting on my neck, slides down my back and walks across the bridge. Once across, he looks to me patiently and is gesturing to go back on my neck. I pull Lena close to guide her across the bridge, one step at a time. She is still shaking and shivering, which is a good sign, as her body still recognizes that it is cold, but it is very hard to guide her across the bridge. About halfway across, the wind gusts and knocks her off balance. I try to stabilize her, but my grip with mittens on is too light. She slides from my grasp and into the river below. Acting quickly, I take my phone and translator and toss them to the side near Rynar, who is wide-eyed and in shock at seeing Lena fall in. I jump in from the bridge, unsure of how deep the river is. I find out quickly that I have to swim. Doing my best attempt at a front crawl in full winter gear, I quickly catch up to Lena, who is barely floating on her front. I quickly roll her over and start towing her by her head the way I learned in swimming lessons for an unconscious victim. I make it to shore fairly quickly, as the river is not that wide, maybe 30 feet. Rynar meets us on the shore, and he is holding my phone and translator. Quickly, I climb out of the river and throw Lena over my shoulder. She doesn¡¯t weigh much, but her arms and legs get in the way of walking quickly. Now freezing, with an unconscious Lena on my shoulder, I tell Rynar, ¡°Come, fast, run!¡± Unable to walk or run normally, I switch to a cross between a skip and a gallop to try and get warm and keep Lena out of the snow. I make a direct line for the church hall. Even with me carrying Lena, Rynar has a difficult time keeping up. Not going for subtlety, I barge in through the front door, practically kicking open the second of the airlock and place Lena on the ground. Rynar comes in shortly after as I start trying to peel my coat off, and then Lena¡¯s coat as well. Shocked faces are all I can see, followed by the screech of a woman that can only be described as the joy and happiness of seeing someone you loved that once thought dead, is actually alive. Sure enough, the rather large woman rushes forth and grabs Rynar and starts fawning over him, taking his coat and having him sit right next to the fire. Seeing my work done, I quickly shed my outer clothes and shout for Thallion, who comes running forth. Seeing his sister, he breaks down. I interrupt him after a few seconds. ¡°Look, Thallion, she is here and safe, but she fell in the river due to me letting her walk across the bridge. She is wet and hypothermic. She needs to get dry now and then warm.¡± Looking at me, his smile snaps to serious, and he says, ¡°Same for you. Thanks for saving my sister, but we don''t have either of you back yet.¡± At least he is level-headed about that. Hypothermia is at least treated with respect as the silent killer around here. At this point, Thallion throws me a bedroll and says, ¡°Strip and get in.¡± I quickly take off all of my wet clothes and climb in. The adrenaline quickly wears off shortly afterward, and I start to shiver uncontrollably. I bunny hop over to the fire and flop down, the heat of the fire slowly penetrating the bedroll and warming me up. I lie in a daze, reflecting on what happened. Some time later, Thallion approaches me. ¡°We have a problem,¡± he says. I roll towards him. ¡°What is it?¡± I ask, trying not to sound too aggressive as I just rescued two people and am still cold, although probably out of the danger zone myself. ¡°It¡¯s Lena,¡± Thallion replies. ¡°We got her wet clothes removed and into a dry bedroll on the other side of the fire, but she is not getting warm.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I say, seeing that this is a very bad sign for hypothermia. ¡°I know you did a lot, and owe us nothing. Rynar said you tossed your phone and translator immediately to go and rescue her. You could have lost everything if you missed, but you did that.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I am still not sure where this is going. ¡°What I mean is¡­¡± Thallion trails off. ¡°Yes?¡± I ask questioningly. ¡°Can you¡­¡± I stare at him, waiting for him to finish. ¡°Can you please warm up my sister?¡± Thallion states in a hushed tone. I think for a minute and then realize what he is really asking. ¡°I know it is a big ask, and it will be awkward, but¡­ please? I can tell she is dying right now.¡± I nod and start inchworming towards her. I hug her through the bedroll, trying to will myself warmer. ¡°Not like that, like get in her bedroll?¡± Thallion states, embarrassed. ¡°Oh,¡± I say, and blush bright red. Not giving up this easily, I fold myself up to try and maintain some modesty in the middle of this massive group of people, and slide in beside Lena in her bedroll. Her skin is pale, and rubbery, but most of all freezing. Rolling onto my side, I grab her and roll her so she is facing me. Her eyes are still open but unfocused. Wrapping my arms around her, I can feel my heat dropping as she saps it away. ¡°Thank you,¡± Thallion says, pleadingly. ¡°Just get me some warm water, or soup. My bowl should be near your chair.¡± Returning in a few minutes, Thallion feeds me the broth as I cling to Lena, trying to pass as much heat to her as possible. After some time, she begins to warm, and being so near the fire, I fall asleep, hoping that this will work out. Magic is Electricity?! Part 29 I wake up slowly, slightly sweating by the heat of the fire. I snuggle into the bag a bit more and hug my lumpy yet soft pillow, wedging my face between two protrusions it has. As I wake up a bit, I realize that the pillow is not made of cloth, but of soft skin, specifically Lena¡¯s chest. I fully come to my senses with a snap, this is not a pillow, but Lena, her face close to mine, just above my head, her breathing soft and steady, still asleep. My motion causing her to unconsciously cling tighter to me. My heart begins to pound at the closeness I am to a woman, an action I have never experienced before, and I am suddenly fully aware of my close proximity to her and the tight confines of the bedroll. My cheeks flush, the temperature feels like it rises five degrees in a matter of seconds, and I try to shift subtly to manage the growing embarrassment to my body¡¯s natural reaction to being in this position. Lena stirs again, probably caused by me moving around. Her eyelashes flutter open as she awakes. She looks at me, her eyes widening in recognition and confusion. The awkward silence is long, as we both just sit in the moment of¡­this. My arms still wrapped tightly around her, and her body pressed against me further down. ¡°Goo¡­good morning.¡± I stammer out, trying to use some blood to run my mind for a bit. ¡°Morning¡± she replies, her voice still groggy from sleep. She blinks a few times, seeming to remember where she is and why we are in this position. ¡°Thank you for... for everything.¡± I nod, still extremely flustered, and not expecting that reaction. I try to explain myself: ¡°you, I, l¡­I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay. Y..you were really cold, and Thallion thought... this would help.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. She cracks a slight smile, ¡°It did, I am much warmer now¡± I shift slightly, still trying to alleviate my growing discomfort with what is happening without drawing attention to it. ¡°We should probably get out and let you warm up by the fire some more.¡± Lena nods in agreement. Looking around, I see Thallion sleeping in his chair not but an arms length away. I tap on his foot to wake him up. After a few seconds, he awakes. ¡°She¡¯s up. Could¡­could you get our clothes?¡± ¡°Clothes? Wha¡¯¡± Thallion responds tiredly. Upon seeing us, he immediately snaps awake, takes a deep breath in about to shout, and then stops. ¡°Right, clothes, um, one moment¡± He returns shortly with clothes and a second bedroll. Repeating the tuck and roll I did to get into Lena¡¯s bag, I switch to the other, colder one, which immediately helps with my situation. Getting dressed in our separate bedrolls, we extract ourselves and stretch, adjusting our clothing as needed afterwards. Seeing us both standing, Thallion approaches, ¡°Lena, how are you feeling?¡± ¡°Better,¡± she replies, standing a bit shakily, with a slight contented smile. ¡°Much better, thanks to Ethan.¡± Thallion nods, relief evident on his face. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s get some warm food into both of you.¡± As they move towards the fire, I can¡¯t help but glance at Lena, my mind racing with the unexpected closeness we had just shared. She catches my eye and gives me a grateful smile. I breathe out, relieved as I expected that entire encounter to have gone much worse. Despite the awkwardness, I feel a sense of accomplishment and connection that I¡¯ve never felt before. Not sure what this means, I head for the kitchen, roughly dressed and now confused for what is to come, but glad that everyone is safe. As I walk past her returning from the kitchen, I think I catch her winking briefly at me. What does this all mean?! Magic is Electricity?! Part 30 After eating some what can only be described as rusty oatmeal, I look around to see what others are doing. I see that some of the cupboards around the edge of the room have been opened, and a few card games, dice, and basic board games have been pulled out and the kids are playing with them. Someone also has a pile of worn wooden blocks and many of the younger kids are busy stacking them up. As I near the fire, I start to sweat, its heat is intense, but Eldrin is still there, shirt on and tossing in logs regularly. ¡°Be¡¯a ge¡¯ some more wa¡¯er in ya ¡®fore ya pass ou¡¯ again,¡± he states in a jovial tone ¡°I¡¯ll be moving back towards the wall in a second. Still, how hot are you trying to make it?! We are not trying to forge metal here!¡± ¡°Aye, bu¡¯ we be tryin¡¯ ta keep this place warm. ¡®Tis made of wood, with a stone founda¡¯ion, so we lose hea¡¯ fas¡¯. ¡®Tis why we wear so many layers. Maerwen woul¡¯ be on me case as well save for me being almos¡¯ in th¡¯fire.¡± Thallion approaches at this point, stretching his hands towards the heat. ¡°Too true. Surprise she is not yelling at me for not having my mittens on even though I am with you now.¡± ¡°What I find surprising,¡± he continues, ¡°is that you are so warm all the time! It doesn¡¯t get much colder than last night, and yet, you went out and rescued Lena, and a kid, and were even able to move after jumping INTO the river! If we get wet, we¡¯re pretty much done for in a few seconds!¡± Surprised at this, I turn my attention to Eldrin. ¡°¡®Tis true! Even worse for me! If I get sligh¡¯ly cold, i¡¯ can take hours to rewarm! Plus, I am na¡¯urally cooler than everyone here. Being this close ta th¡¯fire feels quite nice. ¡®Nother reason I became a smith.¡± Thinking about it, I remember something from my biology classes, and metabolism. Bigger animals do not need to burn as much energy per unit volume due to being larger. They hold heat better due to the square cubed law, meaning they have less surface area to lose heat for a given volume. If they had the metabolism I have, they would likely overheat! Zoning back into the conversation, I notice both of them are staring at me. ¡°Sorry about that. Lost in thought again. Makes sense though, bigger things need more food, but not as much as you would think, it is not directly aligned. You retain heat better, but don¡¯t generate it as fast¡± Thallion, ever the scholar, whips out a notepad from his back pocket and starts writing, I assume what I just said. ¡°Careful what ya say ¡®round ¡®ere,¡± Eldrin whispers, ¡°Most assume you are still a lost kid, but keep talking like that, and more will think otherwise¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I gulp, and shake my head vividly, agreeing to keep quiet, worrying about what others would think. Realizing I just did a really dumb thing by being a kid that ran out into the snow, I ask ¡°How¡¯s the reaction so far with me bringing Lena and Rynar in the front door?¡± Eldrin looks at me, and then to Thallion. I then am suddenly aware that there are multiple sets of eyes glancing at me, trying not to eavesdrop. As I try to stealth away from the fire, with Thallion tailing me, I run into Maerwen. Maerwen stands before me, her arms crossed and a stern expression on her face. "Ethan, I need to have a word with you," she says, her tone leaving no room for argument. I glance at Thallion, who gives me a supportive nod but doesn''t seem eager to get involved. "Sure, Maerwen," I reply, trying to keep my voice steady. "What¡¯s going on?" She narrows her eyes at me. "What exactly happened out there? How did you manage to find Lena and Rynar in that storm and then bring them back safely? And don''t give me any half-truths; I want the full story." I take a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts. "Well, I knew they were missing, and I thought about where I would go. The river seemed like a good place to check, so I went there first. I found some tracks that looked like theirs and followed them. Eventually, I found them huddled under a tree, trying to stay warm." Maerwen''s gaze doesn''t waver. "And how did you manage to carry them both back, especially after falling into the river?" I hesitate, trying to bend the truth without outright lying. "I... well, I guess adrenaline kicked in. I knew I had to get them back quickly, so I just kept going. The cold was brutal, but I focused on getting them to safety. Also, both were able to walk when I left the tree, with Lena only becoming unable after falling in the river" Thallion steps in, attempting to help. "It''s amazing what people can do in dire situations, Maerwen. Ethan here just did what he had to do to save them." Maerwen''s eyes shift to Thallion briefly before returning to me. "And how do you explain not getting hypothermia yourself? You seem remarkably resilient for someone your age." I swallow hard. "I... I guess I just got lucky. Maybe the fire warmed me up faster than usual." Maerwen seems to consider this, but I can tell she''s not entirely convinced. "Ethan, I appreciate what you''ve done, but there''s something unusual about you. If there''s anything else you''re not telling us, now''s the time." As she speaks, I notice more people in the room turning their attention toward us, pretending to be engaged in other activities but clearly listening intently. I realize anything I say now will be all over town by the end of the day. I glance at Thallion, who looks as uncertain as I feel. I then turn my attention to her and as sweetly and as innocently as possible, reply "That''s the whole story Maerwen. I just did what I could do to help." She studies me for a long moment, then finally nods. "Alright, but I''ll be keeping an eye on you. We don''t need any more surprises around here." As Maerwen walks away, I let out a breath I didn''t realize I was holding. Thallion claps a hand on my shoulder. "You handled that well. Just be careful, alright? People here don¡¯t like change. While they may not turn you in yet, they probably only hesitate a little unless you win them over" ¡°And how am I to do that?!¡± I whisper angrily. ¡°I just rescued someone, and all I get are weird looks!¡± ¡°I am unsure, but with time, you shall learn what is the best way for you.¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 31 Over the next few days trapped inside the hall, I try to keep a low profile, near the walls of the building so I don¡¯t pass out from the heat again, or sweat too badly. Most people are wary of me, most likely to Maerwen¡¯s posse passing her interpretation of the story around. Last I heard it was that I carried both Lena and Rynar across the river, and was able to toss Rynar across while falling in. I want to correct them but one thing I know is that rumour crushing is pretty much impossible, especially as an outsider. I get some thanks from others, especially from Rynar¡¯s mom, but also the woman that passes as the town¡¯s doctor and chemist/pharmacist, due to Lena being the collector of remedies for her. Filing that knowledge away, I hunker down and retreat within myself to make myself seem smaller, and more childlike. A few children come to play, but after a few minutes, and realizing that I was the one teaching them, they get bored or nervous and bug their parents instead. As I retreat into my mind, I try to ignore what I saw of Lena the past few days. I actively try and keep my distance, in case anything is weird between us, hoping she will be the one to talk first. I have been closer to her than literally anyone else in my life, and it was supposed to be just medical! Trying to flush that thought from my mind, I turn to the problem that I had before this cold snap: the DC generator. I make my way over to Thallion, who thankfully is not with his sister and is nestled in one of the corners sitting on one of the few chairs. ¡°Any ideas for the generator?