Instead of heading to the workshop Aleyn had gone to the inn to show her face so that the innkeepers didn't think she had left without paying. Even though she had been absent for over a week without paying they had kept her room for her since she had consistently payed for the room during her stay so they gave her the benefit of a doubt.
She left the inn early in the morning. When she had woken up it had felt as though she almost lost control over herself again, but strangely it took very little to get it back. She felt the improvement and was very pleased but she didn't have much time to be impressed as she had a lot left to do today.
A new day with new challenges. The few days she had spent with Nancy had opened her eyes to some new possibilities. Possibilities which she would probably hear more from Camedyr today, he was after all the most famous blacksmith and a very capable magic user.
While thinking about her little experience she arrived to the workshop and strolled in. Camedyr was at his usual spot in front of the forge. The moment she walked to the high ranker side he noticed her in his side view.
"Ayyy! You're back girl"
He said it enthusiastically but did not take his gaze off of the workers.
"You're gonna have to wait a bit. These guys are doing some delicate work, if they do it wrong they can potentially blow their arms off."
A large group of workers were focusing on a palm sized red crystal or stone while holding a small shield on an anvil. Most of the crystals were floating on their respective workers palm and some were even showing the signs of absorbing magic.
"What are they doing exactly?" Aleyn asked.
"Same thing they were doing when you last asked. Just on a bigger scale and different material."
At that moment a loud spark sound could be heard which was followed by some manly yells of agony. A worker had blown up their crystal. Their whole front side had turned in to a scorch mark and he was holding his arm in pain. Camedyr calmly looked over the worker and figured he wasn't in much danger.
"You okay there?!" He asked to confirm.
"Hurts like hell but nothing else. Maybe few stitches." The worker stated while suppressing some tears.
"Well, go clean up and do whatever you need to I'll get someone to clean up the mess." Camedyr ordered as if it was a common occurrence.
The worker left the back area while still holding his arm and Camedyr started looking around for something but after a few glances his eyes shot open and he looked at Aleyn.
"Could ya clean it up? Just brush the left over shards and place the shield on the table."
She wasn't eager but there was really nothing else to do while waiting.
"Well.. I guess since I'm waiting and all."
It didn't take long to clean up most of the mess she saw since brooms were a thing and in the end she had a nice pile of shards and dust. Camedyr handed a small can to her.
"Put the shards in here."
"Why? It's trash now ain't it?" Aleyn asked.
"No no, even these broken shards have a good use ahead of them."
Well there's no arguing with that. She brushed the shards in to the can and then proceeded to wait again. The wait wasn't long as rest of the workers either succeeded or gave up shortly after her cleaning.
"Good job everyone. Even if you didn't succeed don't be worried, its just down to practice at this point." Camedyr yelled.
Once the last worker had gone for their break Camedyr turned to Aleyn.
"So then.. You."
He dug in to his pocket and pulled out a small crystal. It was exactly like the one she had seen Kyrtaar use before she went to Nancys house.
"This here is a just a general crystal, it doesn't really have any properties or a name to be worth mentioning but it's good for what you're gonna do."
He handed the crystal to Aleyn and pulled out a knife from his belt.
"Well, you saw Kyrtaar already trying it. You need to put that crystal in to this knife, fusing them together."
"And how do I go about that?"
Camedyr thought for a moment on how to explain it to her.
"When you're inexperienced it's a slow process. You feed the crystal a set amount of your energy which makes it destabilize and lose form which lets it be put in to solid objects, though that only lasts as long as your energy is inside of it. The amount is a fine line between overloading the crystal and activating its power or effect."
"So a steady flow and then push it in. Doesn't sound hard."
She took the knife and the crystal to an anvil and started immediately.
"Remember, a set amount. You should be able to tell when the crystal can't take anymore. If you go past that point it will give you a feedback and then explode just like earlier."
Aleyn having heard his last advice started immediately. She poured her energy in to the crystal and it started to emit a slight glow. Following the glow the crystal started to float on her palm and you could see small specs of energy flowing in to the small crystal. It didn't take long for Aleyn to feel a slight resistance in the flow which puzzled her but it was probably that limit Camedyr was talking about.
Camedyr watched her work the crystal and was pleasantly surprised.
"Now press it against the knife."
She awkwardly placed the knife next to the crystal then moved her hand to the opposite side of it and started pressing her hand towards the crystal which in turn pressed the crystal towards the knife, to her surprise it didn't take much strength to fuse the two together.
Once the two were together the crystals light dimmed at a rapid rate and it became its original glass like lump. She tried removing the gem with force and it came to her as a nice surprise that the crystal didn't move an inch no matter what she did to the knife.
"Got to say I'm slightly impressed with that, we spent a day and a half with the group trying to do that and most people ended up with very sore hands. You must have been really working hard during this past week."
"Really? Nancy kept going on and on about how my abilities are hilariously bad".
"You should really take what Nancy has said with a healthy doze of salt." Camedyr smiled.
"Well then, whats next?"
