Alfheimr Renaissance

Female complications, day 6

Time to shoot and not to shoot.

During breakfast, we inform our guests of my plan to build a couple of clock towers on the islands. Basically an upscaled pendulum clock that means the general population will be able to see and hear the time, since it will have an upscaled striking system too. How far that will be heard I have no idea, and there will probably be larger bells and clock faces made in the future for other locations. It is definitely something our guests see a value in having in their home towns too. Reading the clock to tell time is not entirely easy and is something that have to be taught, but the 24 hour clock is quite simple and the minute hand can be ignored if it only matters to get a general idea, which the hour hand quickly gives, and the chimes at least signal every full hour. It is mostly when time have to be more exactly that the minute hand is important, and for most peoples lives in a world like this, time isn't. The clock tower here will also have other functions and purpose. If I had only wanted a clock visible to most of the village, it could have been at the Academy. The idea is that the clock towers will also be tall enough to function as a water tower with both wind-pumped and hydro-pumped drinking water. Water is needed every day, no matter how windy or not, thus the hydro power option, and having someone take care of winding the clock and such, also means they will take care of the drinking water.

Myrun is especially enthusiastic as she find the clocks so practical and it is almost sejd to be able to read the clock in the guest mansion, walk here and be perfectly on time for a meal or event, every day. Or they can go for a walk and be told approximately how long it will take and know that they have time to do, or just make an appointment to meet at a certain time and place, and everyone arrive at the same time, without a lot of waiting and such. It's so easy to do something like that when everyone knows the time, and you can streamline your day and plan things. The other guests agree. Just like lighthouses, a lot of clocks will be made, and I should create a clockmaker here on the island, who only builds clocks to sell at the auction, both big for towers or house facades, and small grandfather style clocks for indoors. Some of that might become a home industry much like the Mora clocks and the Allmoge clock was in Sweden. Parts and especially cases were literally made by everyday people in their homes, and then sold to passing traders. 'Mora clocks' literally means clocks made in the town-region of Mora and that perticulary style, which then spread. But instead of passing traders, they are sold through the Academy auctions instead. However, it is very likely that the mechanism itself will be mass produced in my workshops, and up to spec, and the clock cases are something people can make or decorate. Wood carving is a hobby many people have. Precision metal machinery? Not so much. When I introduce and sell clocks, they will be accurate enough for their purpose.

We have a small thunder weapon shooting demonstration at the usual range, where I put two shots into the target at 100 meters, but I do the reload behind a the shooting wall so that the guests don't see what is happening. They only see the firing, hear the bang and see the smoke. Everyone is of course very impressed, especially after how well I hit, and I accept their congratulations.

Honestly, after talking a lot more to Olafr while he's been here, where we've often gotten into crafting and smithing, I've gained more respect for him and his skill. Just all the detail problems he had to solve with the manufacturing because I didn't understand enough what I was asking for. Just the problem of using iron, steel and spring steel in different parts, and sometimes hammering and combining them to get the benefits of both. That he actually tempered the springs in a lead bath to get more even heat in the thick and thin parts of the springs, before they were quenched in linseed oil. The springs were then of course brittle before he tempered them on a piece of iron while observing the colour as the spring was heated. Yellow, violet and then blue. He tempered the springs to light blue, so they regained their springiness and is where he usually tempers many tools, although some tools like for engraving that need to be hard, are done when they are yellow. Then he slowly worked the spring up to full movement, to smooth it out and verify that the movement and force of the spring felt smooth and good. Then they might not be to his likeness, and he had to make a new or rework it. It is possible to carefully file down springs even if the metal resists after all that treatment, but he had to redo so many springs, which he only now admitted. Then there are the other parts he was worried about, and whether it was the right choice to surface harden them.

Olafr also admits that he and his apprentices gradually got better and better at making all the parts, and especially the order in which he should make the parts or work. Some were better to do when starting the stock. He is not satisfied with certain solutions or work, and either by himself or together, we have come up with more 'elegant' solutions. I too have realised that it would absolutely be best to make the barrel first, and actually test how it handles over pressure by attaching it to a simple block of wood, instead of doing the proof testing when the rest of the job was done and the gun was 'done'. If the barrel had broken, it would have been an incredible amount of work that would almost have been wasted. I have come up with many improvements and refinements that could be made, not the least of which is to actually make a threaded plug at the back of the barrel to be able to completely disassemble it to clean it, or if really needed to clear a blockage or inspect the barrel. Olafr has also spoken to a couple of colleagues who work mostly in wood, and one told him how he could make the wooden stocks look better. Olafr has experimented, and what I know as nitric acid with a little bit of iron filings in it, brushed on for example maple, which is then gently heated with radiated heat from a yellow shining piece of iron held close by, can give a really nice red-brown tone, which can be deepened with several layers of linseed oil that is rubbed on and wiped off.

