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Dark Skies
Chapter 45: Study

Chapter 45: Study

I wake the following morning, still groggy from my somewhat lightning induced nightmares. The girls immediately ask us a bit about last night. Apparently there are weird rumors going around about our room. Something about an explosion. We look at each other guiltily and say we don't know anything about it. Eve laughs, and the others join in. I think we're really bad liars...

"Well, everyone's glad you've been getting meat for us all. You still up to that today?" Mary asks. She's obviously trying not to look excited.

"Probably, but we have some other plans too," Emily says.

"Other plans?" comes from Eve.

"Aria has some stuff to pick up."

"Ooh, what sort of stuff?" Helen asks, excited for some reason. I tilt my head, not understanding her train of thought, but answer anyway.

"Metal ingots."

"Metal... ingots...?" She repeats the words with a blank expression.

"What do you need metal ingots for?" Eve asks curiously.

"That's uhh, a bit complicated. I'm sort of studying different uses of metals, I guess." I scratch my head with a grin.

"Explosive uses?" Jannette asks suddenly. My grin freezes.

"N-n-no..." I stutter. Then something occurs to me. I put a finger to my cheek and turn my head a bit. "Actually..." I have absolutely no idea what effects might occur. I already got magnets out of iron and lightning out of copper. How should I know if one of the metals will explode or not? Didn't Gremory show me how ignium lights itself on fire? Who knows what that one does when exposed to mana...?

"No blowing up our room!" everyone shouts when they see my expression, shaking me out of my dangerous thoughts.

"I won't, I won't!" I wave my hands frantically. Then I shrink down a little. "...Probably..." Eve slaps her forehead in exasperation. Emily too.

"Come on Aria, let's just go to breakfast. Your crazy experiments will have to come later." Emily shakes her head and throws her blanket back to her own bed. It doesn't take long before I spot both Eve and Jannette eyeing the scorch marks on my bed. They both look understandably worried as Emily drags me out of the room. After breakfast, we quickly return to our room and collect all the supplies we'll need. For Emily, that's her knife and some thread for tying things off. She leaves her basket today since we won't be collecting much apart from the hobins. She grabs some of the green fruit and stuffs them in a sack so we won't need to spend time collecting more today.

I grab all of my money, and the bandages again. I tie off the bandages to my clothing and use some to wrap up the coins, then grab the iron pins, tin, and even the couple iron nails and load it all into the small woven basket I'm borrowing today. Once we have all of our provisions for the day, we head out.

"So where are we going first?" Emily asks as we reach North Main Street.

"The refinery is over by the northeast wall, it's a kind of long walk," I sigh, especially since we need to walk all the way across town again after. Emily nods a couple times.

"Hey, you two," an older boy calls out as we walk past. I kind of think I recognize him from around the orphanage, but I'm still not familiar with most of the kids. "Thanks a lot for the meat. You getting more today?" he asks rather excitedly.

"Yeah, probably," Emily answers, then we start to move on, but he calls out again.

"Umm, where are you going?" Now he's looking us up and down, clearly confused by our equipment. Neither of us has a large basket like anyone else going to the forest normally would. Emily is only carrying a few pieces of cloth and small sack, and I have a small basket that looks like it's full of bandages. None of this would make sense under normal circumstances, would it?

"I have somewhere else to go first," I say simply enough.

"Uh huh..." he mutters but doesn't seem convinced. We start again, and this time he doesn't stop us. We go directly into the northeast district, cutting through while moving a little bit south. I'm not exactly sure how far up along the wall the building was from memory, so I'm just sort of aiming for the middle of the district. When we get closer, I should be able to tell by the heavy smoke.

"Wow, you really know this area, don't you?" Emily asks as we cut through a few alleyways into nearby streets to save time.