"Honestly. Looking at how you're progressing I think we can skip some things. Lets get to the good part. Stay here and I'll be back in a bit."
Camedyr disappeared in to his office and returned with a very familiar combo of items. A small shield and a red crystal.
"You probably guessed it already. Next I want you to do what the guys were doing earlier."
Aleyn was slightly puzzled, if she had spent a good few days at Nancys and the other workers were just doing this today then they must have done quite a lot of other things.
"How much am I skipping exactly?"
"Not that much, we just went through different sort of materials and fused them with some items. It's not as big of a deal as this though, those materials were weak compared to this bad boy."
Camedyr handed the palm sized crystal to her and she looked it over.
"That right there, is low grade fire stone. Don't let the name fool ya, its got enough power to burn this place down if it was made of flammable material."
"And I need to fuse it with the shield?"
"Yep. Problem is this needs a lot more power and if you overload it it will create a nasty explosion of flames."
He put the shield down on her anvil and stepped back a bit.
"Don't worry too much, I wont let it take your life. Though that doesn't mean you're not gonna get hurt." He gave a grin.
Aleyn didn't feel too threatened by the stone, as long as she did it properly the crystal shouldn't cause any harm to her. She held her right hand out and concentrated, a steady flow was being sent towards the crystal just like with the smaller one. This time though she felt that her hand was getting hotter and the crystal seemed to be shaking in the air as if it was waking up. She ignored the fact and kept going until she slowly felt a creeping resistance coming towards the flow.
At that point she stopped, the stone was still slightly shaking and warm but she had to ignore it at that point as she was in the middle of pushing it in to the shield. The fusion was going as planned until she reached the half way mark at which point the crystal shook violently and she felt a surge of pain in her arm which made her pull her hand away.
The crystal fell on the floor and left a small crater in the middle of the shield after falling off but there was no explosion of flames which she was expecting.
Camedyr picked up the crystal and looked it over.
"Not bad. The energy faded too early so you either weren't fast enough or should have kept feeding the crystal while fusing. Which ever works for you really" Camedyr commented.
"And the pain I felt? That wasn't the explosion I was expecting."
"That was the stone pushing all of your energy back in one push. Go on try again on a different spot."
She took the crystal and tried to get the feeling back. The crystal floated and radiated warmth just as first time but this time she decided to put more energy to see if that would work. The crystal reacted violently and exploded, the explosion itself wasn't large but it had enough power to shatter the crystal which made shards fly out in to the immediate vicinity.
"Damnit." Aleyn yelped.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"You okay there?" Camedyr asked.
Aleyn took a look at herself. There was a single shard sticking out of her right arm but other than that she was just covered in dust.
"I'm fine, just need to wrap that up." She said as she pulled the shard out.
"Well you go and do that, I'll brush these a bit and get you another crystal. Probably need to have a look at that later though so there's nothing left in the wound."
Aleyn went to the front shop to get some clean cloth to wrap around her arm. She first washed the wound with some water and then tied it up tightly and returned. Camedyr had already cleaned up the place quite nicely and even brought a new crystal while she was away.
"Lets try again then. A bit more careful with the amount you put in to it though."
She picked up the crystal and had a look at it first. The crystal was about the same size and form as the previous crystal so she didn't really need to think too much about a difference. Aleyn focused and started to transfer energy, the crystal woke up again and started radiating a slight warmth as previously. She picked up the shield and placed the crystal between the shield and her palm and started pushing while keeping a slight flow that went towards the crystal. The crystal dug in to the shield and fused without much complications.
Camedyr picked up the shield and had a look at the fusion.
"Good job girl. It's safe to say you've caught up with the rest. If not more."
"Thank you. What's next then?" Aleyn said eagerly.
Camedyr thought for a moment but then shook his head.
"There's no real other tasks for the students after this point. It's all about training the technique and understanding the materials. Technically you could take the exam if you wanted to. It's just using 5 different and higher grade crystals to infuse in to some armor piece."
"Doesn't sound too complicated." Aleyn declared.
"It really isn't but it does take some mental fortitude and energy. And like I said, knowledge of the materials."
Speaking of which, Aleyn suddenly remembered something.
"Oh yea, when I was making the decorations on my chest piece you said it would be a lot easier to do with rank two knowledge. But I still don't see that. Care to explain?"
Camedyr tried to remember the scenario.
"Oh yeah. Well it's really quite simple. All you have to do is fuse some material of your choosing and sketch on the armor. It's not really that complicated is it?"
Aleyn after hearing the explanation sighed and slapped her forehead.
"I'll have to remember that for future use then."
With whole day left unspent she decided to continue working with fusion. Camedyr provided her with quite a few low grade crystals to work with so there was no problem with spending a lot of resources. The other rank two workers eventually came back from their break and witnessed Aleyn who had been absent for a week be at more of less the same level as them. Instead of questioning it, they took it as a challenge and started to work hard with fusion.
