As I relaxed, my breathing and heart rate slowed, and I let it all give way to silence.

I'd lived most of my life in the city, and as was the case for most city dwellers, it was rare that I heard true silence. Or not hear, I suppose.

In the city, silence, dead silence, meant something was wrong. It simply wasn't natural for so many millions of people to make so little noise. Even living in the suburbs, there'd be the distant hum of a road or highway, or a late-night commuter train rumbling between stations.

I'd been out in the country, once or twice, even the occasional camping trip. I had dim memories of those trips, such as sitting on the shore while the other kids swam, or of looking up at the roof of the cooking tent, as it had been the only one large enough for me to sleep in.

But of all such memories, the one that came flooding back to me, was of that one summer. A summer that many my age probably remember, when a vast swath of the northeast lost power. I'd been pretty young, maybe ten or so, and at the time, ten-year-old Wallace's biggest fear had been that he'd run out of double-As.

I remembered sitting in the dark, hunched over the little Gameboy Advance, purchased on layaway and given to me the birthday prior. Maybe it was dark and quiet, the sensory deprivation, but I felt as if I could see it, even feel it, resting in my hands. Made of translucent blue-grey plastic, with a copy of pokemon gold sticking out the top.

I recalled rationing what batteries I had, and looting TV remotes and other electronics, anything to keep playing. And as it had gotten dark, truly dark, I remembered working up the courage to go down into the unfinished basement, lit only by the waning sunlight, filtering through a few tiny basement windows. But when I'd emerged, it was with my dad's old flashlight in one clenched fist. With a metal housing painted olive drab, and a bulb that came out at right angles to the handle, it was what I'd needed to keep playing as the sun had gone down.

It had been fun, in a strange sort of way, the struggle to keep the little toy powered. But ten-year-old Wallace had only needed to wait, and eventually, the grownups had sorted everything out, and the power had come back on.

It was only after the power had come back, that I'd needed to set the GameBoy aside. Not because my parents had been fed up with me spending every waking moment on the damn thing, but because the batteries had finally run down. So I'd sat there next to the wall socket, charger plugged into the wall, glancing up from my comic book as I turned each page, ready to switch out freshly charged cells for dead ones.

I'd never really given it much thought, a distant childhood memory, but how many people had that blackout impacted? Tens of millions, at least, all waiting for it to get worked out. And it had come down to, what, a few dozen people to fix it? Tens of millions, trusting that those with the know-how and expertise would put everything in order. And I'd been one of those tens of millions, even if I'd been more concerned about batteries than power plants.

I relit the torch and pushed myself to my feet, setting aside the pain in my knees and back as I did. A plan was beginning to form, though a mystery needed to be put to bed first.

My Sense Lighting spell had ended some time ago, but having cast it once before, I found it simple enough to cast again.

And yes, as before, the coil of armoured cable had a faint blue light at its core. Not the whole of the cable, I realized upon closer inspection, but specifically the core.

I flipped open my multitool and waved the torch around until I found one of the cable ends. With the pliers, I pulled at the armouring and insulation until I had about an inch of copper exposed.

Faint as it was, the line of blue light was uniform throughout the coil, as bright here at the end, as it was towards the centre. After triple checking that fact, I mashed away at the end of the cable with the multitool's little side-cutters, until the end of the cable came off and fell to the ground.

The change was immediately evident. While the coil kept its glow, with little discernible difference, the inch or so of loose wire was as dark as the concrete it rested on.

Now I understood why the signature was so faint, and why it was there at all. The spell detected 'lightning' using the same principle as a smartphone, at least in this case. Smartphones are delicate things, and it doesn't do to make delicate things pressure sensitive. Instead, it detects the change in capacitance between air and a human finger. Same reason most smartphones don't work with most gloves. It's also why a sausage will work on a touch screen. The phone detects the change in capacitance, something a human body has in relative abundance, at least compared to air, which is a pretty effective insulator.

It wasn't enough to make myself or Val glow under the spell's effects, but the miles of copper wiring that must have been in the building? It made sense now. The little bit of wire in my palm would have some capacitive potential of course, but not as much as the entire intact coil would have.