"Yeah, pretty much," I shrug. If I have to walk a long distance through the city, I'd rather do it here, where I know all of the roads and can avoid areas with too many people so they don't all stare at me. Emily gives me an odd look but doesn't ask about it any more. I slip us between two buildings, then stop. The rail unit building is further down this street. I turn right, going down to the next block before proceeding. I don't even want to walk past the building. Especially not with Emily. I continue to make a weave through toward the far side of the district, naturally taking all of the small side streets and shortcuts I know until we're nearly there. Then I start to scan above the buildings. Looks like it was further south than I thought. We make it into the last street before the wall, lined with shops, and turn south toward where I see the smoke rising.

After I brace myself mentally, we leave the edge of the northwest district, onto the street lined with shops. Now we're getting looks for the opposite reason than I'm used to. Better dressed merchants approaching the Ebock refinery building sneer at our dirty appearances and Emily's patched clothing. It doesn't help that my robes are much more dirty than before, having been soaked in blood and dragged through the forest since the other day. With how much trouble I had last time, I'm definitely not clean enough now, am I?

"I'm going to try to get in and out of here quickly," I say. Emily nods nervously. I'm sure she knows even better than I do that we don't belong in a place like this.

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I slip into the building among the crowd like I did before I glance around, trying to avoid attention while searching for the same salesman from the other day. It feels like being below all the adults' lines of sight is the main thing that saves me. Thankfully, I spot him, and move quickly in his direction.

"Good morning, sir." I try to say politely. Of course, he immediately grimaces at me. Last time at least I could pass as maybe a child of a store owner until I got his attention. Now he clearly sees me as nothing but a dirty peasant. "I'm sorry, I'll be quick!" I bow and produce four copper coins. "I collected the money, I would like to buy an ingot of tin, ignium, mollite, durite, and nickel." He snatches the coins, rubbing his head with an annoyed look.

"I don't know how you got this so fast," I barely hear him mumble under his breath as he turns away. "Just stay here and don't touch anything!" he growls at me. He quickly moves away through the shop and I try to stand very still and not bother anyone. I can feel the eyes of annoyed and disgusted customers on me anyway. The man returns quickly, dropping the ingots in my basket, along with six nuvrite coins.

"I-I'm sorry, could you tell me which is which?" I ask anxiously. I'm going to get kicked out of here any moment now, but I have to know which of these are which. The man points at each and names them in a quiet voice. I mentally attach names to each of them and desperately memorize their appearance and location in my basket.

"Now get out of here!" he whisper-shouts to avoid attracting any more attention to me.

"I'm sorry! Thank you very much for your patience!" I bow quickly and flee the shop. Quiet words of disgust from customers follow me out the door. Oh man, today was even worse than last time. I can't fit in here at all, it's a miracle I managed to carry out my single order without being kicked out. I quietly thank the one shopkeeper who at least let me buy something, even if he wasn't happy about it.

"How did it go?" Emily asks worriedly as soon as I'm outside. I throw my arms around her, squishing the basket between us as I let out my trembling, tensed up worry.

I exhale slowly, glad that she's here, and release her. She pats my head with an amused grin, and I show her the ingots in my basket. I point out each one and recite its name to make sure I remember.

"Now that you have them, let's head to the forest," she says.

"Yeah," I answer with a nod. As much as I'd like to test these, we should get set up. There are too many eyes on us here anyway..." Even as we begin walking away, I feel another set of eyes drilling into my back. Actually... I turn back, but only see a flash of motion as someone goes back into the store. I wonder why that one stood out compared to all the others? But I shake my head and keep walking. Not important right now.

We try to go west quickly, cutting south slightly through the northeast district for a bit until we reach the main road again. As we go, Emily takes the nuvrite coins left in my basket and wraps them up with the rest of my money, then I pass her the basket while I tie it to the folds inside my robe as securely as I can with the bandages I have with me. According to Emily, you have to be careful carrying money, or it might get stolen.

We pass through the central market while it's mostly set up for the day, then pass out of the West Gate after the fourth bell. We left home before the third bell, but walking from one end of the city to the other takes a lot of time no matter how fast you walk, or how many shortcuts you take. On the way out, I actually spot Francis. I give him a smile and nod as I pass, like usual.

