It was the morning of the first day that Ellen more or less had decided to be a free day.

Alice had got up the usually time to prepare breakfast for them all. Ellen had been studied late, again, and came to the kitchen when Alice almost was done with everything.

“Good morning sister.”

Ellen seemed to be only half awake. Maybe she had to consider how she should work to still be something like a human the next day. If it wouldn’t be that Ellen should practicing the whole day, it would have been a pain to keep an eye at her. Ellen was already daydreaming to much while they were cleaning.

“Ain’t Jack awake yet?”

Alice looked at the clock, he usually woke up by himself. But today seemed to be a exception and it was starting to get late.

“Can you put everything at the table Ellen?” She asked in a very demanding tone and left to wake Jack up.

There was no chance that she would let Ellen wake him up. No chance at all. She would have taken all the advances that she possible could at their father. Even if she claimed to not even love him anymore.

Alice let out a sigh and looked at the door to her father's room. It was one thing that Ellen was tired at the morning and maybe overslept a little, but he was a grown-up man that should take care of his growing daughters. Didn’t that mean that he should act like an adult?

“Jack, it’s time to get up!”

It didn’t take many seconds before she could hear him swearing.

Was that man really her father?

Either she or Ellen did look like him. Sure Ellen acted like him when it came to forget everything around them while studying. But otherwise there wasn’t any similarities between them and him.

It would have been wonderful if he had declared that they was adopted because of that. But no, instead he thought it was better to just claim it was because it was disgraceful to have children outside a marriage. What did father think he could win by doing that?

Alice let out another sigh while walking back to the kitchen.

Ellen looked disappointed at her when she stepped into the kitchen.

Alice couldn’t help but to feel happy inside. It was clear that she had hoped it was Jack that came.

She was a terrible liar when she claimed that she didn’t love Jack anymore, it was a terrible cute act by Ellen.

The breakfast passed rapidly as Jack almost only threw the food into his mouth and told them to wake him up earlier next time, at the same time.

Soon he ran out from the house like a spring, leaving the two girls alone with their breakfast.

“It can’t be healthy for him to stress away like that”.

Ellen looked down at her food, she seemed to have start thinking again. Thinking hard and deep.

Sure she had a point that it couldn’t be healthy for Jack to do like that. But shouldn’t she be thinking about herself first? It couldn’t be healthy for her either to study that much, and then try to balance it with the house chores.

Don’t get her wrong, she’s very glad that Ellen help her with the chores, but shouldn’t she really be thinking about herself a little more?

During the short time that they cleaned after the breakfast, Ellen was stuck in her thoughts.

It was really annoying Alice. They had decided that both of them should clean after the breakfast, but instead Ellen cheated and buried herself in her thoughts. Leaving most if the work to Alice alone.

“I think I can handle the last things myself now. So you can go to the workshop and work off some steam.”

She got tired of it and decided to do it herself. It was better that way, or at least it got done better that way. Instead of that Ellen only would do the “half hearted, deep thoughts” cleaning.

Alice had both clean the last in the kitchen and the most important cleaning in the house, which was almost nothing. According to Ellen's idea, the rest of the house would be clean the next day, so what should she now do? Alice had no idea herself and just stood there dumbfounded.

It was the first time she actually had spare time to spare, so she had never thought about doing anything else then the house chores. Most of the reason was that she had promised Jack to do it everyday since the first day they found out that they could brining Ellen back to life.

Alice let out a sigh and walked to the kitchen to boil some tea. They had found it out together, but Alice herself had been most if the driving force behind it. Sure Jack was the one that both had worked and earned money for it, but it should still not have been possible if it wasn’t for Alice.

Ellen came into the kitchen while Alice waited for the water. She cracked a small smile when she noticed her sister was making tea, “ If it’s tea you are making, can you please make one cup for me to and bring it to the workshop?”

Even if she didn’t like that her sister was study, she was determine to take care of her. So said and done, Alice took the tea Ellen had requested to the workshops. She had been there before, but this was the first time that Ellen had looked so busy in there. Sure she only read a book, but it didn’t change the fact that Ellen really was sucked up by the study.

After making sure that her sister had noticed that the tea had arrived to the workshop Alice left without saying another word.

Ellen was so concentrated at her work so it felt bad to disturb her, even if it just had been to tell her that she had bring her the tea.

