It took a while to fall asleep, but at some point I had, and the rest that followed was excellent as I woke up feeling refreshed, well, as refreshed as I could be, anyway. Seriously, those commercials about people waking up smiling were as fake as fake could be. Everybody knew it was a scam and that such happiness could only be achieved after a nice, hot cup of coffee.

I wondered if decaffeinated coffee could wake me up in quite the same way. Perhaps I could mix it with those energy potions to get the desired result.

That sounded like it could work.

I’m a genius!

“Morning, El,” I heard Velariah say from beneath me.

“Morning, Vel,” I whispered back before giving her a quick kiss. “Slept well?”

“Decent, but I’m glad I’m awake.”

“That bad, eh?”

“Yep,” She replied with a giggle. “Even though today is a day off, I have the feeling we’re going to be quite busy.”

“Oh yes. Let’s get some breakfast and then we’ll get to work.”

She smirked and I let go of her and stepped out of the hammock, turning on the lights in the process. I noticed a certain spider looking from the wall, vigilant as ever.

“Morning Minia, hope you are doing well too.”

When I looked at her, I felt the familiar stream of emotions coming from her, I could sense she was happy and content.

I smiled and quickly got dressed, as did Velariah. Then, it was time for breakfast which was already served.

“Seriously,” I let out as I walked into the room where the others were already seated and waiting. “How does this keep happening? It’s not even that late yet, is it?”

“I know exactly where you can save time,” Seralyn replied with a far too ominous smile.

I simply shook my head as I took my place at the table, just as Velariah entered the room as well.

“Morning, Miss Elania, Miss Velariah,” Draco greeted us politely. “Hope you slept well. Have you any plans for today?”

“You bet we have plans,” The white-haired elf said optimistically as she hurried to the table and immediately started buttering some bread. “You’re gonna love it.”

“Not sure if I like the sound of that,” Seralyn replied, her smirk wiped off of her face.

“I think you’ll like it,” I added in a calm manner.

Draco smiled widely, a smile that didn’t disappear for the entirety of breakfast… which was rather short. Velariah made sure of that. The speed with which she was stuffing her face was unmatched, well, it was matched by me, I supposed.

“Alright,” She said after finishing. The others weren’t quite done yet, but she didn’t seem to care. “What do we need?”

“Copper and silver coins,” I said. “An equal amount of each. The more the better.”

“Got it. What else?”

“A bowl of vinegar, and a bowl of vinegar mixed with salt to clean any dirty coins. We’ll also need a pair of scissors and thick paper or something like that.”

“That’s all?”

I nodded.

And with that, she sprinted off to the kitchen.

“What have you done to her?” Seralyn asked in surprise as Nira was left giggling at the hyperactive elf.

Neither Elly nor Valtheril were present so I figured I could at least let slip a little bit.

“I promised her to show magic without possessing magic.”

“Oh,” Draco said. “Now that sounds interesting.”

“Oh, it is. Trust me.”

We finished our breakfast, just as the knight dashed through the house, collecting everything we needed and putting it on the table. Then, we decided to have this experiment done in our room where we could lock the door, just in case.

I sat down next to the bathtub with the others in a circle around the objects in the center. If anything, it felt like a game night, despite the day only just starting.

“Twenty of each coin?” I asked. “You’re not messing around, are ya?”

“You never specified how many you need. I figured it would be better to have too many than too few.”

“I suppose it doesn't matter. Here’s the thing, the more coins, the stronger the battery.”

“Battery?” Seralyn let out. “What’s that?”

“Shhh, let her do her thing,” Velariah replied. “You’ll see.”

I then checked out the paper she’d brought. It seemed to just be a thicker version of the paper that was used to write on. It wasn’t quite cardboard, but I supposed it would have to do. The first thing I did was look for any coins that were dirty and submerged them in the vinegar and salt mixture. I waited a bit before taking them out, and when I did, they were shiny and seemingly brand-new.

I then started going through the process step by step, cutting even circles from the paper, and drenching them in vinegar, before stacking everything in two piles, alternating between coin, paper, and another kind of coin. I then used the copperthread I’d created the day before and connected them to the poles with a bit of normal silk.

“Okay,” Seralyn eventually said, unimpressed. “And now what?”

“Now, I’m going to try to see if I can make this battery generate heat.”

I connected the batteries in series using the wires and then completed the circuit by using a small piece of steelthread between the two copper wires to close the circuit. If I correctly recall, more heat would be generated if I did it this way because steel’s resistance is higher than copper.

But, I could be wrong here. Even more reason to experiment.

I was excited to see what would happen but was disappointed to see nothing. I touched the piece of steelthread and noticed it was starting to get slightly warm, but it wasn’t anywhere near the power it needed to be able to set things alight.