"Who was that?" Emily asks.

"That? His name is Francis. I told you about him, right?"

"You didn't mention he was a guard!" she exclaims.

"Umm?" I tilt my head. "Well he is... Does it matter?"

"Yeah, if he's a guard, then he's at least a vulgant! Not a peasant like us. Knowing someone like that is really impressive you know." After a few moments, she sighs because I clearly don't know.

"O-oh..." I just stare blankly for a bit, completely not understanding. What's important about knowing someone in a higher class exactly?

"Ok, it works like this. You went into that store just now, right? Didn't you almost get kicked out on sight?"

"Well, sort of..." Except that I presented myself as someone possibly of higher class the first time I went there, which let me sort of slide by today. I... might be pretty good at doing that now. I'm still always somewhat aware that I have to pretend all the time just to interact with society as a whole.

"A lot of the time, you'll need an introduction from someone if you want to talk to others who are above you."

"An introduction?" Gremory mentioned that too.

"It means that they bring you to meet someone, acting as a way for you to talk to a person that might not even speak to you otherwise. But you need to have connections for that. And getting connections requires connections."

I don't get it. "Connections require connections?" They require themselves? How does that work?

"Exactly. You need to have a connection to one person to make a connection to another. If you don't have any to start, there's hardly any way to make them. That's why it's almost impossible to move up. How could you expect to get a good job if you don't know anyone who will give you a good job?"

"Uh..." I think I see her point now.

She glances around a little. We've made it far enough into the forest that there's no one else around to hear us. Then, her face turns serious and she speaks quietly, in the tone she uses when she's teaching me something.

"Aria, listen. This is something you have to know. Most people have their parents' connections to get them started. We don't. That's why things are hard for us, and why a lot of the time Mister Fredricson ends up selling us off when we're too old and he doesn't want us around anymore." I nod. I remember, she's mentioned that before.

"Without parents, the only way to really move up is to impress the right people. You have to show you have something to offer. That you can be of use to them in some way. It's really hard." She puts a hand on my shoulder, making sure I'm paying attention. "We have to impress people who don't even want to look at us because we're all the way at the bottom. We're as low as it gets, you know. That's why it's so important for us to make as much money as we can. No one is going to help us, we have to take care of ourselves."

That slowly sinks in. Is that... really what it's like, being an orphan...? I never really thought of that before. They aren't like me, only living until the battle comes. They have entire lives, with so many difficulties of their own, because they're going to grow up, become adults, get jobs, or... maybe not get jobs, like she said. Their lives are going to be incredibly difficult, with no one to support them... Still, things are different for me. I just decided to try finding a way to survive the battle, but it's still hard to imagine actually succeeding. I'm a rail unit, I don't get to think about the future, good or bad...

"But I think it might be different for you," Emily suddenly changes topics. A bite of anxiety comes when her words mimic my thoughts.

"Different? Different how?" She hasn't figured something out, has she?

"With your mana and these crazy ideas you come up with, I'm sure you'll be able to impress people somehow." I release a breath. So that's what she meant. "You're always so secretive all the time, but I'm sure you'll be able to use the things that make you special to get ahead in life. I just... I really wanted to tell you about that. Life is hard alone, but I know that you'll be able to make it. You'll need your talents if you want to move up."

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"Hmm..." I take my time to consider a response. The problem is that the things like my mana that make me 'special' are directly related to me being a horrible monster that is hated by humanity. Being special is bad... She said 'we' were the lowest of the low as orphans. She's not even aware that it's possible to go lower, dropping out of being accepted by humanity at all.

Well, I can leave all that for later. She'll understand when I tell her. Ok, not really, she'll just hate me, but I don't want to think about that now. Climbing classes and getting jobs has no meaning to me, not without a future. I only need to think about surviving now, everything else can come after that if I succeed somehow.

