"Sinclair! You're still alive." I was surprised to sense him walking into the building, so I stopped off at the ground floor instead of heading back to the basement after getting all the ovens and fire safety stuff set up. "Good. I have a lot of work for you. Who's your friend?"

"Nicholas Reynolds, jeweler." The man introduces himself. "It's an honor to meet you, and I must thank you for this opportunity. Master Sinclair and I have been working almost non-stop to create this." He presents a masterpiece, a somewhat gaudy masterpiece, but still a masterpiece.

"Cool, I'm sure she'll love it." I take the timepiece from him and examine it closely. "You want to join us for dinner? I still have a few things to do, but I was going to start cooking soon."

"..." He just stands there flabbergasted.

"Look, it's a great watch." I pat the man on the shoulder. "And, I'm sorry that I'm not more enthused, but I've been running myself ragged for the past few days trying to get everything that you see around you up and running. Sinclair, tell him how much of this was here the last time you saw it."

"Uh... None." I think they were both so obsessed about the watch that they hadn't looked around yet. And, now that they do, their eyes go wide. "Uh, wow."

"Yeah, that's what I was going for." I laugh and guide them over to the elevator. "I even got this thing working without you. Even if I did have to use two turbines because I couldn't figure out a reliable way to reverse the driveshaft." After ushering them inside, I slide the lever to the basement position and press the down button.

"W-what?" The jeweler nearly stumbles at the unfamiliar sensation and grabs the hand-rail that lines the walls of the carriage. "How?" His eyes bug out when the doors open to reveal an entirely different floor.

"It's a lift." I explain and walk out onto the floor. "It lifts, or in this case, lowers people between the different floors. I still want to add a few safety mechanisms and automate the operation before I'll be happy with it, but it works and that's good enough for now."

"Oh, good." Amelia smiles at Sinclair. "You're back; now he can quit whining about his missing machinist every five minutes. Ah, Master Reynolds, a pleasure. And, my apologies for Sorrel, he can take a little getting used to."

"Miss Rialta." The jeweler collects himself, and bows to her. "You've certainly found yourself an interesting man."

"Hah!" I laugh at his 'compliment' and hand the watch he and Sinclair made to Amelia. "Here, do you think the Queen will like it? I'm alright with women's clothes, but judging accessories is somewhat beyond me."

"It's beautiful." She breathes out and examines it closely from all sides. "Oh, you've outdone yourself, Nicholas. The Queen is bound to love it even if it wasn't a timepiece."

"Thank you." He dips his head to her, a look of pride filling his features.

"So, how's Adriana doing, is she still entranced?" I ask with a laugh when we reach the compressor room.

"Yes!" The woman answers for herself, but her attention never leaves the tank of supercritical water. "And, if I had known you were going to make something like this I would have never left yesterday."

"I didn't even know I was going to build the compressor." I chuckle. "I was just tired of enchanting light, after light, after light. And, these two were napping in my arms, so trying to figure out what was wrong with my metalworking was about all I could do."

"Trouble with the crystal grains?" The jeweler says with a knowing grin. "Every magic smith goes through the same thing. It's something of a rite of passage to discover why your creations are weaker than they should be. Congratulations."

"Thank you." I nod my head to him. "I don't know if I would consider myself a smith though. That's someone who has dedicated a good portion of their life to learning the material. I'm just some guy who had to move a bit of metal around."

"If you say so." He replies with a smirk. "But, that is some very fine steel for someone who doesn't consider himself a smith."

"I basically just copied some samples I had from Edsel and a belt knife I picked up in Southwood." I pat the knife on my hip. "And, Apricot was the one who came up with the method to make the grain-size so small."

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"In case you haven't noticed." Apricot wraps her arm around my waist with a laugh. "Sorrel doesn't like praise."

"Unless it's for my cooking." I smile down at her. "So, tell me what you two picked up at the market while I make some more grenades." I open up the tank of the free compressor and toss some glass inside before sealing it again.

"Wait, what did you just do there?" Reynolds was startled by the way I reformed the steel.

"Hmm? Oh, that was the trick Apricot thought up." I demonstrate again with one of the leftover metal samples from earlier. "Holding the grains that small while they formed was a hassle, so she just smushed them together before they could grow too large."

While he's marveling over that, I run the compressor until there is enough liquid carbon dioxide to cover what I added to the tank. A small hydrogen flame and a heat transfer spell later and the glass is liquid enough to shape.

