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Anyone who knew Noe could tell you that he didn’t handle sitting around very well. He very much liked to be active and engaged with the world, and lying about in bed, while nice in theory, got old very quickly.

Luca despaired of him but finally found a way to let Noe work part of the day without overdoing it. They’d had several Shiirein and Bhodhsan people who’d expressed a desire to learn architecture, so they had more people to teach, and Noe had all the time in the world to get the basics drilled into their heads. Since they were spending their mornings in language and cultural lessons, Noe got them after lunch.

He still couldn’t use his right arm, and he was supposed to mostly sit because of his ribs. Due to his physical limitations, Elsbet had been nominated to be his assistant. Well, she’d volunteered. Noe was happy to have her either way. He liked Elsbet.

Their classroom was just an empty room in the back of the city hall, which was the only spare space to be had these days. The city was full up between all the soldiers, builders, and students. Noe had enough room to cram thirty people in here, at least, and that was all he cared about. His first project was simple—he wanted to walk them through the basics of how to design a single-room building, starting with footers and how to go up from there. To that end, everyone had paper, pencils, erasers, and a ruler awaiting them at each desk.

Now, he just needed his students to show up.

Since he had Elsbet one-on-one, a rare thing, he decided to pump her for a little information. “Say, El.”

“Hmm?” She glanced up from her seat beside him.

“You know Luca’s parents rather well, I’m assuming.”

“Unfortunately. They’re not pleasant people. About as bad as my parents, really.”

“Oh. Is that why you left home like you did?”

Elsbet snorted, no humor in the sound. “Basically. I knew Luca would take me in until I figured out what to do. There’s no reasoning with his parents or mine.”

Well that wasn’t heartening in the slightest. “I’m almost afraid to ask…how do you think they’ll take the news? Of me being engaged to him, I mean.”

“About as well as they’d take a knife to the gut? Sorry, that was brutal, but I don’t know how to sugarcoat it.” Elsbet looked down at her hands, idly twidling her thumbs. “They’re very much the type to think their way is the only right way. I think it stems from the fact they knew it was a mistake to marry each other, but their pride won’t let them admit it. They’d rather bite their tongues off first. Because they can’t admit they made a mistake, they’re somehow trying to justify it by making their son do the same thing. It’s a never-ending cycle of stupidity, in my opinion.”

That was rather what Luca had told him, but Noe had hoped for some glimmer, some chance he might be wrong. If even Elsbet held this opinion… “Then they won’t accept our engagement.”

“No. I don’t think they will. In all honesty, I think Luca chose to pursue men to begin with for two reasons. The most prominent being he saw what an amazing marriage his two friends have and wanted the same. Ren and Arman Brahms were his goal.”

Noe could absolutely see that. After all, having a marriage like theirs was his personal goal as well.

“Second, I think he was desperate for some kind of partner who could help him run the fortress. He didn’t want to die unmarried and childless and leave his lands up to the whims of fate. He’s seen firsthand what happens to the territories that don’t have a governing family. He doesn’t want that for his own people.”

That much, Noe knew. Luca had been frank enough about it. “I understand. So it’s not like he thought his parents would agree to this, more that he didn’t know what else to try.”

“Basically.” Elsbet raised her eyes to look at him, expression one of compassion. “You’re going to have an uphill battle on your hands if you stay with him, Noe. But I can promise you this, Luca will have your back every step of the way.”

“I know. I just hope it won’t come down to a fight.”

“Wishful thinking.”

Noe couldn’t bring himself to tell her he secretly feared what would happen if Luca’s parents refused to accept him. If Noe couldn’t enter their territory, couldn’t help Luca run it as promised, then there was no point in them being married. If push came to shove, if Luca couldn’t win the argument, then…they’d likely break apart. Just the thought pained Noe, like a hot poker twisting in his heart. He feared losing Luca more than anything else.

He didn’t think Luca would give up on them easily. The man had fought too hard to even have them engaged to begin with. They’d talked about this. They had a game plan of what to do if Luca’s parents couldn’t accept Noe. Still, the fear ate at him. If, at the end of the day, Luca risked losing it all, what other choice would he have but to let Noe go?

Elsbet lightly bumped elbows with him. “Hey, don’t make that face. Luca’s not going to fold just because his parents frown at him. Man’s a general, a strategist. He’ll find a way around them. He normally does, really.”

Noe dragged a smile onto his face and buried his fear down deep so it wouldn’t show. “Thanks.”

“I mean it, Noe. You’re literally the first and only person he’s ever even courted. Or wanted to court. The fact he proposed to you is more of a landmark moment than you realize.”

“Seriously?”

“Every other person he went on a date with, it was only one date. There was never a second one. You are the only person Luca’s chosen to be with. Take it like a badge of honor and pride, my man.”

“Well, put like that, how can I do otherwise?” Her words did puff his chest out a little, no lie.

“He will let go of you with his dying breath and not before,” Elsbet opined with a wink. “Mark my words. So don’t stress about something that hasn’t even happened yet, hmm?”

“You make a good point. Thank you, I’ll try not to.”

“Now.” Elsbet rose to cross over to the door, peeking her head out into the hallway. “Where are all the students? Surely lunch doesn’t take this long.”

“Apparently it does. Or are you just wondering where Nathan is?”

She snickered and didn’t deny it. “I must say, Scovia sure knows how to export.”

Noe laughed heartily, then regretted it because ribs. Oww. “Other way around, from my view. Have you two gone on a date yet?”

