“It’s quite loud in here!” Yelled Tanit out of necessity. Had she spoken any softer her voice would have been drowned out by the various noises of the mill. The massive waterwheel outside turned continuously with a loud and quick swish-swish-swish noise. Closer to us wooden pegged gears groaned and creaked, while they turned. The object of their stress, the millstone, further made a decent amount of noise as it ground the grains into a rough powder.

“It’s not that bad,” I said while thinking of how loud machinery back on earth was. We were standing in the middle of one of the largest water-fed mills in the capital. Around us, burly men were busy with the hard labor as they loaded the hopper with grain and unloaded the bins of their flour. Between the grains and the flour, massive amounts of dust was being kicked up in the air while a thick layer of the stuff had settled on just about every surface in the place.

“And here’s where the magic happens young masters,” explained the manager of the place as he showed us around one of the millstones. It was fed a relatively slow amount of grain as it rotated and crushed them. We had just been given a tour of the whole operation thanks to Tanit. Her family happened to be a key supplier to the mill, so they bent over backward after she expressed interest in looking around.

“Do you know who built the place?” I asked once he was done explaining the process.

“Sorry sir, this place has been running since before my grandpa was born,” the manager said with a chuckle. I was shocked for a moment, but then remembered how little turnover machines had before the modern era.

“Ok, then who handles your repairs and replacements?”

“For the small stuff like pegs and some gears we do it ourselves, but for anything larger, we usually put out contracts to anyone reputable,” he explained. “I’ll have a list of people prepared if that’s what you’re after.”

“Thanks, and thank you for the tour,” I said when he brought the list to us. I trapped the list inside my notebook. I had spent most of my time there taking notes and jotting down small illustrations of the process with it. We were one step closer to basically revolutionizing industry in the empire. Irrigation, milling, etc, could be done away from rivers. Most importantly, I could probably put one of these bad boys on the Roose castle and give us running water on the upper floors.

An ornate carriage waited for us outside, though a sharp voice stopped us as I opened the door.

“Please, don’t track that dust in here with you. Ridates, brush them off would you?” Caterina commanded. His familiar figure came into view as he started brushing the grain dust off of both of us.

It was the first Saturday since the school year started, which meant it was our day off. In that time, Caterina had brute-forced her way into my life. She sat next to me in practical magic. She would walk to my next class with me. She often found and joined us for meals. I was honestly starting to wonder if her obsessive nature even came from the damn ring.

“If you didn’t want dust, you shouldn’t have tagged along to the mill,” retorted Tanit with annoyance. She was the least receptive in our group to the villainess’s presence. Maharbaal and Iltani were the same years as Caterina and no doubt regaled Tanit of her outrageous deeds throughout the years.

“Please, you two were planning on renting a common carriage before I came along,” she replied. When Ridates was satisfied, the two of us took our place across from her in the carriage. It was an admittedly comfortable ride, far more comfortable than the one I rode with Alwein a while back. “So where to next?”

“I have to make a stop at Alwein’s shop for some supplies. Can you have a few messengers get in contact with these carpenters and see if any are receptive?” I asked as I passed the list of names to her. She gave me a nod as she looked it over before passing it to Ridates from inside the carriage.

“Well, I think we should eat first,” announced Tanit.

“I agree, I know the perf-“ began Caterina before being cut off by Tanit.

“No, I know the perfect place, and it is only a few blocks away,” she said with a smile.

Tanit’s perfect place turned out to be a ramshackle thermopolium, a kind of open-air fast-food restaurant, in a dark side alley. Despite its outward flaws, the place was highly trafficked, as a line of people stretched around the corner.

“What kind of mongrel would eat in a place like this?” complained Caterina. “Why does it stink so bad here?”

“It’s probably the full chamber pot behind you,” replied Tanit. Caterina seemed to jump away from it before regaining her composure. “Besides, don’t insult this place till you try it, there’s a reason so many choose to come,” she explained.

It only took a few minutes for us to get to the counter where two young women were serving the food and drinks. Tanit took over for us from there.

“Three orders of nuts, three specials, and we’ll need these wineskins filled,” she explained to them.

“Did ya bring yer own or are ya looking to have some house buns?” asked one of the young women.

“House Buns please and keep the change,” replied Tanit as she handed over a few too many denarii. The ladies promptly got to work, first filling our skins with the wine before having us stand off to the side.

“So, what is special about this place?” I asked, looking up from my notes for the first time to get a good look at the people around us.

