"Sorry for making you wait again, Ed." I nod to the earth mage after the baron and his family left. "Hope you don't mind if I work while we talk."

"That's fine." He laughs. "I already saw you cook, so it's no surprise that you can talk while doing something like that. So, what do you need for the new house?"

"The chimney's the biggest thing." I might as well start there. "Two stories with fireplaces in the living and bedrooms. A bunch of windows, though all I need is just the glass."

"No plumbing?" He lifts an eyebrow.

"Mhm, I was going to handle that with wood for now. But, yeah." I nod. "A kitchen sink and some stone features for the two bathrooms might be nice."

"Okay, I can give you a decent price." He looks like he's tallying things up in his head. "I don't do glass, but I know a guy, normally he's backed up, but if you can do the frames yourself, I should be able to work something out. I'll need to see the house first of course."

"Not a problem, just give me a few more minutes on these." I'm almost through the medical texts, but Amelia has already added two more books to her stack. "So, how's it going with the bicycle?"

"You tell me." He produces a fully working chain drive on a stand. It's only a single speed, but it looks good to me. "Those ball bearings gave me some trouble getting them perfectly round, and I'd still like to get a harder alloy, but they should hold up alright for this."

"Hmm... I think they used chromium and nickel as the major parts of the steel. And, I want to say silicon, and... I think manganese or magnesium. They sound similar in my language and I always got the two mixed up. Vanadium is also common, from what I remember." I wanted to know what the '304' part of 'Stainless Steel 304' meant on the box of bearings we used at the bike shop. So, I Googled it once and stupid trivia like that was always getting stuck in my head.

"I'm not sure what half those are." He laughs. "But, I'll try finding them. Any idea on percentages?"

"Not a clue. Sorry." I'm almost finished with the books when Amelia walks up with another armful. Apricot is with her, and back to human-size. "You know we're going to be back here tomorrow, right?"

"Well, maybe if I had that Frankenstein story to read." She says with a grin.

"Fine." I sigh. "But, no more please, or we'll never get to your parents later." Somehow she manages to hold off from grabbing anymore. "Alright. Now that I'm done. Do you want to go see the house?"

"Yeah." Ed nods. "I don't have everything I'll need on me, but I can get started and get an idea of what else is needed. Do you have a carriage, or should we hire one?"

"Oh, I drove the girls here on my bike, but it only has room for three." I materialize the pedicab to demonstrate once we get outside. "So, we'll need to get a carriage."

"I didn't even think about using it like that." Edsel starts examining the rickshaw.

"There's quite a few different designs. I'll make you some models on the way to the house."

I'm about to go hail down a carriage when one rolls up from the stables with a young man in the baron's colors sitting in the driver's seat.

"Sirs, the baron asked that I take you wherever you needed to go." The driver bows to us from his seat.

"Ah, thank you, Teddy." Edsel nods back to the man. "We're just going outside the north gate, but if you could hang around for a few minutes to take me back to my shop, that would be great."

"I'm at your disposal for the rest of the afternoon." Teddy bows again.

A short ride and a dozen bicycle models later, and we pile out of the carriage in front of the new house.

"So, you're saying that it was common for these bikes to made of aluminum." It takes me a moment to realize why Edsel seems so shocked about that.

"Oh, yeah. Aluminum used to be really expensive to produce, or I suppose it still is here." Worth more than its weight in gold, if I remember correctly.

"You could say that." He deadpans. "It takes so much energy to smelt that it usually requires a large team of fire mages working in concert to produce any useable amount."

"They should try lightning." I offer based on more half-remembered trivia. "I don't know anything about the process, but I remember that it became economically viable after they switched to smelting with electricity. It still takes a lot of energy, but it's easier to get the higher temperatures needed when using electricity."

"Mhm, Electromancers are rare." He grunts "And, they usually spend most of their time being paid handsomely to stun dungeon monsters for others to kill. But still, I'll pass the tip onto some of the fire mages I know. Also, nice house." He's been too caught up with the talk of aluminum to take a look at it before now.

"Thank you." I bow my head in acknowledgment of his praise. "I still want to add some fine details here and there and the inside is completely empty, but it'll do for now. Come on in, have a look around. That's the kitchen, there's a bathroom through there, and another one upstairs. I plumbed everything with wooden pipes, but haven't built the water-tank or septic system yet."

"Damn, I may have you come by and redo my kitchen." He traces his hand over the maple island in the center of the kitchen.

"I'd be glad t... -Oop, hey buddy." Blackthorne hops down the stairs and straight over to me. "Sorry, we left you behind, but it's kinda hard to ride a bike with you strapped to my back. And, I'd feel bad sticking you into storage. Hmm? You can change shape, why haven't I thought of this before."

I fashion some of the lumber I grew yesterday into a cane. Its round top is shaped like a rose that has yet to fully open, and flowery vines trail down the slightly tapered length.

"Can you copy this for me, Blackie?" He seems to sniff the cane. "It'd be a lot easier to carry you around town if you looked like this. Come on, I'll give you some more cocoa wood." That did it. The cane got wrapped up by Blackthorne, which then absorbed it and changed to match. "Good boy!"

"Your staff is alive?" Ed just looks confused as the now much smaller Blackie 'eats' a plank of cocoa wood.

