I sit across from Eryk to explain what I've figured out so far as clearly as I can. I point to the two lumps of metal on the floor between us. "These are not like the metal the sword is made of. I'm not sure why." I shake my head. "However, I believe our last two tests have been successful. Unlike the first time, both of these do not seem to be simple mixtures of tin and copper." Eryk rubs his chin uncertainly, but doesn't interrupt.

"Here is what I can tell so far. Instead of a kind of gold color, we're getting this brownish yellow. I... still don't get why it's not a gray-yellow like the normal one," and point over at it, still sitting under the table with the sword. "It must be something about how the mana makes them combine. It's closer to the sword, still not right. More importantly, tin glows and makes light mana, while copper produces a lightning current."

"Sorry, lightning current?" Eryk raises his hand slightly to stop me as he asks about it.

"Ahh, it's basically lightning energy flowing through metals. It's only when it gets really strong that it actually jumps through the air and makes lightning bolts."

"Uhh, sure..." he responds even though he clearly doesn't understand exactly what I mean.

Even so, I move on. "Anyway, that sword produces lightning energy on a completely different level from what copper does. I had to try really hard to make a lightning bolt with copper, but that sword made one with almost no effort." He gives an uncomfortable nod, obviously remembering what happened that time.

"These," referring back to the two lumps of metal, "do not match either of those. First, they produce light like tin, but I think the light is brighter than the light tin produces." That's just the impression I have after seeing it a little, so I set a tin ingot next to them to double check.

I hold a mollite ingot in each hand, one next to the tin-copper mixture, and one next to the tin. I pass mana through each to produce similar strength fields, and it's immediately obvious that the tin-copper mixture glows more brightly than the tin. It's not on the same level of my blinding divine gear, or the white metal that shined brightly with even the smallest bit of mana, but it's definitely brighter than tin.

Eryk nods. "Yes, I can see the difference..." He rubs his chin as he thinks, before going on. "I know it requires mana, but the ability to easily generate light without even fire... It certainly is attractive." I suppress the urge to tell him I've seen it done before, back in that strange building. I can't tell him about something like that since it relates to the rail unit program.

Instead I shrug and set the tin ingot aside once more. "Besides glowing, these do not generate light mana like tin does. Something about combining them like this stops that effect from occurring like it does with our first test. I point over to the gray-yellow metal when I mention it again. "That one clearly showed each of the effects of copper and tin separately, these do not do that," I say. Then I definitively state, "While we have not produced the same metal as the sword, we have proven that metals can be mixed together to create something different than a simple combination of the two metals that are put in."

Eryk smiles. "Very good." He looks at the two unassuming lumps of yellow metal, but he looks really excited. "So, what's next?"

"Hmm, next..." I mutter. We still haven't found exactly how to make the same metal as the sword, so we could work on that. It should have tin and copper, but maybe it needs something else? What we made is missing the powerful lightning effect, so maybe... durite? That one produces lightning mana at least. I can't really say whether that's the right or wrong way of moving toward what we're looking for though. "I'm not really sure, but maybe we could try mixing in durite too. That one makes lightning mana, so maybe it will make it more... lightning-like?"

"Hmm, the lightning isn't really the point, but I guess it's the best thing we have to go by to see if we get it right..." He closes his eyes, looking very unsure, before finally deciding. "Alright, let's try it." So we head back out into the workshop. Eryk tells Patrick we need some durite, but Patrick frowns.

"I can't exactly do that you know," he complains.

Eryk sighs. "Yeah, I know. I guess you'll just have to run one of the furnaces with mollite ore until you get some durite..."

"Umm, why can't you do it?" I ask. I don't understand enough about how it works to know what the problem is.

"It's all the same ore," Patrick says. I tilt my head a bit. Don't they have a whole bunch of crates of ore over there though? They were all different when I looked at them before. When he sees my questioning look, Patrick explains more. "Mollite ore all looks the same, but sometimes durite melts out instead of mollite."

