Chapter 14 : The art of trading

Nikolaï was getting ready to mark his runic coins. Creating glyphs on metal could be done by using engraving tools but the level of details required made it hard for a neophyte like Nikolaï. Press didn’t work on it or at least the kind which could be stamped on metal were complex machinery. Nothing that looked like Nikolaï’s one.

By his test on leather Nikolaï was pretty confident in his dexterity to sculpt soft matter with a pointy blade. Even on wood, he was pretty sure he could do well and had tried creating his own stamp for his press with good results. He had also bought a special hammer and chisel but they required different kinds of techniques to produce the same result.

Nikolaï wasn’t handling them well enough to precisely engrave a glyph but he had another way, a more modern way.

With the small hammer and chisel, he had also bought an acid kit, something created by an Alchemist and rather expensive. Nikolaï had invested in it to use acid etching. By doing so the imprint couldn’t be very deep but the design clear enough to hold the glyph.

The first thing Nikolaï had to do was to create the right acid and it was all depending on the alloy. In the kit was a compound meant to be rubbed on the metal with a clean rag. Depending on the colour the compound took after oxidation it was easier to determine what kind of metal the object was.

Nikolaï knew enough about alchemy to not be completely lost about the explanation coming with the kit. After testing his runic coins he cleaned 6 of them thoroughly before making the right acid.

He had also bought a special kind of wax from the apothecary. He wasn’t confident enough in his ability to do this one himself and didn’t want to fail.

Acid was not something someone wanted to put on their skin but that didn’t mean that its effects were the same for every matter. Glass was the most common one which was immune to acid but it was not the only one. The wax Nikolaï bought had been made to be acid-resistant or at least resistant enough to the one he had blended.

Nikolaï started by heating the wax into a small cup and when it became liquid enough he poured some of it on the first runic coin. Only a thin layer of wax was made and Nikolaï used his press before the wax solidified again. He did that for all six and put away every heat source to make sure the wax was taking.

After ten minutes he picked the first coin and scratched the wax inside the design with something looking like a short knitting needle. He acted carefully, removing the wax from the hollows drawn made by the press in order to expose the metal to the air.

He repeated his work on every coin and once done put them on a ceramic plate with high edges. For the final phase, he slowly filled the plate with acid, letting the coin emerge before covering the plate.

It took half a day for Nikolaï to do all that but the result was worth it. After letting the coins for enough time into their acid bath and removing the wax by heating it again, the drawn glyph could clearly be seen.

Nikolaï admired the result and finished the item by attaching an Impalpable Wall Sigil on each one.

***

Nikolaï was back to “Maxwell’s attic”, the new shop he had used 10 days ago. Aspirant Maxwell, the merchant, was here and remembered Nikolaï.

“_ Aspirant Orwood ! Good afternoon, I see that you have another bag with you !” Said Aspirant Maxwell as a welcome.

“_ Good afternoon Aspirant Maxwell. Yes, I have some new items. How do the others sell ?”

“_ Very good, I still have some of your little candles but I’m not worried. The rest went for a really good price.” Answered the Aspirant while taking a pouch from under the desk.

Nikolaï came closer and quickly understood that the pouch was containing his part of the sale and he inspected it while Maxwell looked into the bag. Nikolaï had already been paid when he sold the talismans to the Aspirant but a part of the auction one as belonging to him.

“_ It’s more than what we agree.” Noticed Nikolaï.

“_ Don’t worry it’s not a gift.” Joked the merchant. “I bent a little our initial agreement but trust me you won’t regret it. The first mirror had been sold to a young girl who was also a follower of a quite popular Aspirant of the 3rd Circle. This Aspirant wanted the second one so some of her admire wanted to be the one to offer it to her and started a bidding war on their own.”

“_ On their own?”

“_ Well, I may be suggested it, as a pacific solution.”Added Maxwell with a cheeky expression.

Nikolaï smiled back and didn’t complain. From what he could count Maxwell had at least sold the box for twice its initial value. He wondered at what price exactly it had been sold but Maxwell could refuse to answer and their newborn relationship could suffer from it.

“_ What is this ?” Asked Maxwell while holding the pouch from the bag.

Nikolaï took it and opened it to let the merchant assess the content.

“_ Those are defensive talismans.” Explained Nikolaï. “Each coin had an Impalpable Wall spell on it. It is rather easy to use but they only work once, after that the coin is tainted and the Sigil need to be reattached.”

“_ Oh !”

Maxwell took one of the coins between the fingers of his right hand and joined hands before casting Simple Identification. Nikolaï had been taken a bit by surprise to see Maxwell use that kind of spell but was happy about it. When a Sigil was poorly attached to an object it was harder to display it with the identification spell so it could be used as a way to test the quality of a talisman without using it.

