Auristematician (Solo)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on August 26th, 2012, 5:20 pm

Jacques wanted her to talk proper-like today, too, which just made it even harder. Under Jacques's warning stare and Wilhelm's growing impatience, she squirmed in her seat. "Err..." she muttered, trying to think of both how to say this without talking about magic, AND how to say it using poshy-talk. "Whazzay means is..." She caught a shift in Jacques's look, and concentrated hard, trying to remember what he'd told her about talking proper.

"Err, 'at is... I mean, thhhat is," she said, looking between the men before her, all of whom were staring at her, "'ere's somma... Ahh, some damage behind this hhhere facade..." She felt like she was sweating. Was she sweating? Would wiping her sleeve across her face not be 'proper-like'?

"That's ridiculous," Carl protested. "My men and I finished this job up just a couple of days ago. I assure you, Mister Wilhelm," he turned a smile on the client, "this woman clearly doesn't know what she is talking about..."

Tock almost leapt across the table and pounded the fool man's head in. How DARE he act like SHE didn't know her trade!? But she caught a look of restrained panic on Jacques's face, and knew she had to contain her temper.

Wilhelm listened to Carl's assurances, then turned to Tock and said with a patient, almost condescending smile, "Miss, I can tell just by looking at this wall that it's undamaged..."

"Aye," she said, making a dismissive gesture at the wall. "S'a facade..."

Wilhelm stared at her blankly. He clearly didn't know WHAT a facade was. Carl did, though. He was doing a poor job hiding his panic. "S'a thin, fake wall out'n front, aye?" Tock explained, holding up her fingers two inches apart. "Covers up the damage. Makes 'er look purty..." She caught another look from Jacques, and realized from the blank look on Wilhelm's face that he didn't understand. The wall LOOKED solid. The facade had surely been applied with mortar directly to the original stone. Thus there would be no way to realize that, just beneath the surface, the bulk of the wall was still cracked and weakened.

She thought about it for a moment, then realized how to explain it to Wilhelm. Money. She held her hands up two feet apart and said, "'Stead o' buyin'... buying this much stone, and repairing it all proper-like, he," she nodded to Carl, "bought this much stone," she pushed her hands together until they were only two inches apart, "and slapped 'er over the front. Ta... to cover the damages up an' make 'er look like she's done when she ain't..."

Wilhelm slowly began to frown. While he might not understand construction lingo like 'facade' and the like, he DID understand 'bought less stone' and 'covered up the damages.' He turned a questioning look upon Carl. The cornered contractor just waved at Tock and said, "Sir, she doesn't know what she's talking about. My men did a quality job here!"

Jacques calmly interrupted to add, "Miss Zipporah is quite knowledgeable in her field, Mister Wilhelm. She's done this sort of work before. No doubt there are tell-tale signs of the work that her expert eye was able to pick out..."

Tock swallowed a lump in her throat. She looked over the wall. The fact of the matter was, it was a GOOD facade. She had only found the damage via magic. She could probably find subtle signs of the hidden damage by pressing her ear against the stone and tapping on it with a hammer, searching for hollow sounds from behind the outer layer. But that wouldn't prove anything to Wilhelm, who wouldn't understand the difference between the sound of a solid wall and the very subtle and hard to distinguish sound of hidden damaged spots. It was something only someone with extensive stoneworking experience could deduce.

"Miss... Zipporah," Wilhelm asked her, "CAN you prove your claim?"

Tock glanced at him, and saw Carl lean back smugly in his seat. He no doubt knew that there was no way to prove it WITHOUT breaking through the facade to expose the damaged stone behind it. Which Wilhelm likely wouldn't be willing to do, since it would mean sledgehammering into his freshly repaired wall, all on a 'hunch.'

Tock swallowed, then nodded. "Aye," she said, a bit uncertainly. "Gimme a bit fer ta... I mean, for to figure out right what where the damages is, an' yeah, I can..."

She met Jacques's eyes. His reputation was now on the line here.

Maybe she should have just kept her fool mouth shut...

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on August 26th, 2012, 5:58 pm

A short time later, while Carl stood off to the side, adamantly protesting his innocence to Wilhelm, Jacques stepped up to the wall alongside Tock. He stood quietly for a moment, arms folded behind his back, looking over the facade. Tock was studying it as well, except she was channeling invisible Djed to study the auras of each block before her, one at a time.

In a soft voice that wouldn't be heard by the others, Jacques asked her, "I take it you have no... ordinary way to expose the damages?"

Tock sucked on her teeth and replied, "Aye. I can... see through the wall." That wasn't entirely accurate, but it was the only way she could think to explain it to Jacques in 'laymen's terms.' "Gonna 'as ta bust through somewhere fer ta show it..."

Jacques sighed, reaching out to run his fingers along the wall. "Not only will Wilhelm never agree to that," he said, "but Carl could easily claim any damage we find was caused when we broke through." He didn't cast any doubts on her claims. In the past season, she'd proven her capabilities enough that he knew she was telling the truth. He wouldn't have promoted her, otherwise.

"Aye," Tock said, scratching the back of her head. "I's 'as ta think o' somethin'... gimme a bit, aye?"

Jacques nodded and left her to her work, heading over to Wilhelm and Carl. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but Jacques was no doubt working his charm in order to reassure Wilhelm that yes, they did indeed know what they were talking about.

Meanwhile Tock began taking readings, slowly scanning one block at a time and recording the numbers for the scale she'd invented to depict the shade and density of each block. The problem was, it would easily take HOURS to scan all the blocks of the entire wall. She doubted they could keep Wilhelm reasonable for that long. He'd want some kind of proof about Tock's claim, or else he'd send them off and hire Carl the Con Man for the office job.