¡± I ask quietly near him. ¡°Really? That¡¯s the first thing you talk about after all that?¡± He replies, slightly surprised. ¡°Look, I know what I asked you was hard, but you took it in stride. But still, I was expecting a bit of chewing out from that.¡± ¡°No no no, it was no problem! Er, what I mean is, I had no issue warming her up.¡± I state, feeling my face burn red. ¡°O come on!¡± Thallion whispers. ¡°It couldn¡¯t have been that bad! What? Was that your first time ever close to a girl before?!¡± I blush and try and hide my face. ¡°Damn man, you¡¯ve got it bad.¡± ¡°I know! First woman I meet and I am like butter. She¡¯s nice, caring, and friendly, but up until that night, I saw her as just that, a friend. Now, I have no clue what we are, especially since that was medical and you¡¯re not supposed to have feelings in a medical situation, and this is even weirder as I am telling you all of this in a very busy room and you¡¯re her brother!¡± I rant. Still trying to whisper so that ears don¡¯t pick up what I am saying. There is an awkward silence for a while, then Thallion speaks: ¡°It is not my territory either, but you, you are good. I don¡¯t know how she feels either, but you should at least go and talk to her. I won¡¯t be biting your head off if you do.¡± Thallion then walks off and heads for the kitchen for more kitchen sink soup, leaving me to ponder what he just said. He¡¯s not mad that I have feelings, now to psych myself up to approach her. I close my eyes, and breathe deeply, trying to calm my heart and breathing. I also use my shirt to try and mop my forehead of excess sweat, as the hall is quite warm, even in the corners. ¡°Thallion said you wanted to see me?¡± I hear a familiar voice ask. That¡­ er, not can¡¯t call him that, but arghhhh! Why is he pushing this?! I lower my shirt down and open my eyes. Sure enough, it¡¯s Lena asking. ¡°Yes, I, uh, wanted to make sure you are doing ok over the past few days.¡± I ask, as cool as I possibly can, even though I can already feel stress sweat dripping down my back. ¡°What I mean is, are we ok still? I don¡¯t want to scare you or anything, but¡­¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. She puts her finger to my lips. ¡°Shhhh. It¡¯s ok. And yes, I am fine. More than fine, since you warmed me back up and I awoke in your arms.¡± She replies with a smirk on her face. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you did nothing wrong, but now is not the time to talk about this, wait until we can get out of this place.¡± I nod, and she walks away. Did I catch her winking at me just now? I sit on the floor as I try to calm back down and get blood flowing the right way again so I can think. I may be dense, but I think that counts as flirting? I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll just have to wait until we are allowed back out into the village. Going back to my ideas for the generator, I keep on coming to the same problem, we need more magnetism for more attraction¡­ And repulsion. Come on mind, stay on track. We need to complete this generator if we are to keep any knowledge from home. The rotor is good, but how to improve the stator¡¯s magnets. I could try and build better magnets, but I do not want to risk draining the battery of my phone much further. I think about having some people discharge themselves into the circuit for the magnet, but that will be a very quick burst and due to an electromagnet being an inductor, it will build the field and then destroy it as it tries to smooth the pulse into DC, effectively doing nothing to the magnet. That and all my wire being copper makes that an immediate no go until I can get some safer thin iron wire. As I daydream, Thallion returns. ¡°So, how did that go?¡± He asks, with a slight grin on his face. ¡°You sent her, didn¡¯t you¡± ¡°I can neither confirm nor deny my direct statement to have her go talk to you¡± he replies, with an even bigger grin. ¡°So, you seem lost in thought, what are you thinking about?¡± ¡°Trying to get the generator to work.¡± ¡°Really? Not about anything else?¡± He prods, with a knowing look. ¡°Really! We agreed to talk about it later, when there are fewer ears around.¡± I retort. ¡°Anyways, I need a way to make a more powerful magnet or my phone becomes a very very intricate brick. I would check to see if there is such a thing as a self starting DC generator, but I cannot really pull my phone out at this very instant without having several dozen questions asked, and possible response from the town!¡± Thallion thinks for a minute, and then replies, ¡°Why not just stick some electromagnets on the back of the magnets? Current makes magnetism, so little current makes little magnets, makes more current makes more magnets, right?¡± I think for a moment, and at that description remember the shunt and series wound DC generators. ¡°That¡¯s It!¡± I shout with joy jumping up in excitement. I then realize I have several dozen pairs of eyes looking at me. I look over my shoulder to try and imitate them and ¡°see¡± what they are looking at, only to see the back wall. ¡°Oh.¡± I state, as I slide down the wall and sit back down. Eventually everyone stops staring. ¡°I guess you remembered something?¡± Thallion asks ¡°Yes.¡± I again whisper back, barely audible due to trying to cover up from my most recent outburst. ¡°If we connect the electromagnets in parallel to the brushes, it will self excite and max out the magnet, without having to try and make very high quality magnets. You are right! This will work! Now if only we could start working on this again!¡± ¡°First moving half the town¡¯s firewood singlehandedly, going out into the cold snap to save my sister and a child who the town wrote off already, purposely jumping in the river after one of them, considering the possibility of falling into at least deeper like for someone and the only thing you can hope for is to get back to work?! Take a break! Enjoy this time! We don¡¯t get many breaks in a year.¡± I think for a moment, and then reply ¡°I need to keep busy, where I am from, there is no slowdown, save for night and maybe Sunday. I need to keep going. So far, the work we¡¯ve done is so little in the vast knowledge that I have, it¡¯s keeping me up. We need to keep going¡± ¡°And then what? Keep on going? What for? What good is the invention if it is never enjoyed? Should it be invented at all if it kills moments like these?¡± Thallion replies. I sit there, pondering what he said, and what can come based on the knowledge I hold in my hand. The fact that what I hold contains both the opportunity to revolutionize society, but also choke it and kill moments like this weighs heavily on my shoulders the rest of the day. Just before night, I check and see that I have less than 15% power left. Whatever my decision, it will need to be soon. Magic is Electricity?! Part 32 I am still trapped inside the hall, the meaning of time is starting to slip, and all I can do is think about the generator, my phone, and whatever is going on between me and Lena. This morning, I even found it cold here, with the fire Eldrin is tending to barely keeping the outskirts above freezing, and there was a very thin crust of ice over the drinking water tub. Waking up, I head over to Thallion, who is massaging his wrist again. ¡°You¡¯ve been doing that a lot, everything ok?¡± I ask. ¡°I¡¯ll be ok, just an old injury flaring up again because of the cold. If you could get me some soup though, that would be great. Heading to the kitchen, I see several people running around inside, both trying to keep warm, and putting ingredients in the giant pot. I catch the attention of one of them, a younger man who is busy cutting up what looks like a cross between a carrot and a turnip, being orange and spherical. I offer Thallion¡¯s bowl as well as mine and he pours soup into them. I head back to Thallion, and offer him his bowl. Taking a scoop, I notice it is thinner and blander than it has been for the past few days. Sighing, I eat the watery soup and seek out the pastor, who is now organizing the line for the soup as people start to wake. ¡°I noticed the soup, is everything ok?¡± He looks towards me, and back at the line. Seeing that the line is self forming now, he takes me aside to one of the walls of the room, far away from others. ¡°Good morning to you as well.¡± He says wearily, barely whispering. ¡°I should not be telling you this, but we did not expect the cold snap to last this long. We are thinning the soup to stretch it a couple more days. And before you ask, no you are not going out. All of these goods are stored in cellars or buried, and unless you have some form of shovel that can break frozen ground, that is where they are staying until it warms slightly.¡± Nodding along, I ask ¡°How many days left do we have?¡± ¡°We are not that desperate yet!¡± He loudly whispers, ¡°We have enough to go for another week at the level we are stretching it, two if we cut it down half again by midweek.¡± ¡°And how¡¯s firewood?¡± ¡°No issue with that! With the amount someone brought in, we could probably last another month!¡± He replies, nudging me in the ribs with his elbow. ¡°Very well. Is there anything I can do to help right now? I can see people are anxious around me, but I also don¡¯t want to interfere with anything.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, no. Due to this being a cold snap, there is not much we can do except keep people moving, fed and warm. Hopefully we do not lose anyone during this, but unless the weather changes soon, well¡­ may God protect and watch over us to shield us from that.¡± I nod, and join Thallion again, who has the doctor looking at him at the moment. ¡°You must move closer to the fire, your wrist is acting up, and if it gets much worse you may lose all control over it.¡± ¡°I am not going to move closer, removing space for someone that needs it more! I can put up with the pain, and I am learning to write with my other hand so that when it does come to that eventually, I¡¯ll be ready.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Why let it get worse when the remedy is so easy?!¡± Thallion looks up, frustration clear on his face. "It''s not just about me. Everyone here has their own problems, and the closer we are to the fire, the harder it is for others to warm up. We''re all in this together." I pipe up at this moment, causing the doctor to jump. ¡°Just because we are all together, does not mean you need to suffer alone. How about we move a bit closer, there is plenty of space from where the fire is to the back corner you are sitting in. You need to warm that joint so the cartilage is a bit softer, and won¡¯t wear as easily¡± Reluctantly, he grabs his chair with his good hand and moves it about half way towards the fire. ¡°There, that should help.¡± You are one strange kid, Ethan. You got him to do something I have only been trying to get him to do for years. He needs to take care of himself more! Also, how is it that a kid made it this far all alone, and knows medical knowledge?¡± ¡°Er, it is part of basic education where I am from. I can treat basic injuries and know some organ and system functions but not enough to operate.¡± ¡°That cannot be all, rumour has it you have some form of drug on you that we never heard of. It says it allows for vast feats of strength and knowledge. I would like a sample of some of this drug so that I can determine its safety and talk to you more about how it is made.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I exclaim loudly, but still quieter than before as I start to remember that we are in close quarters with gossips all around. ¡°I don¡¯t have any drugs! I would love to have some medicine with me, but I don¡¯t even have that!¡± ¡°But you must, you even said that ¡°adrenaline kicked in¡± which unless something is very off with that translator of yours, that is a drug. The translator does not know that word, so it must be some very exotic material. I want to know what it is, how it¡¯s made, and what its impacts are.¡± I take a deep breath, trying to mask my frustration. "It''s not a drug. It''s something my body produces naturally in response to stress." She raises an eyebrow, and chuckles as if catching me in a lie. "Naturally? So how does your body produce this ''adrenaline''?" "Look, it''s complicated," I say, choosing my words carefully. "Where I''m from, we understand that the body can do extraordinary things when it senses danger. This ''adrenaline'' is just a part of that process." She leans in, eyes narrowing. "Where exactly are you from, Ethan? You''ve avoided that question since you arrived. You seem to know things that no one else here does." I glance at Thallion, who is listening but staying silent. "I''m from a place far from here. That''s all I can say." The doctor isn''t satisfied. "A place where people produce magical substances in their bodies? Do you expect me to believe that?" "It''s not magic," I say, my voice low and firm. "It''s just biology. It''s how we survive. You don''t need to know every detail about where I''m from to understand that." Her eyes flash with curiosity and suspicion. "But I do need to know, Ethan. Knowledge is power, especially in times like these. If you have information that can help us, you need to share it." I shake my head. "I''m not hiding anything that can help us survive this cold snap. We need to focus on keeping warm and making sure everyone gets enough to eat. That''s all that matters right now." She sighs, clearly frustrated. "Fine. But if I find out you''re keeping something from us, it won''t end well." Thallion speaks up, breaking the tension. "Doc, the boy''s right. We need to focus on getting through this. Leave the interrogation for another time." She glares at him but doesn''t push further. "Alright, but this isn''t over, Ethan. We will talk again." I nod, grateful for Thallion''s support. As the doctor walks away, I turn to him. "Thanks. I don''t know how much longer I can keep dodging these questions." He smiles faintly. "Just keep your head down and do what you can. We''re all trying to survive here. Secrets or not, we need each other." "Yeah," I say, glancing around the hall. "We do." Magic is Electricity?! Part 33 During the night I wake up before sunrise, due to it being downright freezing in here. Stumbling towards the fire, I see that Eldrin has fallen asleep face down in front of the fire. Looking into the fire, I see that it is not much more than a bed of coals, and not a lot of space left in the fire box. Poking and prodding Eldrin, I try and get him to wake, even doing knuckle rubs on the chest, but nothing. He is out cold. Fearing he might be slipping into cold shock, and realizing most inhabitants here will not be far behind since I find it so cold, I grab the fire shovel and start bailing out the ashes, leaving a few small coals inside. My lungs burn from the ash, as I transfer it into a nearby bucket, and then get to work rebuilding the fire. With cold fingers, I lay some bark pieces on top of the few coals I kept, and begin to blow, my eyes immediately are filled with the ash and soot of the dying fire, and I cannot see, but I continue blowing. Slowly, I feel warmth on my face from the flames I cannot see. I start stuffing logs into the fire, ensuring there is enough space between them to allow for airflow through the front hatch for when I close it. Blowing harder into the fire, the flames begin to lick up the sides of the new logs, and they begin to crack and pop as the moisture within starts to melt and boil off. I continue to stoke, using the trowel to push logs further back to ensure a good fire along the box¡¯s entire length. Looking at it now, I realize the fire box is similar to what I saw for maple sap boiling into syrup. I¡¯ll need to talk to them to see if they collect sap come the spring. The heat is starting to build up, so I remove my coat, as sweat pours down my face and back. I head over to the water tub and, using my cup, drink heavily after breaking the centimeter of ice that has formed on top. Returning to the fire, I see that Eldrin is starting to move. I poke him again, and eventually wake him. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re finally awake!¡± I say, half jokingly. ¡°Wha¡¯?¡± He stares at me, groggily. ¡°Fire¡¯s back up, you fell asleep and I could not wake you.¡± Hearing that, he suddenly jumps to his feet and peers into the firebox, and at the ash bucket. ¡°I mus¡¯ve fallen asleep ¡®pon the fire coolin¡¯.¡± he says, palming his face in fear and shame. ¡°Than¡¯ you, you prob¡¯ly saved all of us¡± Not sure how to respond to that, I nod and start passing him logs, as he rearranges the fire to be even hotter, and adjusts a handle on the smokestack, which I assume is the damper, so that it does not draw as much. ¡°Hey, Eldrin, once we get out of this cold snap, remind me to talk to you about steam boilers, and engines¡± ¡°Engines, ey? We¡¯s be the mos¡¯ ¡®vanced backwa¡¯er town by the end of the year if ye keep this up!