Surprisingly enough, the nobles kept to their corners, sometimes looking over at Theodore's table with anxious expressions and suspicious glances. The man and the woman went back to observing like always as well. As far as Theodore was concerned, it was all precariously poised, yet holding. So he found himself getting drowsy. He had his clone up and running for a while. He continued to let his eyelids shut. Perhaps a brief nap would do—

The ship shook, and Theodore's stomach sank. His eyes snapped open, suddenly completely alert. Although there was only a slight tremor that went through the deck, something was seriously amiss.

Theodore heard a groaning sound in the abrupt silence that ensued.

"What was that?" someone from the noble groups whispered. One of the younger ones, voice pitched high with nervousness.

No one took the time to respond. Everyone was frozen. Patiently awaiting. Once again, the ship trembled. A lot more powerful this time. A handful of people faltered, clinging to nearby furniture for stability. Someone's book hit the floor with a thump that sounded too loud in the tense quiet.

The groaning got louder. And now there was something else. A sound Theodore recognized but desperately didn't want to. Massive amounts of sand.

"Uh oh," Freya said quietly.

The alarms started, and the servants burst in. Theodore counted at least six of them. One headed straight for their table.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Please remain calm. We've encountered a manastorm, but there's absolutely no cause for concern. The ship's shields are fully operational. We'll be holding position until it passes. This may result in some delays to our arrival time, but your safety is guaranteed."

Around the room, other servants were giving the same speech. The nobles had gone very still, that particular kind of stillness that meant they were calculating exactly how screwed they might be.

"How long?" one of the nobles demanded. The older one who'd almost drawn on Freya earlier. "How long will we be delayed?"

The servant smiled professionally. "That depends on the storm's size and speed, sir. Could be a few hours. Could be days, in extreme cases. But that's highly unlikely."

Thunder rolled across the sky. Except it wasn't thunder. It was mana discharge with a crackling sound that sent shivers down Theodore's spine and sent his slime trembling with anticipation.

The servant cleared his throat. "I assure you, the shields will hold. Please just remain calm and seated, or if you would prefer, head over to your rooms for rest. This is not an uncommon occurrence. Our shields are state of the art, so please rest assured. This only means a delay. We will keep you updated on any developments."

The servant waited a moment.

"Right then. If you need anything, the crew is at your service." Saying so, he bowed and left.

Theodore sighed and slumped back in his chair. A manastorm. Of all the things that could go wrong, they got a manastorm. The universe really did have a sense of humor. A terrible, twisted sense of humor.

***

Later when things had calmed down and the shields were fully up and operational, there wasn't so much as sound coming from outside. Freya poked him in the shoulder. "So."

Theodore didn't open his eyes. "So what?"

"You never told me what a manastorm actually is."

"You cut me off when I was talking about it."

"Yeah, well, tell me now."

Theodore cracked one eye open. Freya leaned closer, her curiosity palpable. Listening in on their conversation, Juliana had also set her book aside.

He thought about how to explain it. Manastorms were one of those things everyone knew about but nobody really understood. Like, everyone knew they were dangerous. Everyone knew to avoid them. But the actual mechanics? That was complicated.

"It's basically exactly what it sounds like," Theodore said finally. "A storm made of mana."

Freya rolled her eyes. "Thanks. Super helpful."

"I'm not done." Theodore sat up properly, organizing his thoughts. "Sometimes you get areas where mana concentration gets too high. So the mana builds up. And builds. And builds. Until it can't stay stable anymore. Then it starts moving. Swirling. Like a hurricane, but made of pure magical energy."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Freya said.

Theodore chuckled. "It really isn't, unless you're out there."

"What happens if you're out there?"

"You ever see what happens when you pour too much water into a cup?"

Freya made a face. "It overflows."

"Right. Except instead of water, it's mana. And instead of overflowing, you basically explode. Or melt."

"That's horrible." Juliana murmured.

Theodore shrugged. "That's nature for you. Manastorms aren't evil. They just are. And they serve an important purpose. Like regular storms, but with a much higher body count if you're stupid enough to get caught in one."

"But we have shields," Freya said. Wasn't quite a question.

"We have shields," Theodore agreed. "Good ones, from what I can tell. Sandships that travel these routes always do. It's the law, actually. Can't operate without storm-rated protection."

"So we're safe?"

"Yep."

"So we just sit here and wait?" Freya asked, horrified.

"Pretty much. Can't fly through it—the mana would tear the ship apart even with shields. Can't go around it—storms can be hundreds of miles wide. Can't outrun it—they move faster than sandships." Theodore grabbed his glass before it could slide off the table. "So yeah. We wait."

"For how long?"

"However long it takes. Hours. Days. Depends on the storm's mood."

"Come on," Freya whined.

"We should probably figure out where our quarters are," Theodore said. "If we're stuck here for days, we'll need to sleep eventually."

"Sleep during this?" Freya gestured at the windows, where strange lights were starting to dance. Mana discharge creating aurora-like effects. Beautiful, honestly.

"The storm won't breach the shields," Theodore said. "Anyhow, let's go rest."

Although he said that, Theodore shifted to Holden the moment he hit the bed.

***

Hayden POV

Honestly, he still couldn't believe the damn bathhouse worked. When that young lordling had first shown him the plans, he'd thought it was the stupidest waste of aurums he'd ever seen. Hot water piped through stone channels? Multiple pools at different temperatures? The whole thing had seemed like a fever dream of someone with too much coin and not enough sense.

But he'd taken the job anyway. Thirty years in construction had taught him one thing above all else—you didn't say no to nobles. Not if you wanted to keep working. Not if you wanted to keep your head attached to your shoulders, for that matter.

