[Faldrass] A Diamond Geyser

[Faith Augustin]

30th Ashan, 717

"So, I think, next season I'll have enough to start the charity Nir'wei and I thought about all those seasons ago." Faith looked up at Padraig and smiled. "Then, I'm going to stop working in the restaurant, open my own. Put the first season's profit into land for farming and growing. Use it to provide skills and education, and then the profit to fund community projects." It had been what she talked about when she first was freed, the very trial after in fact. They simply had settled anywhere long enough to be able to do it. That, and they'd had a few things of their own to deal with. But now? "I know that being a doctor, it helps people, but being a chef feels." She shrugged slightly and could not quite put it into words without sounding derogatory. "I want to feel like I'm making a difference. Service, proper service. Not the lip-service kind."

Right now, though, they were walking together through Faldrass market and Faith was undoubtedly delighted at the fact that they were doing to. In the light, without any side effects to his sight because the blessing from Moseke had allowed her to heal him. So, instead of being off somewhere hunting giant spiders, he'd agreed to go wandering around the market together. "You'll tell me if you feel any symptoms, yes?" She'd asked three times and, as she finished asking for the fourth she grinned and promised it would be her last one. As they passed the fountain at the entrance to the marketplace, a slight frown crossed her face as she looked at it, her brain ticking over.

"Padraig?" Faith looked at him and smiled. "One of the things that I want to be able to do is to provide a safe and warm place to stay. Not for nothing, but for as much as you can give, in time or effort, skill or money. One of the more difficult things to do is to be able to provide hot baths for people." It was, she explained, a logistical nightmare trying to arrange that sort of thing. Emptying baths, filling them, keeping water hot all that was tricky. "You know you have that project to do, still, for your Diploma? To create something which.. I don't remember exactly, does something with something else." Her smile was teasing, she had a much better grasp of what physics was than 'doing something with something', but it was good enough and had the bonus of making him smile.

"Well, look. Look at that fountain." It was, she explained, a closed system, or so she thought. The water shot out of the top and fell back into the pond and then round and round it went. "Could you do that? Make one of those?" Of course, she knew he could but, in true Faith fashion, she was not yet done with her impossible demands. "Except indoors, in a room and warm water?"

Just in case he wasn't entirely clear, she added. "I mean, always warm water. Like.. a controlled geyser?"

[Padraig]

Padraig had forgotten how much he enjoyed the light of a cool, sunny trial. Or truth was, maybe he'd never really fully appreciated it before now. After trials seemingly on end of restricting himself to shadows and drawn curtains, or getting out of the house only after nightfall, it was a relief and a wonder he couldn't quite explain. And he had Faith to thank for it. And perhaps Moseke, for giving her the gift that allowed her to heal him in the way that she had.

Just the simple act of strolling through the market mid morning seemed large, considering the simple nature of the activity. Of course he'd told her a half dozen times that all had been put to rights. Or at least it felt to be that many times. And yet he reassured her each time, knowing it was her nature to worry. "I will tell you," he said, smiled and squeezed her hand.

"I think you should," he said when she mentioned her own restaurant, and what she'd use it for, as a part of. "You've always wanted it, planned it, what reason could there possibly be not to?" Service, it wasn't just what Faith did, Padraig knew. It was who she was. And he loved her all the more for it. He also appreciated her idea that those who benefited from what she offered, also ought to give something in return. If they could, be it labor, physical or otherwise, or help for others like them.

"My physics diploma, yes," he confirmed, "and I've lost a good bit of time. I need to complete it by cycle's end though, so I can concentrate on my chemistry diploma." But the fountain? Padraig paused, frowned and eyed the thing critically. "I suspect there's a good deal hidden in the construction," he said. "But gravity would play a large part in it, as would pressure."

The thing with most fountains was that they relied on water from a higher water source in a closed system. That would create the pressure needed to cause the shower of water. What they probably weren't seeing, he told her, was the duct and pipe system, and the higher water source itself.

Still, "Heat, enough of it, and steam could create the necessary pressure," he said, "Even with a finite amount of water." Which would allow for the recycling of a fixed amount, topped off as needed due to evaporation, spray and runoff.

