Once forgotten, twice remembered II

[Adal Karelyn]

67th of Spring, 522 AV

With the negative space cleared out, Adal was left with the rough shape of a table sitting on a thin soapstone base. The top was mostly flat, but the bottom was unevenly ridgy so that would require more than a little bit of work. Likewise the legs were far too thick, and would have to be narrowed. First though she wanted to work on the table’s edge while that bit of ornamentation was still fresh in her mind. Partially this was because she wanted to see if she could trigger that same feeling again, and the rest was because she felt confused after what she had experienced so this was a way to ground her back in the moment. Feeling where she left off with the edge of her pinky, Adal set the edge of her chisel at the angle opposite and immediately remembered the powerful force she had felt before. What had those vibrations meant, and why were they different on certain edges of the soapstone.

Snap. While she puzzled over that she tapped the back of her chisel with the mallet. Cracking her way through the soapstone she made several small diamonds in a row before she went back to put a rectangular edge around them. Then she filled in the small triangles that were supposed to run in between the diamonds, feeling with her finger every chime or so to make sure she was keeping on track. She was. It was all just rough shapes still, the sort she would have to go back and polish up once she got the basic design wrapped around the edge of the table. Adal had to remind herself to take this part slowly to make sure she had enough room to complete the design all the way around. Pacing herself she set about clearing the first edge of the table, working her chisel across long ways to chip off the excess protrusions before going back and making the rough diamond shapes. Each one was connected by a point on its side to the next one in line, and doing this she constantly checked the design with her fingertips to make sure that the diamonds were all the same size.

When she occasionally ran into a few that weren’t she would try to fix it if they were an easy fix. If not, she just had to remind herself later of the general area that she would go back into later with a finer toothed chisel. For now she was satisfied that for the most part her design on that first edge was symmetrical. She’d managed to start and end with a full diamond though she had to start thinking now about what she would do if she had to make alterations in the middle. With a face she usually made a stylized feature out of it, something with a beautiful texture that was obviously not part of the face but still complimented the design. That wouldn’t necessarily work the same way with this table, but perhaps she could do something along that same vein. She kept that in mind as she repeated her process across the other three sides of the table.

WC - 532

[Adal Karelyn]

Her fingers were starting to feel stiff when she’d finally finished wrapping her design around the four sides of the table. Adal set her tools to the side and flexed them, rubbing in between the joints as she sighed with relief. There was a footstep to her right. A single one that jolted her into alertness.

“Sorry Adal, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just enjoying watching you work.” Lily said, embarrassment leaking into her tone. Adal was already shaking her head slightly.

“No its alright. I must have not heard you approach. My apologies” Adal said, smiling gently. “Did you finish your painting?”

“I did, thank you. I well.. I’m afraid I need to go now, but maybe we can grab a bite another time.” Lily said, taking a step back. “Do you already have someone you are commissioning that sculpture for?”

Adal shook her head. “No, not really. Just a passion project that’ll hopefully draw in a few patrons.” Adal said, and chuckled softly to herself. “Silly huh? Going with a table.”

Lily took a step forward and touched her shoulder. “No, its looking beautiful so far. You’ve got quite a knack for working with stone.” Lily said, pausing for a moment as she gave Adal’s shoulder a slight squeeze. “Do you think I could purchase the finished result? I don’t have much in the way in Kina but I saw your bracelet and well, here.” The woman said, pressing a folded bit of cloth into her hands.

“I have family in the Dusk tower and occasionally they give me eccentric gifts and, well its a small thing really but maybe you can get some use out of them.” Lily said quickly as Adal unfolded the cloth in her hand. In the middle of it she felt something that was vaguely heart shape, and another that she didn’t know exactly what she was feeling. Its shape was almost an oval but with an appendage towards the backside of it. The surface was also heavily wrinkled which gave her an impression that made her blush furiously as she averted her face.

Lily took in a sharp breath, and then said rapidly. “Oh no, no its nothing like that. It well. Its supposed to look like a brain, that’s why its wrinkled. Nothing perverted I assure you. You can ask anyone to check even.” Lily stumbled, and Adal started to laugh as she snapped the charms gently on her wrist. At once the smell of cool, green mint filled her nose overpowering everything else as she picked up on an unusual sense of calm. Adal let go of the charm and the smell dissipated as she tilted her head towards the woman.

“What does the brain charm do?” She asked.

“Um. Well.. Haha its supposed to check the sanity of whoever you are focusing on. The heart can tell you about what a person loves most at a given moment. Its okay if you don’t want them, I can find something else to bargain. I just really like that table.” Lily said.

Adal shook her head slightly. “No, these gifts are lovely. Too much even. Thank you..” Adal said, trailing off for a moment as she tilted her head up to the woman as she touched the heart on her wrist. “Since this is going to be for you now, can I use the heart on you?”

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[Adal Karelyn]

Lily gave her shoulder another squeeze. “I’d love that. Here.” Lily said, slipping her hand into Adal’s. With the touch came a flood of sensations, smells, tastes, thoughts and feelings. Warm, crispy bacon. Haggling out in the market. A full course dinner. Decorating her home. A couple of days spent in luxurious relaxation. Beautiful tattoos that spiraled across her lower back looking like a flower in bloom. A snug pair of trousers. Teaching others how to paint. Hearty hugs. A tropical place with endless beaches and warm water lapping against her ankles.

