The human boy fell down into the floor of the alley. Two other boys landed painfully next to him.

"What do you want-"

The man towering over them silenced them without even moving. He exuded a palpable pressure that pinned them to the ground and commanded their attention. In the red light of sunset, the long shadow hid the man's face but not his obvious contempt.

"Tell me everything you know of this boy," the man gave a short description, "I know you know him. You're easy to find, unfortunately you've made it hard to find him. "

"That Fuka?" the big boy tried to struggle up but was pushed down to the ground again by a short cane. "Unhand me!" the boy cried, "Or I'm not going to-"

The man shrugged and swung once. There was a crack and he turned to the next boy.

"You?" he indicated with the cane. Despite the blood oozing from the head of the unconscious body lying in front of him, the man's voice never wavered. He sounded almost bored.

The next boy wasn't nearly as uncooperative.

"I heard about the duel," the dreaded voice said, words falling on her stinging soul like a gentle rain of feathers.

"Hard to keep silent when anyone would notice the battle from all over the estate," Landar snapped and immediately felt sorry. It wasn't her mother's fault.

"Your father only means well you know," the older woman said as she settled down beside the bed.

The bed in Tsarian style was just a roll of feather stuffed cloth on the floor. Not like the style Inath preferred of fixed boards with cloths draped over them. Indeed, the entire room, with its sliding wood panels that blurred the lines between wall and door, and the candles glowing behind thin cloth shades, all of it spoke of ancient tradition. And wealth and power. Someone had to clean the things and Iris was not short on servants.

Right now, Landar was lying face down into the fluffy bed, her long hair lying loose among the swaddling robes. But the burning ache in her body from the drain of magic was not a discomfort she could run away from. She mumbled into the cloth, "stuffing his own daughter into a carriage under 'escort', forcing her to drain her magic in a duel, not even getting a rest first. And now shutting her up in a room and not allowed to leave. He's a demon. "

When she was growing up, Landar didn't know any better. But coming back from the colourful mix of the Inath federation's cultural melting pot made her feel like she was shut into a stuffy closet.

"If you had worked on your magic, you'd be powerful enough by now to stand on your own," her mother said from above, "He might be more reasonable if you had improved. "

She rolled over on the bed to look up at her mother. Her mother was wearing more traditional robes, much like her own, only worn properly. It gave her an air of elegance and mystery, wrapped around her mother's body and concealing it with flowing lines of cloth. In contrast, Landar's messy looping of the cloth was almost indecent, with holes that revealed her skin in random places.

Not like it mattered, this was her room. The same tiny one she grew up in. Whatever he said, she would do whatever she wanted.

"He's just disappointed that our family can't rise in rank. He can't see there's more to this than just endless power," Landar rolled her eyes.

"Iris is the most powerful family among the Tsarian clans," her mother said, "losing one of our ritual relics made maintaining that difficult. When you used it at Wendy's Fort, your father was the one who reassured the Iris head that he would bring it back without fail. They had assumed you were a traitor but he shielded you. "

Landar stared up at her mother. No, that was just too ridiculous. Her father would never help her. "Even so, he's just defending the family honour. "

Her mother sighed, "why is it the two of you can never understand each other?"

Landar pointedly ignored her mother's comment, "since he's gotten the stone back, that means I'm not needed any more. "

"Landar, my daughter, you are always welcome here. "

"Ha!" she laughed harshly, 'welcomed' was not the same as 'needed'. And in Iris family politics, you were useful or you were nobody. Even Landar and her mother could easily use a minor phantom. "Welcome?! My father thinks I'm a disgrace. There's no 'well' if I come here," Landar spat bitterly, then brightened up at her own joke, "Oh, that was pretty good. "

Her mother just sighed.

"In any case, as soon as he's satisfied that the stone is real, I'm out of here. " Her mother only sighed more and stroked her hair. Landar grumbled a bit and settled deeper into the fluffy bed. Well, it was nice to be spoiled like this once in a while.

Regional Leader,

Following my previous letter, I have deployed some influence to investigate the merchant Kalny. Kalny has delayed leaving Corbin, unlike his supposed schedule to visit his suppliers. The Academy also confirms that the Mad Alchemist of Wendy's Fort has been in contact with him just before answering her clan's summons. Furthermore, he has recently begun to talk with an unknown young man, seen in discussion with this person often with papers and diagrams. A Fuka girl is often seen with the young man and the two are staying at an old warehouse rented out by Kalny. This much was not difficult to find out.

