John made his way to the wharf to ask around at the smaller fishing operations, he encountered an old fisherman named Dag. “Can I help ye, lad?” Dag asked, eyeing John up and down.
John replied, “I understand you’re a one-man fishing operation named Dag. Your wife Marion sells your hauls everyday.” “Aye” said the fisherman, “what’s it to ye?”
John explained who he was and that he’d gotten a new idea to study insects. He had heard that different insects were better for catching different kinds of fish. The old man nodded and John continued “Might I ask where you get your bait?” “The dock boys” Dag said, referring to the youngsters that lived near the docks and made their livings fishing, trapping, and catching various types of bait and selling them to the different fishermen. John thanked him and headed out to wander the wharf and see if he could locate any dock boys. He found a bunch of them lounging in the shade of a wagon that was waiting to have its contents loaded to a ship.
“Hello boys, I’m John” he began.
“Hiiii Jooohn” the boys all said in unison, mockingly. John laughed.
“I hear you guys are good at finding bait for the fisherman, old Dag says you sell to him and the others.”
“What’s it to you?” the oldest boy asked.
“I need some bait, a lot of it of as many types of bugs as you can find. I’ll pay you handsomely for them, 1/10th of a gold per bug.” The boys immediately sat up at attention. “You serious?” they asked. “Usually” smiled John, “I need them all alive, I’ll only pay for living ones.”
“Hah, just like the fishermen. Come back here in 3 days at dusk with a wagon, and bring money.” The oldest boy said. John nodded and left as the boys all ran off.
——
3 days later John arrived at the appointed time and place with the wagon. He and the driver inspected and counted the 50 large jars of still living insects. All the jars were half stuffed with various pieces of plant and other materials, John assumed as makeshift habitats for the bugs. “I count 237” said the driver “added to my 303” said John, and that’s 530 insects. John pulled a pouch from his belt and added 3 more coins to it from another pouch. “53 coins, as promised” John said, tossing the pouch to the oldest boy who smiled ear to ear. “You be sure to come back any time you need more bait” the boy said to John before the group of them ran off.
John smiled to himself and said “Let’s go back to my workshop.”, the driver nodded and off they went.
——
Over the next several weeks John busied himself with the insects; experimenting with different notes on different instruments, dragging different materials across other materials, observing and recording how all the insects reacted to each sound, vibration, or intensity. Restocking his bug supplies by working with the dock boys.
Eventually John found his golden note. He had been experimenting with different sizes of dock whistles made of different materials. He found one that made no apparent sound he could hear, but every time air went through it, every single insect went crazy, smashing into the farthest sides of their jars as possible. “Yes!” John thought before heading to Ryan’s office.
——
At Ryan’s office his secretary said “Hi John, what’s up?” “Just here to see the man and show him something I’m working on, is he busy?” “he’s in a meeting, but I’ll ring the ‘John bell’ and let him know to wrap it up” “John bell?” John asked. “Yes,” she replied “He had a special bell made for when you come in wanting a meeting. He and his father realized that you only come here when you have something that will make them a ton of money, so you get priority.” And John laughed.
A few minutes later he was ushered into Ryan’s office. “Sorry for the wait John, how can you help me today?” Ryan said with a smile and John laughed again.
“I’m here about my latest project” John began, and explained how he was preparing to get ready to go on a trip to research about his past, when the notion of travelling through the swamps with the bugs got to him and so he put off his trip to address the issue.
“So you’re telling me, you created a whistle and repels every insect, but we can’t hear it?” Ryan asked raising an eyebrow, “I don’t suppose you brought it”.
“As a matter of fact” John said, pulling the small whistle from his pocket and a jar of a half dozen different insects from the other. He set the jar on Ryan’s desk and blew the whistle. The bugs went nuts trying to get away from him. “A whistle of this size only has a range of about 10 feet before it stops working, this will keep it from aggravating the apiary or any birds or other animals who might be impacted by it too seriously. Attach it to a wind tracking windmill design and it can be made to blow automatically when the wind does. Do you think there’s a market?” and Ryan burst into laughter.
“You just solved the bug problem for every city, healer’s temple, and caravan. I’ll bring news of this to my father at home this evening, and we’ll meet you with the lawyers to get it drawn all up in the morning. After we make a deal, you can give all your work and materials to the scholars we’ve hired from the university, and your prototypes and designs to the liaison from the tradesman’s guild to deal with the setting up of mass production.” Ryan was very excited. John thanked him and left.
That night he met with Ryan and the old man over dinner and they came to an agreement. “Standard contract then? A million gold, and a royalty? What would you like this time” the old man asked. “I think I’ll ask for 5 percent from the profits of every sale, as these are a ‘one and done’ sort of deal for everyone who buys them.” The old man laughed and said “Your canniness still surprises me, young John. But it’s a deal.” And the next morning the contracts were signed and John found himself a millionaire a second time with yet another regular source of income.
That night John sat in his workshop playing with one of his whistles and a hand pump, attaching them together with a hose, he found that squeezing the pump he could make the whistle repel the bugs. He attached the hand pump to the bottom of his travel staff prototype, ran the tube up the side to where he mounted the whistle to the top. Now every time he took a step with the staff, the bugs in his jars went crazy. John smiled.
——
After getting all his materials to the scholars, and explaining it to them, and then getting all his prototypes and designs to the trade guild liaison and helping them set up mass production, converting one of the smaller unused warehouses into a mini-factory, John was ready to get back to work on his staff and preparing for his journey.
