“Grab it.”

“Okay.”

“Hold it.”

“Right.”

“Tightly.”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I feel it.”

“Light it.”

The dark and humid interior of the warehouse lit up with unnaturally yellow light. Dim as they are, visibility within the windowless building suddenly increased drastically.

With a slight buzzing noise emanating from the copper wire in his hand, Ken has a heavy feeling in his hand. In his other hand, he clutches a crystal emitting a blue glow.

Rudimentary light bulbs hang off the ceiling and walls connected through wires wrapped in cotton. They shine bright with occasional dimming and some flickering. Ken looks around with excitement in his eyes and a wide smile. He is the source of power as he utilizes the magic crystal to generate the voltage necessary to push current throughout the warehouse.

“Incredible…”

Marc is amazed and perplexed. When Ken initially pitched the idea of utilizing electricity for industry, he thought he was out of his mind. Seeing that his bulbs light up exactly as he predicted, he can’t help but wonder just where the hell his scientific theories come from.

“This is… lightning magic?” Marc asks.

“Mmm, more or less,” Reed says. “I suppose it’s the same concept.”

The other Ringleader members are also present in the warehouse.

The large warehouse was recently bought by Ardai and is located southeast near the docks. It was formerly used to store incoming or outgoing cargo but will now instead be used to showcase and advance manufacturing techniques and practices.

“Ken, you never stop to impress me. But how the hell can you use lightning magic? You don’t have training.”

“Luck, maybe? Jax! Flip the switch! Let’s see if the lathes work.”

In one area of the warehouse, Jax stands next to a lathe. He grabs hold of a lever and flips it down to power the lathe with the electricity provided by Ken. The spindle twitches, and the light bulbs dim.

“It needs more juice!” Jax says.

Ken breathes and looks down at the cables he holds. Despite directly grabbing the wire, he is in no danger. Focusing on the electricity being manipulated, he tenses his muscles and tries to increase the voltage.

The lights brighten with intensity. Far brighter than they were before. The motors in the lathes spin faster and faster.

“I’ll be damned. It’s working,” Cayde says. “We really steaming forward pretty quickly, huh? Think we’ll attract unwanted attention?”

“Hopefully not. The boiler should be good, right? Might as well test the hammer right now,” Reed says.

“I’ll check,” Matt says as he walks over to a small boiler. Near the boiler is a steam hammer which has steel pipes connecting both.

Matt activates the steam hammer and turns a valve to allow steam to flow into the piston within the steam hammer. The massive ram lifts a few feet upwards before the steam is released. The ram falls and slams with an ear-shattering clang vibrating throughout the warehouse. The steam pushes the piston back up to repeat the cycle. The ram lifts and repeatedly falls, each time with an audible thud.

The machines within the warehouse are soon operating at full capacity. Soon enough, the bulbs begin to dim once more, and some of the machines start to slow down.

“I’m hitting the limit.” Ken breathes heavily. “Shut them down. I’m spent.”

Matt shuts down the hammer and boiler while Jax shuts down the lathes.

Relaxing his muscles, Ken breathes in relief. He let go of the cables, and the crystal stops glowing. He is sweating and wipes his forehead in exhaustion.

“I’m lightheaded. I feel like I’m going to collapse.”

Ken then sits down and leans against the wall. “This is not practical. We need to figure out a reliable power source soon.”

Marc approaches Ken. “I take it you probably have some ideas.”

Ken looks up and chuckles. “Of course. In fact, it’s already in progress.”

.

.

For the next several hours, everyone continues to tweak with some of the machines. It is taxing to power them all single-handedly, and everyone quickly tires themselves out after taking turns.

“All right, guys, I need to go,” Ken says as he walks towards the exit.

“I’ll see you at the Casiem?” Marc questions.

“Yeah, of course.”

“We’ll see you later, dude.”

Ken opens the door and walks outside into the open. It is about 4:00 p.m. The sky is cloudy. The streets are full of people and wagons. He can see the docked ships with the ocean in the background down the stone road: workers unloading and loading bags and crates of cargo.

A pleasant addition to the scenery is several Ardai carriages at the docks. They aren’t A1 Coaches, and they are instead C1 Wagons. The C1 is designed for hauling goods and materials. Incorporating all the innovations that the A1 uses, the C1 is sold in good numbers to merchants to transport heavier goods in larger quantities.

Ken walks in the opposite direction towards the office. Like any other day, some people are admiring the building from afar. The bold blue lettering of the name and rose head logo is as imposing as ever.