As the day went on, you could occasionally hear and feel unusual things from the high ranker side of the forge. A burst of wind or static electricity which raised the hair on your arms or gave a slight shock when touching the anvils followed by yelps of agony from anyone who had failed their fusion.
In the Late evening a group of workers were watching Kyrtaar fuse a light blue crystal in to a hardened steel sword. He was taking Camedyrs exam and was now on his last part of the test.
The light blue crystal was a low grade water crystal but its size was quite large. Even though the sword was huge the crystal covered its whole handle width. If he failed the fusion the handle would be ruined and fall off.
Kyrtaar had been focusing on the crystal for a good few minutes before he showed signs of wanting to fuse it with the sword. He started pressing it towards the handle carefully and slowly as any unnecessary movement or loss of concentration could make him fail. What made the process more annoying was the effect the crystal had on him. Small drops of water were gathering on his skin and flowing down with the gravity, giving him an uncomfortable feeling.
Yet in the end his concentration didn't break and as he lifted his palm from the sword the fusion was complete.
Camedyr picked up the huge sword with his right hand and gave it a few looks and some hits of a hammer.
"It was slow, but the results are good. You pass Kyrtaar."
Kyrtaar let out a long sigh of relief and the workers observing started congratulating him.
"Thanks guys."
"My turn now then?" Aleyn asked Camedyr.
"Yeh sure, just let me get the things from my office." Camedyr answered.
Once he returned they started immediately and to the workers surprise she didn't mess around. As much as she had a lot of issues with using magic she had spent a lot of effort in to testing different crystals and different methods to applying her energy.
Every crystal she used she only spent a few minutes working with and then fused it with the equipment. It looked as though she had no real problems with the process to everyone but Camedyr could easily see that she was putting real effort in to the process. In the end she finished the test and presented the five pieces she had fused with shaking hands.
Camedyr after having tested every piece of equipment gave a thumbs up.
"You pass. Tomorrow you can start with enchanting. Bring a sober head and a full stomach."
And with that the day came to an end as it was time to close the workshop.
The next day Camedyr started instructing the people who passed.
"Enchanting. Unlike the other parts of blacksmithing is a very very delicate part of your studies. It requires a lot more than trial and error or knowledge of the material but of course these points are essential as well. One of you will go back to the library today and read a lot while the others have to do something else. You can decided amongst each other who gets to go first."
Only a handful of workers had passed the exam yesterday so the small group had to decide who got the privilege of entering the library first.The workers discussed amongst each other and decided to just draw sticks. In the end the one who won the drawing was Kyrtaar.
He departed immediately and Camedyr proceeded on instructing people.
"Now the rest of you. You will be drawing these in to these hardened steel plates until I feel you're doing a good job."
"Shit.. drawing." Aleyn sighed.
If there was something she had trouble with it was art but when Camedyr showed what they needed to do she felt a little bit relieved as the symbols weren't that complicated. They were mostly generic symbols like squares circles or triangles. The thing that separated them from normal geometry symbols was that they weren't exactly symmetric or the lines weren't straight in all cases.
"And here's what you're gonna fuse the pictures with."
Camedyr gave everyone a large pouch. Inside the pouch was a dusty substance.
"Whats this then?" Aleyn asked.
"That right there is mostly the crystals you guys have been fusing. Re-using materials like these is a smart thing to do."
In other words their job was to draw symbols with crystal dust. The task seemed easy but it was actually harder than expected. The steps basically involved taking a heap of dust in your palm, holding it there with your energy until it lost its form and became a ball of energy and crystal dust that floated on the palm, after which you had to fuse it on the plates and draw at the same time until they ran out of dust.
On a plus note fusing dust took a lot less energy than fusing a crystal but on the other hand holding the dust with your concentration was quite tricky due to it having no real form and while all this was going on you needed to draw the symbols.
They spent most of the morning doing the exercise and during mid day Kyrtaar showed up. Camedyr walked up to him and started talking.
"Oh you're back. You feel you got a grasp of it then?"
"Somewhat." Kyrtaar answered.
"Well lets see it then!"
Camedyr handed one of the plates that everyone had been drawing. It showed a square with the lines bending inwards. Kyrtaar took the plate and focused on the symbol, which made it glow a bright and white. He poured a lot of energy in to the symbol and even his face started to pale slowly. In the end it seemed he was very close to collapsing but Camedyr just kept on observing.
All of a sudden Kyrtaar dropped the plate as he had no more energy to keep his hands straight and he fell to his knees. Camedyr ignored him and picked up the plate and took a look at it before nodding, he then revealed the results to everyone. The inward bent square was now glowing and the glow flowed through the whole square never stopping at a single point.
"This is the outcome. With more elaborate symbols and material the enchantment would actually have an effect other than glowing, you will learn all about that later though so I won't say more. Who's next on the library duty?"
The workers drew another set of sticks and one of the workers left the shop. Camedyr still kept everyone drawing the symbols on the plates while inspecting them. In the end he was only satisfied with two of Aleyns drawings and once the worker had come back from the library it was already time to close the workshop again.