"Huh, that's weird..." Even though the ore looks the same? "And there's nothing to do? No way to tell them apart?"

"Aha!" Eryk's eyes shoot open as he cuts in. "That's a great idea!" Both Patrick and me turn to him with no idea what he's talking about. "Just hold on, Patrick. We'll bring you the ore." Patrick just scratches his head in confusion as Eryk pulls me over toward the crates of ores. "Alright, Aria," he says quietly once we're away from the workers, even though they're all still glancing at us as they work. "I think you should be able to tell them apart."

I don't really get it, but he hands me a couple light brown colored rocks. They're sort of flat in some spots and rough in others. Even the brown color varies, with some parts of the rocks kind of clear so they're almost transparent. But the thing that immediately strikes me when he sets them in my hands is that I can feel a connection through them. It's fuzzy and indistinct, but it's there.

"These are mollite ores. They contain ignium, mollite, and nuvrite. But some of them have durite instead of mollite." It takes a few moments to understand what he means, before I answer.

"Oh, I get it..." If they have ignium in them, they should produce fire mana. The mollite and nuvrite don't produce anything. But if the ore actually contains durite instead of mollite, it will produce mixed fire and lightning mana instead, won't it? Just like when I put multiple ingots inside a mana field at once. Even if the metals inside are all mixed together, I'll be able to tell them apart by their mana types. I know I'm being watched by the workers, so I'm a little nervous, but testing them won't do anything visible, so it should be fine. Except it would be weird for me a hold a coin up to each and every one of them, wouldn't it? But actually, that's not an issue either, is it? Since they contain a mix of mollite and nuvrite, I can just push some mana through the ore itself.

I give it a try. Like I thought, it's all mixed up and fuzzy with the metals all spread throughout the ore, but it still gets the job done. I get a little fire mana back, and the ore seems to heat up in my hand a little. Then I try with the other, with the same effect. I look up to Eryk and say, "Neither of these ones."

"Alright, just a moment," he responds. "Just keep searching." Then he lifts me up and sets me to sit on the edge of the wooden crate, before walking away.

"He said to keep searching..." I murmur. So I drop the ores back into the crate and pull out a few more, briefly testing them one at a time. I still haven't found one by the time he comes back with a small crate and sets it down next to me.

"Put any that have durite in here so we can use them." I give a small nod and keep looking. But I'm not coming up with anything.

"Are you sure some of these have durite?" I ask. "I haven't found any yet."

"Don't worry about it, the ones with durite are pretty rare. And now that I think about it, you're probably checking the same ones on top..." Without saying anything else, he briskly walks away, then comes back dragging much larger crate than the small one he set down, balanced on the edge of the two crates near me. "Put any of the mollite ones in here so that you don't wind up checking them again," he says. Oh, that makes a lot of sense, if I don't move them out of the way, I'll probably just end up checking the ones on the top over and over.

"Alright," I say, and start tossing the ore into the larger crate. I can still feel the workers' eyes on me as I go, but I just try to ignore it for now. Then I finally find an ore that has durite in it. It produces mixed fire and lightning mana. But more importantly, touching it makes me immediately aware that I'm going about this wrong. Sure, it has durite, so it produces lightning mana. But it also doesn't contain mollite, so the feeling I get from touching it is completely different. It's more broken up since there's less mana carrying metal, but the feeling that is there is way more clear since it's all nuvrite. It also means I don't need to keep using mana to test, and that I don't need to build up more and more fire mana as I go. It's also faster and easier. I can tell them apart with a simple touch rather than needing to take the time to test each one.

From that point on, I easily pick up my pace, sorting the ores into the two crates. I'd say that about ninety percent of them contain mollite, only the last ten percent have durite. I rapidly go through the ore in the large crate, emptying it more and more, until I can't really reach from my seat on the edge of the crate anymore.

"That's good enough," Eryk chuckles when he sees me hanging my body over the edge down into the crate, but I still can't reach the ores about halfway down. I slide back down to the floor, then we go back over to Patrick. "Here, use these." Eryk hands him the small crate.

