Closed [Dra-Kalinor Laboratory] A Wizard's Tools

[Michael Kyber]

89th Winter, 516AV

When it came to magic Michael was undeniably limited in his knowledge, and not just because he was still a novice to the arts. The only magic he knew fell into the category of personal magic, and though there were a few other applications for the forms he knew it was undeniable that his focus was on learning them for the immediate advantages in combat they could bring. His goal was to become a knight, and magic was to be his weapon.

Before he began his training under Thazz Michael's mindset had reflected this; magic was a tool much like a double edged sword, as long as you were careful with it you could use its power to defeat opponents in battle. It was a tool for combat and nothing more. However since he'd started to learn about magic properly from Thazz instead of the rushed initiation Rahn had given him Michael had started to realize that magic was so much more that he thought it was. Magic could be... beautiful. It could be used to create just as much as it could be used to destroy, it was up to the wielder how they wanted to use it.

It was for that reason that Michael had discussed with Thazz if it would be possible for him to study a form of world magic. He wanted to learn more about manipulating the latent magic of the world around him, and find a way to use magic to create something incredible rather than just destroy stuff. Thazz himself didn't know any types of world magic and so couldn't teach him anything, the study of such things held no interest to him, but he promised to recommend Michael to someone who could.

Which was why Michael now found himself deep in the underground lair of the Dra-Kalinor laboratory. Magecrafting was a form of world magic that allowed on to imbue object with extraordinary abilities, which sounded exactly like what Michael had in mind when he said he wanted to use magic to create, and it just so happened that Syliras employed one of the best Magecrafters of the age. Devandil Nightshade had a reputation for being as brilliant as he was curt, and a recommendation from Thazz was enough for Michael to be accepted as a apprentice at his laboratory, so long as Michael was able to keep up with the pace.

"Welcome Mr Kyber." A tall, dark skinned man in a blue robe said as he emerged from one of the rooms. "I'm Eugene Taurel, one of the senior apprentices at this laboratory. Master Nightshade is currently preoccupied with a project at the moment, so I'll be handling your introduction." He handed Michael a set of hooded blue robe similar to his own and pointed to a nearby room. "Correct gear should be worn in the laboratory at all times except in special circumstances, it can help reduce the chance of... unhappy accidents whilst working. You can leave your stuff in the lockers in the changing room over there."

As instructed Michael went into the changing room and emerged a couple of minutes later dressed in the blue robes. Eugene then gestured for him to follow him, and the two set off on their tour.

"Here at the laboratory we have everything you could need for professional magecrafting; tools, regents, and a treasure trove of books and reports on the study. Make no mistake about why you are here though; you are here to work, not to be taught. Master Nightshade and the rest of us are all very busy here fulfilling the demands of a military order and an entire city, we don't have time to hold your hand and walk you through everything. You'll learn what you pick up for yourself as you work, that's the deal. Are you clear on that?"

"Crystal clear." Michael replied, looking around at the undeniably sinister laboratory. "How many apprentices does Master Nightshade have?"

"Including you? Hmm... must be around the low thirties by now." Eugene hummed noncommittally. "It works very much like a pyramid scheme around here. Master Nightshade handles the more difficult projects with the assistance of the senior apprentices, and the senior apprentices handle the minor projects with the assistance of the normal apprentices. Honestly speaking you probably wont do any work with master Nightshade at all until you're at least good enough to be considered a competent magecrafter in your own right. If master Nightshade is free I'm sure he'd be answer any questions you may have, but people tend to find him rather... unapproachable if you know what I mean."

Michael nodded. "So until I'm good enough to help with the bigger projects what are the sort of little projects I'll be working on?"

"For complete novices like yourself we tend to have you learn the bare basics by making the equipment we use in projects. There's a number of lenses and tools that need just a tiny amount of magecrafting to be useful for working on other tools with, so by working on them you can learn what each bit of equipment does and get a grasp on how magecrafting works. If you're satisfied with this tour I can hand you over to one of the other apprentices now, and you can get started right away."

"I'd like that. I'm pretty excited to get started."

