Justin looked around for a distraction and noticed that almost half of the troops from the ritual were watching him.

“I’m fine,” he told them, waving a hand. “I just. . .I still miss my wife sometimes. She died. Transport accident. Drunk driver, multi. . .wagon crash.”

Two of them nodded in sober understanding, either having lost someone themselves, or being close to someone who had. Tonero looked away, with his tongue poking one of his cheeks out.

“My troops have already been informed about those circumstances, Prominence,” Ougo said. As according to your unstated desire to not be irritated by offers went unsaid, but Justin knew it was there.

“I appreciate you raising the topic yourself,” Ougo added. Probably to encourage Justin to open up more, and he couldn’t blame the man. The Captain had made it evident with prior comments that handling Ling Fei clients was part of both his skill set and his responsibilities to the firm.

“She was pregnant with our first child,” Justin said, staring the man in the eyes. “Very early. We hadn’t even decided on names yet. I called him ‘Bean’, and she called her ‘Leaf’. It was a joke between us. She preferred teas, and I preferred coffee, the beverage made from those small red cherry-beans.”

You’re right; I do need to start being more open. And I haven’t forgotten my promise to Norodo, and I have personal reasons to see that through was the subtext for the Captain there. Ougo gave him a single slow nod of acknowledgment in return, to show his comprehension of Justin’s deeper meaning.

“All right, enough dwelling on the past,” Justin said, slapping one cupped hand against and past the other, producing a loud, sharp crack! which echoed in the silent theater. “We’re here to plan for the future. Buru?" he shouted downwards. “I see the platforms have stopped. What have you got for me?"

“The frontmost one is hitching regularly as it moves, Prominence, but the rest are fine,” Buru shouted from below. “It’s not broken, but some of its gearing has been pushed out of alignment in the same spots. I think it’s because they’re built for vertical support of actors and props, not horizontal impacts to their sides.”

“That makes sense,” Justin shouted back. “Have you found any maintenance guides yet?”

“No, Prominence; we’re still reading through the operation manuals – should we start looking?”

“No rush. And nothing wrong with your asking, but to be clear – by default, Your Captain’s and Lead’s orders should take precedence over my w-, er, over my requests.”

“Understood, Prominence,” Buru answered.

“Good man. Hey, Tzo!” Justin called towards the back of the theater. “Feel free to come down and get involved, if you can tear yourself away from the music sampling I know you’re doing up there!”

The sound system clicked on and Tzo’s amused voice drifted down. “That’s not even a decision, Prominence, and you know it. I can go through your library – marvelous concept; a library of music! - at my leisure. Watching a Hokyukko learn to use their powers at arm’s length? I may never have the opportunity again. I’ll be right there!”

Justin waved in understanding and turned back to the place he wanted to test the T5 Durability shorty. Another dantian heave, another flat yellow rectangle, about two and a third feet high by almost 7 feet wide and fifteen and a half feet long. He backed up to get a better idea of the proportions and decided to place the fulcrum stack another meter farther away. Yes, that’s better, he thought. He braced himself and heaved out another T5 Dura-shorty.

Or rather, he tried to, and smacked into the next mana cost wall. Right. Because I’m trying to create a second T5, and that’s likely increasing the cost to Tier 6. Which will cost. . .five times as much, I’m thinking, so four of those isn’t going to happen. I’m not about to drain myself that low doing just one test set. Ah! But the fulcrum shortys don’t need to be Tier 5, do they? Yes, good; opportunity for a sidebar compression test. So a second shorty, at Tier 4 Durability, should cost as much as a Tier 5 overall. . .let’s find out.

Justin heaved, the mana flowed, and out popped his desired Barrier. And now he had a better sense of his reserves – he’d used about ten percent total now, perhaps more, definitely not less. Which would put Tier 5 Barriers at. . .three-percent-plus of his reserves. He heaved again, placing the second T4 Durable on top of the first. And I think I’m going to sit down for this next one, he thought. If his estimate of a five times mana cost increase per Tier factor was on the mark, and he felt confident that it was, then this was going to eat somewhere around a sixth of this total reserves.

“Taiko, get over here and put your hands over my shoulders, please! I’m not sure how much this one is going to affect me.”