So instead of scanning every block, she picked certain select ones, scanning their auras and recording what she found on a chart she drew up. Each one she scanned gave her an idea of the pattern, and with a scattered selection of auras read, she was able to get a feel for where the worst of the damage was. After a little more than half a bell of Jacques keeping Wilhelm distracted and occupied, she had enough blocks scanned that she felt like she could deduce the rest of the pattern. As she was going over her calculations, Wilhelm finally grew impatient and came over to her.

"Miss," he demanded, "I'm afraid I have to insist on some kind of answer..."

She looked up at him, then over at Jacques, then down at her graph. She had narrowed it down to a certain section of the wall that she was sure held the worst of the damages. Likely something, a fallen tree perhaps, had struck the wall at the center of that spot. The damage was mostly contained there, with thinner cracks spider-webbing outwards from the point of impact.

But how could she PROVE it?

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on August 26th, 2012, 7:03 pm

"Lemme see the inside," she said.

She walked over and opened the front door to the house, letting herself in without waiting for permission. The others followed, Wilhelm sputtering a bit at her rudeness. Inside, the front wall of the house was paneled with wood. This was a fairly common practice. While most homes these days were made with simple wood construction all the way around (stone being a bit of a luxury resource for most), Zeltiva had a large number of more ancient buildings that were made with more solid materials like stone. But since stone walls tended to be bland and ugly, a thin layer of wood paneling could be used to cover it up and make the building seem more comfortable and homey.

The wooden inner wall was done up with carved borders in fancy designs. Carl no doubt had a skilled carver working for him. But behind those artistic carvings was a damaged stone wall. She pointed to the wall, right where she estimated the damages to be. "Cut through 'ere an' ye'll see it," she said. Cutting through the wood would be easier, less dangerous, and less likely to potentially damage the stone behind it, rather than smashing through the facade outside.

Of course, there was still a risk. Most of the damage was only on the outside of the wall. Many of the cracks likely wouldn't have spread through the full width of the stone blocks. Only the MOST damaged blocks would show the damage all the way through to the back. If they pulled off the wrong section of paneling, and showed nothing but seemingly solid stone, then they'd be humiliated and seen as either liars or fools.

Tock laid her hand over where the paneling covered what she thought was the worst damage. She tried to scan through it, but her aura reading was only scanning the wood, not the stone behind it. The stone facade out front was mortared directly to the main wall, thus connecting the blocks into a single object, and their auras into a patchwork quilt of Djed that she could read as one, or by focusing on each 'patch' individually. The paneling, however, wasn't in direct contact with the stone; there was normally a very small gap created by the support beams that were braced between the stone wall and the paneling out front. Tock wasn't nearly skilled enough yet to push through the aura of the paneling in order to read the hidden aura of the stone behind it.

"Miss," Wilhelm said, frowning, "I just PAID for these repairs... I can't just have you cutting into the walls..."

"If we're wrong," Jacques spoke up in her defense, "I'll pay for any damages, and my crew will repair the work. Though if we're right..." he looked Carl right in the eye, "then I believe Carl here owes you a refund..."

Carl protested a fair bit more, the argument dragging out for several more minutes. Finally, Wilhelm said, "Very well. You can open a small section of the paneling to try and prove your point. But I will HOLD you to your word on repairing the damage, Master Jacques..."

Jacques gave Wilhelm his most reassuring smile and said, "I assure you, Mister Wilhelm, you won't be disappointed."

Wilhelm turned to Tock, and she smiled sheepishly and said, "Aye, what 'e said, Guv... err, Mistah Wilhelm, sir..."

She pulled out her tools and began searching for a seam in the wood to cut into, holding her breath the whole time.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on August 26th, 2012, 7:48 pm

Tock worked carefully, not wanting to cause any unneeded damage to the artistic carvings. It wasn't their creator's fault that Carl was a con man. She cut down one seam, then another, until she had a single panel loosened and ready to pull free. She took a deep breath and pulled it off.

Revealing solid stone underneath.

She cursed, while Carl laughed and said, "You see, Mister Wilhelm? They're just trying to soil my good name..."

Tock frowned, ignoring everyone else in the room as she began channeling Djed again. With the panel open, she was able to read the aura of the stone without interference. It slowly expanded in her vision, the aura showing in two distinct fragments. The stone block WAS damaged, it just wasn't showing on this side. She leaned closer, focusing more on the aura. It was... flowing a bit to the left.

She considered that, compared to what she had learned in her recent studies. A compressed aura seemed to seek the nearest 'open' point, much like water flowing from areas of high density to low. So of the aura was flowing to the left, then that should indicate a weaker, more fragmented aura in that direction.

She leaned in close, peering through the inch wide gap between the wood panel and the stone. Then she let out a gleeful cackle.

"Miss Zipporah?" Jacques asked.

"Awright, so I were off by one!" she said, laughing and pointing behind the panel. Jacques came over to check, followed by Wilhelm.

Just a bit to the left was a VERY visibly damaged stone block, practically falling out of the wall. Thin cracks could be seen spreading through a few of the other nearby blocks. Once he saw the damage, Wilhelm allowed them to remove the rest of the paneling, revealing several more damaged stone blocks. One of the worst damaged ones was so broken up that Tock was able to pull the pieces out by hand, all the way through to the thin facade on the far side.

She mostly tuned out the ensuing argument, while Wilhelm demanded a refund from Carl, who protested that he'd been somehow set up. In the end, Jacques was able to not only snag the office job, but also get their crew hired to redo Carl's work (and take over his fee).

She didn't pay attention to any of that, however. She just sat on the floor, continuing to study the wall's aura, recording more notes to expand upon her graphs and formulas. It clearly wasn't a perfect science yet. But she was on to something here. It was just the beginning.