"That same heat, harnessed correctly with the right sort of mechanism, could also heat the water. It could be passed through a pool or tub constantly, in, filtered out then back again. Or it could be delivered by some means that might shower down, then drain out through the floor. But if people are to bathe in it, I wouldn't think you'd want to use recycled water, would you?" he asked.

[Faith Augustin]

Just to be able to walk with him, in the sunlight of the morning was a wonderful thing and as he assured her that yes, it was fine and yes, he would tell her if there were any symptoms, Faith grinned somehow managing to mingle apologetic with unremorseful. "It must be very difficult, you know, being you. Your woman is such a worrier." Hand in hand they walked and as they spoke about the restaurant and the charity, Faith beamed at him.

What reason was there not to? Two jobs, a diploma in Medicine and a charter about to start, volunteering at the Order of the Adunih and the ongoing issue of curing the rot. A home, a dog, a cat and a partner who was studying two subjects and also worked two jobs? What reasons could there possibly be not to do it? "I can't think of a single one." She gave a grin as she answered.

"Are you going to start the charter next season?" She glanced at him with a slight look of surprise that he hadn't mentioned it but if he was or he wasn't, he had her full support. "A few trials relaxing without worrying will do you the world of good." Although 'relaxing' for them meant something different than for most people, she knew. It meant some study, some food, some reading and probably more than one adventure together.

As she realised that he really was alright Faith let out a deep sigh and pulled herself against him for a brief moment. "Immortals, but I was so scared I wasn't going to be able to fix it." He hadn't shown her how worried he was, she hadn't shown him. They both knew. With a slight glare to chase away the emotion she was feeling, Faith told him with a stern voice. "Don't do it again."

But recycled water? Yes, that made sense. "Well, you see. I was going to wait and point that out when you'd got the basics sorted." It was a flagrant lie, she knew he'd know. "And, furthermore, come to that and it could be argued that I'm stalling while I think." She grinned and then came up with an answer which was acceptable. "And! I was hoping that this might be something which you could deal with by using chemistry. Or...alchemy. No, I didn't think of that." Faith grinned at him.

"But yes, not asking people to clean themselves in two season old dirty water would be very good too. Please. Just a design would be enough until we get the building started, but a prototype might be a fun final project if you want to?"

[Padraig]

"It's a trial, and I'm not talking about the cycles of trial to night and back again," he told Faith dryly when she referenced the difficulty of being him. Of course he was teasing her, and grinned shortly after, squeezing her hand as he took it in his. "I wouldn't have you any other way, than just how you are." Dimples and all, he wanted to say. But it was at least implied.

"I may put it off a cycle," Padraig responded when she asked about his charter. "I'd have gone ahead, but now with the teaching job and the expectation that I should earn a diploma in chemistry, it's a little more than I care to take on at once." It wasn't just time and effort that caused him to believe it was the better option. It was focus. He'd rather focus on one area of study at a time, rather than spreading that focus too thin.

He laughed though when first she tried to deny having overlooked the problems inherent with recycling water for bathing, but then had to admit the lapse. Still, "It would be possible, I guess, to not just filter the water but also to sterilize and clean it. Chemistry, alchemy, I mean. But it would also unnecessarily complicate a process that would otherwise be very simple and straightforward."

As for a design or prototype, he told her, he might design something to be used in their home. However, "You should remember that while I've got the physics know how to put together something workable, I'm not an engineer. The building of the machine that enables the physics to work, that's not my area of expertise."

The first step however was to consider the heat source, he added. They might use a sort of furnace, much like a burning wood stove. But if there was another, more practical one, it was worth considering. Perhaps something like the wood discs they'd purchased at the market previously.

[Faith Augustin]

"Stop it, I don't have them." He hadn't said anything about her alleged dimples, but she knew just by the look on his face. "Hallucinating them might have been the first symptom you know. I'm sure, in fact, that when you check again you won't be able to find them." She arched an eyebrow and gave a grin at the same time. He was never giving up on their existence, she didn't know why she bothered. It was as much so that they could argue about it as for any other reason, possibly entirely so.

