Part 24

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Silvra quickly rushes out and returns with Lena. Thallion looks up from his notes ready to write down this historical event, and Eldrin looks on, quizzically and yet hopeful.

I spin the shaft, it glides smoothly with no binding. I take one of Silvra’s light bulbs, sorry “Manna Testers”, place it in the corresponding base and attach wires to it from the generator.

Turning the shaft again, the light bulb emits a faint orange glow.

Spinning it faster, I get it to glow brighter, but still not as bright as my phone made it glow.

“Astounding!”

“It works!”

“Finally!”

“The momentous nature of this situation cannot go unsung” Eldrin states.

“Wha’. O, na’ive tongue, sorry”

I look down at the generator, and with all my might, spin the shaft as fast as I possibly can. It glows brighter, but still not as powerful as what my phone managed.

“It’s a failure!” I exclaim, putting it down on the table with force out of frustration.

“Oi, wha’ ya mean failure. Ya jus’ did something tha’ was considered impossible 3 weeks ago. Non living electricity!”

“Eldrin’s right. This is by no means a failure. It worked flawlessly first try. I was expecting to need to work on this for months,” Thallion concurs. “You managed to combine 2 types of metal, 2 flammable substances and make sustained electricity”

“Maybe not months, but still, it worked! The light lit up” Silvra states

“How is it a failure to you?” Lena asks, like a stern yet caring mother, looking down on me.

“It its not bright enough”

“WHAT?!” All state.

“IT’S NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH! Look, this may come as a shock to you, but what we just saw is a sad demonstration of what this thing should be able to put out. It should easily outshine my phone on that light, and it must if I am to ever charge my phone again. There must be something I missed!” I open my phone and begin reading the DC generators, noting that I have 19% left of my battery. I scroll through reading as fast as I can, trying to not waste power.

Suddenly a soft hand appears and teases the phone out of my grasp.

“Why are you beating yourself up so hard? You did the impossible. Fall out of the tower you knocked down, survive a day hike across the landscape in winter, meet with us and tell us of a power so great it rivals that of kings, and controlled not by position but owned and used by all. You are trying to bring us that, in less than 3 weeks! What went wrong?”

In between sobs, I settle to the floor in her grasp.

“When you say it that way, it sounds dumb, but from my perspective, I am a monster, strong but dumb in this society. The best I can hope for is be a beast of burden save for my knowledge that I carry. By sharing this knowledge, I feel useful. I don’t want to be a burden, and I don’t want to just be dumb labour. This,” I hold up my phone, “this is my gateway to not just my knowledge, but all of my people’s knowledge. Good and bad. Losing this, I have failed to carry and protect the truth, and my one last connection to who I am”

Lena sits there quietly for a bit, just holding me. Thallion, Eldrin and Silvra all sit down too, and just sit in the quiet.

“I hate dumping this all on you as it makes me a burden to you as well. Unless I ran into someone that could have understood me without wanting it for nothing but power gain, I would have probably offed myself. But you are here. My burden and my joy lies in this room. I don’t like owing anyone anything, but here I am, living rent free, with no skills and my only use is translating what I have with me. I could set myself up as a king if I withhold this knowledge, but that goes against my very being. Knowledge needs to be known in whole. And that is why I give the good with the bad.”

“I am lost without my phone being alive, and I have no purpose here without it. I would not be surprised if whatever summoned me grabbed my phone and I was the hitchhiker instead.”

A few minutes of silence pass

---

“You are not a burden,” Lena states. “You are a gift, Ethan. We don’t see you as a beast of burden or someone to be used. We see you as a friend, a companion, someone who’s shown us wonders we couldn’t have imagined. You’re more than your knowledge; you’re part of us now.”

Eldrin nods. “Aye, ya’ve given us ‘ope. More than that, ya’ve given us a glimpse of a fu’ure we never though’ possible.”

Thallion adds, “We’re in this together, Ethan. You’ve done so much already. We’ll keep working, keep trying, and we’ll get it right. We’re not giving up, and neither should you.”

I look around at their faces, each filled with kindness and determination. “Still, if I lose this, then there is more lost than I can ever hope to regain. I have less than 5 days to get this to work. If I cannot-”

“If WE cannot, we’ll keep working on it, just slower.” Lena states, glaring at the others.

“O’course!”

“Definitely!

“Indublitively”

“Thanks guys, just give me a minute to calm down, and we can try again”

“No, we are going home, and you are taking the rest of the day off. No phone” Lena states, putting it in her pocket.

I snort, a faint smile cracking my face for the first time this day. No one has ever taken my phone before.

“Fine,” I state, “but let me shut it down first.”

Lena passes it to me and I shut it down, ready for tomorrow and whatever that may bring.