Ken gets closer and notices someone leaning against the wall of the building. A woman wearing a dirty white Bastian shirt, brown pants, and her brown hair covers her face. He assumes she is just a random stranger and walks right past her. The woman looks up and recognizes him as she calls out.

“Hey! Excuse me, Ken!”

Alerted by the feminine voice, Ken turns around to look at her. To his surprise, he also recognizes her.

“Eleanor? Why are you here?”

“I came to see you, of course.”

“That’s concerning. What do you want?”

“Why are you being so rude? Am I a bother? What’s wrong?” she asks with a soft voice.

“Ha. You know why.”

Uninterested, Ken turns around and walks away.

“Wait! I’m sorry! I just wanted to ask you something!”

Ken sighs and stops to turn around once again. “What?”

“I don’t know if you knew, but the day after that night, I came looking for the job you offered. I was directed to Edgar and was fortunately hired by him. I’ve been helping to build your carriages. The A1 and C1. But I wanted to ask if there is any position available within your headquarters.”

Ken stares into her eyes with indifference and thinks back to when they met. She lives in the slum area and tried to seduce him. He doesn’t know what she is trying to do but still feels a bit bad about her situation.

It’s believable that she got a job from Edgar as he doesn't have many requirements. Edgar also doesn’t need to inform him about whom he hired to work for Ardai.

Anyone who walks through the road would notice that Eleanor is a gorgeous young woman disregarding the dirt on her face and clothes. Her body is slim, and her arms are thin. She is by no means able to work hard labor for extended periods of time. Assuming building Ardai carriages is the only job she can get, he would feel wrong to deny her any other less physically demanding work.

“Fine, follow me,” Ken says in a monotone voice. He turns around and continues to walk towards the Casiem.

Eleanor follows him with glistening eyes. “Ah, thank you! Thank you!”

Once they enter the building, Eleanor’s mouth drops as she looks around the interior. “Wow… This place is very—unique.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Welcome, Mister Kai. Have you need of any assistance?” the receptionist asks.

“Not at the moment. I’ll be interviewing this girl here in my office if anyone asks for me.”

“Of course, Mister Kai.”

When Eleanor notices the receptionist, she found herself staring at her appearance. Her clothing and overall appearance are a fashion that is strangely familiar but still alien. The receptionist is quick to feel the gaze on her and locks eyes with Eleanor. She simply smiles and waves warmly while Eleanor escapes her brief trance.

Ken walks through the reception area through another door, up the stairs, and ultimately into his office on the top floor. Eleanor quickly follows behind, and once again, Eleanor scans around with peaked interest.

Ken’s office consists of various pieces of furniture. His sizeable wooden desk by a large window on one end of the room. Drawers fill one side of the room while the other side has bookshelves with various books and documents on the shelves.

“Take a seat.” Ken motions at a chair in front of the desk. He walks around the desk to sit in his chair while Eleanor sits down on the chair he motioned at.

For a brief moment, neither says anything. Eleanor sits straight up in her chair while Ken is lazily sunk into his.

“So then… you want a job here.”

“Yes, that’s right. Once again, I apologize for any misunderstanding of what happened the night we met.”

“Right… And your brothers?”

“They are employed. Only I am in need.”

Ken inhales and exhales.

“Are you literate?”

Eleanor looks down with slight hesitation then looks back up at Ken. “Yes, I can read and write.”

“How did you learn? You couldn’t have gone to school, no?”

“It was my parents who wanted my brothers and I to learn. They hoped it would give us a chance to leave Egwater.”

Ken takes in the information and thinks for a bit.

“Show me your hands.”

Confused, Eleanor lifts her hands for Ken to see. There are a couple of bruises on her forearms and hands. Her hands are slightly red, and a little bit of dead skin peeled off from her fingertips. Ken takes this as a clear sign of tedious labor. It seems to Ken that she is truthful.

“Can you do basic arithmetic?”

“Arithmetic?”

“Yeah, basic mathematics. Can you add and subtract numbers? Multiply and divide?”

Eleanor’s face is visibly confused as her mind is trying to understand Ken’s question. Why would she need to know basic arithmetic? Plenty of people are uneducated, and she is lucky to be more educated than most people. Her thought process concludes that she may have a better impression if she says she can do basic arithmetic, which isn’t a lie.

“Y-yes. I can.”

“Great, you’ll need to be proficient in it.”