I pocketed the bit of wire and headed back for the stairs. It was no earth-shattering revelation, but it gave me a better understanding of what it meant to Sense Lightning, and that alone had value.

Val was awake when I returned, still seated on the floor, before one of the coffee tables, where Amity had set out our lunch. Val's hair was all mussed and her eyes puffy with sleep as she ate, a blanket hanging from her shoulders.

Amity was seated nearby, and though there was a second place setting, Amity was off to the side. She spotted me as I emerged from the basement, and began filling a bowl for me. Macaroni and cheese, not quite the sort of thing I expected from a Victorian Era French maid, but it fit right in with my bout of nostalgia.

"Good news," I informed Val, "You're no longer the most high-maintenance member of the team," and then laughed, as I batted aside the hurled pillow.

"High maintenance?" Val demanded, "You're one to talk, I suppose you're disappointed Amity doesn't have a whole second pot just for you."

Amity made as if to speak, but I was quick to assure her, "This is perfect, thanks."

"I am pleased that you are pleased," she replied, "I see that you seem to be in better spirits, have you come up with a solution for my dilemma?"

"Eh, well, mostly kinda."

Val leaned over to Amity, regarding me side-eye, "It's his confidence that I find so attractive."

"My solutions aren't perfect, okay?" I hedged, "But they're a start."

Amity quirked an eyebrow, "Solutions, plural?"

"I have a bad solution, and a sorta bad solution. The bad solution is to rely on the truck's alternator."

Amity nodded, "I believe it taps power from the engine to power the electronics?"

"Yeah, but as you said, it taps the power, it doesn't harvest all the energy of the motor. Not to mention that truck is probably the least efficient of all the vehicles we have, even if it is the only one that runs. We've got a fair amount of fuel, but we'd be wasting so much of it if we tried to power you that way. Not that I'm against it," I added quickly, "If it comes down to the wire, that's our backup, but like I said-"

"It's inefficient," Amity finished, "And only buys me so much time."

"Thankfully, I have something better," I assured her, "We were already planning on using the power supplies to filter whatever power we generated for you, right?" and Amity nodded along, "Well with Transform Metal I should be able to recharge the cells in one of the batteries. It's just two different metals in a chemical soup."

Amity raised her eyebrows, "You understand how such things work?"

"Well."

"Confidence," Val whispered, though whether it was a recommendation or a jibe, I wasn't sure.

"There's an anode, made of, I don't know, something awful and toxic probably. And on the other side is a cathode, also probably made of something toxic and awful. And the electricity is generated as ions- I think it's ions -move from the anode to the cathode, through the chemical soup, which is a different sort of toxic and awful thing. As the ions move around, you get a buildup of the anode's metal all over the cathode. When it gets recharged, the reaction runs the other way, and the anode's ions end up back where they belong."

Val nodded thoughtfully, "Your description of the concept leaves something to be desired, but it does sound as if Transform Metal would do what you desire. Though Movement and Metal seem a little more appropriate."

"Maybe," I hedged, "But I'm pretty sure that the metal building up on the cathode is not actually the same as what the anode is made of, it's an oxide or something. It's not as simple as moving the metal around, I've also got to un-oxide it or whatever."

"How much power can one of those store, do you know?"

"There's a label with the specs. It's rated for up to a nine hundred watt draw, and can keep it up for ten minutes max."

The gynoid grimaced, "I need one hundred watts just sitting here, half that in sleep mode, but if I need to get up and do anything strenuous, I can draw as much as two kilowatts from my batteries."

"Well for ten minutes of being plugged in, you would get ninety minutes of sitting around time, right? And so far this is only costing us a bit of zinc."

Amity waved her fingers, "Close, it would really be eighty minutes once I unplugged, as I'd be plugged in drawing power for ten of the ninety."

"Alright, well, that's progress," I said hopefully, "Next step is the expensive part, Strengthen Lightning to boost the output of the battery."

"Mmm I see," Val mused, "High maintenance, you'll need gold for the Strengthen component."

"Will that be worth it?"

"That will require a bit of experimentation," I admitted, "We've got a lot more zinc than gold, but if it multiplies the power output by enough, then it might be worth it. Especially since the batteries can only manage so many charge cycles. I'd like to get as much out of each one if I can."