Alice took her time to drink her own tea while thinking about what she would do during her free time. She could clean the house in a calmer pace, but that would violate the agreement she had done with her sister. In the end she didn’t found an answer of what she should do.

After she had finished her tea she let out a heavy sigh. She still didn’t know what to do so she could as well get to the marketplace to see if she could find some inspiration there. It couldn’t be more boring then just doing nothing in the house, and she need to get over there sooner or later anyway.

Only leaving a small note behind she left the house.

She could gave told Ellen that she left, but after seeing how hard she tried to study it didn’t feel right.

At the marketplace it didn’t took her long to find something that she could spend her spare time at.

There was a lot of stalls that sold cute cloths. Many of them should have looked lovely at Ellen, but they was VERY expensive. Almost if they thought some people pulled money out their rear.

Alice looked close at some of the cute cloths, they didn’t looked to complicated to do. It was almost that even Alice could make them, even if she wasn’t as smart as Ellen. The only thing that could be a problem was to create the pattern for the cloths, but it was something she probably would learn over time. At least if it wouldn’t turn out that she was an idiot.

After buying what she needed to get started she bought what they needed for the dinner and returned home.

When she returned home she would bother Ellen a little, only a few seconds. Alice had bought textile to make Ellen a shirt, and therefore she needed to bother her sister to take length and a measure around her waist. Whenever Ellen agreed to it or not.

Back at home she began walking toward the workshop, first in front of the door she could hear that their father was talking with Ellen. After listening for a little while she noticed that it was about how Ellen would help him with his work.

Alice began to walk toward the kitchen, it was most probably not a good idea to disturb them.

Why did he have to return early this of all days? Couldn’t it have been late as usually, or even the next day?

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

Jack had arrived home early and come into the workshop and interrupted her studies.

If it wouldn’t be that it was Jack, she would have been irritated. But it was he beloved one, and he was even bringing her good news.

It seemed like his co-workers had agreed to let Ellen help them with getting a better product. They also had decided at a small budget and to support her with a special gear, that they thought could do the trick.

“The budget we gives you are 5 gold, so use it wisely.”

Ellen looked at the pouch she got from him, it didn’t look like much. But it was most possible more then she could think. Her eyes wandered of to the two gears she had received. Neither did they look very special, except for that they all had a propeller in the middle.

“The gears you got is purifying gears. As they can purify a small amount of dirt, we believe that they can make the crystals purer to.”

They believed?

“So you don’t know if it is working at all?”

Jack shake his head in response and claimed it was for a cog technician to find out. Pushing it all over at her.

Couldn’t they at least have known if it worked or not before leaving the work to someone else? What were they, idiots? Or didn’t they care if it success or not?

Ellen began to examine the gears and crystals, still silently cursing THEM for not knowing if it will work or not. It all could have been so much easier if they had known. That should have meant that Ellen could have spent the time to just put it together instead of doing a lot of experiments.

She let out a loud sigh and start to look at the crystals Jack had gave her. They looked like crystal they could dig out of a mounting and really not like something created by human hands. No of the crystals she got was clear, instead it looked like fog had been collected in them. Was it the fog inside they wished to get rid of to rise the value?

Anyway she noticed that they felt fragile, it could most probably be made to dust by just dragging it against the table. So she needed to be careful when she handled them, It would only be a pain explaining to Jack if she broke one of them. At least he seemed fond of the crystals and had given her straight orders to give both crystals back after trying to purify them once. So he could test how good it had gone, or that was what he had said.

Next up was the purifying gears she had got. Just like when she had talked with him, they didn’t looked very different from other cogs. Except from the propeller in the middle of it. But they did feel really different from other cogs, they were a lot colder. Since it wasn’t that cold in the workshop Ellen came to the conclusion that they were made in by a different material. The propeller in the other hand felt warmer, so it also had to be made in a different material. She could probably need to read some more about it, or ask Jack about it. He had to know something, either what it was made of or how it worked.

Otherwise he wouldn’t give a request like this to his beloved daughter, right?

Ellen walked to wash herself off.

Alice had come and disturbed her during the gear examination, telling her that it was time to get ready for the dinner. Alice had curiously glanced at the gears and crystals that laid at the table without saying a word. Had she seen any if those things before? She most probably had, she had after all spent around a year together with Jack in this world before Ellen had been revived.

