The four girls woke up to yet another morning, with even more work still left to be completed. All four of them had been keeping busy, between yesterday's intense fitness and the evening's tasks for the workshop.
Thanrie woke up especially tired. She had been practicing late into the night, after working extra late to get work done. After all of her activities yesterday, she had been left heavily distracted and had fallen behind in the work she had been left with. The jet-stream project ended up taking late into the night, even Ehryinae had left long before and she was the one especially interested in the thermal conduction. Eventually, she had been dismissed way later than anyone else, after most people had gone to sleep in fact. So instead, she did some late-night training, to clear her mind.
However, this had just left her with even more worries and even more exhaustion by morning. Everyone else had already gotten up, had breakfast, and was starting on morning tasks. Thanrie blitzed out of bed, a flurry of desperate motion, still a disheveled mess. Mhyl caught her half way out the door, and dragged her right back inside, seating her into a chair.
"I had a feeling you were pushing yourself too hard. This is why no one can believe you're actually a princess, even your hair is a mess." Mhyl pulled out a brush and started going over Thanrie's hair, despite her protests. "If you're worried about where you left off last night, Ehryinae is already on it, from what I heard. Even last night, pushing yourself in the dark, you were making a bunch of mistakes. Clearly, you have something on your mind, what is it?" Mhyl was honestly using this great opportunity to get some information from Thanrie, at the expense of tending to her hair.
Thanrie gave in, considering hiding things from each other has caused too many issues in the past. "Uh, well, actually, most of it involves you. You wake up from your near death experience, recovering well enough, and suddenly you've got.. everything. I don't even know what happened to you, but you're suddenly like an unstopped whirlpool of talent. The little Mhyl, who we always thought was so meek, was suddenly too good at sparring, too good at sports, too good at dancing, and too good at music.. it's kinda intimidating. I didn't want to be left in the dust, I know I should be capable of more than I have been. I've just been going easy on myself, and I wanted to make up for it." Thanrie sighed, having gotten this news off her chest.
Mhyl was shocked at this insight. She wasn't aware of much of this, she had just felt inspired to make a difference. In that light, it really wasn't that different from what Thanrie herself was doing. Mhyl was impressed at how driven, determined, and almost brave Thanrie was for not only committing to this, but also admitting to it so freely. She finished up on Thanrie's hair, and made sure Thanrie otherwise looked presentable enough, just to complete the original task she had given to herself.
"Okay, then lets get back too it. Just be careful, you might be a human, but your stamina isn't infinite. Don't push yourself too hard." "Sheesh, I know, 'mom'. Can I just go now?" Mhyl and Thanrie giggled at that, maybe Mhyl was really trying too hard as well. Thanrie was still expected to have some breakfast before working, to get her energy back, but otherwise Mhyl had gone back to her own tasks. Thanrie kept her breakfast simple, but still had complied.
"This is fun, can I try that again?" "Uh, the room is hot enough as is, can't you wait at all?" "But, but.. fine." Ehryinae sighed in defeat, she knew Lwyn was right. She could almost hear the Arch-Magus in Lwyn's own voice, scolding her for getting too lost in the heat of the moment. It was like when she herself was much younger, learning some of the intricate ways her flame gift could be used. This time, it was complex ways her own flame could be applied, in ways she couldn't even form by herself. Tools that augment and shape her gift to complete things she couldn't shape it to do herself. It was something of pure genius.
Thanrie walked into the furnace they were using to work on the jetstream engine, still concerned that they were having issues getting pipes designed to bring their steam power outdoors. Testing all of this indoors was leaving less room for the heat to escape. The heat of the day wasn't going to help much either, this was one reason she was hoping for a late night success. She decided it might be best to start with finding her brother, who could maybe cool the situation down.