"We have the gold, don't worry yourself about the cost," Val assured her.

"Besides," I added, "We can always get more gold, but we've only got four power supplies and just the one Amity."

Rather than jump right to one of the power supplies, each of which was rated for nearly a kilowatt of output, I started small, double-A small. I'd found a small flashlight that took a single battery, and had scrounged up a couple of rechargeables to experiment with. A couple had some power left, but I set those aside, focusing on those that had long since run down.

The smaller batteries worked on the same principle as the brick-like power supplies but presented a lesser risk. They might not have the same safety features, but when one of the double-As inevitably blew up, there'd be a whole lot less acid getting thrown around.

Tired of sitting on the floor, I'd dragged one of the armchairs over to the front desk, where I sat with my spell components at the ready. A single battery in one hand, and two bits of cut up quarter in the other.

Amity, who stood nearby with a big bucket of water, should the battery burst, had cut the coin into quarters. The quarter-quarter dollars were a more appropriate size for the spell, and would hopefully cut down on wasted mana.

At some point, I was gonna need to convince my brain that it was possible to cast a spell with a single object, but cutting the quarter into pieces would work for now.

Val, as confident as I was that something would go wrong, had taken shelter in the sitting room. Kneeling on one of the couches, she peered over the back with her blankets pulled over her head. All that could be seen of her were a few stray strands of hair, and two sleepy violet eyes.

I imagined the symbol used for a battery, as shown in a wiring diagram, and imagined reversing the flow of ions between the anode and cathode. I hesitated slightly, held the battery out at arm's length, and then let the mana flow from the zinc, and into the battery.

There was a long pause, and I glanced up at Amity. She shrugged and set the bucket on the desk.

"It worked?" Val asked with a yawn.

"I don't know about that, didn't blow up at least. Where's the- ah, thanks."

Amity handed me the flashlight, and I put the battery inside and screwed on the end cap. I pressed the button experimentally, and it came to life without exploding, electrocuting me, or bursting into flames.

"Time to try the power supply?" Amity asked.

"Don't see why not."

I set the flashlight behind me on the desk and scooped up the nearest battery bank. I flipped the switch, and as expected the LCD screen on its front remained dark. I wasn't sure that it mattered, but turned it back off just in case. After all, it probably hadn't been designed with what I was about to do in mind.

I was still a little fuzzy on my mass to mana conversion, particularly for spells that were instantaneous rather than ongoing. Still, if I was right about mana being some version of mass-energy conversion then the two quarter halves Amity handed me would be more than enough.

I set the bank back on the floor and slid it away with my foot until I could just barely reach it with an outstretched leg. This was another of those things I'd need to convince my brain of, but I'd found so far that I had greater control when I could physically touch what I was working on. But there was no reason it needed to be with my hands.

"Amity, maybe you want to step back a bit? Not sure high voltage electricity and acid are the best for you."

She regarded me wryly and picked up the bucket, "I'm certainly going to cope with it better than you will."

"We're not going to accidentally hit some reset switch if you get shocked?"

Amity shook her head, "My memory is safe, even when overcurrent protection kicks in."

"Alright, sorry for all the questions, just making sure we've got our bases covered," I explained, "Now here we go."

I cast the spell precisely as I had before. And this time when I did, I felt a noticeable surge in the amount of mana flowing through me. It wasn't overwhelming, akin to a bathroom tap half-open, compared to the little trickle I'd had when casting on the double-A.

Amity and I both gave a little start, as the power supply beeped, and the screen lit up.

"Hey, it's working," I said brightly, "Look here, it's a one hundred percent charge."

I held the big plastic box so Amity could see, and she played with some of the controls, flipping through different display modes until she seemed satisfied.

Still holding the bucket under one arm, she put a finger to her lips, "It would not be ideal, but this could work for now, even without the second spell to amplify the power output."

"Well we've got four of them," I pointed out, "I'm thinking we could afford to lose one in testing. We experiment until either Strengthen works, or we fry the battery."