I surmise that this young man is the cause of the change in Kalny's patterns, perhaps the two have launched a joint venture of some kind. Possibly Kalny is providing the financial backing while the young man implements the idea. The Mad Alchemist may also know something of this matter but of course, Iris family is too powerful to anger so she is not a potential investigative route.

There is a pattern of odd purchases that Kalny has commissioned. We are not the only guild he had contacted over the last few days. The Potters and Carvers have fulfilled strangely overpriced orders recently, and various hirelings have told of work performed in the middle of the night to move large clay objects and wooden framework into the warehouse. They are convinced Kalny is building something.

I cannot take overt action to insert a man into the operation, Kalny is apparently handling all the purchasing matters himself, with the younger man directing the building. Witnesses describe a tall wooden framework that occupies the main floor area of the warehouse, with a bracket that fits the dimensions given for us to build. Large blocks of fired clay are arranged in containers around it in a pattern that defies description.

I confess I have no idea what is going on here. I shall have to find another way to get an informant into the warehouse.

Signed Yours With Faith,

 Elma Karin

 Corbin Branch Leader

"I'm bored, bored!" Cato looked away from the plans on the desk he was standing next to to find Danine bouncing impatiently up and down on the creaking floorboards. She had found an especially springy one and was hopping almost a foot into the air each time. Her tail bounced up and down in time with her body, making her look completely ridiculous.

"Weren't you going to meet with that boy... uh... hm... Tam!" Cato waved at her glare reassuringly, "I remember him, I swear! Name just slipped my mind. You always go to find him when you're stuck on magic. "

Cato didn't mention that she was getting stuck far more often now that Landar was gone. Paying for a teacher was impossible on their finances and the few beginner exercises Landar had taught Danine were mind-numbingly boring, even the growth of Danine's magical strength eventually stopped motivating her anymore. Privately, Cato agreed, Danine had been able to light and put the candle out so fast now that she could do it almost without thought. And making ice cubes still made Danine go to sleep after just a cupful of ice.

Cato said, "how about we take a look at your magic? Try to do something Landar didn't teach you before you left?"

Danine looked up at him, "I want to fly!"

"So why not start with moving things?" Cato asked.

"I can't, Landar didn't teach me," Danine pouted.

"But you remember the six primary magics Tori showed us?" Cato waited for her nod, "out of the six, you've practiced how to make red and blue, what about green? You learned to heat things up and cool them down. Clearly the green is for moving them and stopping them. "

Danine shook her head, "I've practiced that too, without her telling me to," she held up her hand with a swirling blob of magic above it. It felt different from the ice-cube making magic. "It doesn't do anything. "

"Clearly it does, if Tori thinks it's one of the six," Cato said, "you mentioned that there were four green ones and one blue and one red. What if the green doesn't work unless you make only one of the four?"

Danine frowned, "perhaps? But I've only done magic based on colour. How can I even make it have a pattern like she did?"

"Just try it, I have something I want to test on the magic," Cato said and turned back to the diagram. The molten cast iron would have to be collected there and...

It took her a few hours before Danine said she got one and no more than a few minutes each for the other three. Her control was still shaky, the types had a tendency to bleed into each other, but Cato could feel something like an echo of what Tori had shown them. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to have any immediately visible effect either.

"All right then, let's take a look," Cato said, picking up the long wooden block that doubled as a straight edge and paperweight, "make one of them at a time and we'll see what happens to this piece of wood when I touch it. "

Danine nodded and Cato pushed the wood into the ball of magic. Nothing happened.

He pulled it out and examined the wood closely, no change in temperature either. "Next. "

He felt something tug on the piece of wood as he put it in but the force disappeared almost immediately. Cato held it inside the ball for a while but got nothing again. "Hmm, can you make it stronger?" he asked.

Danine nodded and it increased in power a little. Cato scowled at the negative result. He was sure it moved just now- the block went flying out of his hands the moment he tried to pull it out.

"Interesting. And very strange," Cato said as they looked at the block lying on the floor. He picked it up and shrugged, "next. "

This one was the jackpot. The block sank into the ball of magic like he was pushing it through a thick glue. Cato even had to push on it to get it to go in. He raised his eyebrows and released the block.

It fell through the ball, very slowly, even rotating a little as the part outside sank down unsupported.

"Wow," Cato and Danine shared an awed look, "look at that!"

"It's floating!" Danine grinned just before the block sank out of the magic and dropped into her hand.