I'm quite convinced that as we talked, Olafr has told me a lot of 'craft secrets', but I've certainly told him what others consider to be secrets, and I'm more than just a customer for Olafr. I'm not surprised that Olafr wants to 'remake' especially the first weapons, since he has now learned how he could make them better and more elegant. He is rightly proud of his craft, but…

I completely understand that feeling, because I myself have experienced it many, many times.

I don't want to sell weapons, but I would have wanted to build up a weapons manufacturing process to see how well and efficiently it could be done, and I would have wanted to try to standardise parts. Olafr obviously had wanted to help me too, because it was so much more interesting work than what he usually does or people always ask him for, and a proper challenge with tricky problems.

Olafr is so looking forward to starting work in the village forge, and I know he will start right after the feast when the others go home. I suspect I'll be completely exhausted and need a few days just to really recover, but he's welcome to start without me. We have already taken a trip there and I have shown him how things work, or are supposed to work, and given him a piece of steel to have fun with and come up with suggestions for what can be done with it. It is very possible there will be some machine parts made because it appeals to Olafr, but some of that steel will be more modern type pull and push coil springs. Also, a 20 to 40 cm long tightly wound coil spring would be nice for trying to making a flexible cord rotary tool for hand held work. But that production had been helped by good tools and machinery...

The man who was tasked to travel around and collect saltpeter has returned as the weather is a little too unpleasant. Surprisingly, he has been able to buy and collect a lot. Really a lot. Many times more than I have collected so far, so he gets a small silver bonus before he returns to his home, and has already be told there is future work to travel around collecting and buying more this spring and summer as well, which he is looking forward to. Honestly anything he can collect I will buy, but I should start extracting nitrates from urine in the stables, or maybe just as a first step from here in the manor. We already have urine separation in the toilets, which works better than expected, but we get more urine than we need for both ammonia and bleaching, so we have mostly use it together with ash from the fireplaces as a fertilizer diluted with water in a 1/10 solution. To everyone's delight, the vegetables have grown like hell from it, but we still have plenty of urine left, so it will also be used for fabric treatment and other things. But, it can also be for extracting saltpeter, and figuring out how to do that effectively.

You can do more with saltpeter than just gunpowder, for example it can treat meat so it stays red, and finely ground in a 1/10 solution it can cool water 10-15 degrees or so. If the water is cold enough, a bath of it can cool another container and make ice cream and ice, which could be nice in the coming summer if I can't build a cooling plant. Saltpeter for cooling can also be reused by evaporating the water or allowing it to evaporate, and has been a common way of cooling wine since Roman times, but it seems that knowledge has been lost or just not reached up here. Just important not to ingest that. Really small doses of diluted saltpeter are suppose to have some medicinal effect although I can't remember what, but too much is dangerous and can be fatal like pretty much everything. It is possible to overdose on water.

Maybe I should try to build a Salpeter farm on the other island. It is a long-term project as I guess it will take six months, a year or so. I have some vague notion that the piles were manure for the urine, and ashes, hay and garbage. Probably something like sand for filtration? But the urine is the important thing and collected urine was poured over everything, then allowed to ferment in the sun, so probably during the summer, until the small white crystal flowers could be harvested. I think it is possible to use urine directly which is filtered through ash to get the nitrates out. I'll have to experiment with urine, which is not something I'm looking forward to do, which is silly but an understandable modern attitude. I should make more black powder and build up a good stockpile. And keep it safe, in a separate place.

It would be fun to make ice cream next summer to offer that at some point. Ice cream is no more difficult than containers of cream and sugar that are whipped while it cools, but better recipes are with cream, milk and sugar or honey, which is heated until it boils, beaten egg yolk with a little more sugar or honey, mix in a little of the previous mixture and pour back and heat again. After it has completely cooled, it should be stirred while it cools down. At least that slightly impulse buy of an ice cream machine taught me a bit. Here, the cooling can be containers with ice that has been salted so that it melts and is colder than zero Celsius.

It will be a lot of work for something unusual, and I will have to work with the proportions of the ingredients, because I don't remember or know, but it could be something to offer at Kari's wedding, and with the ice house, we could have ice cream next summer.

