Alfheimr Renaissance

In order to be able to do some tests with higher voltage AC alternating current, including isolation tests, I need some way to produce that current, so helped by others, we make a single phase multi-pole high frequency high voltage AC generator, and during the test it has a big crank geared way up so the frequency can be way high. I basically want to see how high I can make it, and geared up makes it hard to turn, but the current doesn’t need to be high. It might eventually be cranked by an electric motor, but for tests hand cranking works well, and this is just safer, and electric isolation is experimented with. It's after all high frequency and high voltage. High voltage can be good fun, but must be handled with care, because you either give it proper respect or you will suffer the consequences. Vaporizing small electrolytic capacitors with a couple of kilovolts makes a very powerful flash of light, and it would be fun and interesting if the AC generator can do Kirlian photography, but in real time. I could have built a 15-20kV 15kHz flyback transistor solution, but building it here without proper datasheets, it is guaranteed that the magic smoke will be released from the transistor or mosfet, and that’s a sacrifice I won’t make. I'm not even going to try to measure the voltage with my multimeters, so this will be a calculation of generator windings, gearing and just crank revolutions and so on. We’ll measure the generator output though a high ohm divider, and then estimate the transformer output.

We’ve built a step up transformer of similar design I used for the spark gap radio, just to test how good of a spark the generator can make, but this time we’ve gone for overkill on the insulation. I would prefer to have some form of insulating oil and all inside a ceramic vessel too, as using dry wood as a case isn’t ideal. I assume the output need to be above 10kV or something for it to start working, ie the spark overcomes the air resistance and produces a plasma, but the higher the voltage, the more impressive, and as we test, the safety spark gap proves it was a good addition. Actually a fairly impressive spark, and those with me agree, but way hard to keep cranking for full power. Actually…

I need to try building a Jakob's ladder. For it to work on a Jacob's ladder, the power must be fairly stable beside high voltage and frequency, so crank at the right pace. Two thick brass wires will be the Jacob's ladder itself and I will want to protect it from someone touching it, or deforming the copper, so probably a wooden post up each side at the back to stabilize the brass wires and maybe try to enclose in a glass tube in the future. In the beginning it will be open because I simply don't have anything suitable to protect it with.

This is far from the only electric-magnetic project going on. Magnets are something that still fascinates most people around me, and Iselin is finishing a magnetic field display. Simply a wooden frame around a big strong horseshoe magnet, and many small iron needles on thin string that are drawn to the magnet, but don’t touch it, and thus float in the air, and can be poked, or poked away and held close to stay there. It's a pretty impressive proof of magnetism, and with enough of them the magnetic field lines sort of show up. With an extra needle on a string, someone can feel the power for themselves.

The ship is returning from leaving the guests in Borgarsandr and apart from the usual like more windows, there is much else that was bought or made while we had the wedding feast. The log wagon is expected and they will start testing it. However, the new coach carriage will take another two or three weeks, so until then we have to make the decision whether to let both stay in Borgarsandr, or take a coach here. There is a ferry now, so I know the likely decision will be to bring it here. But that is for the future, and right now most people are focused on other things the ship brought and it almost becomes a little Christmas where I go around handing out presents.

I give Iselin her own side saddle, the first proper one after Jane's prototype, and she now has her own horse. The saddle is beautifully but sparingly decorated with impressions in the leather and marked with her name, and a lady's side saddle suits her because she often wears a dress, and as a Furstess she now really is a Lady. The saddle maker hasn't had time to make more saddles, but I expected that. The internal reinforcement in wood is complex, and it's not handicraft he's used to doing, but apparently he partly hired someone to help him.

I give the wooden boxes with caltrops to the guards. Gunhild's smile as she gently feels them and tries to lay a couple out on the floor, is so damn sadistic that it makes me a bit worried. Bodil and Alith grimace and they both seem to be thinking how evil the caltrops might be when Gunhild say she'll make sure to sharpen the pointy tips. Everyone understands what it would mean with caltrops spread over the floor or stairs in the dark, or the slightly larger ones hidden in a forest or a meadow. How quickly it might change a battlefield if a force is led into such a field and the other side has bows and spears to welcome them with when their attack becomes a mess.

The seamstress guild has been working hard sewing but hasn't had time to finish all the corsets, but they have finished many, and of course Kari prioritised herself. Kari stops me and others from touching the packaging, and will take care of this unpacking herself, and I understand that she must have had something special made that she doesn't want me or the others to see. But apart from whatever she bought for herself, Iselin, Ciara, Jane, Caecilia, Gunhild and Elvira get theirs. I get the package of two sets of military uniforms, and Alith is definitely more interested in that than the corsets.

It's kind of amusing when I see how Iselin in particular is more impatient than a child on Christmas when it comes to high heels, which is why I gave her the other stuff first. Iselin tenderly receives the shoes as if they were glass, and immediately begins to try them on. Alith was a little disappointed that her corset was not finished, but becomes happier when I surprise her with boots with wedge heels, which she soon proudly walks around with. It's clear that Alith likes the extra centimeters of height she gains. A bit unusual for her but much more stable than the narrow higher stiletto heels Iselin and Caecilia is walking around in, and Alith's heels works better outdoors.