Taiko trotted over, kneeled behind him, and let his hands hover besides Justin’s neck. “I’d tell you to be careful,” he muttered, too low for anyone else to hear, “but you’re being more so that I was when I first started learning.”

“Thank you for the encouragement,” Justin muttered back. “That’s a great relief to hear.” Where was – ah, there was Tzo, climbing up onto the stage with a helping hand from Tonero. “All right, here I go!” Justin said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

He focused on his dantian and on the desired qualities of his Barrier, set himself, and strained. The mana poured out of his dantian in a long – relatively long, at least – two-and-a-half second rush, and he could feel that he’d approached some other kind of limit. This one felt like a cap on the total amount of mana he could expend on one – working, that word would do – and his reserves dropped to less than seventy-five percent.

This time, there were physical consequences; as the mana flowed away. His vision went more and more blurry, and he likewise felt an increasing sense of physical confusion. He had ridden a Multi-Axis Trainer once, as a child; on vacation with his father. This reminded him of that experience – the disorientation of spinning around in three dimensions, but without the dizziness that came with one’s center of gravity being disturbed.

Taiko’s hands clamped down on his shoulders as he wobbled in place, trying to adjust to a world that wasn’t actually revolving around him. “I’m good!” he clarified for the watchers. “That one was just kind of close to my limit.” He looked down at his crossed legs and did some midline work of his own, as he had for Taiko back at the Ling Fei’s records storage. He bent over to touch his left elbow to his lifted right knee, and vice versa, cycling through that three times. After that, he crossed his arms to put his hands over Taiko’s on his shoulders and leaned back, rolling his eyes upwards, before returning to center again, sitting up straight. “That’ll do,” he said, patting Taiko’s left hand. Taiko let go, and Justin stood, moving back and tugging the old monk along by a fold of his sun-yellow robe.

Justin pointed at the second T5 Durability shorty resting where he’d wanted it. “Captain, will that suffice for an upward striking surface?” he asked.

“Yes,” Ougo replied. “Shall I, then?”

“One moment, please,” Justin said, holding up a palm. “I expect the strength of this one to be five times that of the previous, as before, but the ratio of durability to mass – er, of weight – is getting so high now that I want to reiterate the importance of gradually building up the power of your strikes. I want to believe I’ll be fast enough to dismiss it if it doesn’t break, and goes flying, but I don’t. So again, let’s work our way up to heavier blows, please.” He focused his Barrier Sense on it in particular, and prepared himself. “And ready. At your discretion, Captain.”

Ougo nodded and stepped up to the lowest point of the upwards-angled T5 Durability shorty, at most a foot past the two stacked T4s beneath it. He set his feet, took his truncheon in both hands, and gave the underside a good, solid whack.

The T5 remained whole, while his truncheon bounced off.

More critically, however, the T5 went flipping end over end diagonally into the air, fast, towards the backstage side of the rigging overhead. Even anticipating it, Justin barely had time to dismiss the shortylith before it smashed into the supporting framework and mechanisms.

From the side, Tonero gave a barely audible phoooo of awe.

Thank goodness, Justin thought; that could have gone very badly. I’m lucky dismissing my - constructs? Yes, better; come back to that in a bit – is both far simpler and faster than creating them.

“Aaaaand we’re done testing durability in here!” Justin said firmly as he walked over to the orchestra stand with his notes. “That was too damn close! Much too damn close! Durability testing is over for now!”

“And relieved I am to hear it,” Taiko said from behind him.

“We’ll do some more later, maybe out at sea,” Justin added. “Captain, how hard a strike was that?”

“Not very,” Ougo said, his lips pursed. “For your testing records, Prominence - I doubt I could have broken that last one with a blunt weapon, even if it were braced against something strong enough. With a piercing attack, maybe. . .no, probably. However, if your Barriers are typical, I think I understand now why Hokyukko traditionally resort to imprisonment techniques first and foremost. They are so light for their size. Any serious combatant could send them flying across the battlefield at great speed. It is much more efficient and effective for Hokyukko to simply – box up their enemies.”

“Thank you, Captain; your observations are as acute and useful as always,” Justin said, writing quickly.

Ougo grunted in reply, staring off into the distance. Probably outlining his own new tactics, Justin thought, with approval.