"These ones are durite?" Patrick asks.

"Yes, let me know when they finish melting."

"Alright, but... the girl can tell them apart?" Patrick asks, eying me somewhat warily.

"Yes," Eryk admits it outright. It shocks me a little, but... I guess there's no point trying to deny it after everyone watched me separate them, is there? "Alright Aria, you should take a break. Are you getting overheated?"

"Umm..." I kind of look at myself for a moment. "I don't think so." I actually feel perfectly fine. Which is weird when I think about it. I've been in the blazing hot workshop for a while sorting the ores. I got all overheated and dizzy a lot faster last time, didn't I? "I don't know why, but I still feel fine," I say with a shrug. Normally I'd be sweating a lot and it would all be soaked into my bandages, but it doesn't even feel like I'm sweating much right now.

"Well, let's get you some water anyway. Don't want to overdo it like last time." He starts walking back toward the door, calling over his shoulder, "Patrick, come let me know when the durite is melted." I quickly follow along, heading back to his office.

When we return, Irene is waiting just like she was told. "Master Eryk," she says as he enters the room. I also notice that she holds her hands together and bows. Not quite like the way I bow, but similar. She even lowers her head to look at the floor for a moment before standing back up again. Is that another type of greeting that she hasn't taught me yet? And why haven't I seen her do that before? Even back at his house... no, I couldn't really see because I was behind him at the time, wasn't I?

But I shake away the thought for now. I have a feeling that there are a lot more manners she has to teach me, so I'm sure she'll tell me all about it later.

"Irene, get Aria a glass of water," Eryk instructs her.

She immediately moves to follow the order, replying, "Yes, Master," while walking over to pick up a glass from one of his shelves. She also picks up a small jug of water from a little further back in the room. I think it's the same one I've been served from before, but it's kind of hard to remember since most of those times I was overheated or exhausted... Surprisingly, even the jug of water is made of the same clear glass as the cup.

She sets the cup down lightly in front of me so it hardly even makes a sound, then pours some water from the jug to fill it about halfway to the top. Once she steps back, I slowly reach for the glass. I'm still not sure if she's going to jump in at any moment with more instructions on how to do things... Just in case, I lift the glass slowly to bring it to my lips. Then I take a small sip, kind of like how she told me to eat more slowly. I continue to take one small sip at a time, letting the water wash through my somewhat dry mouth briefly before swallowing each time.

As I drink, I take stock. I still have about ten percent water mana that I've been holding onto since this morning and fifteen percent earth that I've been maintaining for healing. Besides them, there's about twenty percent fire from those ores, and just a tiny bit of that fire-lightning mana from the durite ore. A little light and probably dark too. I used up all the absolute earlier, so there's none of that left.

For now, I push the fire and mixed type mana back into my mana well to convert them. Hmm, maybe it was that fire mana that made me feel fine. Either from the extra energy, or maybe it really does protect against heat the way lightning protects against actual lightning. At least I'm not sweating, that feels really awful and gets itchy with all of my wounds and bandages.

Once I finish my drink, I yawn a little. I'm already kind of tired, even though I didn't do that much today. Well, I guess I did a good deal of thinking, but that's about it.

"It's rude to yawn in front of your host," Irene chides me, and I shrink back a little.

"It's fine," Eryk says immediately. "Aria, you should take a nap. The metal won't be done for a little while and it's nearly time for lunch anyway."

"Are you sure?" I ask uncertainly. I always feel bad when I need to sleep in the middle of the day.

"Absolutely. You're still recovering, you have to rest when you're tired," he says firmly.

"Alright," I reluctantly agree. "I'll do that then." I have my coins, so I rest my head on the table and begin to close my eyes.

"No no no, unacceptable!" Irene begins to scold me immediately.

"Huh?" I raise my head, grinning a little since I'm already part-way through generating more earth mana.