After thinking it all through, I respond, "Sorry Emily, it's kind of hard to think about any of that. I just want to focus on... what's in front of me right now..."

"Right." She tenses up and looks away. I know she understands what I mean, even without understanding the details of what I'm up against. "I was just kind of... hoping you'd keep it in mind for later." Assuming there is a later. She doesn't need to say it, we both know it's implied.

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We're getting pretty deep in the woods as we finish the surprisingly serious discussion. While working to put those thoughts behind me, I sort of tie my hair up with a bandage that isn't covered in lele fruit. It's really clumsy, but it's enough that it isn't getting snagged so much now. I call Maven and he comes from his burrow to meet us again. Emily startles a little when he pops out of the brush and hops into my arms again. He's noticeably heavier after gorging himself so much yesterday.

Emily reaches over, somewhat hesitant once more, and pets him. I only feel a twinge of animal fear this time. Looks like he remembers Emily well now. I smile and we keep walking as we pet the fluffy creature. Though it does put a tiny prick of guilt in the back of my mind that we're hunting ones just like him. I ignore it as best I can and keep walking for a while.

Eventually, I let Maven go and he returns home. It's a bit later than yesterday, so they've already finished their early morning scavenging, not that they really needed it with their ever growing stockpiles. I have a feeling these are going to be the most well fed hobins ever.

Eventually, we arrive deep in the forest near where we were the day before. We search around for a bit until we find a good spot, and dump the bait in a small pile. We put Emily's stick up in a tree a short distance away, and we're basically prepared. The last step is climbing up into the trees ourselves.

We choose a good tree with a pretty flat part on one branch for me to sit while I work, and climb up. Emily sits against the trunk so she has a good view of the area below with our bait, while I sit on a branch a little to her side. It's large enough for me to sit on top comfortably without any worry of losing my balance, the flat area providing a place to work. I wedge my basket nicely into the branches and draw out a few of the things I'll be testing.

First are a few simple things. I take a couple nuvrite coins and the mollite ingot. I press the coins to both ends of the ingot, then pass my mana through. I can clearly feel that it travels from the nuvrite, into the mollite, then the other nuvrite, then back to me. So mana can flow from one carrier to another. But what about the resistance? Or should I call it the consumption? I'm not too clear on a term to describe it yet. I know that mollite feels like it resists my mana flowing through far more than nuvrite does, and that far more of it, well, almost all of it, is burned up in the process. Of course, that also leads to much more powerful effects and less worry about mana contamination.

Whatever term I end up choosing, I want to figure out how it works with multiple types. So I grab an iron pin and hold it near the nuvrite coin. I push some through, getting some earth mana in return. Then I test it with the mollite ingot. Maybe a tiny bit of earth mana this time, small enough it's hard to even notice, while everything else burns up.

Finally, I pass it through the stacked coins and ingot like before, and find once more, just a tiny bit of earth mana with everything else burning up. So when using both together, it'll use whichever one burns the most mana. I guess that makes sense in a way. It still needs to pass through the mollite. Why would also going through nuvrite make that any easier? Answer: it wouldn't.

I nod a few times, satisfied with my conclusions here. I guess it's time to test some of the new metals. First up is the ignium. I'm a little worried about this one, given its ability to burst into flames. Starting with the nuvrite coin, I give it just a little power. The metal heats up a bit, but more interestingly, I get another new type of mana back. It's bright, hot, and impossible to miss, unlike the dark mana I still can't feel anymore. I know what to call it immediately. Fire. It feels like a hot, red, burning fire. I couldn't say what sort of weird effects it would have on my mind if I accumulated a bunch of it. I'll leave that for... some other time, assuming I ever have a reason to figure that out. The fire mana has a kind of strong feel, but is actually pretty easy to convert back to normal.

Next I test it with the mollite, giving it a little more power. The metal gets surprisingly hot, quite quickly. It doesn't immediately cool off like nuvrite does when the effect ends either. So ignium heats up and creates fire mana. Oddly fitting. It's pretty straightforward, so I move on. I glance down, but there are no hobins yet. They're at their least active at this time of day anyway. I glance back behind me, seeing Emily at least is watching for hobins. I ask her quietly to make sure she taps me when one appears so I'll pay attention, and she nods.