Nikolaï let Maxwell do his thing and waited. The Arcanic part of the object was the job he struggled the less as a Forgerune. He couldn’t do it with his eyes closed but his result was more than adequate and with every success, he was gaining more confidence on how to attach a Sigil. Right now his practical knowledge of this part of the creation process was very close to his theoretical one.

“_ They are well made, did you do it ?” Asked Maxwell innocently.

Nikolaï didn’t fall into the trap. In trade, praises were never free and even if Maxwell was faking a simple curiosity, Nikolaï was cautious.

“_ No it’s the work of another Forgerune.”

“_ Really ?”

“_ I can’t tell you who, it’s part of our agreement. In exchange for helping them sell some of their experiments, they tutor me on the matter.”

“_ Oh I see. They didn’t want to damage their reputation with lesser products.”

“_ Yes.” Said Nikolaï while doing his best in front of the ‘lesser products’ expression.

Nikolaï didn’t have to insist much on his fake story to make it understood by the merchant. The Tower of Dzürkül lacked Forgerunes so it was not easy to find people able to truly assess talismans quality before their use. Because of that, a Forgerune reputation was their most precious currency.

Without experts in the field, customers had to put their trust in a Forgerune work. So at the first sign of failure, rumours were spreading widely and the Forgerune could lose a lot. Due to that, they had a tendency to only sell their best works and that’s what gave credibility to Nikolaï’s story.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A Forgerune would still have to experiment with new products and new spells to attach but if they were an established one they could damage their reputation by selling the result under their name. Rather than throwing away the prototypes they could use a proxy and avoid losing their investments.

Nikolaï’s products were unsigned and could be seen as the work of a beginner or the functional practising experiment of a senior.

After a bit of negotiation, Nikolaï left the shop with an empty bag and a heavier pocket. He was still a bit hurt by the “lesser products” but couldn’t really disagree. His work was well executed but it was still rather simple. He wondered what was going to be the first creation that was going to deserve to be signed by him.

While daydreaming about a future where Nikolaï wouldn’t be scared of revealing his talents he took the direction of the alchemical laboratories. He didn’t intend to use them but had decided to invest the money he had won.

He arrived in front of the laboratories and next to the door looked at a billboard crawling under request. Most of them concerned potions or compounds, and some were about materials but it wasn’t to procure them. Those kinds of requests belong to the billboard in the Tower atrium. Here the offers concerned refining or preparation of materials for other alchemists. In the Tower, Alchemists had their own internal trade of materials and favour. To brew a potion an Alchemist could divide some of the parts into other ones without risking the quality.

Nikolaï looked at the different requests, he was not looking for one but tried to understand the way they were organized. The billboard was free of use and not supervised by the Tower but Alchemists tried to organize it a bit, at least by having an area on it for different kinds of demands.

Nikolaï found several requests for potions and wrote his own before attaching it next to the others. Between one for an antidote and another for healing, Nikolaï pinned his request for a Trance potion and offered 50 gold pounds for it.

After that, Nikolaï went back into his underground room and wondered if he could use a bit of his money to improve his quality of life.

***

Three days later Nikolaï’s request had its effect and had drawn the attention of 3 Alchemists. Being out of touch about who was who he had decided to meet them all one by one to see to whom he was going to give the job.

The first meeting was taking place in the dining hall, which was not uncommon. During the day it was a good place to meet and the place was big enough to offer certain privacy, if needed. The Alchemist was a thin-framed girl, 1 year older than Nikolaï. She had brown air, blue eyes and didn’t seem very confident. Nikolaï and her sat down, it was around 11 a.m.

“_ So Aspirant Hellar…” Started Nikolaï.

“_ Please call me Anna.” Interrupted the girl.

“_ Right.” Said Nikolaï who didn’t want to call her by her first name. “So you think you will be able to brew a Trance potion.”

“_ Yes, I research it a lot and with an advance of 10 gold pounds I could procure the right ingredients and get to it.”

“_ So you have never done it before ?” Asked bluntly Nikolaï.

“_ I assisted my tutor on it so I’m not a complete stranger to it but technically I have never done it myself.”

The way she rolled her eyes at the word “technically” didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in Nikolaï. He was not against hiring a beginner Alchemist or he would have specified it in his request but he was not sure he wanted to deal with someone who seems to treat her lack of experience as a bothering detail.