"Hm, interesting. I would say this is the version that makes things stop moving," Cato nodded to himself, "all right, how about the last one?"

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Danine nodded and they repeated the experiment again.

This time the block began to behave weirdly. Cato felt that pushing it was becoming harder, just like before, but at the same time, the block didn't stop moving. In fact, at times it felt like it was trying to jump out of his hands. When he pushed it in and let the block go, it slid down and across the magic and fell out the other side.

All in all, the whole thing was extremely weird. But it was quite conclusive that what Danine saw as green had something to do with movement. Only, it wasn't as simple as speeding up and slowing down.

Cato asked after writing down his observations, "Let's go back to the first one. "

"It makes no sense at all!" Cato threw the block onto the table in disgust.

Danine flinched a little and Cato took the edge off his voice. But he couldn't help letting a bit of his exasperation leak in.

It was some time later and a whole lot of experimentation.  Cato might admit he got a little carried away, judging by the small stack of notes.

"It pushes, but only in the direction of an already moving object. And why is deceleration a completely separate effect from acceleration?! Everyone knows that acceleration and deceleration are actually the same thing in different rest frames," Cato muttered as he wrote down the observations.

Danine raised a hand timidly, "I don't know what you're talking about. "

Cato looked at her, "things in motion, stay in motion. Things at rest stay at rest. Unless you push them. It's a simple rule that everyone from my world knows. "

They stared at the block. The other two effects made just as little sense. The first effect Danine tried actually changed the direction of moving objects, Danine just hadn't given the magic a little push that specified which direction to turn in. The last effect increased the weight of objects, except they still fell slower. Which made the least sense out of the four.

"But things stop by themselves, they don't keep moving," Danine pointed at the block of wood that Cato had thrown onto the table.

"That's because of friction," Cato explained.

"Maybe the magic makes more friction?"

Hm. Cato stopped, thinking. "No, that still implies a privileged reference frame. After all, even air slows down faster. What is there to have friction against? Magic?"

Cato narrowed his eyes speculatively. He could think of a few more tests to try, but the deceleration magic looked like the opposite of acceleration, he doubted it would be that simple.

The door to the warehouse creaked and they looked up from the table to see Kalny waving in a few labourers.

"Cato, the bricks are here, as well as the third piece," Kalny said, "do you need anything else? How's the design for the mold coming along?"

After much discussion, Kalny and Cato had eventually agreed that if cast iron could be produced, then Cato would try to make a large iron bell for Kalny. Something about selling it to the Corbin town guard.

Well, a mold wouldn't cost that much... oh crap. Cato looked back at the papers with the design drawings. He was supposed to be checking them again, not playing around with Danine's magic. But who could resist the chance?

Oh well, it was probably fine. He had already checked it once anyway. Cato picked up the papers and handed it to Kalny, "here's the design for the mold. I haven't done something like this before, I hope it works. "

"No one's done anything like this before," Kalny said, "pouring molten iron into a mold just like tin? We'll be very rich men. "

That applied more to Kalny than Cato, according to their agreements, but there was probably no way Kalny would have taken such a risk otherwise.

"What about the other issue?" Cato asked, "has anyone managed to meet the challenge?"

Kalny shook his head, "no one even attempted to. You're asking too much, you can't expect work pieces made by different people to fit each other. "

Cato rolled his eyes, "can no one work to measure in this town? I mean, how hard can it be to make something ten centimeters long?"

"Centimeters?"

"It's a unit of distance. Ten centimeters are about this long," Cato held his hands apart in demonstration.

"But it's not that simple," Kalny explained, "if I go to a smith in the Ironworkers and ask him to make a knife that long, it won't matter too much if it's slightly longer or shorter. But it matters a lot if you want the pieces to fit each other," Kalny looked at the wooden frame meant to hold the furnace core, "or if you want it to hold molten iron. The only way to make it all the same size is to have the same master smith make it. And yes, it has to be a master, no workman smith could build this thing you're asking. "

"No such thing as a measuring standard, huh?" Cato said, idly twisting the pen from Earth in his hands, "I think that's another thing I'm going to have to work on. To think I can't even get a ruler here. "

Kalny raised a questioning eyebrow. It was getting to be a very familiar expression.

"Quality control and interchangeable parts. A student like me, making a primary standard, well I never," Cato shook his head ruefully, "later! After we get iron!"