The bathhouse worked though. Worked better than anything he'd ever built, if he was being honest. Which was annoying.

Lord Theodore couldn't be that old, but here he was, revolutionizing how they thought about water systems. Made Hayden feel old. He was old, he supposed. Forty-eight wasn't young anymore, even if his wife kept telling him otherwise.

The guilds and people kept singing praises, and suddenly everyone wanted to know how Hayden had pulled off the impossible. As if he'd done magic instead of just following the boy's insane blueprints. Still, the attention wasn't unwelcome. His standing in the Builder's Guild had shot up considerably. Even one of his old friends had stopped giving him shit about that warehouse collapse from ten years back.

The bathhouse's public response had been overwhelming. The line to get into the bathhouse stretched around the block most days. Money was flowing like the water. Currently, however, he was with Lord Theodore. The young lord had called for him today, and he had no clue why.

"I have a new project in mind."

Oh.

"Housing," Theodore continued. "Systematic expansion of the residential districts. Multi-story buildings with proper foundations."

That didn't sound too bad. Hayden had built plenty of houses. Though 'systematic expansion' sounded like noble-speak for something complicated.

"But that's not the real innovation," Theodore said, and there was that gleam in his eye again. The same one he'd had when explaining the bathhouse. "I want to implement a city-wide sewage system."

Hayden blinked. "Sewage system?"

"Channels beneath the streets. Pipes carrying waste away from the buildings. No more cesspits. No more digging new holes when the old ones fill up."

Wait, what? Hayden tried to wrap his head around it. They'd always just dug new holes. When one filled up, you covered it and dug another. Been that way since his grandfather's time. Hell, probably since the city was founded.

"You want to... pipe feces through the streets?"

Theodore laughed. "Beneath the streets, Master Morse. In sealed channels. The same principles as the bathhouse, but in reverse. Instead of bringing clean water in, we take dirty water out."

The same principles as the bathhouse. Right. Because that had been so simple to understand.

"Where would it go?" Hayden asked. Because it had to go somewhere. Shit didn't just disappear.

"Treatment pools outside the city walls. We can process it there, use some for fertilizer, filter the water, and dispose of the rest"

The boy was talking like this was all perfectly reasonable, like he wasn't proposing to tear up every street in Holden.

"That's..." Hayden paused, trying to find the right word. Insane? Impossible? Expensive beyond belief? "...ambitious."

"It's necessary," Theodore said. "Holden's growing. The old methods won't sustain us much longer. You know this, Master Morse. How many times have you had to deal with contaminated wells? How many buildings have you seen with foundations ruined by seeping waste?"

Too many, if Hayden was being honest. Last summer alone, three buildings in Lower Ward had to be abandoned when the cesspits beneath them collapsed. The smell had been... well, it had been exactly what you'd expect. But still. Digging channels beneath the entire city? Laying pipes everywhere?

"We'd need to tear up every street. Dig down beneath every building. The disruption alone would—"

"We start with one district," Lord Theodore interrupted. "Prove the concept. Then expand gradually. The same way we introduced the bathhouse."

The same way we introduced the bathhouse. As if Hayden had had anything to do with that idea. But he understood the logic. Start small, show it works, then everyone wants it. Soon enough, not having it seems barbaric.

"The labor required would be immense." He was already doing calculations in his head. The number of diggers alone... "My current crew couldn't handle a tenth of it."

"I'm aware. That's why I'm coming to you first. I need honest assessment, Master Morse. What are your concerns?"

Honest assessment? From a noble? That was new. Usually they just told you what they wanted and expected you to figure it out.

Hayden scratched his beard. Where to even start?

"The ground beneath the city isn't uniform," he said. "Some areas are clay, some are rock, some are that loose sand near the river. Each needs different approaches. Different tools."

Theodore nodded. "Go on."

"The existing foundations would be at risk. Dig too close, things collapse. We'd need to shore up buildings as we go, which adds time and cost."

Another nod.

"Water table's high near the docks. Any channels there would flood unless we waterproof them, and waterproofing underground channels is... well, it's not something we've done before."

"But it could be done?"

Could it? Hayden thought about it. They'd waterproofed the bathhouse pools with that special mortar Theodore had shown them. If they could make enough of it...

"Maybe," he admitted.

"What else?"

What else? How about the fact that nobody would want their street torn up for months? How about the merchants who'd lose business during construction? But he didn't say any of that. Because Theodore was looking at him with that same patient expression he'd had when Hayden had raised concerns about the bathhouse. And look how that had turned out.

"We'd need specialized tools. Pipes that size... we can't just use regular ceramic. They'd crack under the weight."

"I have some ideas. The current system works for now. But cities that don't adapt, die. You've been in Holden your whole life, Master Morse. You've seen it grow. Do you really think we can keep adding people, keep building upward and outward, without changing how we handle the basics?"

Hayden sighed. "It would take time," he said.

"Yes."

"Cost a lot."

"Yes."

"And if it fails, if those channels collapse—"

"It won't fail," Theodore said. There was that confidence again. That absolute certainty that had made Hayden follow those bathhouse blueprints even when every instinct had told him they were impossible.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because you'll be building it."

Hayden sighed. He could feel himself giving in already. The same way he'd given in on the bathhouse. The boy had a way of making the impossible sound inevitable.

"I'll need more men, then. A lot more. Not just laborers, but skilled workers. Masons, pipefitters, engineers who understand grade and flow."

"How many?"

Hayden did quick math. "Triple my current crew, at minimum."

"I can arrange that." Lord Theodore smiled.

***

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