The sun poked Ciaran awake, and he headed down for breakfast, he had finished Aetheric Conductivity the day before. Today he would start on Aetheric capacitance. Breakfast was great as always, but it could have done without his mother poking fun at how tall he was getting. Both Ciaran and Solas wished for her to continue walking them to school but the bulge in her stomach had her preoccupied.

Arriving at school Ciaran was about to head off when he saw someone, and his mind clicked. He headed over to the boy he had seen a week and a half prior and berated him.

“I told you to come to my house, but you didn’t, do you take my words for a joke?”

“You didn’t even tell me your name, how on earth was I supposed to find out where you lived.”

“Ah, my bad, well let me introduce myself. My name is Ciaran, and I live at the Andreas manor”

The name Andreas seemed to scare the boy, but Ciaran didn’t care and continued to ask

“So, you should be good to come over tonight, right?”

“I think so, but don’t you have any plans?”

Ciaran gave it a solid minute of thought before responding

“Yes, I have to go pick something up, pop over tomorrow”

Before their conversation could get any further the bell caught them, and Ciaran shot off to class.

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As the class took out their books and Mr. Luper began talking it became apparent that there was a major difference between capacitance and conductance. Anything could store Aether, one just had to be strong enough. certain materials however took to storing aether better than others. And other materials let go of Aether easier than others, and vice versa.

The rate at which an object lost it’s stored Aether was called Aetheric drain, while the rate at which Aether could be pulled from an object was Aetheric discharge. the reason behind all of this was unfortunately very complicated. Aether likes to move, and trapping it requires a net that can let it in easy but prevent it from leaving.

Gemstones were the most suitable as most types of Aether got trapped in their atomic structure. Not all Aether was the same however and some preferred other materials, but gems were used for all ‘standard’ Aether. This is also why if someone was strong enough, they could store Aether in any material, as they would have to force it into a space it couldn’t fit or change that space to trap it.

Ciaran’s mind couldn’t help but wander, tonight he would finally be able to see the fruits of his labour. Ciaran was not the only one to stop paying attention to the lesson however and Caitiff was also in the same boat, but for a different reason. Caitiff’s father had recently gotten a promotion, and now he could dream of attending a named academy in the capital. Only five more years, and he would venture out to the great walled city.

That afternoon, much to Ciaran’s dismay he found the shop locked, even as the boy tried to go around back, he found that too was locked. Glumly Ciaran resigned himself and wandered home staring at Solas’ back off in the distance.

When the lanky child entered the warm house, he was greeted by the smiles of his family, and Mr Burton too! There was also another man he did not recognise, which made the boy happy, but confused, very confused.

Ciaran’s father picked up the still decently small child and began to explain.

“Oi, what’s with that face, you finished your first project after a year under Mr Burton, so we decided to celebrate. Mr Martin even made you a pretty handle.”

Ciaran’s face lit up like a candle and wrapped his arms around his father. Alexander was a slim but sturdy man, every ounce of him was the boy’s pillar of strength and joy. A pillar that would never fall.