"Need we cast the Strengthen spell on the battery itself?" Amity asked, "Here," she added, taking the power cable out of her sweater's front pocket, "Couldn't you cast your spell on this, make the cable amplify the power, instead of using your magic directly on the power supply?"

About six feet long and orange, it was the cable Amity had modified. Most of it was a standard North American style power cable, but with one end cut off, and spliced to a connector that would fit Amity's socket.

"We've plenty of spares," Amity provided.

I took the cable and set the power supply on the arm of the chair for the time being.

"There's certainly less risk," I agreed, "Or at least, I hope that's the case. And if anything happens, I'll cancel the spell."

"This sounds almost safe."

"Hey, if you're not cool with this we can go with the battery as-is until I figure out something better."

"I've got overcurrent protection for a reason," she assured me, "Go ahead, just let me know when to plug in."

I took a deep breath and got my spell components from where they rested on the desk. A single link of delicate gold chain, and a copper penny. I only needed a scrap of gold for the Strengthen side of things, and as it was a hell of a lot rarer than copper, it made sense to let the Lightning mana provide most of the actual energy.

I took a moment to think over what I wanted to achieve here, to get the spell clear in my mind. Just multiplying whatever came through the cable would be easy, but counter-productive. Even if Amity's overcurrent protection kept her from getting damaged, it wouldn't let her charge her batteries from an unsafe source. No, what I needed to do was a little more creative. The battery's max output was nine hundred watts, which was as good a starting point as any. So instead what I'd do is multiply what came through, up to the point where it was coming out the other end of the cable at nine hundred watts. It was the sort of spell that I suspected might need a second Verb in there, maybe Control or Transform, but so far my attempts to try multiverb spells hadn't worked so great. Besides, a lot of the time extra complexity wasn't needed. As is, the worst-case should be, should be, that nothing happened at all. But if I'd done things right, power would come out of the battery at something like a hundred watts, and leave the cable at nine hundred watts.

With my thoughts so arranged, and the cable in hand, I cast the spell. Careful, this time, to keep my mind clear and focused on the magic even as I nodded silently and handed the cable over to Amity.

I watched distantly as she plugged the cable into the battery, and then after a moment, into herself.

Amity spasmed, jerked, and then collapsed to the floor.

I was on my feet in an instant, the spell shattered.

Before I had a chance to gather my thoughts, to do anything useful, Amity began to rise. Her movement was jerky and mechanical. Her posture was all wrong, shoulders hunched, head held low. She turned slowly to face me, and when she did, I saw her flat expression and eyes that glowed with an inner red light. Her lower set of arms emerged from beneath her hoodie, and the razor-sharp claws on all four limbs extended.

This doesn't make sense, none of this makes any sense.

Amity's voice came out distorted, synthesized by a computer, rather than spoken by a person, "*[Saftey protocols disengaged, combat mode reactivated. EXTERMINATE, EXTERMIN-]"

I launched myself at Amity, and the two of us went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs. I trapped both of her left arms in one of my hands and was struggling to get the other two, to keep those horrible claws from digging into my abdomen, when I finally registered the sound she was making.

Both Amity and Val were howling with laughter.

I pushed myself off Amity and groaned in exasperation.

"Are you alright?" I sighed.

"You are just so sweet," Amity teased, barely able to get the words out, she was laughing so hard.

"Don't be mean, Amity," Val giggled, "Aftercare is important when you're done playing rough."

"I hate you. Both of you."

"He didn't hesitate for a second, he was on top of you in an instant," Val laughed.

Amity pointed at Val, "Take notes!" she howled.

"Did it at least work?" I sighed.

Overtaken by another fit of giggles, it was all Amity could do to nod.

"Good," I said flatly, kicking the bucket she'd dropped, "I'll let you mop this up then."

"Mmm, Wally's cracking the whip, better listen, Amity!"

Okay. So maybe it was a little funny. But with those two feeding off of each other's hilarity and my exasperation, I wasn't going to get anywhere.

So I decided to do something productive. The coil of wire I'd used as a stool downstairs had given me an idea. It was a much more complex idea than the trick I'd pulled with the batteries but had a lot more potential.

