Irene took two days to find an inscription, during the same time she gathered all the parts needed to build herself a bed frame and looked for a smelter or anvil. Dark space contained mostly iron and wood furniture components. Fiber scrap was extremely rare, so there was really no hope of finding a mattress. The ruined green contained a type of plant that yielded a natural fiber. Everyone in The Heights called it cotton. They used it raw to stuff the pallets they slept on.
After teaching Bill and Sharl how to decode an inscription with the interface, she spent the next two days collecting cotton to stuff her pallet. Bill thought Irene was being boring, until her bed was finally complete. The boy bounced around on the top of it with such joy that Irene knew she would have to make another one. It was nice to see the boy happy, at thirteen he was way too serious. He spent hours talking to Irene about spells as he planned his fighting style.
“I saw you put that together,” Greg observed as he watched his son, “how can it be so springy?”
“It’s because it isn’t really wood and iron, it’s all nanobot material,” Irene said. “Once I put the pallet on it, it went from being a generic construction to being a bed. I wasn’t certain the pallet would work, but I was hopeful.”
“How did you figure that out?” Greg asked.
“I found a bed near Londontown,” Irene replied, “and a second frame. I noticed how different the one with the mattress felt versus the one without. If I put the mattress on the floor it was soft, but not nearly as good as it felt on a frame.”
“I heard a rumor that there is a furniture store in Londontown at the last meeting,” Greg commented.
“Yeah,” Irene responded. “That was mine. I just shut it down.” Irene went on to explain why.
“That’s too bad,” Sharl commented. “I can see how sales might not be very high. I would just memorize the patterns and build my own.”
“I think I would too,” Irene agreed, “but that wasn’t ever a problem.”
She finally found a smelter on her fifth day in the suburb. It was an exceptional find in dark space. Irene moved southwest in her search to find it. The difficulty of the structure increased rather dramatically to the south. Dark space ended not far to the west. Chicago, northeast of The Heights, was not in dark space, but she didn’t want to go into the contested area.
She dragged the heavy smelter back on a quickly assembled skid. She cleaned out a new room at the edge of the suburb. The room didn’t have any animals in it. Irene used her own vent pins and door wedges to secure it. She would leave them here for the suburb and pick up new ones in Redfalls, or maybe replace them here if she got lucky and found an anvil soon.
She went back out with her skid to the closest prize altar where she pulled out a stack of iron scrap. She set up the room with the smelter in a corner and the pile of scrap on one side. Then she went in search of Mary.
Mary was The Heights’ vent pin repairer. When Irene first visited The Heights, she asked Mary how she did it. Mary was worried the group would abandon her if someone else could repair the pins and refused to tell Irene. Irene saw the real fear in the woman’s eyes and never asked again. Over the years Mary became more secure in her position in the group. Irene thought she might share the knowledge with her now if she asked again. Irene didn’t really want to know, except maybe to write down so she could pass it on. She gave up any thought of being a crafter long ago.
“Mary,” Irene said in greeting when she found the woman. “Do you have some spare time? I want to show something to you.”
“Ok,” Mary said cautiously. Irene led Mary down to the new room. Mary looked at the scrap and smelter and was puzzled. “What do you want me to see?” she asked. Irene pulled a couple sheets of vellum out of her pocket. She leafed through them until she found two copies of her smelting notes. She returned the rest of the vellum to her pocket.
“Here,” she said, handing one copy to Mary. “I hired a neophyte metal worker to smelt iron scrap into ingots for me. They were willing to let me take notes.”
Mary’s confusion only seemed to increase as she looked at Irene’s notes.
“Tell you what,” Irene said. “I’ll walk you through the notes. I can be a little too concise sometimes. Grab a piece of scrap and drop it into the smelter.”
“I thought you wanted to show me something?” Mary asked.
“Well I haven’t actually learned it,” Irene explained. “I could go through all the training motions myself, but then we’d just have to do it again to teach you. It seems faster to just have you do the training, while I give the explanation.” Mary looked shocked.
“Are you saying you want to teach me how to smelt metal?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Irene said. “You need ingots to make vent pins. I’ve got notes on that too. If I find an anvil before I leave, I’ll walk you through my notes on that too. Actually even if I don’t find an anvil, I’ll walk you through the notes. Hopefully someone will find one eventually.”
“But…” Mary started to say… She paused and looked at the vellum. She looked at the scrap and finally the smelter. “Alright,” she said finally. She picked up a piece of scrap from the pile and dropped it into the smelter.
“Now tap out fire on the side of the smelter,” Irene instructed.
“How do I tap out fire?” Mary asked.
“It is the same tap pattern as hot water,” Irene explained. “One finger at a time starting with your pinky.” Mary tapped the pattern out smoothly and easily, since she was familiar with it from manipulating the temperature of water. “Drop your hand back to your side and wait to see if anything happens.”