When he said about his charter, though, Faith frowned in thought. "Well, I thought the point was that you were doing something in the overlap between the two? Can't you do that for chemistry? Like, I don't know, physical chemistry which allows you to fill into your chemical physics?" With a nod she explained, most seriously, "That all made sense in my head, whilst I understand that it might not in the actual world. Whatever you decide, I support. Fully."

It was his response to her blundering about the cleanliness of the water which caused Faith to smile though. "I love the sound of your laugh. When we first met, you did not really smile much, let alone laugh. Yet, you always had a sense of humour." She bumped against him as she said that. "Often at the expense of my clothes back then. Or my hair." Could she still do a good victory curl in her hair, Faith wondered? Probably, she'd spent a long time learning how to do them. May Famula guide her that she never did again.

When he said that he did not have the construction knowledge, Faith shook her head. "Nonsense. You can do a nightclass. You're not busy." However, once she'd teased him about it a little, they could indeed look around the market. That made sense, she considered; it would be a reasonable thing to do. The yellow wood, perhaps, might be a possibility. Then, there was the possibility one of the stall owners told them that they could get some Scalvstone. When the cost became apparent, though, Faith shook her head. That would cost as much as the entire rest of the project, she said.

"What about some Faldrunite?" The stall owner who was the one who had last time sold Padraig a brooch which Faith wore without fail, every trial. "They say that's hot and then some. Forbick might be able to help you there." Forbick's forge was a well known forge on Faldrass. Faith looked at Padraig and considered.
"Could you do it with the yellow dragon wood?"
"Might want some fireglass, too?" The stall owner pointed to the stall with the unusual glassware from Egilrun. "I understand they have glass that heats up things?"

Faith glanced at Padraig and raised an eyebrow, wondering what he thought.

[Padraig]

"I suppose I could, yes," Padraig considered when she questioned him about his charter. "Physical chemistry in a sense, is very much combines the two. I'll have to look into it further." The requirements for both chemistry and physics' study, he meant. "The truth is that lately, my mind has been elsewhere." It was putting it mildly. But now that his eyes were sorted out, he could plan better and think more clearly.

And did he laugh more? He hadn't really thought about it, but he guessed he did. "I was alone then," Padraig said simply. "There wasn't much to be amused by. But now there's Quattro, and Cosmo. There's you and the memory of your victory curls and ridiculous shoes, and the way that sometimes you snort when you laugh," he teased her. There was much more to look forward to now. More color in the world too.

And him? Busy? Not at all, he thought dryly and it was reflected in his expression as they moved on through the market. "The irony of that is that, being no engineer, I lack the know how to build a proper machine...at least one requiring more than a handful of parts. And yet, as a physicist, I can tell the engineer how it works or ought to, and I can tell him when he's about to blow himself up with it."

But Scalvstone wasn't an option. It would work nicely, he agreed. But the cost was prohibitive in the extreme. Faldranite? Maybe. Of course they didn't want to boil the water, which would make for a very uncomfortable bath. But by using just a very small amount of the stuff in comparison to the volume of the water reserves? Maybe, and it was something to consider.

The glass sounded fascinating and he might want to look into it. But for their purpose this trial, well he was no glass blower. "The dragon wood might work just as well or better than anything else. Depending of course how it responds to getting wet?" he asked, and looked to the stall owners, the folks who'd know best, to answer that question.

[Faith Augustin]

His mind had been elsewhere? She was not even a little surprised and she was more than a lot relieved that he was able to start thinking about it. Whatever he wanted to do, now, he could do it. That he had been alone was undoubtedly true, but he had been content, she'd thought. Or he had seemed to be. Yet now, things were a world of different for both of them and they both knew it. Though when he laid claim to her snorting when she laughed she gave a purposeful huff. "I believe we have already had this conversation. I do not snort, snore or have dimples." Her hand in his tightened as she pulled him closer to her simultaneously with her putting herself closer to him. Relief was one thing, but it was not the only overwhelming emotion she felt when she looked at him and sometimes, it was almost too much.

