"So, I'm not entirely sure that there won't be any unforeseen side effects when I start, so I think that it would be best if the two of you stay a good way away." - Me 

 "We could help."- Cupe 

I shook my head. 

"As much as you both help me out when you kindly listen to me speculate on magic for long periods of time, for this you need to be able to manipulate magicicles." - Me 

 "Why don't you teach us?" - Sooty 

 "Well, Cupe is certainly smart enough, but your eyes glaze over about a second after I say magicicle." - Me 

Cupe blushed as I smiled at Sooty. 

 "But learning magic here is a different matter, and it is only slightly better than a horrid experience. The best thing is to stand back far enough that I don't have to worry I'm going to fry you. Again." - Me 

 "No, I will pass on experiencing that twice."- Sooty 

He touched the shoulder that had been hit by a ground bolt during the giant monster fight. 

Cupe looked like she was going to say something for a moment, then put her hands together, one over the other, and nodded. The two turned and walked away from the Mill. I heard Sooty talking quietly as they walked. 

"My eyes don't glaze over. Do they?" - Sooty 

I grinned wildly as stepped into the Grain Mill. 

A few things had changed. I had removed most of the paving stones on the floor, leaving a path from the door to the Mill stone. The Sixty-four remaining pavers were laid out in a ring around the center, equally spaced apart. It had taken me a long time to get that ring into as precise a circle as I could. Each of these stones was a nonconductive cap on a carefully crafted fulgurite bellow. These were made to be the exact opposite of the fulgurites that I had been sinking into the threshing yard. These had the densest amount of crystalline magicicle inclusions that I could produce, becoming as completely magically inert as I could currently make them. They were the anchors for a massive un-collapsed linked crystalline magicicle structure that should create a cylindrical ring, locked onto the anchors, circling the Mill stone. Its pattern was simple, but it was built at such a large total circumference that it had taken weeks of mind-numbing repetitive effort to complete. All though important, it was only a secondary structure and would wait till the main core was finished before it was collapsed. 

Under the Mill stone was a huge spherical constellation of linked crystalline magicicle pivot points in a complex layered 3D structure. It was many times more complex than my original toy inspired pattern that I had formed my internal core from. This one would collapse in stages, from the inner most layer, then through the rest of the eight, ending with the outmost. Each layer would only collapse a certain amount then would lock in place, unable to expand out again.  This lock would set off the collapse in the next layer, each dragging the next into its next position. And when all of the layers had snapped in place the accumulated pressure should, in theory, start the next collapse in the inner ring. I'm not sure how many times the cycle would complete till it reached the threshold where it crystalized. I had tried a dozen variations in smaller scale till I found a pattern that worked. 

The concept had originally started from the idea that if I couldn't push the structure to collapse, perhaps I could pull it in. I envisioned creating a small seed core, then collapsing subsequently larger structures around the seed. Each new shell using the gravity like effect of the inner layered core to help pull it in. Unfortunately, all that happened was the new shell would shatter as it collapsed around the seed. 

The fulgurites had crystalline structures that had originally seemed impossible, some still did.  But as I had proof that they could be formed, so I persisted. I had started with the simplest of the crystalline patterns, working backwards and deciphered how they had collapsed. Some of my experimental collapsing structures had worked, creating copies of the crystalline pattern I was trying to achieve. Most had failed. A few had even had unexpected results, created entirely new crystalline structures.  

It was frustrating that I was unable to understand, or work on, anything more than the simplest of structures so far. But with each success I had built up an alphabet of pre collapse patterns that I know worked.  Soon I was going to have to start recording them somewhere as there were too many of them to properly remember. I had some ideas on assigning them a letter or symbol so larger patterns could be written out as a formula. 

The idea of a locked position had come from Cupe during one of our evening discussions. I had been talking about how I had to keep pushing to collapse a shell and I was contemplating using a really long lever, but that would only work as long as the lever had room to move. Cupe had told me a story that she had heard from her husband. He had been called to work on the Lord's manor where he had been tasked help install a massive portcullis. To raise the gate back up they had needed ten men pulling down on a lever that only had room to move a meter at a time. So, they had built a locking mechanism that would hold the gate till they could move the lever back, slowly lifting the gate in small steps.  That had led to the idea for this construct. 

I checked and re checked all the links, pivots, and the positioning bellow the mill stone. The placement was particularly important as I was going to use the mill stone as a tap to syphon off magicicles from the system bellow. My own predictable recharging station. I would have to work on the tap later when the core was spinning bellow. 

 When I was happy with all the details, I started the collapse. The pushed evenly on the first layer till it locked, which started the second. I pushed on the planed points as each layer collapsed and locked. As the eighth layer locked, I paused, just watching.  

- It looks like it's all spinning a bit faster, that's going to make pushing harder if it gets too fast. Everything else looks good. 

None of the layers looked unstable or showed any sign of shattering or stressing. I tested pressing in on the first layer lightly and it moved smoothly, collapsing in with the pressure I exerted.  

- I can't tell if there is any pressure pushing in from the outer layers yet. 