"You do not fall asleep in the presence of a man," she sighs, "Sitting up, no less. If you are going to sleep, it should be in a bed."

"But there isn't a bed here." I point out something completely obvious.

"Use some blankets and take a nap in the back room," Eryk says while standing up from his chair. So like the last time? "Irene, there are blankets in that cupboard over there," he says and points to the other end of the room. I think that's the same place John got blankets from the last time I was supposed to get some sleep, even though I didn't use them in the end.

Irene moves to follow Eryk's instructions without any hesitation, walking to the far end of the room and drawing a few big, fluffy blankets from a cabinet underneath a table. I follow her over into the back room, where she sighs sadly. "Putting blankets on the floor is certainly not acceptable behavior. It may work for a man, but for a lady..." Then she sighs again, before laying the blankets out on the floor anyway. I glance at my clothes. They're still clean from yesterday, so at least I won't get the blankets dirty this time. Not that I would have had a choice, Irene would definitely yell at me if I tried to sleep on the floor...

With those thoughts in mind, I lie down on the blankets she has set out for me. They're so soft! The cloth is obviously high quality, I can feel how soft and smooth it is against my skin. But they're also thick and kind of bouncy beneath me. They must be stuffed with something soft, maybe straw? But I think it feels too soft to be hay, so I wonder what they're made of...

I settle down comfortably, all of my muscles relaxing. It's still a wood floor beneath the blankets, so I wouldn't say it's as comfortable as that bed I woke up in at Eryk's house, but it's still so much better than anything I sleep on normally. Then Irene covers me with one more blanket on top. It feels softer and lighter than the ones under me, but it's pretty warm to use something like this in the middle of summer. Still, the comfortable warmth doesn't bother me at all. It's just the right amount of warmth to be cozy instead of stifling.

This is wonderful...

Before I know it, I've fallen right to sleep.

----------------------------------------

I follow along with everyone as I'm asleep. It's still a weird feeling, experiencing their lives while my own body is unconscious. I've been doing it for weeks now, but I don't know if it will ever stop being strange. Everyone is just having a nice quiet day though. It looks like it's Soma's turn to hunt. Riko hasn't noticed anything unusual in the city, and Chisa hasn't from the sky either. So I guess Effy is getting by without scaring people anymore, which is nice. It doesn't seem like Maven has seen that hobin he's trying to woo today, so maybe she's off doing something else.

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And Myra... I think she's hunting some sort of large animal across the mountains to bring it back as a trophy, or something... In fact, it feels like she's really far north right now, almost all the way to that northern valley I saw. She's so far away it's maybe a little worrying. But I guess if she goes out and explores, I might learn a little more about the world in far away places, since I still don't know anything about that.

Of course, Myra insists that she will only go on distant adventures if she feels like it. I agree immediately. Only if she wants to.

It isn't long before my attention returns to my own body as a voice calls my name. "Aria, time for lunch." Hearing about lunch makes me perk up immediately. I quickly rise from the improvised bed on the floor, shaking off my drowsiness as I stretch and rub away the sleep from my eyes. Those blankets were so comfortable, I feel really well rested, even though I was only asleep for about one bell.

When I finally manage to focus on my surroundings again, I see Irene sitting in a chair watching me closely. Unfortunately, she has disappointment and pity written plainly across her face.

"Umm..." I mutter, really worried about why she's looking at me like that.

"We have a lot of work to do on you. A lot." She goes so far as to say it again with extra emphasis.

My heart sinks. "Yes, ma'am..." I answer sadly. Then I move to leave the room, but Irene stops me.

"Why are you crying?" she asks. I can't tell if her firm tone is supposed to be concern or a reprimand. But more importantly, I'm crying? I put a hand to my cheek and realize that I am. I should only be a little disappointed though, so it must be the water mana.

"Ah, I'm sorry." I immediately apologize while wiping my eyes. "Don't worry about it." I push back the sadness, reminding myself that it isn't that bad, and quickly get myself back under control. Irene doesn't seem convinced, but lets me pass anyway. Water really is a difficult one.

