"But, Mom." Willow whines five minutes later when Sophie tells them that it's time to quit playing. "We're making rainbows."

"And, taking up Sorrel and Amelia's time and magic." Their mother counters.

"If you girls are good and listen to your mother." I interject. "I might just have another book for you." Their eyes go wide when I say that.

"You're going to spoil them." Sophie says in an exasperated tone, but with a happy smile on her face.

"That's what uncles -even honorary ones- are for." The baron says with a laugh while walking up to us. "Grandpas too." He steps aside to reveal his granddaughter Rebecca and her mother Dulcette.

""Becca!"" Sophie sighs as her daughters run over to their friend.

"Sorrel." He steps forward and pats me on the shoulder. "The last field was just treated, so I came by to thank you again. The crops sprayed this morning are already showing marked improvement."

"And, here I was worried we had annoyed some fisherman that sen you to give me a talking to." I joke. A few did swing by while the girls were going at it, but just to smile and wave. "Seriously though, that's great to hear. We're still working on everything for next week, if it’s even needed. But, as you can see, we got somewhat distracted."

"Yes, I've heard that Adriana... how was it put? Gave you a puzzle to work on." He smirks. "She's already petitioned me to let her install giant faucets throughout the city. They aren't all going to need something like this, are they?"

"Oh, no." I shake my head and wave my hands in negation. "This monstrosity was just to provide a consistent pressure; I'll be taking it down in a moment. The final system will just need a large pipe run a few kilometers upstream."

"Could I give it a go before you take it down?" He asks with a silly grin.

"Want to try holding it?" I pluck the hose free from the safety equipment I build for the kids. "You'll be fine as long as you brace yourself."

"This rubber is rather remarkable to be able to hold back the weight of all that water while still being flexible enough to move, all without leaking." He slaps the side of the hose.

"There's a layer of reinforcing fabric in the middle of the rubber." I explain. "But, this is only a prototype, I still need to add the protective canvas to the outside and work out the hardware. And, honestly I'd like to make sure it can handle much higher pressures, but this tower is stretching what I can do, as it is."

"Just how much pressure are you talking about." He asks as I slowly open up the nozzle.

"Oh, this should be more than enough to work with in the city." I explain.

"But?" He chuckles.

"But, I probably won't be happy unless I know it can take three times the working pressure." I hesitate because I know my inner perfectionist is peeking out. "After taking whatever damage a fire team can do to it over the course of a year."

"Hahahah." He busts up laughing but doesn't take his focus from the hose that's now going full blast. "That might just last a week under Adriana's care. That woman fights fires like she's tackling a dungeon. And, she's had a real burr in her side since... not getting here in time." He adds that in an undertone after a quick glance at Myra.

"I understand how she feels." I fight to keep a grimace off of my face. "When I saw that smoke after leaving the woods, the first thing I wanted to do was charge forward. I'm just glad I was able to help when we did arrive."

"Well, with any luck these fire hoses will help others in the future. But, uh..." I shut the water off for him, and he drops the hose right away and starts rubbing his arms. "Thank you, that thing is a real workout. The fire brigade might need to start training with the army."

"I'm sure that something like this can be attached to a cart." I wave to the setup made for the girls. "And, the full power isn't always going to be needed. The nozzles back home had a lever that could adjust the flow." I was running a few experiments on that while the girls were playing.

"Heh, any more firefighting tips from your homelands?" He says it in a low-key tone, but I can tell that he's interested.

"Well, I already told Adriana about portable fire extinguishers, there are other things they can be filled with, but I only know the simple soda acid model." I say. "But, there are built-in fire systems too."

I pull out some paper and start sketching up a diagram of a fire sprinkler. I only know how they work because of that one Slow Mo Guys video, but it's a simple enough design.

"These are rather imaginatively called fire sprinklers." I laugh but he's closely examining the drawings. "That red thing is a thin glass ampoule filled with liquid that expands and breaks the glass at a set temperature. Once it breaks, the plug falls out, letting the water spray into a room."

"Word of advice." He says in a conspiratorial whisper before cracking a smile. "Don't tell Struhl about this until you have a working device. You have no idea how lucky you are that she hasn't been pestering you all afternoon."

"Mhm." I nod solemnly. "She does have something of an intense vibe to her. I'll have to work on my earth magics then, maybe give Edsel's glassmaker friend a visit."

"Grandpa." Becca comes running up, wearing a silly smile while holding something behind her back. "Look." She pulls out Apricot's squirt gun and starts giggling so hard that she can hardly aim at him.

"You little rascal." The baron lets out a deep belly laugh and starts chasing after her.

"And, thus started the second battle of the great water wars." I say in a professorial voice as the three little girls start picking on the baron.

While they're having fun, I finish taking down the water tower, storing away the lumber again after breaking it into more manageable chunks.

"Master Sorrel." Erick pleads. "The Barony is under assault, we need weapons that only you can provide."

"Alright." A shit-eating grin fills my face. "Catch." I toss him one of the water balloons I had saved in storage.

""Hahahahaha!"" Everyone cracks up laughing at the look of shock that coats his face right after the water does.

"Noooo!" He drops to his knees in an overly-dramatic fashion. "Rebecca, my grandchild, I have been betrayed. You must... avenge me." With one last gasp, he slumps over.