Mary peered into the smelter. Nothing changed.
“I don’t see anything,” she reported.
“Ok,” Irene said. “That’s fine. Just pull the scrap out and switch it with another chunk. I should mention here that we are probably going to have to do this twenty or thirty times before it works. Luckily the later steps don’t require taking the scrap back out to try it again.” Mary tucked her copy of the notes into a pocket, before reaching into the cold smelter to pull the scrap out.
On the tenth try the smelter came to life. A deep orange glow came from within, but only enough heat for them to feel escaped.
“Excellent!” Irene said. She came closer to look inside. “That was a lot faster than I expected. Your experience with repairs must help. I knew we should train you first.” Mary was looking at the smelter in complete surprise.
“Ok,” Irene said, “the next part is a little tricker.” Together the two women managed to produce their first ingot about an hour later. There was a lot of laughter and completely ruined scrap along the way.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Mary said. They were sitting on the floor, eating lunch. Irene was thinking they needed a couple chairs and a table. The smelter room needed shelves for the ingots and scrap. Actually it needed a big bin for the scrap, but Irene didn’t know how to build that. “I was told it takes forever to learn blacksmithing without a tutor.”
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“Well it does take longer,” Irene responded. “But obviously not forever. After all, we humans haven’t been in the structure that long.” Mary looked very thoughtful.
“That’s true,” Mary responded. “I guess I never thought about it that way before.”
“After we eat, I’ll walk you through my notes on vent pins and door wedges,” Irene offered.
“Does it need a hammer?” Mary asked. “My repair hammer is getting a little feeble.”
“Yes, it does,” Irene said. “If you don’t mind a little wear I am sure I have a hammer in my inventory. I can pull one out for you.”
“I’ll pay you for it,” Mary said with pride. “I have enough coins, I was just hoping to find one before the old one failed.”
“Great,” Irene said. She named a price. She explained the price was low because of the wear.
“Wear shouldn’t be a problem,” Mary said. “I can use the old hammer to repair the new one. The wear from being stored can almost completely be reversed.”
“I didn’t know that,” Irene told Mary. “That is interesting.”
After Irene went through how to make vent pins, Mary surprised her by walking through how she repaired them. Mary said it was payment for teaching her to smelt. The repair and construction spells overlapped. Irene knew Mary was going to find making new pins easy.
In the afternoon Irene went out again looking for an anvil. She didn’t find one. Instead she found a hand loom. Looms were even rarer than anvil’s, especially this close to dark space. Irene didn’t see even a single spindle to make thread with during her multi-day search. Spindles were one of the most common fiber crafting tools. After some experimentation, she figured out how to tie a rope to the loom to make it easier to carry over her shoulder.
Her knowledge of tailoring was even more sketchy than her information on metalworking. She did know that tailors never sewed anything by hand, instead they used a sewing machine. She didn’t know if it was required. She sewed all her leathers by hand, but leather wasn’t an integrated material, cloth that came off a loom was.
On her way back to the suburb she pulled two blacksmith hammers from her inventory. Irene dropped off one of the hammers in the smelting room. She carried the other one over to Mary’s room, where she sold it to her for the agreed price. Irene hoped that by switching the hammers around Mary wouldn’t figure out there were two of them until after Irene left. After Mary’s description of using one hammer to repair the other, Irene wanted to make sure she left two.
“What’s that thing?” Mary asked, pointing to the loom hung over Irene’s shoulder.
“Oh, it's a loom,” Irene said. “They are very rare and I just couldn’t leave it. Unfortunately my knowledge of tailoring is almost all theoretical.”
“No notes on a sheet of vellum?” Mary asked.
“Nope,” Irene responded.
“Didn’t Tom’s spouse know a little tailoring?” Mary’s roommate asked from across the space.
“That was a long time ago,” Mary commented. “He never really got over her death. He might remember something,” she admitted.
Irene went in search of Tom. The Heights was populated by ten adults, six women and four men. Mary and her roommate were the odd women out, although who Mary’s roommate was changed over the years. Mary herself took no interest in pairing. Irene thought that whatever left her with the fear of being left behind, also put her off men.
Irene found Tom standing watch at the other end of the settlement while keeping an eye on a spit of roasting meat. The meat was roasting over a portable stove. It smelled delicious.
“Where did you find the loom?” Tom asked.
“I’ve been searching rooms to the southwest for an anvil,” Irene explained. “No anvil, but I found this.” Irene was encouraged by Tom’s quick recognition of the item. “Do you know how to use it?” She swung the rope off her shoulder and sat the loom on the ground, away from the stove.
“Sure,” Tom responded. “Give me ten spools of thread and I can make you enough cloth for a small gathering bag.”
