"So, given you've got what was asked of you done a week early, what are you even going to do with the rest of your time?" Illia lazily raised a wing from across the room at Arras as he continued to fine tune the spell he'd just finished creating.
"Well, first off, I'm not really done. It's still extremely difficult to maintain for any time at all and I don't have the appearance fine tuned quite yet either... But I suppose I'd like to start working on another form of magic, and I want to learn this common language that apparently everybody except me knows."
"That's fair I guess, if you're looking for a different kind of magic to start working on, mind if I make a suggestion?"
"I don't see why not? Shoot."
"Try out some force magic. Just a suggestion, but, if the Baron is planning to have you bolster his own reputation you'll probably end up fighting somebody."
"I... What?"
"Not anything lethal, just a sparring match probably. I know you don't really care about any of the political stuff, but losing would look pretty bad. I don't think you'd lose, but you don't really know much... Shall I say, non lethal magic? If you weren't allowed to kill your opponent you probably wouldn't be able to take them out. You never really learnt insanity magic..." Arras's head started to rise in thought.
"Hey-NO! That is not what I meant! I'm perfectly fine with you NOT learning that, but I'm just saying you might want something a bit less lethal okay? Besides, Spirit Foxes can barely use physical strengthening magic, so it'd be good for you to learn force magic."
"Well, that does make sense I suppose, but what exactly is force magic?"
"Well it's pretty simple, think of it as just summoning invisible objects. That's about it."
"...What?"
"Yeah alright that was a bit of a stretch sorry. Force magic is like... It's basically just casting spells without actually creating any specific effect. Think of it like using an aura, but actually putting that magic power into a force... I'm sorry, I'm not really the best at explaining this st-"
"Like this?"
"...Arras..."
Illia felt a light tap against her back, but when she looked up there was no physical object, only a faint source of magic.
"How do you even do that?"
"Do what?"
"I just gave you a vague idea of how to use a form of magic and it took you not even ten SECONDS to figure it out, are you like, the reborn god of magic himself or something?"
"Maybe you're just better at explaining stuff then you think?"
"I somehow doubt that."
...
Borderline impossible feats of magic aside, Arras had another busy day of practice lined up in front of him. He was on a high off of his success, so instead of going about his usual routine he spent the majority of the day locked inside, and inside was an actual building now. Yes, despite his best protests, Illia had eventually managed to worm her way through his defenses. At her insistence, a project was able to take off.
Arras himself had heavily influenced it, because he would not stand for a traditional house to built for his place of residence, it simply wouldn't do. So, what was his solution? Simply don't have a roof! Okay, there was a roof, but the roof was basically a second floor. It hadn't taken long to construct, but effectively there was a basement made by Arras himself, a more usual middle floor, then a less normal second floor. All in all he wasn't too upset with it at the end of the day, and Illia felt more at home! Win win in his opinion.
On the brighter side, he could actually practice transformation magic without catching eyes, because the den was too small to properly transform in and doing it out in the open got him odd looks as he'd figured out already. So far, he was attempting to remove as much fur from his appearance as he could. Supposedly, the more "human" he looked the better. Arras felt this whole project was a bit of a waste of effort, given he'd basically never be doing this unless it was physically required of him, but on the other hand the challenge was somewhat enjoyable.
Besides, had he not had aspirations to see the world at some point? Doing it would be easier if he could reliably shift into a form which could do... Societal stuff or whatever more easily. Although apparently clothes were a requirement for looking more human for some reason. Actually, he had a pretty good idea of the reason. Most forms of colonial life didn't have built in fur to warm them, so they wore clothes instead. But why then was it a necessity if somebody didn't have a problem with the cold? Do other people just feel bad about it or something? Colonial life was weird. They had cool stuff though, so Arras was willing to bear with it.
So, he bottomed out through his entire pool of magic repeatedly, again and again, each time refining his spell just a little bit more. Currently, he was making absolutely no effort to refine it or make it less costly to his reserves, instead focusing entirely on the appearance of it. He, admittedly, lost track of time while practicing and recovering, but he supposed that just showed that he was having a good time with it. By the time he heard a knock on the door, Arras thought he made some pretty good progress.
Whereas before he was basically wearing his own skin, just in a human shape, Arras could now claim to at least look sort of kind of human while transformed. He still had pointed ears, clawed fingers, sharp canines, and three tails, but other than that, most of the traces from his actual form were mostly unnoticeable! Sure, there were patches of fur symmetrically lined up against his body, but if he was wearing something it'd be covered up pretty handily.
