Ascent of the Aliomenti (14 page)

Arthur liked to brag about his new abilities in any manner he could; his emphasis on the word
sense
was one of the means of displaying his arrogance. Will was tempted to turn invisible or teleport in front of Arthur, merely to put the man in his place, but felt that would be its own form of bragging. “I hope so. We need to start growing our permanent numbers soon. The journeymen won’t stay forever, and they’re costing us each quite a bit of coin. It’s worth it given the progress we’re making, of course.”

Adam nodded. “Go, Arthur. We’ll manage here. There should be a horse available for your usage.”

With a nod, Arthur left them.

Adam turned toward Will. “At some point, you need to give me the directions to make my
own
journey, Will.”

Will sighed. Adam had wanted to know where Hope and Eva were living, and knew that Will had spent the past year not on a private journey, but rather secreting the two women away in a far-off spot, well outside the potential range of Arthur’s curious ears. He knew the distance must be great, for Will never inquired as to where Arthur was traveling. If the man had been anywhere near the trail the three of them had taken after the “deaths” and Will’s departure, Adam knew Will would do everything he could to steer the man on another path.

“Adam, the important thing is that they are safe and they are well. They need us to avoid interfering with their lives, because they’re going to need to spend a significant amount of time away from us, at least until...”

“Until Arthur dies,” Adam muttered. Will hadn’t mentioned that he, Eva, and Hope were no longer subject to that particular affliction, and that both Arthur and Adam would become immortal as well. At some point, a time that Will didn’t relish, he’d need to introduce both Adam and Arthur to the ambrosia fruit, sealing his own fate to deal with both men for centuries.

“He’s too stubborn to die,” Will muttered in reply, and Adam couldn’t help but laugh.

They spent the rest of the day mixing the concrete, filling the forms, and placing the re-bar spikes in the mixture for stability. With the distance between concrete mixer and wall form now greatly reduced, they were able to fill the walls to the top more quickly than they had the day before, when they’d filled only one form.

The men were happy when the wall forms were dubbed full, though they had excess concrete remaining. At Will’s suggestion, the carpenters formed a large square box of wood, coating it with the same oily substance used on the wall forms, and poured the remaining concrete inside. With the mixture smoothed over, Will printed the word ALIOMENTI in the concrete using a sharpened stick.

“This will be the cornerstone of one of our buildings,” he announced. “I don’t know what form that building will take, but the first major structure we build will use this block.”

It would be far more durable than the wooden sign he had shattered just over a year before.

Once the evening meal was completed, Will told Adam that he was going for a walk. Adam nodded, but a shrewd look covered his face. Adam certainly suspected that Will’s walk would involve a destination Adam would find extremely interesting.

Will walked south, toward the part of the forest where he’d first arrived in the eleventh century, making sure the entire time that he wasn’t being followed. Once he’d traveled for about a mile, well past the possible range Adam could sense Energy usage, he teleported into his cave, three miles to his north.

Once he arrived, he climbed out of the opening, into the lush underbrush and thick tree canopy. He marveled as always as the enhanced oxygen supply energized him physically, and he began a brief Energy exchange with the wildlife, recharging himself. He then walked a few hundred yards further north, where a small pocket of strange trees grew, and exchanged Energy with them as well. The ambrosia trees were growing well, and already he saw seeds and fruit forming near the leaves. It wouldn’t be long before he’d be able to pick the fruit and start his examination, attempting to unravel the riddle Ambrose had long ago deciphered.

He knew that it was
possible
to reverse the sterility effects of the fruit with current technology, for Ambrose had done so. If Will had figured out the secret, though, it wasn’t something he’d shared widely. When the Hunters had assaulted him in 2030 outside his home, they’d been shocked that anyone had been able to “reverse the protocols,” which Will now believed involved taking prepared rations of ambrosia fruit, morange, and zirple. Perhaps they’d identified additional benefits of repeated consumption, for the residents of the Ambrosia forest had made it clear that a singular act of consumption was sufficient to confer the “benefits” of the fruit. That didn’t stop them from eating additional servings of the succulent fruit on a regular basis, however.

He suspected this would be a project he’d continue for the remainder of the time he had until his future, younger self met Hope. How close would it be, the discovery of the reversal process, to the time when they needed to ensure that Josh was on the way? Would the reversal be maintained long enough to ensure Angel’s arrival as well, or would he or Hope need to go through the reversal process – whatever it might be – a second time?

He glared at the tree, innocent though it seemed, and seethed at the lifetime of hardship it had bestowed on Hope and on him. The only positive was that he knew that they would be together or in contact throughout the process, though she might be a thousand miles or more away.

He reached out his thoughts to her, stretching his mind out to the distant city of Healf on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The mental journey to Abrecan had seemed simple and short, a minor expenditure of Energy. The connections he’d made with her in Healf had left him thoroughly drained. Long distance telepathy was more Energy-intensive than he’d suspected.

It was several moments before he located her mind and indicated a desire to speak to her. Yet she was sleeping, and he dared not wake her. In their infrequent conversations, discussions that always ended long before he was ready, she’d noted that she and Eva were constantly besieged by new patients. The plague had spread to a handful of nearby cities, and word had circulated of the two women with the white hair who alone had the ability to eliminate the illness and reverse the symptoms. They did not lack for matters to occupy their time, nor did they lack money. They stored excess money in a hidden cave outside the city, for they’d detected thoughts in healthy and sickly alike indicating that potential theft was always a possibility. They lived simply, avoiding any indication that they were becoming wealthy, eschewing fine dresses or jewelry. Their only extravagance was a relative abundance of meat in their daily diet, a method of eating which shocked most of their neighbors. The standard diet of the era and locale was one based heavily upon vegetables and roots, and meat was a rare luxury.