The roof of the hotel wasn't flat, with each wing about a floor below the building's spine. This was because the centre was where the elevator room was, with all the mechanical bits and bobs required for the elevator to function. Unfortunately, it was only accessible by the roof itself, so I got snowed on a little as I struggled to get the big metal door unstuck from its frame.

It was about as cold inside the elevator room as it had been out on the roof, though without the wind or falling snow it was a little more hospitable, and I'd put my coat on before coming up, so I was doing okay.

There was more than enough wire in the coil down in the basement to rig up a simple generator, but that seemed a fool's errand to me. I had some understanding of the rudiments of electricity, more than most people probably, but wasn't super clear on how to actually build a generator, beyond the general principles. Not to mention, the building needed AC power, not DC power, which is what I think I'd get out of any generator I cobbled together. Again, had the principles down, but wasn't super clear on the realities.

The thing was, I didn't need to make a generator, I had several to work with. I just needed to figure out the best way to go about it. We'd run out of zinc, copper, and gold eventually, but now that I had more than ninety-six hours to work with, I had room to breathe, to experiment, and to reach a little.

Down in the garage were several mostly useless modern cars. Hotwiring any of them was probably beyond me, but the parts could be useful. Alternators, for example, using the engine to turn it would be inefficient, fuel wise, but I could use magic instead. Some sort of enchantment with Movement and Metal mana would do the trick, and while it wouldn't power the building, it would be a decent long term solution for Amity.

Now while the relatively small vehicle alternators couldn't power the whole building, I had a hunch that the elevator lift motors would be up to the challenge. These things were enormous, and I had four of them.

Riveted to the side of one motor was a small metal plate, about the size of my palm. Covered in dust, I brushed it off, to find the technical information I'd been looking for.

Fifty horsepower slash thirty-seven kilowatts, it read, along with a bunch of other stuff that was probably really important but too obtuse to understand.

Say I set one aside for Val- Hell, for both of us, it's not as if I had a great time with stairs either -that would leave us with a hundred and eleven kilowatts worth of power.

They were DC motors, so if I ran them backwards, I figured that I should get power. DC power, yes, but there'd already be a transformer to switch building AC over to something the motor could use. Surely it would still work in reverse?

This is what you get for having a software guy try to solve a hardware problem. If I just turn it backwards, I'll probably melt something important and set the building on fire.

The building was designed to take power from the mains, not from the elevators. Maybe I could rewire things so that the power came still through the elevator breakers, but connected to the mains before coming back into the building?

Again the image of a burning building flashed in my mind, and I set aside the problems of electrical engineering for the time being. Simple. I needed to keep it simple. First I'd get an alternator going with magic, then I'd worry about powering the whole hotel.

"Why does everything have to be so difficult?" I bellowed, my voice echoing off the concrete in the enclosed garage.

Amity and I, the former having since stopped laughing, stood beside a newish Japanese sedan with a smashed driver's side window and lifted hood. It was too new to hotwire, but once the hood was open, Amity had found it easy to unhook and remove the alternator.

Amity frowned, "What's the problem?"

"We have this device that makes one and a half kilowatts."

Amity nodded.

"We need lots of kilowatts to power the building."

A nod.

"So it would be really great if we could plug this thing in and make it power the building."

Again, a nod.

"But we can't because the volts and amps are all wrong."

This time a shrug, and then a nod.

"I've got a bunch of things that need power and a bunch of things that make power. I should be able to take all the things that make power, put them in a big pile, and have it power the things," I insisted, "I'm convinced electrical engineers make it difficult just to keep themselves employed."

"Are you done complaining?"

"For now," I sighed.

"What do you mean, you can't enchant the alternator?" Val frowned, "You got our notebooks working just fine. I thought you'd remember that quite vividly."

"I- Yeah, I did," I admitted. I felt my face flush a little, remembering Val's drawing, "But it's not as if that worked first try. There's a ton of failed attempts in a pile upstairs. Once I started to get the hang of it, my failures stopped ruining the books, and I could try again on the same enchantment target. But if I'm going to end up running through the same process with this thing," I explained, nodding towards where it rested on the coffee table, "It's better to work on something that's not quite so delicate."