The second meeting took place in an apothecary shop called “Bourquet’s Brother”. It was really held by two brothers and apparently, the Alchemist and the brothers were used to dealing together. The shop didn’t have a lot of products on display but their reputation was well known. Nikolaï didn’t doubt that the reserve of the shop was probably holding precious products. Most shops used all of their space to expose their product but the brother had chosen to divide their entry into two parts. One had shelves with all sorts of compounds and materials and the other had a table and chairs. To Nikolaï this simple table was a way to affirm how seriously they took negotiation. Rather than doing that on their small counter where the register was, they could invite their customers to sit and discuss.

Nikolaï and the Alchemist were sat at this table, next to a window made of blurry glass. The Alchemist's name was Vera Soreco and she was a bit more familiar to Nikolaï. He never met her personally but he crossed her path in the tower a few times. She was easy to spot because of the scar she had on her face. It was under her eyes and across her nose and people unimaginably nicknamed her the “Scarred Alchemist” behind her back.

Besides her scar she had dark curly hair with green eyes, she was of Nikolaï height even if she was a year older and her skin was slightly brown, like if she was naturally tanned. Nikolaï had assumed she was from the northern island with her appearance.

“_ You are looking for a Trance potion.” Started Aspirant Soreco after they exchanged courtesies.

“_ Yes, I know the potion can’t be preserved long so I put a request rather than using an apothecary.”

“_ You are right. When the potion is complete it has to be consumed in the following two weeks so it’s not something you could stock… It’s one of the reasons for its price but your offer is still a bit low.” Said rather directly Aspirant Soreco.

“_ I’m ready to negotiate.”

Nikolaï wasn’t surprised, revisiting prices was the point of this kind of meeting and the fact the previous Alchemist didn’t, spoke volumes about her confidence to do the potion.

“_ It will cost you 70 gold pounds and I will need 20 in advance.”

Nikolaï surprised was not well contained but he quickly regained his composure.

“_ I thought we could agree on something around 60.” Said honestly Nikolaï.

“_ I think your judgment relies on prices that you had probably seen during winter or fall.” Started Aspirant Soreco. “Some of the raw materials for the potion are less rare during those seasons which impacts the price.”

“_ Hum … So providing this material is more expensive.”

“_ Yes and no.” Corrected Aspirant Soreco without hesitance in her voice. “Those materials had already become overpriced to the point that using them for a Trance potion would be a waste.”

Nikolaï looked at his interlocutor a bit confused.

“_ I don’t intend to buy them but to replace them with something more seasonal. I know the potion well enough to know how to alter the recipe to have the same effect.”

“_ The replacements are more expensive ?” Asked Nikolaï with curiosity.

“_ More than the other at the right season, yes. But it’s not all I offer with this price.” Continued the Alchemist. “Can I assume that the potion is for you ?”

“_ Yes.” Answered Nikolaï intrigued.

“_ The effects of this kind of potion, actually in most potions, don’t depend on just how well it had been made. Dosing is important too. Your weight, age, gender and other aspects affect the effects of the potion. If you know what you are doing you can adapt some part of the preparation to your subject and make sure it benefits most of the potion.”

Nikolaï listened with great interest. He knew the fact that the same potion didn’t have the same level of effect depending on the person using it. Some apothecary in the open market even offered a male or female version of some of their products.

Vera Soreco clearly seemed to know the subject very well and had simplified her explanation to Nikolaï’s attention. She was offering a custom-made potion, which justified a price above the market on itself. Nikolaï appreciated the certain transparency of her future work and asked a few more questions.

Aspirant Soreco answered most of them and they ended their meeting.

The third meeting of the day took place in the personal laboratory of the alchemist. It was a man, older than Nikolaï and already half bald. Personal laboratories were on the fourth floor and only reserved for recognized alchemists. They had ventilation and access to disposable holes for their failed experiment. The laboratories were also coming with a bedroom next to them and the competition was hard to get one.

The Tower rooms improved the higher they were on the attribution to a stage was depending on the Circle the Aspirants or Arcanists belonged to. Personal laboratories were an exception because the level of skill of the alchemist could compensate for its Circle.

Nikolaï didn’t know how Alchemists were tested exactly but he knew that having a personal laboratory was a sign that he was dealing with someone competent.

The meeting didn’t take long and the Alchemist's attitude toward Nikolaï showed a certain disdain. The Alchemist was an heir to a family well-versed in the matter so he didn’t surprise Nikolaï. In fact, he didn’t care for it much if the alchemist could deliver.

He could but because of his schedule and late delivery, he couldn’t start before a month. To compensate for the delay he asked for only 55 gold pounds.

It was after dusk and Nikolaï just finished his mediation session. While washing himself he thought about the offers he had received. His choice was so obvious that he was forcing himself to doubt it. Mentally he counted the money he had and how much time he needed to collect the rest.