We were hardly half an hour out of town, the blizzard still raging all about us when I felt the truck begin to slow.

Amity had offered to drive, in the shared hope that Val might get some rest, but when I twisted around to look into the cab, I saw the little fey fidgeting restlessly in her seat.

The truck stopped, and Amity turned to give me that same warm little smile she'd worn when watching Val and me by the fire. Val herself wasted no time, opening her door with a creak and hopping down from her seat.

She put her foot on the back tire, and with a little help from myself, scrambled up into the bed of the truck.

Val was not in good shape. I trusted that Simon was telling the truth when he'd said she only needed rest and the occasional application of the healing ointment, but damn did Val look rough. The bruise on her brow had darkened further, black and green on her fair purple skin, and she had dark circles under her eyes. Even the way she held herself seemed stiff and pained.

The truck was facing into the wind, so I only had to raise my voice a little to be heard, "Val, what are you doing? Get the hell back inside. It's freezing out here."

Val, undeterred, began unbuttoning the front of my coat.

Now the idea of Val undressing me was an admittedly exciting one. I just wasn't sure this was the best time or place.

"It's warm, fine," Val replied with a grimace, working her way down, "But it's so uncomfortable. It's a cramped metal box, with no thought given to the passenger's comfort. I cannot, for the life of me, find a comfortable position to doze off in."

Val finally finished with the buttons and slipped into my coat to cuddle up against my chest.

"It's plenty warm right here," she sighed, "And a great deal more comfortable."

I did up a few of the buttons to keep the wind out and nuzzled her hair. She was tucked in just under my chin, and already I could feel some of the stiffness melt out of her.

"Thank you, Wallace," she murmured.

"You're welcome?"

The collar of my coat hung open just a little, and she peered up at me through it, a wry expression plain on her face.

"For being so useless, I mean," she taunted, "When I was a little girl I read all sorts of stories about- well, the usual things. Dashing heroes rescuing hapless damsels, the usual nonsense. I'd all but given up on such business before you'd come along," she gave me a little squeeze, "So thank you for being my damsel."

I chuckled and patted her lightly on the back, "Anything I can do to help."

Val might have been happy to curl up next to me in the back of the truck, but it didn't make things any more comfortable for me, sitting there on the cold corrugated sheet metal. So I was thankful when I felt us start to climb a hill, and turned around to see the faintest outline of the hotel looming above.

I roused Val gently, and despite her protests, I was able to get her more or less upright by the time Amity had pulled the truck up next to the hotel's concrete foundation. With a little guidance from myself, she brought the truck around until it was under the storm drain.

Val huddled close to Amity, waiting while I hauled myself up into the tunnel to kick down the rope ladder. Even made of metal, the gynoid wasn't much heavier than any ordinary woman her size, so while I might have been too much for the ladder, the girls were both able to safely make their way up.

It was a functional solution for the time being, but in the long term, we'd need something better. Val had a hard enough time with the ladder, and she'd only got a bump on the head. If one of us were more badly injured, or worse, unconscious, I had no real idea of how to manage the climb. I might be able to carry Val up into the storm drain, but the passage up through to the manhole was so narrow that I barely had room for myself. No way was I carrying Val up at the same time. And I could only imagine what Val would face if I were the one out of action. Our fancy base wasn't much good if we couldn't get into it in an emergency.

"Are we leaving all this out here for now?" Val asked, with a vague gesture down at the truck.

"I can begin bringing our things up," Amity offered.

I nodded, "That works. I'll go with Val, make sure she gets settled somewhere warm, and then I'll come back to help truck all this stuff inside."

"Help Val get settled," the little fey scoffed, "I can take care of myself."

"Hey, you're the one who's all happy to rescue the damsel, now let the damsel fawn over you for a bit."

"But of course, princess."

"Smartass."

I got a couple feet of snow dumped on me when I shifted the manhole aside, and more than a little went down the back of my neck. But without any room to move, all I could do was grit my teeth and pull myself up.

Once I was out, I shook out my coat, and Val emerged a moment later. She cast an amused gaze about the once verdant park and the thigh-deep snowdrifts that now covered it.

"Are you going to make me trudge through all this?"

"You're the dashing hero," I taunted, "Come on now, carry the damsel across the threshold."

"Would you just pick me up and carry me inside before I freeze?"

I had half a mind to throw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and I probably would have done, had she not just had her bell rung. So I settled for a princess carry and made a mental note of the potato sack treatment for later.

