Dellen felt an almost immediate spike of fear rise within him, running up his spine, tensing his muscles. The sixty-foot wall of the cog rushed by, just a handspan away. He knew he could snap himself to it with a magnetic pull. He could pull Aether from his Spark Core, circulate it to his hands, his feet, or even just magnetise his chest to slam into the copper.

He took another breath and fell beyond the cogs.

Another spike of fear shot through him. He was amongst the supports, the massive beams holding the entire city up. The shadows of the cogs themselves made it hard to see, and falling in the darkness was somehow worse.

Sparks lit in both of his hands, blooming into enormous balls of lightning, casting a crackling, shifting radiance that cut into the gloom. The spaces under Coppperopolis were vast enough that all he saw was black extending into the distance, with but a single support beam nearby.

Dellen felt his fear bubbling within him, turbulent like a storm. His deaths were usually violent, abrupt, and hard to avoid; here he felt like he was fighting his instincts to ensure that he did die.

The supports vanished from around him. He plunged through the dark. His mind flashed back to chasing Nessa, he knew there were horrors in the depths of the chasm. He toyed with the idea of banishing the lightning in his hands, comforting though it might be, he felt that it served as little more than a lure for the larger inhabitants who might want to eat him. They would have to catch him first though. A slight smile tugged at his lips, he was going fast, and he felt like he was still speeding up. Even if something like a steam squid saw him coming, it would be hard-pressed to intercept him.

Dellen released the ball lightning in his hands, letting it escape off into the dark, crackling for a while, before vanishing from his sight. He fell in silence, waiting, when they had chased after Nessa there had been lights, he wanted to see them again. Up ahead, faint in the distance, was a weaving display. It grew larger, then, for a brief moment, he was in the middle of dancing, moving lights. Something, beautiful in the dark.

Then the lights were gone, far above him and faint.

Ball lightning crackled to life in his palms again, and he faced down, waiting for the bottom. He did not see anything in the dark, but even above the roar of the wind in his ears, he heard odd calls, and noises around him, living calls. There was a world for him to explore if he ever though he could survive something as dangerous as a shoal of steam squid.

The bottom of the chasm came into view. For a brief second he thought he saw something manmade in the ground just before he hit.

Dellen was back in his office on the Northcote Estate

“Miss Thornbrook,” Eliza said. Dellen realised she was repeating herself.

“Well, that didn’t work,” Gilgamesh said.

“You think Miss Thornbrook has been carving people open,” Dellen said, feeling numb. They were likely right, and there was not a thing he could do about it. He allowed the conversation to play out as similarly to the previous iteration as he could. No doubt if he seemed off, Eliza and Finnegan would just assume that he was shocked by the news.

Meanwhile, his mind raced as he looked for any solution more palatable than what Gilgamesh and Eliza had independently recommended. Helping Miss Thornbrook. It was a cold and pragmatic solution. Burn a few lives to save the rest. He wondered if he could succeed at something unorthodox, like having a carriage she was in crash into the abyss, regardless of how resilient a Seventh Trinity Aetherforged was, surely even they would die from falling that far.

He rejected the idea as unworkable, the only way to ensure the carriage crashed would be for him to be in it, and that would erase the entire event, and if he succeeded, then what? Someone else might come who was worse, and he would have no recourse with them either. There was nothing he could do to counter an Aetherforged so far above him.

“Dellen?” Finnegan said, his tone indicated that it was not the first time he had said Dellen’s name.

Dellen realized that he had been lost in thought, “We help her,” he said with a sigh. “We help her, and we do everything we can to ensure that soon enough there will be no citizens left to experiment on.”

“What about younger citizens?” Finnegan asked, “We’re not forging anyone under age eight.”

“Cores aren’t mature enough to survive outside of a body until the unforged is an adult. It’s not something that ever happens in the outside world.” Eliza said to him.

“Look at that, someone in your group explaining Aether and it isn’t you,” Gilgamesh said. Dellen appreciated the point, even if he still wanted a better solution.

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“What about the school?” Finnegan asked.

“Still in progress,” Dellen said.

“What if she wants to be part of it?”

Dellen released another sigh, “Then it will be safer for it, especially for any students with Pyro Aether. Do you appreciate that if she so chose, she could spend a few hours today or tomorrow, bringing a few Aetherforged with a pyro affinity up to Second Trinity? If they had the metals?”

“Maybe I should do that,” Eliza said.

“Bring yourself up to Second Trinity?”

“Yes.”

“Do it.” Dellen said, he let himself feel a smile, “For a little while at least you’ll be the most advanced native-born Aetherforged in the city. What’s not to like about that? We might even be able to fit you into a history book.

Eliza cheeks colored, “I don’t need to be in a history book, I just don’t like this feeling of vulnerability, I used to feel like I lived in a jar, now I feel like a bug living with other bugs, but always at risk of being eaten by a bird.” She gave a helpless shrug, “I want to feel like a bird.”