He might be able to still work out the ears, his fangs, but his tails...? There was absolutely no way he'd be able to do that. That was a level of mastery that, even with all of his wisdom, Arras was not even close to approaching. Besides, the cost of upkeeping the spell was proportional to the difficulty of the transformation to begin with. The more unnecessary edits to it the harder it would be to maintain. A rather pointless effort.
Speaking of that knocking however, it was about time he answered.
...
"So I'm being summoned by the lord?"
"Yes."
"I'm... A bit busy working on my metamorphosis spell right now, could it not wait a few hours or so?"
"He sent me with the message that it is explicitly about your transformation magic."
Arras's muzzle turned to a frown. "Very well."
The soldier, guard, whatever they were, sent to escort him was not one of the usual five. Arras figured they must've been out doing something else. His home, thing, had been built not too far away from the Baron's manor, so it didn't exactly take long to get there.
"The lord will see you shortly."
Arras suddenly found himself very curious about something. "Why is it that everybody refers to the Baron by the title of lord, instead of his name?"
The human stared at him incredulously for a moment, before answering as best they could. "It's... Proper to do so. Besides, the lord holds supreme authority within the property of their estate. It would be unwise to treat such a man casually."
"Is that so?"
"Incredibly so. If you weren't, in all likelihood, the strongest magic user in the nearby vicinity, you wouldn't hold nearly as much privilege as you currently do." Their eyes widened after they realized what exactly they'd said. "I-I apologize, I meant no offense-"
Arras tilted his head at the man now scrambling to correct himself. "Apologize for what? I asked you a question and you answered it, you gave me extra information on top of that. Why in the world would you apologize for such a thing?"
They blinked a few times, still looking rather shocked. Which frankly just made no sense to Arras, really why would they be sorry for doing what Arras said? That's ridiculous. He should be the leader of these people or something, let him make the rules you'd have a whole lot of these problems gone in a day or so. Arras was about to speak again, but was rudely interrupted by Pennsworth from atop the staircase once again. Of course he couldn't understand any of it, but the human he was about to talk to left the room.
With his prior conversationalist gone, Arras quickly created a link between himself and the Baron.
"Arras, so glad you've arrived!"
He'd gotten somewhat better at enduring the mental drain he felt from this man speaking, but he'd really rather have Illia here. Whenever she was around, the Baron suddenly became far more tolerable. Well, she was out and about so unfortunately he'd have to deal with it.
"Please, come up, I'd like to speak with you about the progress of your transformation magic."
"Why are we always doing this same routine? You know very well it'd be easier to just come down the stairs yourself don't you?"
"Hm, sometimes I wish your companion was here regardless of how annoying they can be."
"..."
"My apologies, that was rather rude of me."
"Fine, I'll come up the stairs. See you in a minute."
Arras climbed them as slowly and painfully as he could manage. Just to be spiteful.
...
"Given there are only six days remaining until the gathering, I wished to hear of your progress on your metamorphosis spell. I've heard that you've taken to the town more then I had expected you to within recent days, is that impeding your progress in any way?"
Arras was frankly getting pretty tired of his sort of passive aggressive voice, so he had a different idea on how to shut them up.
In a rapid contortion of flesh, Arras finally properly sat in the chair.
"No."
And then he changed back, because he'd already sacked most of his magic about twenty minutes ago and maintaining a mental spell was already quite the task. He was going to be paying headaches in spades for that little maneuver.
"...Pardon?"
"I'm done. I just need to work on making it more magic efficient."
The Baron laughed out loud, before bringing a hand to his head.
"What in the world? With almost a week to spare as well? I hadn't even expected you to be able to do it!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Oh please, you and I both know that didn't bother you in the slightest."
"Certainly better than the fake personality you wear around at all times."
"My my that's quite the bold statement. But I suppose I cannot fault you for it. Very well, if you've completed a metamorphosis spell, it is time to get you the proper artifacts."
"...What?"
"Hm? It would be rather absurd to expect you to maintain a metamorphosis spell throughout the entirety of the gathering, so you'll clearly need some form of aid. Though with your rate of progress I wouldn't even be surprised if you would be able to manage it regardless. Ah, and clothes that can transform along with you, for, obvious reasons."
".....What?"
"Have you not heard of artifacts before? I understand you're rather young, but, really?"
"No, I've never heard of these "artifacts" before. What exactly are they?"
