“I am not certain how you did it,” Benjamin said to his sister, “getting both the stone sculptor and Unkell here at the same time.” Irene paused in lifting her fork to her mouth to reply to her brother.

  “I don’t think I did it at all,” she replied. “I think Control sent them.”

  “Isn’t Control a computer?” Ben countered.

  “It is,” Irene responded, “a very old, high powered computer with almost unlimited data. The selkie call it the true god. In this place it very nearly is. Somewhere along the way it started liking the players, especially the old races. When we first arrived, it didn’t consider us players. We were dealing with completely automated subsystems. Now it sees us and that is perhaps more terrifying. Anyone with any sense doesn’t want to catch the attention of a god.”

  Todd shifted in his seat next to Irene. The young man was never far from Irene. Irene didn’t treat Todd like a child in any way, so their relationship did not resemble the relationship between a mother and son. Ben wondered for a time if they were lovers, regardless of the huge age difference between them. He decided they weren’t. Their relationship was unique, based on loyalty and respect.

  “Did you finish the translator for Unkell?” Ben asked. “Betty brought her through the bakery when I was working on the cake. I could tell she was interested in the batter but it was difficult to understand exactly what she wanted to know.”

  “She has a prototype,” Irene informed Ben. “Her ears are so buried in her hair I think something like a set of combs or hair pins might work better. The current data set is more about asking where the bathroom is than talking about physics or magic. As Unkell completes more of the program the translator will automatically update.” Irene took another bite of her desert. “I can understand her interest. This cake is delicious,” Irene observed.

  “Thank you,” Ben responded. “Todd gave me the recipe.”

  “I don’t remember you making it,” Irene said to Todd.

  “This is better than the version I made,” Todd responded. “The original recipe is from the database, but I made alterations to mine since I baked it at Home Square and didn’t have access to the original ingredients.”

  “At Home Square,” Irene responded puzzled. “When was that?”

  “It’s the turd cake,” Todd explained.

  “Oh!” Irene said, as if that explained everything. “I didn’t get any of that since ‘The Todd’ didn’t visit my compost plant.” Ben could hear the quotes.

  “I’ll have to make sure he does next time,” Todd responded. “Giving the kids a peak at the queen’s suite could be a new feature.”

  “You're both really confusing this old man,” Ben commented. The three of them ate dinner together at the same table most nights. The table was against the wall on one side of the dining room. Each table could sit six, two tables pushed together sat ten. Some nights the entire double table was full. Tonight it was just the three of them. A lot of the conversation went over his head, but he was slowly learning about magic.

  “We have a festival in the summer,” Irene explained. “The inn is never full. You should come to the next one. It is mostly a children’s festival, but there is good food and drink as well.” Irene would pay for her brother to come out to Home Square and see the festival. It was an easy way to thank him for all his help. “That reminds me, I would like you to review the school's accounts,” Irene said to her brother. “I recently realized I didn’t account for the cost of returning the students to their home squares in the structure. Since I missed that, I would like someone else to look them over.”

  “Sure,” Ben said. “I’m not certain I am familiar enough with the structure to catch any misses there.”

  “Todd, can you look them over too?” Grandmother requested.

  “Ok,” he replied.

  “The accounting covers only running costs. Notify me if you see anything I’ve missed or you think of something we should add. I have been considering the build as a donation from the Speedwell and my team. That won’t always be the case. Until the business model is stable I will continue to support the academy. It’s important that the accounting includes all the costs. The school will need to pay for itself if it is to continue when all of us are gone.”

  “That means we need to run at a net positive,” Ben responded, “to cover the cost of equipment replacement.” Irene smiled and looked happy. Ben ran a bakery for over forty years. He may not have always kept a written accounting, but he knew the basics. In the early days of his business profit meant feeding his family, while loss meant going hungry.

  “Exactly. How much that will be is something I haven’t worked out,” Irene replied.

  “How are your survey drones doing?” Todd asked.

  “They’ve verified the entrance in the east that we can see in the advance ship’s recordings. There is something to the north of us that could be an entrance. I would have to cut a tunnel through the mountain to get a cart to it. It could be done, but with the equipment I can spare it would take ten years.”

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  “So not that one,” Todd observed.

  “No,” Irene admitted. “Although I’d like to get a closer look at it. I believe it is a different design from our courtyard entrance or the patio in the annex.”

  “That is two different entrances,” Ben observed, “the courtyard and the patio. Could we start dropping and picking up the students from the annex entrance? That would free up the other entrance for outside visitors. You would just need a second transport room.”

  “Perhaps,” Irene responded. “I don’t like the idea of taking the shuttles onto the structure itself. I have a feeling it would shorten their lifespan excessively. I sent two of the survey drones directly over to the entrance in the east because I wanted to confirm that it was an entrance. Now that I found two I believe there will be at least six, maybe seven if zero is represented.”

  “Maybe our entrance is zero and that is why it has the light inscription,” Todd offered.