“Look at the specials that everyone is eating,” she explained. Then it struck me, they were all eating bread bowls with stew. Bread bowls with stew?!

“What the heck is this?”

“The owner just calls it the house special, he’s some freedman from one of the northern kingdoms.”

The lunch was delicious despite Caterina’s complaints about the area. From there it was only a quick trip to Alwein’s shop by the river. The place was just as busy the first time I met him.

“Uncle Alwein!” I called out once we got into the shop. Instead of an answer from him, Pallus came over to greet us.

“Young master, what brings you here?” He asked, greeting us at the far edge of the counter.

“Larissa prepared a list of things, though I was hoping to see Uncle since I’m around.”

“That’s not a problem, the verdant on your list can only be made by him anyways. Why don’t you three wait in the apartment until the orders are ready?”

I turned to my companions who both shrugged, then nodded to Pallus. Making any headway in the packed storefront was slow and time-consuming, but soon enough we were at the rear of the shop where the staircase was. Alwein’s décor really leaned into his status as a druid. Decorative green tapestries hung from the walls. Instead of the lounges typical of the empire, he had floor cushions on which to sit. Save for a short floor table and a small shrine to the Dryad, the rest of the room was covered in lightly glowing crystals and exotic-looking plants.

“So I’ve been thinking,” I said after a few minutes into our relaxation.

“About what?” asked Tanit.

“Caterina, was your mana pool poisoned or tampered with in some way," I asked.

“Is that even possible?” she answered.

“I’m not saying that’s what happened to you, but yes I’m pretty sure it happened at least once before,” I replied. “That’s how they killed Skandar the Conqueror after he took the Twin Rivers, first they disrupted his mana pool then with his magic failing they fed him poison,” I explained. Skandar was Aurelian’s father who died just before being coronated as an emperor.

“Wait, I thought he died of some desert illness or like overworking himself,” replied Tanit.

“Listen, I’m the expert here," I retorted. Overworking himself, the guy was like thirty-two.

"Why do you think something is wrong with my pool?" asked Caterina.

"You said it yourself during the exercises. You can't even feel the mana moving within you. Now anyways, if that’s the case then I only know of one cure,” I explained.

“What?!” they both asked at the same time.

“High Druid Olympias thought that a Dryadic fruit could cure his mana pool.”

“What is that another obscure Lysian thing?”

“It is actually, but why are you discussing such a thing?” said Alwein from the staircase.

“We’re just trying to figure out why the young duchess is so inept at magic,” explained Tanit. Caterina gave her a death glare. I frowned and flicked her in the head. It’s one thing to poke at your friends, it was another to attack their most vulnerable flaws.

“Well, if she did have her mana tampered with then the fruit would fix it,” he offered.

“Great, where can I buy it?” said Caterina with notable enthusiasm.

“They can’t be bought because they probably all got destroyed along with Lysia,” explained Alwein. Deflating all the excitement that had been building.

Caterina’s dignified aura cracked, and she slumped ever so slightly. “Is there any other way?” she asked.

“Probably, there’s so many different types of magic being used in this world that it would make sense for another cure to exist,” I offered. It didn’t help. Technically there were probably some fruits left in the hidden seed vaults, but it would be way too dangerous to go there until the empire moves into the territory. It was an interesting thought, there was a vault relatively close to the Roose.

“I almost forgot,” said Alwein as he handed me the order. “The only thing left is the verdant, anybody want to see the magic happen?” Our group looked at each other confused but nodded. Alwein opened the classic jar that usually housed the special green face paint, except this stuff was more like an eggshell or white pale color. He placed the jar on the table, while we all crowded around it instinctively. He pulled out a small knife and held his wrist over the jar for a few moments. With a quick prick, a few droplets of blood were released onto the substance, except they splattered it with green instead of red. With that, he began mixing the paint until it became the green makeup it usually is.

“So, you bleed green too?” asked Tanit after the demonstration.

“Goddess no, I just transferred my magically charged blood to the mixture,” he explained. I rolled my eyes. That was a more of a mundane explanation than I had been expecting.

We were just leaving the shop when I heard a faint buzzing in the distance. It was a low tone, and it held for a long time. Probably a horn. A bell tolled in the distance after that. The bustling streets began to slow as everyone looked around. Then another, this time closer. More and more bells were ringing out until every noisemaker in the city was ringing.

“What the hell is this?” I called out.

“I think it means your father returned from his mission,” Alwein explained.