Ellen let out another heavy sigh, why couldn’t it have been her that got that possibility?

Even if she and Alice had talked about taking it easy this day, it seemed like Alice had put her all into making the dinner as always. Was her sister a workaholic that didn’t knew how to take it easy, even when a calm day was thrown into her face?

“Don’t you have a book about how gears work?”

Jack looked sceptical at her.

The dinner had been silent as always, but when they all had finished it Ellen decide to ask him about how the purifying gear worked. But his response gave Ellen a feeling about that it had backfired.

“I do. But I thought that I could ask to save some time.”

Jack started to explain for her that she was a grown-up, working woman. So she should be able to handle it herself.

Ellen would have loved that he called her a grown-up woman, but not a time like this. Whatever different time would have been fine, but now it was like he just indicated that she was on her own.

Maybe there was no other choice then to ask Chris about it, he would most probably accept that she asked for help and advices. He had already said that he would help her. Sure that had been while talking about studies, but he would also help her when it came to work, right?

Jack had left for his library, again, and the girls had started to do the dishes.

“Is it a hard request Jack have given you?”

Alice seemed curious about Jack's request, maybe because she wished to find a way to get even closer to Jack herself. As it wasn’t enough that she already had him spellbound with the food she made, which not even Ellen would deny was tasting great.

“ It ain’t an easy request he have given me at least.”

Ellen was exhausted by her thoughts that was spinning around in her head like headless chickens, so she didn’t even feel like finding a way to avoid Alice horrific try.

“ What are you suppose to do with those strange cogs and crystal like things?”

Ellen tried to simplify how she would try to find a way to make the crystals purer with the gears, which no one really know worked or not.

Alice lit up irritated like a torch.

How could they leave a request like that if they didn’t even know if it work or not. Wasn’t that just like they tried to use her? Trying to save money by abuse a girl, for the sake of saving a few coins.

Ellen feel glad that her sister thought somehow like her. Maybe “the princess” had something like a heart after all, maybe those kind act earlier hadn’t been fake.

Back in the workshop Ellen picked up her book about special gears.

Jack could have a point in what he said earlier. Ellen was a grown-up and she had decide to start working as a cog technician. So maybe she had gained some more responsibility just by those facts alone. And then it was best to try find out some more information and think about it herself before asking around for help.

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It was easy to find the information about the purifying gear in the book. Who even had organized the information in the book did know what they did.

It wasn’t much information about the gear in the book, but it was about what she needed to know.

Just like she had thought the gear and propeller were made by two different materials, if which she never had heard the name of neither of the metals before.

It worked by spinning above the object that should be purified, propeller towards it, of course. And somehow it drags out the impurities out of the object. The more solid the object were, the harder it was to drag the impurities out of it. The chart that was written in the book only reached to dirt. Then it didn’t seemed like it could go further, or maybe they just hadn’t found a way to reach further after that.

There was also a breaking point at the gear, hundred rounds/minute. Which could explain why they hadn’t reach further then dirt, that needed the gear to spin at least ninety-five rounds/minute.

Ellen let out a heavy sigh, if dirt was the most solid thing it could purify. It meant that it could be so much easier if she crushed the crystal before even trying to purify it, but that also meant that it would be impossible for customers to buy whole crystals. Which most probably was the whole idea of selling them.

So she needed to find a way to purify them in one piece, which could be a hard task since the gear had a breaking point that almost was reached while purify simple dirt. She almost knew that she would break at least a couple of gears while working with it, so it could be a good idea to ask Jack if they supported her with more gears if both of them broke. And she also needed to find a way to go around the breaking point.

This could turn out to be much harder then she had thought at first.

When Ellen decided to get some sleep the others had already went to bed. Once again she walked through the house in the light of a single candle. It felt creepy just like the first time. It was still like a scene out of a horror movie, there anything could jump out of the shadows and attack her.

Ellen violently shake her head, she was getting really tired. If she got feeling like that it really was time for her to get some sleep. She are a grown-up woman now, so she needs to act like one instead of acting like a child.

After taking of her working clothes and washed of herself, she walked to the bedroom in her underwear. First of because she had forgotten her nightclothes there, and second because she felt to tired for even care if she worn the nightclothes or not. She never did in her last life, so if Alice hadn’t given her the nightclothes she never would have worn them.