Ken then takes a piece of paper and begins writing on it. He writes a few sentences that present a math equation. It’s a basic question describing a financial transaction that asks for the total money spent on a large number of items with a set price. It is a multiplication question involving double-digit and three-digit numbers. Once he is done writing, he pushes the paper and a quill towards Eleanor.

“Just to be sure you’re not lying, read this and answer the question.”

Eleanor hesitantly takes the paper and slowly reads it. This whole situation is confusing for her, but she decides not to ask and go along with it. Once she finishes reading, she takes the quill and begins writing numbers below the paragraph. For the next several minutes, she adds up all the money spent in each transaction and came up with a total. Making sure she didn’t mess anything up, she slowly pushes the paper and quill back to Ken. He takes the paper and looks over the work done by Eleanor, and is pleasantly surprised. The handwriting is strange but readable. Her addition and multiplication are also done peculiarly, but the end result is correct. It seems Eleanor knew basic mathematics and told the truth.

Ken sets aside the paper, leans back, crosses his fingers together, and nods in satisfaction. Seeing Ken nod, Eleanor sighs in relief.

“Your parents’ efforts may have paid off, or maybe you’re just lucky. So here’s the offer. Ardai is expanding fast, and I am in increasing need of a personal assistant.”

“A personal assistant? Yes. Yes! I would love to be your assistant. Anything you’ll need.”

Her eyes are wide with hope and display some relief. If anything, she is happy to no longer work with Edgar. The work is too much for her to continue with.

“Great. You’re hired. Your position would be as my secretary in which you’ll assist me with everyday tasks here at the Casiem, Ardai’s headquarters. You’ll be paid a pound a month. I’ll let Edgar know you work here now.”

“A pound a month? Isn’t that too much money?”

“Do you want the job or not?”

“Yes, yes! My apologies! Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be sure to work hard. I won’t let you down,” Eleanor says in a higher-pitched voice. Ken thinks she is just about to cry and feels uncomfortable.

“All right, all right, let’s calm down. Your first day will be tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s go downstairs to get some paperwork done.”

Ken stands up and exits the office with Eleanor tailing behind him. Heading downstairs, they bump into Marc, who is heading up to see Ken.

“Greetings, Ken. I was just about to see you. Who’s this?”

Ken briefly glances at Eleanor behind him. “This is Eleanor. I just hired her as my secretary. A personal assistant.”

Marc looks at Eleanor with a raised eyebrow. “Why is she uh—dirty…”

“She’s from Egwater.”

“Wha- Egwater? Why? What for? How do you know she won’t steal something?”

“Relax, man. She’s literate. So what did you want to see me for?”

Marc stares her down and simply decides to ignore her despite being skeptical. “Some parts arrived at the warehouse. Matt says it’s for the ‘steam engine’. He says it is to generate electricity, is that true?”

“Yeah, that's true. Hey, want to do me a favor? Can you do Eleanor’s paperwork? Thanks. Eleanor, follow him and answer any questions he asks.” Ken pats Marc’s shoulder and walks away. “I’m tired. I’m heading home. See you tomorrow, man.”

“What? Wai- Hey!”

Marc can only watch Ken as he leaves. He didn’t even get the chance to say anything else. Not that he minds as he doesn’t have anything else to do that day. He turns around to take a good look at Eleanor. Only now does he notice that Eleanor is pretty good-looking. Perhaps that’s why Ken hired her.

“Good day to you. My name is Eleanor. A pleasure to meet you.” She extends her hand.

Marc shakes her hand while keeping eye contact. “Likewise… My name is Marc Lennings.”

Eleanor smiles expectantly while Marc’s face is confused.

“Follow me.”

.

.

Ken falls upon his bed. It is too early to go to bed, but he is exhausted. Using the magic crystal was far more taxing than he thought. He takes off his trench coat and hangs it up on a coat hanger. He also unholsters the gun he always carries and puts it into a drawer.

As he lays on the bed, his eyes shut, and he is about to fall asleep. A knock is heard from downstairs before opening, with footsteps following afterward. Ken’s eyes open, and he gets up. He was just about to fall asleep and is now irritated.

“Yo! Kai! You up there?!” Ken hears from downstairs. He proceeds to walk down the stairs and finds that Cayde and Reed have entered his house.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“Just to chill, bro,” Cayde says.

“Matt and Jax stayed at the warehouse to tinker some more. Figured we swing by and relax for a bit,” Reed says.

“Right, right, take your seats.”

Everyone sits down around a table. Cayde puts his feet up while Reed shakes his head in disapproval.

