Zachary sat at his workbench and tried to get into making something. That normally consumed his thoughts, but now that his mind was troubled he just couldn't get into it. When he saw his hands he still saw the blood of the man, even though he had washed them clean. And he realised that any project he worked on would be purposeless. All devices which would be of use to him he had already made.

He looked through his gadgets and machines. Using a lightning core he had made an arc welder. To create a plasma cutter he had used a fire core in conjunction with a wind core to stoke it. More for fun than function he had used polarity cores harvested from the skyways to create a coil-gun. He had created flares which could be launched by said coil-gun (or by any other suitable means) which used light cores, although it could be adapted to use lightning cores. He had assembled many tools which were mechanical in nature, not based on cores, to help him make more complex machines. And of course he had his wind cannon and kinetic shield.

In the making of these machines he had taught himself new skills, and salvaged books from the ruins of the university library. One of those skills was core cutting. To change the function (not the element) of a core, one generally has to change its shape. Cutting a larger core into smaller cores is also a useful application. Of course, it is tricky, but with a bit of research he had been able to get it right most of the time. Another skill, one which he had been interested in since his conversation with Thanar Zey just before the cataclysm, was identifying resonance. He knew there was very little literature on the subject, otherwise he would have come across it earlier, and he had lost all he had had on hand when the Void gate opened including the plans for the resonance detector Thanar had given him, so he had to figure it out by trial and error. This was where Kaa'is' machine reading ability proved invaluable. Zachary had made random arrangements of cores, applied a very low voltage so they would be running minimally so they would resonate, and then adjusted them until he found a peak in output. Eventually he learned enough about resonance that he could tell how well cores are resonating by reading the machine. He had been very happy about that.

But now Zachary was unhappy and confused, and Kaa'is was getting restless because of it. His joke had passed, and now he just felt that they were wasting time. He needed to get Zachary out and about before he got stuck in a depressive rut. He thought about what he could make Zachary do that would be mutually beneficial. Eventually an idea struck him. [b][i]OK, Zachary, you've spent long enough moping. Time to get out and about,[/i][/b] Kaa'is said.

Zachary, however, was reluctant. "What, so you can... murder another person?"

[b][i]Nothing of the sort,[/i][/b] Kaa'is quickly responded, [b][i]Actually, I had come up with another project. We're going to take a look at the Wall.[/i][/b] This perked Zachary's interest. The Wall was an incredible feat of engineering, and its functioning was a mystery. Not only that, but it was the Wall that was keeping everyone in and giving the military suppressive control. Zachary didn't need more convincing, for now he wanted to see it himself. Equipping himself with food, water, his kinetic shield and his wind cannon, Zachary exited his shelter and set off towards the Wall.