"Plantkin are weird." Apricot says with a laugh. "And, Sorrel is most definitely unique amongst them."

"Mhm." Hard to refute that, so I don't even bother. "I read everything I could about Plantkin, but never saw anything about Livingwood. We were traveling along when the magic from a lightning-struck tree just called out to me. I don't even know what happened, but that tree became Blackthorne here."

"You know. I think I'm just going to have to take a hint from the Baron and choose not to be surprised by anything you do."

"Probably for the best." Amelia agrees with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Alright." He nods. "Can you show me the pipes... ah, that's a useful trick." He barely pauses as the walls and cabinets fold themselves out of the way. "You have two incoming water lines?"

"Dedicated hot water line." I explain. "Each of us has the magic to heat water in our own way, but I'd like to have hot water on tap. Especially in the upstairs shower."

"There's going to be a heated shower?" Amelia perks her head right up.

"Did you even look in the bathroom?" I ask with an amused smile. "Aside from the tub, there's a walk-in shower, toilet, bidet, and two sinks. That reminds me, where do we get mirrors?" I saw glass mirrors at the baron's but have no idea how common or expensive they might be.

"Oh, I can get you polished metal." Ed answers. "But, if you want those fancy glass ones like the Baron has, you'll need to talk to someone like Melanie. I have no idea how they does it, I've tried and just cannot get silver to stick to glass."

"Oh, you need to coat it with tin first." I recall one of the few chemistry classes I was actually awake for. "The stannous chloride gives the silver nitrate something to grab onto."

"Uh, I understood tin and silver." He chuckles.

"Nnh, I know the translation ability is working properly." I heave out a sigh. "The problem is that I just don't know all the common names for this stuff. I can tell you how to make them; you just need the metals themselves and a couple of common acids. Salt acid for the tin, and for the silver you guys probably call it spirit of niter or fuming red, or something like that. I'd have to ask Melanie to be sure."

"Fuming red sounds familiar, but I'm no alchemist." What he is, is a good plumber. He's been building and swapping out the pipes as we talk, molding the stone much like I do wood. When we get to the master bath, he just stops and stares for a moment. "That is one big tub."

"Yeah, I wanted enough room for all three of us to be able to soak comfortably at the same time." Soak, and other things. "Same for the shower... Speaking of, I think it and the toilets would look better in a light-colored stone."

From what I saw at the manor house, indoor plumbing is virtually identical to modern-day earth. A fact which I am truly grateful for, but not too surprising when you consider they have people who can sense diseases with magic. And, others who can mold stone and metal as if it were clay.

"I've got some nice quartz that would look nice in here." He pulls out a polished cube that if he hadn't just called it quartz I would have assumed was white marble. "I've only got enough on me for the toilets, or the shower though."

""Toilets."" Amelia and I answer at the same time.

"Heh, it is the most important seat in the home." It takes him a few minutes to shape the toilet and bidet. The quartz is seemingly more difficult to work with than the stone used for the pipes.

I've been watching him work this whole time with my magical senses and have noticed some similarities to the earth magic healing spells I learned earlier. Not enough for me to copy what he's doing, but enough to give me hope that it won't be too hard to pick up in the future. Nobody likes having to call in the plumber, after all.

"And, that's me done for the day." Ed pants after installing the new toilets. "I always forget how much magic working with quartz takes out of me."

"Yeah, you're much less efficient with it than with whatever you were using for the pipes." Apricot says. "Try tightening up the mana, and adding a bit of a twist to it in this part of the spell." She demonstrates something that feels a bit more difficult than what she just described. "No, like this." She takes control of his mana when he tries to copy her.

"Oh wow, that is so much better." The block of stone he first showed us is now moving with more fluidity than the pipes were. "Man, I was already going to give you a discount, but after that tip, I feel like I should be paying you."

"At least let us pay for materials." I interject, not entirely comfortable with having him do all this work for nothing. "If you really want to make it up to Apricot, then you can just get her some sweets."

"Ooh, yes please." She nods enthusiastically.

"Hahaha. Alright, I guess that works." He smiles at her antics. "Just let me get the measurements for the windows to give to Claude, my glass guy."

"Oh, that's easy." I make two shapes with different numbers written on each. "There are just two sizes. Square for the windows, and rectangular for the doors. I wrote down how many I'll need of each, including a few extra in case any break in the future."

"This is perfect." He puts the samples into his storage along with the quartz cube. "It might take him a few days to get this many done, but you've got those screens up. So, you don't have to worry about bugs."

"Now that you mention it." Amelia looks at me curiously. "I haven't seen so much as a single fly since we met."

"I was always one to bring along a lot of bug repellent whenever I went camping as a kid." I shrug. "Now, I can just use magic for it. But, I don't repel everything, just the annoying or destructive ones. I was actually thinking of starting a beehive fairly soon."

"Ooh, yes please." Apricot repeats her earlier performance. "I love honey."

"Okay." Edsel speaks up when we get outside. "Gran was complaining about having to feed the enchanters, but in a way that meant he was happy to have the chance to show off again. So, I'll see you tomorrow for lunch."

"Oh, I was going to take care of that, but I guess this saves me the effort." I shrug one shoulder. "I'll just make some chocolate for everyone, I guess."

"Ooh, yes please." He mimics Apricot.

"Alright, I'll see you then." He nods to us before climbing into the carriage.

***