Chapter 13 : Beginner Forgerune

Nikolaï had just finished practising his spells and was feeling too limited by his ether level. He believed that if he had more energy to spend he could progress faster and without limiting himself to mostly level 0 spells.

His Ether was close to solidifying and his vessel was more and more stable so Nikolaï wondered if it was the time to plan for a new assimilation. He had thought about it for a while but unfortunately, he couldn’t use minor creatures anymore. He needed one with denser ether to make it count. If not it would barely top a regular meditation session with still having to handle the poisoning.

Nikolaï had looked into the bestiary of the Tower and had found good candidates but hunting them was too dangerous for him. Which was very frustrating ! In order to become more powerful, he needed to hunt one of those creatures but to hunt them he needed to be more powerful.

Nikolaï sighed. If he was one of those wealthy influential Aspirants he could have relied on a party to accompany him but he wasn’t. Some of those Aspirants sometimes don’t even have to move from their room to benefit from a gathering that they “organized”.

Nikolaï grumbled a bit more before moving on. Meditation was working fine for now and his progress were steady even if they didn’t match his wild dreams. Once they had brought him where he wanted he could still consider a hunt.

While waiting for that, Nikolaï was not without things to do and his debuts as Forgerune were waiting for his attention. Today he was going to attempt his first making of a “true” runic object. Before that, all he had done was experiment but not anymore. He was planning to build two kinds of candles.

The first ones used metal candleholders that he had bought earlier and cleaned. The design was simple, a fire toad eye was put in the hole and covered with wax where the glyph would be engraved. Nikolaï had perfected the Palm Flame fusion and aimed at creating lamps.

The eyes of the fire toad were the ones he used the first time he tried absorbing the ether from a creature. He had kept them and treated them for future use and it was now. He used what he had learned from his Forgerune books to fill them with fire elementium which was going to be used to power the spell.

If Nikolaï didn’t mess it up he believed that they could work for a month or two and hope that they could fetch a good price on the open market. The use of metal candle holders was the only thing he had thought to increase the appeal of the product.

The second kind of lamp wasn’t going to look better but was a bit more advanced. It was made of a wooden saucer, a deeper kind than the one he used for his tests and it was built in two steps. First, a runic coin was put at the bottom of the saucer and a thin layer of wax poured on it. On this wax, Nikolaï had to engrave the glyph which was going to gather elementium from the surrounding into the coins when activated. Once done, a second coin was put above the glyph, to protect it, and a new layer of wax poured above everything. On this last layer of wax, Nikolaï had to attach the fire spell that would produce the light using the elementium gathered in the coins.

To work the runic coin had to be clean from elementium to avoid parasite into the mechanical. Once they were in, their charge was going to be regulated by the first glyph but before that, they needed to be untainted. To do it there was all kind of chemical way or even ritual but Nikolaï had chosen a spell : Dissipation. It had required a lot of work but he had successfully learned it and by using it he could cleanse his runic coins from any residual elementium.

The spell was complex but very useful and Nikolaï didn’t regret his effort. A simple runic coin could cost five times more after Dissipation had been used on it. For a Forgerune, knowing the spell wasn’t mandatory but could easily reduce some of the cost of their activity.

One of the main difficulties in learning Dissipation was the lack of input the spell had. Unless the caster somehow possessed an improbable ability to perceive elementium it was hard to see if the spell was working or not. When practising it was even harder to identify what errors were made and it wasn’t the kind of spell that could half work. If the casting wasn’t good enough the spell was going to fail, there was no difference between small and big mistakes.

To handle the spell, regular Aspirants had to simply practice blindly for months until they developed a sense of familiarity with it and improved their casting. It was a long and unsure process that could spread over the years and many people didn’t bother to do it even when they reached the Arcanist level.

Nikolaï had cheated his way to learn the spell but he was in no way ashamed of it. In fact, he was proud of his spell because it was the first valuable one he had learned. Not the most practical but just the fact that he knew Dissipation could open opportunity for him in and out of the Tower. Sadly, it was also the reason he had to hide it, at least for now.

In the future, he could reveal having that kind of spell in his arsenal but he would have to hide the extent of his proficiency in it. Nikolaï was all about staying low, it was the smart and wise move. Nonetheless, the pride he felt in having such a spell made him feel good about himself, a feeling that he sadly became estranged threw those last few years.

Nikolaï spent three-quarters of his day creating his candles before stopping and he only did it because he was running out of material. The work was exhausting but Nikolaï seemed to power throw it by just sheer excitement. Using Arcane to create objects felt right to him because it was something that he could become good at. Sure his fast development was thanks to his Third Eye but even without this, the work of the Forgerune was making sense to him. More than alchemy ever did when he had tried it.

Forgerune were rarer than alchemist in Dzürkül so classes and tutors were uncommon. That’s why Nikolaï never dived into it but now he was regretting not having tried to look into it sooner.

In his head, Nikolaï was picturing a wooden sign displaying : “Nikolaï Orwood, Arcanist of the 4th Circle, Forgerune.” The idea was pleasant and for a moment it took Nikolaï’s mind out of his underground room.