Ihzyhur wasn't that far away, tending to his own matters. "Oh, hello sis. I heard you were up late last night, everything alright?" Ihzyhur made it clear Thanrie's actions had caused more concern than she had expected. "I'm fine, I'm fine, sorry to cause such concern. But Ihzy, the others could probably use your.. gift. We've got a room that isn't cooling itself." Thanrie had been pondering how they could use the same air-current technique to get her brother's gift to result in a form of air conditioning, but there were already enough unfinished projects in progress. She also worried that, with consideration to the large amount of heat Ehryinae caused, her brother might instead freeze the place solid.
Not long later, she found the foundation of her concerns. Having been given open use for the room, with everyone evacuated, Ihzyhur set to work cooling the place down. When he was done, the others returned to find the whole room a sheet of ice. Thanrie had to turn on her boots to increase her traction, the others were sliding everywhere. "Oh, if the ice is a problem, I'm sure I could melt.." Ehryinae was instantly cut off with a series of glares. Clearly, this project would have to wait for it to thaw naturally.
The four of them gathered again in the training room. "So, interesting enough, one of the problems with the gift seems to be.. it's really hard to control. I mean, maybe that makes sense, Terran technology has a million complex controls to make sure things stay safe, and when it got really hard, used some fancy computers to make everything exact. The gift isn't a precision technique, it's very very analog. With consideration of how complicated it is, it sorta makes sense." Mhyl was again considering the science behind the gift, though she did seem to have a good point. Nothing about the gift they had seen in the experts around them seemed like it was predictable or exact in nature, it was rather chaotic instead.
Qheria still wasn't up to having another football game, so they just did some individual training together. Thanrie went to get her weapon, to go over some of her routines, while Lwyn got her crossbow and Qheria put her shields on. Thanrie came back to Mhyl, tumbling a routine off in the middle of the floor, a flurry of grace in motion. Thanrie remembered the discussion she had earlier with Mhyl, and saw Mhyl was refusing to herself be left in the dust. A determined empathy passed over Thanrie's face, weapon training could wait. She went back to put her weapon away, and returned without it, Lwyn and Qheria still watching lost in wonder.
Thanrie took to a spot near the side of the room, and took a deep breath. She didn't have the grace Mhyl had, but she had her own fluid of motion. She knew in her own case, she was really fast. However, she had trusted in her boots to provide her with speed ever since she had acquired them. If she had any hope in beating Mhyl, she had to make the most of her own ability. She could be faster than Mhyl, if only she tried. Thanrie set off on a forward dash, heading towards the wall. Just before connecting, she made a pivot stop and turn, dashing from that spot once again with the same integral speed. Still it wasn't enough, her stop was too slow, her turn was too slow, her dash was too slow. More, she needed to achieve more.
Lwyn dropped her crossbow, completely lost as to what she was witnessing. What had happened to those two, what were they doing? Eventually, Lwyn came out of her trance and picked up her weapon. Both Lwyn and Qheria felt out of place in the room in that moment, and stepped aside, watching their peers from the outskirts. As Mhyl and Thanrie stopped for a break, totally exhausted, both Lwyn and Qheria wandered off. Qheria started reading some reports, while Lwyn just went to look into helping with lunch.
When lunch came, Thanrie was almost face first into her food. Her own exhaustion was overwhelming, but she was otherwise feeling much better. During the afternoon, the plan was to look into their ambient light technique. This took them the farthest from the heat of the day, as they were working in the basement of the entire facility. They had a separate circuit to work with, connecting neon filament lights in a useless circle in middle of a large room. The neon filaments passed through a pump, to keep it's speed steady. Each pump was itself powered by steam pumps coming through the rest of the facility. Because the pumps then mutually supported both the steam flow and the gaseous neon filaments, the rate and flow through the circuit was constant, keeping everything at a steady rate.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The neon filaments weren't exactly neon, they just glowed in a way that was very similar. The filament dust emitted more light the faster they were forced to move. Turning off the circuit when in motion had the filaments slow down gradually, causing them to become more and more dim, until they went dark. However, using a gear system network and some custom pieces, they had the goal of having each of these pumps move the filaments at twice the regular speed, to then see what that would do.