For the first time since they'd met Eugene's neutral expression broke, and a small smile graced his lips. "That's the right atitude to have. Well then, let's get started shall we?"

[Michael Kyber]

With the tour finished, Eugene led Michael to one of the smaller, plainer rooms at the back of the laboratory. There was little inside beside a stack of stone pedestals of all shapes and sizes and a sturdy looking table with a range of hammers and chisels.

"The first piece of equipment you need to familiarize yourself with is the cornerstone of a magecrafting laboratory, the pedestal." Eugene took one of the stone pedestals from the stack, a long, square shaped one with a round top slab made of white stone, and rolled it to the centre of the room. "The pedestal is what you'll place the item you're enchanting on during the process. Obviously you'll want to select a pedestal of the right size for the item you'r enchanting and at the right height for you to work on, but the main problem you'll need to worry about is how the pedestal will handle the constant fluctuations of djed. Using a tougher type of stone will of course be able to handle djed fluctuations better than weaker stone, but you can prepare a pedestal to make it more suitable for magecraft with this..."

Eugene took a roll of parchment out of a drawer in the table and unfolded it on top of the pedestal. Drawn on it was a large symbol that looked like a stylized 8-pointed star surrounded by a ring of other smaller symbols.

"What is that? Some kind of language?" Michael asked.

"This is what's called a gylph. Glyph's can be used to control and modify djed in a number of ways, allowing you to store, redirect, block and even combine spells. This particular glyph is used to catch wild djed that may offshoot from the enchanting process and dissipate it harmlessly. What I'm going to be having you do is carve this glyph into these pedestals; I'll help you with this first one, then I'll leave you to get on with the rest yourself."

"You want me to... carve this symbol on stone all day?" Michael asked, disappointment evident on his expression. "I thought I'd be... well, working with djed or something. I don't even know how to carve stone."

Eugene rolled his eyes. "Oh it's easy, you just keep scratching at it until it forms the symbol. And if you want to become a magecrafter you have to start at the bottom, which in this case means you're on pedestal carving duty. Now come on, I'll show you how it's done."

Taking a chisel from the table, Eugene scratched out the glyph on the top slab, and then used a hammer on it to go around the scratching again and carve the glyph thinly into the stone. As he worked, Eugene explained how the large star shaped symbol in the centre was called the focus, which was what absorbed the wayward djed, and how the smaller symbols forming a ring were called a barrier, which was the part which prevented the djed from leaving the confines of the glyph.

Once he was done he gestured for Michael to try. Resigning himself to a dull afternoon, Michael picked up a hammer and chisel himself and copied Eugene's movements. The scraping sounds of metal on stone made him want to wince, and the toughness of the stone made his hands feel sore, but after about a chime a rough copy of Eugene's earlier glyph was inscribed onto Michael's stone.

Eugene however did not seem impressed with Michael's copy. "No no no, that's not good enough. The space between the barrier sigils on the lower right side are too far apart, and the lines aren't straight enough at the top of the focus. If this were to be used the glyph would break far to quickly in the lower right corner, and if the magecrafter was standing there they'd be hit by a sudden blast of wild djed. That could prove fatal you know?" He threw the top slab into the corner, then picked up a fresh one from one of the stacks and brought it over to Michael. "Try again, and this time focus on making the glyph exactly the same as the one I made. Once you've finished copy it onto the rest of the slabs on this pile. I'll be back in a chime to check on your progress."

Michael looked at the pile Eugene had taken the slab from, and mentally groaned as he counted about a dozen others.

"Well, see you soon Michael." Eugene chuckled as he turned to leave. "And welcome again to the laboratory."

[Michael Kyber]

- 90th Winter, 516AV -

After yesterday's hellish work carving the glyph on the stone pedestals, Michael was feeling considerably less enthusiastic about coming back to the laboratory again. Nevertheless the next day he was back again after his lessons with Thazz to start work; whether he enjoyed the grunt work or not, the power of enchantment would be worth it in the end.

