The courtyard of Blackwood Keep was usually a place of order. Today, it was a scrapyard.
"My Lord," Varrick whimpered, clutching his ledger to his chest. "Not the bathtub. Please. It cost a fortune in copper sheet."
"Tear it out," Ronan ordered the workmen.
Two peasants dragged the copper basin—the crown jewel of the Roman Suite—out of the guest wing. They hammered it flat with mallets.
"We need the copper for the boiler," Ronan explained, his voice hoarse from smoke and stress. "Iron transfers heat too slowly. Copper is conductive. We can bathe in wooden tubs again. We cannot make steel without coal."
He turned to the pile of scrap. Old bronze shields, copper pots from the kitchen, even brass fittings from the decorative gates. Everything that conducted heat was being sacrificed.
"Melt it," Ronan commanded Kennos. "Cast the boiler plate. Thicker at the bottom. Rivet the seams. If it bursts, we all die."
The Cylinder
The boiler was difficult, but the cylinder was the nightmare.
In a modern factory, a lathe would bore a steel tube to within a thousandth of an inch. Ronan didn't have a lathe. He had a clay pit and gravity.
"We cast it vertical," Ronan instructed Kennos, standing over a deep hole dug in the smithy floor. "If we cast it horizontal, the metal will sag. It won't be round."
They lowered the core—a log covered in smooth, dried clay—into the mold.
"Pour," Ronan said.
Molten brass (a mix of copper and zinc they had scrounged) flowed into the mold. It bubbled and hissed.
They waited a full day for it to cool.
When they hoisted it out, it was a rough, ugly tube, five feet long and two feet wide. The inside was pitted.
"It's not smooth," Kennos said, running a rough hand inside. "The piston will get stuck."
"Sand it," Ronan said. "Get the apprentices. Give them stones and sand. They scrub the inside until it shines. Day and night. Shifts of four hours."
The Assembly
Three days later, a strange caravan moved toward the Western Ridge.
There were no horses; they had been eaten or sold. Oxen dragged a sled carrying the massive brass cylinder. Another sled carried the copper boiler, which looked like a giant brewing kettle.
They arrived at the flooded mine shaft. The water was still rising.
Ronan directed the construction.
• The Furnace: A brick box built directly under the copper boiler.
• The Beam: A massive oak trunk, balanced on a stone fulcrum like a seesaw. One end hung over the mine shaft; the other hung over the cylinder.
• The Pump: A long iron rod descending into the dark water.
The peasants watched from the treeline. They made signs against evil. They whispered that Lord Ronan was building a metal man to eat their children.
"The Piston," Ronan called out.
They lifted the heavy iron disk. It was wrapped in thick hemp rope soaked in tallow (animal fat).
"Why the grease, my Lord?" Kennos asked, wrinkling his nose at the smell.
"Because the cylinder isn't perfect," Ronan said. "The steam will try to escape. The wet rope swells. The fat seals it. It's a gasket."
They lowered the piston into the brass cylinder. It was a tight fit.
"Connect the chains," Ronan ordered.
They hooked the piston to one end of the oak beam. They hooked the pump rod to the other.
It was finished.
It was ugly. It was a towering, mish-mashed skeleton of wood, brick, and brass. It looked like a siege engine designed by a madman.
[Project Complete: Newcomen Atmospheric Engine]
[Efficiency: 0.5% (Terrible by modern standards)]**
[Power: 5 Horsepower (Limitless endurance)]**
The Awakening
"Light it," Ronan said.
Gendel shoved a shovel of their last remaining charcoal into the furnace under the boiler.
They waited.
The water in the copper boiler began to boil.
Hiss.
Steam began to rise. It filled the space under the piston.
"Open the valve!" Ronan shouted.
Kennos pulled a lever. Steam rushed into the cylinder, pushing the air out. The piston didn't move yet. The machine sat there, hissing and dripping.
"Now... the cold water!" Ronan yelled.
This was the magic. The Condensation.
An apprentice poured a bucket of cold river water onto the outside of the brass cylinder (and a small spray inside).
The steam inside instantly turned back into water.
Since water takes up 1600 times less space than steam, a massive vacuum was created inside the cylinder.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
The weight of the entire atmosphere pressed down on the piston.
THUD.
The piston slammed down.
The oak beam rocked.
The other end of the beam—the pump end—jerked up.
SPLASH.
A gallon of dark, muddy water was ripped out of the mine and vomited into the drainage ditch.
The crowd gasped.
"Reset!" Ronan shouted. "Steam in!"
The valve opened. The vacuum broke. The weight of the pump rod pulled the beam back down. The piston rose.
"Cold water!"
Hiss...
THUD.
The beam rocked again.
SPLASH. Another gallon of water.
Ronan stepped back. He grabbed the apprentice, a smart lad named Bran.
"You see the rhythm?" Ronan asked. "Steam. Water. Steam. Water. Do not stop. If you stop, the mine floods."
The boy nodded, terrified but mesmerized. He began to work the valves.
Hiss. Thud. Splash.
Hiss. Thud. Splash.
It was slow. Maybe twelve strokes a minute. It was deafeningly loud, a rhythmic groaning of wood and metal that echoed off the hills.
But it was relentless.
The water level in the mine shaft began to drop. An inch. Two inches. A foot.
Ronan looked at the machine. It wasn't magic. It was Thermodynamics. He had turned heat into motion.
[Milestone Achieved: The Industrial Revolution]
[Era Unlocked: The Age of Steam]
A notification pulsed in his vision, gold and glorious.
[New Ability Unlocked: Carbon Heart]
[Effect:] You suffer no penalty from smoke inhalation. You can intuitively sense the quality of fuel sources.
Ronan ignored the text. He walked to the edge of the pit. The water was receding fast now. The black, glistening seam of coal was breaking the surface.
"Get the picks," Ronan said to the stunned miners. "The beast is drinking the water. You go get the food."
Kennos walked up to the engine. He touched the hot brass cylinder with a trembling hand.
"It breathes, my Lord," the smith whispered. "It actually breathes."
"It eats coal, Kennos," Ronan said, staring into the furnace fire. "And it poops power. Now feed it."
Status Update:
• Resource: Coal Mine (Accessible).
• Tech: Steam Engine (Prototype).
• Energy Crisis: Solved (Pending extraction).
...…..
Author Note
Hi guys! Thank you for reading my fanfiction.
I wanted to let you know that I'm releasing bonus chapters for Power Stones. Here are the goals:
80 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapter
100 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapters
125 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapters
150 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapters
Thanks for the support!