Then I return to my experiments. After ignium is mollite. Well, sort of. I know I can pass mana through it, but I haven't determined whether being near mana, but not part of the current, has some effect. So I hold the ingot near my wrist and run some through. As I sort of suspected, there's no effect on the ingot. I feel the slight pull that all the non-magnetic metals feel, but nothing more.

Huh, when did I start using that made up word like it's real? "Whatever," I mutter and shake my head. Doesn't matter. I get the impression no one has done this before, so there very well may not be a word for it yet. Of course I'll have to make them all up myself. When I think of it that way, I realize I should probably come up with words and names to refer to all of the strange effects I discover. I'll get to that later though. For now, I run the same test with a couple nuvrite coins. I run mana through one and hold the other nearby, but don't feel anything happen. I guess mana carrying metals aren't affected themselves.

Next up is durite. I use the nuvrite on it, and immediately feel it give a magnetic pull like iron. But stronger. Much, much stronger. The coin isn't usually drawn that strongly toward magnetic pulls. It barely stuck to the door hinge the other day, that was about the limit of the attraction. Now, with just a small push of mana, I feel like the durite is about to pull the coin right out of my hand. I stop the flow of mana and the effect decreases greatly. Hmm... The way it changes so much... I blink a couple times when a possibility occurs to me. I think I was already somewhat aware of it before, but now I'm sure. I turn the coin around a few times, sticking it to one end of the durite, the other. I run a trickle of mana through the coin and try again, finding that it attracts and repels when I run mana through it.

That's it. Somehow, these coins are only magnetic when I use my mana. It seems like all the metals I've tested are attracted to... I guess if they are magnetic, I'll call them magnets. So all metals are attracted to magnets somewhat. However, certain metals can become magnets themselves. It seems that those metals are affected significantly more than others. Not to mention, if they become magnets, they won't just be attracted, but can also repel away from other magnets. It would seem that I can take a metal like nuvrite, which as far as I can tell, is not one of the magnetic metals, and use mana to temporarily make it a magnet anyway. It's a distinction I sort of overlooked until now.

Actually... I pull out the iron pins from before. I've been turning them into magnets using my mana. I want to know what it is that actually turns them into magnets. I hold one up and it's attracted to the durite. This one doesn't feel magnetic. When I try the other one, it snaps against the ingot with enough force that I can't easily remove it again. I end up sliding it carefully off of the ingot and quickly moving the two apart so they won't attach again.

I have one piece of magnetic iron and one non-magnetic. The question is, do I need mana to make it magnetic? It seems that there may be two possibly separate effects when I use my mana. One is the magnetic effect it creates, the other is the mana effect. So which creates the magnets? Now that I have a couple magnets, I can test that. I rub the pin along the durite ingot, going from one end to the other. I'm not entirely sure which end is which for the ingot, but this should work, as long as it works the same way as it did when I controlled the direction of the flow with my mana. The end result should have ends which match the ends of the durite ingot.

I turn the pin and it sticks to the ingot. The pull feels strong this time, like it has become a magnet successfully. But just to make sure, I slide them apart, turn the pin around again, and bring them close once more. When the metals push apart, I know I've succeeded. I can make magnets even without using mana. I crack a grin at the thought. I don't know how I might use that, but it's really good to know.

Still, durite is such a strong magnet it's kind of scary. I still haven't figured out how to stop making something a magnet. There must be some way, it happened to one of the iron pins already. I'll have to figure that one out later... A tap draws me from my thoughts. I glance down to find a hobin approaching our bait. I leave the metals where they are sitting and lean out of the tree a little.

It just takes a moment to ready myself, then I drop. We dispatch the hobin just like yesterday, leaving the blood to drain out in a tree not too far away. That's the first for today. I think I'm getting used to the sight and the smell a little better too. We return to our positions, and I get back to studying the metals in front of me.