The two women spent time each morning journeying to the Great Sea only a few miles distant, wading into the waters and repeating the bathing ritual they’d learned and grown accustomed to during their time in the original Aliomenti village. Hope told him that the waters were much warmer, and they found the process far less refreshing and invigorating than the baths in the cold waters of the Halwende. They’d return, eat a morning meal, and treat patients until sundown, when they’d eat again before retiring for the evening.

He felt horribly deprived at the inability to talk to her that day. Rather than sulk, though, he continued to work on building his Energy stores. He wanted to be able to teleport to her side, instantly, but at present he knew he could not travel such a distance. He had repeatedly flown further and further from the cave and then teleported back, expanding his distance over time. It was his own measuring stick to track his growth, and he’d not be satisfied until he could reach her anywhere on Earth.

Still somewhat deflated, he walked back to the village, looking at the forms of the two wall sections, trying to picture the future village layout. The success with the concrete enabled him to consider far more elaborate buildings than anything he might have considered before, when he could only consider wood-based structures. Concrete would enable him to think about multi-story buildings or subterranean rooms. He thought about the future Aliomenti Headquarters, a massive building in which the aboveground floors were “human” facing, the location where the group’s business interests were managed. The floors underground, however, were a place where Aliomenti could practice and perfect their Energy skills, or work on technology centuries ahead of anything available to the general population. He found the setup appealing, outside the knowledge that any advances made within the lower levels would be denied to those working on the upper levels. It was a major point of contention with Arthur from the moment he’d arrived in the original village four years earlier. Will wanted the knowledge perfected and then disseminated out to the world; Arthur wanted it kept only for those accepted into the Aliomenti group and lifestyle.

Clearly, it was a disagreement that they would never resolve.

Still, that future gave him some direction here in the past. He walked into the village proper and looked at the space between the remnants of the Shops and the southern wall, and began pacing off the distance. Could they successfully construct a large, multi-story concrete building in the eleventh century in the planned space?

The area seemed adequate to fit a two story building with a potential basement level. Will decided that they’d build the basement after the above ground floors, after they’d perfected the process they were undertaking with creating the walls and transferred that knowledge to creating buildings. If they built it correctly, they could fully seal the basement area. Access would be limited to those who could teleport, or those who could gain the favor of one who could teleport them to the lower levels. It was the ultimate security; they needn’t worry about practicing Energy techniques and being caught if only those so enabled could even reach the training level.

Even excluding the future underground area, constructing a multi-story building would be a great challenge. They’d build the main floor of the building with concrete, and construct metal beams to use to support the ceiling. How much weight could the support beams he’d envisioned support, though? Would they support enough weight to handle a second story. He shook his head, wishing he’d spent time learning more about the math and science behind engineering, since he’d be able to answer his questions with that knowledge.

A sudden inspiration struck. He didn’t need to build the subterranean training area under a building; he just needed to build it underground. In fact, he’d recommend building it close to the Ealdor River, near where the Wheel turned eternally, dumping in the fresh water so eagerly used by the villagers once, and now by the journeymen. He thought they might find additional uses for the Wheel if they could isolate such research below-ground. They could also build additional Wheels if necessary to aid any projects they’d want to research.

Those would be future projects. The next project, after the city walls were erected, would involve constructing a two-story concrete building for living quarters. It would mimic the single room layout of the original, but would use concrete rather than wood as the primary construction material.
Try to burn that down, Adam
, he thought to himself.

Will grabbed a handful of wooden stakes, and began hammering the stakes into the ground where he projected the future residence building would stand.

Adam walked over to him. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t we be focusing on drying out the new wall segments?”

“I’m thinking of what we should build next,” Will replied. “And if it’s the size I think it will be, then we’ll need to move the exterior walls out a bit more.”

“What are you thinking of building?”

“The concrete is significantly stronger than the wood we’ve always used for construction. That strength means that we can consider buildings we could never consider before. I want our next construction project to feature a single large building, concrete for the most part, which will serve as our place of lodging. It will be some time before the walls are done, of course, but it is never too early to begin planning the next step.”

“The walls won’t be finished for months, and then it will be wintertime,” Adam noted. “Why worry about the next thing now? Why concern ourselves about the future?”

Will smiled. “We’re going to
create
the future, Adam. And that means we need to create it in a manner that is exciting and motivates us. And we need to know about it now, because the original walls would not be large enough to handle this building. So I’m pushing the walls further out.”

Adam looked thoughtful. “That makes sense. Anything else I should know about this building?”

“It will have two levels, with staircases providing access between floors.”

“Wait,” Adam said. His jaw was agape. “We’re going to construct a building, out of this concrete you’ve taught us about, and... you’re going to put a second level on top of the first?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s impossible,” Adam said, shaking his head. “Any other crazy ideas I should know about?”

“I have a lot of crazy ideas,” Will replied, grinning. “And if I’m right about one of them, we’ll never worry about the chill of winter again.”

This time, Adam looked
very
interested.