Gaius held up the little box in his hand. Its appearance was the very antithesis of extraordinary; it was but a small wooden cube with no markings whatsoever. It felt like a hollow object, from the weight of it, but he had a feeling that the box wasn’t as ordinary as it seemed to be. After all, the man had absolutely no reason to play around with him, unless he had some compulsion to lie and fib every few seconds.
He tossed it up and down, eyeing the little cube as it bounced up and down through the air. If there was some mechanism inside, jolting it around like this would have created some faint clicks, even if it was a lock, but it was absolutely silent. Gaius even tried tapping it a few times over, but there was nothing either.
“So,” Gaius murmured out loud, “are you just a compulsive liar?”
Tossing the cube into a pocket, he slid down the roof and returned into the little hut, where La-Ti was still fast asleep. Slipping onto his own bed, Gaius made himself comfortable, and then laid down, mind racing.
The cube was, despite all his tests earlier, probably something that was on the same level as the energy salts of Cybral. If not for the fact that Gaius was loath to eat something that clearly wasn’t food, he might had tried shoving it down his throat for the heck of it. But since he wasn’t in any rush to decipher the secrets of the cube, Gaius was content to wait until the Chanter of Innocence popped by; the great god had run off somewhere to do something.
Yawning in the silence, Gaius pulled the blanket over to cover his feet, and then fell asleep.
After what seemed like a few minutes, Gaius was awakened by streams of gold light. His new apprentice was already up and working; the beginnings of a sculpture already in his hand. Sculpting in Cybral took way longer than it was in Orb, since this world lacked mystical energies of any sort. It was fortunate that the various passive Abilities he had were still carried over here, or else taking upwards of six hours to create a single hand-sized sculpture would have been the norm for him.
Once they were done with breakfast, which was just some sunny-side ups, Gaius grabbed his tools and some wood, before heading outside. For the past few days, kids had been coming over to see him make little miracles from simple blocks of wood, and their parents had been rather appreciative of that. It probably didn’t help that Gaius had a tendency to give a completed piece out every day, while setting up a nice spread of dishes for both lunch and dinner.
His little actions did have some payoff; the kids’ families would occasionally send some dishes over to spice up their lunch and dinner. His courtyard had also turned into a meeting place of sorts; most children ran over to chatter there now.
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“It’s probably the result of having so many sculptures standing around,” Gaius said, as a duo skipped inside. The humanoid sculptures, in particular, were good props to play make-believe with, and in the course of playing, some children had even tried to sculpt or create their own props.
A lady, around twenty years old, walked into the courtyard at that moment, and the small crowd of children split up to let her through in silence. Only when she walked over to Gaius did the noise resume, but by then, the lady was close enough to talk normally.
This lady, whose brown hair was tied up into a nice little bundle, was called Thel-Da. She had ordered a sculpture of their family patriarch a few days back, so Gaius was somewhat surprised to see her return so soon. After all, sculptures weren’t expendable items…
“Craftsman Gai-Us.” Her left hand rose to touch her chest, the Cybral way of greeting someone. Gaius reciprocated with a greeting of his own, and after gesturing for her to seat, he clapped his hands.
La-Ti poked his head out and saw the visitor. Retracting his head faster than a disturbed turtle, he soon brought a small tray filled with two glasses of orange juice; something Gaius had received a few days ago. Rubbing his apprentice’s head in thanks, Gaius turned to his visitor and motioned at her to take a sip.
“To what pleasure do I owe this visit, miss?”
She placed down her own glass of orange juice. “The family’s pleased with the sculpture I commissioned from you. They’ll like a few more.”
“A few more?” Gaius repeated. “That’s really expensive. Are you sure?”
“Expensive?” The lady shook her head. “That word doesn’t exist in the Thel family’s dictionary. Anyway, we would like you to create a sculpture of this person.”
She slid a photo over, and Gaius raised an eyebrow. The woman depicted inside was gorgeous, but that wasn’t the main point. Rather, it was her clothes that were the problem. She was wearing a military uniform, one adorned with medals and ribbons, and it was clear that the people behind Thel-Da wanted him to sculpt all these achievements.
“I’ll need more time for this,” Gaius replied. “I don’t need to explain why, do I?”
“Naturally not, Craftsman Gai-Us.”
“Excellent. Are you going to provide the wood again?” Gaius asked. “Or would you want me to source it on my own?”
“We’ll be hiring a painter, so I think it’ll be best if you find your own materials for maximum quality,” she replied. “After all, it’ll be interesting to see what a master sculptor likes in his or her wood.”
“Looks like I’ll have to pay a visit to the log mill in town,” Gaius replied, getting up from his seat. “Are you going to come along?”
“Naturally. If we know your selection criteria, the next time we commission works from you, we’ll send you the best materials we can find,” she replied.
“Good enough.” Gaius poked his head into the hut. “La-Ti, stop work for now. I’m going to bring you into town.”
His words caused all the other kids to look at him hopefully, and Gaius rolled his eyes. “Can’t bring you all into town. Your parents will scold me. How about this; you get your parents to say yes, and I’ll bring you all next time.”
The other kids ruminated on his words for a moment, and then nodded. Returning to their games and chatter, Gaius locked up his little hut, and followed Thel-Da out of the courtyard. After making a few explanations to the parents who spotted him, the three made their way towards the main hub of City No.2588.
“Craftsman Gai-Us,” said the lady, “where did you learn your exquisite skills from?”
“Oh, it’s a long story…”