3:006 on the 75th day of Winter

The room was dimly lit by one of my light marbles on the desk. I had eventually found Ingo and begged him to help bring Arin to the hospital. He agreed and I had spent most of the afternoon there. Turns out that Arin got priority healing as an iron blood mage but they told us it would take a season or more to restore her leg. They cleaned her, changed her, bandaged her leg and spent a considerable time working on her internal injuries before leaving her to rest.

Every room in the hospital was overcrowded and the whole place was loud with the moans of people in pain. They didn't exactly have modern pharmaceuticals to treat it with. The healers assured me that she was in no danger of dying so I decided to take her home to rest. I had no idea where she lived so I took her to Aegis manor by carriage.

Schrodinger was happy to see her and curled up in a ball by her side. I didn't want her waking up alone. So, I sat in a chair at the foot of her bed making parts for the radio. It took concentration so it was a great distraction from thinking about Arin. Still, during breaks to let my mana recover it was difficult not to think of what I would say to her when she woke up. I kept running through different conversations in my head but none of them sounded right. I knew when I was overthinking something and that was definitely happening here. Again, I tried to focus back on the radios.

"Hello?" said Arin in a soft scratchy voice. "Theod? Is that you?"

I set the control cube I was working on aside and turned to her.

"Yes, it's me." I said. "How are you feeling?"

"Can I have some water?" she asked.

I nodded and filled a small cup with water. I got an extra pillow to prop her head up before giving her the cup and sitting back down.

"Thank you." she said, her voice sounding clearer after her drink.

"Of course." I said. "We've got to stop meeting like this." she said with a grin.

I couldn't help but grin back.

"Ya, no more getting hurt. That goes for both of us." I said.

"So what happened?" she asked. "I suppose I can guess that we won as we're not dead."

"Yes, we won the day." I said. "The demons were driven back out of the city. But we paid a heavy price in blood for it. And you… and your…"

I couldn't finish my sentence. I could feel my eyes get wet. She was getting a concerned look and I knew I was doing this all wrong. I squashed down my feelings. She deserved to hear it straight.

"You lost your left foot when the tunnel collapsed." I said quickly adding. "The healers say they can grow it back but it will take time."

Her eyes went wide and she started pulling at the bed sheets. That disturbed Schrodinger who meowed in annoyance before jumping off onto the floor. I helped her uncover her left stump. The bandages covered the worst of it but it was still grim to look at.

"It's just… gone." she said. "I can still feel it. It still hurts. But it's gone."

She seemed more shocked than sad. Magic healing meant that she had several tendays worth of natural recovery before even waking up. They may have also done something with the nerves in her leg to help lessen her pain.

"That can happen." I said. "Your brain still has all the nerves that are listening for feelings from your foot. Sometimes, instead of going quiet, they act up."

I thought about that for a minute. I remembered reading an article about phantom limb syndrome and a non-intuitive but very effective treatment for it. I got up and moved to my desk where I retrieved a silvered mirror. It was heavy but I lugged it over the bed where I placed it to reflect her good foot in place of her missing foot.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Just look at the reflection." I said,

"Now try to move both your feet. Maybe wiggle your toes."

"Okay," she said with that gorgeous smile again. She was clearly amused. She started moving her foot back and forth while watching its reflection in the mirror. I pulled my chair closer to the bead and sat back down.

"Now relax, but keep your eyes on the reflection." I said.

I took her foot in my hands and started massaging it. She let out a grown in relief.

"That feels good, and weirdly, my other foot hurts a bit less." she said.

I just nodded. We stayed like that for a while until her eyes grew heavy.

"The healing must have taken a lot out of me." she said. "I'm just going to close my eyes for a bit."

After that it was just a few measures until her breathing evened out and I could tell she had drifted off.

"Good night," I whispered.

I tucked her legs back under the covers and got back to work. Yes, I was head over heels for her. No, I had no idea what, if anything, to do about it.

***

0:176 on the 77th day of Winter

"And here is the feature that I added to enable signal communication." I said, pointing to the finished radio. It was one sample of one hundred units.

"I wasn't sure it was worth it at first,” I said. “But I suspect you will be able to get twice the range or more out of the signal feature than the voice radio."

Fresin was nodding.

"We will make good use of these, thank you." she said. "Irmingar has your payment."

Wait, I was getting paid for this? I suppose it made sense. I guess that since I have been able to conjure money out of thin air I haven't really cared about it.

