Technomancer: Genesis - 98 Wave Pattern

Ezra lifted his hand involuntarily, yet he was at a loss right now. He should not act rashly he didn’t know to what extent the Emperor would take offense. Just when he thought he curbed Hestia’s temperament. Of course, you couldn’t change a person in a day, it took iterative steps.

Aerwyna suddenly entered the room. Aerwyna’s duties were finished and she wanted to check up on Ezra and Hestia, upon inquiry she found out that they went to Ezra’s lab. She brought some food and planned that dinner would be served in the lab after Ezra was finished with the tour.

“Then I shall take the lashings in her stead,” she said calmly.

Hygiea’s eyes widened. She had mixed feelings. She was full of gratitude but she couldn’t bear that the lady suffer in her stead. After all she was in the wrong as well, she did talk back contemptuously to a noble and that crime was punishable.

“Milady, NO, I am in the wrong, I wil-” Hygeia stopped as Aerwyna raised her hand.

Hestia’s mischievous look disappeared, as she snapped to realization.

“Milady, I-I,” stuttered Hestia.

“So when shall these lashings commence?” Aerwyna asked with her nose held high.

Aerwyna saw everything, she knew that Hestia became jealous of Hygiea. It was too much of a burden on her son to decide what to do so she took the burden herself. If Ezra volunteered for the lashings Hestia would just become angrier since he was protecting Hygiea.

‘A woman’s heart is so terrible.’ Aerwyna sighed inwardly,’ looks like the princess has truly fallen for my son.’

“They shall take place in the square tomorrow at mid-afternoon,” Erela replied arrogantly. This was met by Aerwyna’s cold stare.

“No, it will not happen. I was just jesting.” Hestia bit her lip. ‘Oh, what have I done,’ Hestia thought. ‘Ezra will hate me for this, it was just that Ezra looked genuinely happy when looking at Hygiea.’

“We shouldn’t jest about things like that your Highness,” Aerwyna said sweetly.

“Yes, it will not happen in the future,” Hestia nodded curtly.

Erela’s lips curled, she was not happy at the turn of events.

Aerwyna looked at Hygeia who was still bowing. “For showing contemptuous behaviour to a noble, you shall do servile work for a month, you are not to be seen in the premises of the lab, understand?”

“Yes, milady. I shall wait for you in the castle.” Hygeia exited the lab and proceeded to depart the building.

Ezra rubbed his temples, ‘Oh damnit, looks like research will be delayed for a month. That piece of news was gold. I was ecstatic when she told me her findings.’

“Where else shall we go?” Hestia turned to Ezra. Her cheeks flushed white from embarrassment. ‘I hope he doesn’t notice that I did that because I was jealous.’

“We are going to the magical research lab next, that is just up one more floor.” Ezra was quite pensive and he didn’t say anything as they went up. However, Aerwyna was chatting along with Hestia to keep her entertained.

Hestia obliged but she was distracting herself and just hoped that Ezra didn’t notice her jealousy.

“We are here,” Ezra declared as Rycharde and Evered opened the double doors.

A man in his twenties and two children about the age of thirteen bowed before them. “That is my lead magical researcher, Aegeus, this department was actually made just six months ago. His stewards are Aeneas and Ajax.”

“Your Highness,” the three chanted in unison.

The room was spacious. It was vastly different from the labs that Hestia had seen in the building, there were cupboards that were a foot in width and length. On another wall, it was labelled Crystals the other were cores. It seemed that the cores and crystals were segregated in colours and classified by effects. There were some empty cupboards that Hestia assumed were for crystals or cores Ezra hadn’t found yet.

“What’s that?” Hestia asked as she pointed at the big box. It seemed to have an eyepiece.

“Oh that, it’s an old experiment. That I used to make sure if the nature of light was still the same as. . ” Ezra shivered involuntarily, he was supposed to say earth. “I mean if the nature of light was a wave or a particle.”

Hestia tilted her head.

“Is that the double slit experiment you told mother about Ezra?” asked Aerwyna as she pinched his cheeks.

Hestia was slightly envious she missed her father who would dote on her like that as well.

“Why don’t you show Hestia?” asked Aerwyna.

“Very well, Aegeus, prepare the basin.”

Hestia was bewildered at this statement.

“Now come closer Hestia,” Ezra beckoned.

Her heart was pounding so hard as she moved closer toward Ezra. She tried her best to ignore and not to show it.

“See there? That is a light source.”

Hestia nodded.

“Now there are two cards here there are two very tiny opening here. What do you think would happen if light were to pass on these two slits?”

Hestia was now uncomfortably close to Ezra. Her face was flushing red.

Aerwyna saw this and chuckled inwardly.

“Well uh, the light would go through those two spots and shine through the two slits perfectly?”

“Well, have a look,” Ezra gestured.

What Hestia saw was not two well-defined clumps of light but what happened was many tiny spots and it looked like that it was even more focused in the middle.

“What does that mean?” Hestia asked as she peered into it again.

“Aegeus, the basin please.”

“This is what is happening. Look.” Ezra made a gesture and bobbed his hand on the surface of the water. “You see Hestia, this is a wave,”

Hestia nodded.

“You see when I do this with a singular source, the wave is circular. However, when I add another wave, the second source of ripples, we start to see an interesting pattern. This pattern is created when the two sources interact with each other.”

“See that over there, that is exactly what you get when we shine the light on two slits. Basically, the waves interfere with each other.”

“Hmph,” Erela snorted.

Aerwyna eyed her angrily.

“So, light is a wave?” Hestia asked.

“Yes and no, but I’ll explain it to you next time. Anyway, we did this test to know the nature of magic and we did it with many such materials. We tried to project pure magic aura toward those two slits. That’s why that box is here.”

“Anyway, we discovered that magic aura goes through, all metals, rock, cement. I thought that magic aura went through all materials. But when we used wood and other organic materials, there was a wave pattern, in different varying degrees. And when we tried charcoal, the wave pattern was even more clearly defined.”

“Wow,” Hestia gasped.

“I don’t know what to do with this information but I think it will be useful in the future,”