“Well, fuck,” I let out.

“Is it not working?” Velariah asked. Did we do something wrong?

I shook my head.

“It is working. It’s just that the power it generates is too little to make this thread hot enough.”

“Any way to fix that?” She asked.

“I’m thinking…”

I wished I’d paid better attention. Increasing the number of cells used in a battery would increase the volts, I knew that much, but I didn’t know if it would increase the power output by much. Besides, the sheer size of a battery any bigger than this would just become unwieldy.

What about the fluid?

Vinegar is a mixture of water and some kind of acid. I wasn’t sure what kind of acid, but I knew it wasn’t very strong. I was certain that almost everyone knew about battery acid, and it was clear to many people that leaking batteries was a bad thing, partially because the acid in them was dangerous.

If I had a stronger acid, would that generate more power?

“Hmmmmm,” I let out with a sigh, my eyes fixed on the working, yet mediocre battery before me.

“Do you think Master Pylanor has something that’s quite acidic? I’m looking for something stronger than vinegar.”

“Acidic?” She asked, before I saw her pupils go to the edges of her sockets as she seemed lost in deep thought.

“Acidic,” She said again. “Why don't you try your venom? That stuff seems potent.”

“Would that work?” I asked. “Actually, you know what? Let’s try.”

I took the bowl of vinegar and emptied it into the sink before getting back in position and placing my fangs inside.

“So I need something acidic, but I also need a bit of water mixed in,” I stated before closing my eyes, praying I could do this. My inherity stated I could create any venom or poison that had previously affected me, but I didn’t quite know which I needed in this situation, so I hoped that I could mix it in the same way I could manipulate my silk.

I needed something extremely acidic, yet it needed to contain water as well.

A lime green venom flowed through my fangs into the bowl, which had me taken aback. At the same time, my thinking did seem to have some kind of effect. I hadn’t seen this color before.

“Woah, that’s bright green,” Velariah stated. “It looks kind of cool.”

“I hope that worked,” I said.

I then disassembled the batteries, cleaned the coins, and cut new paper circles which I drenched with my watery venom. It wasn’t the thick, oozing liquid I was used to in the slightest.

“If this works,” I said, reassembling my earlier creation. “I’m gonna be truly shocked.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Draco chuckled and observed what I was doing with great interest, as was the ever-so-quiet Nira. I finished my work and started connecting the wires again.

“Well, here’s the moment of truth,” I said as I connected the steelthread to the copperthread, short-circuiting the whole in hopes of getting heat generation.

Almost immediately, the short piece of thread started changing color, first to black and then to red as its temperature increased dramatically.

“What the-” I let out before I saw it glow an even hotter white.

I quickly broke apart the two threads, with my pedipalps of course as I felt like I’d burn my fingers if I tried using them.

I wasn’t the only one left shocked. All the others were still looking at the thread that was cooling down quickly, and none of them seemed to have any idea what to say.

“Okay,” Seralyn was the first one to speak. “What. The. Fuck. Was that? You don’t have any magic, right, Elania?”

“Nope, unless you count my abilities, but no, this wasn’t magic. This was electricity.”

“Lightning,” Velariah clarified.

“How was that lightning?” The baffled archer asked.

“This is what happens when you send lightning through thin wires,” I explained. “It generates heat, enough heat to start fires in cases.”

“But how…?”

“Science,” Velariah said with a single word.

“That’s quite impressive,” Draco said calmly. “What uses does this have?”

“This?” I asked. “Not so much. I was trying to make something that could start a fire, you know, just to see if I could put something like that together. This, however, far exceeded my expectations. Honestly, I’m shocked.”

“I can see that,” Seralyn said surprisingly calmly. “But you just created magic out of nowhere.”

“This has nothing to do with magic,” I said, shaking my head. “This has to do with the way different substances interact with one another and how we learned over hundreds of years how to exploit those interactions to amplify things in a way that is useful to us. You saw it glow white-hot, right?”

Each one of them nodded slowly.

“Well,” I continued. “That’s how we create light in my old world. We send this electricity, or lightning as you will, through a very thin metal thread that will glow a bright white. When everything is exploited and optimized for light, you create something that is far, far brighter than anything a fire can do, and yes, even brighter than the light orb we have in the bathroom.”

“Can you make anything like that?” Velariah asked.

“A lightbulb,” I said softly as I started thinking about her question. Could I make one? If there was someone with sufficient skill when it came to blowing glass, I should be able to create something that at least resembled one, only the issue was, there was some kind of gas inside, and I had no idea where to get it.

Sure, I knew about neon lights, and I believe some cars used xenon, which led me to believe other noble gasses were used, perhaps argon or krypton, but again, how the hell was I going to find those in a low-tech world, let alone use them?

