I took a deep breath, refilling my shaken lungs. I rose to my feet, almost falling to one side in the process.

  “Huuu…” I inhaled again, feeling the breath travel all the way to the soles of my feet. “Haaa…” I exhaled, releasing all tension. I lowered my body in a horse stance, my toes pointed forward, my knees kept behind the line of the toes and my backside tucked in.

  I started to urge my jing, making it rise, boil and churn, then let go as my state of being returned to normal. I let myself fall on my back on the bed, which screeched with the low yet sharp cracking of wood.

  The night passed, taking with it the horror of the moment. I could still feel a phantom trembling from the moment of the breakthrough. The sensation of drowning, gasping for air while only water filled the gaping mouth and the hungering lungs. All the while the heat of my body was stolen, swallowed by the torrent of aether.

  The first internal formation was finally completed, the first step towards an array, or at the very least a hub of elemental formations. I took out the scroll with the recording of the generator’s frequency. Lightning was my next target.

  “Seems like I got the next one down.” I muttered under my breath, looking again at the already memorized pattern. ‘But I got no more shards to create the second formation…’ For now, classes were starting again, and I had to get going.

  I rolled the paper and placed it back in my drawer. During these past two months I had completely decorated the tower. It transformed from a damp, moldy, muddy ruin smelling of decay and loneliness into a cozy home.

  The morning light pierced the wing-windows and hit the now white walls whose glow contrasted the dark, weathered aspect they once held. The stale air was gone, replaced by the clinical smell of the fresh whitewash.

  Proper cupboards and cabinets, a round table big enough for six people, all hammered together by the two of us, decorated the tower, filling the rooms with the minty smell of pine and the sweet smells of cedar and beeswax.

  The floors were split into rooms. On the ground floor was a hallway combined with the living room, two anterooms, the kitchen and a study where I kept most of my papers. The second floor got split in four. Three rooms, one for me, two for guests and a hallway that allowed access to the stairway.

  The attic was left alone, while the basement was split in two. One big room that gave access to the lower-level room where edibles were kept and a smaller one where the fire was made. Perfectly done to avoid smoke staining any of the other rooms.

  The stacked tile stoves were doing their job as intended, radiating heat through the tower. They hummed with the draft, giving the tower its own tone, its own voice and heartbeat. The once old building was remade in a lively new beginning, vibrating with life.

  I headed down to eat. By now my diet grew very diverse. I had made a secondary furnace for bread baking and started making my own whole grain bread. It was delightful, keeping me full all day, allowing me to eat only twice a day and even fast shortly when I felt like it without any pangs of hunger.

  It was a great improvement compared to Earth’s bread. Only downside was that I was making yeast bread, which was not among my favorites in taste. The sour flavor it carried altered everything else. Likewise, I had made jams and pickles.

  I had bought meat and made my own sausages which I smoked in the back courtyard. The ham and sausages were hard, almost like rocks, and got chewy, melting in the mouth after a while. The deep smoky and salty aroma couldn’t compare to anything earth offered in supermarkets.

  I spread some Jyun jam on my slice of bread and poured myself a cup of yogurt. The spicy sweetness and cherry like flavor got me hooked to this jam. It gave me the extra kick I needed to be fresh and ready in the morning, kind of like coffee for others, just healthier.

  I went out leisurely. My breath was faint, forming barely visible clouds. I was warding off the cold with aether, yet using it to train my breath, getting it deeper, slower and more even. After all the steamy trail of my breath revealed to my eyes all issues that appeared.

  I saw other students. Caster types had small ember glowing dots twirling around them, while warrior types had their breath extend longer and the air softly trembled around them. The sky was cloudy, light grey diffusing light everywhere, leaving no shadows.

  Despite using aether to keep myself warm, I could still feel the chill of the air, it created a strange contrast, one I wasn’t used to despite experiencing it for six winters now. The cold seemed like an intruder that just stopped on the skin, as if it was nothing more than an illusion, a reminder of normalcy.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I sat in the front row of the near-empty auditorium, my footsteps echoing against the high stone ceiling. Soon, the space was filled with the rustle of expensive fabrics and the soft clatter of inkwells as my classmates filed in, bringing the chill of the outside air with them on their tailored cloaks.

  Professor Ansgar, followed in their steps a bit later, his gray, white-streaked beard and cloudy glasses unmistakable.

  “Today we’ll be talking about the expansion of Aethelgard.” Professor Ansgar started presenting the lesson after a quick headcount. “As most of you already know, our kingdom only recently became the great country it is today. It used to be much smaller, between the current Capital province and the Whisper Peninsula.”

  I paid more attention. This could give me an idea of the political positions and tensions, especially since the capital city was conquered.