¡± ¡°The boiler may be more of an easy sell to the community, think, central heat for the entire building using water to warm it all, even the corners.¡± ¡°Wa¡¯er for hea¡¯? You¡¯ll need ta ¡®plain more of tha¡¯ as wa¡¯er, ¡®tis ¡®orrible for temperature, takes forever to hea¡¯ ¡° ¡°Yes, but equally as long to cool, given the same insulation¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Hmmm¡­ We¡¯ll defin¡¯ly be talking ¡®bout tha¡¯¡± I sit down on the cool but warming floor, near where many of the other sleeping bodies are crowding around the fire, and watch him work to ensure he does not fall asleep again. Once the fire gets so hot I can no longer handle it, I make my way back over to my spot near Thallion, and Lena. and crawl back into my bedroll. The next morning, I woke up to a heavy weight on my chest. Rolling over, I see that Lena has draped her arm across me. Immediately, my heart races, and I start trying to slip out from under her arm without disturbing her. Successfully doing so by bunching up some of the bedroll to mimic me, I look back and see that, though her eyes are closed, she has a faint smile on her face. Looking outside, I see that the day is cloudy, but finally warming up, there is a light snowfall, and there is no ice in the water tub. Eldrin is at the fire like always, but caught in deep thought. Going over to him, I whisper, ¡°Save for last night, do you ever sleep?¡± ¡°Aye, bu¡¯ when there¡¯s a big job to be done, I stay awa¡¯e for the ¡®ole thin¡¯. This, this is the bigges¡¯ job there is, an¡¯ I failed.¡± ¡°You did not fail! It has been over a week and you have not slept?! Go lie down, I can tend the fire now. The weather is starting to warm too. I would not be surprised if we are done later today.¡± Nodding and without argument, Eldrin lowers his massive frame to the floor, and collapses into a deep sleep in seconds. Picking up the fire tools, I continue to poke and prod the fire to keep it going, as everyone slowly wakes up, unknowing how close to death they all were. Hours pass, and then the pastor steps forth: ¡°May I have your attention please!¡± The murmuring of the crowd quickly stops. ¡°Thank you. Has everyone had soup today?¡± After a few minutes of discussion, everyone agrees. ¡°Ok, I would like everyone to move to the far wall, please and thank you¡± Doing so, we see the damage of having this many people cooped up inside, with bedrolls, extra articles of clothing, and a few toys scattered around the entire room, along with one large lump near a different wall. The pastor and the doctor step forth, and open the bedroll, and quickly look away. The room gasps and starts talking quickly. ¡°Silence!¡± The pastor states, ¡°Now is not the time for that! Theron Windrider has passed from the cold. Let us take a moment of silent vigil and prayer at this moment¡± Everyone bows their heads, and even the kids know to be quiet. Eventually, the pastor speaks. ¡°Heavenly Father, in Your boundless mercy, we humbly beseech You to embrace Theron Windrider in Your eternal grace. As he has devoted his life to Your sacred service, we pray that You welcome him into Your heavenly realm with open arms. In this time of profound mourning, we ask that You provide solace and strength to Theron¡¯s family and loved ones. Surround them with Your comforting presence, and fill their hearts with Your love and peace. May Your divine light guide them through their grief and uplift their spirits as they move forward. We entrust Theron to Your care and seek Your blessings upon all who grieve his passing. Amen.¡± The group goes silent. The pastor walks towards the bedroll, and calls a few others to help. Slowly they pick up the bedroll and walk to one of the rooms attached to the hall, and return empty handed. A few adults are crying, whilst being comforted by others. Off to the side, I see Maerwwn staring directly at me, and I also see Eldrin, trying to make himself seem smaller, even though he is taller than everyone else in the room. Unsure of what to do, I approach Eldrin, and just stand by him. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault,¡± I whisper He picks me up in one arm and holds me close to him, as his emotional turmoil comes collapsing down and he weeps openly. Magic is Electricity?! Part 34 Eldrin¡¯s arm pulls me tight to his chest, my legs dangling below me as I am lifted from the ground. His crushing embrace makes it difficult to breathe. He falls to his knees, still squishing me as he weeps openly. My feet barely kiss the ground as I am still suspended in his hug as he clings to me as if I am his last anchor.. I free one of my arms and reach around him to try and pat his back comfortingly, only able to reach the outside of his shoulder blade. This sets him off into deep guttural wails as he fully breaks down. ¡°I¡­I killed ¡®im¡± He wheases out between ragged sobs. ¡°No you did not.¡± I whisper back, still trying to be comforting, with reduced lung capacity. ¡°I di¡¯, I was ta kee¡¯ th¡¯ fire goin¡¯, and I failed me one task¡± ¡°No one should have expected you to keep the fire going by yourself for a week! If anything, it was not you, but everyone here that failed you. No one checked in on you, did they? The one keeping them all from freezing to death?¡± I ask, breaking from whisper into a quiet discussion. ¡°Nnnoo. But-¡± ¡°No ¡®buts¡¯! Everyone here has a responsibility to keep everyone going. No one checked on you just like no one checked on Theron until the worst outcome had come to pass.¡± ¡°But i¡¯ was ma job, me one thing ta do!¡± He states, releasing me and looking me in the eye. I shudder from seeing him slightly perturbed and looming over me, even as he kneels. ¡°Just because it is your job, does not mean it defines you. You could have called on someone to keep watch as you slept, or done it in shifts, or someone should have assigned themselves to look after the fire as well. Hell, where I am from, you would have about 10 guys all wanting to help poke the fire, bunch of pyros we are.¡± He gently laughs through the hiccups of grief, but then turns serious again. ¡°Sti¡¯, maybe if I jus¡¯¡± ¡°Stop thinking that way!¡± I shout. ¡°Yes, Theron is gone, but it is not one person¡¯s fault that he is dead! I know you think you are responsible, but a week without sleep is insanity for anyone!¡± Seeing people looking towards me, I see that it is time to try and rally them so they don¡¯t kick Eldrin out, as I see the rumor mill already turning. Shifting the focus to the crowd, I start: ¡°Look, we can spend the next week blaming each other for who is the most responsible and then ignore it, or we can actually look at what happened systematically.¡± Remembering Rafiki from the Lion King, I continue: ¡°The past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it. Right now, I see a village worth of people trying to survive the winter, but with effort, cooperation, and a little knowledge that I possess, we can thrive!¡± I see heads turn, and even the people in the kitchen come out to see what is going on Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Looking around, I see people that are stalled out, lost and alone, and this is even in the church! We need to rebuild our sense of community, to work cooperatively and have it so no one fends for themselves! How many of you are hunters?¡± About twenty hands go up. ¡°Ok, and how many of you hunters are also crafters at the same time?¡± All of them lower their hands. ¡°See! Yet you wear clothes, eat vegetables, and live in a house! You rely on each other, so why not rely on each other more, and work towards a better standard of living?¡± ¡°But what standard are you measuring against?¡± Someone shouts from the back. Taking a breath, I debate internally on how to share this information, trying not to compromise who I am, but then decide to tell it all. ¡°I am not from here¡­ I don¡¯t know how far I have travelled, or even where I am, but where I am from, water is pumped directly into houses, wastewater is automatically removed and cleaned, fires are dealt with by a select group dedicating their lives to prevention and extinguishing, healthcare and injury is the responsibility of the community, and heat and power are directly available and maintained. Outages for any of these are considered a major issue, and are regulated to ensure a certain amount of up time, usually over 99.9999% and caused by storms.¡± ¡°I do not know all of this information on how this works, but this little brick here¡± I gesture to my phone ¡°touches all of the knowledge of my people, not to the full depth of what is available, but introduces all topics we know. This knowledge was freely available to me, and now I want it free to all of you, to boost your living here, and so that temperature is not a concern in the winter.¡± ¡°In the scriptures we cherish, it''s written in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, ¡®Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.¡¯ This isn¡¯t just about survival. It¡¯s about thriving together, supporting each other. What happened here¡ªit¡¯s a call to action. A reminder that we are stronger together than apart.¡± I scan the faces around us, seeing the flicker of understanding, of agreement, kindling in their eyes. ¡°This technology,¡± I gesture again to my phone, ¡°is a testament to what humanity can achieve when we work together, when we share knowledge and build on it. Here, in this community, you have the chance to embody the best of what that represents. Not just to survive the winter, but to thrive in all seasons.¡± I let the words hang in the air for a moment, the crackle of the fire punctuating my pause. ¡°You are blessed with strong wills and stronger bonds. Now, you need joy and hope. Let''s renew our focus on God and the future, as one. By learning about the Creator through His creation, by embracing the innovations that can make our lives better, we honor Him. We honor the gifts He¡¯s given us by using them to their fullest potential.¡± The murmurs of agreement begin to weave through the crowd, a tapestry of resolve and newfound purpose beginning to form. ¡°Together, let us build a community that not only survives but flourishes. Let¡¯s create a place where the fire of innovation warms everyone, not just those who tend the flames. A place where every person, young and old, knows they are part of something greater. Where every effort is valued, and no one has to bear the burden alone. This is our call to action¡ªour call to faith, hope, and love, expressed through the works of our hands and the bonds of our community.¡± The gathering around us nods, some faces lit with the first smiles I''ve seen in days, as the weight of isolation begins to lift. Together, we look towards a future where faith and innovation walk hand in hand, guided by the divine light of understanding and the warmth of communal support. Magic is Electricity?! Part 35 After my rousing and somewhat preachy speech, I am approached by a few of the town elders, including the pastor. ¡°So, you really think you can change our lives that much?¡± an older woman asks hopefully. ¡°Yes¡±, I reply, ¡°as long as we work together, we can achieve great things, and since I have this brick that contains so much of my people¡¯s knowledge, we can skip over some of the dead ends, and pain points. It still won¡¯t be easy, but some stuff that took centuries could feasibly be done in weeks, as I have the process already¡± An older man, hobbling with his cane, shakes it at me stating ¡°But we''ve lived our ways for generations. Can you assure us that these changes won''t disrupt our traditions too much?¡± ¡°There will be changes, but think of it more as enhancements, rather than a complete rewrite. What I am describing here is unlocking a large amount of energy and power for everyone if handled correctly. You won¡¯t have to fear the winter any more, and with the free time gained, even more knowledge can be unlocked, beyond what I know.¡± Thallion, hearing me talk, makes his way to this smaller group, of which I am slowly becoming the centre, his expression curious and cautious. ¡°Yes but that is assuming we can share this power evenly. There have been cases of knowledge being used to harm and held back to have power over another. We must be prudent. Every step documented, every outcome recorded. We can''t afford reckless changes." Maerwen chimes in: "It''s all well and good to dream of these wonders, Ethan, but dreams can sometimes lead to nightmares. What safeguards do we have? You speak of these things as if they''re simple, but even the simplest changes have waves that touch all shores." "She has a point.¡± Thallion states begrudgingly. ¡°It¡¯s not just about making life easier. It¡¯s about understanding the cost, the ripple effects each change could bring. We tread not just on ice but on the fabric of our lives here." The old man adds in, "Yet, we''ve faced winters that have taken much from us. If there¡¯s wisdom in this young man¡¯s words that can spare us future grief, should we not at least listen?" The pastor raises his hand, gesturing to us to calm down and stop talking. ¡°Let us not be swayed by what ifs or fears, we are offered a gift here, a gift of knowledge, and wisdom. We cannot just turn it away out of fear, but should consider it carefully¡± A younger man from the back, his eyes bright with excitement, can''t hold back his enthusiasm. "Imagine, though! Less drudgery, more time for our families, for learning! Ethan, what¡¯s the first thing you¡¯d suggest we start with?" The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Thinking for a moment, and then remembering the outhouse situation, I reply ¡°simple mechanical improvements, running water, wastewater removal and central heat. These can make a huge impact on our daily lives without risking anything major.¡± Thallion, rubbing his chin, looks over at me with a thoughtful expression. "We could start small. A prototype, perhaps? A project that shows tangible results without overwhelming us as well as testing the safeguards, and phased approach that allows us to assess impacts step by step.¡± The pastor nods in agreement. "A trial, then. Let us see the fruits of this knowledge in action before we decide how far we go." As the group starts to disperse, I catch Maerwen whispering to a few wary onlookers. "He¡¯s changing things too fast... might be he¡¯s not just a lost traveler. What if he¡¯s a harbinger of something more unsettling?" Thallion catches my eye, a silent promise to discuss Maerwen¡¯s murmurs later. As the community begins to buzz with the prospect of change, I feel a mix of anticipation and the weight of responsibility. It''s clear that not everyone is ready to leap into the future, but perhaps with careful steps, we can all move forward together. That night, I meet Lena outside as I return from the outhouse. The ground is still frozen, and I can see my breath, but the snow is thinning and the air is humid. I think it will probably defrost tomorrow. Locking eyes with Lena, I think about what happened between us after she fell in the river. Her predatory stare at me has me locked and tripping over my words. ¡°Look, L-Lena, I was trying to help you! You fell in, and were freezing! Probably dying! Y-your brother wanted me to warm you up, so. Yeah. And my body, I cannot control that, it is just normal for that to-¡± She kisses me, locking her lips on mine causing me to stop talking. ¡°I know, between you and Thallion I know. I first saw you as a weak young boy, lost and alone and that pulled on my heartstrings, but what you did to save Rynar, to save me, that, that is exceptional. You are definitely not from here, but between us, we are good. In fact more than good. Come with me.¡± Entering back into the hall, I see that she has slid her bedroll over to mine, away from Thallion¡¯s and so close to mine that they might as well be one. I stare for a minute, dumbfounded, and a little nervous as this has never happened to me before. ¡°Well¡­ you want in?