Some snow had blown into the space under the portico, but little had piled up against the doors. We both knocked the snow off our boots, and Val pulled the door open for the two of us.

It was chilly inside without any heat or power, but it was a marked improvement from a moment ago. I didn't have a thermometer handy, but my breath wasn't fogging in the air at the very least.

Val groaned, "I do not want to try climbing up all those stairs again, especially not without my necklace."

"You've already taken it off?"

"Sooner it comes off the faster I can put it back on," she grumbled.

"The lobby has a fireplace," I indicated, "There's plenty of cushions, and I should be able to get some blankets from upstairs."

"And wood to burn?"

"I think there's some still in there, and they'll have more somewhere around here," I assured her.

I set her down on the couch nearest the cold fireplace, and she pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Do you need me to light it or-"

"I was the one who taught you magic," she snapped, "Enough fawning, if they have firewood stored somewhere, I'm sure I can find it myself. Go help Amity."

I raised my hands, "Alright, alright, I'm going."

When I descended the last of the rungs and ducked into the drain, I found a small pile of our winnings, such as they were, already scattered near the mouth of the storm drain. A moment later, as my footfalls echoed down the tunnel, the bag with our pilfered silk came sailing up from below, to land among the rest.

"There you are, Wallace," Amity called, once I'd reached the edge.

"Hand the stuff up, and we can get the hell inside, I don't want to leave Val alone for too long."

"I didn't think her injuries were that serious," Amity replied, as she began handing things up.

I pushed aside some of what had already made it up and began setting things down as I took them from the gynoid, "Probably not, but head injuries are screwy. Besides," I added, taking another offered bit of domesticity, "Fey aren't built to take a lot of stress. You probably haven't noticed that because she's been wearing her amulet, but it needs to come off if she's going to heal properly, so she's a little depowered at the moment."

"She mentioned that this morning," Amity admitted, "In some ways, I find it difficult to feel sympathy for her. Much of her life has been spent as the prince's, and from what she's said, her family had far more sprites than the prince had androids."

"She's trying to do better," I insisted, "And not just for herself."

"And I know that. It's just-" Amity sighed, "Valentine is just so precious, but I find it sours the experience to know that unlike the rest of us, she can escape all life's hardships simply by deciding to stop play-acting as a one of the common folk."

With the last of the goods lifted out of the truck, Amity reached up a hand, and I lifted her easily into the tunnel.

"What about yourself?" Amity asked, "You do not seem bothered by such things."

I just shrugged, "I don't know, Amity. She seems like a nice person, and she's adorable. The concerns you have... Just aren't the sort of thing I've ever had to think about."

"You are desirous of her, and care little for the details," Amity observed.

"I care about some details," I insisted, "Maybe she does decide to stop 'play-acting' as you put it, in which case I'm gonna have to reconsider how helpful I am to her. Short of that, I don't much care. But if you're not happy with this, knowing what keeps fey society going-"

Amity shook her head, "I will stay. Leaving would only make her 'play-acting' all the more troublesome to keep up. I will stay, though I must admit, I'm not certain how you imagine I'd keep my batteries charged without the hotel."

"I don't know. I guess I'd figure something out before you left," I shrugged.

"You seem awfully confident in your abilities."

"Well, I am literally the smartest person on the planet," I pointed out, matter-of-factly, "Or the best educated, at the very least. And no one said being the hero was easy."

Amity grinned, "Mmm, I thought Val had made it quite clear who the hero is."

It took a few trips to haul everything up from the storm drain and run it over to the hotel, and when we'd finally finished, I went over to check on Val.

The fire blazed away in the hearth, and sitting nearby was a small stack of firewood, wrapped in the cheap plastic mesh that reminded me of camping. Her flight suit hung from the mantlepiece. Fast asleep, she lay curled up in cushions and blankets, all spread out on the carpet, just before the tiled hearth.

I retreated, careful not to disturb her slumber, and padded over to where Amity was busying herself with our winnings. I held my gaze low, as I picked my way out of the sitting area, so as not to bump into anything. Which was why I was a little startled when I finally cleared the last of the furniture and looked up to see Amity bent over to disassemble some appliance.

Oh for-

"Amity," I began, voice low so as not to wake the little fey, "Do you think you could maybe put some pants on?"

Amity turned, and brushed the hair out of her face, then rolled her eyes and straightened.