Going back into Eryk's office, I see that he's at his desk, writing. John is standing nearby, so I guess he went to get my food this time. Was it his voice that called to wake me up? I can't exactly recall, but I think that it was him. I go over to my seat at the table, where my food is waiting. I remember what Irene and Eryk told me. The way to thank him goes through my mind, along with his instructions to only use that in formal situations.

So I move on, picking up my spoon. With Irene watching closely, I try to eat the same way she taught me earlier. Straight back, slow, careful spoonfuls. Make sure to chew well. Don't shovel it in. I keep reminding myself of everything she said while I eat. At least she doesn't interrupt me this time to tell me I'm still doing everything wrong. It takes some time to finish eating like this, but in the end, Irene just nods like I did it right.

Eryk looks up from what he's working on after a bit. "How do you feel now?"

"I feel fine," I answer easily. I roll my shoulders and stretch my arms a little. After sleeping so well, I actually feel really good.

"Good, then you should keep working with Irene for now." He nods to her slightly while I grimace a little. No, I need to know these things. Even if Irene is a strict teacher, she managed to teach me all about how to do proper greetings earlier. And I still remember all of it really well too, so she must be pretty good at teaching. So I gather my willpower and ready myself for another lesson on proper manners.

The next topic she covers is all about how to make a show of respect toward someone. Apparently it has to do with visually letting everyone know you respect the person you're speaking to and it's different from just greeting them. When she shows me the normal way to do it, clasping your hands together in front of your chest, I immediately recognize it as the gesture she made earlier. But when I point that out, she snaps at me that she's not that presumptuous. I totally don't get it, so she goes on to explain that Eryk is of higher standing, so the gesture needs to be done differently to show extra respect. Oh, so that's why...

She continues to go through, and I'm definitely starting to see a pattern. It seems that all of the different polite gestures you're supposed to do have you lower your head a little when the person you're addressing is higher class. So I guess I'll be adding the head bow to all of mine, won't I? There are only a few exceptions that work a little differently. Like when a lower rank woman shows respect for a higher rank man, she is supposed to bow at the waist a little too.

Right, that was the one Irene did earlier. I guess that's why she was mad, I thought she did the one that would have meant she was Eryk's equal. Which would be bad since he's her boss. I think I'm sort of starting to understand this, but how am I supposed to know whether someone is higher, lower, or the same social class when I meet them?

I guess that's not something to worry about too much since I'm going to be below everyone I meet, but it still seems like a difficult thing to determine at a glance. Again, that would come from the years of practice the higher classes get since birth. It really is all about upbringing like Jannette said...

Patrick knocks on the door to tell Eryk that the durite is ready. So we finish up my etiquette lesson, and Eryk tells Irene that she can head back home. She does a curtsy before leaving. Now that I know to look for it, she definitely lowers her head when she does it. She's also lowering herself more deeply than Claire did, just like how she described a greeting to a man of higher status. I guess greetings and farewells are done the same way? Eryk responds by holding his right hand, crossed over his chest to sit on the left side, for just a moment before lowering it again.

Patrick raises an eyebrow as he looks back and forth between them. Then Irene leaves without another word.

While we follow Patrick back into the workshop after she's gone, I ask, "I don't remember seeing her do that before, does she normally?"

"No, I believe she's doing more formal gestures so that you get accustomed to seeing them." Eryk gives a small shrug with his response. I guess Patrick finds it funny, because he just laughs a little while we go across the front of the workshop. His low chuckles have died off by the time we reach the molds though. He points out the one with durite in it, then another two that have copper and tin in them.

After Patrick heads back, Eryk gathers the same tools as usual, but also returns with a nickel ingot. He hands it to me, but I don't understand why. Because I don't have one? "You used up yours. As your employer, it's my responsibility to supply your tools, so that's one is on me, to replace the one you used." I'm not sure if it's really alright to give me a replacement for mine that I used up, for free, but if he says so...