"Surely you are familiar with the lack of permanence involving spells? Their effects fading away once the spell itself loses power?"
"Of course."
"Artifacts are a way to mitigate that downside to magic. By embedding a spell within an object, it can be used to cast that spell at any time provided that it has been powered. Similarly, it can maintain a spell just as easily. You needn't worry about learning this yourself, there are capable practitioners on standby. All you'll have to do is provide the spell you would like to be stored. Which in this case, will be your metamorphosis spell. Likewise, you won't need to worry about the creation of transforming clothes for yourself, but we will need the measurements of your transformed state."
"...My measurements?"
"Yes? Goodness fox, this surely can't be that hard to understand can it? Clothes do not fit any person at all times, they must be constructed with a size in mind. This is even more true when referring to magically transforming clothes, the proportions need to be EXACT. Am I clear?"
"I... Suppose?"
"It will be taken care of as long as you simply do as told, do you understand?"
"...Yes."
"Good, I will arrange for the creation of your clothes by tomorrow. If you intend to make any last minute changes to the form of your spell, you must do it tonight. That shouldn't be a problem for someone of your caliber. You are dismissed."
Arras, hopped off of the chair, but before he walked out he remembered something Illia had told him to ask.
"Before I go, there was a question that Illia was hoping you could answer."
"Hm? Very well, it would likely not be in my best interests to ignore the Ashwing."
"She wanted to know where your wife was? And your heir? Whatever that's all about. Something about you being far too old to not have such things."
"Hm, a trivial question. The nobles academy had just ended break. My son is simply on his way, and his mother is accompanying him. Feel free to relay this message to your companion."
Arras nodded to himself, and finally walked outside. He, as advised, had some last minute edits to make given he was now on quite the time limit apparently. He was ready to work, even through the headache currently splitting its way through his skull.
...
Illia wasn't arriving home any time soon apparently, but that worked just fine for Arras. He wasn't sure what exactly her reaction to his currently spasming body would look like.
So, as it turns out, working with magic that can be very, very lethal to yourself while on almost empty reserves, wasn't the smartest of ideas? Who could've seen that one coming. Fortunately, he hadn't quite fully fucked up his body, but his bones were now misaligned and moving at all would result in immense pain. Now unfortunately, immense pain resulted in movement. Arras needed a bit of magic to fix his predicament, but he was currently running on absolute empty.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
So, in silent suffering he sat. Paralyzed on the floor of his own home until he had the magic to fix himself. He just... REALLY hoped nobody walked in right about now. That'd be real awkward. So, it was with great relief, that after nobody had walked in for another ten minutes, that he finally fixed himself.
Arras's head was still screaming in agony from wringing his reserves to the bottom and asking for more, but at the least his nerves weren't on fire any more! Yeah... He wasn't having a great day. The worst part about it? It'd been entirely his own fault. Couldn't even blame this on anybody else, nope. He'd just been overconfident.
He apparently still hadn't learned his lesson, because he immediately tried to cast again, but after almost passing out from his migraine intensifying he finally thought better of the idea and laid down. He figured he'd just take a quick nap and come back at full efficiency.
...
Overslept. Overslept? He overslept.
"Hey, Arras, you alright? I flew in and you were asleep, I left and came back and you were still asleep, it's been hours you doing okay?"
"...What?"
"I asked if you were alright?"
"No, Illia, that last bit, how long has it been?"
"Well, I've been out for most of the day, but I think I first came home about seven hours ago? You were asleep then, I checked in on you and everything but you were just asleep. I figured you did something dumb and needed a nap or something."
"...Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I figured you needed it-WOAH!"
Arras sprung to his feet almost immediately, what did it look like outside-
The sun had gone down.
"Oh no, no, no, no, damnit!"
"Illia, what time is it!?"
"Uhh... It's... Nine?"
"Crrrrrrap! I need to get back to practicing, no time for anything else sorry Illia."
"Wait, what? Why are you in such a hurry? Didn't you already finish your spell?"
"NO! I mean, I've got the appearance of it down, but it's SO inefficient! I don't think I could keep it up for even twenty minutes if I gave it my all! And they need the finished spell by TOMORROW for... Artifacts or whatever!"
"...Artifacts? They've got people with the right skills for that around here?"
"I dunno! I was just told to be done by tomorrow, and that's what I'm going to do!"
Illia blinked a few times in confusion, when had Arras ever been this frazzled about something before? She almost wanted to tease him, but her conscience advised against doing such a thing. He seemed genuinely panicked about whatever was going on.