“Two nights ago, actually, and we have another date set up for tonight.” Elsbet’s tone turned wistful. “He’s such a sweet man. I like the way he looks, no mistake, but I agreed to a second date because he’s very kind. Not to mention smart. He’s absorbing Shiirein like it’s a native tongue.”

“He is doing very well with it.”

Elsbet’s tone turned a touch bitter. “Men get chances like these.”

“What do you mean?”

“Education wise. They get to sign up for programs like this one and learn.”

Noe didn’t like what he was hearing. “Do you mean you never got a chance to be formally educated?”

“No. Women in Bhodhsa are meant for hearth and home, nothing else.”

Noe made a note then and there to impress upon Luca that any girls in their territory would have equal education with the men. There would be hell to pay otherwise because he would not stand for this ignorance.

Right now, though, Noe felt he had a beautiful chance to right a wrong. “Want to be an engineer, El?”

Her head whipped around, jaw dropping as if he’d just offered her the moon on a silver platter. “Will you teach me?”

“I will.” He pointed to the first desk in the row. “Sit and learn with everyone else. I have to start with the basics with this group anyway, so it’s the perfect chance to learn. Stick with me for a year, prove you’ve got the fundamentals down, and I’ll sign off on your certification, too. You’ll be licensed and able to work anywhere.”

She lit up with a joy so intense, the sun would complain about being upstaged. “I’ll be your most dedicated student.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.”

Elsbet bounced to him and carefully squeezed him around the shoulders, her joy infectious. Then she practically leapt into the seat. “What’s my first lesson? Quick, I want a leg up before the rest of those slowpokes get here.”

Noe loved her enthusiasm, so he shrugged and thought, why not? “First lesson. You can never overbuild anything. Nine times out of ten, if a structure has a problem, it’s because it wasn’t built well. Someone took a shortcut somewhere they shouldn’t have, and it’ll take twice as much money and time to pull something apart only to rebuild it. If the thought of good enough comes to mind, that’s when you know you need to do a bit extra.”

“Good rule of thumb,” she agreed, jotting it down.

“Second tip I’ll give you is, what we’re building right now isn’t something you get to build every day. Mizuno Harbor has a unique geographical layout. It’s why we had initial plans that had to be altered—twice—to account for the land, the weather, and the demands of the people using it. If you’re smart, you’ll copy those plans and then dissect why we are building it the way we are. It’ll give you an insight the next time you have to build, say, a bridge. Or any other structure that has a spanned walkway.”

“Is it really so odd, this fortress?”

“I’ve never seen or heard of the like. Now’s a good time to see the base structure, too, before the masonry starts going up tomorrow. You can see the footers, how they were poured and built, the beams, all of that. In a few months, most of it will be covered.”

“Ah. I’ll make sure to take lots of notes and drawings, then.”

A clatter from the hallway alerted them students were now arriving. Noe carefully rose to greet them, ushering people in. He saw Elsbet brace herself, as if expecting someone to question her presence, but no one did. Then again, most of them were Scovians, who were used to women being right alongside them in the classroom and workforce. People greeted her, exchanged names, and that was all. The Shiireins gave her a second glance but were too polite to call anyone on it. The Bhodhsan students recognized her and apparently chose not to challenge a noble lady on where she wanted to be.

Pleased, Noe let them all settle before bringing the class to order.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Noe Keller, the lead structural engineer for the fortress project. Part of the reason why I’m teaching all of you is because of that, other part is because I suffered an injury last week and am not very mobile, as you can see. Elsbet has kindly agreed to be my assistant for this class, so do cooperate with her. Now, I’m going to teach you about architecture and structural design from the ground up. In front of you are basic tools for designing. I’ll have you design a single-room building in this class. Now, that said, what’s the first thing you must consider when building anything?”

A hand shot up in the back row. “Materials?”

“That’s certainly one element, yes. What else?”

Elsbet had been given a hint earlier, so she raised a hand and offered, “Footers?”

“Footers.” He gave her a quick, proud smile. She was already absorbing information. “The base of the structure is what gives it strength. I’ve seen many a building collapse because no one did the foundation right. That said, there’s two things you must think of when you put the base foundation in. First is geography. Second is the weather patterns of the area. The colder the climate, the deeper you have to go into the ground, as the frost level is different for every area. If you don’t go deep enough, those footers will be ejected from the ground, and I invite you to imagine how that’s going to impact your house.”

Several people winced, so they could apparently imagine it just fine.

“Now, as I said, you also have to consider geography. Are you in rocky soil? Sandy? Wetlands? How does this impact your footers? Let’s use some basic common sense here. You, Tamlin, if you’re building in wetlands, what kind of footer and foundation do you want to build?”

“Uhh…” The man thought hard, scratching his cheek before offering, “If it’s wetlands, I’d not want my foundation on the ground at all.”

“Why?”

“Well, flooding issues, to start with.”

“Excellent answer. Plus the soil is loose, right? There’s nothing solid to build on.”

“Right,” his student agreed. “So, wouldn’t you dig deep as you can, put in posts, and then build a foot or so off the ground?”

“That’s precisely what you’d do. Did anyone get a chance to look at the footers of the fortress that we built in here? Yes? All right, do you know how deep those go and why we went as deep as we did?”

Noe carried on asking questions, throwing them information when they floundered, forcing them to think in engineering terms. More than simply learning rote information, he needed to train them how to think. How to look at an area, gauge the environment, and adjust plans accordingly—vital for anyone who built anything. From the way this group responded, he had some good minds here, and they’d all likely become good architects and engineers in the future.

A year from now, at the end of the program, hopefully he’d be able to sign a certification for them all. Elsbet included.

The program may have been off to a rough start, but it was looking up already.