Now that I understand better how the shape earth spell works, I should be able to modify it to handle noncrystalline solids like glass, but that can be a project for the future. I just know that I'll want to fool around with metallic glass when I do, and I have too much stuff that still needs doing to mess around right now.

"Here you go, Adriana." I hand her a small box filled with the first dozen orbs to come out of the tank. The water mage just shifts them into her storage with a mumbled 'thanks' while still playing around with the supercritical water.

"Is there any way for you to put a window on there?" Eliot asks. "I can barely follow what's going on with just my magic."

"Yeah, I can do that." I nod and melt down some more glass to form a thick pane that gets installed on one side of the tank. "Just don't use this one for really high-pressure tasks. Nng. I really need to make some sort of pressure gauge; too bad I never opened one up back when I worked at the bike shop. Sinclair, I was going to have you work on some air-powered tools anyway, so maybe you can figure something out."

"Moved on from waterwheels to windmills?" He raises an eyebrow and I can already see the gears churning in his brain.

"Pretty much." I nod. "I know they can and be made smaller than the turbines, and it will be a lot easier to run air lines throughout the building than water. Oh, and before I forget, what spring quality metals are most and least affected by temperature?"

"I'm not sure about most affected, but brass makes for good springs. Or, it would if it didn't change so much depending on the temperature." He says after a moment of thought. "As for least, I use a blend of iron and nickel called invar for the springs in my clocks."

"I'd kiss you, but Amelia might start getting ideas." I chuckle when she swats me on the arm. "Here, start drawing up some ideas for an air motor." I hand him a pad of paper. "We can work on them while I cook dinner. I just need to make a few more batches of these first."

...

"Looks like the girls are here." Apricot announces a while later. "And, Adriana's people are right behind them."

"You invited your friends?" I look up from the latest iteration of the air motor. Sinclair became rather excited when he saw how fast the air came out of the compressor, and even more so when I showed him that flexible rubber hoses were able to handle the pressures needed for air tools.

"I meant to tell you earlier, but you distracted me at lunch." She sticks her tongue out at me and we head down to greet them.

"No problem, I'm making plenty enough food to go around." They got a lot of really good seafood when they were out earlier, so I'm cooking paella, some of my favorite tapas, and a caesar salad, with creme brule for dessert. "Do you think any of them will sign on? You know, now that we aren't just working out of a shack in the back yard." I add with a laugh.

"That's the idea." A smile brightens her face. "This place should even bring around Delilah and Lauren, and both of their families are even better-off than mine. Though, since we're not actually making clothes, Lauren might be a bit of a hard sell."

"What about shoes?" I ask. "Felicia brought over a seamstress that won't have much to do, so I was thinking we could make some rubber-soled shoes. They may not be the high-fashion that Ren-Ren is looking for, but it's a start."

"I heard that!" Lauren grumps at the use of her nickname. "I also heard high-fashion." She adds with a gleam in her eyes.

"Maybe not just yet." I reply with a grin. "But, who knows what could happen if we hire the right people." My gaze encompasses all four of them when I say that before turning to the firefighters, leaving the girls to Amelia and Apricot. "Hi all, the Chief is down in the basement playing around with some fancy water, but dinner should be ready soon."

"Fancy water?" Nicole and Isabelle each raise an eyebrow.

"Who cares." Guthrie counters. "I heard dinner and, if those smells are anything to go by, I bet it's gonna be good." Maddie and Bat nod along with his words.

"Yeah." Maddie adds. "Half the reason I'm here is because she mentioned that there would be food."

"Well, it should be ready soon." I say. "Which one of you wants to volunteer to drag Adriana away... And, we've already lost Isabelle." I sigh when I feel her magic going downstairs to see what the fire chief is doing. "Is every water mage going to act like this?"

"What is that?" Nicole asks, and soon they're all entranced by the novel form of water.

"Fancy water." I reply with a smirk. "If you increase the pressure and heat of a substance beyond a certain point it stops behaving like a liquid or a gas, and takes on properties of both. The stairs are over there if you want a closer look, but no food is allowed in the lab, so you'll have to come upstairs if you want to eat."

"Maybe just a quick peek." Guthrie leads the rest of them down to the basement.

"And, they were never seen from again." I chuckle to myself. "Alright, let's head upstairs so Amelia can continue her sales pitch." While I was talking with the water mages she was trying to bring her friends around to joining the business.

***