"Well, anything I can do to help?"
"No, well, you could've woken me up earlier but it's not really your fault. Just make sure I don't sleep in tomorrow morning, please?"
"Sure, I can promise you that."
...
"Arras..."
"fivvve... five more... minutes..."
"Arras." He felt a light tapping against his flank.
"Mmrmgh? Wha?"
"You asked me to wake you up."
"...Did I?"
"Yes? You had artificers to meet today apparently?"
"...Oh, right. Do I have to do that?"
Arras wasn't sure if he had even slept for more than four hours. This may not have been the best condition to demonstrate his spells in.
"Pretty sure you do, sorry."
"...Okaaaay."
He stumbled to his paws slowly as Illia stood above him. Gradually, he blinked the sleep out of his eyes and thought back to his work throughout the night prior. He'd made good progress, but he wasn't quite happy with what he'd managed to accomplish... Well, nothing else for it he supposed. They'd have to deal with something subpar. If they were good at their jobs like he was good at magic, it shouldn't be an issue.
...
"It is wonderful to see you so willing to follow directions today. I've been told you strive for excellence in your craft, and while that is certainly an admirable trait, it is not one we can afford to have as of this moment. Those capable of the enchanting work required wish to have left by yesterday, so time is of the essence."
"..."
"Feeling even less talkative than normal today, hm? Arras?"
"Very."
Arras very much did not appreciate the fact that he hadn't had enough time to work on his new spell, and it was currently being rubbed in his snout.
"Well, I suppose it is no issue as long as you can perform what is required of you. Now then, come along fox. I do not believe you've seen much of the manor before. It would be unreasonable to expect you to find your way on your own."
Arras internally sighed, and then deliberately blocked that out. Not exactly the kind of thing you wanted to have your cohorts hearing. Even if the Baron was already quite aware of how much Arras detested his attitude.
So without further adieu, Pennsworth did as he said and led Arras through a part of the manor that he had not yet seen. Arras could hear some chatter in the distance, so he figured he could've made it from there, but the Baron did not stop guiding him until they had arrived at their destination.
Two humans sat at a table talking amongst themselves, one larger female, and a considerably smaller male child. No, child was not quite right, more like an adolescent.
"You may establish a link with those two, the respectable Master Aria S Nilliea, and her apprentice Mr. Jakobs Kamski. I am sure they will appreciate your... Straight forward attitude. Once you are finished, you may see yourself off of the property."
By now, the two had taken notice of their presence. And given Pennsworth was now exiting center stage, their attention fell squarely on Arras himself. He wasn't flustered in the slightest, but he was a bit slow to respond in his slightly sleep deprived state.
"Hello."
"Greetings, Arras. Kept me waiting for some time, hm?"
"Was nine days to learn one of the more difficult forms of spell craft not quick enough?"
"Pardon?"
"Nevermind, I apologize for whatever delays you have suffered." Arras quickly amended his words, he wasn't quite sure about what exactly was going on, but he didn't care for it either. "You will have to forgive me, I'm not very familiar with whatever all of this is. I also didn't sleep very well as I was attempting to increase the efficiency of my metamorphosis spell throughout the night. I hope you will at least attempt to make this simple."
"Bah! Shouldn't even take more then thirty minutes, don't worry about it. Now, how about you come up here?"
Aria patted her hand against the table they sat at, clearly beckoning for Arras to come up.
He found it a little odd that they'd so such a thing, given it was like, ten times higher then he was... But Arras did in fact have a solution! He didn't have too firm of a grasp over force magic... He in fact, could literally only do the most basic of basics with it, but that was enough to create himself his own staircase. Step by step he walked up on an invisible force and settled himself squarely at the center of the table.
"A bit of a show off, hm? Could you not have just jumped?"
"Why would I even try that?" Arras tilted his head at Aria, who merely shrugged in response.
"Doesn't really matter, but now that you're here, remain as still as you possibly can would you? It will make it easier."
"Make what easier?"
"Taking your measurements of course, we need the size of both your normal and transformed state in order to create the appropriate clothing."
"Oh... I guess that makes sense." Arras nodded slowly. Then he got curious about something. "How do you get those measurements exactly?"
"Hm, trade secret sweetie, you're not quite cute enough to get that out of us. Though, you might just be by the time we're done here today. Jakobs!"
"Right away Mrs. Nilliea."
