Artificer's Guild

"Beginning suction process." Dylan said with little enthusiasm as he switched on the suction unit for the mana batteries before walking back to the safety of the thick piece of metal that acted as a barrier between them and the inevitable explosion.

Dylan sighed as him and Alban waited for their creation to, once again, explode. The frost sprayer at the ready.

"Three, two, one."

BOOM!

A wave of heat and shrapnel flew overhead, neither of which they worried about more than the actual flame that had long since scorched the area where their device once stood intact.

Dylan sighed and walked over towards his toolbox while Alban smothered the flame in the freezing cold mist yet again. Covering the remains of their device in a thick white powder before sweeping it up and retrieving their next device that varied only slightly from the last.

But Dylan had little hope of this one succeeding where the last failed.

"Maybe we should go back to what we know, Alban."

Dylan pulled out a small lightweight box and lifted the lid to reveal little wind-up scrap toys. He retrieved a little bird that he wound-up and sat down, watching it shuffle and chirp for a few moments before the mechanism ceased after coming to the end of its short bout of life.

That was how Dylan and Alban made enough coin after growing too old for the orphanage. Rooting for scrap and parts and throwing them together to make little toys to sell to kids for barely a Daele shippenny.

Dylan, like most gnomes, loved to experiment though. Pushing the boundaries of their world in search of that next feat of innovation on the horizon! Most gnomes in Daele though had tampered down that spark of innovation in favor of accounting and bookkeeping in service to the dwarves and their mercantile pursuits.

But not Dylan. Even as he consumed books, scrolls, and even tomes from the orphanage library or from traders coming into the city. He always wanted to do more, to see and know how their world worked and how to make it a better one! Easier for those like him to go through it with little worry of monsters or villains waiting to pounce on you around the next alley corner or bend in the road.

So as Dylan accumulated enough coin to rent out a rundown warehouse for his burgeoning artificery, his dwarven brother following stoically after, he retired their tinker toys in favor of pushing the bounds of mixing technology with magic!

Except those early years were harder than they thought and more often than not they would have to resort to going back to being toytinkerers just to pay the far too high cost of the shabby building that was about one decent squall away from crushing them both.

But he and Alban made do. Switching between toymaking to pay the bills, to experimenting to fuel their passion. Or at least Dylan's, Alban was content no matter where they went or what they did. Dylan wasn't sure what his brother actually wanted to do despite asking him many a time.

Alban was "Clanless", which was a formal way of saying he was a bastard who's parentage either died before they could properly claim him within dwarven society, or was abandoned for one reason or another. Dylan, however, was simply left at the orphanage while his parents pursued their own dreams and ambitions. They never came back from whatever it was they wanted to do, he wasn't even sure they were still alive or not.

The orphanage was filled with many children. Most were human and gnomes, maybe the odd elf or two, but Alban was the only dwarf. Humans didn't last long at the orphanage before they either ran away to become streetrats and scamps that earned their bread by picking a pocket or two or signing onto a ship. Elves were usually adopted by the nobility to either "beautify" their lineage with elvish blood or because they wanted a sylvan ward to show off during balls and other hostings.

Gnomes were almost always taken in by the dwarves and their mercantile clans. Most being in little more than indentured servitude as they worked night and day to repay their dwarven masters for buying them from the orphanage at an excellent price.

But not Dylan or Alban. Dylan didn't want to strain his eyes going over page after page after page of numbers in candlelight, and Alban was ostracized for being clanless, which was a blackmark to the dwarves even if it wasn't his fault.

So while Dylan and Alban watched kid after kid come and go, they remained as the months turned to years and they stuck to one another even as their stuff was packed and they were forced to leave their only home.

So they rooted and scrounged for anything they could get. Dylan shuddered as he recalled the weeks where their only meals were rats and pigeons, seagulls if they were lucky enough that one of his birdtraps worked as intended.

Diomede. That was the "family" name that Dylan and Alban both got. The fancy name for an Albatross. A cursed bird that harkened misfortune and bad luck to sailors. A name and meaning that Dylan, and Alban by association, had earned throughout their time at the orphanage as he experimented on anything and everything in an effort to better understand the intricacies of their world.

It wasn't his fault that the orphanage blew up once... or twice. He and Alban were in the middle of very delicate experiments that were rudely interrupted by the Matron! But the some dozen or so times after were entirely his fault he would admit as they had resorted to hiding in the groundskeeper's shed so that the old spinster wouldn't interfere.

Thus the name Diomede. Which even after they left the orphanage seemed to hover over them like that cursed bird as experiment after experiment into artificery blew up, in most cases literally, in their face. Then the mana batteries! Mana canisters that would allow the regular person to cast simple spells without worry!

No decades of training! No outrageous academy fees! No strain on the body from mana overuse! No more foul miasma of bad luck over Dylan and Alban! Finally! They had created something they were both proud of in that it didn't explode!

Until now that is, Dylan thought as sifted through the box of toys. Sure they weren't exactly popular even after their invention, even after the banking clan sponsored them, but at least they had something to shove into people's faces that forced them to at least be polite!