"Valentine does not seem to mind," she pointed out.

I chuckled, "No, that's not quite true. Val approves, which is not the same thing. But I would find it much easier to focus on the whole, 'creating a brand new method of electricity generation from scratch', thing, if you were wearing pants."

"I suppose I can be accommodating," she agreed, "You mentioned you already had some clothing here?"

"Yeah, top floor in one of the conference rooms. In the meantime, I'll get started on the power thing."

Amity nodded, and after directing her to the stairs, I went digging behind the front desk.

The power supplies were where I expected them to be. This wasn't the high voltage transformer that converts wall power into something useable to a PC, but instead the battery backup that was typical of commercial and enterprise computer systems.

I pressed the button on the front of the rigid plastic housing, but the screen did not flicker to life. The battery was long dead, but that was of little consequence. Amity had her own batteries, after all. Our only trouble was charging them.

Electrical power is sometimes described as 'clean' or 'dirty', which just describes how stable it is. Something as delicate as a computer doesn't do great with dirty power, as the fluctuations can cause actual physical damage to the machine. Particularly dirty power sources might also brownout occasionally, where power is still being delivered, but at a far lower wattage than is needed to do anything useful.

So in addition to providing backup power in case of a blackout, the power supplies I now had spread out on the floor in front of me were also used to clean up dirty power. Dirty power would come in, get buffered by the battery, and come out as clean and stable power.

I sat on the floor with my back to the desk and turned one of the units over in my hands. However stable the mana to electricity conversion was, this brick of electronics would make sure Amity wouldn't come to harm.

Assuming any of this was even going to work.

I wasn't worried about splicing the cable we'd need to let Amity draw from the power supply. She'd brought some that were compatible with here, and there were plenty of electronic devices I could scavenge for the other end here at the hotel. That was the last and easiest step. The problem was creating power, any power, at all.

In a perfect world, I'd just have a block of copper with some grooves cut in it that matched the power supply's plug. I'd stick it on the end of the cord, and that copper would provide the Lightning mana, while some other material provided Creation mana. If magical enchantments were half as efficient as I thought they were, it should be enough to power Amity for years. The trouble was, I didn't have any sources of Creation mana.

Well, that wasn't necessarily true. As big as this hotel was, with its many cars parked out back and our victoria-punk gadgets piled over by the doors, there was a decent chance that I did have some Creation mana somewhere around here. I just didn't know what bits of furniture, electronics, and other junk could provide it.

Which left me with two options. Either I do the necessary experimentation to figure out a source of the needed mana, or come up with a way to generate electricity without it. And in both cases, I had a sub-ninety-six hour deadline.

I withdrew a small notebook and flipped to the page where I'd copied out the notes I'd made on mana types.

Val had told me that the mana contained in both metals and gemstones were public knowledge, as so had ended up forming the basis of the local currency. While there was mana in everything, according to her, there were few spellcasters out there sharing their secrets. Which I supposed made sense. The locals might trade in iron, copper, or bits of quartz crystal when buying goods and services, but it was mana that was the currency. And if some enterprising mage figured out there was Earth mana in potatoes, he'd have little reason to tell anyone else, lest the prices rise significantly.

The upshot being, if I were going to find a source of Creation mana, it wouldn't be in metals or gemstones.

Or at least, it won't be in metals or gemstones these guys know about.

A second look at the note told me that they had indeed discovered Aluminum, which held Illusion and Protection mana, as it happened. Which left... Well, truth was, pretty much every metal was listed somewhere on my note.

Of course, a physicist would say that nearly everything on the periodic table was a metal, but that wasn't the same definition used by the locals. Though, upon consideration, they didn't have any heavy or rare earth metals listed here.

I considered the battery backup once again, it would contain lithium, true, but that was already known to have Lightning and Mind mana. But there may also be cobalt, if not in this battery then in others in the hotel. There might also be radioactive isotopes of cobalt in the hotel's fire detectors, though more likely it would be Americium. The trouble there, aside from the whole radioactivity thing, was getting enough to experiment with. I didn't know how much the average smoke detector would contain, but it was a safe bet that mass was measured in micrograms. There'd be substantially more cobalt in each of the batteries, but that only meant there'd be milligrams instead of micrograms.