  “House Aurivandil, the royal family of the Aethelsol kingdom, started a conquest. In the end all surrounding countries fell under the spears of their ducal house, house Aurelian. The Aethelgard kingdom, at that time small and alone, staged a surprising victory.”

  The professor stopped and looked around. “We have amongst us members of houses that suffered during the reign of the Aurivandil house. They got arrogant, greedy, wasteful, building monuments and enslaving the people, taking women wantonly.”

  “In the end house Aurelian itself turned against the royalty, brother against brother. Together with the royal family of Aethelgard, they took down house Aurivandil, leading a rebellion and restored peace. But ruler could become only one of the houses. House Aurelian stepped back; their family had already lost the trust of the people.”

  “And so Aethelgard became the rulers of the territory conquered by the Aethelsol kingdom. Quite the unexpected turn of events at that time.” He coughed lightly. “Now, with this short overview done, I’ll start going in deeper. I know this sounds very… Fairy tale like, but it is the truth. Going forward, Heron Aurelian…”

  The class continued while I mused over the new information. This changed a lot, yet for now it was not something I could use in any way. After the class was over, I gathered my sheets. I had started working on the formulas for the vibrations, wanting to see if, by any means, I could develop an instrument that would generate the effects of arrays.

  An ongoing project. Creating a bard class was a very interesting prospect after all. I was free of the math class, as an engineer having to go over basic algebra and geometry was quite the demeaning act. Mathematics was a reprieve.

  While the other students struggled with basic geometry, I handed the professor a complete three-dimensional plot for a spindle-shaped volume. He stared at the parchment, his quill hovering over the equations as if they were a foreign language. He gave me some more to solve over the course of two weeks. After I handed them in, he no longer doubted me.

  With the free time I continued my calculations. Developing an entirely new set of formulas was not an easy task. I had to consider acoustics and work with wave functions. The biggest problem being that with these kinds of complicated equations I never bothered learning the actual formulas.

  I knew the basics but had to deduce anything more advanced myself and often I made a mistake or two which I only identified way later. This combined with the need to test multiple geometric profiles and having to work with a lot of trigonometry, made the project very hard to push forward.

  Luckily for me no one was pressing me for it. A few weapons forged occasionally, and I had no reason to worry for money. I even had savings. Thirty gold coins, not a lot by noble standards, but it was three times the amount I started with, and it was only going to keep growing.

  As soon as literature class ended, I was free to return to the tower. Magnar was no longer spending most of his time with me. He had found himself a girl to court as per what he was told to do from home. If anything, the situation was interesting. He had to take a good pick, but no one arranged a marriage for him.

  In other words, he could choose any girl he liked if her status was appropriate enough. I lingered a bit to talk with him.

  “Hey, don’t forget to come over from time to time. I actually cook nowadays, you know?”

  “Yeah, you told me. For someone charging like a boulder down the mountain to build and forge stuff… You are strangely obsessive with cooking.”

  “Good food is law!”

  “If you think you’re up for it then perhaps I’ll bring Lyra over.”

  “I’m still surprised you found someone so quickly.” I shook my head.

  “More like she found me. Lyra seems to not care about my size, just like you.” I shrug.

  “That’s one courageous lady, what can I say… But yeah, sure. You can come over with her any time. I don’t mind. Compared to you… She can’t be as damaging to my reserves!”

  “Beastman always eat their fill. It can be the difference between life and death; besides we never know when our last meal can be.” A muffled, low thwack sounded out as he patted his belly. “And I agree with you, good food is not to be wasted.”

  “So, when will it be? When are you bringing your love over?”

  “You sound like my grandmother…” He looked up at the sky. “Your birthday was in three days, right?”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “Ha…” ‘Another year’s gone by… I’m getting old.’

  “Are you ok? My grandfather sighs like that after talking about his younger days.”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just thinking back to home. I didn’t say a proper goodbye to my parents. It just reminded me.”

  “Why didn’t you? No one hurried you, no?”

  “Partly due to Cassia… Partly because I felt… I didn’t feel like it. There’s just a lot going on and behind it.” I looked at the ground and analyzed my boots, looking at the seam. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You should talk with them about it, not with me. I’m like a fish from another stream, I won’t really understand in the end.” He concluded.

  “Lyra is doing a good job.” I replied while he shifted his weight, readying himself to leave. “You’re talking a lot more.”

  “She claims I’m poetic…” He scratched the back of his head. “I just speak as I think…”

  “I guess you are in a certain sense. Anyway, I have to go, I don’t want my hearth fire to die out.”

  “Good luck on those calculations of yours.” He patted my shoulder then left.

  I had to start preparing to host them, and with a guy like Magnar attending… No amount of food would be enough.