Abuse of Magic

Chapter 93: Experimenting with Advanced Technology

<Stella's perspective>

Stella watched as Joseph dived into the trance. Derek and Stephan were watching him expectantly. She wondered if she should get on to them about not watching for dangerous magic, but she honestly didn't know that much about magic, so decided not to say anything, in case they already were.

"Only the strongest mages can do this," whispered Derek, as if to keep from distracting Joseph.

Stephan only nodded in agreement. This was apparently nothing like when he fell into a mage trance.

Suddenly, a tiny flame appeared above him. Stella examined it, wondering if it was something dangerous, but then it started to change its shape. It began to look like Joseph, only, it was aging. It didn't look like any of the older Joseph's in her memories, perhaps it was what he would look like in this life?

He was wearing a very nice suit, complete with buttons down the front of the coat. It was very odd to see such detail in a flame. She watched amused, as he even combed his hair. Master Joseph was so meticulous in everything.

The figure started to speak, and she assumed he had managed to find Selena. That was good. Perhaps she could get a message to his father for him. Stella knew that he was concerned about them.

Her mind wandered, very briefly to her mother, but then she shut the thought out. She hoped to never see that woman again. Nothing she had done, in Stella's entire memory, could be considered nice, much less motherly. She was very glad that Joseph had a good life here, with loving parents. His happiness made her happy.

Stephan and Derek were whispering like mad to each other, and she had to shake her head in amusement. They had become fanatics. Joseph infected them somehow with a desire for magic. Despite that, she knew she was his best friend. Joseph was very important to her.

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The figure over Joseph, said something, and suddenly the lamp flame started to flicker crazily, as if a strong breeze blew through the room. The two mage apprentices jumped to their feet and stared around the room amazed. She saw that their shadows on the wall were very odd, and got a sick feeling in her stomach.

There was a knock on the door, and she rushed to answer it.

"Is everything alright?"

"The campfires have started going crazy! Everyone's in a panic!"

"Calm them down, Master Joseph is working on it."

Justin, the slave Master Joseph had assigned to report to her anything strange, nodded as he realized what must be happening.

"Don't worry, ma'am, I will ensure everyone remains calm."

Thankfully, the area of effect didn't reach the mages. Stella informed Joseph's people not to speak of the weird activities when the mages started talking about feeling a weird vibe.

XxxxX

Joseph was looking over some documents. It was August 29th and Matthew, a slave he had placed in charge of a hidden village, was standing in front of him, waiting to report. The village was simply known as village 5, and none of the king's men knew about it, not even Daniel.

The documents he was looking over were detailed reports that Matthew had brought from the expert craftsmen Joseph had sent to the village to work on new technology. New to this world, anyway.

The water driven sewing machine was a vast improvement over William's design. The workers were to prioritize safety, because he didn't want any reports of child labor and ripped off fingers from the machinery. The weave was even tighter than the highest current grade. It was slower in the experimental stage, but the promise was there. Currently, the fabric sample he had before him, was the most perfect piece of fabric in the realm.

"Excellent," he said with a smile.

"We could improve the machines more, but we are following your orders in that everything must be able to be burned down to ash so that it can't be duplicated. Are we not staying here, Master Joseph?"

"No, this will never be our true home. I've spoken extensively with my father about this already. Consider everything you are doing now trial and error. Some day you will be in charge of making perfect machines outside the reach of the 3 kingdoms. When that day comes, we will sell them our products at ridiculous prices. Thus, we can never let them learn to make them themselves."

"Very well. The pottery has also shown promise. This porcelain technique is significantly different from the dishes we normally make."

"Excellent. Your goal is to have an entire tea set for four, made before my mother arrives. She loves tea."

"I will tell the workers it is a present for the Madame. I am sure they will be pleased."

"Good."

The report continued. It was hard to smuggle Matthew in and out of the camp without him being observed, so his meetings were very infrequent.

Progress on the perfumes and paints was slower than he wanted, but probably better than he expected. The instructions he could give them came from 15 minutes of a 'how it's made' tv show, he had seen in one of his former lives.

Ironically the way to weave really complicated patterns, got a full hour, while his former self was bored at a hotel, so he watched the whole show. Weaving fantastic quilts and tapestries in volume, won't be too difficult, but they have to make more of the parts out of metal, because of the weight of what they are making. Construction of the machinery was slower.

Paper making and a printing press were coming along, but they were lower priorities. With no available smiths, because of other projects, the craftsmen were stalled. Matthew believed next month they would begin to make paper.

Joseph needed a massive amount of paper if he was to get children's books made to pass out to the children slaves. Once he learned illusion magic, he was going to try and actually show his memory of the 'how to' shows, instead of just explaining.

Also, he thought it would be funny to watch Saturday morning cartoons again. Maybe Stella would get more of his jokesnope, probably not.