He snapped back into reality and started to gather some of his creations. Selling all of it would be unwise for the moment but Nikolaï ended up taking 4 of each candleholders type. He only had 6 one with metallic support but he planned to buy more material with his sales. For the self-powering kind, he had made 8 and wanted to keep at least 2 for himself. The rest he intended to sell them at a later date.

Nikolaï left the Tower and walked into the area in front of it. In a bag, he had his product and was looking for a store. Forgerune being less common than Alchemist there were no dedicated shops like apothecary in the open market. One shop, “The Milner Miracle store”, was known to be able to order Talismans from outside but Nikolaï didn’t think it was a good idea to go there. His creations were lesser products that couldn’t compete with the ones imported or the ones sold by the few Forgerunes from the Tower.

Arcanist Amos was one of them and she was selling her product to the “Milner Miracle store” so even if Nikolaï had good enough products he was still going to avoid the shop.

Fortunately selling Talismans and other Forgerune’s products was not submitted to regulation so almost every shop could do it. Nikolaï looked for one which was selling everyday objects, it was here that he believed he could find a buyer. He avoided the one from where he bought the candleholders and chose one which was not far from the Tower doors. He hoped its placement could favour the business and went inside “Gaulder’s shop”.

The shop was smaller than he had thought from outside and the object’s profusion in it didn’t help that way. He looked around quickly and felt confident. His products were not going to stand out too much but still had a good chance of being sold.

“_ Good evening.” Said Nikolaï while approaching the desk close to the door.

“_ Good evening, what are you looking for ?” Asked the Aspirant.

Nikolaï put his bag on the counter and opened it to let the Aspirant see its contents. The Aspirant was a tall girl with brown hair and dark eyes and she put away the paper she was writing on to look into the bag.

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“_ Actually I’m trying to sell those talismans.” Answered Nikolaï.

“_ What do they do ?” Asked the girl while taking one out.

“_ All of them are candle-type items. You just have to activate them and they will produce a flame.”

To demonstrate his say, Nikolaï displayed one of each of his creations and activated them.

“_ The flame is quite big !” Commented the Aspirant.

She had been a bit surprised due to the misleading fact that Nikolaï called them candles. The size of the flame was halfway between the candle and the lantern.

“_ The little ones seem weaker.” Added the Aspirant.

“_ No, but they used surrounding elementium so they need a bit of time to charge completely.” Explained Nikolaï.

The girl responded with a simple “hum” while looking at the two. After a minute the brightness of the self-powering candle had matched the other one and the Aspirant took the others from the bag to test if they also worked.

She asked a few questions about durability and use but not about where they came from. Which was a relief for Nikolaï, he was hoping that she assumed that he was only the delivery guy and not the Forgerune himself, which was not unheard of as a way of doing.

“_ All right !” Finally said the Aspirant. “How much for all ?”

She had kept a straight face and Nikolaï tried to do the same. He wasn’t good at negotiation and was lacking experience in Forgerune to be confident in his assessment. He pretended to think about it even if he had a price in his mind before coming into the shop. He did it because he was surprised that the girl offered to buy them all. He had except to visit at least 2 shops to sell his stock and wondered if she was trying to rattle him.

“_ Thirty-six gold pounds.” Offered Nikolaï.

The girl sighed and looked back at the products while calculating.

“_ So 4 gold and 10 silver each.” Said the Aspirant. “It’s probably their reselling value but it doesn’t let me a lot of room to make a profit. How about 33 gold ?”

Nikolaï didn’t like it. Three didn’t seem a big number but 3 gold pounds was equal to 60 silver pounds or 1200 bronze ones. For a poor commoner, 3 gold pounds represented his spending for almost 3 months of basic costs.

Nikolaï stayed quiet, thinking about it but the Aspirant could clearly see he was not satisfied.

“_ If you are not in a hurry we could maybe find an arrangement.” Added the Aspirant.

Nikolaï reacted quickly, too quickly for the composed attitude he was trying to have. He saw the smile of the girl in front of his reaction and felt angry at himself, it was like she was playing him.

“_ I’ll buy everything for 32 gold coins but I’ll open bidding for the last of each type and share half of the profit with you.” Explained the Aspirant. “I think it’ll take a month or two but in the end, it could be like you had sold everything for 38 or 40 gold coins. It’s not a bad deal.”

Nikolaï pondered. It was not a bad deal for him and apparently for her either. In front of him, the Aspirant was acting impatient, trying to push him to rush his decision but Nikolaï kept his calm.

“_ Alright I’ll accept your 32 gold pounds but as an advance. For the rest, if in one month you haven’t sold the auctions one you’ll just give 4 more gold pounds like I was asking and you keep the rest.”

The Aspirant considered it for a moment and they shook hands on it. Just after she started writing a contract. It was a bit late but tomorrow they could bring it to the Tower authority to make it official. The Tower administration was the perfect witness and it very often eased both parties to have them as arbiters.