While I tuck the ingot into my bag with the others, Eryk uses the ladle to scoop some of each metal into the crucible. Only this time, he pours a little back into the mold each time so the ladle is only half-full. When I ask about it, he explains, "The crucible only holds so much. I don't want to fill it too much or it may spill. That would be really dangerous." I nod emphatically. Molten hot liquid metal spreading out across the floor would be terrifying!

Once he's finished, we move into the back room once more. Eryk sets the crucible in the middle of the floor. "Alright, remember to be careful with this one if you think it'll make lightning like the sword."

"Yeah, I'm ready this time." I have to assume that this will work, and prepare for that, otherwise I might be caught off guard and things could get dangerous like the other time. So I go into my bag, pulling out a bunch of stuff. Copper and iron to draw off lightning, durite for a lot of lightning mana, ignium for fire mana, and I even decide to generate some absolute with the nickel he just gave me.

I'm still not sure how I want to put the mana in this time, either with a mana field, or using absolute mana. With the couple metal ingots arrayed on the floor around me, I'm done preparing. I have a whole lot of lightning mana, in case it does turn out the way we want.

It's actually pretty scary, that a successful outcome will be a dangerous one. It's really hard to fight back the lightning-induced fear, so it takes me a while to calm myself. Eryk has the metals pretty well mixed together already, so I prepare myself, double checking that everything is in place, before deciding that I'll do this with a mana field.

I take out my mollite. I still don't know if it was the mana field or the lightning that the copper should have produced that made it work the first time, but either way, it should work the same way this time. And it takes a lot less mana and won't use up an ingot of nickel like using the absolute would.

So I hold out the mollite ingot and get to work. I generate a mana field through it, keeping it steady so I'll be able to maintain it for a while. I don't have much colorless mana with all of the lightning, so I'll need to pull from my well bit by bit as I go. The metal takes on a glow in the field, glowing brighter for a moment-

Whoosh!

Without any warning, a powerful gust of wind bursts from the crucible. I draw back automatically, but I can feel all of my hair standing up. I can taste the lightning in the air. Before I know what I'm doing, I'm throwing myself over the crucible, toward Eryk on the other side.

This isn't like the sword!

Even as I move, I can feel the lightning beginning to explode out of the metal in the crucible. I'm upside down in front of Eryk, hurtling toward him from my jump, when the lightning arcs. It isn't just a bolt, it's one after another, spraying in every direction.

But it doesn't even come straight for me this time, it jumps randomly all through the air. So even the air is charged up with lightning?! After countless jumps faster than I can blink, the first bolt strikes me, redirecting through my lightning mana and leaping back out again. It's followed within an instant by a dozen others, all arcing into and back out of me.

Only, they don't move like the other times. I can't redirect them like usual. They keep leaping back out and between all of the charged up air around me. Zipping between one spot and another before coming right back. My back hits Eryk and I can feel him stumble away, but he still has his hand on the ladle as I crash into him, toppling crucible toward us.

It spilled after all! I land upside down on one hand, keeping the other out to catch and redirect the lightning away, but the molten metal is quickly spreading across the floor toward us. Terror claws at me, telling me to flee from something that hot. But I have to protect Eryk!

I twist for all I'm worth, dropping my body down from one hand onto my feet. Despite the near-paralyzing fear, I know what I have to do.

No matter what, I can not let Eryk get hurt.

I pivot to face him as he staggers backward, off balance. He's moving toward the door just a half step behind him. I only have a moment before the metal reaches me, so I slide my feet into a wide, solid stance and thrust my palm out into Eryk's stomach to push him into the door.

As I strike, I throw the absolute mana with all of the force I can muster, pushing it straight through Eryk and out of his back. He goes tumbling toward the door, but the burst of absolute mana hits it first, liquefying the entire center of the illium door so that he'll fall right through it.

Even in the moments that takes, dozens of lightning strikes hit me in the back. It's all I can do to keep them away from my heart as they continue to redirect into the charged air filling the small room.

