Today Henry died.

He fell from the acolyte tower. The one over by the gardens. It’s a good 150 ft from where he slipped on the ice and went over the rail. The healers just shook their heads when they got there. Nothing to be done they said. Beyond our care.

—

I tried to wake Henry up in his room today before I remembered he was gone. His body is down in the morgue, being prepared takes 7 days before they can bury him. I can’t think straight, he was never gone before. Why is he gone now?

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Henry has been gone for a month. I was removed from the enchanting circle today. I couldn’t say the chat right. I kept having intrusive thoughts on how stupid it was that he died. Stupid ice. Stupid tower. They shouldn’t let the rails be so low. The ice should have been melted. I’m going to go talk to the arch-mage right now. Make sure that the right enchantments are placed and maintained. Forever.

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I have become consumed with Henry. Thoughts of him plague my sleep. I have to talk to him. He could always understand me. We were to grow old side by side. Our families were to intertwine. His daughter was to marry my son. My name was better he said.

I’m not supposed to study the dark works. They said you never got back what you put in. I don’t care. Henry will help me. Henry will come back. Henry…

—

I completed the ritual today. Henry lies next to me as I put a ward here, a token there. At midnight he will arise.

—

The stroke of midnight has just sounded. I watched Henry go from slack and unresponsive to alert and attentive. I rejoiced and said his name. Henry’s head snapped to my voice, but it wasn’t Henry that answered. What answered screamed and leapt from the table. It raked my face tearing an eye out. I…I ran from the room. I slammed the door behind me and now I strain to keep the door closed while Henry attempts to be with me once more.

In the documentaries they talk about complexity. Every little gizmo, servo, control board and gadget they include is doing double or triple duty. They all have redundant systems. It all adds up to a very complex machine. They do things like tilt the panels to shake dust off, but adding the complexity to clean the panels is super hard and, in the long run, not effective. In specific cleaning solar panels with a brush could degrade the panels faster than leaving them alone, theee aren’t the reinforced shatterproof panels on your roof. They are so light weight and delicate that even a brush could damage them. This is some of the balancing act they take each time they send a rover up. How long to get a return on investment so to speak and how long before it goes to sleep.