Kalny nodded happily, "yes, afterwards. "

The boy looked up fearfully as he passed the shadow in the back alley. Even if the person hadn't moved, he still had an aura of danger that made his instincts stand on end. He felt as if it would be a very bad idea to run away.

"Interesting, I thought I would have to restrain you," the man said. The aura of danger only became sharper.

The boy was frozen with fear, he couldn't even look away from the twin glints of the man's eyes in the shadow.

"Help me a little and I will have a reward for you," a metallic tinkle of a coin hitting the street beside the boy still didn't elicit any response, "and it would be dangerous to refuse. Not just for you. "

The boy had no illusions that anyone other than his mother would lose sleep if he just vanished. No wait, there was that strange girl who might... no no, she was special. And he definitely didn't want to die. He nodded vigorously.

"Tell me of that girl," the man said.

There was a short but one-sided talk.

The man nodded and thought, then tossed the boy another coin, "I have a task for you. "

The man described his task for a while and made sure the boy understood it, "Perfect. We understand each other now. "

For the first time in the encounter, the boy seemed to relax a little. It really was very simple. Trivial even. Then why was this man going to such lengths?

"Don't think too much of it," the man said, "we could have a very profitable working relationship in the future. "

The sense of danger peaked suddenly.

The man smiled at the tip of the tail disappearing around the corner. And the coins had gone with it.

Danine focused harder but the coin still dropped through the ball of magic. It moved extremely slowly but no matter how she tried, Danine couldn't get it to float.

"Any ideas?" She asked Tam sitting beside her.

The boy looked up from his piece of bread and shook his head.

They were sitting up on the roof of a bakery. Below them spread the town of Corbin. Rows of roofs sporting clay shingles, street after street of cloth covered stalls filled with food, cloth, tools and whatever other riches she could name. Well, it looked like riches to Danine, even after Tam disagreed. While she admitted that money was very convenient, she didn't think anyone could eat metal.

They weren't even all that nice to look at, although Danine did have some fun trying to see how long she could set them spinning.

Danine sniffed unconsciously at the smell of fresh bread wafting up from the bakery below. Just like her, the stream of people on the streets deformed towards the building. Everyone walked a little slower as they went past, savouring the smell. The effect was subtle but obvious to Danine from her vantage point.

"I think I'm doing the wrong thing," Danine muttered to nothing in particular. The coin rolled off her palm and she watched it drift downwards like a feather. But for all her magic, the coin didn't stop, it just drifted slower. "Maybe one of the other three types will help. "

Tam didn't say anything this time either, despite having already finished his bread. Come to think of it, she didn't see him eat anything other than plain bread, she had to remember to buy him something nice to eat. Perhaps those delicious boiled sweets.

"Any ideas?" she asked again, feeling as if she had repeated herself.

Danine frowned, Tam wasn't even paying attention to her, he was just looking off into the air. She grinned and crawled silently over the roof tiles.

Then with a sudden burst of speed, grabbed his ear and blew straight at the sensitive spot near the base.

"Hya!" A girly squeal and Tam jerked away from her, "what-?"

"You're not even listening to me," Danine complained as she sat down on his tail so he wouldn't run away.

"I, uh- Um. Sorry," Tam apologized, "it's such a nice day too. "

"Day's almost over," Danine rolled her eyes, gesturing at the sun. It was almost Little Night already. "What's troubling you?" she asked.

Tam paused for a moment then seemed to make up his mind. "Danine," he said, looking at her seriously, "I need your help. "

She gulped, was it the bullies again? Danine might have caught them by surprise once but she didn't think she could help him again. At least not until she had enough magic. She nodded cautiously.

"Can you teach me magic?" Tam asked timidly.

Danine blinked. Then a broad grin plastered itself across her face, "of course! I would love to!" To think! Danine, a teacher of magic! She giggled to herself in glee.

The smile was wiped off her face when Tam asked again, "I... There is another thing I want. "

Huh. So he started off with the easy question in order to ask the hard one? Her mother had said shady boys would always do this to try to seduce her. Danine didn't think Tam was trying to seduce her. Surely not?

"I want to see Cato," Tam asked, "I mean, you've talked about his work right? And it sounds very complicated. I- I want to see it. And the other things in your-"

Danine felt her eyebrows going up. This was the 'hard' request? "Oh, that's easy! But isn't he really boring? Cato's smart, but you won't believe how boring it is to see those endless pieces of paper he keeps fooling with," she put on a mock sigh, "can't we do something more fun? Like magic?"

Behind her, away from Danine's ramblings, Tam merely looked troubled again.