Plans, Rumors, Experiments and Money

Ever since the incident Aerwyna and Reitz loosened their grip on Ezra and they got to spend much more time with him. Duke Terros had weaselled his way out of the missing cores, somehow he produced enough of them just to hold major sanctions. In the report from the Imperial Capital, Rexasticus, it was found out that he had a mining incident that he didn't report, he made it seem that there was a cave in and some magic crystals that he had stacked up came from recovering that part of the mine.

Somehow he also got to produce a reasonable amount that the Rex was demanding from his domain. They were anticipating a shortage from his output after the inquiry as he had to pay the stones to the Shadow Walkers, after the shortage Reitz's planned to make a move but to his dismay, there was none, which made everything complicated.

It was a good thing that he was vague when he told the Rex about the shortage on Terros' domain, he did not suffer any repercussions and he was commended for his efforts. He did not show the Rex that he was frustrated that he did not find anything more than the hushed "mining accident." Reitz did not tell the emperor about the assassination attempt or Terros' deal with the Arcanists, he did not have any hard evidence for that and was waiting for the magic core loss confirmation.

It was Reitz's problem and if he were to do anything about Terros he could only do it through the royal court. He was after all a noble and he had other means to undermine Terros.

Years passed since Evan's death, Rycharde and Evered asked to be Ezra's bodyguards in replacement of Evan, they gladly accepted the position. Ezra's deeds at Anticourt had become a legend in Fulmen, he had been called a few epithets since then, The Toddler Commander, The Destroyer of Shadows, and The Executor but there was a particular title that was spreading from Bren itself: The Cripple.

Rumours spread of Ezra's inability to make any spells at all, Reitz was the first one to get angry when he heard the rumours and wanted to hush the people, but Ezra told him that he didn't mind it anyway. It was a big deal, he was supposed to be someone who had great potential but in the end, he could not use any spells.

But the Lords around Fulmen didn't have it, they thought that Reitz wanted the rumours to spread that his son was weak so that they would underestimate his power. Everyone knew that the child was betrothed to the Rex's daughter and since the betrothal was still in place, it meant that the Rex had faith in his future son-in-law and further reinforced the rumour among the other lords.

In the years past he had gotten to read the other book that was held from him. The book with the magic core, but he didn't read it immediately as it seemed to be that he needed to syphon some magic to the core. Instead, he tried to discover the properties of magic cores and crystals first, he was very careful with this task, he didn't want the library incident to happen again.

First, he asked his mother for clothes. He designed a lab gown with the fabrics readily available and he asked that he was to be allowed to use an abandoned building in the smithing district. Since Evan's death was fairly new, almost all of Ezra's requests were given to him.

Ezra asked for a refurbishing of the building to his specifications. He was less impatient now, and if his feelings were surfacing he would examine and acknowledge them if he noticed it he could control them as he would just direct magic to control his endocrine glands and the prefrontal cortex, but if only he was aware. He took his time and arranged his laboratory first before proceeding.

He drew plans of the glassware he would be using and sent them to the glassmakers in Bren. He discovered that the empire had some techniques that were more advanced in than that of the middle ages on earth. He surmised that it was because even normal people in Arcanium had small amounts of magic and that made their moves more precise.

The smiths were better here and Ezra guessed that they could make more metallic pieces he asked in more detail and faster than smiths on Earth.

Back in his previous life he was dreadful at drawing and had a below average aptitude in drafting, but because of his magic augmented limbs, he could draw perfectly, he drew some blueprints but he stacked them. He didn't plan to give them and implement them all at once.

He wanted to industrialize Fulmen, he did not need to rapidly change it though, and there was no rush. Besides the plumbing in the empire was already comparable to the Victorian era and maybe even more, sanitation was really good for some reason. Rex Imperia had similar canals to that of the Roman Empire only the Imperia had more advanced waterways to bring potable water and dispose of some in sewers.

The first experiment that Ezra underwent was not of magic cores or crystals but of concrete. Ezra was shocked to discover that the Imperials were actually using a form of Roman concrete. When he was on Earth, people found it baffling that Roman structures could withstand thousands of years of weathering, in fact, there were some cases where the concrete actually strengthened over time, the Romans used a highly durable cement mixture.

Portland cement was good but Roman concrete was better. When he asked the masons on how they made the mixture, Ezra found out that it was almost exactly the same composition as Roman Cement on Earth. It was composed of volcanic ash, limestone and seawater.

But to build the structures such as those they had to export most of the ingredients like the seawater and the ash, they were taken from other domains.

He also made a long-term project of segregating and finding the local names for common elements and compounds. He was really glad that except for the external anonymity that was magic, all other things seem identical to earth.

Even though his research was extensive, he still could not identify what material the cores and crystals were actually made up of. But his hypothesis was that they were made of a crystallized organic compound he had no way to identify yet.

As for the properties of the cores, they were crystals that contained magic, it was like a battery but it was inert unless it was paired with a magic crystal. Cores had varying degrees of size, they also varied in colour, and magic capacity.

During his experiments, he found that the size of a core was secondary to its magic capacity what mattered when it came to magic capacity was colour. Violet ones were the least in magic and the deeper reds were the one that had the most but there were also multicoloured ones which he still didn't understand how to gauge.

He used a fire magic crystal to measure the magic output of each core. He recorded the flame lengths, and intensity of temperature and time it took to before a core ran out. It seemed that there was another factor among the cores as well that would affect the other variables.

Visually, crystals looked cut already while the cores were smooth like opal. As for the Crystals, they were very straightforward, so far each colour was symbolic of what it did, red spouted fire, blue expelled water and white radiated light. These three were what he had and the most common was white but as for the others, he couldn't get his hands on them.

When he finished his experiments he read the book that the Rex gave him, he channelled his magic to the core and he was surprised to find out that there was a mechanism that would open the book. It was designed so that only magic users could open it. He wanted to study the mechanism but he didn't have enough tools to understand it yet.

From its contents, it talked about various cores and their uses. He was excited about the potential of utilizing the cores in the book.

Reitz barged into his room one day. He was frowning.

"Ezra, do you realize athat you have spent a tithe of the treasury these past two years?" Reitz asked.

"Uhh no," Ezra answered shyly.

"We give you the freedom to do what you want already, we know this is how you cope. But please at this rate you are going to drain the treasury!"

"But, money is needed for science to push forward."

"What are you babbling about? Reitz gave Ezra a quizzical look. "If you want to continue with these 'experiments' of yours you need to make money to support it. Bren's money is Fulmen's money, we need to use it for development of the domain."

"But these experiments can help!" Ezra insisted.

"Oh? How then,"

"Well uhh."

"If it can't help, and you can't find money for it then drop it. The building you've been using could have created revenue you know." Reitz said flatly.

"Okay, okay I promise. I'll make money to support my projects. " Ezra said humbly.

With this in mind, he planned on his next recourse to fund his projects.