“I want a flight suit, that would make me feel like a bird,” Finnegan said, perhaps taking the conversation a bit too literally.

“He’s a nice kid,” Gilgamesh said.

“So what are we doing?” Eliza asked.

“I think we try to bring you up to Second Trinity, and we try to lay some foundations so that Copperopolis won’t be at the mercy of a passing high Trinity Aetherforged who takes a fancy to her skyline.”

“Can we get her to spin again?” Finnegan asked, “I mean without creating the zone of dead Aether around the city?”

“Maybe,” Dellen said, remembering the control room, “But first, the school.”

Eliza nodded, “First the school,” she hesitated, “I don’t suppose you could sponsor me the materials I need to get to Second Trinity?”

“Titanium, nickel, and gold.” Dellen said, “I’ll get you enough of each.”

“Nickel?” Finnegan asked looking confused.

“Titanium, aluminum, nickel, gold and palladium can be used to reach Second Trinity, but nickel is especially beneficial to those with Pyro Aether.”

“Oh, is there anything useful for Kinematic Aether?”

“Palladium,” Dellen said absently.

“What about Electrical Aether?” Finnegan asked, voice brimming with curiosity.

“I’m not aware of any materials that are particularly helpful at Second Trinity, if you have Electrical Aether.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Finnegan protested.

“Fair’s not part of it, but I learned that copper is particularly helpful for Electrical Aether, and I’ve already forged copper.”

“Thank you,” Eliza said, reclaiming her position in the conversation.

“You’re welcome,” Dellen said, not that it was a grand gift on his part, with the Northcote providing all of the iron for the forgings, they were enjoying a steady stream of sales that had the house finances looking remarkably healthy. Preparing the estate to house students was cutting into that a bit, but he felt that even Stefan would come around once he saw the long-term benefits.

Eliza came back two days later, without Finnegan, “How are your preparations coming along?” She asked.

Dellen looked her up and down and smiled, “You’re Second Trinity!”

“And your equal in every way,” she said with a mock-serious nod.

“What does it feel like to be a walking bonfire?”

“Empowering,” she said, looking no less pleased with herself.

“How are they treating you at the Chronicle?”

“I think a lot of people are nervous of me now,” she said, if anything looking even more pleased. “They offered me a bigger office.”

“And?”

“And I didn’t take it, they’re all going to be Second Trinity, eventually, too, I don’t want something I do now to come back and haunt me.”

“If she was stuck in a series of time loops like you are, she’d never die. Finally, someone with the barest modicum of self-preservation.” Gilgamesh said.

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“And the school?”

“The Mercantile Guild is helping me bring in teachers,” Dellen said.

“What about the Aetherweave Institute?”

“I’ve been worried that if I bring in additional High Trinity teachers they may imitate Miss Thornbrook,” he said with a grimace.

“So, for now?”

“For now, I’m finding instructors through the Mercantile Guild. They had the city under their thumb for centuries and never stooped to murder.”

“Maybe I could help,” Eliza said.

“Oh?”

“As you said, at this point I’m one of the most advanced Aetherforged in the city.”

She was right, despite the brevity of her experience with Aether, Eliza’s time forging with Miss Thornbrook meant that she was more than capable with Pyro Aether, even if she still needed to hone her reflexes. It was one thing to be able to use Aether, it was another thing to use it reflexively, and that was not something Miss Thornbrook could teach quickly. The time Dellen had spent practicing with the Order was not something that could be achieved by having a high Trinity Aetherforged demonstrate how to use Aether, shaping a magnetic field before hitting the ground, took more than competence, it took experience. Actions needed to be practiced so often that they were all but automatic.

“Absolutely,” he said with a smile, “I think the more of our citizens that can be included the better.”

“What are your goals for the first year?

“I haven’t even opened my doors yet,” Dellen protested.

Eliza laughed, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had goals for five years out.”

Dellen allowed himself a chuckle, but inwardly he disagreed, he had a sense of having lived a long time, and a bevy of flashes of memory from different periods of his life, but they were still a jumble, in some ways, he still felt adrift. In a year’s time, he knew that he hoped to have learned what triggered his time loops, and whether he could come to control it. He hoped to learn how to feel his Chronometric Aether and manipulate it, turn it to the advantage that he was sure he had expected it to be. As to the school? Well, he hoped it would help people, he hoped to see citizens like Finnegan reach First and then Second Trinity. He hoped it would be the start of his journey to create a legacy for the Northcotes, something he could be proud of leaving behind. He hoped that it would transform his family estate.

When Dellen had arrived in Copperopolis, the estate was enormous, overgrown, and empty. Dellen hoped that the school would turn the building back into what it was supposed to be, a space full of life. He let his thoughts give him a smile, and let his feelings colour his words, “Five years, no, my plans are not yet so grand, but yes, I have a few ideas for the future.”

“What title are you going to be giving yourself?”

“I think I’ll do just fine as the Dean.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Won’t your forgings require you to travel?”

“Perhaps I can be Dean in absentia.”