¡± She asks hopefully. Staring at the bedrolls a bit longer, I try to think of any reason not to. We are different species, but she is humanoid, I am not of this world, but that does not seem to matter. Ten other reasons quickly flash before me, followed by her waving her hand in my face. ¡°Ethan, Ethan¡± she states. Coming out of stupor, I nod quickly, not trusting my voice and climb into my bedroll. She climbs into hers, and cuddles in behind me. Whispering into my ear, she states ¡°now, we are in the hall still, so no funny business, but when we get home¡­¡± she says in a sultry voice. Immediately I am wide awake again, but she squeezes me around the chest in a deep hug, burrowing further into my back with her cool face. Sighing, seeing that I cannot escape without squishing her, I try to fall asleep. What have I gotten myself into?! Magic is Electricity?! Part 36 The next day, the cold snap lifts, and we are let out of the hall. I am busy unloading the firewood back to the individual houses, dividing it as evenly as I can. A couple people complain that they had more than someone else, but I tell them that unless they can prove otherwise, I am distributing evenly and they can sort it out themselves. I also spend some time with Eldrin, setting up the idea of the screw pump and waterwheel to bring water closer to the village. At the mention of the size I envision, he immediately sends me to the carpenters to start working on this, as he has nowhere near enough metal for that. On my way out the door, I mention I need 2 rods welded to the round piece of the motor he made before. Walking into the carpenters as I think about how to gain more metal, I see two elves, both taller than me, but strong, not quite as strong as Eldrin, nor as tall, but getting there. Looking up, I ask them, ¡°So, the town improvements I mentioned¡­¡± ¡°Ah, yes¡­ welcome to the carpentry shop. We were just wondering if you would be coming by¡± The man states. ¡°Yes! He¡¯s here! T¡¯at means you get to work on the new things he talked about?¡± Another one says as they rush into the room, they are about the same height as me, and I recognize them from the school. ¡°Hopefully!¡± I reply. ¡°I need a waterwheel, about 6ft in diameter, some gears, and the most challenging of all, a screw in a sleeve.¡± ¡°My dad can do alllll those t¡¯ings! And my bruther can help too!¡± The ¡°little¡± one says. The younger of the 2 in the shop, presumably the brother, picks them up and says ¡°we¡¯ll do our best, but you,¡± booping them on the nose, ¡°you need to get to your room and clean it¡± ¡°Awww. But I want to help!¡± ¡°Maybe in time, but not today¡± The ¡°little¡± one runs off, and the brother turns to me, ¡°Sorry about that, little sister thinks the world of me, but some of those words did not translate properly. What is a screw?¡± Over the next few hours, I hash out the details of what a screw pump is, from memory, as I don¡¯t want to have everyone see the working phone. After I sketch it out and he re sketches it into a way that makes sense to him and his dad, he states: ¡°That should be everything we need to do this, Give us about 3 weeks to build it.¡± ¡°Three weeks!¡± I exclaim. ¡°Yes, new technology, needs to be precise, and it¡¯s all manual work, unlike what you were describing in the hall¡± I think for a minute, and ask ¡°how manual?¡± ¡°All hand tools, saws, chisels, grit and determination, and hopefully no blood.¡± Stroking my chin, I think for a minute, and then ask ¡°Do you have a few minutes? I need to talk to you both and Eldrin about a machine that will greatly accelerate both of your work.¡± They look at each other and then nod. Arriving at Eldrin¡¯s, I see that he is busy with 2 pins and part of the stator, so I let him finish. ¡°¡®Ere w¡¯go.¡± he says, putting the finished stator half down, with the rod sticking out of its back as I asked. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Na wha¡¯ can I dew for ya? I see thachta brough t¡¯carpentas as well.¡± ¡°I have a schematic for a machine that will make both of your lives easier.¡± I say, ¡°but before we get into that, why were you using pins in the stator?¡± ¡°The word ya used, Wel¡¯in¡¯, did na transla¡¯e for me. So I pinned i¡¯ in, and filed ¡®t smooth.¡± Facepalming I nod in agreement ¡°makes sense, difficult to weld without electricity¡± ¡°I¡¯ can do tha¡¯ too?!¡± ¡°Yes, but way more power is needed than what the generator you are making provides.¡± ¡°Fair, ¡®nough, bu¡¯ s¡¯ill¡± ¡°Anyways, the machine I am talking about is a lathe. It is a machine that spins constantly at a very high speed, allowing for shavings to be made, shaping the part into whatever you want, as long as the feature is round. Drilling, cutting are also possible, but the main thing that is done on a lathe is turning. The screw I mentioned, that is a turning operation repeated many times to cut the groove, but would take maybe a couple of hours to make, in iron.¡± ¡°In Iron?!¡± they exclaim. ¡°Tha¡¯ little time¡± ¡°Yes, depending on the size of the lathe, even large parts can be made. Some of the largest lathes are used to tune ship propellers and other large shafts. We are talking ships the size of this village¡± ¡°A boat, that big¡­ just to crew it¡­¡± the carpenter¡¯s eye bulge slightly as the scale I just mentioned fully sinks in. Realizing I probably blew my cover again, I pull out my phone, and open up the page on lathes on Wikipedia. ¡°So, I am not a machinist, a person that operates these things, but in the right hands, these things can produce extremely intricate parts, from a single block of metal, the pieces you forged to make the stator, would be a fairly simple process on one of these, and the screw I mentioned would be very quick to make as well.¡± I start sketching the gears, lead screw, and work area. Eldrin grabs my hand ¡°Give us a minu¡¯e, lookin¡¯ a¡¯ this, we need someone ta redraw so we can undastand.¡± A few minutes later, the brother returns with Lena. My face flushes red for a moment and I look down at what I am drawing again, trying to not draw attention to her. ¡°Right, so these gears link to the head, which holds the workpiece, and it spins, there is also a screw here at the bottom, which turns and by locking a tool into a post tracing the groove in the screw, the post will move inwards at a fixed rate, copying the thread into the workpiece. Playing with the gear ratios, a tighter or looser screw configuration can be made. Different tools allow for outside and inside work as well as facing operations¡­¡± Over the next few hours, and into the mid afternoon, I describe a lathe, its many uses, and we plan out gears, tools and other features to make it precise. For power, we decide just treadle and flywheel with a belt, but with the ability to replace it with a motor later. ¡°Ok, we now got plans, who¡¯s paying for this?¡± The brother says. ¡°I thin¡¯ we shoul¡¯ ea¡¯ tha cos¡¯ on this, and share i¡¯ equally. If this is even ¡®alf as good as i¡¯s supposed ta be, we can make so many things fasta, even another one. We¡¯ll make some par¡¯s outa woo, for now, but replace ¡®em with me¡¯al as we can.¡± ¡°This, this is big¡± The father states. ¡°Yes, this device could be called what unlocked the industrial revolution, and there is a line between this thing and my phone, to the point that it is screwed together still¡± ¡°Why are you giving this to us?¡± the brother asks. ¡°The precision unlocked in this is so great, that it would be a guarded secret!¡± ¡°I want to share my knowledge, and I just so happen to have a good chunk of it with me when I came here. That, and I want a flushable toilet again soon!¡± That night, with Lena beside me, I am awakened by a hand over my mouth. In the dim light of the night, I cannot make out who it is, so I quickly pull the phone out of my pocket, and shaking it with 2 quick chopping motions, turn on the flashlight. The light is blinding, and the grabber is blinded and flees. I cannot make out anything either as I blinded myself as well. Lena rolls over, and sees me, with the light on. I am wide awake now and my heart beat is running like a rabbit¡¯s. ¡°Why are you up? Your shaking!¡± She asks, worried. ¡°Someone grabbed me just now, they ran off when my phone light blinded them¡± ¡°I¡¯ll check the window.¡± She replies After a few minutes, she returns, ¡°The window was closed and locked already¡­¡±She looks at me, still shaking, ¡°Here, let me hold you¡± I nod, curl up on top of her, and fall asleep as she holds me close, feeling comforted and loved for the first time in a very long time. Magic is Electricity?! Part 37 I wake up, with Lena draped over top of me. I feel somewhat tired still from last night. My heart starts pounding from reflecting on someone trying to grab me. I lay still, trying to flush the thought from my mind. A few minutes later, Lena stirs awake. ¡°You ok?¡± She asks. ¡°Your heart is racing, even compared to normal.¡± Thinking for a moment, staring off into space behind her, I respond. ¡°Just a rough night, as you know. Thanks for being here.¡± I grab her in a hug, squeeze tightly and then get up. No time to think about what happened. Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I realize it is a little warm, flipping it over, I am again blinded by the light of the flashlight. Quickly shaking it, I dismiss the light and quickly unlock it to see how much power is left. Upon unlocking, my hand start shaking. I begin to sweat, even in this fairly cool room. I am suddenly aware of the texture of the wood beneath my feet as I see on the phone ¡°3% Enable Power Saving Mode?¡± I quickly click ¡°yes¡±, trying to save the most power I can. Cleaning myself up at the washbasin, I quickly rush out the door to Eldrin¡¯s. ¡°Mornin¡¯ laddie. How ye be doin¡¯ taday?¡± he says, as he puts down his hammer and comes towards me. "Good heavens, Ethan! You appear most dreadful! Has some unfortunate soul dared to tamper with your treasured device?" He exclaims in shock, taking a step back from me. ¡°N-n-n-no. Not that bad. Close. Just. Had a rough night. And I left the light on my phone, nearly draining it.¡± Eldrin stares at me for a few seconds, while I stand awkwardly trying to not blow that I did not say the entire truth. ¡°Fair ¡®nough¡± Sorrae for th¡¯ swi¡¯ch ta me na¡¯ive tongue. Say, I di¡¯ ge¡¯ th¡¯ posts added ta th¡¯ s¡¯ator, so we can try ta power th¡¯ device¡± Perking up at hearing this, I quickly put on a facade of excitement and nod vigorously. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go test this out¡± Heading back to Thallion¡¯s dining table with the fixed stator, Eldrin soon follows. I take some of the copper wire we have left and carefully wrap it around one of the posts of the stator, forming an electromagnet that will work in line with the weak magnets already in it. I then trail the wire over the top of the stator and continue winding it on the other post, this time ensuring that it is continuing the winding as if the motor body does not exist, so there is a north and south pole. Silvra enters, and I have her solder the two ends of the coils I made to the supports for the brushes of the generator. Grabbing the light that was on the table from the previous test, I connect the wires from the now self exciting generator to it. Without hesitation, I grab the shaft of the generator, and spin it, hoping and praying that this will work. The light lights up! Not only that, its is much brighter than before. Sure the generator shaft is more difficult to turn, but I have power now! Feeling relieved, I quickly crash into the overstuffed chair I was hiding under not that long ago, and raise my arms in celebration. Eldrin and Silvra look up from some of the spare parts they were organizing and cleaning up, look at me and then back at the generator. ¡°Everything alright?¡± Silvra asks. I take a deep breath, then heave myself out of the chair, hearing it creak as I stand up. ¡°Yes, I am ok. It works.¡± ¡°What, the generator?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You tested it, and didn¡¯t tell us?¡± ¡°Well¡­yes. Look, it was a rough night and I need this to keep talk-.¡± "Ahm¡­ Le¡¯i silaren te¡¯na eilya." Well shoot. I reach into my pocket and pull out the translator and my phone. As I do a familiar feeling against my leg occurs. The phone vibrates and just as I pull it out of my pocket, the phone screen goes dark. Frustrated, I place it and the translator on the desk. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Reaching towards the generator, I heave on the shaft and gesture towards the light, showing that it works. Eldrin¡¯s and Silvra¡¯s faces light up, both literally and with excitement as the light shines upon them. I begin pacing, knowing that my phone is dead until I can power it, I point to Eldrin, then to the generator, and finally mimic turning a handle by it to hopefully convey that I need one. He runs out, and brings me a pair of locking tongs. I quickly grab a hold of the shaft, and see if I can spin it. With the tongs, I can spin it faster, but not at my maximum. Focusing on spinning the shaft, I see how fast I can go. Soon the light is burning about as bright as an incandescent flashlight, drops of sweat are cascading down my face as I feel my muscles burn. Pumping all of my anger, frustration, and despair, I push through the burning pain in my arm and gutturally scream as I try to get the bulb even brighter. Suddenly, I hear rapidly approaching footsteps from the school room, and see the door leading there burst open with Thallion staring at the scene. I stop turning the shaft, and the light stops shining. Breathing heavily, I collapse on the chair again, closing my eyes in slight pain, but having vented some frustration. I sob and cough, thinking about how much work is still needed before I trust that near my phone. After a few moments of silence, I hear some feet shuffling, and then a voice. ¡°WELP, YOU DID IT! please YOU don¡¯t MADE hurt POWER! me. THAT¡­ THAT WAS BRIGHTER THAN ANY PERSON. ANYONE AT THE ACADEMY, AND YOU DID IT!¡± Silvra states, clinging to the modified translator I made. There is a slight echo and it is quite garbled and static ridden as her power is being fed into the translator directly, as well as the terminal for the microphone. It seems like I can get her underlying feelings as it translates the audio as well. Realizing that I probably looked like an ape that was going apeshit on a crank with no way to communicate with me, I am surprised none tried to stop me. Then I remember that they couldn¡¯t even if they tried. Stuns do not work on me, and I have not seen anything more powerful nearby. At this, I tear up, I look around and see fear on Eldrin¡¯s and Silvra¡¯s faces. Thallion seems concerned and a little frightened as well. Some kids from the back room are peering around him trying to see anything after hearing me scream. I bury my face in my hands, and curl up on the chair. Why did I do that, why did I let myself loose on the generator. I have been pent up with anger and rage, but why. My hands tremble and I feel the chest tightness of a strong emotion coming. Probably despair and crying. I try to hold back, taking deep breaths. And fail. Curling up smaller, I try to hide myself from everyone¡¯s sight, wishing I could ooze away and not be seen again. Peeking through my tear soaked hands and blurry vision, I see that everyone is still staring at me. I suddenly have the strong need to be outside, and alone. I bolt upright, sobbing, grab my coat and run out the door. ¡°Arup! Selah!¡± I continue to run towards the river, seeing the bridge, I run across it, and then lift it out of place to my side. I continue to charge upstream, to the fall, and follow the cliff, in a similar path to where I found Lena and the kid. Out here, the air has warmed considerably, with snow melting and crunching underfoot as it thaws. I run to the pines, tears streaming behind me, and curl up under one of them. Stripping some of the green branches, I place them on the ground near the trunk so I have something to sit on. Just what am I doing here? Not just under this tree, but here. Why am I trying to help these people? It¡¯s not going to get me back home. Why am I letting myself fall for Lena, and become friends with the others? Why? Why? ¡°WHY?¡± I shout, my voice echoing off the cliff and the forest around me. Suddenly, I hear crunching footsteps approaching. With nowhere to run, I go up the tree, hoping they are as vertically blind as I am. As I climb up the tree, I feel its cool bark and sticky sap on my hands. The tree groans under my weight, but I continue to climb, ever forwards, ever onwards. Maybe to see, maybe to find salvation. I don¡¯t know, but up is all I think about. CRACK The branch below my left foot gives out as I begin to push off to climb to the next limb. Time slows, as my right foot, which was not well anchored, slips off the branch. Flailing my hands, I try and grasp the nearest bough to me, grabbing nothing but needles as I start to plummet. Falling, I look down for the first time while climbing. I am quite high up, the cliff is below me, more of a small ridge. The top of the tree, not that far above my head. I see branches rushing towards me and aim towards them, hoping they¡¯ll break my fall and not break me. I plow through the next 12 layers of branches and come to rest. Looking down, I am still half way up the tree. ¡°Good enough I suppose¡± Calming back down, I notice that my ankle aches a bit. ¡°Great. Ethan. Survivor of tower crashing, giver of knowledge, twists ankle halfway up a tree¡± Moving as close to the trunk as possible, I try and rest and hide. ¡°Efan! Efan! Nabliouse outag¡± I remain silent ¡°Ethan where are you?!¡± ¡°Oub¡¯ Esta¡¯?!