——
As John sat and tinkered with his staff designs, he realized he really hated consumable things. Especially for the idea of travelling. He knew he’d need a portable light source, and while the glowing rocks he got from Petros were able to store the sun’s light all day and maintain a fairly bright glow for a decent length of time after sunset, they weren’t very good for radiant light, more for just making beacons. Torches, lanterns, and the like were the go-to source for portable lights at night. John wasn’t fond of having to carry around fuel for them, nor was he fond of their potential dangers.
He decided he needed some time to think, away from the city and reconnect with some old friends, so he jumped on the next caravan back to Greenhill. 3 weeks later he arrived to find Nathan, Hulda, Sven, David, Patrick, Petros, the glassblower, Sarah, and all 3 of his apprentices all waiting to welcome him home. They had a small party in David’s pub and John caught everyone up on his life since he’d first established that tidewalkers could be used for communication.
They informed him that one day the king’s soldiers came with some bankers and finance ministers to audit Lord Quezzel and found that he had been milking the town dry for years. He and his “town guard” thugs were all arrested. The guards were jailed, but the king had Quezzel executed as an example to the other lords.
The king had installed a new lord, Lord Glanburry, to manage the town and surrounding lands going forward, and now the people had functioning roads and a guard to protect them from bandits and to help during natural disasters like when the river flooded last year.
John smiled, quite pleased with himself. “So Patrick” he said “Tomorrow I’m going to head to your smithy, I have a project I’d like to discuss with you”. “Sure,” Patrick replied, “It’s really good having you home John, we all missed you.” And they all had a toast.
After the night was done, John walked back to his cottage, entering it for the first time in over a year. It looked like the apprentices used it regularly and kept it up. John collapsed happily on his bed and slept like a rock.
The next morning John met Patrick at the smithy “So what did you want to get into?” Patrick asked. “Well, I’ve been trying for months now to start a journey to try and finally discover who I am and about my past, but I keep running into obstacles, becoming obsessed with overcoming them, making a ton of money from my inventions and then finding the next problem.” “Tons of money eh? Sound really stressful” and they shared a laugh.
John continued, “I had just started to become obsessed with figuring out a better and safer way to make portable light sources at night, and decided I needed a break. Come home, meet my old friends, and simplify things.” “Makes sense. You want to start woodworking again to take your mind off things?”
“No,” John replied “I realized we don’t have a watch maker here in this town. You’re the closest thing to someone who works with metal. I’d like to take that up, and who knows, maybe it will give me some transferrable skills, or help jog my memory.”
“Okay” said Patrick, “What do you need from me?” “A space to work and materials and tools” John answered.
“I’d like to rent part of your shop, buy any materials I need from you, commission you to make any tools I find myself needing, or custom parts I can’t make myself. What say you?”
Patrick smiled “After everything you’ve done for all of us, brother, you got it. Let’s get to work!”
So Patrick and his apprentices helped John clear a space to work and set up a workbench. John spent a week drafting out tools he’d need made and parts he imagined he’d need but couldn’t yet build himself, just based on everything he’d seen and learn from the watchmakers in the city. He paid Patrick and his team well, and they got to work, furbishing him with everything he needed. And thus John began his career as an amateur watch maker.
As the weeks went by, with Patrick giving as much assistance and tutelage as possible, John became quite the mechanist. He learned more and more about mechanical engineering and how energy is transferred. Teaching himself about coils, springs, gear ratios, locks, and pins, it was great fun and he found he was quite proficient in it. Since money wasn’t an issue for him at all, he gave away the watches, clocks, and other knickknacks he made to the people of the town.
One day after giving wind up toys to a group of children, one of the boys untied the bracelet he was wearing. He handed the bracelet to John saying “This is because you’re always so kind, and because my Mom says you’re going on a trip someday.” The charm on the bracelet was a small lodestone compass. John was very touched and thanked the boy, putting the bracelet on immediately.
A few weeks passed and one night, working half in the dark because he’d gotten too distracted with what he was doing, John had just finished rolling a batch of copper wires into copper springs. He stood all the springs up on small clamps Patrick had made for him, pleased with himself. These were going to make some neat things. John hadn’t specifically decided what yet, but he figured they’d be neat.
As John reached across the springs to sweep some of the metal dust and particles into the bin at the end of the table, he noticed something. In the dim light of the room, whenever he would wave his hands passed the springs, he could see a faint blue glow from their tips. John waved his hands a few more times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and then doused the lantern he’d been using the rest of the way. He waved his hands across the springs again and much more clearly in the dark, he saw sparking from the springs he’d made. “What is going on?” he marvelled.
——
The next day, he dragged Patrick into the smithy early “You’re never going to believe this” John said. “I believe I need coffee” Patrick replied “what is it?” John closed the shutters, sat Patrick at the work bench, doused the lanterns, and started waving across the springs. Patrick fell over backwards in the chair.
“SORCERY! JOHN YOU’RE A SORCERER!” Patrick exclaimed. “NO! No, no I’m not, I’ve never had a magical inclination in my life, that I can recall” John said “I think this is something else.”
Patrick met his apprentices at the door and told them to head home, they would get full pay for the day off, he and John were trying to figure something out and needed quiet. They shrugged and left.
John and Patrick spent the morning with John waving his hands above the springs, he noticed that Patrick couldn’t do it, and he couldn’t seem to do it with his right hand, only his left. And that’s when he realized it wasn’t him, it was the compass. When he’d wave the compass across the springs, they’d glow blue. The faster he did it, the brighter they glowed. He handed the compass to Patrick to try and had the same results.
“You see?” John asked, “It’s not magic, it’s something else, something about the compass. What’s this made of?”
Patrick looked at the compass “This is one of mine, it’s a lodestone compass. The loadstones themselves stick to anything with iron in it, and if you balance them with a counter weight or float them on a leaf in water, they always point north. That’s how a compass works.”
Fascinated, John asked “Do you have a bigger one?”