"Now, there's three things that I think would work excellently for your current state. Either a bow, a little tie, or perhaps even gloves?"
Arras's head might as well have rolled right off with how far it just tilted.
"Fashion is quite important dearie, tell me, which of those options would you prefer?"
What was with this person's strange tone of voice? Arras felt a little uncomfortable...
"What... Exactly are those three things?"
Aria smiled questioningly as she raised an eyebrow at Arras. Though, she snapped, and a moment later three objects were laid out on the table in front of Arras, having manifested from the air itself.
"A bow, a tie, or gloves? You need to pick something for your clothes to manifest as while your spell isn't active."
Arras paused for a moment, all three of them weren't particularly appealing but... If he had to pick one...
"I suppose the bow would work fine."
"Splendid! I can already imagine the perfect place for it to be. You'll have to wait and see unfortunately." She smiled evenly. "Jakobs, have you finished yet?"
"Yes, Mrs. Nilliea."
"Wonderful, then we are ready to proceed! Arras, was it? If you would cast your metamorphosis spell?"
Arras paused for a moment, before nodding and closing his eyes. A moment later, his body was an amorphous mass of flesh quickly shifting into something else, expanding, snapping and crackling, and a moment later leaving a humanoid figure in its wake. That figure being Arras.
"Hm, a bit of a looker are we?"
Surprisingly, these humans didn't much care about Arras not wearing clothes. Maybe it was just cause they'd been expecting it? Who knew really?
"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that." Arras admitted.
"Hm, I suppose it doesn't much matter. Well, not in any harmful way! Yes, yes, I can see it now! You look so very serious, but in your true form you're wonderfully adorable! A beautiful dichotomy, this project will be fun."
Arras blinked a few times, he didn't even respond. What the hell was she on about...?
"Jakobs? How many spells do you think could coexist with our friends metamorphosis spell here?"
"It's surprisingly stable, I'd estimate about three or four other enchantments can go into the artifact."
"Ah, wonderful, wonderful! It's not every day I see a metamorphosis spell on this level, splendid work Arras."
"...What? This is nowhere near where I want it to be yet. If I had a few more days I could totally do better."
"Hm, is that so? Well we unfortunately have no such time to spare, but I suppose if you ever wish to update your attire, you need only come looking for me and my apprentice. We're usually quite easy to find. Jakobs, have you finished yet?"
"Almost there Mrs Nilliea."
"Hm, very well." Aria eyed Jakobs from across the table. Arras felt bad for the smaller human, for some reason. He couldn't quite put his finger on why though. Yes, a finger this time, because he currently had fingers.
"Finished. We have everything we need to begin working."
"Splendid! Arras, you may leave for the day. We should be finished by the end of tomorrow. You may return for the finished product by then."
"...? Mrs. Nilliea? It should only t-"
"Hush now Jakobs, if we intend to do our best we need adequate time, no? It wouldn't do to disrespect such an avid practitioner of magic, now would it?"
Those words resonated with Arras, he might feel a little bit weirded out by the people before him, but dedication to one's own work was something he could respect for certain.
"It's no trouble for me. I only wish I had more time myself."
"A respectable standpoint, I look forward to seeing you wearing our work Arras."
He thought for a moment, before finally letting his spell loose, finally changing back into his normal form.
"As do I."
----------------------------------------
Dictionary
Artifacts
Artifacts are numerous, and also very nebulous. An artifact, at its basest definition, is any object that has been infused with some form of magic. There are many, many different kinds of artifacts.
In order to use a spell embedded in an artifact, the artifact must first be supplied with enough magic to activate the aforementioned spell. Specific infusions can also be made to lessen the costs of keeping specific magic active however.
There is no "most common" form of artifact, as it is equally difficult to create any artifact of any purpose, and there is almost always a use for an artifact in almost any field of work. However, there is a common kind of material that artifacts are created out of. And this generally involves any material more durable than others. It would likely be easiest to explain this in the form of a points system.
If one were to create a wooden totem, that totem would hold a point value of five. Infusing a healing spell into this totem, would then create an artifact out of it. That spell would take five points to infuse, and thus no other spells would be able to be infused into the totem, as it would destroy the artifact if such a thing was attempted. Though skilled practitioners may be able to work spells into the artifact for less "points".
However, other materials would hold far more "points". For example, if one were to carve a totem, or any other object out of Divinitum, such an object would be able to hold up to fifty "points" of infused spells.
At the end of the day, anything with spells infused into it can be broadly referred to as an "artifact".