Despite my well balanced, firm stance, I'm just too small. Eryk is so much bigger and heavier than I am. I stagger. I'm going to lose my balance. Even as the fear and resignation rise, Eryk reaches out and catches the front of my shirt as he tumbles away from me. He pulls me with him so I don't fall back into the spreading metal.

Even as I topple down on top of him, I thrust an arm up behind myself, redirecting the lightning by feel. Then I push myself back up to face it, my arms out in front as I catch and redirect every bolt coming our way.

Ground, damn it! No matter how hard I try to form a path through myself to the ground, they just keep pulling away again, jumping back out of my chest, sides, and legs to spin through the charged air before they come back at me again. I keep it up for a few long moments, frantically waving my arms in front of each blindingly fast bolt as it comes for us.

"Guh!" I let out a forced sound as I twist all of the mana up inside me, forcing it into a big knotted ball with every last shred of attention and willpower I have. I suck it all down, absorbing the lightning coming in through my hands and cycling it frantically through the big coil of energy I keep swirling in my stomach. All of my muscles tense up as I focus everything I have to keep the lightning locked in place, before I force it all down with a powerful thrust, pushing all of the mana straight down into my feet so the lightning will finally ground.

But the next instant, I'm grabbed from behind and thrown. An arm wraps around my waist, pulling me off my feet to fly away as the door is thrown closed behind us. I go tumbling to the floor, my head spinning as I stagger up to my knees. Eryk is in front of me, holding the door closed with a terrified expression. He glances at me, his eyes widening even further as he does. "Aria!" he shouts, his hand snapping to point at me for some reason. It makes me look down at myself on reflex.

My clothes are on fire! I frantically rip my shirt off, rolling across the floor to get away while Eryk runs over and begins to stomp out fire smoldering in the fabric. I tear away the burning hot bandages wrapping around my arms as well, but I don't feel anything else wrong in these few panicked moments. As the shock slowly begins to subside, I just lie down on my back, staring at the ceiling as I pant for air.

"Aria! Aria, are you alright?!" Eryk is asking me. That's right, Eryk!

I snap up from the ground to sit and look at him. "I'm so sorry!" I exclaim. "It's all my fault, I never should have suggested adding durite!" I'm already crying as I press my head to the floor. "I wrecked your tools and I destroyed your door!"

But Eryk grabs me by the shoulders and lifts me up to look me in the eyes. "Idiot, I'm asking if you're hurt!" he shouts at me.

I shrink back automatically, but he looks so worried! I shake my head frantically, waving my hands. "No, no, I'm fine!" I assure him. "You're not hurt, are you?" I quickly begin to look him up and down, searching for any sign of injury, but I can't find anything in the moment before he sighs and stands back up, turning around to grab my destroyed shirt from the ground. He tosses it to me.

"Come on, you're in shock. We can deal with this later. And I guess I owe you a set of clothing now." I catch the shirt, and look at it briefly. It's full of holes, completely in tatters. It seems like every part of it has holes burnt through, rings of black around every one of them. It still has light smoke rising from the surface of it.

Actually, heat seems to be rising off of my skin too now that I'm actually looking at myself. And besides that, I'm almost shocked to see that most of the wounds on my arms have healed, a good deal of my skin is nice and smooth again.

But I do feel really hot and heat is rising off of me. I guess the lightning mana has its limits, taking that many lightning strikes one after another. But as hot as I feel, I don't seem to be burned. That must be thanks to the fire mana, I guess it does work for that.

After a long moment of staring in a daze down at my shirt and my own arms, I slip the shirt back on and slowly stand up once more. I stagger a little as my head swims. It looks like Eryk is locking the outer door to the back room, since I destroyed the inner door to get us away from the molten metal. As I slowly turn, I see that all of the workers in the workshop are staring at us from the far end of the room. That's not good...