Adal emerged on the other side of those thoughts and memories feeling elated as she stood up to give Lily a great big hug that the woman returned after a tick. It was more than just all of the intimate details that had been shared in that moment, it had been the images she had seen however briefly. Such a strange beautiful world this woman had shared with her. Before she knew it, her face was wet with tears as Lily held onto her more tightly.

“I take it you like the charm?” Lily asked after a few chimes had passed, and Adal nodded as she rubbed at the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Yes, that was.. It was beautiful. Thank you for sharing it for me. I think I know now just how to make this table special.” Adal exclaimed.

Lily squealed with excitement. “Well, I’ll leave you to it then. I look forward to seeing the finished result.” Lily said, giving Adal another hug before taking a step back. “I really must be going now, but take care Adal, I’ll see you tomorrow.” The woman said as she started to walk away.

“See you Lily, and thank you so much for the charms.” Adal said as the woman left, and settled back in her chair at a loss briefly for how to continue after what she had seen. She had stopped wondering as a girl what things looked like to everyone else. There was only what she herself could put together from tactile sensation, which was partially why she had gotten so interested in sculpting in the first place. It allowed her to get a sense of the shape of different objects in a way nothing else could, and in so doing became a permanent fixture in her mental world. Seeing though through Lily’s eyes for the first time, well it was more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. Objects came alive in a way she hadn’t known was possible. There was so much color to her world, and for the first time Adal wondered what she looked like. What the clothes she wore looked like. What everything looked like. This tiny little charm could be her door into that world, their world because it had never felt hers. Touching it, she flipped it over in her hands for a few moments before letting it relax on the end of its chain. Yes, she would need to make this table extra special to return this huge favor of Lily’s.


WC - 519

[Adal Karelyn]

Picking up her tools, Adal set about narrowing the legs. She focused on the bulbous parts first, angling her chisel down and out towards where she was facing so that the rock chipped away from her. Because she was just skirting the outer edge she could work quickly as she moved her way down then back up, carving out a thin slice before doing another on the way back down. When she had made about three of these passes she grasped the table leg with her hand and worked her way up its length trying to feel how thick around it was while comparing it to the mental image of what she remembered of her mother’s table. Of course now she had alterations in mind as well to consider so she ended up decided to leave the legs a little thicker towards the middle so she could add in some of the things she had seen through her charm. From there it was a simple enough process of working her way around each leg. Trimming off the excess soapstone and occasionally feeling it around to make sure that it matched up with the other legs before she continued subtracting soapstone.

When all four legs were finished and the underside of her table smoothed out, she finally came to the point were she was to start putting detail into the sculpture. She switched out her chisel for a smaller one with rows of tiny teeth on the end and started to work on one of the legs. After exchanging her hammer for a lighter one, she started to tap out the design of a flower, starting with the stem that she wrapped around the leg of her table. Now because the stem was a little tricky, she used a similar technique to the one she used with sculpting faces, blocking out the area for the stem by first carving out a roughly rectangular shape that thinly wrapped around the leg before going back and knocking off the corners of that rectangular to get something with a bit more natural curve to it. It still had slight slants to its design so it wasn’t a completely smooth curve, but it was as close as she could managed to get it without risking ruining the sculpture so she left it at that.

Once it came time to do the petals she did something similar but left roughly several tiered squares near the top of where the flower would be, and then set about making these squares into petals.

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[Adal Karelyn]

To give them some depth, under the lip of each square she dug the fine teeth of her chisel down and towards her as chunked off curving pieces of soapstone that then sloped back up for the bulbous curve at the base of the flower. Once again it wasn’t as smooth as she might have liked, but it was a bit too late to make any corrections on that account as the petals had been carved out now. If she tried, she had the sneaking suspicion that she might crack the design which would mean having to start over on the entire sculpture. She reached out to finish her final result, and after thinking over it for a moment, was satisfied enough with the result to take a step back. Her flower didn’t feel as natural as she knew it should, and it didn’t exactly match up with the shape she had in mind. It was a bit too heavy, drooping in portions it shouldn’t but overall she thought it matched texturally with the rest of the piece. In repeating the process for the other three legs, she didn’t try to exactly improve upon her design, rather she tried to copy it to keep it uniform across all three legs. Another benefit of keeping the design rough was that she could more or less follow along by occasionally reminding herself of the shape of the others and matching it to whichever one she was currently working on. This took a while, and as time slipped by her she realized Talin was just stepping out from the back of the shop as she was finishing up. She realized belatedly that she had missed a sleep bell.

“Adal, you really should get some sleep- Wow, that’s beautiful. Wherever did you come up with a design like that?” Talin asked, and she could hear a hint of sleepiness to his voice.

Adal beamed a smile. “Thank you. I had a bit of help from Lily. Could you give this to her if she comes back to the shop again before I do? I’m dreadfully tired, I feel like I could sleep for ages.” She said standing up and stretching her arms far above her head.

“That I can do. You go get some sleep Adal, and I’ll see you soon.” Talin said, walking over to help guide her away from the corner, and gather up her things that he then handed to her by the entrance of the studio.

“Thank you Talin. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Adal said, and started the short walk home feeling thoroughly drained but still mildly ecstatic after the events of today. There was a lot she had to sort through once she got a good meal or two and some proper rest. However, it was something she was definitely looking forward to now.


WC - 475