Chapter 12

Two Weeks after your fourth Birthday, you can feel that the time has come to begin your work in earnest, and you actually have a good Deal of difficulty suppressing your excitement. Though suppress it you did, and so you perfectly hold your composure while meeting with your Father to ask for the Storage-chamber you would need to begin. And it didn't take much to get the Chamber, seeing as your Father was in good Spirit since the King's departure, though the Lessons he wanted to give you and your Siblings never manifested.

Whatever your Father had planned must have been disturbed by what the King had said to him, or perhaps your Siblings got their Lessons and you were simply let out for whatever reason, though it could also be that it was decided that your Mother would be teaching you three. In the end, the thing that matters is that you got what you needed in a timely manner, for you wanted to surprise your Father before he had to leave for the Capital once more, yes, aren't you the sweetest of Daughters one can have?

Your delusions aside, you truly wanted to make him happy before his Journey to the Man he now no longer sees as good Company begins, for while he certainly won't show it, you know that the coming Years will be tiresome for him. And it is as they say, the darker the future, the brighter the past, so now is a perfect moment to bring your Father some lasting happiness. And with that Thought in Mind, you trace your Hand along the Walls of the Corridor you're in, not because you need to do so, but simply because it doesn't hurt to save some Stamina for later.

Tiring out hasn't been a problem since you came to this World, but having something go wrong with what you're planning would surely create some issues, so it's better to be safe than sorry. While you continue your walk, you focus on the Rock behind the Wall that makes up your Home, and within it, you can feel the many impurities you were seeking, thus you begin collecting them. Seeing as you can't control Gold, you decide that it would be best if it wasn't literal Dust you were collecting, and so you swiftly exert a little pressure upon the Gold before you regulate the Stone cold again.

You keep on doing so while you slowly make your way towards the next Corridor, where you continue the process until you turn around and bring your other Hand to the Wall, before beginning your stroll back up the Hallway. Once you're back at your Starting Point you set in motion the drawing out of the Gold, which is now a lot easier, as can clearly be seen by the amount of Grey Sludge coming out of the Walls, though how pure the Gold will be is still a Mystery to you.

After patching up the Walls and the Rock behind them, you decide to take your Ball of Sludge into the Storage-chamber, for walking around with a Ball of molten Metals isn't exactly what you would call safe. But all in all you're still quite satisfied with your Gains, thus your internal complaining of your safety is more a way to pass the time and a bit of pressure to improve rather than anything else. Perhaps melting the Gold and other Metals wasn't that efficient seeing as you will still have to wait for it to cool down, but it's a good first attempt.

You don't take all that long to reach the Chamber and thanks to your Guards the Journey happened without bumping into anyone as well, which you're quite thankful for, though that they are so loyal that they didn't once ask any annoying Questions was still a surprise to you. Perhaps you owe your Father more than you realised, but you're sure that you will be able to pay your Debt soon enough, and so while thinking these Thoughts you swiftly create the Moulds that will hold the Ingots and leave for the next Corridor you found promising.

You continue this for a Week, but sadly only in the Daylight Hours, simply because you still have some Secrets you aren't too fond of sharing, but it might just be better that way, seeing as the Storage-chamber had a rather severe heating, or perhaps rather cooling problem, hence only you could actually enter it for the moment. Heat, as it surprisingly turns out, isn't one of your Weaknesses anymore, which makes Sense from a certain Point of View, but really only from that one very narrow one.

Rock and Stone melt, not just when you're the one that makes it do so, but all the time, it's so natural that it might as well be its natural form, and it's once more something you should have seen coming, yet you didn't. You aren't normal that is something you learned on the first Night in this World, but your connection to the Stone surrounding you is even more abnormal, yes, one could say that you're a kindred Spirit to it.

So this became your normal State of being, so much so that you didn't waste all that many Thoughts on the matter, and that even though you saw in your last Life just how much molten Rock exists deep within the World. Yes, when thinking back on how entire Regions could be drowned in it without anyone taking any notice, it seems quite foolish to think a Spirit of or to Rock and Stone would share the Human Weakness of heat or Fire, though you won't just hold your Hand in the next open Flame to satisfy yourself with some Proof of the latter.

Well, mayhaps trying a Finger wouldn't hurt, but then harming yourself wouldn't really raise your Parents Opinion of your mental State, and you don't have any interest in having to go back to the old Man so soon. It's all a bit troubling, but as long as your hiccups don't harm your Family, it's not something worth getting truly aggravated over. With that Thought having left your Mind, you look around the Chamber now full of stacked and still unstacked Ingots and wonder if you will get at least a few Head-pats out of this.