Once he's locked the door, Eryk comes back over and picks me up. But then he yelps a little and drops me. Landing awkwardly, I stumble, and can't keep myself upright, falling over with a painful thud. Despite my hammering heart and panting breaths, there's something else wrong. I'm quickly losing all the energy in my limbs, and everything feels hot.

Looking up as Eryk shakes himself, I see Patrick approaching. "Eryk, is there anything you want to tell me about? I think I speak for all of us when I say, we're worried." He speaks his mind, completely straightforward.

"Patrick..." Eryk responds uncertainly, looking back and forth between me and the large bald man. Then he frowns a little and says, "Come with me." With that, he pulls off his black smock and wraps it around me before picking me up again. My mind is starting to get hazy, and I go limp in his arms. By the time we make it to the other end of the workshop, my head is pounding and I close my eyes.

"Hey, is she alright? Looks like heat stroke," I hear Patrick say. "We have to get her cooled off."

"Yeah," Eryk agrees. My thoughts start to fade, then I hear, "John, can you go get some water from the well?"

"Sure." There's some shuffling as they all move, and I'm still being carried. When bright sunlight hits me right through my eyelids. I flinch at the shooting pain in my head and try to shield my eyes better. Then I'm being placed on the ground somewhere shady. Before long, I feel a slow stream of water being poured over me. It feels so wonderful on my hot skin, even if the hot sizzling sound makes my head throb.

"Well that's... different," someone comments.

"She needs a tub."

"Come on, we can use one of the small crates."

"Those won't hold water." I can't tell their voices apart. It's hard to really follow what's going on. I should just leave this for now...

So I ignore my own body that can't think straight and just enjoy the cool underbrush where Kiara is resting at the moment.

Yes, this is much nicer than being hot and unable to think and everything hurting. Still, now that I'm focused on Kiara, I, or rather she, feels perfectly fine. I wonder what's happening to me exactly? Patrick said I had heat stroke, but what does that mean? I guess I'll ask about that once I'm feeling better.

But what should I do for now, just wait here until my body feels better? It sounds like the three of them are working on helping me, but they seemed really worried. I shouldn't just leave everything to them, should I? I don't want to worry them with something unimportant like me. I'm much more worried about how Eryk is doing. How I could possibly pay him back for the things I broke? Illium is supposed to be extremely expensive, and I pretty much destroyed that whole door, didn't I? Not to mention all of his tools like the crucible and ladle. And the molten metal all over the floor of the back room.

Even if Eryk is really worried about me right now, I think he should be more worried about all of that. And when he does get to it, he's going to be really mad at me, isn't he?

Why did I ever suggest adding durite? I knew it made lightning mana, so even if I didn't know exactly what sort of effect it would have, this result can hardly be called surprising. Take something that's supposed to make powerful lightning and add more lightning, what could possibly go wrong? I ask myself sarcastically.

For now, I really should try apologizing again. I don't have the money to pay for everything I broke, so the best I'll be able to do is offer to keep working for him to pay it off over time. Even though I have no idea how long that might take...

I return my focus to myself. Only, all of my calm, straightforward thoughts fly away immediately. I'm assaulted on all sides by my burning hot body, my head feeling like it's going to split open. But then there's a loud pshhh sound and I feel cool water all around me. It feels amazing and lets me relax a little, at least until the water gets hot. But at least it feels like it cooled me down some. Eventually, I feel more cool water poured in, helping cool me down a little more, and I squint my eyes open a little.

"Aria, are you awake?" Eryk is standing over me, asking me a question.

"Am I awake?" I ask. Why am I asking him? "I'm awake." I can't think right. I want to close my eyes again, but Eryk talks to me again.

"You're too hot right now, so we're trying to cool your body down. Do you understand?" I stare at him. I understand what he's saying, but what does he mean? I'm too hot? Yeah, I feel really hot. So they're cooling me down. I... don't get it.

"Hot... cool... me..." My words come out all mixed up. What am I trying to say? I continue to babble a few more meaningless words, but Eryk just puts a hand to my head. His skin feels so nice and cold...