It takes some time to get my thoughts back on track after the sudden interruption, not to mention getting distracted working with magnets. Eventually a get back on task, I was working with the durite. So, besides the strong magnetic effect, durite also changes my mana into another new type, I notice as I look at it. After last night, I name it lightning mana immediately. The way it feels like it shifts, arcs, and crackles reminds me completely of the lightning I produced last night. It's so unstable it doesn't stay together at all, bouncing around off of itself everywhere, but it's still kind of hard to reabsorb because it keeps moving around. It takes a bit of work, but I get it done. Then I move on.

After durite, there's the copper I already tested out, then nickel. I take the nickel ingot and start with the nuvrite coin again. This time, the metal cools to the touch, but I hardly notice because I'm jumping back reflexively, dropping both the nuvrite coin and the ingot out of the tree as I lurch away.

Emily barely catches me as I bounce off of her, before I wind up falling out of the tree myself. "W-what's wrong?" she stammers, holding me steady.

"It's uhh... the nickel..." I don't know how to put it. As soon as I pushed with my mana, it changed into a very familiar form.

It feels just like The Reeb.

A sort of smooth, indivisible block of... stuff. I tentatively push it over to The Reeb, where they form together instantly. "It's my mana, I can't change it back," I try to explain as I do all of this. So what Reena gave me is actually another form of mana too? If I had to give it a name, I'd call it... absolute. It's not like the others. I can't feel it like a whole bunch of tiny little individual points. I can't break them up and mix them around. It feels like a single solid thing. A single, indivisible, absolute existence for mana. The last form it will ever take.

It makes me shudder a little, just knowing that one of the metals will turn my mana into something like that. I don't know why, but it's a more uncomfortable feeling than burning up the mana entirely like I do with mollite.

However, that does mean it is actually mana, so maybe...

For the first time, I hesitantly try to control the thing Reena gave me. Directly, instead of pushing it around with the rest of my mana around it. It reacts... perfectly fine, as it turns out. I can move it quite easily, actually, since it's all one big piece. I can even kind of twist and and turn it into whatever shape I want. It returns to its usual, vague, formless shape as soon as I stop, but it's interesting nonetheless.

This all takes me a few moments while Emily is busy being confused over my incomprehensible words. "Sorry, that just kind of freaked me out," I explain. I drop out of the tree, retrieving the two metals from the ground below, and climb back up again. Just to be completely sure, I use the mollite on the nickel, just a little, trying to ignore the absolute mana it produces and letting it combine with what I already have. I keep my attention to the nickel ingot, so I can get a better feel for the other effect I noticed. As I thought, nickel cools down, the exact opposite of ignium earlier.

That does it for each of the metals. So far I've uncovered their reactions to mana, as well as which ones can become magnets, and I even worked out how to make magnets without mana.

I've also uncovered a number of different types of mana. Colorless, light, dark, earth, fire, lightning, and absolute. There are probably more, but that's what I have for now. I still don't know what it is I need to learn to survive, but I know so much more now than I did earlier, it's got to be a start, right? And I still have tons of questions to answer, I don't know where a solution might come from, so I'll just keep figuring things out.

I keep working at it for a while. My next question relates to what I saw with the lightning before. It was able to jump from one piece of copper to another with enough force, can mana do the same? To start, I take two nuvrite coins and press them together. I transfer mana across them, pushing pretty hard, and slowly separate the coins slightly. The current cuts off instantly.

"Mmm..." I mumble. I try it pushing harder, then softer. Then between nuvrite and mollite. Then just between my fingers. No luck. So maybe that's a difference between the two types of energy. Lightning energy can jump, but mana can't? Well, either that or it just has to do with what lightning energy can travel through. I haven't gotten around to testing that yet though, so I don't know.

