"Sweetie, I'm sure that Temmie appreciates that." I say as Apricot does her best to polish an already shining statue. "But, I'm also sure the priests are doing an excellent job keeping her well polished." I see the nearest one start to blush when I say that, and then turn beet-red when the Goddess herself giggles.

"I'm just doing what any follower of hers would." The pixie shoots back, completely shameless.

"Yes, well, you can do your duty to the Goddess when we get home." I pull the silly little thing down off of the statue. "I've nearly finished with our personal altar, and we're all pixie-sized, just for you. That and we're going to be late for lunch if you keep playing with her."

"That's playing dirty, and you know it." Apricot glares at me before apologizing to Temmie for abandoning her duties.

"Are you two done fooling around yet?" Amelia says with a roll of her eyes.

"Never!" I reply with a smirk. "But, we can head to Erick's now."

...

"Sorrel, Amelia, Apricot, Guild Master." The Baron greets us with a wide smile. "What a pleasant surprise. What brings you all here today? I thought you would bee busy working on your little hive." He adds with a laugh.

His whole family is here for lunch too, aside from Caleb, of course. His eldest daughter, Lori, beckons Rozelle over, likely to talk about the music players. Catrina does the same with Amelia, but to talk about clothes instead. Their mother, Lanie, just smiles fondly and shakes her head at their exuberance.

"Oh, there's still plenty to do." I sigh for all the work still ahead of me. "But, I needed a bit of a break, and I had to talk to you about something anyway. And, this gives me a chance to trade some more leftovers with your chef in exchange for another excellent meal."

"Hahahaha!" Erick cracks up laughing at the face Granville pulls. "You're the one who picked him as a rival, Gran; you can hardly fault him for playing along. Now, what brings you here today? I know it's not the blight; I just got a report that it has been nearly eradicated. The plans for your celebration are coming along well too."

"Yay." I deadpan. I've been keeping an eye on the northern fields during my runs, but it's still good to hear that there haven't been any issues elsewhere. Even if my tone of voice says differently right now. "No, I've just started working on a communication device. But, the details can wait until after this lovely meal. Thank you, Granville. And, here you go, a small selection of *Asian* cuisine." Apricot snatches up some edamame before I can hand the platter over.

"Oh boy, he's got that look on his face again." Reinholt says, earning a titter from his wife, Dulcette, which their daughter, Rebecca, copies. "I must say, I am enjoying this rivalry; we always eat well, but it's been years since Gran pulled out all the stops."

"Yes." Elise and her wife, Glynda, both nod. Glynda's daughter, Annette, just barely twitches a smile. I think she's still a bit embarrassed about coming on to me that one time, and certainly wasn't expecting me to show up for lunch. "You should have seen the feast he put on after the healing fair and the way he looked when you weren't there to eat it."

"Sorry, man." I offer him an apologetic look. "That was one long day and I just couldn't wait to get home."

"Mhm." He nods with a grunt, but most of his attention is on the food I presented to him. "Explain... please." I have to fight not to laugh at that pained addition.

"Well, I suppose we should start with fermented soybeans -here's a starter, by the way- those, along with five-spice powder, form the cornerstones of this style of cooking..." I go on to explain about the dishes and what substitutions I had to make. Seymour, the baron's gardener, perked up at the talk of exotic plants. "...I'm still hoping to find the missing ingredients when we head to the Capital, but I think everything turned out alright despite the substitutions."

"..."

"I think you might have broken him." Apricot says with a laugh and steals some more edamame.

"I've never even heard of dishes like these." The chef finally admits with a sigh. "I both love and hate you for showing it to me."

"I've been getting that a lot today." I chuckle when Ro gives me the stink-eye. "I'm sure that a professional chef can do a lot more with this stuff than I ever could though. I might be a somewhat skilled amateur, but I'm still an amateur."

"True." He nods, coming back to himself. "Some of your substitutions could have been a bit better..." We talk flavor profiles and complementary spices for the rest of the meal.

...

"Now that Gran is satisfied." Erick says with a laugh after lunch. "What's this about a communication device? Did you find some way to improve the far-speakers?"

"Paired wind-whisper enchantments." Rozelle provides when I look at her questioningly. "Their range is horrible though, and they're very reliant on clear weather."

"Huh? They sound like the walkie-talkies I used to play with as a kid." I smile at the fond memory. "But, no. This is a little different." I step away from the table to materialize the long pot with the prototype telephone. "Testing, testing." I whisper into one end and my voice comes out of the other.

"What did you do?" Seymour starts plumbing the plants with his magic.

"Found a creative solution to a problem." I shrug. "I'm not even sure what all I did magic-wise; I was letting my instincts guide me for most of it. But, I found a way to transmit a mana signal over the roots and their symbiotic fungus. I was hoping to get permission to run a line of trees between the farm and the hive, so I can do some long-distance testing."

"Granted." Erick says immediately. "How far do you think this can reach?"