"This time I'll be showing you how to make the two main types of tools used in magecrafting; hammers and tongs." Eugene explained as he led him into another room of the lab, in which a large variety of hammers and tongs of all different shapes and sized were laid out across a workstation. "In order to enchant an item, a magecrafter hits it with tools specially charged with different levels of djed in order to alter the pathways of djed within the item without destorying the actual item. You can charge tool with djed in two ways. First of all there's a glyph you can make which will temporarily charge it with djed, but that method will only fill the tool with djed that wont replenish itself and won't last very long, so enchanters tend to use only when they have no other tools available or for charging water in a basin, which plays an important role in the magecrafting process that'll I'll explain later."

He took one of the hammers from the workbench and handed it to Michael. Unlike the other hammers this one seemed to hum slightly in his hands, though not physically as if it were vibrating. It was like it was gently shaking the water within his body.

"It's vibrating my djed?" Michael asked.

"Yep, it's been enchanted to permanently produce its own djed charge, which in turn we will use to enchant other works." Eugene replied. "What I'm going to show you now is how to use this hammer to enchant other hammers and tongs to make them suitable for magecrafting."

Eugene took one of the simple hammers and placed it on a pedestal that Michael recognized as one of the ones he carved yesterday. He took a glass lens from out of his robes and looked at the hammer through it, then gestured for Michael to come over and take a look as well.

Michael took the lens and peered at the hammer through it. To his fascination the hammer now had faint wisps of ghostly colours flowing off of it like smoke.

"I can see its aura. It's just like my auristics." Michael said.

"Oh, you can use auristics can you?" Eugene replied. "Well that makes this easier. Use it now to observe what I do to this hammer."

Michael focused within himself and called the djed up to his mind, synchronizing it with the hammer before him. In his vision the hammer began slightly translucent and started radiating wisps of ghostly colours, and as he focused more the colours became more clear and vibrant. Eugene swung the enchanted hammer down onto the normal one, and as the two hammers connected Michael watched with amazement as a pulse of djed sparked from the magical hammer into the normal one, warping the aura of the hammer as if it were metal folded by a blacksmith.

Eugene continued to hit the hammer at certain points, warping the way the djed in the hammer flowed with each hit. It was like placing dams in a river; by putting them in the right places one could alter how the river flowed. After only a few hits the djed in the hammer now flowed around inside of it faster, and the hammer seemed to vibrate with djed in much the same way as the enchanted hammer was.

Eugene then took the hammer he'd been working on and soaked it in a basis filled with water, which shone in Michael's vision with a higher charge of djed than water normally should. "Remember that glyph I told you about earlier? By carving it into a basin and filling it with water, the water becomes charged enough for us to use it to finish the magecrafting process." Eugene continued, taking a set of enchanted tongs and picking up the hammer. He dunked it into the water, which seemed to flash with djed in Michael's vision and hiss slightly. When he removed it, the djed in the hammer was still flowing like before but now seemed calmer and more stable.

"And here we have it, one finished magecrafting hammer." Eugene gave the tool a twirl in his hands, then handed it to Michael. "Right, you've seen how it's done, now it's your turn."

[Michael Kyber]

Taking the offered magecrafting hammer and giving it a few experimental swings, Michael was supposed by how normal the hammer felt. He'd been expecting it to feel heavier or denser somehow, as if the weight of its importance would somehow be tangible, but other than an almost imperceptible thrumming sensation the hammer felt exactly like it had done before.

Eugene silently placed a hammer on the pedestal and stepped back, content to simply observe Michael working. Once again Michael brought up the djed inside him into his mind, focusing on the hammer he was to work on and willing his mind to attune with its aura. With a lurching sensation and a slight lightheaded feeling the ghostly wisps of an aura cropped up around the hammer, and Michael found himself able to see the flow of djed inside it.

When it came to djed, Michael liked to thin of it like water. Depending on what it was in it could sit completely still like the surface of a calm lake, or flow easily like a river or stream. Currently the djed it the hammer sat still and unmoving, which was not how the djed in his enchanted hammer moved. It needed to flow, and to do that Michael needed to give it a little push. Grasping it with a pair of tongs Michael lifted the hammer so that its pommel was facing upwards, and then swung down with the enchanted hammer to hit its tip. There was a spark of djed as the two hammers collided, and to his delight Michael saw that the djed in the hammer was now flowing up from the pommel towards its head like a current.

