The first rays of the morning sun had just begun to bathe the world in a scarlet hue. In stark contrast, a certain workshop was already operating at full blast. Yelling and hammering could be heard from the third layer of Tradespire. The usually quiet von Hohenheim estate was in an uproar this morning.
Jettero and Zeke were making the rounds. This was already their second day in a row of doing so. The old engineer was insistent that this was a necessary habit to foster. In his words: To run a proper workshop, any owner should periodically check on the state of his property. Otherwise, systemic problems would often go unnoticed for years. Zeke readily adopted this philosophy as every single trip was a learning experience for him.
Most of the people working here were sailors from the Alexandria. The ship had a competent crew. The engineers were capable of fixing common issues handily. Even the regular sailors had been trained in the basics of metal and woodworking. All in all, they would have made for excellent workers, were it not for one tiny detail…
Zeke cringed for the umpteenth time as a man right next to him screamed from the bottom of his lungs. "Neville! Get me some lumber! AND DON'T FUCKING DODDLE THIS TIME!"
"GET IT YOURSELF, YOU LAZY CUNT!" a man, probably Neville, yelled back from the other side of the room.
"Isn't there something we can do about the noise?" Zeke asked when they were back outside. "This is a residential area. It's only a matter of time until the neighbors complain if we leave it like that."
"'Bout time you noticed," Jettero said with a smirk. "If you had taken any longer, I would have had to bring it up myself."
Zeke rolled his eyes. "Why did you even hold that back in the first place?"
"And how are you going to learn, when I have to spoon-feed you everything?"
Zeke was about to quip back, but a giant yawn forced itself up his throat before he could do so. After he had compelled his mouth to close again, his words had completely changed. "Let's not do this just yet. It's still too early."
"Are you taking proper care of yourself, boy?" Jettero asked with a sideways glance.
Zeke casually waved the question away. "Don't worry, Jett, I'm fine."
"Are you?" the old man asked skeptically. "We worked nearly day and night on those schematics. Despite that, you never looked this exhausted. How many hours of sleep did you get?"
"Eh, none?" Zeke admitted meekly. The old man halted his steps and directed a disapproving look at Zeke. He was clearly waiting for an explanation.
"It's not my fault, ok?" Zeke tried to defend himself. "There is too much to do. And now I have to get us those high-grade enchantments as well."
Jettero sighed. "That's no excuse for pushing yourself that much. If you collapse, the entire project will be in danger."
"Fine, fine, I'll make sure to get a good night's rest today," Zeke conceded. "Are you happy now?"
"Bursting with joy," the old man said in a flat tone. Still, there was a twinkle in his eyes. He was clearly pleased that Zeke took his guidance seriously. "Anyway, you asked about the noise."
"Right! What can we do about that?"
"There are different approaches," Jettero explained. "The passive approach is to expand the level of soundproofing on the walls of the workshop. That's always a good idea, so we should be doing that either way."
"And the active approach?"
"The easiest solution would be a noise suppressor. But those things don't come cheap."
Zeke's eyes lit up at the mention of a new piece of technology he had never heard of. "Sounds fancy. How does that work?"
"I don't know how familiar you are with the way sound travels…" Jettero started, waiting for Zeke to jump in.
The boy didn't disappoint. "… It's the vibration of air, right?"
"Looks like they at least taught you some things in that fancy empire school," Jettero said snidely. "But this makes it easy to explain. The way a noise suppressor works is by disrupting those vibrations. It's basically just a special wind magic enchantment that stills the air. But there is one caveat: You need to use at least a high-grade enchantment to cover a large enough area."
"How much mana will it need?" Zeke questioned.
"A True Mage should be able to power it. You have enough of those to rotate them in and out over the entire workday, don't worry."
Zeke went quiet. A specific question had been plaguing him since the very first day he had arrived in Tradespire. Until now, he never had the time or opportunity to find out. However, this seemed to be the perfect moment. "Can I ask you something, Jett?"