I applied more pressure and started the next collapse cycle, locking each layer smoothly into place. Again, I paused to look for problems. 

- Yep, it is spinning faster. Nothing else seems out of place though. 

I started the third cycle, and went right into the four and fifth. Each cycle required a bit more strength than the last, and it was getting hard to apply it evenly as each collapse added to the systems rotation speed. 

- This might be out of my skill level, I never considered what a lateral pressure on my push points would have. 

The sixth cycle was no problem, but the third layer of the seventh cycle I lost one side before I could pull back on the other and sent a wobble through the whole system. I watched as the wobble passed back and forth like a wave through the structure till it seemed to dampen out, and return to normal. 

- I feel like I'm trying to squeeze a water balloon form all sides and not have it pop. 

I took a breath, stretched out my shoulders, and then returned to my work. 

The rest of the cycle went without any new wobbles. 

- And now it's spinning to fast to keep up a steady pressure.  Fortunately, the gravity like force must be working, or I have gotten much stronger, as this is further than I got on my first attempt. 

I watched the spinning globe of linked points, wondering how I was going to start the next cycle. 

- And with this extra spin is there going to be a shear problem as each collapsed layer is travelling a little bit faster than the last? This extra energy from the spin might make a spectacular mess if it shatters. 

My thoughts jumped around a bit, from forcing the slowly circling magicicle cloud in closer to act as a cushion if the structure shattered, to setting off explosions to send shock waves to collapse the inner core. 

- Maybe I don't need a shock wave, but more like an impact on the push points, give them enough motion to get to the next locking point. 

I watched the spin of the first layer and timed it out. On the fourth revolution I hammered down on the pivot points. The layer leaped in, slowed down, and then started to expand back only to stop at its lock position. 

- Ok the 'Hit it with a hammer’ approach works, now it's just a game of whack a mole where you cannot miss. 

I lined up the second layer and smacked it into position. The third, fourth, and fifth went well, but I missed the timing on the sixth. I didn't hit it hard enough and I tensed up as it snapped back towards the lock position. 

- I’ve had three lives and never been good at timing things. 

The layer slammed to a stop at the lock point. I paused to see if it was stable then let out the breath I was holding. 

“That could have been bad” – Me 

I lined up again, waiting to make sure of my timing, and smacked the push points. This time the sixth layer locked into its next position. 

The seventh layer went well, but I missed again on the outer layer. It slammed back on the lock position and wobbled again. 

“Rats!”- Me 

- Why does this Mage thing require video game reflexes? 

I took extra time lining up the hit, tapping my finger on top of the mill stone to the beat. I hammered down on the mark. The eighth layer shrank and just made the lock position. 

- And that's it for now. I'm going to have to figure out a new angle to get these to collapse any further, get better at my timing or scrap the whole thing and start again. 

I was about to walk away when I noticed that the first layer was moving, slowly creeping in. I smiled and watched till it got almost to the next lock position, then stopped. I reached out, tapping my finger in type with the spin, then just kissed the push points. 

The first layer locked, then slowly the second followed, then one by one each layer started to move.  

“Yes, it's working!”- Me 

The next cycle collapsed a bit faster, then the next, and again. 

- It kind of looks like a slinky. 

The cycles speed up and started to drag the cloud of swirling magicicles with it. I watched the process with glee. 

Soon a crystal core glittered as it spun under the mill stone, starting to pull the already swirling cloud into an accretion disk. The line of magicicles that feed the mill from the river had become thicker, pulled in by the gravity like effect of the new core.  

I looked at the un-collapsed ring. 

- I think I'll give the Mill time to stabilize before I add the ring. And I have to see if cyclones will form, then figure out how I'm going to tap the system for myself. 

I walked out of the newly repurposed Magic Mill with a huge grin. 

… 

A week later I was back in the Magic Mill checking if there were any new developments. 

The crystal core had remained stable. It had a slight wobble in its axis that I had been worried about, but it had remained steady. The spin axis of the core was off a few degrees, and was slowly rotating in a circle around an axis that lined up with the mill stone above.  

- It looks like a top that's tilted and rotating on it point. I wonder if axial tilt is why there are no cyclones forming. 

A spiraling cloud had formed around the core, looking like the corona of a star, but the cyclones that were a distinctive part of my inner system had never formed. 

The accretion disk had also been affected by the tilt, and had formed a much deeper ring with a distinctive spiral pattern. The “lollipop swirl”, I suspected, was the result of the steady stream of magicicles being pulled in from under the river beside the Mill. 

 - I'm not sure, yet, but I think the magicicles from the river have a different spin that the ones from the ground, or maybe type? I'm going to have to work on figuring out if it is spin, or frequency, or whatever I end up calling it, and what affect it has. 

I checked the un-collapsed ring structure, checking to see if the core or the accretion disk was having any effect on it. There seemed to be a slight stress in the direction of the cores spin. 

- I think I was right to anchor the ring. I bet this thing would be an out-of-control hula-hoop if I hadn’t. 

I pressed in the push points around the ring. This collapse was simple compared to the core and resulted in a very fine crystalline ring locked to the fulgurites, surrounding the core. 

- Now to see if my torrid plan will work. 