With my business concluded I left her office in central command and walked back to my workshop. With the radios finished, I was excited to get started on my next project. I was tentatively calling it the laser cannon. I opened up my notebook to review the design. It was a central tube with mirrors and lenses that channeled the light from three hundred separate laser crystals into a single beam. It actually reminded me of the death star’s main cannon but the beams combined inside the tube rather than out in front.

The hardest part was that I couldn't actually replicate the end of the world button from magic cores. It was incredibly complex and I just didn't want to mess with something that dangerous. I could however reshape it.

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The final design had a diamond laser diode about the size of a tube of chapstick. I reshaped the useful parts of a monster core into a cylinder the size of the tube's cap. Now I just had to find three hundred monster cores and make three hundred lasers. Lastly, I had to machine a cannon that could hold them all without overheating. So, I started with the cores. I took my one hundred aurum payment from the radios and put in a large order for cores from the military suppliers. Forge said he could get me two hundred fifteen low quality cores for that amount so I threw in a mess of gems to make up the difference.

With those parts ordered, I started making the lasers themselves. It was slow going and I kept running out of mana. I could make about ten per hour which meant that I would be done in a few days if nothing else pulled me away. While waiting for my magic to replenish I wanted to work on the design for the canon itself, but I didn't. The only thing my brain could think of was making a prosthetic for Arin. She had crutches to get around on but they were heavy and uncomfortable. The healers said that it would take at least a season to regrow it but they hadn't even started yet. I was worried that they would put it off and she would end up going for a year or more without it. It would normally take her a long time to learn to walk or run with a prosthetic but maybe there was something life magic could do about that.

So, what did I know about prosthetic feet? Almost nothing honestly, but I had seen people using them on Earth. There were the complicated ones with ankle joints for walking and then there were the metal spring ones for running. I decided to try the spring one first as it was simpler. The metal spring prosthetic was fairly simple. Iron legion armor was made of spring steel so I just got some scrap armor and cut out a rectangle from the chest piece. Then I put together the clamp and basket that would hold her leg and used one of the tools in the workshop to weld them together. But I didn't stop there. I wanted a few for her to pick from so I made two more that were different heights. Lastly, I decided to add some artistic flourishes to each. Holding the flat of the spring blades between my palms was enclosed enough to work on safely so I used my microscope to etch complex geometric designs in the metal. I also bonded shoe rubber to the bottom of the blade for better traction.

At the end of the day I started my walk home excited. That soon ended however when I heard a deep boom in the distance. I and everyone else in the street stopped to look around. I couldn't see anything out of place but then another boom echoed through the streets. I decided to check it out and climbed a building to the farm on top. Looking out over the city I saw the source of the noise. Large rocks were crashing down in seemingly random spots. They fell at an unnaturally fast pace and, at the moment of impact, they exploded in a fireball fueled by magic. It was overcast and so I couldn't see where they were being dropped from. I grimaced and felt powerless again. They were bombing the city and there was nothing I could really do to stop it.

***

2:009 on the 77th day of Winter

"Hello Fonsa, do you have a minute to talk?" I asked.

She glared at me from her chamber doorway. Her eyes had deep bags under them and her nose was running again.

"I brought pastries." I said holding up a plate full. I was lucky that Borghild had their general store open after the bombing stopped. She looked from me to the plate and then waved me to come in.

"What is it, Theod?" she asked, plucking one of the flaky treats.

"Well, as you may have noticed, Arin has been staying with us because of her injury." I said but she cut me off.

"I can't regrow her foot." she said with her mouth full. I held up my hands in surrender.

"Yes, I know. It takes a long time, I'm aware." I said. "But there might be a way to get her back on her 'feet' more quickly."

I took out the prosthetics I had made and showed them to her.

"These are like peg legs but because they are springy they can be used to run or or even fight with." I said. "The problem is that it will probably take her half a year to learn how to use them. But, I have a theory based on how healers were able to deaden pain in her leg."

She wiped her mouth and her eyebrows came together in concern.

"What kind of idea?" she asked.

"Well, people that get prosthetics basically need to relearn how to walk." I said. "But that kind of physical skill is partly in the brain and partly in the body. Basically, I think that you would be able to allow her to learn to walk with this new foot in a few days instead of a season."

She gave me a thoughtful expression. Then she stood and crossed to her bookshelf. She muttered to herself while looking through a set of journals until she found what she was looking for. I saw that the journal was named Transactions of The Royal Metaphysica. Opening a particular journal to the index, she then leafed through it to an article and started to read. Looking over her shoulder I saw the title.

Accelerated Restoration of Physical Skills Following Stroke and Brain Trauma

So, someone had thought of it before. That was usually how these things went. Have a great idea? Most likely you're not the first to have it.