“Taiko, Tzo – anybody, really,” Justin continued, sweeping an arm around to include all the observers,. “if you think up some safer testing protocols, make a note and pass them along. Next, I want to check shapes, and last I’ll bother Bright Eye to rate the. . .separation strength of a Tier 5 specialized for that.”

Now where was I? Justin thought. Oh, yes. Constructs. Hmmm. Yes, that really is better. ‘Workings’ should be a more general term, for. . .spells and rituals? Yes. And now, shapes.

Justin started a new page, with Test 6: Basic Shapes written at its top. He looked over at the remaining set of three shortyliths. No need to dismiss them, he thought; I can use them as platforms for these tests. Plus, every additional construct I make up to three more will be a Tier higher than normal, which will provide better data on costs. So, starting with. . .extra vertices? Or should I try curves first? No, vertices. They’ll be easier to record, numerically.

He picked up the stand and carried it over, imagining a Y-shape with a shortylith's volume and counting the intersections of its edges. Eighteen; four at each end for twelve, and six at the center where the three arms join – two more than twice a standard monolith’s eight. He envisioned the Y-construct resting on the one T5 Durability construct left, and pushed his Dantian.

The effort was insufficient, as he’d suspected it would be. Justin envisioned a T-construct instead, with sixteen vertices, and pushed again.

And bing! there it was. . .for about ten times the mana cost of a Tier 1 shortylith, or twenty times the cost of a normal T1 monolith. Interesting, Justin thought, and matching the algorithm so far. Twice the mana cost of a standard Monolith for being one-fifth volume of that, times five for a Tier increase for being the fourth currently in existence, and times two for having twice as many vertices as a standard cuboid. Now for the opposite side of the scale.

He envisioned a shortylith-volume four-sided die resting on top of the T-construct, and pushed; it appeared, for the same cost as the T-construct. And that’s where testing the other scale stops, he thought, until I’m ready to try working with curves. Can’t get a lower vertex count than a tetrahedron. And as a proof of not only concept, but mana cost algorithm, definitely worth the time.

Justin dismissed the two new constructs, imagined his Y-shape, and shoved. It appeared on top of the T5, for a mana cost that was. . .perhaps, marginally, higher than the T-shape. That was in line with his expectations as well. So if double the standard cuboid vertices is the Tier limit. . .let’s try five times as many, forty. A six-armed asterisk is. . .thirty-six vertices. Hmmm. This paddlewheel design’s not going to scale well in the higher Tiers. . .tiers? Oho, yes, that could work. A square pyramid of five tiers – no, some other word; levels? Floors! A five-floor square pyramid has forty vertices.

Justin envisioned it and shoved the mana out of his dantian; the boxy pyramid appeared, and the mana cost was on the mark: five times the previous one.

And what are the odds that – no; why am I wondering​ when I can check?

“Tzo, hand me the Hardpad, would you?” Justin asked. Tzo passed it over, carefully hanging onto it until he was certain Justin’s grip was secure.

Justin backed out of the music player and did a search of the applications. As he’d thought, almost all of the even remotely Uplift-helpful ones were gone – including, as he’d thought, the spreadsheet software.

“Ah well,” Justin sighed. “We’ll have to do the numbers by hand, like the giants before us. Or with abacuses, at least? Yes, the word works, so we must have them. Right?”

“Yes, Prominence, of course we have abacuses! We’re not primitives,” Tzo said, a bit of indignation leaking through.

“Oh yeah?” Justin said, exaggeratedly squaring off with him. “Are their rods usually bowed upwards in the middle so the beads stay on the correct side if jostled?”

“Er. . .no, Prominence,” Tzo admitted.

“Are they oriented left-right instead of up-down to make it easier on the user’s arms, and so they can be propped up at an angle for the same reason, plus the convenience?”

Tzo rolled his eyes. “No, Prominence; thank you for the improvements, Prominence,” he said, layering on an attitude of resigned tolerance just as heavily.

“Wait until I show you the Lee Kai-chen model, smart guy,” Justin said. “I will make you do the cube roots on it! See if I don’t!”

“Oh no," Tzo said dryly. "Not the cube roots. Heaven forfend. Anything but the cube roots."