  “I think that is part of the introduction to the structure tutorial,” Irene responded. “A new player is taught light in order to travel dark space. Dark space is there to slow a player's travel speed and force them to learn magic. Since there are multiple ways to make light our entrance might be a wizard entrance,” Irene theorized. “A warrior entrance would have an inscription showing how to cast light blade.”

  “What other ways are there to cast light?” Ben asked.

  “It can be sung,” Irene responded. “That is what the selkie do. I also know how to light a stick on fire, which isn’t light exactly but it would work.”

  “I bet there is a light enchantment,” Todd commented.

  “Earthen chemistry can produce a glowing fluid, so I am sure there is probably a structure equivalent there too,” Irene commented. “It will be interesting to visit each entrance we find and see if the inscription is different.”

  “What would be the seventh?” Ben asked.

  “What do you mean by seventh?” Irene responded.

  “You mentioned six: wizard, warrior, singing, ummm…. stick burning, enchantment and chemistry,” Ben responded. “You said you expected six or seven entrances. What light method would the seventh entrance use?”

  “You're right,” Irene said surprised. “It is six.” She thought about it for a moment. “They are the different ways that we know to cast magic. Wizard is finger grouping, warrior is squeeze pattern, singing is notes, stick burning is tapping, enchantment is writing and chemistry is the mixing of ingredients.”

  “Six is a magic number,” Todd responded.

  “It is,” Irene responded, “but so is seven. There are seven magic trees: light, sound, force, temperature, electricity, chemistry, momentum. We could be missing a method to cast.”

  “I was talking to Valin the other day,” Ben commented. “His people have eight deities, the goddesses of light, earth, lightning and movement and the gods of air, water, fire and darkness. Do they relate to your magic trees?”

  “That’s interesting,” Irene said. Ben thought she looked more excited than the word ‘interesting’ really expressed. “The seven trees can also be described as light, air, earth, water, lightning, fire and speed or movement. So light, earth, lightning and movement would be zero, two, four and six, while air, water, fire and darkness would be one, three, five and an unknown.”

  “Dark is the reverse of light in our system. Could the last unknown just be zero again? “ Todd asked. “Or maybe it is the idea of canceling magic or no magic?” he suggested.

  “It could be the blank symbol,” Irene commented. “The structure uses the zero symbol everywhere as both zero and a spacer of sorts, until it wants to distinguish between the two in the same inscription. Then it uses the blank for the zero.”

  “Wouldn’t that mean your blank is actually zero?” Ben asked. “And your spacer is null?” Irene looked thoughtful.

  “Maybe,” Irene responded, eventually. “It is that way in inscriptions.”

  “Enchanting doesn't have a blank,” Todd observed.

  “No,” Irene responded. “That problem might be why there is some confusion between the two. This shows you the danger in thinking we have something figured out. My six ways to cast could be viewed differently. Finger groupings, tapping and squeezes are all physical methods using our hands. Singing, writing and ingredients are much more distinct from each other. Instead of six methods, we could say that they only represent four.”

  “I wonder if we can mix the methods,” Todd proposed. “Since I switched to my knife, I haven’t been able to cast the tier four imbuing spells I did with my spear. What if I used finger positions for the second spell ribbon?”

  “What does Harry do?” Irene asked.

  “Huh,” Todd replied. “I’ve never asked him.”

  “Why can’t you cast tier four spells on a knife?” Ben asked.

  “Tier four spells are twelve symbols, six cast with each hand. That makes casting them with a single handed weapon problematic,” Todd explained.

  “How do the selkie sing them?” Ben responded.

  “They can sing two notes at once,” Irene explained. “Alex has perfected humming and whistling at once to execute the two note end symbol, but I don’t think he will be able to sing tier four spells. I find it unlikely any human will be able to.”

  “Alex has experimented with using song and squeezes to cast two spells at once,” Todd observed. “I don’t think he has ever succeeded in casting them simultaneously. It might be because Control is interpreting his attempts as one higher tier spell.”

  “You can ask Harry the next time we are in Home Square. I want to prioritize getting the second guildhall built. We can use the exercise as a blueprint for building others around human territory this summer. If we are careful with their placement they should help with our transportation costs,” Grandmother explained. “I want to rotate the crystal claiming just like we did on the trips south. In the end I want everyone to end up with at least one upgraded rest, even Valin, although we’ll make sure if he withdraws from the association the loss of his rest won’t hurt us that badly.”

  “Are you sure?” Todd asked again.

  “When we found that statue vendor I had to buy three sets because I have three galleries and I still haven’t done anything with them. I know I didn’t really have to buy three, but that’s my twisted thought pattern. I don’t need to buy four! You can buy a set next time. Ellen, Alex, Sarah, Companion and Valin can too,” Grandmother declared.

  Patreon today. I plan to post some extra deleted chapters there over the next couple days for members. They are like the extra chapter 22b which I added back in here.