The testing continues without issue until the one-hundred-fifty-meter mark when another batch starts to show signs of failure. I remove those and keep going, reach all the way to two hundred meters before I'm forced to stop.

"It looks like that's as far as I can go." I say with a sigh since the higher winds up there are just putting too much stress on the tower legs. "The good news is that we have three strong contenders that seem to be holding up well regardless of how they were put together."

"You know what we have to do now, right." The pixie's wicked grin matches mine perfectly. Amelia tries to play it cool, but I can tell she's excited too.

I setup the three hoses and with wide grins we let loose, spraying water over halfway across the river. The girls used their magic to control their hoses, but I had no trouble manhandling mine. I could probably have managed with a single hand, but I still used both for safety. My vines I kept free in case the girls needed help.

"Heheh, remind me to build a bigger tank next time." I say with a sigh after the water runs out. "That or just run a pipe a few kilometers upriver. This is what, a five percent grade? I'd only need to go four kilometers to match this setup."

"Just under." Edsel nods. "The city already has a couple pipes about a kilometer out for those tall apartment buildings."

I was kinda surprised to see nine and ten-story buildings when we first got to town, but I figured if the Romans could manage apartments half that tall, then people with magic wouldn't have any problem going up to forty or fifty meters. Though, I doubt the higher floors are very popular without any elevators.

"I'll let the fire chief and the Baron handle the logistics." I reply with a chuckle. "I just need to make a product that works." Touching Blackthorne to the legs of the water tower, I bring it back down to forty meters. Though with much thicker legs now.

"So, what next?" Melanie asks after I detach the remaining hoses.

"Next, I test these for durability, and then make full-length models to run one last pressure test against. Just to be safe." Safety first, second, and third. Especially when it comes to life-saving devices. "If you're done in the lab, you can feel free to take off."

"Some of your expressions make me think you were raised by bird kin, not humans." Amelia says with a twinkle of humor in her eyes.

"Oh, flying vehicles were pretty common, not really for everyday travel, but it was a big country and the larger cities were kinda spread out." I say with a smile. "I could probably build a pedal-powered aircraft. It wouldn't be very fast, but I'm more than strong enough to get two or three people off the ground."

"..." The blood starts draining from her face.

"Oh, baby." I wrap my arms around her. "Are you afraid of heights? It's alright, you don't have to go up. But, now that the idea is in my head, I do kinda want to build one. Apricot, you'll fly with me won't you?"

"Uncle Sorrel." The neighbor girls come running up before she can answer me. "Can we get a squirter that strong?"

""Hahaha."" The five of us laugh at their exuberance and the slightly exasperated look on their mother's face.

"Maybe if you join the fire brigade when you grow up." I tousle both of their hair. "But, I suppose I could let you help me with the next test, if it's okay with your mom, that is."

"Mom, can we?" - "Please, please, please." They immediately rush to her and start begging.

"It'll be perfectly safe." I reassure her. "But, it won't be ready for a while yet." I take a balloon out of storage and fill it with conjured water. "Hey, Apricot. Catch. Hahahahah. I crack up again when it bursts in her hands, drenching her. Only to evaporate into nothingness a moment later."

"Oh, you little..." She just barely manages to censor herself because of the kids.

"If you give me a couple minutes, then you girls can play catch with Auntie Apricot too."

"You're lucky she loves kids." Amelia whispers into my ear. "But, she's still going to get you back for that."

"What was that?" Melanie is picking up the burst bits of latex from the ground.

"Balloon." I answer and take out the other one I made before quickly blowing it up and batting it towards the girls. "Water balloon, specifically. And, save those pieces; I want to try decomposing the rubber and extracting the sulfur. If it works out, we could set up some sort of trade-in program for worn-out products."

She raises an eyebrow at me before smiling at the girls chasing the balloon around. "That's a good idea."

"He's full of them... usually." Apricot huffs.

"I'll make an extra big one just for you to splash me with, okay?" I've already started producing balloons in a bunch of different sizes, so it's no problem to make an extra big one. "You can even fill it with ice water if you want."

"..." She just squints at me.

It doesn't take long before the first batch of balloons are ready to go. I fill about half of them with air for Myra and Willow to chase around and hand the rest to Apricot.

"Nng." She grumbles after filling one too full and having it pop in her hands. The next one she does better with but has trouble tying it off. "Show me." The pixie commands.

"Just wrap the end around two fingers, and then tuck it under through the gap between them." I demonstrate with a balloon from the second batch.

"Thank you." She says politely, right before dropping it on my head.

You're welcome." I smile up at her through the rivulets of water running off my head. "Now, let's see if I can remember how to do this." The air is filled with the sound of squeaking as I twist an extra-long balloon into an -only slightly- deformed dog.

"What is that supposed to be?" She laughs when I hold up the balloon animal.

"It's a puppy dog." I reply with a pout and pet the poor thing on its head. "It's not his fault that his limbs don't match."

"Heheh, you are such a goof." She takes the stupid looking dog from me. "But, I think he's going to need some brothers and sisters." She points with her chin to where the two little girls are looking on with puppy-dog eyes of their own.

"I think I can manage that." I make a couple more for them, and then pretend to mistake one of my vines for a balloon and use a bit of shapeshifting to turn it into a 'balloon' animal much to their shocked expressions.

"Uncle Sorrel! Quit being silly." Willow caught on when the adults started laughing at them.