"Grandpa!" The little girl shouts in-between giggles for his play-acting. "We'll revenge you. Right, girls?" She looks to her troops for support.

"Yeah!" - "Let's get him."

"Muahahaha! You dare think you can challenge me." I put on my best evil villain routine. "You'll have to best my flower fiends first." The ground around me erupts into blooms of all kinds, their petals flying off to form three mirror images of the girls.

"You can do it, girls." Apricot cheers for them. "He used up all his magic making them and is completely defenseless now. And, he forgot the most important part about flower fiends. They're weak against water."

"W-what? N-no, no they aren't." My villainous facade crumbles into a nervous expression. "W-water actually makes them stronger, yeah. So, you definitely don't want to get them wet."

"Charge!" Rebecca leads the way, blasting through the fiend blocking her way, sending petals flying.

"How can this be?" Now it's my turn to drop to my knees. "How could the Baron have such a mighty granddaughter with such strong knights?" I don't even get to finish my monologue before they open fire, sending me to the ground with another explosion of flowers.

"You did it!" Apricot starts up a cheer that runs through the adults.

"Don't think you've defeated me for good." A small flower fiend made to look just like me climbs out from underneath my body. "I'll be back, even stronger than before." It morphs into a bird shape and flies away before anyone can react.

"Oh, brave Rebecca." I slowly pull myself to a sitting position. "You and your knights, the wise Willow, and mighty Myra have saved me from the influence of that evil flower fiend. As a reward, I shall heal your grandfather from the treacherous wound it inflicted on him."

All the flower petals on the ground swirl up into the air before falling down to land on Erick, forming a floral cocoon around him. The cocoon glows for a moment before evaporating into nothing thanks to a clever use of the cleanse spell.

"Rebecca!" Erick jumps to his feet. "You did it, you defeated the evil fiend, freed Sorrel from its influence, and saved me." Another round of cheers and laughter ring out when he bows to her before scooping her up into his arms with a wide smile.

"Nice trick with the flower fiends." Amelia pulls me to my feet. "I don't think I'll be able to look at another flower the same way now."

"Oh, they are truly a misunderstood people." I smile over at where the girls are already recounting the tale of their mighty battle. "But, that's all because of just a few rotten apples that give them a bad name."

"You are such a goof." Her words may be teasing but her smile is full of affection.

"Yeah, but I'm your goof." I pull her and Apricot close. "Now, what were we doing? I've completely lost track."

"You were going to finish the hose and turn the rest of the pearlash into leavener." Apricot answers.

"Oh, yeah. But, before that." I take out some paper and pigments. "I promised the girls a new book. Might as well stick with Seuss and give them Horton Hears a Who. But, remind me to take the time to copy out all the picture books later."

"That's not all the books you need to copy out." Amelia says in a serious tone.

"I know, I know." I squeeze her a little tighter. "I'm just not sure where to start. I was leaning towards the classics, but that means more translation headaches because the language has drifted over the years."

"You got over the music headaches pretty quickly." Apricot interjects with a grin.

"..." I just glare at her. "Fine, but do you want to help me narrow it down, or should I just start at the oldest and work my way forwards. Most of the books I have are from within my lifetime, but I have a few older ones too."

"Just how old are we talking about?" The blonde raises an eyebrow.

"A couple around three-thousand years old, but they're from an entirely different culture." Those epic poems by Homer, known as the Illiad and the Odyssey. "There are a few more that are nearly as old, but books had to be hand-copied until someone invented a machine to do it for them. And, that was only around five or six hundred years ago."

"I keep forgetting the whole no magic thing." She smiles. "Well, I guess you can copy those older ones. They might be from a different culture, but they must have some significance to yours, or you wouldn't have them."

"They cover a lot of ancient mythology." I reply. "Something I was interested in when I was younger. Now, I have to wonder if VeeGee was one of the gods mentioned in it."

"That is so weird that your gods aren't known." Apricot shakes her head. She's about to say something else when Edsel approaches with Melanie.

"We were just about to leave." He states. "But, I wanted to thank you again for showing me that spell. And, to let you know that if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask."

"I will likely be taking you up on that soon." I nod while thinking about how to get to and from the Capital in a reasonable time frame. "But, if you could start making some bike parts that would be great, chain especially. I haven't finalized any plans yet, but I know I'm going to need several meters of it for the vehicle I want to make."

"Hah." The man snorts out a laugh while shaking his head. "You show me how to get all the aluminum anyone could want and that's all you ask for."

"Oh, I might bug you to show me some more earth spells, but that's about all I can think of." I shrug.

"What's this about aluminum?" Amelia's eyes go wide and I swear I see coins rolling around in them.

"Heheheh, I'll leave that for you to explain." He chuckles at the look on my face before turning around and leaving.

"Uh, I kinda showed him how to use the draw matter spell on stone." I shrink back from the intensity in her eyes. "Then I told him that granite is around fifteen percent alumina. It still takes a lot of heat to melt, a good chunk of my mana just for a coin-sized piece. But, I'm sure he'll figure out how to extract other metals too, and the heat issue isn't that hard to solve."

"I think you broke her again." Apricot chortles.

"Don't think about the money; just think about all the books I'm going to give you." I pull her into a hug until the coins quit rolling in her eyes. "That's better, now speaking of books, there are three little girls who have been waiting patiently for this." I step back and hold up the now completed picture book.

***