"Something that can clip on the shaft perhaps?" Amity suggested.

"That's the plan," I agreed, "Haven't decided what it'll be, maybe drill a hole to stick a post through. But it'll be something that can be easily swapped out. Should also make upgrading easier, as we get better at this whole magic thing."

We'd pulled some of the furniture as close to the fireplace as we dared. There was a metal screen that pulled across to stop most of the sparks, but even still, with fire as the only source of heat, I found myself understanding why they were such a danger historically.

Huddle up close to the fire overnight, and surprise, now you've burned to death. Not really something I'm into, which is why I'd gone and set a couple of the hotel's fire extinguishers nearby. The little dial on each said they were about at the point where they'd need a recharge, but even so, they'd do the trick if it came down to it. And with modern materials being what they were, it was likely safe enough.

One of the larger couches was just long enough for me to stretch out on if I used the armrest as a pillow. Val, of course, had immediately leapt onto my chest to snuggle in close and was barely visible under the piled blankets.

Amity lounged on the other couch, also bundled up. She had internal heating elements to keep herself at the optimal operating temperature, but that took power. With the blankets helping insulate herself, she could save energy.

Val shivered, "I like the excuse for extra cuddles, but I am rather fed up with the constant snow. Is it ever going to end?"

"You're the one who's been here a decade, I only just got here, you tell me. How long do weather systems like this usually last?"

"Well if it doesn't go away by the next morning, it's usually here to stay for a few weeks."

"Hmmm, that does change things."

"Oh?" Amity put in.

"Yeah, I was kinda hoping we could just hunker down till it was over, but we've got stuff that needs doing, and if it's not going away any time soon, then we'll need to put up with the cold."

"A trip to the city, and the castle Simon warned us about?" Val guessed.

"Yeah, I don't know how long you can just keep recasting your Communicate spell for, but eventually we're going to need a long-term solution for Amity. We were also planning on getting more people to man the hotel. And the longer we leave the castle alone, the larger a problem it might be. Especially if prince whatshisface gets there first."

"You think he may ally with the local lord?" Amity asked.

"Doesn't matter either way. Maybe the dude at the castle is all buddy-buddy, maybe he kills the prince and takes his stuff. Point is, there are three centres of power on our side of the mountains, and odds are good that both of the others have more people than we do. The prince arguably also has more resources. Whether they ally, or one absorbs the other, we're gonna be outgunned. Which is not to mention the trouble we might have if some fey asshat shows up from Pelignos."

"Don't remind me," Val grumbled.

"As much as I might dislike the idea, we may need to split up," Amity pointed out.

I felt Val's embrace tighten around my chest.

"Yeah, can't say I'm a fan of the idea either, but we've got two separate tasks that both need doing as soon as possible. Probably you and Val to the city, recruit new people, stock up on food supplies, and get something to put the language issues to bed. And I'll go check out the castle."

"Can't we do the city first, then the castle? Or the castle first? Either way, just have us all stick together?" Val asked.

I shook my head, "You'll be bringing back, hopefully, a bunch of people and a bunch of food. You could fit five people or half a ton of food instead of me. As it is, we'll already want a trailer for the truck to bring even more stuff back. We don't want to give up a thousand pounds of capacity just to have me along. And the castle, assuming Simon is right, is close enough for me to walk. Besides, Amity will be with you to stab anyone who gives you trouble."

"And if someone gives you trouble?" Val demanded, "Last several times, I believe it was myself who took care of matters."

I couldn't help but smile. It was true after all. The crazy little fey seemed blissfully unaware of her own physical limitations.

I stroked her back, trying to soothe her. She wouldn't like it, but we both knew I was right.

"I'll be okay. I've got the rifle off the stormtrooper, the axe you gave me, the magic you taught me, and maybe you haven't noticed, but I am pretty big. If someone does give me a hard time, I've got a few ways to deal with them."

Val rested her head on my chest, and squeezed me tight.

"There's nowhere to go," she murmured.

"Hmm?"

"No matter where I go, I find myself doing things I dislike because I must. It's why I left Pelignos, and here I am in the same place as before."

I rubbed her back and nuzzled her hair, "It'll only be for a few days," I promised.