She arrived early at the room tonight, and the attendant gave her confirmation to enter. Unsurprisingly, Sir Varus was in the exact same spot as last night, reading a booklet of loose papers. A desk, chair, and pen seemed like all he needed; the rest of the room was just excess unused luxury.

“Back so soon?” Sir Varus asked.

“Yes sir. Should I continue following the same instructions as yesterday?”

Sir Varus stopped reading, looked up to ponder with a puzzled expression, and said, “What did I tell you yesterday?”

“To not touch you, to not come near you, and to not speak to you. I believe you also later added that I wasn’t allowed to look at you or to think about looking at you.”

“Hmmm, yes, I remember now. Thank you. Maybe I was a little harsh yesterday. Apologies. I don’t believe you need to follow the guidelines to the letter but do try to abide by their spirit. I am still working on an important project, just like yesterday, so I will need your utmost obedience.”

Nira made her way to one of the small chairs lined up on the opposite wall. It was usually where the servants and partners would sit while the client was busy and didn’t require them. “To be ready but not seen” was the servant motto.

However, Nira had to be seen; she needed to make a move. Now. While he was still in this pleasant mood. Though, how should she do this? She could wait for him to sleep and then grab his papers, but last night, she didn’t even know when he slept. And even if she was able to catch him while he slept, she couldn’t read. How would she know what papers were important or not? And the chest. It had to contain something important, but it was locked. Nira was certain she could open it up, but not quietly. And not without borrowing some materials first. They had to be some other way, but what...

She could pry some information from his lips. Yes, that could work. He was remarkably eager yesterday to divulge information, and he still might be, even after her outburst. At the very least, it was worth a shot.

“What work is taking up all your time?” she asked.

Sir Varus looked up, and to Nira’s surprise, his expression wasn’t one of annoyance. “The project I am working upon will solve the food scarcity that many families in this world face. I need to finish it with the utmost haste, before we have more winters like the last.”

“But why help worthless farmers? Surely you could earn more if you helped a rich noble.”

“Worthless farmers is a disparaging phrase, so please refrain from using it. Regarding the question itself, the answer is that I wish to help them because their lives are hard. Miserable, in fact. Hundreds of people die every day from hunger. Thousands every month. Hundreds of thousands every year. By fixing this problem, I can save these people and ensure they live the lives they are meant to. More than this, I believe that the technology I am creating won’t cure just hunger. There are many more problems it can solve. Transportation. Production. Communication. It's limitless.”

It was amazing how loose his lips were. No alcohol, wit, or anything of that sort was needed. She had just needed to show a little interest and he started spewing information like a proud mother bragging about her child.

“If I may, would you be able to explain this to me? If it isn’t too much to ask.”

Just like before, a twinkle sparkled in Sir Varus’ eye, lifting his entire aura. An eager smirk crept onto his face and his body leaned towards Nira.

“Not all of it. I am afraid I don’t think you will be able to understand it fully, especially since the topics at hand are extremely convoluted. No offense, but it took years for even me to master them, and there are times when I still feel as if I don’t know them. However, I think I should be able to give you a high-level overview. Come.”

This was almost too easy.

Over the next few hours, he went into excruciating detail about his invention’s incredible capabilities. She didn’t understand much of the invention’s details, but she could comprehend its motivation. Though, it was strange. It wasn’t that Nira didn’t believe the noble; rather, she was suspicious about his true intentions. The rich gained from keeping the poor as they were, so why was he betraying his own?

His desire to help took the form of a device he had invented. A device that harnessed steam from heated water and used it to power a wheel-like device. This wheel could, in turn, power carts, ships, mills, and more. So much more. Everything, in fact, if he was to be believed. When he was listing the potential uses, Nira accidentally got lost in her own thoughts, but when she came back to, he was still listing them. There was nothing his device couldn’t do.

The room was filled with Nira’s and Sir Varus’ excitement, though the sources of their excitement couldn’t be more different. One was excited at sharing his ideas and the other was excited at receiving them.

“This is incredible.”

“Agreed, and it is almost done. I expect it to take only a few more months, though my estimates have been wrong before, and my peers hate me for it.”

“And what about the rocks you were talking about? How do they work?”

“Good question. In our world today, we fill them with heat through an endothermic process, using people who have heat based powers, furnaces, or things of that sort. This works because of two properties that the fire rocks have: the best heat capacity of any substance known to man and resistance to thermal energy loss. This means that we can put in a lot of energy now and rely on getting almost all of it back out later. I don’t have one with me, but if I did, I would show you what happens when you place one of these rocks in a fire. The fire immediately goes limp and dies down, while cracks running through the rock start pulsating with a red and orange glow. The rock absorbs all the heat from the fire, and yet, the most amazing part is that you can pick up the rock without burning your hand because it has barely warmed at all.”

“And apologies, but may you, once again, explain why the steam is of vital importance?”

“Why the steam is what makes this entire system work in the first place! As the water is heated, it creates the steam. We push this steam into a chamber with two channels separated by a piston. The piston will always be at the opposite position of the slide valve. The slide valve controls which channel the steam comes in from. Here, let me sketch it out for you; it will be easier to understand then.”

He drew a few scribbles on a paper, oddly looking satisfied after finishing. Sir Varus was a terrible artist.

“Once the steam comes in through one chamber, it pushes the piston and exits towards the exhaust. But by pushing the piston, it also switches the position of the slide valve, so steam will now come into the chamber from the opposite channel. And this new steam, in turn, pushes the piston back to its original position and the slide valve back to its, opening up the original path for the steam to come in through, once again. And so it goes, over and over and over. While this may seem like pointless movement, if we exploit this circular motion, we can accomplish so many tasks!”

“And all of it is in these papers that you keep working on?”

“Only a small portion, but that portion is very important. They show-”

“CLANG!”

The castle bell rang. A quarter of the night had passed.

“Actually, I must cut this short right now. We can continue where we left off tomorrow, but for now, I really must get back to work. It is prudent that I get some of these sheets balanced by the end of the night.”

Disappointing. Nevertheless, the talk had been so fruitful that Nira couldn’t help but smile brightly.

“I can’t thank you enough for explaining your work to me today. I really wish to learn more about it, if it is no trouble to you.”

“Not a problem at all. Individual learning should always be promoted,” Sir Varus said as he dove back into his work, pen and papers already engaged.

For Nira though, there wasn’t much else to do tonight, and for the first time in the longest of times, she could properly rest. Life was finally giving her the right cards, and it felt glorious. She hopped onto the noble’s bed and curled up in the sheets. A quick peek at Sir Varus confirmed her suspicions that he gave little regard to her behavior as long as she kept quiet. His mind could only focus on one thing: his work.

“Hey Nira, thank you for waking me up earlier today… or yesterday, I guess. If you hadn’t, I have no doubt that I would have been late to an important meeting with the Advisor of Commerce and Advisor of War. So thank you.”

“It was nothing, sir. I am just your humble partner.”