To ensure everything was safe, the system was fully disconnected, the pumps themselves forced empty. This left the pipes filled with all of the filaments stagnant, and the regular pipes around the facility providing all of the light. It made everything rather dark. Thanrie was midly creeped out by it, getting a bad feeling down here, but more so, the darkness was making her extra sleepy. She however got her part installed in the pump she was working on, and put the whole thing back together. With nothing left to do but wait on the others, she relaxed, resting against the pump.
Lwyn got the last pump setup with it's part, the pump just next in line after Thanrie, as Qheria checked over her paperwork and Mhyl inspected the pipes. Being an elf, her keen eye for detail made her the best at finding anything wrong. She made her lap around, stepping over Thanrie after checking the pump there carefully. Thanrie had made no mistakes with it, and Mhyl wasn't about to deny her some rest. After checking Lwyn's too, she nodded in satisfaction.
Qheria was still comparing her notes to the system. "Mhyl, can you get it turned on then?" Qheria got a nod for her inquiry, as Mhyl went up the stairs. Thanrie heard this in her half-asleep state. She really hoped this worked, the dim lights were so creepy. She laid there imagining the system coming to life, and them moving with intensity, bringing a bright crimson hue to the room that felt almost like white light in it's intensity, a brilliance that would shed away the darkness.
The pumps all turned on, and the lights began to move, more and more rapidly. Qheria looked over the whole system, as Lwyn relaxed next to her own pump, watching the lights move around her. The lights grew to normal, and then exceeded. Things grew brighter, but then kept going. The light behind Lwyn was actually getting much brighter than it was anywhere else in the circuit, but Lwyn wasn't watching. Qheria took note of this, with sudden alarm and concern.
The whole system was designed to move uniformly, which is good because it kept the pressure of the system constant. The pipe behind Lwyn however was starting to bulge from a massive pressure build, it was taking in way more than it was able to send out. The pump behind Lwyn was starting to crack itself under the pressure as well, none of this known to Lwyn. Qheria made a split-second decision and dashed to shove Lwyn out of the way.
Qheria however was too slow to provide enough time for her own escape. Once Lwyn stumbled safely out of the way of the pump, the system itself ruptured from the pressure and exploded with force and shards. Sharp metal fragments sliced across Qheria, forming gaps for the chemical vapours that exploded next in line against her, causing acid burns. The force of the onrushing air blew her backwards too, thrown into the distant wall at the other side of the basement, as the room started to fill with chemical vapours.
Help was downstairs in moments, the air all but freezing solid as the Seekers rushed in. Rhyde and Yuxzn came too, alarmed to what had just happened. The Wardens were on standby, preparing for any kind of medical requirements. Ihzyhur froze the entire circuit in solid ice, to ensure it stayed stable for now. Rhyde himself was soon after, carrying Qheria up the stairs, seriously injured, burned, and as far as he could tell, also poisoned. Yuxzn was guiding the shaking Lwyn up the stairs, while Ihzyhur had taken to looking after his stunned sister.
Thanrie herself hadn't woken until the actual explosion, which did not make for the best way to wake up. Both her and Lwyn were mostly okay, having only choked on the fumes. Mhyl had completely missed the entire incident, but had quickly caught on to what had happened in general. Mhyl offered to take and support Thanrie while Ihzyhur set about trying to get the fumes safely out of the building, to avoid any greater catastrophe.
Mhyl contemplated that, in a way, it was like a carbon monoxide accident, just maybe without being a flammable gas. Actually, she didn't know if the stuff was flammable, which was another reason why Ihzyhur's efforts to evacuate the vapours from the building might be even more important. It did mean they needed to move, but that all three of them needed medical care. They weren't exactly poisoned, but it was similar, they had breathed in too much of something vastly unlike oxygen. Qheria however looked in an utterly horrible state, clearly getting the stuff in her wounds had caused many more problems. The direct contact was probably toxic, and her body was covered in acid burns, though much of that might be from the fragments themselves rather than the vapour that carried it.