The contract was quick to draw and they both signed it. It favoured the Aspirant a bit more than Nikolaï but he was not looking to make the best sell possible. In one month he could have at least won 36 gold pounds for one day of work.

He left the shop with half of the initial payment and half of his stock. The rest was going to be exchanged the next day after the contract was going to be registered.

Nikolaï felt good about the sale and the small fortune in his pocket but he was not completely satisfied with his products. Sure they were practical but they lack aesthetic value and even if he knew that before, the talk with the merchant only made it clearer that it was a disadvantage.

Nikolaï was confident in the quality of his work but nobody was going to buy it if they didn’t notice it first. Having still a small hour before the shops closed, Nikolaï decided to look around for ideas.

He found a pair of assorted candleholders and intended to make them as a set for the last fire toad eyes he had. He visited the shop where he had bought his short-sword and looked at the shelves. He knew that the battle talismans could fetch a better price but he wanted to gain more confidence in his Forgerune abilities before trying to create such items. It was not the kind of thing that could fail in the middle of its use.

In another shop, he bought 2 small jewellery boxes, probably sold by Aspirants needing some quick cash. They had expensive decorations on them and were finely chiselled and crafted. They were the perfect base for the project he had after the candles and would bring a sense of luxury to the final product.

He also bought more runic coins, tainted ones, from another shop and ended the day with a detour at a tannery where he bought some leather.

When Nikolaï went back to his room he had to spend 1 gold pound (for the boxes) and 12 silver pounds (3 for the leather and 9 for the runic coins). After today's sale, it felt like pocket money.

***

During the week that followed, Nikolaï shared his time between his spells practice, finishing a new batch of “runic candles” and experimenting with more advanced Foregerune techniques.

Those techniques were mainly about the different ways to create a glyph and attach a sigil to it. To create a glyph was to engrave it on matters but depending on the material there was a different approach to it. On wax, using a press was the best because it made a smooth design rather than risking mistakes by directly sculpting it. On leather, it was also possible to use a press but with the one, Nikolaï possessed the markings were too shallow and he had to improve it with a sharp blade to make sure the glyph would work.

He had tested it to see if he could create talismans on leather armour and things like that. He hadn’t yet tried on hard leather but he was satisfied with his results on soft ones. Especially because leather could be tricky. Depending on the animal he came from it was not going to react the same way with each elementium. It was something a Forgerune had to think about when he was choosing his materials.

Right now Nikolaï had sewed a pouch with some of his leather and engraved a glyph inside it. The sigil he attached was a variation of the Dissipation one, the effect was too low to clean its content but it was not its purpose. Nikolaï was going to try more battle-oriented talismans and the fist-size pouch was made to store them inside. The Dissipation properties were going to prevent them from being contaminated by parasitic elementium before their use. It was the equivalent of storing meat in a fresh and dark place rather than under the sun.

***

Nine days after selling his first candles he was back to the store. He had come with more but this time he didn’t open his bag immediately. Another Aspirant was holding the store, an employee of the other one had thought Nikolaï, and there were other clients in it when he had come.

While waiting for his turn Nikolaï looked around and noticed that his previous work was not really well displayed. It was stored half behind other junk with a poorly written description of what they were. It was not that Nikolaï believed that his work deserved a prominent place but they were Forgerune products, not common objects.

Nikolaï understood quickly the purpose of the merchant. It was not in her interest to sell them quickly, in fact, it was the opposite because once the month passed and paid Nikolaï his 4 extra coins she could claim all the benefit of the auction. Nikolaï knew that when they signed the contract but hadn’t accepted it without counterparts.

The Aspirant had found her way in their contract but because of that, she couldn’t ask for a non-competitive clause. She had assumed that Nikolaï’s candles were a one-time opportunity and had hurried to make the most of it. It was her mistake.

Nikolaï walked away from the shop and found another one not far away. It looked a bit less furnished but after a second look it was well organized and under some of the displayed objects were notes saying how many of them the owner had in his reserve.

Nikolaï went to the desk where an Aspirant, a bit older than himself, was. He showed him what he had and this time he was the one to suggest allowing bidding on certain items. The merchant wasn’t close to the idea and accepted to do it for the pair of metallic candleholders, the fact that they were a set made them more valuable.

Once again the aesthetic value didn’t serve well in some of his creations but the merchant was confident that the self-powering candles were going to be sold easily if he approached the right buyer.

The prices offered by the shop were not different from the other but the merchant was better at highlighting his role as a fence. He had established customers and Nikolaï could clearly see that his confidence to sell his work was not a lie.

It put Nikolaï more at ease when he showed his last creations, the ones using the jewellery box. It had created a double base filled with wax where he had imprinted a glyph. This time it was not a candle but a mirror using Moist Mirror spell. When activated a mirror big enough to see a person all face would appear.

The merchant was very funned of it and he only regretted that the spell wasn’t activated by the simple act of opening the box. Physical triggers weren’t beyond Nikolaï’s reach but he needed to own his basic first.