We talked in the shop until evening. Not about much, just getting to know names and jobs again. Finally I know that the woman running the shop is Silvra, and they finally know my name. No point hiding it, it’s not like I told anyone when I was summoned. Shortly after that, they forgot to pass the translator and my mind started to drift off from the crazy that I have experienced for the last 72 hours. (I am not counting being unconscious, on the fact that I was unconscious and cannot know if anything crazy happened during that)

Now down a phone, and a robust means of talking, I start pacing around the shop trying to see if I can make something useful. Being unable to read what is written is a pain, but it at least takes my mind off things. Silvra keeps an eye on me while she keeps talking with the others, but seems more relaxed than when I first came into the shop.

I finally come across a small bag of thin wires with coloured paper around them. Being in a setting where everyone has a little electricity in them, I assume that this is some form of resistor set, and probably one of the cheapest things to experiment on. I also find a port, which I shall now refer to as power port, and bring it to the table. Going under the chair I hid behind, I pull out my backpack and pull out one of my usb cables.

Back at the table, I empty the bag of resistors on the table and sort them based on colour. A few are a bit difficult to discern between, but I am pretty sure I got them in the right rainbow order. I then grab the power port, and place it on the desk. Silvra starts paying close attention and walks around the table to me, grabbing a spool of wire on the way along with a pointy piece of metal and a candle.

She lights the candle by tapping the wick with her palm and then sticks the pointy end of the metal stick into the flame. Guessing that is their version of soldering iron, I continue. I make a gesture for slicing, and Thallion, now interested in me trying to communicate, catches on and pulls out his knife. Looking at it, I see it is not that sharp. I shake my head, holding up the usb cable, folding it in half and make a cutting motion through the fold.

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Lena immediately catches on. “Silvra, can you get Ethan here a sharp knife?”

Silvra goes behind the counter and pulls out one, and gingerly hands it to me. Sighing, I cut one of my USB cables in half, so I now have a USB A wire and a USB C wire. I put the USB A back into my backpack and prep the USB C. I turn my phone back on, where a few of Silvra’s instruments make funny noises as it does, and I look up the wiring guide for usb c. Pulling up the table on Wikipedia, I see that pins A1 and A12 are ground and are tin plated wires. A4 and A9 are red and are VBUS. Knowing this, I use the soldering iron to tack the pairs together, and heavily coat them with solder so the braided wire does not fray.

I then take a red resistor and gesture to Silvra “large” and then pick up a purplish one and gesture “small”. She nods, and I solder the power port to a red “large” resistor.

I lightly grab her hand and nudge it towards the power port, seeming to understand, she dumps her power into it.

It pops immediately. Huh. I guess they have a good amount of charge within them. Silvra looks a little tired now, and is moving to sit down.

I grab a new resistor, and solder the resistor to the power port just like the one that burned up. I take my modified USB wire, and carefully place the ground on the ring, and the power in the centre pivot. I can feel everyone in the room now watching me as I shakily make the connections.

Nothing happens.

I reposition, nothing happens again.

My phone then buzzes at me, stating it shutdown the usb power draw due to high currents. Touching the resistor, it is a little warm, but not much more than ambient.

Thinking about this, I realise something. These elves are walking capacitors!