While the Wardens mostly focused on Qheria, Mhyl made sure the other two would be alright. She knew, with their command of the gift, they were far more capable then she was. Neither of these two were injured, so with a quick check from a Warden each, the Wardens were quickly gone from them. Qheria herself was being kept in another room, one with a lot of ventilation and air. Mhyl was very concerned about what had happened, and after Thanrie and Lwyn recovered enough, she turned to them with her questions.
"So.. what happened? What did we do wrong?" Mhyl had pressed her mind, searching for anything she had missed, but nothing was off, everything had checked out. "The pump beside me exploded, it was over pressure. Qheria.. she jumped in, probably seeing what I wasn't. She... she saved me, and for that... she's..." Lwyn started bawling. "She shouldn't have done that, this should never have happened to her. It would have been better if it was me.." Lwyn trailed off, unable to keep her voice going.
Thanrie was lost into the moment. Once again, one of their own has suffered life-threatening injury. Sure, once again, they would probably recover. The Seekers and Warden had even reacted remarkably quickly, with proper care Qheria would be back on her feet quick enough. But this was yet another disaster, yet another bout of misfortune. They hadn't even gone out seeking danger, it had came to their own home, seeking them instead.
Mhyl was meanwhile concerned on how this whole thing could happen. "This still shouldn't even been possible. How could pressure have built up in the system, when everything in the system is constant. This itself is completely impossible, nothing else was affecting it.. for it to have built up so much pressure, the pump before it would have had to been running way faster than the rest." Mhyl pondered that thought and recalled, the pump she was considering was the same one Thanrie had been resting against, inconspicuously.
Thanrie herself froze as she came to the same realization, looking down at her hands. Each time one of them had used the gift, they had been mostly unconscious, left there for a while to tend to that spot for a period of time. She herself had overall been tending that pump ever since mid-afternoon, and it was almost dinner now. And then.. she had lost consciousness. This.. this was all her fault. The others, they had been lucky enough to have their own gifts used to save the one wounded, but in her case, she had personally caused this. Her own lack of control over her gift had almost killed Qheria.
"I.. can't believe it... This is my fault, this happened because of me." Thanrie was shaking in fear of herself and her own ability. There was no way they could be safe, if this kind of thing could just happen to them anywhere. They were a threat to themselves, no matter what they did.
Mhyl composed herself for the coming storm. They had been through life-threatening dangers before, she was growing aware of what these situations took. She reflected upon her own advice to Qheria before, in fact the lessons they had shared about it. What mattered most was not what had gone wrong, but how they had kept going. She repeated that lesson into her head. This situation though was much more complicated than usual. Lwyn had recently fainted by being put too center stage, and her being saved at the cost of another seemed way more than she could handle. Mhyl made sure Lwyn laid down, before she could just black out again. Lwyn lost consciousness soon after.
Mhyl turned to Thanrie, who meanwhile was left conflicted by the gift. Mhyl reflected on when Thanrie had gotten heavily injured, which Qheria herself had blamed herself for. In truth, it was caused indirectly by Qheria's mistake back then, which was very similar to how this had gone for Thanrie. To Mhyl, having the gift go off unintended was nothing but an accident, in much the same light. Still, Mhyl could tell that wasn't how Thanrie was seeing it. To Thanrie, she had lost control of herself and her own ability, something she had been stressing on for a while now, in essence the same reason she was this tired. Instead of the world failing her, she had failed herself, and Qheria was the one to suffer for it.
Mhyl made sure Thanrie was getting some sleep too before she wandered off to check on Qheria. Through all the commotion, she was left with a positive impression. Qheria was indeed going to be fine. In truth, Lwyn and Thanrie were bigger concerns, because no one else could help them but Mhyl herself. The last time, everyone had suffered taking care of her, this time she would work hard to make sure everything stayed under control. She would need to keep up with Qheria's condition, make sure she remained aware of how well things were going. Meanwhile, she would need to tear down the walls Lwyn and Thanrie were building up to cage themselves. The first step would be worrying about dinner, she could figure out the rest after that.
Even thinking of this made her envy the Wardens, their job almost seemed so much easier. Saving Lwyn and Thanrie from their own self-spite and hatred was going to take a lot more work and planning.