Caecilia gets her orange jewel plug wrapped in a cloth package, but I promise we'll spend time and I'll make sure to give it more intimately to her then. Caecilia, who has just received both a corset, shoes and a plug, shines like the sun and unsteadily disappears together with Iselin to try on the corsets. Hope they don't twist their ankles.

I whisper to Kari that she was rude when she yanked my fingers away for the package and she needs to be punished in the 'b-room' in an hour. Kari whispers 'three hours', gives me a kiss on the cheek and storms off.

Okay, she's planning something again.

When I get Kari's message from Caecilia, I shower and go down to the b-room where Kari is posing and waiting for me in the glow of two oil lamps. Dressed in a new leather corset with her ring collar already on, so for her the game has already begun, which means I need to play my part as well. The corset has metal D rings sewn into matching leather in several places, so I walk over and inspect them closely as Kari stands expectantly. I think I know what Kari needed extra time to sew on herself to avoid having to explain it, and it gives quite a lot of ideas, which she is very aware of considering where she sewed the rings. As I consciously walk around looking at Kari; close, but only touch her corset and the D rings - not her skin - and I notice that Kari is shivering with anticipation, and she has a hard time holding back her smile. That small lip bite is just cute!

"Eyes forward. Look straight ahead on the wall."

The rest of the leather goods are neatly arranged on the table beside her, together with some folded towels, the oil jug, mugs and a jar with something to drink, her jewelled plug and so on. I need to think about the introduction and how we should start. Kari can't see exactly what I'm doing out of the corner of her eye, and I'm guessing Kari has to try hard not to peek. When she finally - as expected and probably deliberately - makes a peek that I catch, it becomes another mark of her 'disobedience' she must be 'punished' for, and so the game continues.

Of course, Kari only gets to try one new thing, so we have something more for the future. We need to drag it out, and we still haven't tried the wooden cross, but will in the near future after I propose to her, but she doesn't know that. But Kari has been good and gets to choose a toy, even if I pretend to not understand her choice, and she has to accept my mistake and I 'punish' her because she was unclear.

Unfortunately, when we finished, cleaned and go up, it becomes clear that we've made a mistake in our planning. People in the library. Asta and Caecilia. And no idea when they will leave.

Crap.

It's a bit funny but Kari and I have no choice but to spend more time discussing the 'session', improvements and Kari enthusiastically coming up with future ideas. Jane have clearly been saying too much, probably thinking Kari wouldn't get it or understand it. It's lucky that I always try to have backup plans and we discussed several possibilities and alternatives way back, because Kari needed to pee when we are at it and used the distress signal, so half panicked I took the leather ball out of her mouth so she could tell the problem, and had started to loosen the restrains. Only the second time we had to abort our sessions, the first was for cramping, which was worse. Frankly, I have recommended her to drink water and get salt and vitamins to prevent cramping, so that may have contributed to her need to pee. But the backup plan makes it a part of the game, but the potty didn't have to be used for the first time, instead she used the bidet and she was 'forced' to use it with my help, with her wrists tied to her waist and blindfolded, and me washing and wiping her off. Lucky it's a bidet and not a potty, because it was more than pee that came out, and with a completely different pressure behind it.

She hacks away at her boundaries all the time, and thus mine too, and boundaries are moved. Domination is something I still don't really look forward to, and what I do probably hardly counts as that anyway. It's mostly Bondage. Regardless of what it's categorised as, nowadays it's a bit sexy, nice and I'm starting to like what we do down here. Most of all, I just love how much Kari enjoys our games and how happy it makes her. If it has been a really good session like the one we just had, she just wants to lie down and enjoy the feeling afterwards. No talk or movement. Just pressed against me and enjoy the silence, and her smile and face are absolutely wonderful.

It feels a bit absurd as we lie here our sex dungeons bed, waiting for the library to be empty so we can leave, with Kari again neatly dressed in her everyday dress curled up next to me, but I can feel her special corset underneath and caress her bottom, while she hugs me. Happy and satisfied, she begins to tell me that she has really thought about what I told her about Midgård and technological developments a couple of months ago. It took her time to take it in and process the information. So many thoughts that came up, and some unpleasant ones. But in retrospect, she doesn't regret that I told her, and she wishes to know much more about Midgård in the future. She may not be able to truly absorb it as quickly as Iselin, but she wants to know. So I promise we will have a movie night, and I know it will be 'The Man from Earth'. Kari complains that she has to take a trip to her properties and really can't put it off any longer, so it will be next week, and none of us can say how long it will take, but Gunhild or Hillevi will go along and probably Ida as her maid. Kari is a Storman and should have her own personal maid, but I suspect Kari is a little afraid of having a personal one, who will learn what her lady truly loves.

Kari is curious about the property and the people there, but she is also worried they might think less of her. She want to improve their life, and I already know Kari will try to gather men for a construction team to come here so they can be trained for future constructions on her properties.

We have checked if the library has become empty each 20 minutes, but even an hour later, Asta still hasn't left the library. So we open the double door between the secret cellars, remove the soundproofing bags and go out that way. The secret path from my bedroom can only be opened from that direction, so another secret door out to the meeting room is a good idea. I still haven't built the improved secret door in the partition between the b-room and the secret library, so I can make it too and a little extra soundproof when I build the new secret exit-entrance. I should also improve the sound insulation solution to the semi-secret basement so it's easier to open that way.