The village clock tower has been built in the centre of the village on the north side of the bridge over the creek to the water wheels, and is clearly visible from most of the village and valley. It's just a fairly simple square tower with 6 meter wide sides at the bottom, tapering in as it raises to 4 meter sides at the top, and it's 15 meters high to the top of the pointed roof which is crowned by a horizontal wind turbine that add a few more meters. I would prefer that it wouldn't need the 'ugly' wind turbine, and I'd rather have a wind vane, but the wind turbine is needed, and acts as a wind vane. The top of that wind turbine actually has another thin mast with a fairly discreet lightning rod that pokes up and hopefully divert any lightning strike down on one side of the tower into the moist ground by the creek and a few meters from the inlet to the water filter. The lightning rod shouldn't actually be needed as the trees on the surrounding hills are about 30 meters higher, but it seemed foolish not to install it. Hidden in the top of the roof and in the wind turbine's scaffolding is the prototype siren, and just below it are the bells so that their sound is minimally muted. In the roof space under the bells and in the top of the clock tower itself, is the 6 cubic meter water tank which makes it function as a water tower, followed by the clock face on the wall below. The tower is in wood, but the bottom 3-4 meters of the bell tower will have brick walls when the weather is better to lay those bricks, but the rest is wood and will probably stay so. The sawmill produce planks as fast as they can, but the workers have not had time to clad the outer sides of the tower, nor have they built the open public pavilion beside the clock tower. The pavilion will basically look like Thrymheim's pavilion and will be the village's future meeting place and communal place. I intend there to be a pretty little town square in front of the tower and facing the lake, so of course the tower and pavilion will get a lot of nice decorations, but when there is time for that work.

The clock tower will get tall narrow glass windows to bring in light, because even though I don't intend anyone to be in the clock tower except to do maintenance, light is needed for maintenance, and those windows will have matching decorations and small protruding roofs above the windows, just to make the bell tower more beautiful. A small issue with my plan that no one will be in the clock tower, is somewhat sabotaged by the design and the height, because there will be four floors under the clock mechanisms, totalling about 90 square meters, and that is quite a lot of space to not use. But there are important mechanisms and technology in the tower that I don't want just anyone to have access to and that should be protected, which is why the lower part will have brick walls. So to use that space, the clock tower will also house the village's future telephone switches etc, which also makes it easy to install a future telegraph or telephone in the tower to synchronise distant clocks. I've tasked the bodyguards to take care of everything in the clock tower, and the door will be securely locked, and if I can, also with an alarm. There will be another locked door to reach the clock mechanism or higher.

The clockwork and bell striking mechanism has already been hoisted and roughly placed in the clock tower, so it's just for me to install it together with Iselin, Kari, Alith and Bodil, although Kari mostly supervises the work and hands us stuff. There's not much space in some of the tower's floor and some things are secret. Of course the water tank needed to be high up, but we utilise the height of the tower for things like the clockwork and the weights of the bell striking mechanism, which are much heavier than for the clockwork and fall all the way down. But it's needed because everything is upsized and there are bigger forces at work. This clock movement will need a lot more adjustment because this clock isn't in a temperature regulated space inside a house, but an 'outdoor' space, and I expect there will be problems with humid air and cold, and friction will be a bigger issue as more fine particles and dust move in the air. I am not looking forward to this springs pollen season. The clock mechanism will be covered by a large wooden cover, with leather gaskets for the grommets, but fine particles will find their way in, and there need to be grease at certain spots. At least most of the mechanism is in brass so it shouldn't rust as iron would.

The wind turbine itself and the water pumping it powers won't be finished today, or the connection to the water pipes, but we can test other stuff like the bells. So we will send volunteers to different places on the island to listen if they can hear the bells when they strike and count the strokes, and to check how far away the hour hand is visible. Each dial is 2.5 meters in diameter and has wide black hands against a white background to make them extra visible from a distance. The two bells in the striking mechanism are not very big or loud, but for a prototype it works good enough. Each stroke is two bells with slightly different tone so there is a distinctive ding-ding sound followed by a pause until the next ding-ding. In order not to disturb people's sleep, there is a blocking mechanism installed so that the bells will not strike between 21:00 and 05:00, but we have announced that I want people's opinions on those times and it is possible to adapt. It's no more difficult than moving the blocking plates.