As I'm working on this, time continues to pass quickly. We catch a few more hobins. It's getting later, so they're getting more active. After they start coming more quickly, I put away my study materials for the day to focus on the hobins. I'll need more copper coins if I'm going to do more testing with copper and the lightning it makes.

We continue catching them as the sun sinks, until we finally call it a day at eight hobins. Emily gets the stick and we gather up all our things, then leave the forest for the day. It's after the tenth bell already when we make it back to the gate, so we go to the market quickly.

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"Why hello there you two," the shopkeeper at the market greets us happily. We both smile back and greet him.

"We'll be selling six hobins today," Emily tells him. I mentally nod, so we'll be bringing two back to the orphanage again.

He cuts down the ones he wants and examines them. As he does, he asks, "How are you two little ones coming across so many hobins anyway?"

"Well, it's not-" I start to tell him it's not complicated or anything, but Emily clamps a hand over my mouth.

"Shhh!" she hisses at me. I raise an eyebrow, as does the shopkeeper. She spins us around, holding me close and whispering in my ear, "We can't tell how we do it. If others found out, they would hunt them too, and the price for hobins would go down. We wouldn't be able to make money hunting them anymore." I blink in surprise a few times.

"Oh, I had no idea," I respond quietly, then we turn back around. "Sorry, that's a secret." I tell the man. He frowns a bit, but his eyes travel to my basket.

"Metal ingots? That wouldn't be part of it, would it?" he asks. It looks like he's trying to guess our method?

"No, I'm just studying the properties of metals," I laugh a bit at his off-base guess.

That one makes him cock an eyebrow though. "What, you some sort of aspiring inventor?" he chuckles.

"Inventor?" I ask. I turn to Emily like usual for the unknown word, but she shakes her head and shrugs. I turn back to the man. "What's that?"

He furrows his eyebrows. "They come up with new things. Make new stuff." He states it like it's obvious.

"Hmm..." I put a finger to my cheek as I consider it. His joking face turns to a slightly concerned look. I have been figuring out a bunch of brand new things that even the people at the refinery didn't know. I haven't figured out exactly what to do with any of this knowledge yet, but I even discovered a way to magnetize iron that doesn't rely on mana today. "Huh, I guess I am an inventor..." I say as I realize this. I look to Emily. She's seen what I've been working on, so she shrugs and nods a couple times.

The shopkeeper's mouth twitches a little, like he doesn't believe what I'm saying, but then he glances down at the pile of hobins we caught today, and he seems a bit less sure.

"Ahem!" he clears his throat loudly. "Anyway... It's six hobins today, so that's twelve coppers. He places the money on the counter, we count it up as usual, and say our thanks. Then we head out, quickly turning north for home.

We split up the money, four coppers for me, four for Emily, and four for the orphanage. Grin at the six total coppers I have now, I'll be able to do more testing with these. Emily's hand closes on the top of my head as we walk. "Don't even think about testing those out in our room again. My heart won't take a repeat of yesterday. And you're likely to burn the house down..."

"Hey, it's not that dangerous!" I complain. "Look, not a single one of these exploded today!" I exclaim with a huff and show her the ingots in my basket. "All of your guys' fears were totally unreasonable," I humph loudly, then we both start giggling. "But yeah, before I can do much else, I need to figure out how lightning travels." I scratch my head helplessly. "I'll have to work on that tomorrow though. Uhh, trees don't burn down easily, do they?"

Emily's eyebrow twitches. "They shouldn't when they're still alive, but I'd really rather not be in one if it starts to..." she looks away and mutters.

"Hehehehe..." I laugh awkwardly. We continue home while bantering like that. Just like yesterday, we give Mister Fredricson the money, drop one hobin, and salt the other. I even help with the salting this time now that I've seen it done once. Everyone we walk past looks excited. Lots of kids thank us for the food. We eat dinner, and head to bed just like yesterday.

Lying in our room, the other girls thank us as well, and Eve ruffles our hair playfully. "Looks like you girls found a great thing for yourselves." We nod and grin. Everyone settles in for the night.