“If you know how to weave,” Irene asked. “Why don’t you?”
“Oh, there’s a variety of reasons,” Tom said. “The tools and fiber scrap are hard to find in darkspace. I’m amazed you found the loom anywhere within a day's walk. Even to make the crafting bag you need shears, pins and a sewing machine, and that’s after you made the cloth. Finding the loom was fluke, finding a sewing machine will be much harder.” Tom rotated the roast.
“Do you have to use a sewing machine?” Irene asked. “I sew my leathers by hand.”
“It is possible to sew integrated cloth by hand, but the end product isn’t integrated. You don’t get the advantages of the pattern. Actually, cutting the cloth is more difficult than sewing it. The seams always come out uneven and fabric unravels in time,” Tom explained.
“Just because the end product isn’t integrated doesn’t mean it is useless,” Irene observed. “You could buy the tools in Chicago or from a vendor, they don’t have to be found.”
“Maybe,” Tom replied, “but it all starts with fiber scrap.”
“Have you tried making thread from that plant fiber and not fiber scrap?” Irene asked. She wondered about that since she stuffed her pallet. Tom looked thoughtful. He brushed a baste on the roast from a small bowl. Irene wondered where he got the bowl.
“I don’t think so,” he said finally. “I would need a spindle and spools to give it a try.”
“If I got you the tools,” Irene said, “could you try it? I would love to take a few notes.”
“Sure,” Tom replied. He checked the outward facing hallways for any signs of danger. Irene went back to the prize altar where she pulled out a wide variety of tailoring tools, and stuffed them into her gathering bag. She made sure to throw ten spools in since that was the number Tom mentioned for making cloth. She didn’t know when she’d get another chance to write down cloth crafting spells. She hoped the notes would help her get tailoring started in Redfalls. There was some leftover fiber from making the pallet, she picked it up, along with her notebook, on the way back.
“All of these tools were in your inventory?” Tom asked, impressed with the tools Irene spilled out of her bag.
“I sort of collect them,” Irene admitted. “I like the idea of making beautiful things to improve our lives, but I just don’t have the patience. I try to promote skills in others.”
“That’s why you want to take notes?” Tom asked.
“Yes,” Irene said. “I gave Mary the notes I have on beginning metalworking. Whatever I learn from you, I’ll pass on to someone else down the road. I know no one is ever going to tell me the advanced stuff, but everyone needs a place to start. With the next generation growing up, I’m only going to find more candidates in the future.”
“I think you are wrong,” Tom said. “People will tell you anything if you pay them enough. Sometimes enough is surprisingly small. I’ll show you what I know, but I’m keeping the tools, including the loom.”
“Deal,” Irene responded.
----------------------------------------
“What have you got there?” Greg asked Sharl. Irene left that morning. She headed north, stating her intention to visit Chicago.
“Irene left me a copy of her crafting notes,” Sharl said. She was studying a stack of vellums as she rocked her daughter to sleep. “She was confident Mary will be able to make vent pins and door wedges if we find an anvil.”
“I could tell she thought she was failing us not finding one,” Greg said.
“She is really worried about the violence,” Sharl responded. She leaned back from the notes and cradled her baby. “I think on some unconscious level she’s realized something that horrifies her. She just can’t face it. She wants to keep us safe from it.”
“Do you think we are in danger?” Greg asked his partner.
“No, no more than usual. When I thought she was just depressed I told her to think of the good things too. She told me about decrypting wall inscriptions. But you know, she was already thinking of the good things, that is why she came. To her that's what we are. She came to make sure we were safe and to give what help she could.” Sharl handed the baby to Greg. Greg looked down at the infant and smiled. All his instincts screamed at him to protect this child.
“The war is going to get worse,” Greg said suddenly. “I could see that in Chicago.”
“We may want to consider moving farther away,” Sharl suggested, as she straightened the bedding in the crib.
“Irene warned me that the difficulty goes up quickly to the south. With the entrance to the east, Londonton to the west and Chicago to the north, I am not certain where we could go,” Greg commented.
“Maybe we need to jump past Londontown and try on the other side,” Sharl observed. Greg was surprised to hear Sharl say that.
“I didn’t think you wanted to leave dark space,” Greg replied.
“It’s been a long time since we retreated for safety. We all know more magic now. I hope we can do better. Irene found that smelter in the halls on the southwest of the green. She went off scavenging over there for days and she came back without a scratch on her,” Sharl told her spouse. “Next time we move, I think we should find a rest over there. We can still hunt and gather in the ruined green. It will be a kind of test. If we get in trouble, we can pull back to this side.”
“Ok,” Greg agreed. “We can put it forward to everyone tomorrow. If they agree, we will start scouting the area.”