Except that it was going too fast, way too fast. The djed in Eugene's hammer had been smooth and stable, whereas his looked like the spray of a wave crashing into a rock wall. The hammer itself had started to shake as if something was borrowing out from inside of it, but before he could work out how to deal with his problem Eugene had moved over to the table and was examining the hammer through a lens.

"You hit too hard there, created a pathway the hammer's too small to handle. Bigger objects like swords and armor have enough djed in them to require hits like that, but little objects need a delicate touch."

"Can I fix it?" Michael asked.

Eugene shrugged. "Sure, just hit it from opposing angles. Don't think that'll make everything okay though. Manipulating an inanimate object's djed is a lot like smithing metal; every unnecessary hit will warp it in ways that can't be undone. You can hit that same point to reduce the speed the djed flows from this pathways, but that pathways will never be as stable or strong as it could have been."

Michael flushed with embarrassment at his mistake. "I'm sorry, I..."

"Hey, no need to apologise to me kid." Eugene replied. "I'm not the one who's going to be working with a sub-par hammer, you are. Now come on, get back to it."

Returning his attention to the pedestal, Michael gave the pommel of the hammer two far gentler taps to the side at a downward angle, watching as the impacts made far smaller sparks of djed. When he was done the pathway had calmed down enough for the hammer to stop its shaking, but the flow of djed still seemed a little rough and fierce for his liking.

Michael then lay the hammer of one side and tapped a line of hits across the middle of the hammer's head from the bottom to the top, splitting the djed's flow from the hilt into two streams. He flipped the hammer onto its other side and repeated the process so that the entire middle section acted like a dividing line that cut the flow of djed into two streams and redirected them to push against the hammer's faces, the surfaces that were used for actually hitting an item. When the hammer made contact with another item again some of that djed should, in theory, be transferred from the hammers surface into the item, thus creating the charge.

His head was starting to ache from the sustained use of auristics, and so Michael dropped the spell as he picked up the hammer with a pair of tongs and dunked it into the charged water basin. Without auristics in looked like he was simply wetting a hammer for no reason, but even so Michael knew that right now the charged water was solidifying the pathways he'd created like normal water cooled hot metal.

After a while Michael removed the hammer and handed it to Eugene, who examined it under a lens with an expressionless face. "Hmmm... yes... well it's quite crude and probably won't last for very long, but this hammer is indeed suitable for enchanting work. Well done, you've made your very first enchanted item."

He handed the hammer back to Michael, a faint look of approval on his face. "Creating pathways it the core of enchanting an item, however alone it is nearly worthless. It is how these pathways can be used to incorporate the djed of other materials, like the djed that determines how sharp or tough something should be, that makes enchanting one of the most powerful branches of magic in the world. You've done well with your first project, despite your little mishap, and so I have no objections with having you assist me in other assignments. However although you have grasped the technique behind creating a djed pathway you can only master it with a great deal of practice, which is why..." He gestured to the dozens of other hammers lying on the workbench. "I want you to spend the next few chimes enchanting the rest of these hammers in a similar fashion. You're free to go home for the day once you're done."

Looking at the rest of the hammers, Michael groaned as he realized that the assignment would take him until about midnight to complete. Being at the bottom of the laboratory hierarchy really sucked.

[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Michael XP Award: Planning 1 Socialisation 1 Glyphing 1 Observation 2 Auristics 2 Magecraft 2 Lore: Magic can be beautiful Magecraft: The pedestal Magecraft: Preparing the area with Glyphs Glyphing: Focus Glyphing: Barrier Magecraft: The tools required Magecraft: Changing Djed pathways. Notes: A good magecraft thread, nice and detailed as always. In the magecraft lore it says you have to get ST permission to creat MC items. I suspect this is just if you are going to be keeping the items, but I would check just in case. Maybe message Prophet about your MC threads. Enjoy your grades