Ellen did try not to wake Alice up when she sneaked into the bed, but the luck wasn’t at her side.

“ Working late today Ellen?”

“The princess” seemed to be barely awake as she turned to her sister and talked.

Ellen didn’t got a chance to answer before the next question was thrown at her.

“Did you find any solution for the task Jack gave you?”

Why was that little “princess” so curious about that? Did she hoped that Ellen would fail Jack so she could get closer to him, AGAIN. That wasn’t anything Ellen would allow, not for anything in the world.

“ I have a couple of ideas that I will talk with Chris about, so I think everything will work out my way.”

It was almost a lie, she sure had one idea. But it was barely good enough to gain her confidence. There was probably so much more she would need to look and think over again and again until she really had succeeded. If she even could finish the task successfully.

“Then you can go and visit him after we have finished most of the cleaning, so will I pick you up after buying what we need for dinner.”

It was actually a good idea, for coming from her. Her idea meant hat Ellen could get in touch with Chris faster then she had thought from the beginning, which was at least one day earlier then she had planned herself. It also meant that she could get more help and maybe even finish the request faster. Maybe Jack could be happier that way to, maybe he even would praise her richly.

But first if she needed to ask Jack about the purifying gears. To do the work she had to find a way to surpass the breaking point, and that meant there were some risks that the gear would break. And if she won’t get more from him, it will be a pain.

“ Ellen, it is time to get up.”

Why did Alice have to be an early bird. It wouldn’t hurt to sleep a little longer, like when she was sick.

“Ellen, we have to get up and make breakfast.”

Was this how the little “princess” would be after a “free day”? If that was the case, then Ellen might need to consider if she will allow Alice to have “free days”.

“If you don’t go up, you might miss you chance to talk with Jack.”

She had a point that Ellen needed to talk with him, but it probably wasn’t that the “princess” had in mind.

Was she really ready to use Jack to get Ellen out of bed? To get what she wanted. Use poor, poor Jack?

At last Ellen left the bed, still only half awake. Silently cursing both Alice and the fact that she needed to ask Jack about the gear. Sure it couldn’t be helped, but still. The air and cloths felt cold against her skin when she got dressed. They should really need to do something about that, at least Ellen thought so.

The breakfast passed silent as always. Ellen really wished to change that, but last time she had tried she got totally ignored by the two others. It really had to be changes when she finally got together with him. Whatever they wished for it or not.

“Jack, can I ask you a question?”

Only by talking she seemed to bothered him. He looked disliking at her and cracked a irritated smile.

“Go ahead Ellen.”

She hesitated if she would go on and ask him the question. But since she already had bothered him, it was probably best to ask him the question.

“If the purifying gears would break, is it possible for me to get more if them?

Jack widens his eyes and starred surprised at her.

“Do you have any plans to break the gears?”

“No, not at all. But since I probably will need to keep speed close to the breaking point, there is a risk that the gears break.”

Jack didn’t give her an answer to her question. He needed to think about it and talk with his co-workers about it.

Ellen could only accept his answer and wait for the final answer, no matter how annoying it was. She would also have loved to ask him why he did look bothered by her question. Wasn’t it normal for a cog technician to make sure how the situation looked like before really starting?

Ellen was in deep thoughts while cleaning, she really needed to find a solution to the problem.

Could the gear spin faster than the breaking point, if it was less than a minute. If that possible could work, then she maybe had a chance to purify the crystal to Jack's liking. Otherwise she at least had a point to start from and work out from.

“Ellen, can you please spend some energy at cleaning instead?”

Couldn’t that “princess” just shut up? She had some serious problems accepting that Ellen had a lot to think about, was she afraid that she would lose Jack to her? If that was the case, it would only be serving her right.

“I will.”

There was no idea to even think about starting an argument with her about it. It was after all Ellen herself that had come up with the idea of that only every second day would be a “free day”. And today was not one of those days.

Ellen began to clean again, for a short while before she got stuck in her thoughts again.

Alice got clearly more irritated by every time she had to tell Ellen to start the cleaning again.

“Please Ellen, go over to Chris and go through all your thoughts with him. I will do the last cleaning myself, but just for today. I want YOU to really DO some real cleaning next time. Without getting stuck the whole time.”

Alice had got tired of Ellen after telling her to start cleaning again seven times, at least.