There is a rope to pull on the outside to ring a special sounding alarm bell by hand, but no one should use it except in an emergency where fire is the primary reason, and when people hear it they should try to check for fire smoke and help with the firefighting. I will be very strict about this, and in future equip the clock tower with a larger bell for fire alarms that have a lower tone. Close to the rope, there is also a trigger handle for the siren. The siren at the top is built as a classic rotating air raid siren, with two rotors of 7 and 11 holes respectively, but mounted vertically, and the siren's stator has horns that direct the sound upwards and 'amplify' the sound as much as it can, while the air to the rotor is taken in between the horns. The top of the siren has a horn like reflector that slowly rotates around via a worm gear, so for each revolution the reflector makes, the rotor has made 60 revolutions.

I would have liked to have that rising and falling sound that a real air raid siren has, but it's harder to do purely mechanically, so the fact that the siren's outlet horn rotates means that the perceived volume of the sound varies at the listeners location, while also reaching further away as it is focused in one direction. This type of rotor siren draws so much energy, and I wanted it to be reliable, so the siren is a completely weight driven mechanism with a large heavy weight in the clock tower that just slowly falls, and once the siren is started it will sound until the weight reaches a stop or bottom, but a signal should last 1.5 to 2 minutes. The siren is only to be used for warning of an enemy attack or similar 'shit hit the fan' situations, so if the residents hear the signal they should get ready for battle and defend their homes and households, or stay together indoors if they are in the village etc. It would be good to have a phone systems to all major farms and important buildings to spread information quickly, and I should implement a 'meeting call system' where several important telephones can get the information at once.

I have been working on a remote triggering of both the alarm bell and the siren via telegraph wires, partly because the plan is to do a network of sirens across the islands, with triggering from several places. Using an electromagnet, it's not that hard with remote triggering of the siren mechanism or the alarm bell, which has identical remote triggers, but the siren can be triggered three times, while the alarm bell six times. I would like to make an 'all clear' signal, but I want to think about how it will work.

So we send people out to see how far they can tell the time, and listen for the bells and then the sound of the siren, and spread the word about what that sounds is, because in our low power tests at the mansion, many thought it sounded like some roaring pissed off monster. Everyone has heard a bell ringing before or similar metallic sounds, but the sirens sound is something completely different, and to fuel the islands' reputation for strange things happening here, we won't say how the sound is made so that people respect the clock tower and stay the fuck out of it.

When those we sent out return, many more have gathered below the clock tower and most seem to believe I have trapped some spirit or entity up there. It bothers me to lie and say that everyone likes somewhere nice to live, and 'the rent' is just to roar to warn of danger, so do not disturb the spirit unless needed. It's possible to 'wake the spirit' with the handle since it's not really smart and might miss dangerous things, and I let Iselin trigger the siren once more. Definitely a distinctive sound that cuts through quite a lot of other everyday sounds, and it just goes on and on. Bodil is going to make a small hand-cranked model with just one rotor for people to try, though, because a small siren with interchangeable rotors will be a pretty good sound experiment at the Academy, and it will sound different so I can pretend it is a way to mimicking the sound. The Elves already have various other ways of mimicking bird and animal calls, so it will certainly be accepted, especially if I combine it with other sound-making mechanisms.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

In order for everyone to learn to recognise the 'warning roar' and for us to be able to test that the mechanism is reliable, it will be tested every other Saturday at 12'o clock at noon, because Saturday is when people wash and clean themselves and their household. All passing ships and guests who will not have heard a sound like this before, will certainly fuel more rumours about the Furstedom. There will at least be a siren installed in the future clock tower of Large Ackerek, and I should probably put one under the roof of Thrymheim too, because the sound on that side of the mountain and in the strait is low and the steam siren is weak. A siren is not that much work or difficult to make, and I only do some of the work myself which I need to since it must be confidential. Basically everyone that needs to know, already do so. Connecting the sirens in an electric network, so when one start, they all start, will just reinforce in peoples mind, that when one spirit starts to roar, they all starts to roar.