I'm once again resting in my bed and enjoying my pillow and the quiet, when I hear the door open. I guess it's Ciara who wants to join me, but when she doesn't ask if she can join me, and instead I hear what is probably a dress falling to the floor before she crawls onto the bed and I feel her body and boobs against my back, it's probably Caecilia or Iselin, which clearly is Caecilia as her hand find its way inside my pants and start stroking my manhood as she kisses my neck. I'm in no mood and it is Iselin's week. Of course my body have reacted, but I take her hand away and say:

"No Caecilia. I have a headache and I'm not in the mood." Yep, I realise there is some irony in my answer, but most men don't have my amount of female partners.

"Take me like you do your hóra. Make me scream with pleasure. Give me a child."

Child? And that didn't sound like Caecilia either. I groggily turn around, and a pair of hands grab my head and give me an intense kiss.

Sefa!?!

I push her off me with enough force that she almost fall off the bed. It is Princess Sefa!! And she's completely naked!! And a little offended!

"That was an unkind way to greet a princess. Take me now and you're forgiven."

Adrenaline starts pumping in my body, and I'm definitely awake. It really is Princess Sefa! And apart from the jewellery, she is completely naked as she tries to seductively pose, before smiling and crawling towards me.

Nope!

I hurriedly turn around and I look at the wall as I sit on the edge of the bed and take deep breaths to try to get my thoughts in order and calm my beating heart. Hell of a way to wake up!! Sefa slide an arm inside my shirt while her other hand once again finds its way down into my pants and caress me, as she seductively whisper by my ear:

"Don't be shy, a princess offers you her virginity. Make me yours. Give me a child."

NOPE!

Sefa protests as I release myself from her embrace, and I stay away from the bed and circle around towards the door without looking at her. Her dress is on the floor so I toss it to her, but she beats the dress to the side and tries to act seductively as she lie and looks at me.

"Freya wants me to be your wife. Hunulfr died to make it possible. Take. Me. Make me scream from pleasure."

I shake my head as I turn away. "No! Absolutely not! It's not Freya's wish for you to be my wife. Sefa; I love my partners, and Kari will be my next wife in 3 months. Get dressed!"

"KARI!?! I am Princess Sefa! I command you to take me! Make me scream with pleasure! We're going to have children! We're going to get married! TAKE! ME!"

For gods sake! Sefa looks pissed off and lays down completely spread out and naked, so I look away yet again.

"Sefa, you can't command me to do anything. You have no power at all, and especially not here on my islands. This is also my wedding feast to Iselin! Get dressed, and get the hell out of here!"

"Look at me! LOOK AT ME!"

Shit! I hope no one heard her! The dining room is the room below, but I turn around so she hopefully lowers her voice. "What do you want me to see? Do you think I'm going to be filled with lust and desire because you're naked? Hardly. I see a spoiled selfish young woman, whose thoughts are so divorced from reality that she thought this idiotic move was a good idea, and being Asbjörn's daughter only makes you a bigger problem because you obviously think you're better than others. But you won't be my problem."

Sefa burst out: "Problem!?!" It is with pent-up anger and indignation that she fumbles for words before half-madly hissing forth; "I am Princess Sefa! All men desire me as their wife! You shall be honoured that I want you as my husband! TAKE ME!! TAKE MY VIRGINITY!!"

Ignoring Sefa's frustrated sounds, I walk towards the door. I make sure I'm normal and try to calm my heart with a couple of breaths. I really hope there is no one outside.

"Don't tell my parents!" Breathe calmly and slowly. Just before I open, a bit quieter and a little pleading: "Please don't tell my parents."

I open and go out. No one is here. Thank the Gods! As it seems empty even over on the balcony, I leave the bedroom door open and go into my office. It's so much easier to explain if Sefa comes out of my open bedroom, when I'm not there. If she doesn't get dressed and someone discovers her naked in my bed when I'm not there, I'm a little safer from guilt. Damn, that could have gone really bad, and I hope she gets dressed and leaves quickly. My hands are shaking. Best to not say anything to anyone. I need to learn to lock my bedroom door when we have guests, with a key, and from both the inside and the outside, so Alith and sambos can get in. Fucking hell! First Haera and now Sefa! What is it with Asbjörn's family?! He himself has a violent temper that he keeps hidden!

I have only been sitting at the desk for a few minutes when there is a knock, and when I hear Elvira's voice, I ask her to come in.

"Lady Iselin asked me to wake up and get milord."

Elvira must have looked into the bedroom before she checked here, so I guess Sefa managed to disappear. Oof! Lucky! A few minutes earlier... We meet Alith at the guards day room.

"Alith, tell the others, that in the future when we have guests and I'm in one of my rooms, someone will stand guard outside the door. If I try to sleep, I'll lock the door with a key. Let just the closest inside."

Alith looks at me a little questioningly, but noddingly confirms and joins me.