A Lumen Ripple | An Elemental Story

Chapter 9 - Putting it to Practice

Meanwhile...

"Nothing?! It's not nothing. The 7 principles are one of the most important foundational ideas of Glassitecture. Without it, it--"

"No-no-- I didn't mean to! It was a figure of speech."

As Wade found himself in an interesting part of town, Ember found herself in the midst of an interesting conversation with Phil, stood in a class-esque learning space akin to the Elemental Affairs department.

"Watch the back chat, Ms Lumen. We're only so gracious enough to fast track your progress." Phil retorted.

Ember bruxed her teeth in fright, frantically shaking her head.

"Sorry-- sorry. It won't happen again." she panicked.

Phil interrupted by signalling a hand, looking downward and closing his eyes.

"I'm going to move past this. But be warned; backchat in the workplace is a no-no, especially toward a supervisor." he warned.

She cleared a heaping gulp in her throat, standing straight. He stamped a foot on the ground, leaning a leg on the chair next to hers.

"Now that's out of the way... are you ready to put it to practice?" he queried.

Ember straightend further, nodding silently.

"Good." Phil responded.

He tapped on a blank A3 page on the desk in front of her.

"Your job is to draw up a building design using the 7 rules. Your progress in fast-tracking will depend on how well you do with this." he advised.

Ember cleared another lump in her throat, nodding again with hands in her lap. Phil nonchalantly got his leg off the chair.

"As I say this, you may ask as many questions as you like. It's your future job, after all..." he raised.

He reached over to his mug, which he left on her desk, taking it and slowly walking away. Ember could only stare, her senses heightened in stress. She slowly turned her attention to desk as he departed, shaking her head and leaning over the page with pen in hand.

-----

"Okay...

7 principles.

Draw up a building using these 7 principles..."

Slightly clueless, she looked over to the left of the blank page at her notes she jot down that morning, as well as a rough guide sheet outlining the tasks involved.

"Preliminary items necessary; plot area (w x h), and building area (w x h)." she observed.

She gently thought to herself...

"Plot space...

...my flame, what's a standard plot area?

. . .

Wait...

...why not ask FireNet?"

As she was moments away from grabbing her phone out at work - an action she was unsure was allowed there - to surf FireNet - a Google-like search engine - a group of 3 coworkers gasbagged their way past her room. Not one to hide panic very well, she lit up from nerves, shoving her phone away.

"I heard the new intern is gettin' fast-tracked to exams by, like, the end of the week. She has to be the second coming of Vulcan for something like that to happen." one mentioned.