Over the next few days trapped inside the hall, I try to keep a low profile, near the walls of the building so I don’t pass out from the heat again, or sweat too badly. Most people are wary of me, most likely to Maerwen’s posse passing her interpretation of the story around. Last I heard it was that I carried both Lena and Rynar across the river, and was able to toss Rynar across while falling in. I want to correct them but one thing I know is that rumour crushing is pretty much impossible, especially as an outsider. I get some thanks from others, especially from Rynar’s mom, but also the woman that passes as the town’s doctor and chemist/pharmacist, due to Lena being the collector of remedies for her.
Filing that knowledge away, I hunker down and retreat within myself to make myself seem smaller, and more childlike. A few children come to play, but after a few minutes, and realizing that I was the one teaching them, they get bored or nervous and bug their parents instead.
As I retreat into my mind, I try to ignore what I saw of Lena the past few days. I actively try and keep my distance, in case anything is weird between us, hoping she will be the one to talk first. I have been closer to her than literally anyone else in my life, and it was supposed to be just medical! Trying to flush that thought from my mind, I turn to the problem that I had before this cold snap: the DC generator. I make my way over to Thallion, who thankfully is not with his sister and is nestled in one of the corners sitting on one of the few chairs.
“Any ideas for the generator?” I ask quietly near him.
“Really? That’s the first thing you talk about after all that?” He replies, slightly surprised. “Look, I know what I asked you was hard, but you took it in stride. But still, I was expecting a bit of chewing out from that.”
“No no no, it was no problem! Er, what I mean is, I had no issue warming her up.” I state, feeling my face burn red.
“O come on!” Thallion whispers. “It couldn’t have been that bad! What? Was that your first time ever close to a girl before?!”
I blush and try and hide my face.
“Damn man, you’ve got it bad.”
“I know! First woman I meet and I am like butter. She’s nice, caring, and friendly, but up until that night, I saw her as just that, a friend. Now, I have no clue what we are, especially since that was medical and you’re not supposed to have feelings in a medical situation, and this is even weirder as I am telling you all of this in a very busy room and you’re her brother!” I rant. Still trying to whisper so that ears don’t pick up what I am saying.
There is an awkward silence for a while, then Thallion speaks: “It is not my territory either, but you, you are good. I don’t know how she feels either, but you should at least go and talk to her. I won’t be biting your head off if you do.”
Thallion then walks off and heads for the kitchen for more kitchen sink soup, leaving me to ponder what he just said. He’s not mad that I have feelings, now to psych myself up to approach her. I close my eyes, and breathe deeply, trying to calm my heart and breathing. I also use my shirt to try and mop my forehead of excess sweat, as the hall is quite warm, even in the corners.
“Thallion said you wanted to see me?” I hear a familiar voice ask. That… er, not can’t call him that, but arghhhh! Why is he pushing this?! I lower my shirt down and open my eyes. Sure enough, it’s Lena asking.
“Yes, I, uh, wanted to make sure you are doing ok over the past few days.” I ask, as cool as I possibly can, even though I can already feel stress sweat dripping down my back. “What I mean is, are we ok still? I don’t want to scare you or anything, but…”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
She puts her finger to my lips. “Shhhh. It’s ok. And yes, I am fine. More than fine, since you warmed me back up and I awoke in your arms.” She replies with a smirk on her face. “Don’t worry, you did nothing wrong, but now is not the time to talk about this, wait until we can get out of this place.”
I nod, and she walks away. Did I catch her winking at me just now? I sit on the floor as I try to calm back down and get blood flowing the right way again so I can think. I may be dense, but I think that counts as flirting? I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait until we are allowed back out into the village.
Going back to my ideas for the generator, I keep on coming to the same problem, we need more magnetism for more attraction… And repulsion. Come on mind, stay on track. We need to complete this generator if we are to keep any knowledge from home. The rotor is good, but how to improve the stator’s magnets. I could try and build better magnets, but I do not want to risk draining the battery of my phone much further. I think about having some people discharge themselves into the circuit for the magnet, but that will be a very quick burst and due to an electromagnet being an inductor, it will build the field and then destroy it as it tries to smooth the pulse into DC, effectively doing nothing to the magnet. That and all my wire being copper makes that an immediate no go until I can get some safer thin iron wire.
As I daydream, Thallion returns.
“So, how did that go?” He asks, with a slight grin on his face.
“You sent her, didn’t you”
“I can neither confirm nor deny my direct statement to have her go talk to you” he replies, with an even bigger grin. “So, you seem lost in thought, what are you thinking about?”
“Trying to get the generator to work.”
“Really? Not about anything else?” He prods, with a knowing look.
“Really! We agreed to talk about it later, when there are fewer ears around.” I retort. “Anyways, I need a way to make a more powerful magnet or my phone becomes a very very intricate brick. I would check to see if there is such a thing as a self starting DC generator, but I cannot really pull my phone out at this very instant without having several dozen questions asked, and possible response from the town!”
Thallion thinks for a minute, and then replies, “Why not just stick some electromagnets on the back of the magnets? Current makes magnetism, so little current makes little magnets, makes more current makes more magnets, right?”
I think for a moment, and at that description remember the shunt and series wound DC generators.
“That’s It!” I shout with joy jumping up in excitement. I then realize I have several dozen pairs of eyes looking at me. I look over my shoulder to try and imitate them and “see” what they are looking at, only to see the back wall.
“Oh.” I state, as I slide down the wall and sit back down. Eventually everyone stops staring.
“I guess you remembered something?” Thallion asks
“Yes.” I again whisper back, barely audible due to trying to cover up from my most recent outburst.
“If we connect the electromagnets in parallel to the brushes, it will self excite and max out the magnet, without having to try and make very high quality magnets. You are right! This will work! Now if only we could start working on this again!”
“First moving half the town’s firewood singlehandedly, going out into the cold snap to save my sister and a child who the town wrote off already, purposely jumping in the river after one of them, considering the possibility of falling into at least deeper like for someone and the only thing you can hope for is to get back to work?! Take a break! Enjoy this time! We don’t get many breaks in a year.”
I think for a moment, and then reply “I need to keep busy, where I am from, there is no slowdown, save for night and maybe Sunday. I need to keep going. So far, the work we’ve done is so little in the vast knowledge that I have, it’s keeping me up. We need to keep going”
“And then what? Keep on going? What for? What good is the invention if it is never enjoyed? Should it be invented at all if it kills moments like these?” Thallion replies.
I sit there, pondering what he said, and what can come based on the knowledge I hold in my hand. The fact that what I hold contains both the opportunity to revolutionize society, but also choke it and kill moments like this weighs heavily on my shoulders the rest of the day. Just before night, I check and see that I have less than 15% power left. Whatever my decision, it will need to be soon.