¡± I remain silent, and doze off, with thoughts of why am I here and what can I do now rattling around in my head, as the tree slowly rocks back and forth. Magic is Electricity?! Part 38 I awake with a start, as I feel myself falling forward. Grabbing onto the closest thing, I scrape my hand against the rough bark of the tree and plunge it into a pool of sap. ¡°Great¡­¡± I mumble to myself. Waking up some more, and untangling my limbs from the tree¡¯s, I suddenly feel a shooting pain rocket up my left leg from my ankle. Wedging myself against the tree trunk, I bend my knee so I can see my foot. Rolling up the pant leg, I see that the shin has some minor scrapes but the most noticeable thing is that my ankle is swollen and a wonderful shade of purple. I look up, the dim sun has shifted in the sky a bit and I see the damage I did to the tree during my fall. Looking back over what I did, I question. Why did I run? Why is it that I seek to be alone whenever something goes wrong? Why did I vent my anger on the generator? Why am I trying? What am I trying to do? I cannot go back the way I came with the people I am working with right now, if anything, this is actively hindering my ability to get home. I shift slightly in the tree, trying to get a bit more comfortable as a fog bank rolls in like a silent tide, swallowing the forest and the cliff below. The world feels smaller, muted, as if it¡¯s drawing its breath in with me. Even the tree I¡¯m clinging to seems adrift, its swaying branches vanishing into the gray void. I wonder if anyone is even close enough to hear me out here. Curling up, I think of what I have done. I have completed engineering, and several other accomplishments, but I am here now where they don''t even know the meaning behind the words of them. I tap my engineering ring with my thumb, thinking of the ethical obligation that it means. I scared the others, I scared the only ones that could help me, made them doubt my intentions. The trust of those around me eroding faster than I can build it, like a sandcastle in the waves. Sobbing quietly. I talk to myself, nay, to whomever, or whatever is listening. ¡°I¡¯ve failed.¡± the words catching in my throat. ¡°I lost my temper, and I hid out of shame. How do I make it right?¡± The forest, alive yet indifferent, groans gently in the breeze carrying the fog. I shiver slightly, as the dampness settles into my bones. I wonder as my mind wanders, am I as small and insignificant as the leaves on the trees relative to the tree itself? Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Why am I trying? What am I trying to do? Boost the quality of living in a backwater village in a place that is not even my own planet?! I have always given knowledge freely, but I have seen it backfire before, as it can be used as a power to lord over others or create division. Am I trying to buy their trust and support with the gift of knowledge? A version of Prometheus that once the gift is given will be punished and cursed for the knowledge he brought? How else am I to be useful to them? It''s winter, the historical time of rest and survival, not of progress and building. Why can I not stop? Who am I to try and impose what I know on them? Rather than teaching, I could have picked up the basics of their language by now! Wrestling with my thoughts, I reflect back onto my help in ages past, and hope for years to come. ¡°God¡­¡± my voice is shaky, and uncertain. ¡°I am here for some reason, I need to know what it is. I¡­ I am lost. Should I help? Or I am a gnat with delusions of grandeur? Help me understand¡­please? Am I doing what I am meant to, or am I the problem, a stumbling block for others? Have I strayed so far from Your path, Your Way that I cannot recognize it anymore?¡± My words seem hollow, swallowed by the dense fog. But they offer a bit of warmth within me. A shiver runs up my spine. All I know is that I was isekaied , whether or not it was exactly purposeful is unknown due to the number of other creatures that were in storage. I am now here with no clear path, and not knowing who I really am to those around me. I don''t have a clean slate but it is as close as I will get to one. No one here knows the real me, not even myself, as what I accomplished before coming here does not show meaning, except for how it impacts me. I need to make myself have meaning. I am an explorer, collector and sharer of knowledge from my home. I am also a little Creator, made in the image of God to explore and build upon creation. I have a duty to God, to others and to myself. But if I am worn out or injured I cannot fulfill my duty. Rather than being cast aside though I am forgiven, and reused. Between my ankle and my mind, I know I am broken, but that being alone will not heal this, it will make it worse. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a branch crack, not from my fall, but from something else. Out here, alone, the sounds of life continuing on seem foreign and foreboding, offering both hope and fear. Hope of salvation, but fear of an even worse outcome. I cling to the tree, paralyzed by the thought of being found-or not being found Shifting in the tree, I stand on my right foot, grab two of the undamaged branches and do something that I have not done in years. I breathe in, hesitate, the fear of doing more harm clutching at me. But then, I let it out: ¡°HELP!¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 39 The cry tears through the fog, my voice breaking against the silence like glass shattering in an empty room. Clinging to the swaying tree, I wait, throat burning, heart pounding, unsure if anyone will come. I hear sounds. A voice, no voices. And footsteps. Distant, dimmed by the fog, but unmistakably calling my name. ¡°Ethan! Ethan!¡± I shift against the trunk, my sap coated hand now used as an anchor to hold me in place. My ankle screams in pain, jolting me back to the present. Peering through the fog and mist, I can make out the outlines of figures around the base of the tree. Relief floods through me, followed swiftly by a crushing wave of guilt. They shouldn¡¯t have had to come back for me. I made this mess, and now they¡¯re risking themselves to clean it up. It all comes crashing down shortly after. How will they get to me? I cannot climb down! ¡°Up here!¡± I call out, my voice raw from yelling. The tree sways, and I steady myself against the trunk again as it shifts under my weight. The figures pause, and one of them points upward, saying something to the others. ¡°We¡¯ll get you! Stay there!¡± It¡¯s Silvra¡¯s voice, calm, firm and with a hint of concern. I let my back slide against the trunk until I am sitting again, relieving the pain in my ankle. Minutes pass, and I hear the tree next to me rustle. It¡¯s Lena! My eyes light up at seeing her, and then look down in despair. I made them all come back out here for me. Lena crawls out to the end of the limb of her tree at the same height as me, she then turns and says something to the others below. Being lighter, she can stand on the limbs without snapping them. She crawls to the end, and steps over into my tree, with practiced ease. At least she too has climbed trees in the past. Silvra follows up the other tree shortly afterwards. Coddling the translator in her hand like a newborn kitten while she climbs. Looking closely, her hand is turning pale, and she looks tired. I turn to Lena to say something, but her stern glare shuts me up on the spot. As Silvra transfers to my tree, the other tree shakes, the sound of rope sliding over limbs grates my ears. Eldrin appears in the tree, pulling on a rope hung over a higher branch to lift himself up. Gingerly, he transfers to my tree. At this point, I am sobbing, they are all here, looking for me! This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Blas¡¯ed ¡®rees! And me in¡¯bility ta climb ¡®em¡± he says, untying the rope from around his torso. I slide over to him, and grab all four in a tight embrace, tears streaming down my face, but I do not let go. I do not hide my face in fear or shame. We stay like this for a few minutes, until Silvra starts tapping my arm. Realizing how tightly I am squeezing them all, I release them, and they all take a deep breath in. ¡°You did a good number on this tree, there Ethan.¡± Silvra states, trying to cut the tension while pointing up at the layers I fell through. Looking at them now each layer is a good three to six feet apart! No wonder my ankle is sore. Lena looks up, and then starts doing a first aid check across me, at least I think it is one. Once she sees my ankle, she sighs. ¡°Well, looks like you¡¯re not invincible after all,¡± Lena says, crouching by my side. Her voice is steady, but the tightness around her eyes betrays her worry. ¡°A fall like that would¡¯ve broken anyone else. Anyways, you¡¯re not climbing down on that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we are all up here¡± Thallion states. Come, time to get down now. All of them walk out on limbs of the tree, towards the cliff, and the tree begins to bend over. ¡°Well, come here. You are the heaviest and densest amongst us.¡± Thallion states, offering his hand. Hesitating for a moment, I then let go of the trunk, my home for the last few hours, and grab his hand. He tries pulling me to my feet, but as he starts to fall forward, Eldrin grabs his shoulder and heaves both of us to ours. I gingerly hobble my way out to a large limb, feeling it bend under my weight as I walk. As I walk, the tree leans over, but does not break. The tree groans under our combined weight, the sound like a deep, reluctant sigh. Slowly, all five of us are lowered to the top of the cliff. Stepping off the limb onto firm ground, I feel a sense of relief, but also of change. I try to take a step, but my ankle screams no as soon as I put any pressure on it. As I stumble, Thallion and Eldrin grab my shoulders, preventing my fall. Remembering what happened in the tree, I reflect briefly on the fact that I may be hobbled, but I am not broken. Eldrin offers his hand, and I take it without hesitation, nodding in agreement, his towering frame takes some of the weight off my right side, allowing me to limp. As we walk around the side of the lake, I notice that it is quite deep and that there are even a few springs as we continue to head away from the waterfall. Eventually we come to a path, and guided by the others, I navigate its steepness as it descends down the cliff. We walk in silence, Silvra still clinging to the translator like her life depended on it, but no one says a word. Eventually we make it back to the river crossing, where a different bridge is already in place. I turn to Eldrin, questioning how it got replaced so fast. ¡°¡®E spring floods claim it every year, we make ¡®few spares jus¡¯ in case. Betta than losin¡¯ ¡®t when we nee¡¯ i¡¯ mos¡¯¡± As the village comes into view, a knot tightens in my chest. Faces turn toward us, and I see their gazes land on me. Shame burns hotter than my ankle, a painful reminder of my failure. But then Eldrin steadies me, his firm grip grounding me, and I catch a flicker of something I thought I¡¯d lost¡ªhope. Maybe, just maybe, I haven¡¯t ruined everything. Magic is Electricity?! Part 40 The hall is dimly lit as Eldrin helps me back to a seat by the fire. The familiar crackle of burning wood should be comforting, but the weight of everything presses too heavily on me. My ankle throbs, a constant reminder of my misstep¡ªliteral and otherwise. No one speaks at first. The others settle nearby, each in their own space, quiet but present. Silvra sits closest to the fire, her back to me. Her hand cradles something small, her movements slow and deliberate. I watch as she stretches her fingers, grimacing slightly. ¡°What happened?¡± I ask, breaking the silence, my voice hoarse. I already know the answer will sting, but I can¡¯t stop myself from asking. She doesn¡¯t turn around, just holds up her hand. The skin is red and raw, stiff-looking like it¡¯s been gripped too tightly for too long. ¡°The translator,¡± she says simply. ¡°It froze to me.¡± I blink, trying to process her words. ¡°Froze¡­? How?¡± ¡°When I climbed over a ridge, I slipped into a snowbank,¡± she explains, her voice calm but distant. ¡°The translator was in my hand. The metal¡­¡± She trails off, flexing her fingers slowly. ¡°It stuck. By the time I got free, it was too late. But it¡¯s fine now¡ªmostly.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just¡ª¡± I stop myself, realizing how pointless my question sounds. She couldn¡¯t have let it go. Not when she thought I might need it. ¡°It¡¯ll heal,¡± she says firmly, finally glancing back at me. Her expression is calm, almost matter-of-fact, but there¡¯s a flicker of something deeper in her eyes. ¡°That¡¯s what matters.¡± A knot tightens in my chest. I open my mouth to apologize, but Silvra shakes her head before I can speak. ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± she says, her tone gentle but final. ¡°It wasn¡¯t for you to carry.¡± I see the exhaustion in her face, but there¡¯s something unshakable in her voice¡ªa quiet strength I wish I had. Eldrin¡¯s deep voice rumbles from the far side of the room. ¡°Tha spare bridge¡¯s up now. Shoul¡¯ hold ¡®til spring floods, bu¡¯ someone¡¯ll need ta fetch the one ya pulled up.¡± I look at him, guilt washing over me again. ¡°I¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯,¡± he interrupts, waving a hand as if brushing off my words. ¡°Bridges get lost all th¡¯ time ¡®round here. Built more spares than I can count. This?¡± He nods in my direction. ¡°This was worth i¡¯.¡± I stare at him, unsure how to respond. His expression is steady, without a trace of blame. Lena¡¯s voice cuts through the quiet, her voice thin, and anxious. ¡°You scared us, you know.¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Her words land softly, not like an accusation, but more like a truth she needs to say out loud. She leans against the wall, arms crossed, her gaze fixed on the floor. ¡°You scared us,¡± she repeats, softer this time. ¡°Not because of what you did, but because we thought you might¡­¡± She doesn¡¯t finish, shaking her head. ¡°You don¡¯t have to carry everything alone, Ethan. We came for you because we care, not because we had to.¡± I can¡¯t meet her eyes. The words are too much, too raw. I focus on the floor, on the firelight dancing across the planks, trying to hold myself together. ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy,¡± Lena continues, stepping closer. ¡°It cost us. But we¡¯d do it again. Every one of us.¡± She crouches beside me, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. ¡°That¡¯s what it means to care about someone.¡± I swallow hard, the lump in my throat almost too much to bear. They aren¡¯t blaming me. They aren¡¯t angry. But the weight of their love¡ªtheir unwavering love¡ªfeels heavier than anything I¡¯ve ever carried. ¡°But I-¡± ¡°No buts! You don¡¯t see yourself the way we do, do you? We did not just chase after you because you have knowledge! I don¡¯t have you in my bed just for warmth! We. Care. About. You! And your wellbeing! Yet you don¡¯t seem to care about it for yourself!¡± I flinch, her words slicing through me, raw and unfiltered. ¡°You do so much around here, pulling in more firewood than we¡¯d need for a month of lock in, and ideas that can literally change our way of life, but that is not the full you! You care! You want to make things better. Don¡¯t you know how many stories there are of summons that go and build a kingdom from their knowledge that they don¡¯t share, or let out in controlled manners to those that it would benefit! We are told to fear the red guard, as they are hunting for lost summoners that they can use to build our society in a controlled manner, but you broke that plan! You wanted to give to all, not just the elite, and that is not just your mind, but who you are. You care. You care about the past, and the future, but you don¡¯t live in the present! We need you! I need you. Not as a book, to get info from, but as a person, to just be.¡± After that outburst from Lena, I am curled up in the chair, sobbing uncontrollably, the closest I have been to crying since puberty struck. Her voice breaks slightly, and she takes a breath before continuing. ¡°Don¡¯t you see? We don¡¯t need you to be perfect. We don¡¯t need you to solve everything. We need you to be here. With us. As you are.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I wheeze out. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for what I made you all go through. And you¡¯re right. I don¡¯t take care of myself well. Never have.¡± I unfold slightly in the chair, nursing my ankle that Lena is now wrapping. ¡°I¡¯ve always been asked ¡®what are you doing?¡¯ and ¡®what¡¯s next?