"I thought I might cook for us tonight." As she always had, Faith retreated to the factual and clear cut when emotion was too much for her. "In the restaurant, I'm going to have three menus, sort of like in Walt's, but named differently and the most basic will be at the middle to high level for Walt's. I don't want to be in direct competition with him." Truth was, she wanted Walt's to be where people went when they couldn't afford her restaurant. "I'd like to eventually make wine, too, if you still might be interested? It could be a chemistry thing, still?"

"Padraig?" Faith looked at him with entirely serious eyes, holding herself as close to him as she could whilst walking together in the market. "Last time we were here, you bought me this." Her hand went up to where the fernstone brooch pinned to her blouse. "I love it and it delights me in ways I think you genuinely can not ever understand. But I need to ask you something." It was, judging by her gaze, something important to her. "Will you just, one trial without telling me or talking to me about it, just take that collar and those chains and bracelets and smelt them into something else, or sell them or.." With a slight shrug she seemed more lost for words, for expressing herself than she had for a while. "I don't know what to do with them but I know I don't ever want to see them again. Will you take care of it?" The sight of them upset her and she didn't quite know how or why.

The stall owner though, he was clear. The only thing that put out yellow dragon wood was sand. Not water, it was one of the strange things about it. As for Faldrunite, well mixing it with other metals was a usual thing, he believed and some of those scientist types over at the university and in those digs and explorations going on, they used it. More than that, though, he didn't know. Except to say that, should someone immerse the yellow dragon wood in water, then the flame struggled to stay, but the log itself didn't get wet as such and when it was removed, the flame was still burning. Faith raised an eyebrow and looked at Padraig with an obvious question on her mind. Would that be acceptable to him?

[Padraig]

"You don't remember Tabitha?" Padraig asked her, referring to a student he'd taken on, shortly after they'd met. He grinned and shrugged, somewhat triumphantly. "You snort." Therefore, he added, still unable to entirely suppress his amusement, "When one supposed, claimed absolute shows itself to be false, one must therefore re-examine the others."

But wine making? Maybe, he told Faith. It was interesting, and would require some knowledge of chemistry to do well. Even alchemy. If he was to do any research on the topic however, later, once he'd managed what was already on his plate. She had some wonderful ideas though regarding her restaurant, and there was no doubt in his mind she'd make a great success of it.

She took him by surprise however when she mentioned the collar, the chains and the bracelets, the things which had identified her as a slave back then. Padraig frowned, and truth was he hadn't thought of those things for a very long time. But they were still there, and even if she had them stored out of the way, they might be out of sight. But not out of mind. Just their presence was enough. Smiling, he squeezed her hand. "I will do that, yes. I will get rid of them."

So the faldrunite was interesting, and he might like to acquire some of it to study and experiment with. But in regards to their current project, or at least the one under discussion, in his mind the simplest solution was probably the better one. Too complicated, too many things to go wrong or break down. So if the yellow dragon wood did the trick, and didn't cool down when wet, that it seemed the most obvious way to go. "Yes," he said. "That ought to be just the thing."

[Chronicle]

Name: Faith

Knowledge:

• Philosophy: Quality Service Makes A Difference
• Physics: Application of Heat and Pressure
• Creating A Means To Bathe Easier
• Yellow Dragon Wood: Constantly Radiates Heat
• Padraig: Can Apply Physics To Constructs, Yet Cannot Engineer Them

Loot: None
Injuries: None
Fame: None
Magic: These points cannot be used for magic.

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Comment: Awe! Such cute banters between you two! ^.^ Loved reading every bit of it!


Name: Pad

Knowledge:

• Physics: Application of Gravity and Pressure
• Yellow Dragon Wood: Constantly Radiates Heat
• Faith: Has Great Ideas With Her Restaurant
• Faith: Wants a "Controlled Geyser"

Loot: None
Injuries: None
Fame: None
Magic: These points cannot be used for magic.

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Comment: Enjoyed Pad's reactions and way of keeping the conversation flowing, with the way you two interact the dynamics of the relationship really do show!

Again great stuff you two! I wasn't entirely sure what lores to provide in terms of the things like the dragon wood,
but overall I sincerely held a smile throughout the series of posts throughout this thread! Faith and Padraig are becoming quite the favorite power couple here. Feel free to pm me if you've any concerns or questions for me to address!