Ellen frantically ran to her workshop, put both one of the purifying gears in a small bag while grabbing one of the crystals before leaving.

While running she couldn’t help but to feel sorry for Alice. She had just hold on to their agreement, yet Ellen had failed to hold on to het part of it. She probably didn’t mean aby harm by constantly interrupt her thoughts. Maybe Ellen had to do something for her later on. Only maybe.

She at last reached Chris's shop, it felt like she had run for much longer than she had. But now she could probably settle a few of her thoughts. If she only could do that and get an answer from Jack, which of course would work late, it could be quite some less thoughts to annoy her next time she would clean.

“Chris, I might need some help!”

She had just opened the door when she spoke up to him with a loud voice. Without a thought if there was anyone else in the shop.

Chris looked up surprised at her from behind the counter. When he realized it was her he cracked a wide smile, “Starting to feel like home here?”.

Ellen ignored his comment and began to explain the task that she had got from her father while walking toward him. Chris listened carefully and nodded to show that he was following.

“So simply said, you wish to ask a couple of things that you are wondering about?”

Ellen nodded in agreement, she had to know if she wished to finish Jack's request.

“Then let us see what I can help you with.”

Chris started with examine the purifying gear and the crystal. According to him the gear was made in a high quality, which meant it could take some more punishment then usually. And the crystal was nothing like he had worked with before. Not that he really had worked with purifying gears either, more then installing it once at an other workshop.

“So you want to find a way to surpass the breaking point for the purify gear?”

He seemed to be in deep thoughts while asking. Maybe he was heavily hesitating that it would work?

“Yes, that is what I want. I believe it’s the only chance to make the crystal purer.”

“And you believe you can surpass that by hold a higher speed for a shorter while, then letting it slow down. Before you repeat the same patter again?”

Chris was right on how she had thought, but the only problem was if it would work and for how long it would work. If it even work that was.

“Have you tried to hold the maximum speed yet?”

Ellen looked surprised at him, she actually hadn’t try that yet. But the maximum speed could only purify a part of dirt before breaking. And even if the crystal was fragile, it was still more solid then dirt. So it wouldn’t work, at least she didn’t believe it would work.

Chris burst out in laugher when he noticed Ellen's expression.

“What do you say about coming back when you have tried that, so will I also give your little idea some thought and see if I can come to a solution.”

He didn’t took her seriously, but of course who would have? A girl that just have started as cog technician comes in and ask for help, before even trying anything herself. She couldn’t really blame him.

Ellen let out a sigh, “Is there something so I can adjust the speed? So will I try both the idea and the highest speed before the breaking point.”

When she walked out of the shop she meet Alice, walking home after visiting the market place. She still seemed to be just as irritated as back home.

There maybe should have been an apology to Alice, but Ellen found it hard to think so. Sure she had failed to hold their agreement, for a good reason. If she could finish the request then Jack maybe should be home more, and Alice also wanted that. Right?

After Ellen had helped to finish the last of the house chores for the day, she as usually went to her workshop.

She had earlier bought a kind of spring from Chris that could help her adjust the speed on the gears.

Which meant that she had to start working on the request now. She had everything she needed to start, so there was no longer any excuse for her to not do it.

Starting with to out up those practice plates she had got from get beloved Jack, followed by some gears and then followed by an other kind of gear. That was spinning by itself if it got in contact with a specific kind of metal, and the more amount of metal that touched it the faster it span. With that she could try and see if it made any difference below the breaking point. Of course she would try to use the spring to, still believing that the spring could be the answer.

She tried both of the methods. The only thing she noticed really happened was that the purifying only resulted in some slightly naughty smell. But otherwise the crystals looked just like before.

She would have loved to give tone of the crystals another charge with the spring, but after the third charge the gear had crumbled to pieces.

Jack and his co-workers had to be sponsoring her with purifying gears, otherwise she would run out if money in no time.

She let out a defeated sigh. Those crystals was the only ones she had, so now after she had experimented at them she needed to leave them to Jack for analysis. Which meant that there was nothing more to do this day.

The only thing she could hope for now was that Jack either had or would have taken home more crystals that she could work with. If he hasn’t it meant that she had nothing to work at during the next day, which was a day she could all spend at working. As long as the “princess” didn’t want a revenge for this day. But then she would only show how rotten she was and that she didn’t cared about their dear father.