¡¯ to the point that that is all I can think about. Where I am from, there is another religion that has taken hold over the last five hundred years. The religion of progress. The idea that things will always get better, coming from the dark ages into enlightenment. If we only work, learn and push harder than before, we can get it. This nebulous ¡®it¡¯. ¡®It¡¯ is never explained, never talked about. An unachievable goal, sometimes called utopia, literally translated as ¡®No Place¡¯, it literally cannot exist. I grew up believing that worth was measured in productivity, in results. There was no room for pause, no space for just¡­ being. And now, here I am, stuck in that same cycle, trying to pull you into it too.¡± Lena doesn¡¯t speak, but her hand finds mine, her grip steady and grounding. ¡°Thank you. Thank you for calling me out on it. But I need help as you can see. I am sick in a way that makes it impossible to rest, to be, to live. I ask of you, to help me, help me find life and the ability to be. We are molded into cogs and gears of the machine of my reality, squished on the border of life and death, survival mode. Help me become human once again.¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 41 The silence is palpable, only the sound of the crackling fire and faint breathing can be heard. My shoulders droop from my forlorn call for help, my last barrier, my defense, my history, and my very soul feel bare and exposed. Waiting for everything to come crashing down, I try and brace myself, to rebuild the barriers, but I find I don¡¯t have the energy to do so any longer. I curl up into a ball on the too large chair, hugging my knees to my chest, bow my head, and try to focus on my breathing. It steadies a bit, staving off yet another bout of sobbing. What have I done to expose myself like this? What am I doing wrong? What should I be doing? Should I have done anything differently? Looking around the room while still scrunched into a ball. I see each one deep in thought, contemplating my very existence, my reason to be, and whether I should even be there. Time stands still. My breathing rate has accelerated, my palms and forehead are sweaty and I am suddenly acutely aware of my fingernails, and how long they have gotten. Caught between the past and the future, my mind spirals inwards on everything I have done to this moment. If only I acted sooner rescuing Lena, if only I did not run off¡­ ¡°I¡¯ll help you.¡± Lena states, easing from her thoughts. No fear, no hesitation, just¡­ abject certainty. Before I can react, she gets up from her chair, crosses the room, and wraps her arms around me. ¡°I may not know what a ¡®human¡¯ is, but it translated as ¡®self¡¯. You lost yourself, and yet have done so much, not just in knowledge, but in helping others. I fell in love with you, and I want to see the rest of you too. Not just the moral high ground strong guy that can move bridges on his own, but the one that needs rest, the one that has fun, and the one that can just be. You can just be, and just be with me if you want to as well. I don¡¯t know what the others think, but it¡¯s a start to finding you once again.¡± I collapse into her warm embrace, her words washing over me as a cool wave. I sprout tears, but not of sorrow, but of the deep understanding that I am cared for, wanted and not just for what I know, but for the real me. The lost, broken, but healing, me. I let her hold me. I let myself be held. ¡°Aye, ye be good for knowle¡¯ge, bu¡¯ I wan¡¯ tae ge¡¯ ta know ya as wel¡¯.¡± Eldrin states, leaning forward in his chair, which seems diminutive for him. ¡°Ya say ye los¡¯ part¡¯ya, bu¡¯ I knows tha¡¯ you ¡®ave i¡¯. I¡¯s in ya, an¡¯ we¡¯ll bring i¡¯ ou¡¯, like a sword from a block o¡¯ iron.¡± For the first time in a long time, the corners of my mouth lift into a smile, who knew half orcs could be so poetic? Thallion finally exhales, rubbing his temple. ¡°You always think too much,¡± he mutters. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you stare at a problem long after you have already solved it. Turning it over, analyzing it from every angle, like you¡¯re afraid to make the wrong move. Like if you just think long enough, you¡¯ll somehow make the world make sense.¡± His gaze sharpens as he meets mine. ¡°But the world doesn¡¯t work that way. It never has. And that¡¯s okay.¡± He leans back, his posture still careful, measured. ¡°You don¡¯t have to earn your place here, Ethan. You don¡¯t have to prove anything to us. You¡¯re already here. That¡¯s enough.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°I held on to the translator,¡± Silvra cuts in. ¡°Not because of logic. Not because I needed it. But because I couldn¡¯t bear the thought of not reaching you.¡± She exhales, glancing down at her stiff fingers. ¡°And maybe that was foolish. Maybe I could have let go, saved myself some pain. But I chose not to. And if you think for one second that I regret that choice, you don¡¯t know me at all.¡± She meets my gaze, unwavering. ¡°You are not a burden, Ethan. You are not too much. If you were, I wouldn¡¯t be here. None of us would.¡± She tilts her head slightly, her voice quieter now. ¡°So stop trying to calculate your worth like an equation. Life isn¡¯t something you solve.¡± I close my eyes, exhaling shakily. Stop trying to calculate your worth. I¡¯ve spent my life measuring, optimizing, planning. But maybe¡ªjust maybe¡ªI don¡¯t need an answer right now. I open my eyes, looking at each of them in turn. They don¡¯t just say they care. They show it. In words, in actions, in choices. The thing is, I believe them. Peering over Lena¡¯s shoulder, who is still clinging to me as I cling to her, I see renewed conviction,a desire to help, and a desire to be helped. To lift each other up. To be more, but focusing on being, rather than what may be. That is what I need to learn: we live in the present, so don¡¯t kill it just for a shot at some nebulous ill defined future, but approach the day as a gift. A gift to collect, explore and share. To help, and be helped. I am not burdened to seek what is possible, I am gifted and called to help as I am helped. Releasing Lena, I face her, still smiling with a few tears streaked down my face. ¡°Thank you. Thank all of you. Thank you for pulling me out of the tree, both literally and metaphorically. Thank you for being here, for being. To show me what ¡®being¡¯ means.¡± Silvra pipes up, ¡°We don¡¯t need you specifically for anything, just be, share, and live, it has worked for ages, it will work for ages to come.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll work on ya ideas, bu¡¯ we all nee¡¯ ta live. Doublin¡¯ th¡¯wood in th¡¯fire does no double th¡¯ light.¡± I nod slowly, absorbing his sage like advice. Still seated in the chair, I reflect on all what has been said. Suddenly, an intrusive thought comes into my head. What am I doing tomorrow? I can feel my expression sour. ¡°You¡¯re doing it again! Cut down on the thinking¡± Thallion interjects, interrupting my train of thought. Reframing the question, I invert it, ¡®what does tomorrow bring?¡¯. Pondering that, my expression softens. A blank slate, an opportunity, and the ability to be whatever I want it to be. The day cannot ¡®do¡¯, but I always look forward to tomorrow. What can tomorrow be? My expression softens, my shoulders relax, and I exhale, releasing years of bound up tension in my chest from within. With this new focus, I breathe in, surrounded by those I know, nay, my friends, and ready. Not to take on the day, but to embrace the day. Come what may. As the warmth of the fire flickers against my face and the quiet presence of my friends steadies me, my body finally allows itself to let go. My eyes grow heavy, my breathing evens, and for the first time in years, I rest, truly rest. Magic is Electricity?! Part 42 I wake up the next morning, well rested for the first time in years. ¡®What am I doing¡­no! What does today bring?¡¯ I correct myself. Let¡¯s see, there is the idea of the better heating, maybe a boiler, need to recover the old bridge I pulled up. But, neither of those need doing today. Anyways¡­ I stand up, approach the firepit, and just¡­stare. Stare at the embers of the fire, feeling their warmth as they slowly burn. Left unperturbed, they will burn for hours more, but for now, their heat on my face calms me. After a while, I hear talking from outside. Grabbing my coat, I head out, close the door, and just stand there. The cool air bites my nose, but not as bad as before. The weather seems to be letting up a little bit everyday. Looking around, I see the village main street. A collection of buildings, the church/hall I just walked out of, the school a little ways down to my right, Eldrin¡¯s a little to my left, and the sun shining before me. But the main thing I notice are the people. Mainly elven, but a few other orcs, walking around, some moving carts, others just¡­walking. And not fast and in a hurry, but walking, usually paired off, and just talking. Pausing at a few of the other shops on the street, getting bread, vegetables, and other things. Noticing this, my stomach rumbles, and I head towards the school. Looking towards the sun, I see that it is fairly high in the sky, so head around back to Lena and Thallion¡¯s and knock. ¡°There you are! I hope you picked up some good rest last night. No need to knock, come in, come in!¡± Entering, the smell of the rusty oatmeal hits me, a comforting smell, along with a more active fire. I hop up backwards into the chair, and like a little kid eating the batter off the wooden spoon, eat the oatmeal placed before me by Lena. I eat in silence, wondering what they are going to talk about. A few minutes pass, and then Thallion talks. ¡°I have school today, 2 more days until Restora. Basic math today. Should be straight forward. You?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be pulling some out of storage, along with some other vegetables. Maybe Ethan will join me?¡± I nod, agreeing to help her with the vegetables. A small task, and after yesterday, that is good. Some regular life, just being, and just being with her. After breakfast, I help clean up, they have a bar of soap and a washbasin, I have to push one of the chairs over to it, but I manage to lather it up a bit and wash the bowls and spoons, putting them back on the counter after I am done. Turning to Lena, I see that she is lighting an old fashioned lamp that looks like a gravy boat. ¡°Help me move the rug, storage is under the floor.¡± Rolling up the rug, I see a smooth door, worn with years of use and walking, in the middle of the floor. Looking for a handle, I see none. Lena bends down, and points it out, a small gap between the door and the floor, opposite the hinges. Bending down too, I grab it, and turn to Lena, and her loose shirt. Big mistake. I didn¡¯t see much either than she has some form of bra like undergarment on, but¡­still. I flush red. Looking back to her face, I see that she is smirking. She knew I would respond like this! She set me up! ¡°Guess the whole ¡®world is a village¡¯ tightened up on how much you see of others too, didn¡¯t it?¡± I nod, as she slowly stands back up, and I reach down to flip the door over. It lifts with no screeching, and relatively easily. ¡°Mmm. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll tire of that either. Moving stuff like that without any effort¡± She states, holding the lamp over the hole, revealing some steps and the foundation stone wall of the building. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get some and other vegetables.¡± Heading down, it is noticeably cooler, almost freezing. Walking to the deep recesses of the room, I see wooden boxes filled with various unidentifiable things. Some large barrels of that salted meat were also present, in the coldest section of the room. ¡°Hm hm¡± Lena clears her throat, and as I turn around, notice that she has put the lamp on the ground and is busy collecting potato looking things from one of the boxes and placing them on her outer shirt, which she is stretching like an apron to hold more. I quickly help her, loading my pockets with about 6 good sized ones, and then carrying another dozen in my arms. As I grab the last potato, the light goes out. I freeze in place, unable to see. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I got this¡± she says. I hear her shuffling, the sound of the potato things falling back into the box, and then more shuffling. Suddenly, I feel her lips on mine! In shock I flinch back. ¡°What? Never gotten kissed in the dark before?¡± She asks, her voice barely a whisper. ¡°N-no¡± I stammer. ¡°What is going on?¡± ¡°You really this clueless, or just spend a minute thinking, while I keep kissing you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try, but it is quite hard to think like this.¡± ¡°Well, then stop thinking¡± Sighing, I let go of my inhibition, fumble around for her head in the dark room, and kiss her back. Not sure what I am doing, I aim for where her lips should be, purse mine, and kiss, clamping her face to mine. We stay like this for what feels like seconds, but must have been close to a minute, as she bucks her head back and gasps when I release her. ¡°You alright?¡± I ask timidly. ¡°More than alright¡± ¡°What¡¯s with the sudden change in attitude towards me?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just say as you went through your revelation, I went through mine that you are not from here, and may need some¡­guidance for what is ok to do here. I want you, and only you.¡± ¡°Ok¡­¡± ¡°Less talking, more kissing¡± ¡°Very well¡± Grabbing her again, I do the same thing, now knowing she wants it, and recalling the ¡®End of War in Europe¡¯ image, dip her backwards supporting her and kiss deeply, passionately and without worry as we are out of sight in the storage room. I kiss her nose, cheeks and forehead similarly, but miss on the last one, landing on her ear. ¡°Oohhh¡± ¡°Sorry, I.. can¡¯t see¡± ¡°N¡­no issue from me¡± she chuckles, leaning on me a bit more. ¡°But we should get these up.¡± ¡°Already?¡± ¡°Potatoes are a means to get you to open up, not the end¡± ¡°Oh. Ohhh¡­¡± I quickly help her grab potatoes again, at least I hope they were the same things. Still cannot see, and then quickly take off up the stairs after her which are illuminated by the light from above, and place the potatoes on the counter. Looks like I grabbed some green beet like things as well as potatoes. Oh well. Looking for Lena, I see that she is standing by the fire with a chair in hand. I hop in the chair, and she sits on me, legts draped over my left. She proceeds to lean into me, and continues kissing. Now that we both can see, it goes so much better. A few minutes later, Thallion comes in, taps Lena¡¯s shoulder and says, ¡°maybe move this to another room, it¡¯s hard to teach kids as they make gagging, choking and barfing faces at me as this gets warmed up. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Blushing, I pick Lena up, who sighs into my mouth while I carry her to her room. Placing her on the bed, I sit next to her. She paws at me like a cat, legs up on the bed slanted away from me as if she is wearing a pencil dress. Great. Not that I needed that thought in my head as well. ¡°This, this is too fast¡± I murmur to myself. ¡°What? What¡¯s too fast¡± ¡°This. All. This.¡± I gesture at her, her pupils wide like a pouncing cat, with eyelids fluttering. ¡°I didn¡¯t even know you a month ago, and yet, I¡¯m here, sitting on your bed, with you making those eyes at me.¡± ¡°What eyes?!¡± ¡°Those eyes!¡± ¡°So what!¡± ¡°It¡¯s just¡­so sudden.¡± ¡°What, is your history so messed up that a pretty woman wanting you is bad now? That being cared for is wrong? You wanted to bring power never before seen in this world, but cannot even comprehend the basics of living?¡± I sigh, deflated. ¡°Yes.¡± I mutter. ¡°WHAT?!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I reply. ¡°Look, I know it does not make much sense, but I am 27, and never dated, never been in a relationship, and right now you are closest friend I had in years¡± Lena is quiet for a few minutes, eyes slowly reset back to their normal size, and eyelids are now no longer fluttering, and are instead on full alert, puzzling. ¡°So, you have been alone, just with your family for¡­years?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± I sob, remembering them for the first time in a while. Torn between hoping time passes linearly or not at all. Their loss of me, but also my loss of them. ¡°Why? No one good enough for you?¡± She asks, worry in her eyes. ¡°No, just no one there. Look, I have been used for most of my life as a source of knowledge, and that is all I could come up with when I ended up here. Dumping knowledge has become my safeguard against all of these emotions, and besides you, there has not been a single person, besides my therapist, that has tried to get to deeper levels of me.¡± ¡°So, taken, used and dumped when the knowledge is gained¡­¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°But why discard the paper? Why toss the source of the knowledge?