"Sorry, Willow." I make the 'dog' duck its head before walking behind my back to unravel.

"..." She purses her lips and looks over to Apricot. "Can I throw one at him too?"

""Hahahahah.""

...

After a short, but intense, water battle between six adults and two children everyone was looking a bit worse for wear. Everyone, except William, who was smart enough to just watch from a distance.

"You cheat." Amelia huffs after plopping herself down next to me.

"I, who for some reason found myself the target of everyone's balloons, was merely acting defensively." I say while radiating an aura of innocence.

Aside from Apricot and the little girl's attacks which I just let hit me, I was more than happy to catch and send everyone else’s balloons right back at them. And, when Amelia tried using her magic to do the same, I would pop the balloon right before it reached her. Leaving her with a large splash to control rather than a small, contained, blob.

"Consider it as a special magic practice." I add when she just snorts at me. "You did get much better at defending yourself from splashes, after all."

"I had to." She glares over at Apricot. "Somebody decided to gang up on me with her little helpers after getting tired of you not reacting to their attacks."

"Oh, you had fun, and you know it." The pixie sticks her tongue out at her.

"That was fun." Edsel laughs when Amelia just pouts. "A bit messy, but fun."

"Yeah, and at least magic makes clean up a bit easier." I wave my hand and start sending burst balloons into storage. "Though, it wasn't quite the same without all the different colors. Melanie, do you think you could add researching viable pigments for rubber and the tree silk to the to-do list? I need to make up a new batch anyway after using so many at the Baron's"

"Ah, yes." She nods. "I was going to bring that up. Shall I get some of the more standard ones too? Not everyone can make their own like you do."

"Whatever you feel is best." I shrug. "You're the one doing all the hard work after all. Speaking of hard work, I should get back to testing the hoses."

I notice a problem right away; the spiral-wrapped hoses are tough, but they're too bulky. I'm aiming for something that folds flat, so it can roll up without taking up a lot of space. Disqualifying those still leaves me with the extruded, molded, and magicked together hoses from three different batches of rubber.

The magicked together hoses are clearly superior, but the other two are not far behind and about equal in terms of durability. I was able to single out the best batch of rubber though. This is far from a full round of tests, but it should be good enough to present to Adriana as a prototype.

"Do you have a winner?" Melanie asks when I start mixing up some more rubber.

"For now." I nod. "Now that I've got all the silica we could need, I'd like to try using it in the rubber. But, it still needs a bit of alchemy done to it before we can use it as a filler like the lampblack."

"Oh?" She perks up at the mention of new alchemy.

"It just needs a couple of steps." Steps I only know because I went down the Wikipedia rabbit-hole when I first became interested in rubber. "First we need to make waterglass from quartz sand, and then precipitate the silica back out with sulfuric acid."

""Water glass?"" She, Ed, and Amelia all ask in concert.

"Silica, water, and caustic soda... salt lye." Her brief frown turns into a nod of understanding. "Well, those three will turn into a gel when boiled. That gel will turn into glass when baked. It has a bunch of uses, but we want to precipitate the silica back out to use in rubber-like the lampblack."

"Huh?" She tilts her head and peers at the small pile of white powder I just pulled out of the soil. "That's simple enough that I'm sure someone must have discovered it, but I don't think anyone around here works with sand."

"I don't know about alchemists." Ed shakes his head. "But, the stuff from the river is no good for glass making, so the few glassmakers in town import what they need from the beaches to the east. And, I need to tell Claude about this spell, he's going to flip. Too bad he couldn't do magic if his life was on the line."

"Oh, speaking of. Do you know how much longer the windows are going to take?" I ask.

"Should be tomorrow or the next day." He replies. "But, I'll stop by on my way home to see how they're coming along."

"Thanks." I nod to him before looking to Myra and Willow. "Now, who wants to test the world's biggest squirter?" I roll up the fifteen-meter long hose and start walking over to the water tower.

"It is safe, right?" Their mom trusts me but still looks worried.

"Don't worry." I shoot her a smile. "I'm going to anchor the hose to the ground; they'll be able to move it around with a handle, like the rudder on a ship."

Her worries allayed, I get everything set up while Amelia takes the initiative to fill the tank up before I can even ask. Rolling out the hose, I attach one end to the water tower and the other to a nozzle attached to an over-sized ball-joint with a two-meter long handle.

"Alright, do you girls want to try it now, or wait until I raise the tower?" They jumped a little when the hose started filling with water.

"Now." - "Both." They talk over each other. "Yeah, both."

"Well, I guess that settles that, then." I chuckle. "But, you'd better thank Amelia, she's the one filling up the tank, after all."

""Thank you, Miss Amelia."" I grin when they dip into identical, clumsy curtsies.

"Oh, they are just so precious." Apricot coos.

I add a T-bar to the handle and motion them to hold on. "I'm turning the water on now."

They start giggling and bouncing around to make the water sway back and forth. While they're having fun, I push magic through my staff into the tower, slowly raising the tower back up to its full height.

When they start having trouble lifting the handle, I motion them back and replace the end with a large wheel, so they can still move it side to side. After that, I start playing around with different nozzle shapes.

"I think you're having as much fun as those two are." Amelia snuggles up against my side.

"This is purely scientific, I assure you." I can't even keep a straight face while saying that.

"Uh-huh." She shakes her head before leaning into me.

***