Alden explained, “I’ve made four different stacks of bricks in different arrangements. I need you to provide enough heat to them so that they can dry faster, but they shouldn’t be baked here. How to make a fireball for that is up to you.”

  “Wait, you don’t want me to bake them? Why?”

  “Because it could explode,” Alden chuckled. “We’re only trying to make them a little dry right now and remove moisture from the bricks. There’s still a danger of an explosion if you overdo it.”

  “Damn…” Daelus grimaced. “I prefer when things explode far away from me. Hmm… let me think about it.”

  Soon, the mage gave a nod. “Okay. I think I know what to do. Move back some distance, just in case.”

  “Sure,” Alden replied, and walked to where the other workers and guards had gathered.

  Daelus made sure once again that nobody was too close before he pointed his staff at the first pile of raw bricks, while standing at a good distance himself. He muttered something inaudible once again, and Alden wondered what shape the fire would take this time.

  Within a few moments, another thin stream of fire materialized, rushing towards the first pile, making the workers clap at the sight. Alden felt disappointed, though. It was a stream of fire again…? He had hoped to see something new instead.

  However, he found out that he just needed to be patient. Although the fire had started as a thin stream, it didn’t stay like that. The moment it touched the bricks, it started to expand until it had taken the shape of an oblong sphere, which covered the full pile of bricks. However, it also didn't become nearly as dense as a fireball. It was easy to see that the fire was just moving around the pile in a circle, without touching the bricks at all!

  Holy cow!

  He shook his head in wonder. Just how was the mage making the fire change its shape after it had already exited his staff? It didn’t make any sense!

  Daelus must have been really well-trained by his master—the archmage serving the Duke of Garitus—if he could change the shape of magic fire he materialized into so many different shapes. It probably wasn't the end of his magic abilities either. At this point he had no doubt that his longtime friend wasn't boasting when he said that he was a full-fledged mage.

  Hopefully, this setup would give just enough heat to remove the extra moisture from the bricks without superheating the water into explosive steam. He made a mental count of how many seconds had passed as Daelus kept up the stream of fire. There wasn’t any precise way of keeping time in this world, although he would have to at least look for a sandglass to bring next time. He was sure he’d seen one of them somewhere in the manor.

  Looking at the moving fire—which looked kind of alive—he kept worrying if one of the bricks would explode from the intense heat, but so far so good.

  Soon, he raised a hand to stop Daelus. Realizing that the mage wasn’t looking at him, he called out loudly.

  “That’s enough, Daelus. You can stop now.”

  The mage turned around and gave a thumbs up, and slowly, the stream of fire disappeared into nothing. “Should I do the same for the other piles?”

  Alden nodded and let the mage work again. The other workers also started returning to their tasks after the novelty of the magic wore off slowly.

  Soon, Daelus finished with the last one and walked back to him. “What now?”

  “Now we wait,” Alden said as he looked for somewhere to sit. "The bricks need to cool down enough so we can check them. It shouldn't take long since we didn't actually bake them."

  Roderic pointed at a log some distance away which the workers had probably brought there for the same purpose. “Will that work?”

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  “Yup!”

  ***

  After some time, Alden decided that the bricks should be cool enough for handling. He walked to the piles and after making sure the bricks weren't hot enough to burn his hands, he picked up a few of them from each pile, checking them from all sides.

  The bricks in the first pile had kind of fused together. This just won't do.

  The second pile was also nearly the same. The third one, however, seemed promising. At the first touch, the clay seemed neither too dry nor too wet. This could work. The last pile also seemed good enough. They would have to try further at a larger scale with these methods.

  “So how does it look?” Daelus asked.

  “We’ll do the same thing for bigger piles in the last two arrangements, and you’ll have to fire them again this way so they get a little drier. Then we’ll leave them here to dry further for a couple of days until the kiln has fully cooled down. If it works well, we'll have shortened the time taken for drying the raw bricks from weeks to days.”

  Alden called over Kerra and explained what to do. Before long, the workers started rearranging the other larger piles of stacked bricks in the same two arrangements—half in the third style and half in the fourth one. Once everything was done, he put Daelus to work again.

  After the mage started pouring another stream of fire at the first pile, he looked at Alden—who had stayed nearby this time—knowing it wasn’t going to explode.

  “This is going to be so boring...” the mage groaned, “especially if you want me to do the same thing for hours. I won't even have anyone to talk to, since I don’t think you can stay here with me the whole time every single day. You have way too many things to do to run the village." He gestured vaguely at the piles of bricks. "Can't I just... you know, use my full power and make it happen faster?"

  "That could literally blow up in your face..."

  "Dammit..." Daelus exhaled. "This science thing of yours really doesn't make any sense to me. I prefer things to be simple and to make some sense—like my magic."

  Alden snorted. "You are delusional if you think your magic makes sense and science doesn't. You barely know anything about science anyway. We have just talked about it for an hour maybe."

  "Hmm..." Daelus glanced at the village walls. "At least we should’ve brought Caelan here so I could make fun of him. That would have been entertaining enough.”

  Alden chuckled. “Unsurprisingly, Caelan would love that, since it would give him a chance to go out and see something interesting. I’ll see what I can do about it. He keeps complaining that he gets bored because he's never allowed to leave the village. I don't think he has left the village since we arrived from Garitus this spring. Coming here to the brickfield would be a good learning experience for him, and with you here, this place is probably safer than anywhere else in Sarnok. Maybe he can suggest some better arrangement too for the brick piles. He does have a keen mind, no matter what you say.”

  “Oh, I know that much,” Daelus snickered as he continued pouring the stream of fire with barely any effort. “He’s a bookworm, through and through. But it’s just so much fun to, well, make fun of him.”

  “I agree with that much,” Alden laughed as he looked at the fire and looked for somewhere to sit again. It was going to be a long wait.

  ***

  Nearly an hour had passed, and Alden decided it was probably long enough for the bricks to have cooled down. Daelus had already closed up his stream of fire a while ago, so finally, it was time to check the results. Nothing had exploded so far, so that was good too.

  “Come on,” he prompted.

  The mage and the captain followed him as he walked to the first large pile and picked up a brick. It was still raw, of course, but it didn’t seem visibly wet, and after staying in the middle of that circle of fire for that long, all the unnecessary moisture would have already evaporated. He checked a few more bricks from the same pile, and they all seemed to have dried properly without any major cracks. Seems good.

  Then he walked to the second pile. Here, the results were mixed. At first glance, the bricks had dried even more, which could only be good for baking it later, but on the other hand, it had led to too many cracks in the bricks, as the steam resulting from the fire found a way to the surface. This was a waste.

  He called up the foreman, Kerra, who had been overseeing the other workers as they made more raw bricks.

  “This is the arrangement your workers need to follow from now on,” he explained, while pointing at the first pile. “After they cut up the raw bricks from flattened clay, they should stack them exactly like this. Daelus will come here every day and use his fire magic to dry up the raw bricks. Then we’ll leave them for a day in the sun to cool down completely, and then your workers will stack them inside a kiln the next day. Once the kiln is fully loaded, Daelus will heat up the bricks with fire again—this time to properly bake them into hardened bricks—and then we’ll have to leave them for a few days within the kiln to cool down again. That should make some good quality bricks, if everything goes well.”

  Kerra nodded curiously. “I don’t understand any of this baking process or magic, but I’ll make sure everything is done exactly like you’ve said.”

  “Good. I’ll come here again the day after tomorrow for the first trial of making bricks. Until then, keep doing as you’re doing. Good work!”

  Kerra grinned, before she jogged off to the workers again.

  “Come on,” Alden said to the others. “Let’s return now.”

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