“What a tiring day! So how’s life treating you, Kai?” Cayde starts the conversation.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the head of Ardai Industries. The CEO. Must have been a childhood dream come true right?”

“Nah, not at all. It’s actually a bit stressful. I still don’t think I should have been the one to set it up, though.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Kai,” Reed says. “You have the best skill set for the job. At least from those willing to take the risk and come here.”

“Am I, though? What about Matt? Bachelor’s degree and shit. He’s thirty and has more experience than the rest of us. I mean shit, I dropped out to enlist.”

“Don’t forget he was also in Delta, or Cag, or whatever they’re called these days,” Cayde mutters in envy.

“Think about it this way. Matt is a bit more reserved guy. You have more people skills. Pretty sure you got the short stick cus you are Special Forces.”

“Hmm yeah, I guess. But Cayde is also SF. Do you want to help me sweet talk people, Cayde? I’m sure you’d get panties dropping.”

“Yeah, as if,” Reed blurts out. “Cayde would just scare people away.”

Ken and Reed laugh while Cayde just chuckles sarcastically. A few minutes pass, and the laughter dies down. No one says anything else as they all fell into thought.

“Still pretty crazy, though,” Ken breaks the silence. “Been here a few months already, and it’s still a trip to think about: living in a world of fantasy.”

“Still hasn’t settled in for me,” Cayde says. “I still think the CIA is joking. Let me tell you something. I was with the 10th Special Forces Group, right? I was in ODA 0336. So other than combat in the Middle East, I spent a lot of time in Europe, specifically Germany. I met this old fart who swore he was a double agent within the Stasi. Said he once retrieved home videos from some poor Stasi officer. One of which was a sex tape with his wife. Turned out his CIA handler just wanted it to settle a personal wager of his. It was completely useless, so the old fart kept it. He even showed it to me, and my god, times were different back then.”

Cayde’s little tale got a chuckle from Ken and Reed as they each share humorous stories from their time in active duty.

“Anyways, I joined this project because of the mystery. CIA didn’t tell me shit until I arrived at Cheyenne Mountain. By then, I realized they weren’t joking, and my ten-year-old self couldn’t refuse.”

“Ah man, same here,” Ken says. “I joined the project because of the allure of a new world. I played a lot of video games during my University days. Role-playing games were my shit. I’d spend entire nights playing through the game only to sleep during lectures the next day.”

“Hey Kai, why’d you drop out? University, I mean.”

Ken looks up and folds his arms as he thinks back to when he wanted to join the army.

“Well… I dropped out in 2011. Actually, I enlisted after Bin Laden was killed. I felt patriotic and thought it would be so cool to be like the SEALs. I also lost motivation and interest in school and cocked up some of my classes so I wouldn’t have graduated anyways.”

“So you joined the army? Kind of rash, don’t ya think?”

Ken breaths out through his nose. “Yeah. No. Actually, there was something else that made me want to join. Before I dropped out, I was friends with this girl in University who came from New York. A real good friend. There was a small unrelated party with a few friends at one of their dorms the night Obama gave the announcement. We didn’t know what was happening, but we figured we’d watch it on TV. As soon as he said Bin Laden was killed—she just started bawling. She cried and cried uncontrollably. It was hard to watch her break down, and many of us could only stare in silence. Turned out her dad died on 9/11 when she was just a kid. He was in one of the towers, and she watched them collapse on TV. She said it was horrifying and traumatizing to watch her dad die live on television. Really screwed her up afterward. So when Bin Laden's death was announced, she cried for hours. I don’t think she even slept that night.”

Everyone feels gloomy after Ken’s story, and the room falls silent. None of them were personally affected by the event but hearing how the girl’s dad died undoubtedly put into perspective just how much some people had suffered.

“Damn…”

That is the only thing that Cayde can mutter.

“Well shit, that is depressing.” Reed scratches his head. “On a lighter note, I joined the Air Force because I thought I wanted to be a pilot. Ended up becoming a Combat Controller instead.”

“I joined the Army for no particular reason other than because I wanted to,” Cayde says. “That, or maybe I just needed to get my shit together.”

Just at that moment, a knock comes from the door. Ken gets up while Cayde and Reed remain sat down. When he opens the door, Ken is greeted by Matt and Jax.

“What’s up, Kai,” Jax says. “Can we come in?”

“Sure thing, Reed and Cayde are already inside.”

“Cayde skipping work again?” Matt asks.

“Yeah, something like that, let’s kick his ass.”