Other exotic metals came to mind, like the tantalum that would be found in most capacitors, but who was to say I'd even find what I needed? Besides, if forced to guess, I'd expect to find something like Transformation mana in radioactive materials, and just more Lightning in the tantalum. There were no known metals that contained Creation mana, but that did not necessarily imply the existence of one that had yet to be discovered.

And what conjured to mind the thought or feeling of creation anyways? Seeds maybe? But how much of that was cultural, specific to my upbringing? Hell, for all I knew, it was all in my head, and I could get any sort of mana from any kind of material. Maybe 'magic' as the locals knew it was just a quirk of this reality, where conscious minds could tap directly into matter-energy conversion to do as they liked. And the first visitors to this place applied their cultural understanding and came up with this mana type nonsense.

I set aside the idea of upending the very concept of what magic was and focused on the task at hand. Amity was going to die if I didn't get my shit together. After all, I didn't need Creation mana to chill the hotel freezer, and this was just another case where I'd need to find a workaround.

But at least with the freezer, the task was much more straightforward. I'd had the thing I'd needed and only had to move it someplace else. That wasn't the case here. Figuring out that Communicate was Movement for the non-physical had been a big deal, and I suspected it would be part of the solution here, but there were still pieces missing.

There were the other verbs, of course. Communicate probably superseded Movement, but may still be useful. Strengthen might be used to bolster any power I generated, and Transform to modify the amperage and voltage. There was Control, though like Create I knew of no sources. But the others, Heal, Protect, and Weaken, I was dubious of their value. That left only Sense, and while I liked the idea of having a poke around the hotel with Sense Lightning active, perhaps I'd learn something that could help, I was less enthused when I took another look at my notes.

Sense required Agate or Pearl. I had no idea what Agate looked like, but as for Pearl...

My knees crunched and popped as I pushed myself to my feet, but I hardly felt the pain. Yeah, it hurt, but when didn't it?

We hadn't yet sorted any of what Amity and I had brought in, but I knew there was some jewellery here somewhere, so I spent a few minutes rooting around until I'd gathered up most of it. The Victorians liked their pearls it seemed, or at least, liked them more than the people who'd stayed at this hotel. I didn't recall seeing many pearls among the hotel's luggage, but there was a triple-stranded necklace here that held upwards of a hundred pearls. None of them was very large, but I didn't need them to be.

I pocketed the necklace and walked over to the restaurant to find a glass or something to keep the pearls in.

In the kitchen, I found a small plastic cup, made of translucent red plastic and full of crayons in various colours. The crayons I dumped out onto the table, and with a little tug, I broke the strands the pearls were strung on and dumped them into the cup.

I had no idea how valuable pearls are, but on sheer volume, I figured there must be at least five figures rattling around inside the cheap plastic. This was all assuming the pearls were real, and though that was a question for the girls, I didn't see any reason why the prizes we'd earned should be fake.

I caught sight of Amity as I left the restaurant, just as she was shoving her way through the door to the stairs. The apron was gone, replaced with jeans rolled up at the hem, and a pink hoodie. With only one set of arms poking out the sleeves, and the baggy clothing hiding her exaggerated figure, she looked like an ordinary college student.

Amity noticed me and spread her arms, "Are you still distracted?"

"Constantly," I replied, "But now there's one less thing, so thanks."

"No, thank you. That was the first time I can remember choosing my own clothes, not counting the apron, of course."

I smiled, though it was bittersweet, "Well I'm glad I could help. And on the topic of helping," I held up the cup, "Can you tell me if these are real?"

Amity withdrew one of the pearls with two slender fingers and inspected it as we walked back over to the front desk.

"They're real," she assured me, "What do you need them for?"

"Sense magic needs either pearls or agates to work. With a little copper, I can cast Sense Lightning, which should hopefully point out anything I'm missing while I wander around the hotel and hope a solution magically presents itself."

Amity quirked an eyebrow, and tossed the pearl back into the cup, "Your plan seems less than comprehensive."

I sat down, and the desk creaked in protest as I leaned against it. Amity joined me on the floor, sitting cross-legged, and I handed over one of the power supplies.

"Well we've got a way to tidy up any power I generate," I explained, "and we can make a cable that'll let you plug into this, the problem is the electricity itself."

Amity nodded along as I explained our issue with mana types, specifically Create. When I finished, I held up the cup of pearls.

"Life is going to be a lot easier if I have electricity to start with and can modify it to suit our needs, rather than starting from zero," I sighed, "Honestly don't have a lot of hope that Sense Lighting will turn up much of use, but anything would be helpful at this point, and there's little to lose by having a look around."