Haera is very fascinated by the clock tower, but it is most entertaining to see the reaction of the construction teams from Kari's property. In addition to a simpler clock tower without a siren and such, her large property will have a couple of waterwheel powered workshops with a sawmill, carpentry, wood splitting, a simplified blacksmith's workshop, a mill, a stamp mill and probably in the future some electricity production. Kari's construction team has had so many new things to learn. The sawmill and its production of planks and square posts makes such a difference in how quickly something can be built, if that which is to be built is designed to utilise it.

I finished building the small unit that contains the DSLR camera flash, and have used the wooden block that matches the other wooden parts of my Boomstick, so it looks pretty good and blends in with the Boomstick. I have also hidden the button and on-off switch under wooden tops so they don't stand out. It will be fun to test this on my training Boomstick and see if it allows me to surprise Alith and Gunhild enough in combat practise, to get a 'killing blow'. As expected, I'm losing way more than I'm winning against them, and I'm so glad for the training shields and protective equipment that we have, but maybe this can give me a couple of wins. After all, it's mainly about surprising-distracting-scaring someone who has never experienced a camera flash before.

I don't train that much, but there is so much training going on right now by others, but some will always be way better.

I now know that Agnes and Ryla's daily routine for many years has been exercise for at least a couple of hours, six days a week, and they are enthusiastic about all the new exercise and training they get here. Each day starts with running, then flexibility and strength training, then combat training, followed by music, dancing and other activities, which now include such as reading-writing-counting or just sketching. The bodyguards like to practise fighting Ryla, because she clearly prefers two weapons, and preferably her sai or a wooden staff, and with her acrobatics, flexibility and above-average height and body strength, it makes her a very different fighter to fight. She has apparently won far too many times. Then there is her skill in unarmed combat, which is equally devastating. But it's good training, although Alith really doesn't like being so outclassed. Jane has tried to teach some Krav Maga and practised fighting with Ryla, and according to Jane, Ryla is so different from what she expected and Elvish medieval woman to be, but "a totally awesome badass!"

According to Jane, Heimir Ryla and Agnes fight more like a more modern human in Midgård than how the other bodyguards move and fight, even after training with Jane, and certainly how Raneigh fights. Heimir, Agnes and Ryla are shin kicks, heel kicks, knee, elbow, and fist strikes, as well as grappling or leg and arm locks to force you to surrender, and Ryla and Agnes combined that with acrobatics. Jane likens it in part to Mauy Thai and mixed martial arts. Ryla is damn hard to fight, and all the bodyguards appreciate the padded leather body armour, the helmets and mouthguards, and the way the training is done. Heimir likes better training equipment and that better protection makes for better training, while being safer, and more training can be done, and more effectively. In the end, the bodyguards genuinely like training with and against Heimir, Ryla and Agnes, and they learn and adopt movements, attacks and holds.

Ryla and Agnes have continued to live in the village and officially they are acrobats, musicians, dancers and fire performers. From what Ryla and Agnes have said, and others like Shakini and Elin, Radgeirrson seems to have been quite possessive of them, although apparently he didn't have much sex with Ryla, which sounds strange and untrue. Like, why wouldn't he? But I don't think they're lying to me about that. They have said he wanted his wife Aldis to appreciate Agnes and Ryla in many ways, which she did with Agnes, but he would not allow any other man to have sex with them in any way, and didn't like it if they even caressed another man, or were caressed. They were his and for his pleasure only. Which makes it strange that he didn't have much sex with Ryla.