“I’m afraid I can’t,” shaking my head in disappointment. “Besides, once again I’d need help from others, in particular, a skilled glassblower, and then a whole bunch of other things that just can’t be done with the technology we have here.”

“That’s fine,” Velariah reassured me. “It’s fascinating to hear about it nonetheless.”

“Thank you for sharing that, Miss Elania,” Draco said with a small smile. “It was very… enlightening.”

“Oh no you didn’t,” The white-haired elf said before bursting into laughter.

“Oh yes he did,” Seralyn added with a chuckle.

Nira was left giggling and I was left with a smile that ran from ear to ear.

“Still,” I said, looking at the disconnected threads that ran from my makeshift battery. “Generating heat like this should still have plenty of applications. Not that I’m going to explore all of those, and it’s not necessary either, because as Velariah said before, we can use Seralyn’s inherity to light a campfire quite easily.”

“Does this mean that you can do that other thing you talked about?” Velariah asked. “The tele thing?”

“Telegram,” I said. “And technically, I believe so.”

“Hold on a second,” Seralyn interjected. “This lightning thing. You said you create light with it AND you can use it to generate heat AND you have something else as well? Just what else can you do with it?”

I chuckled and let out short, soft laughter before smiling slyly.

“Everything.”

“Everything?” She and Nira both asked at the same time.

I nodded.

“Everything. Heating, cooling, cooking, transport by land, by sea, and even through the sky, send messages to the other side of the world in a fraction of a second as well as pictures. You can use it for just about anything you can imagine. You can show the exact time of day on something you strap around your wrist precisely to the second. The possibilities are literally endless.”

“And just how much of that can you do?” She then asked, baffled.

“Almost none. I know a fair deal of things, but most of this is far, far beyond me… unfortunately.”

“You should tell them about the other thing,” The white-haired elf suggested.

“Gunpowder?” I said with a chuckle. “Are you sure I should? I’m afraid it will scare Seralyn.”

“What?” The archer let out. “Something I should be scared of? Why?”

“Because it made bows and arrows obsolete,” I responded. “Well, in a way at least. Actually, hold on.”

I had thought about it before. Seralyn’s inherity had to do with increased accuracy with ranged weapons. If I were to make some kind of primitive gun, the accuracy would undoubtedly be terrible… but what if Seralyn used it?

“Hmmm,” I let out.

“Not sure if I like the sound of that,” Seralyn commented.

“I mean,” I continued. “I have a wild idea in my head that I’d like to try out, but It would have to be in a private setting, and the best place I know we can put this into action would be the dungeon. I have the craziest idea for your inherity, and… you know what? Screw it. I’ll go and prepare the powder as soon as I can.”

I was done waiting. I wanted to get this done as soon as possible now as it would give me another means of defending myself. It would take time working out, and as Velariah had mentioned earlier, it could be useful to have this ready before setting off to the desert and beyond.

“I’ll need Dworag’s help to make the barrel, and-”

Realization struck me.

“Oh, fuck. We completely forgot about going to the guild hall.”

“Oops,” Velariah said with a devilish smile. “You think Eric’s been waiting for us?”

“I damn hope not,” I said, feeling sorry for the guy. “But we should go there anyway just in case he is.”

“And to collect our reward,” Seralyn added. “But you still haven’t told me what this thing is, and more importantly, how it has anything to do with my inherity.”

“You’ll see,” I said, deciding to keep her in the dark and guessing.

Damn, teasing felt good, especially when done to her.

“Though, Vel,” I called her name, remembering something we talked about earlier. “If we’re going to Dworag, do you think your dad can join us to make him aware that this is supposed to remain secret?”

“I’m sure Dworag will agree to those terms either way, but I reckon it doesn’t hurt to have my father there. Especially if you want him to help you out with other things too.”

“Just wondering what kind of story we should come up with if he asks what all these things are for and where I got the ideas from.”

“Or we just tell him to not ask.”

“I mean, I guess.”

“Anyway,” She continued. “Let’s go to the guild. I’ll check with Elly if she knows where my father is.”

We nodded and had her lead the way back to the living room. I stayed behind for a minute to disassemble the battery and clean the coins, paper, and bowls, not wanting to leave behind a trace of my experimentation. If I wanted to, I could make it again on very short notice.

I left the coins in the sink but took the other things with me to the dining area, where I placed the glassware on the table, just as Velariah left the kitchen.

“Looks like we’re due to visit the treemender’s oak,” She said carefreely. “My father said he’d be having a talk with master Pylanor.”

“At least for once we know where he is,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s something alright.”

“Now we hope he’s not locked in unending conversation,” Velariah said, walking towards the door. “Let’s go.”