"What can I do?"

"Well, unless inspiration strikes you, I'd appreciate if you could keep an eye on Val while I wander around. I'll take stock of what we have to work with, and we can figure out what our next steps are once I'm back."

Amity turned, gazing towards the fireplace, and put a finger to her lips, "Perhaps I'll prepare something for the midday meal as well."

"That'd be really great, thanks."

She spread her hands, "It's the least I can do."

My joints popped and crackled again as I rose to my feet, and Amity went to peruse the restaurant, though she spared a moment to check on Val on the way over.

As for my spell, I decided that the easiest thing would be for me to just 'see' the presence of electricity as if I had some sort of heads up display. So, not knowing what else to do, I simply focused my will on that being the case, and when I opened my eyes, it was.

Despite her standing in the kitchen, with at least two or three intervening walls, I could see her form outlined in blue. Her head and abdomen were the brightest, brain and batteries I supposed, though I could see blue threads tracing the outline of all six limbs.

I was a little surprised to see she wasn't the only source, though nothing else held anything approaching the same magnitude. Faint lines were visible in the walls and certain places running through the floor. Even the power supplies at my feet had a soft blue glow. So faint that at first, I wasn't sure if I was simply fooling myself. It was only when I closed my eyes to think, and realized that I could still see the blue outline of the building's wiring, that I was sure.

I took the stairs down into the basement, following the path of the building's wiring. The power supplies were dead, sure, but it made sense that there would be a residual charge. Not enough to be of any use, but sufficient for my spell to notice. But if it was flagging the wiring, well that was curious.

The basement, being the basement, had no windows, and without thinking, I activated the light Val had given me so many weeks ago. About the size of a small flashlight, it was fashioned in the shape of a stylized torch. With a pale hardwood shaft and a head made of finely wrought tin, it cast a metallic light about the cramped basement.

Well, cramped for me. The ceiling was seven feet high, and the corridors were wide enough for two of the big laundry carts to pass side by side with room to spare.

I followed the faint blue lines to where they gathered, near the rear of the building's basement. The wires lead, as I should have expected, to the building's electrical room. A card reader secured the door, but without power, the lock had failed, and I'd pulled it open.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that there was no massive bank of batteries just waiting within the electrical room. Neither was there any generator just waiting for me to feed it siphoned gas.

The breakers themselves were housed within a series of metal cabinets, each one for a different floor of the hotel. I pulled each open in turn, and read the labels. There was little of interest. I'd hoped for something relating to backup power, but the hotel had nothing of the sort. Just boring stuff like 'hall lighting one', and 'room 203 kitchenette'. There were two whole cabinets dedicated to only the bank of elevators, the rows of little fifteen and thirty amp breakers replaced with one massive lever for each elevator, but that did make sense. The massive DC motors that would drive each elevator would draw a hell of a lot more power than any one of the hotel's rooms, and I made a mental note to come down and turn them off if I ever got power to the building. I'd want one left on for Val, as it would give her a lot more mobility when recovering from any injuries, but the others would just be a useless power draw.

I did a quick circuit of the electrical room but saw nothing that explained the blue glow that the building's wiring gave off. There was even a spool of armoured cable in one corner, fifty metres of the stuff, connected to nothing at all, and glowing nonetheless.

Was the spell detecting the potential for the wire to be able to carry electricity? Because short of that, I didn't see what else I was supposed to infer from the spell flagging a disconnected spool of wire.

I pushed the spool over onto its side and sat down.

I turned off the torch and did my best to clear my mind. Without my phone and my music, I found it harder to meditate, but after a few minutes of silence, my breathing was steady, and I found that I could focus.

Ninety-six hours, maybe a little more, probably a little less. I could maybe steal another ninety-six hours if we got back to the village, but who was to say they even still had power?

If I had a river or stream near the hotel, maybe I could have rigged up a water wheel. I could use the loose cable to rig up a simple generator, but there was nothing like that near the hotel. Wind power was a possibility, but my biggest fear there was spending all the time I had left building something, only to find out too late that it didn't make enough power.

I let out a ragged breath. This was precisely the sort of thing I'd been looking forward to when I'd first begun to learn magic. The process of invention, coming up with something no one else had done before. But the fact that a life was at stake kinda took the joy out of it.