"Windows," Taylor declared, pointing at the castle's arrow slits. "They are holes in the wall. They let in drafts, bugs, and assassins. We need Glass."
"Glass?" Luna tilted her head. "You mean the cloudy yellow stuff they use in churches to hide God from the poor?"
"No," Taylor sighed. "I mean Float Glass. Perfectly clear. Distortion-free. Invisible barriers that keep the heat in and the birds out."
[System Message: Float Glass requires a bath of molten tin at 1000°C. You have a wood fire and a pot of soup. Good luck, Edison.]
"We will improvise!" Taylor shouted at the air. "We will use the Crown Method! We spin the molten glass until it flattens into a disk! Centrifugal force is free!"
***
[The Blowing Session]
The makeshift glassworks was hot. Hotter than the kitchen. Hotter than the forge.
"We need lung capacity," Taylor explained, holding a long iron blowpipe. "We gather the molten silica, and we blow until it forms a bubble."
"Blowing?" Ria perked up. She was currently cooking an egg on a hot rock nearby.
Ria walked over, wiping ash from her cheek. She took the pipe from Taylor.
"My lungs are iron," Ria bragged. "I once blew out a forest fire because the smoke was ruining my soufflé. Watch."
Ria dipped the pipe into the furnace. She gathered a glowing glob of orange goo.
She put her lips to the pipe.
"Hmph!"
Ria didn't just blow. She *blasted*.
*WHOOSH.*
The glass bubble didn't just expand. It shot out of the end of the pipe like a cannonball, stretching into a ten-foot-long, thin glass noodle that whipped around the room.
"Too much power!" Taylor screamed, ducking as the hot glass noodle slashed through the air.
"It is... long," Ria marveled, staring at the glass snake. She looked at Taylor with half-lidded eyes. "I have excellent control, My Angel. I can handle big pipes."
[System Message: Subtlety: -100. We get it. You're horny. Can we make a window now?]
"Violet! Restrain the Chef!"
Violet stepped out of the shadows. She didn't restrain Ria. She stared at the cooling glass noodle.
"It's sharp," Violet whispered, tapping the jagged end. "Can I stab people with it?"
"No stabbing! We are making windows!"
***
[The Mirror Maze]
Hours later, after much trial, error, and one minor explosion, they managed to produce a few sheets of relatively clear glass.
To test the clarity, Taylor coated the back of one sheet with silver nitrate.
A Mirror.
"Perfect reflection," Taylor beamed, adjusting her hair in the glass. "No distortion. Science wins."
"Captain!" Ren shouted, walking into the room. "I heard breaking glass. Are we under attack?"
Ren stopped.
He saw the mirror standing in the middle of the room.
He saw himself in the mirror.
Ren's eyes widened. He grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"You..." Ren growled at his reflection. "You have the same face as me. Are you an imposter? Or my evil twin?"
He took a step left. The reflection took a step left.
"He mocks me!" Ren roared. "He matches my footwork! His stance... it is flawless!"
"Ren," Taylor sighed. "It's a mirror."
"A mirror?" Ren scoffed. "Impossible. I am much more handsome than that rugged ronin."
Ren charged.
"One Sword Style: Mirror Breaker!"
*CRASH.*
Ren headbutted the glass.
The mirror shattered into a thousand pieces.
Ren stood there, bleeding slightly from the forehead, looking triumphant.
"I won," Ren declared. "He shattered into nothingness. But he was a worthy opponent."
"That was a week's worth of silica," Taylor wept into her hands.
***
[The Critic Arrives]
Just as Taylor was sweeping up the shards of her hard work, a messenger arrived.
It was a small, walking rosebush (a cousin of Steve?). It held a letter in its thorny branches.
> To the Girl Who Hates Mystery
>
> I saw smoke. Are you burning coal? How pedestrian.
>
> I hear you are making "Clear Glass." Why? Why do you want to see the world as it is? The world is ugly. The world is boring.
>
> True Art obscures. True Art filters. I want Stained Glass. I want windows that turn the sun into purple bruises and red wounds.
>
> If I see one clear window in my castle... I will shatter it with a rock. And then I will shatter you.
>
> — Valerius
Taylor crumpled the letter.
"He wants to block the sun," Taylor hissed. "He wants us to live in a kaleidoscope."
She looked at the shattered mirror shards on the floor.
"Violet," Taylor said. "Pick up the sharpest piece."
Violet instantly obeyed, picking up a dagger-shaped shard of glass. She licked the edge, cutting her tongue slightly. She didn't flinch.
"Yes, Big Sister?"
"We're going to make Stained Glass," Taylor grinned, a dark, engineering glint in her eyes. "But we're not using paint. We're using **Polarized Filters**."
"Polar-what?" Luna asked.
"We're going to make windows that look clear..." Taylor explained, "...until he puts on his glasses. Then, they'll turn pitch black."
[System Message: Inventing Polarized Lenses in the Middle Ages? You are ambitious. But I like the pettiness. Proceed.]
[Ding!]
[Quest Updated: The War of Light]
[New Objective: Blind the Fashionista with Science.]
Taylor looked at Ren, who was currently apologizing to a piece of broken glass for killing it.
"Ren, you owe me a window."
"I will find one," Ren promised. "I will go to the Glass Mountains."
He walked into the closet.
"Ren, that's the broom closet."
"It is a shortcut."
---