Carefully walking on the pavers, I re-joined the others on our morning patrol. 

… 

 

Three weeks later I was sitting on a paver in the middle of the threshing yard, violet coloured lightening was dancing around me, arcing from black obsidian circles embedded in the ground, to the large marble that was placed on a stone block in front of me. I was working on a few goals at the same time. 

Cupe had asked if I could produce obsidian in certain shapes, which had inspired this experiment. I was trying to create shaped fulgurites by packing sand from the river into a mold made by stacking stone blocks, and passing current through it. While controlling the electricity passing through the sand, I was also controlling the composition and pressure of the air in and around the sand.  

Everything I learned here was going to impact my plans on building a tap into the mill stone at the Magic Mill. 

I stopped after about ten minutes, which was about the max length of time I could maintain this level of air magic currently. I removed the large gold needled marble form its place on the lid and checked to see if there had been any change. I was specifically looking to see if there was any magic etching in the blue tinted crystalline clear marble around the gold needle. 

- Looks like the blueing electrical treatment stops any engraving even at higher levels of power. 

I had been using it entirely as a lightning rod, doing the twist to control the electricity myself. 

I next checked on the conductive fulgurites that I had previously built into the yard.  

“Rats, I cracked number 3!”- Me 

- Hmm when we dig it out maybe we can line it with stone and fill the center with sand. 

“Yes, sand would work better I think.”- Me 

“You know that Sooty is going to accuse you of deliberately creating work to distract him from his teaching.”- Cupe  

Cupe was walking towards me from her work space under the covered area that protected the threshing tables. She looked with a smile towards the empty circle where the giant monsters de-rezz whirl pool had absorbed everything before I had induced the gold sun bolt that had blown massive sludge pool away. Sooty was there drilling our two newest residents in sword forms. As I looked sooty casually flicked his massive wooden practice sword with half-hearted ease, slamming some aggressive critter that jump from the field into de-rezz. 

I shook my head as I stood up and helped Cupe use two poles to lift off the stone lid from the cooling mold.  

“Oh, this one looks promising.”- Cupe 

We slowly used the sticks to lever the scorched blocks open, and exposed a black sooty rectangular block. 

“Well at least it didn't just crumble like the last two.”- Me 

I nodded and stood up straight, silently watched the two new people as the black block cooled enough to touch. 

The first was 14-year-old girl with long brown hair that she constantly wore in braids. She was a kind of plainly pretty with an open personality and a childlike curiosity. She had just appeared one evening, walked in the front door of my house while we were talking in the sitting room.  

 "Hello, my name is Nen, and I am dead." - Nen 

Later, after we had finished our introductions and explained everything, I had asked her why she had come into my house. Everyone else up to that point had been very reluctant to do so. 

 "I was looking for one of the gods, so where else would they have been?" - Nen 

I had looked at her quizzically. 

 "I would have thought a shrine or a church." - Me 

See returned my look. 

 "Those are for praying, no one lives there." - Nen 

I didn't have anything to respond to her assertion. Many of my later conversations with Nen would end that way. 

The second new resident we had spotted in the lumber mill across the river during our morning patrol, and had called him over to the bridge. He had been killed while in battle in the fields outside of the village. His name was Trasig, and had been a middle-aged childless peasant farmer that had been levied when orcs had invaded the kingdom. When we had explained what had happened, he seemed oddly quite pleased to be dead. 

 "I'm young again. I don't have a Lord that will make me work till can't move. There are no impossible taxes that I don't have any hope of paying. And now I don't have to eat the gruel that was all they would give us to eat for the last year in the levies! " - Trasig 

He was always busy, and would always be trying something new. It was how he had ended up in the field learning from Sooty. Nen had watched for few days, then found a stick and joined. I'm not sure if Sooty was more horrified to have a woman learning to fight, or happy to have new recruits to train. 

- Gods know that I had zero interest in learning. 

As Cupe and I watched the trio, I took note of the smile she wore as she watched Sooty marshalling his new students. 

- So that has happened then. 

I smiled knowingly.  

Cupe caught me watching her watching Sooty and correctly interpreted my grin. She blushed and hustled about the sooty black block. 

 "It should be cooled enough to move now." - Cupe 

 She picked up the block easily and marched off to her work bench. 

I was pretty sure she was muttering something about know-it-all mages keeping their noses out of other people's business. 

By the time I had caught up, she was pretending nothing had happened. 

We cleaned off the char from the block to reveal an almost perfect square of solid of obsidian. There was slag still mixed with it on the top, and had some inclusions buried in it, but it was pretty good for our first success. Cupe grabbed a stone hammer and attempted to nap a chunk off. Large flakes of razor-sharp glass chipped off. 

 "This is even better than your fulgurites."- Cupe 

She smiled and seemed excited, then turned and gave me an even larger grin. 

 "Now you just have to make a few dozen more." - Cupe 

- Drats, I think that I have created a monster! 

I'm pretty sure my face showed my thoughts as she smiled and talked sweetly. 

 "Didn't you say you needed to practice?" - Cupe 

I ended up firing another block before we called it evening.