"You may be onto something," she finally said. "If we're going to do this then we'll do it right. There is already a well established record of people learning to walk on artificial limbs but those ones are different enough that we will need our own control group. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I think there are at least a dozen people in the hospital now that have lost one of their feet. We normally just queue them up and regrow limbs sequentially as our time and magic allow. If this paper is right then the mana requirements for the procedure are substantially lower than for limb regrowth."

"I can make more of these." I said. "But they need to be sized for the person and their injury."

She nodded, pulled out a notebook, and started writing. After a measure without talking I coughed to get her attention again.

"About Arin." I said cautiously. "Would it be possible to see if it worked this evening? She is an iron blood mage and the faster she is in fighting shape the safer the city will be."

She eventually nodded and we made our way to my chambers where Arin was resting. When we entered I saw that she wasn't alone.

There was a tall rail-thin man and a short plump woman, both in their mid forties by my guess.

"Hello," I said. "I don't believe we've met. My name is Theod Aegis. This is my sister Fonsa."

"Hello and well met." said the man, standing to offer me his hand.

"My name is Karn Baker and this is my wife Mistansa. We're Arin's parents."

I shook both their hands and then turned to Arin.

"How are you feeling." I asked.

She gave a shrug.

"Same as this morning." she said. "I'm still getting used to the crutches."

She was scratching behind Schrodinger's ears with a far off look that told me she wasn't doing well.

"I have a gift that could make you feel better." I said, holding out the spring blade prosthetics. Her eyes shot open in surprise for a moment and then shifted to confusion.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Well, they fit on your leg and can help you walk or even run again." I said. "They take a lot of hard work and practice to master. But Fonsa here actually might be able to help with that."

We sat down and explained the idea of life mage assisted physical therapy. Fonsa explained the side effects and risks which could be significant. Apparently, inducing the kind of neuroplasticity needed often came with hallucinations, vertigo, and nausea. I was very glad Fonsa knew her stuff as she was able to answer all the questions that Arin and her parents had. Once everything had been explained, Arin agreed to the treatment we were ready to start.

"This bracket here is adjustable" I explained as I secured the basket, clamp, and straps around her leg.

"How does that feel? Any movement or chafing?" I asked.

"No, that's fine," she said with a bit of a blush.

"Go ahead and give it a try" I said, holding out my hands for her to use to balance.

She took them and pulled herself up with a wince. She wobbled a bit trying to get her balance. She shifted back and forth uncertainly for a while.

"I think I can take over from here." said Fonsa,

I handed Arin off to my sister and moved over to stand next to her parents. Fonsa focused deeply for several measures while Arin shifted back and forth between her real and artificial feet.

Then Fonsa opened her eyes and nodded. Stepping back she encouraged Arin to walk forward. Like that they circled the room a few times with Arin almost falling at least twice. Then Arin started giggling.

"Wow, that's really trippy." she said with a slur. "I can taste the purple of your hair."

Fonsa's hair was black, not purple. She sounded a bit like she was on drugs and I suppose she was right now. What this world lacked in pharmacology it made up for in magic. Fonsa was using her magic and symbiotic viruses to make Arin's cells produce the exact compounds required to cause a specific effect in her brain and body. With each tentative step Arin got a bit better with the new foot. About ten measures in she casually let go of one of Fonsa's hands without losing her balance at all. She was looking around with joy and wonder like she was walking through a meadow on a summer day.

"Remarkable." I whispered.

"She is." whispered Arin's mother. "And don't you forget it."

I could feel a blush on my face. What was she implying? Has Arin talked about me, or was this just her mom reading into things? Mez I am so bad at this.

After another twenty measures she was walking on her own and even bouncing up and down a bit. Fonsa stepped away to take notes.

"The spell appears to work substantially better in an otherwise healthy subject." She said, though it was clear she was talking to herself out of habit. Then Arin's face scrunched up. She held her stomach and I went for the waste basket. I got to her just in time for her to get sick into the basket instead of all over the floor. I held her hair out of the way as she emptied her stomach. Fonsa helped me clean her up and get her back into bed after that. She fell asleep with a dreamy look on her face.

I knew I needed to get back to making parts for the laser cannon but I was glad I took time for this. Getting her to a point where she could walk on her own could make a difference in Cinder's defense. Also, she was my friend and I just wanted to help her. After we were out of danger, if we were both alive on the other side of the siege, I would have to find a way to tell her how I felt. For now, all I could do is try and make sure the city didn't fall.