"Hmm?" the old man grumbled absentmindedly. He was still caught up in calculating the mana usage for a noise suppressor.
"Do you know of a way to store mana for later use?"
This question managed to snap the old man out of his musings. "Ha! Now that's a loaded topic if I ever heard one," Jettero exclaimed with mirth. "There are ways, yes, but none that are worth a damn. The big workshops have all done a lot of experimenting on that front: Creating feedback loops with mana-conductive metals and similar nonsense. But they are all complete failures if you ask me."
"I see," Zeke responded with feigned disinterest while his heart was hammering in his chest. The reason he had asked the question was that he had found such a method in the research of the Giger people. For them, mana storage had been a well-understood subject and they had found a solution to the problem long ago.
At the time, Zeke had not realized how much of a treasure he had unearthed that day. He had flooded the Giger ruins to keep the danger of their Soul Magic contained, not because of their technological achievements. Now, he wasn't sure which of the two discoveries constituted the bigger threat.
The potential of Magical engineering was barely understood by the people of the Empire. Sure, they used enchanted weapons and armor, but only here in Tradespire were the prospects of magical engineering on full display. And the biggest issue holding the field back at the moment was the reliance on a mage to constantly fuel the machines. If they were able to find a solution to that…
Zeke shuddered at the thought of what fresh horrors the Warsmiths of Tradespire could unleash with this knowledge. Autonomous mechanical weaponry was the last thing this world needed. Especially now, with a fresh war brewing on the horizon.
Somehow this train of thought felt eerily familiar to Zeke and it wasn't long before he identified its source: This was the exact same line of thinking that kept him from releasing his meditation technique.
Once again, he found himself in possession of something that had the potential to do so much good but remained unable to reveal it.
Once again, he was forced to take a critical look at the world and found it lacking for the gifts he carried.
"You doing alright, boy?" Jettero's worried voice managed to snap Zeke out of his trance.
Only now did Zeke realize the state he was in. He had unconsciously balled his fists and clenched his jaw. No wonder the old man had become concerned.
With a forced chuckle, he relaxed his tense muscles. "It's a shame, that's all. We could do so much more if we just had a way to store mana."
The old man eyed Zeke suspiciously for a moment longer, but eventually let the matter drop. "It's one of the biggest roadblocks ahead, yes. But who knows? Maybe you or Lue will find a solution to that very problem in the future."
"Yeah… who knows," Zeke responded as he followed the old man across the grounds of the estate to the main building.
On the front porch, he spotted a silhouette carving away at a waist-high slab of wood. Of course, the emerging sculpture was only 'waist-high' when compared to the giant of a man cutting away at it. The tip of the statue reached all the way to Zeke's chest.
Geralt had begun his new assignment yesterday. At first, he had also intended to be in the workshop with the others. However, he had not even lasted a minute before storming out. Apparently, the clamor was 'not conducive to his art', or so he claimed. Zeke hadn't been able to hide his smirk when he saw his usually so unflappable father flee the scene.
Jettero and Zeke came to a halt a few steps away, spellbound by the sight. Belying his massive frame, Geralt was a true artist when it came to wood. The blade's edge scarcely caressed the timber, removing translucent slivers with every touch. Only the rough outline of a winged woman had emerged so far, but the majesty of the final product was already starting to show.
As they watched, Geralt was carving the outline of her face. Zeke couldn't be sure, but the features that materialized reminded him suspiciously of his mother. Except for the nose, that cute button nose was definitely Mayas.
Zeke observed his father. The man seemed to fall into some sort of trance whenever he worked on his carving. Geralt hadn't even noticed their presence yet. While in this state, he would be completely unguarded — in every sense of the word. His usually concealed emotions were on full display. His eyes were wet with tears, while at the same time, Geralt wore one of the most radiant smiles Zeke had ever seen.
It took a long moment before the two were finally able to free themselves from the mesmerizing display. No matter how much they wanted to, they didn't have the time to stay here any longer. Their usual morning inspection would lead them to the butler's office next, where Mia and David could be found at this time of day. On the way there, Zeke remembered his plan from last night.