¡± ¡°I¡­am¡­odd? Odd. I seek knowledge not just to lord it over someone, but to share it, to learn more about the world we are in, or what may become. This¡­ is not a desired trait in the normal culture, and not even in most of the sub cultures. Knowledge is treated as power, and like a dragon keeping gold is to be hoarded and distributed to a few key support people. I vehemently disagree with this, but give knowledge freely to those that ask. I am a liability to them as I can take their knowledge and share it as well¡± ¡°You are not a liability! Here we run differently. What you just described as a liability, is our main focus. After the great calamity, we spent centuries gathering as much knowledge as possible about the past, trying to piece together what it was. We now gather it all, and share it. Talk to Eldrin, his people were hit the hardest when the calamity struck, and now are usually the most prolific writers and learned ones about! We all strive to note and record what has happened, to leave a trail for those that follow, not to build better as it seems like you are caught in, but to help the next in case we fall!¡± This info struck me like a brick wall. Calamity?! Wasn¡¯t their history a parallel of ours, they had Jesus and everything, so what is this? ¡°Calamity? I don¡¯t know of any calamity.¡± ¡°Nothing similar at all? No major world altering event that people thought was the fulfillment of Revelation, but then there was no ¡®good¡¯ after the bad?¡± ¡°Sure we had a few empires keel over and die, but nothing truly apocalyptic.¡± ¡°We had 50% of the population die in 4 days¡­¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Lena¡¯s expression is unreadable, but her voice is steady. "Fifty percent. Gone. Not slowly. Not over years. Just¡­ gone. I don¡¯t know what it was called in your world, but here, we call it the Great Calamity. It happened about a thousand years ago, but we still live in its shadow." I stare at her, my mind grasping at anything to make sense of what she¡¯s saying. Fifty percent. Half. In four days. The sheer scale of it is incomprehensible. I try to speak, but my throat is dry. The words don¡¯t come. "You¡­ you lost half of your entire world in less than a week?" She nods. "Some places, more. Some places¡­ completely wiped out." "How?" I manage to whisper. She sighs, running a hand through her hair. "That¡¯s the thing. No one really knows. The records from before are fragmented. Some say it was war. Some say it was sickness. Some say the sky itself split open. And some¡­ say it was a punishment." A shiver runs down my spine. "Punishment?" Lena shakes her head. "I don¡¯t believe that part. But some do. The only thing that¡¯s certain is that everything changed. Cities fell. Knowledge was lost. We have spent centuries picking up the pieces, trying to understand what happened, trying to make sure it never happens again." "And yet you still share knowledge so freely?" I ask, my voice hoarse. "Of course." She looks at me like it¡¯s obvious. "That¡¯s why we have to. Hoarding knowledge is what led to the downfall. If we don¡¯t share, if we don¡¯t learn from each other, we¡¯ll be doomed to repeat it." I rest my elbows on my knees, lowering my head in deep thought. Breathing slowly, I try and grasp the scale of devastation this event caused. No war, no disease, no disaster ever caused this much devastation on such a grand scale in human history. Half of all people, gone in four days. ¡°How-¡± My voice hitches as my throat closes partially from grief of people long dead. Of what might have been. ¡°How did anyone survive?¡± I ask, thinking about the amount of knowledge, societal systems, and just things required to live would collapse if half of the population or more just dropped dead. Not even the Black Death was this bad, and Europe still lives in its shadow. Lena exhales through her nose, swings her legs back over the bed and also slouches down. ¡°Barely. The first few years after the Calamity were worse than the Calamity itself. No food, no order, no trust. Cities collapsed, raiding was abundant, families turned against each other, knowledge was lost.¡± She gestures to the far wall, lined with ancient books and scrolls. ¡°The world we live in now, still is behind what was lost.¡± ¡°A-and no one knows what caused it¡± She shakes her head. ¡°Some records exist, conflicting stories, fragmented accounts. Most say the sky turned red, others say trees self ignited-¡± ¡°The trees set themselves on fire as well?!¡± Lena shrugs, ¡°No one knows for certain. That¡¯s the issue. We have scraps, but no certainty. People were too busy trying to survive than trying to log what happened. Others say it was a global war no one survived to remember. Only thing in agreement, no one was ready.¡± I sit with that for a moment. A catastrophe so sudden, even history broke. ¡°And people¡­the entire world, rebuilt from nothing except the ashes of the past?¡± She nods. ¡°Because we had to. Because there was no other choice¡± The fire crackles, and I stare at the embers, trying to reconcile this with what I know. My world pushed forward, always believing in progress. But this world¡ªthis world clings to the past, not out of nostalgia, but out of sheer necessity. I suddenly feel small. Like a child walking into the ruins of a forgotten temple, staring up at something vast and incomprehensible. "You asked why we share knowledge," Lena says softly. "This is why. Because knowledge is the only thing that outlasts us. The only thing that keeps us from falling again." She looks at me, her expression unreadable. "And you¡ªyou¡¯re part of that now." A chill runs down my spine. "What does that mean?" I ask. Lena studies me for a long moment. Then, finally, she smiles¡ªsmall, but certain. "It means you have a choice." I blink. "A choice?" She nods. "You can keep trying to fix things, to push forward like your world did, like you¡¯ve always done. Or you can try something different. You can stop chasing progress for progress¡¯s sake and start learning instead. Start listening." She reaches forward, takes my hand. "You don¡¯t have to prove anything, Ethan," she murmurs. "You just have to be." I exhale slowly, feeling something unravel inside me. A question I never thought to ask, a door I never considered opening. I close my eyes, exhale. The urge to fix, to plan, to build¡ªit¡¯s still there, clawing at the back of my mind. But¡­ maybe that¡¯s not what¡¯s needed right now. Maybe, for once, I just need to listen. I open my eyes. "Tomorrow," I say, voice quiet but steady, "I think I want to go see Eldrin. Learn more about his records." Lena smiles. "Good." ¡°Maybe I can fix hist-¡± Lena looks at me sternly, squeezing my hand, a reminder that I don¡¯t need to ¡®do¡¯ at the moment. ¡°-find out more about what happened¡± For the first time since arriving in this world, I don¡¯t feel like I need to do something. For the first time, I just want to understand. Magic is Electricity?! Part 43 ¡°Well, that got heavy fast, but not in the way I think either of us intended,¡± I say to Lena, trying to not forget the scale of death that occurred, but not to have it weigh so heavily on my mind. ¡°It¡¯s understandable. Usually it is covered over years of slight exposure, to explain we live in the corpse of great civilizations. We lost so much, and it is hard to take in all at once. I am¡­kind of surprised you are not just curled up in a ball on the floor, like how we found you up the tree.¡± ¡°I¡­am trying not to, but still. We had a plague that caused that much death in several years, in one section of the world, and it literally laid the groundwork for medicine and broke that section for centuries. Their population only recovered completely after a hundred years, but still¡­¡± We sit in silence for a while-not as heavy as before, as I realize I see people that have the vigour and drive to live and know. They live. It is not just instinct, it is a societal choice, a choice made everyday, to make their lives a little better, to attempt to patch the hole in their history. Lena gets up and goes to light the stove, sparking her hand to get the fire going again. I watch as she just goes about setting up lunch, nonchalantly looking back at me every now and then with a look of contentment, acting as if she did not just drop a bombshell that recontextualizes everything. I stand up and join her. I grab a small knife from the drawer, and work on peeling the green beet thing I brought up. Slicing it up to put in the pot, I try a bit. My tastebuds come alive and my mouth waters. It¡¯s sweet! It still tastes like a beet, but with way too much sugar on it. ¡°I found it a bit odd that you brought that up, but then again, I think our minds were both on something else at that moment.¡± Lena replies to my unasked question. ¡°That is our main sweetener in the winter. In the summer we get honey, but we don¡¯t store enough for the entire year. Just cut up a few and we can add them, and see how it turns out.¡± ¡°So, how do you live with this knowledge of so much loss looming over you?¡± ¡°We¡­just do¡± She replies, not taking her eyes off of the potato thing. ¡°But that much loss¡­¡± ¡°And that much life since. I know it is hard to understand, but we have to keep living, we had to. Now, here, cut this up¡± She tosses me the potato, and I chop it up. ¡°A little thinner, I don¡¯t want to be waiting all day for lunch, unless you want me staring at you for the next hour, waiting for my food.¡± We continue to prepare lunch in silence, slicing up vegetables and adding them to the pot. Thallion returns and we sit down together. ¡°So¡­ how¡¯s everything going?¡± he asks, tongue in cheek. ¡°Didn¡¯t go that far if that¡¯s what you are implying!¡± I interrupt before Lena can describe what happened. Lena spins around quickly, and we hear minor gagging sounds from the school door. ¡°No, from that, we ended up talking about the Calamity.¡± ¡°How did you go from¡­that to talking about that?!¡± I start to open my mouth, but he cuts me off. ¡°Don¡¯t answer that, it¡¯s rhetorical!¡± he interjects sternly. ¡°Just¡­very opposite tones from what I was hearing. So, now that you know that, any major idea of what it could be? Any common thing in your world?¡± ¡°No, nothing like that happened in my world, nothing on such a scale in such short time. And it happened everywhere? Nope. As for ideas¡­I¡¯ll need to sit and think about it. To affect all life, including the trees, breaking history, I¡¯m surprised you did not change dates to after Calamity.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Thallion puts his spoon down, and stares at me. ¡°What do you use for your date system?¡± ¡°We use the birth of Jesus Christ, as calculated by I think a pope. He got the date partly wrong though, missing one, but we stuck with it.¡± ¡°What year was it when you¡­ were pulled here?¡± Thallion questions, while reaching for paper. ¡°2024¡± I reply, with a questioning tone. Thallion, deep in thought, starts writing on the paper. From what I can see, it looks like the symbols he used for the pythagorean theorem several weeks ago, so I can only assume it is math of some form as he is lost in thought. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯ll be back soon¡± Lena softly assures me. ¡°That means¡­no¡­it cannot be¡­what if¡­even if¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Thallion?¡± ¡°We lost the year that Christ was born due to the Calamity, but there has been some hypothesises about it, stating about one thousand years before the calamity itself¡­ meaning that¡­ I need to check something¡­¡± THallion starts getting up, but I ask ¡°What¡¯s the issue¡± ¡°We are not in your past, we are in the future. It is roughly 2100¡­¡±, Thallion states, putting on his coat. I collapse back into the chair, cracking the back left leg as it feels like I was kicked in the stomach and had the air knocked out of me. The Calamity collapsed society so hard, they are the future, and still have not hit the Renaissance. I close up, my throat tightens, as I see the lack of progress exposed not as not trying, but a thousand year recovery from their fall, and they are still not even close to where they were. They mourn, they live in the ashes of a once great society and see themselves, small, insignificant, and battling to rise again. I feel a hand slip into mine. ¡°It¡¯s ok, just breathe.¡± Lena states I breathe in, hold for 4, release, and relax for 4. Breathe¡­wait¡­out¡­wait¡­in¡­¡­out¡­¡­ ¡°Where¡­where are you going?¡± I ask ¡°Eldrin. He knows more about this type of stuff than I do.¡± I stand up to go with him, but Lena holds firm, pulling me back down into the chair. ¡°I know your mind is racing, you are going to see him tomorrow. Let Thallion do this now. It cannot be long anyway, as he has to get back and teach the kids. In fact, we should go watch them.¡± I nod. Following Lena¡¯s lead, I enter the school hall. It is quiet, as everyone is eating. Seems like sandwiches are a thing here already. Then again, every culture on earth made a portable lunch on their local bread type, so it is not surprising. Lena takes Thallion¡¯s chair behind the desk, leaving me with one of the student chairs. She places the translator on the desk, looks at the chalk board and begins teaching. I try to follow along, but it is not math, nor music, so I get lost quickly. I think it is something about language? Or geography? Cannot tell, their writing is very decorative, rather than the blockiness of modern fonts. A typewriter with this would be¡­challenging to create with all the different height letters. A short while later, Thallion reenters the room, a little frazzled. He looks to me, then to Lena, and nods at her. Looking back to me, he waves me to follow him, as he picks up the translator, and Lena starts drawing a plant on the board. As I stand to leave, the classroom tauntingly says ¡°Ohhhhhh!¡± I guess some things are constant, like being called by the teacher to talk out of class time. Closing the door, Thallion turns to me, grasping the translator. ¡°I am nearly spent for the day, but Eldrin wants to see you tomorrow, to talk about your history, and what happened here.¡± ¡°Good!¡± I reply enthusiastically, ¡°I was going to visit him anyway, to try and learn more about what happened here¡± ¡°I know you are all excited, but¡­just note that Eldrin can get a bit¡­intense when it comes to this subject. His people were nearly completely killed off due to this, and you, your people, look, he might be bitter, or he might wring you out of all knowledge to try and see what happened¡± ¡°I know the type.¡± ¡°You do?¡± Easing back into the chair. I reply ¡°Knowledge sponge, trying to collect, to explore knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and to share it. To reassemble in a new way, making something new.