Ryla and Agnes clearly want to show me their sexual prowess, and somewhat ironically, Iselin and Kari doesn't really see it as much of an issue, in large part because they can't have children. They are good looking, and especially Ryla whos body and breasts are magnificent, is admittedly beautiful, but I feel no sexual desire for either Ryla or Agnes. Iselin is interested in sex with Ryla and Agnes because of their acrobatic flexibility, and Ryla is also tall, muscular and with big breasts. Thankfully, Iselin is adamant that it must 'feel right' for all parties during sex and not coercive for anyone, which isn't strange considering her old life before she met me. Iselin also believes that I should have sex with Ryla or Agnes before her. Iselin also doesn't want to be associated with Radgeirrson's wife Aldis, although it only seems to have been one-sided that Agnes satisfied 'Mrs Aldis'. Iselin will not be the same, as like me and Caecilia, she loves to go down on the right woman and caress her body and finger her, so no wonder she and Caecilia spend time together. Those first 'after-threesome sex philosophical talks' with Iselin and Caecila, when they wondered why they as women like licking and tasting another woman's pussy and not just my dick, were weird and awkward, but now I've gotten quite used to stuff like that.

When it comes to Ryla and Agnes, we think they actually enjoyed feeling valuable and exclusive to a powerful man, but they've known since the beginning that I'm not that possessive about them, even though I appreciate their skills in many areas. They know they can have sex with other men or women if they just ask first, but they really want to please me and just be mine. Like they want to prove themselves so that I might become possessive of them too. They have sworn their lives to serve me, so I will have sex with them to try to cement their loyalty. Which feels incredibly backwards and awkward. Especially since I have to balance having sex with them, not being more often than say with Alith, but still making them feel appreciated. The question is whether they even appreciate me going down on them, because it was Radgeirrson who indoctrinated them. He's the only man they've ever had sex with. But I don't want to be associated with Radgeirrson and remind them of him and their training. All of this is the reason I pushed it to a future problem, so sex won't be happening any time soon.

While Ciara hums where she sits and engraves brass next to the lens machine oscillating away, I work on a better arc lamp mechanism and help Iselin who does most of the work on the kinetic glass marble machine. Its lifting mechanism is completely finished and she/we are working on ball tracks etc. When Ciara is satisfied, we will assemble the calipers and dial indicators. Then Iselin and Ciara will probably start working on a long slide rule. Iselin and Kari are curious about slide rules of different design and function, and it is easier to start on a long one and get it right and learn how to use it, before shortening it which require finer more precise markings.

Jane thinks 'John Wick' is okay and cool, and she likes a good action movie, even if her taste in movies is different from mine. She likes the hints of backstory and world building with the gold coins etc. She thinks Jimmy the Cop has to be one of the smartest cops in cinema history, and I agree with his common sense, as he clearly know that Wick is a killer but with standards and was just defending himself from intruding killers, and wouldn't just kill an innocent. She comments that I have some of the music as MP3 files, and now their titles makes sense.

I enjoy holding and cuddling Jane who is curled up and leaning on me, feed her some biscuits while she drinks some wine and I ginger cider, and for a couple of hours we can forget about our new reality. Mostly. It feels more 'Midgård' when the two of us spend time together like this, and preparing for bed by going to the loo and brushing our teeth in my mini toilet, all while comfortably talking about everyday modern stuff, and then crawling into bed together. I know Jane really loves being able to just turn off the electric bedside lights which makes it that bit more modern. A bit more Midgård. We could have been in some kind of mountain or holiday cottage. It's something we both really like, to feel that our life at that moment is not so different.

I'm so glad that Jane has become my 'Älskarinna', and our relationship seems to be working even though it hasn't been long yet and is 'complicated'. It's just a shame I can't let her be my only woman, but they all deserve that. It's nice to be able to kiss her goodnight, switch off the light and feel her press her back against me. And that she takes my hand and give it a soft kiss, before placing my arm around her stomach.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.