"Do you know a good enchanter, Jett?" he asked when they reached the stairwell.
The old man puffed out his chest. "One? Pah! I know them all! Worked with them on many projects during my time."
"I might need their service. Think you could arrange that?"
"Depends. The best enchanters don't work for anyone exclusively, so they're theoretically free to work with whomever they want. However, they are often booked out for months in advance."
Zeke's heart sank. He didn't have that long. He was already thinking of alternative ways to get his hands on what he needed when the old man spoke up again.
"… unless you want to commission a top-tier enchantment," he added with a chuckle.
Zeke stopped in his tracks. "Why would they be easier to get?"
"Cause they are 'made by hand', as you would call it," Jettero explained. "High-tier enchantments can be produced by a Metal Mage, but not top-tier. Regular Metal Mages simply don't have the precision for that. Maybe after reaching the Arch Mage level, they could do it, but what Arch Mage would waste his time making enchantments?"
"Made by hand?" Zeke asked with great interest. "How do they do it?"
"With hammer and chisel, or a hand-push engraver, how else?" the old man asked in bewilderment. Zeke was shocked. He had not read about this method in any of the books he had copied from the many academic libraries. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
"Those techniques aren't taught in any of the Mage academies, are they?" he asked.
The old man scoffed. "Of course not. How would the methods of us lowly mortals ever make their way into the hallowed halls of the oh-so-great Mage academies?"
Zeke rolled his eyes. "Is that a smidgeon of bitterness I detect?" But his face turned serious in the next moment. "How come you think that we would be able to get one of those? Shouldn't they be even more sought after than high-tier enchantments?"
"Well, there might be 'some' drawbacks…" the old man admitted sheepishly. "For one, they obviously can't be mass-produced, so the big companies can't use them in their regular product lines. But the more important part is that they are expensive — very expensive."
"Stop dilly-dallying, just how much are we talking about?" Zeke asked impatiently.
"….Around 2000."
"2000? Gold? For a single one?" Zeke asked in shock.
"Hey, it's not easy to produce those things by hand, I'll have you know!" the old man exclaimed, but Zeke wasn't even listening anymore. He was doing the math in his head. From what he had learned, each tier increased the efficiency of the enchantment by around 25%. That meant that a top-tier enchantment was roughly 50% better than a middle-grade one. This wouldn't be so bad if a middle-grade enchantment couldn't be produced for some hundred gold.
"No wonder they don't sell. I bet only the obscenely rich use them for some custom projects," Zeke guessed.
"That's pretty much how it shakes out, yes," Jettero acknowledged. "So? are you interested or not? I have an old friend who could really use the money. Don't worry, he's one of the best."
Zeke thought about his plans for a moment. "How about this: tell him that I will buy one top-tier levitation and gust enchantment each, but only if he lets me watch him craft them."
"I don't think he would mind, but are you sure?" Jettero asked. "It'll take him over a day to create even one of them."
"Sure as can be," Zeke said with a smile.
"You're the boss," the old man grumbled.
They were just about to round the corner when a person entered Zeke's sphere of awareness. A woman he recognized immediately was hurrying down the hallway. Zeke came to a halt, followed by a confused Jettero. But before the old man could ask, Mia turned the corner in front of them.
"Ahh, there you are!" she exclaimed. "I was just about to go looking for you."
Zeke embraced his mother in a tight hug. "Here I am, Mom. What do you need me for?"
Remembering her task, she freed herself from the embrace. "Right. you have a visitor waiting for you in the big conference room."
"Can't you just get rid of them? I really don't have the time right now."
"David said that it's not somebody you can afford to turn away," Mia explained sternly. This managed to finally get Zeke's attention.
"Please set up the meeting, Jett," he instructed the engineer before following his mother down the hallway. He was already thinking about who might have come. There weren't many people David would speak so highly of.