"I have absolutely no idea." I say honestly. "But, if you need long-distance communication, I do have something that might work. Just, uh, give me a moment." I dig out my enchanting gear and quickly work out the runes and math for a high-voltage spark. Only to have it explode when I try to enchant it.

"Let me." Rozelle takes my designs and quickly makes a working product.

"Thank you, Master." She just rolls her eyes at me. "Now, I just need some copper wire... uh, Babe, do we have any more small change? I can just use silver or gold instead, if not." I say when I find only a single copper in storage.

"Here." Erick tosses me a pouch filled with them.

I melt a handful of coins down and draw the metal out into a thin wire that gets coated in rubber before being spooled up on a large spindle. One end of the wire gets attached to the enchantment and the other wrapped in a tight coil around an iron nail to form an electromagnet.

*dit* "Stupid spring." I grumble and fix my faulty workmanship. *dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit* "Sorry, I don't know any more of the code used than that emergency signal, but it wouldn't really work in Varecian anyways. I'm sure you and the Colonel can figure out a working tap code though."

"How?" Rozelle is the first to ask, but I can see most of them were about to.

"Electricity and magnetism are linked." I say with a shrug, just about at the limit of my knowledge for this subject. "If you make one, you make the other. Wrapping the wire around the nail just concentrates it, or something. I dunno how it all works; I was studying plants, after all. But, running electricity through the wire wrapped around the nail turns it into a magnet."

"Could this be used to reach the capital?" There's a real light in his eyes now.

"I... think so." There are a thousand kilometers between here and there, so I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if fiber optics would work over that distance. "You're going to need a lot more copper to find out though. And... I just signed myself up for even more work, didn't I?" I add with a sigh.

"That looks like a yes to me, Babe." Amelia laughs at my pain.

"If it's not too much to ask." Erick says somewhat sheepishly. "But, I'm not sure where I'm going to get that much copper from."

"Oh, don't worry about that." I wave his concerns away. "Aluminum is a decent enough conductor and I can get as much as I need of that; probably already have more than enough. Theft might be an issue if it's run on poles though, at least until Rozelle and I can work out the runes for my furnace idea. I suppose we can just bury it underground, but then it will have to be insulated, and I have no idea how the rubber would hold up over time... Oh, sorry. I slipped into puzzle mode, there." I apologize when I look up to see everyone staring at me.

"Pretty sure they're staring because of the whole 'enough aluminum to reach the Capital' statement." Amelia informs me with a wry smile on her face. "I know it's as common as dirt for you, but not everyone has caught up to that way of thinking yet."

"Ahh." I just nod, not sure what else to say.

"I'd heard about your foundry spell from Edsel." Erick admits. "But, I suppose there is a slight difference between hearing about it second hand, and having you casually state that you have that much precious metal."

"It's not precious; it's just hard to smelt." I counter. "You can get somewhere around a hundred kilos for every tonne of granite you process, and even common soil has a decent amount in it."

"And, I have to live with him." Amelia jokes when the baron develops a tick under one eye.

"Hah!" The laughter erupts out of him. "I should be used to dealing with powerful mages by now, but you do have a tendency to keep surprising me, Sorrel."

"Mhm. I know up here." I tap my forehead. "That aluminum is valuable around here, but less than a month ago I was using aluminum foil to wrap up leftovers. It's a little hard to get past that mentality, especially when I can get as much as I want from nothing more than dirt and water."

"You lunkers and your money." Apricot shakes her head at the lot of us.

"Says the woman who can survive off of nothing but mana." I say with a laugh and toss her a mana stone sucker.

"Not nothing." She sticks her tongue out at me before popping the magical lollipop into her mouth. "I need sex too." That shatters the small amount of tension built up in the room and soon everyone is laughing.

"And, with that, we should probably get going." I announce. "This busy little bee still has a hive to work on after all. Careful not to zap yourself on the telegraph, it should be safe, but I doubt it would feel very pleasant. And, I'll try to work on the long-distance test as soon as I can. But, a thousand kilometers is a pretty big pie, no matter how you slice it."

"Take your time." Erick says in an amused tone while playing with his new toy. "I need to show this to Hollen. Thank you once again for an amazing new invention; it may not be chocolate, but this might be almost as good."

"You're welcome." I offer the man a bow. "I understand that communication must be a vital need for a city as isolated as Riverton. I like this place, and I'm happy to help out where I can. Are you with us, Ro?" I ask when my girls and I get up to leave.

"No." She shakes her head with a smile. "If you'll remember, some crazy mage has me enchanting a bunch of stuff for his new building. That and I think I have a lot of research to do." She adds while staring at the clacking telegraph.

"If it helps." I offer. "You can blame the Fire Chief; she's the reason I got lonely while working on the pipes yesterday and started thinking up ways to talk to my girls. Of course, now I'm probably just going to use it so that I don't have to go into the office. So, I should probably thank her for that."

***