¡± Thallion nods along. ¡°Like me¡± Magic is Electricity?! Part 44 Entering the blacksmith shop, I see Eldrin at the counter, and the generator. That''s where that went! The sight of it immediately causes me anxiety from realizing the lack of power in my phone, and my...emotional climb up the tree. My heartrate quickens, my breathing goes shallow. Eldrin, seeing me, smiles, and clasps me on the shoulder. "Gla''ya coul'' come." He speaks sincerely. Upon hearing that, my breathing calms. "''ope I did not spook ya" I shake my head no, still trying to recover a calm sense. "Please, come in, I got somethin ta show ya" I enter, and Eldrin guides me to the back of the forge. I carefully step around the network of nodes on the floor that he uses to speak. Some are shining from constant use near the forge, others, closer have ash and slag covering them. Through the door next to the forge he guides me. Past a small kitchen, a bed that would be a king size for me, but would be like sleeping on a half twin for him. He turns to me "Now don'' ya star'' sharin'' thi'' all willy nilly. Thi'', thi''sis core." I nod, sagely and with as much reverence as I can. He pushes on the wall, causing it to inset by a few inches, and then he slides it to the right, into the wall behind the stove. With practiced ease, he grabs a stick, no a torch from just inside the frame, and with a spark of his hands, lights it. The light, while feeble shows stairs, pristinely cut into the very rock. We start to descend. Down, and down, further underground. The air is cool, and does not smell of the iron above. Rounding a corner, I see a large room, filled with books, scrolls, loose paper, and in the middle of it all, a small desk. But most importantly, a fallen stained glass window, shattered on the floor, towards the desk. As if it just lost the strength to stay in the wall, and fell. "Jus''...watch ya step. It''s organized, kind of". Walking to the nearby wall, I see that there are notes pinned into the wooden boards lining this ancient cathedral, with small strings connecting them. I cannot read them, but walking around the room, I notice that the threads cover all 4 walls, up to 12ft high. Continuing around, I notice a few paintings. Paintings of the countryside, of people, and of royalty. Villages, clean and bright, whose only blemish is the passage of time affecting the colours themselves. The architecture however, does not match the surface. Most of these buildings look almost bavarian, with the white plaster between thick beams. Carefully I ask, "Was...was this pre Calamity?" I say, gesturing to the painting before me. "Aye, mos'' thin''s in hear are. Be''n colle''in for me entire life. Piecin it togetha" he says, not even looking up from the crate he is rummaging around in. I walk around in awe, and wonder for a few more minutes, surveying all of what he has combined. Rounding the room, the chaotic mess of creation fills it, string running everywhere, boxes of objects, artwork, and scrolls line the walls. I realize with wonder I am walking within Eldrin¡¯s lifelong obsession made manifest. "Ah, there i''tis." Eldrin states a while later, holding up a feather pen and ink bottle. "Knew I kep''ya sum place safe. Ethan, come ''ere, we ''ave los'' ta tal'' ''bout" He states, gesturing to the table and chairs in the middle of the room. "Now, I know ya ''ave los'' o'' questions, bu'' first, since ''tis you, Imma spea'' in me na''ive tongue" I nod. "Ah, much better. I appreciate your patience with my more¡­ rustic dialect. This tongue suits my thoughts better." "It''s ok," I say, a little flabbergasted. "Actually, it sounds quite formal to me." "Excellent, excellent. Now, let us begin with a brief orientation. As best I can discern, we are presently situated within the remains of a pre-Calamity cathedral¡ªits precise purpose long lost, though the architecture speaks volumes. Of greater importance, however, are the notes you see around you. I am unsure how much the others have shared, but you must understand¡ªmy people suffered near-total devastation during the Calamity. As a result, we are, by nature and necessity, drawn to the pursuit of knowledge¡ªto study, to preserve, and, above all, to comprehend the cataclysm that so profoundly shaped our existence." "What you behold around you is the culmination of my life¡¯s work. I came to this village not long after the previous blacksmith retired and departed. At the time, I carried with me only the essentials: my hammer, a small bundle of kindling, a cherished memento from my homeland, and four crates brimming with research¡ªrecords and fragments painstakingly gathered by my people. Some weeks into my work here, I observed a peculiar resonance in a portion of the floor¡ªa hollowness beneath. That subtle detail led me to the concealed passage through which we entered." Gesturing to the chamber around us, he continues, "When I first discovered this room, it was in a state of considerable disarray¡ªyet even then, I recognized the familiar pattern of notes upon the walls. Judging by the dates inscribed upon the materials, it had been some forty years since anyone last set foot within. The blacksmith before my predecessor, it seems, was also of my kind, and evidently shared the same scholarly inclinations. Upon realizing this, I took it upon myself to integrate his work with my own¡ªdrawn from the archives I brought with me from home. The process consumed the better part of a year: identifying parallels, linking primary sources to secondary accounts, and attempting¡ªhowever imperfectly¡ªto reconstruct the truth of what transpired." "For years, I have spent countless waking hours in this very chamber¡ªpondering, rearranging, and gathering every scrap of information I could uncover. I have archived it all, not merely for myself, but in the hope that one day, someone¡ªanyone¡ªmight rediscover it and carry the work forward. And yet... the strings and notes you see about you, they remain a tangle of unresolved thought. I have reconfigured them time and again, seeking some hidden pattern, some thread of meaning¡ªbut thus far, they yield only noise." I nod in understanding, I see Eldrin, not as the town blacksmith, but as a keeper of the past, a librarian, and scholar, the true Eldrin. But no¡ªthis is not merely a tour, nor idle curiosity. I brought you here so that you might understand. I do not yet know by what design you were brought into our midst, but it is clear to me that you possess a breadth of knowledge unlike any we have encountered. And so, I believe... you may be able to help me make sense of this." He gestures broadly to the room, to the tapestry of notes, strings, and fragments of forgotten truth. "But, my phone...the knowledge brick I have is dead!" I state, finally finding my voice. "The device may be lifeless, yes¡ªbut surely, your mind holds knowledge not bound within that little brick. Does it not?" "I''ll try" "Excellent. Now then¡ªmight I ask what you know of metallurgy? Even the fundamentals would be of great interest." Taken aback, I stumble over my words, as the town blacksmith is asking me about his work. "A... little. Iron is the main thing I know about, along with copper, but there are dozens of metals, each with their own properties. Copper is the most visibly distinct, besides gold, but is orangish brown, shiny, very ductile, but work hardens easily." I am wracking my mind for more facts about copper, of all things, to a blacksmith and scholar. Thinking back to the machining videos I saw on YouTube I add, "Copper, can be softened again by heating it to red, and then letting it cool. It can be quenched, but nothing is achieved by that, except for cooling quickly, but at the risk of warping the part." Eldrin nods. "Iron on the other hand, is quite unique. When made, it easily absorbs carbon from the fire, or in some cases, from the furnace it is made in due to the coal or coke mixed in. You see, steel is just a special combination-why are you writing so furiously?" "What you are describing, quite remarkably, aligns with the very instruction we receive during our apprenticeships in metalwork. As for this substance you call carbon¡ªI confess I am unfamiliar¡ªbut you say the fire imparts it? My word..." "It''s the black stuff, burns real well, main component of charcoal, adding more air burns more off, but adding too little air will have the batch not melt" "Batches?" "Most steel mills are working with tonnes of the stuff in a shot, or charge as they like to call it. Small mills do a few tonnes a cycle, larger ones can do I think 100 tonnes at once? Don''t quote me on that scale though, I am not sure" This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "Fascinating... And tell me, how are such vast quantities transported? What means do you employ to move them?" "Giant ladles and cranes with hooks on them are used. "And from each of these... charges, as you call them¡ªhow much steel is typically yielded?" "What do you mean?" "In my own practice, a considerable portion of the iron often fails to convert as intended. Tell me¡ªhow efficient is your process, by comparison?" "All of it" Eldrin''s face turns serious. "Come now, there¡¯s no need for embellishment. You needn¡¯t make it sound so grandiose or fantastical." "It''s true! the entire thing melts, proper amounts of oxygen, the burning bit of air and coke or carbon is added." "Melt it? Are you telling me you produce several tonnes of this material at once¡ªrendering it completely into liquid form...?" "and then we have people take a sample of it to see how good it is, while it is still liquid, studying the crystals it makes when cool." "Iron... forms crystals? Truly?" "...yes? Microscopic ones, in between the carbon. It is what sets wrought iron, pig iron and steel apart from each other, as well as the hardness of the final metal, which is why air cooling vs quenching and what colour it turns is so important." Eldrin is scribbling away on a scroll across from me, noting what I say down in a very elegant looking font. "Now then¡ªon to another matter. Some of the sources I¡¯ve examined speak of so-called ¡®turning plants¡¯¡ªvegetation cultivated not for harvest, but rather, it seems, to ''improve'' the soil. At first glance, it appears a most inefficient use of land. Might you shed some light on this?" I think for a moment, trying to decode turning plants in an agricultural setting. Suddenly it hits me. "Crop rotation! Yes, alternate grains and nitrogen fixing beans to keep the soil good. Drop in clover to act as a cover through the winter if the climate is warm enough. Let it go fallow every now and then and then plow everything under." He continues to scribble furiously, "I must admit, I am unfamiliar with both these beans and this nitrogen, but..." "Nitrogen makes up most of the air in the air. Air is not all one thing. You got the burny bit, oxygen, the inert bit, nitrogen, and then a pile of others that are very small percentages. Argon, Carbon dioxide, methane." Scribbling faster, he asks "If nitrogen is indeed so abundant in the air, why then employ these beans to enrich the soil? Is the soil itself not already in constant contact with the atmosphere?" "Nitrogen gas, yes, nitrogen that can be used to live, no. Need nitrogen as nitrate, so it can be absorbed. Same way rust is to iron, nitrate is to nitrogen, and the bacteria that live with beans make this rusty nitrogen, which can be absorbed." "Yet another unfamiliar term¡ªbacteria, you say?" I face palm, remembering that germ theory is a very recent thing, even in our time. "Little animals that live in bean roots. You really need to zoom in to see them." "Yes, yes... I see. Remarkable. You¡¯ve just resolved one of the greater mysteries I¡¯ve wrestled with for years¡ªand, in doing so, unearthed a dozen more. With your presence here... I daresay your knowledge surpasses that of all our scholars combined." Hearing this, I breathe easily, making it through the grilling period. "Now, allow me to present a particularly perplexing enigma¡ªone that has confounded our scholars for generations. We call it ''Liquid Sun''. It is said to burn with exceptional purity, even cleaner than vegetable oils, and was once stored in well-traveled vessels upon which curious crystalline formations would emerge. Many believe it to be a form of condensed magic, though no scholar has yet succeeded in replicating such a substance. I am most eager to hear your thoughts on the matter." I settle into my chair, racking my brain for any liquid that burns. Gasoline? Nope, too new. "Do you happen to have black goo rise to the surface anywhere?" Eldrin leans forward, arms on the table, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, eyes unfocused with a thousand yard stare. "No, I¡¯m afraid not. The closest substance I¡¯ve encountered would be the dark, viscous residue that sometimes boils off wood in the fire¡ªbut nothing that seeps naturally from the ground." "What about flammable black rocks?" I ask apprehensively "Now really, you must be jesting. Rocks do not burn¡ªthey are, quite simply, rocks. They exist to endure, not to ignite!" Ok, definitely not gasoline, or even coal. Wait, he is pulling on all his people''s knowledge, not just his own. Surely someone has discovered a tar pit at some point? Or...maybe there was no coal making or oil making period... If that''s true... Anyways, back to the question of liquid sun. "Do you have any animals that live in the water?" "Indeed¡ªwe are familiar with a great many varieties of fish." "I mean big animals, like size of this room big" Eldrin gets up and follows one of his strings, unpinning the far end, he brings a painting of what clearly is some form of distorted whale, as drawn by someone that does not know perspective, or eyes. The whale is on the beach, surrounded by people with hooked poles, and large black pots. "This, according to the records, is a depiction of mythical creatures said to haunt and terrorize the deepest reaches of the sea," he explains. "That¡­ that is a whale..." "How do you know that word?!" Eldrin breathes, his eyes wide with disbelief. He slowly sets the painting down, as though it might shatter under the weight of the moment. "That term¡ªwhale¡ªit appears in only the oldest of fragments, often dismissed as mistranslation or metaphor. To hear it spoken plainly¡­ as something real¡­ Ethan, do you understand what this means?" He steps back, visibly shaken. "You¡¯re not merely a visitor with knowledge¡ªyou are a bridge to a world we thought lost to myth." "We still have them, and they are the source of your ''liquid sun''. Whale blubber, when cooked down, produces some of the best oils you can find, from grease, to candles, to-" "Lamp oil" He states, with a hushed tone, as a moment of revelation visibly washes over his body. The room falls silent. "In fact, I only know about them through conservation efforts. Their oil is so good, we nearly hunted them to extinction." The air is thick, and dead, as the mystery and myth fall into place, forming an ecological warning. Eldrin regains his focus, a little stunned, and begins writing again. "Ethan, with the breadth of knowledge you carry, we could reconstruct the very foundations of our historical record. If we can but uncover the true cause of the Fall, then perhaps¡ªjust perhaps¡ªwe might ensure such a calamity never befalls us again." "But Eldrin, if we only rebuild the history books, we''ll never move forward. We have already fallen and will never rise." Eldrin looks up from his notes, eyes narrowing with measured intensity. "Pardon me... would you repeat that?" he pointedly asks, different from the other questions he put forth. "History has answers, but not all the answers, we need to move forwards to rise again!" "If we fail to reconstruct our history, we remain blind¡ªgrasping in the dark without understanding. But if we can piece it together, truly comprehend what came before, then we need not guess the outcome¡ªwe shall know it." "You won''t know the outcome! History repeats, but not identically! It mimics, never duplicates!" "Why is it that you are always pressing forward, Ethan? Always reaching toward the future¡ªas though the answers lie only ahead, and never behind?" His voice trembles slightly, not with anger, but with something closer to sorrow. "What compels you to move so quickly past the ruins, when we''ve not yet understood the foundation upon which we stand?" I draw a breath, the weight of his words heavy¡ªbut not enough to stop me. "Because if we don''t move forward, Eldrin, we remain buried in those ruins." I meet his gaze. "Honouring the past is not the same as living in it. We¡¯ve already fallen. Studying the collapse won''t lift us¡ªbuilding something new will." "But what if we can uncover what failed?" Eldrin presses, his voice low but urgent. "What if the very key to our survival lies in understanding the final moments before it all fell apart?" He leans forward slightly, as though willing me to see the weight of what he carries. "Would you cast that chance aside¡ªjust to chase something unproven?" I pause, the fire in his eyes making it harder to speak gently¡ªbut I try. "And what if it wasn¡¯t something people did, Eldrin?" His expression falters, just slightly. I press on. "What if the Fall wasn¡¯t the result of hubris or error, but of something far beyond anyone¡¯s control? A shift in the earth. A silence in the sky. A calamity not of choice, but of fate." I let the silence hang. "You seek blame to prevent the past. I seek the possibility to build the future." "Where I am from, we are battling our own major catastrophe. Climate change spawning several dozen other crises. But that is caused by us. Those gases I mentioned, if their mix gets thrown out, everything shifts to rebalance, but people are only meant to live in a certain temperature, and so is everything else. This is our biggest fault, not being able to acknowledge when we screw up" Eldrin leans back, the tension in his shoulders easing as his voice softens. "And ours¡­ is the belief that we did cause it." He exhales slowly, eyes distant. "That we broke something so profoundly, so irreparably, that the world itself collapsed in answer. We''ve carried that burden for generations." "But sometimes¡­ it isn¡¯t anyone¡¯s fault." I glance down, then back up at him. "There are events¡ªcosmic, unstoppable things¡ªthat no amount of wisdom or preparation could change. The sun, for instance¡­ it could unleash a flare large enough to scour a planet¡¯s surface. Or a distant star could die in just the right direction, and its dying breath might strip the sky bare." I pause, the weight of it sinking in. "And if something like that were coming¡ªwe might have a day. Maybe less. And all we¡¯d be able to do is watch." The silence that follows hangs heavy¡ªless like tension, and more like shared mourning. Eldrin¡¯s eyes flicker with the shadow of that terrible possibility. Not fear, but sorrow. At last, he speaks, his voice low. "Then help me." He doesn¡¯t plead. He asks. "Help me fill the gaps¡ªnot to reconstruct the world as it once was, but to discern where it began to fracture¡­ so that we might avoid treading that path again." I nod, slowly. "And to build something new within it. Something that doesn¡¯t walk the same path, just because it¡¯s familiar."