"Now we don't even have that." Dylan muttered as he put back the box of toys and wandered over to Alban who waited patiently and silently for the gnome to begin the sequence again.

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Dylan sighed and pressed a complex series of buttons and nobs on the contraption of metal and glass.

"Beginning suction."

Him and Alban meandered over behind the shield as the sounds of their device began to suck in the ambient mana within the air into the canister. As Dylan and Alban waited for the explosion, the door to their workshop opened to reveal the tanned human that was speaking with Aerin not long ago.

"Hello?"

The human wandered in as he looked about the place. His eyes landed on the huddled forms of Dylan and Alban and then up at the hissing and spitting device. His eyes went wide as he cursed and threw himself onto the floor just in front of Dylan and Alban as the device exploded once again.

A couple of smoking gears rained down on his prone form as Dylan fetched the icespewer while Alban aided the human in standing.

"So you are our new overseer?"

"Yeah? I guess? Though I'm still not entirely sure what exactly it is I'm overseeing." The human said.

Dylan sighed as he finished putting out the fire.

"Guess that depends on what Aerin told you. Either you are here to make sure we succeed, or you are here to make sure we don't kill everyone."

The human scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, he wasn't exactly clear about it either."

"Well, no matter. Aerin and the Banking Clan won't have to worry about us for much longer at this rate." Dylan declared as he dragged over a canister that was almost as big as he was.

"Now hold on a sec. Just because you run into a hiccup... or two-"

"Or thirty."

"Thirty?!"

"We've been at this for quite some time already."

"Well, or thirty. If at first you don't succeed try and try again."

"Easy for you to say when you haven't even tried it once." Dylan replied with a bit more snark than he probably should've.

"I better get started then." The human declared as he walked over to the machine as Dylan was about to place the canister in.

"You said you could put some sort of dampener on it."

"Which we have." Dylan said as he gestured to a thick piece of cloth placed between the mechanism and the canister that was supposed to limit how much was being forced into the canister.

"That... isn't near enough." The human stated as he looked around for a solution.

"Well, we have to make do with what we have. The Banking Clan is getting thrifty with how much resources they give us." Dylan stated as he watched the human go over to a bunch of cupboards and sift through them looking for something.

"No. No. No. Too small. No." The human hmm'd as he tapped his chin in thought for a moment before exclaiming and running out of the workshop.

Dylan looked at his brother with a silent question which was replied with nothing more than a grunt and a shrug of his thick shoulders. Dylan and Alban fiddled with the canister for a moment longer before the human rushed back in with a large funnel that looked like it came from a oil can.

The human also brought back a large worn red toolbox and sat next to Dylan and Alban as he dug through the chaotic mess that was an assorted mix of tools, tapes, nails, even rubber bands and paperclips.

He pulled out a metal file and a tape measure and looked between the contraption, the canister, and the funnel as he worked to etch grooves into the edge of the funnel. Alban, seeing what he was doing and seeing him slow at the strenuous work, took over. His meaty dwarven hands doing a surprisingly excellent job at the delicate work.

While Alban worked away, the human turned and asked Dylan how the device was supposed to work.

"Well, it's meant to suck in the ambient mana in the air and condense it into a form that would allow someone to use magic with minimal, if any, training."

"Can anyone use magic?"

"No. Some people are simply born without that spark to use magic. Some do have it but it's so weak that it may as well not exist. And some simply do not have the training to wield it properly."

"So this mana battery fixes that how?"

"By allowing the mana to go straight to the spell rather than being channeled through the person wielding it."

"Like an electrical current."

"Exactly! It negates the wear on the user while allowing ANYONE to wield magic with ease!" Dylan stated proudly.

"But then, how DOES magic work?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how does magic work." The human repeated the bizarre question.

"It... just does? There is energy in our world that certain people can pull from and manipulate."

"But HOW?"

"I... don't know?" Dylan said with a measure of uncertainty. That was a question that he, nor anyone he's heard or read about, has been asked.

Magic simply was. It was no different than the air or water. It was like asking how did water work! Sure there were some that questioned where they came from, but that mainly came from people that had too much to drink. Most scholars never asked these types of questions because to everyone. Magic was simply a fact of life, just as was breathing.

It actually rattled Dylan a bit because now HE was asking questions in his own head! Not one or two but dozens if not hundreds a second! What was magic, where did it come from, where did it go, how's, why's, when's. Dylan felt his own mind start to boil from the thoughts that he didn't notice Alban poke him with the newly grooved funnel.

"Wonder if it's like a dormant trait within the mind like some say telekinesis is supposed to be?" The human said as he retrieved the funnel from Alban when Dylan was too busy having an existential crisis.

"Or maybe its midichlorians?" The human snickered.

"What?" Dylan asked as his mind slowed down to the here and now.

"Nothing. Anyway, if we can lower the suction speed, and along with this funnel, we should be able to slow the amount of, what was it? Mana?"

Dylan and Alban both nodded.

"Right, mana. Thus getting rid of the risk of explosions."

The human fixed half the grooves to the canister before finagling it to the suction mechanism. He pulled out a large bundle of gray wrappings that he pulled away from one another and wrapped it liberally around the area the three parts met.

He then asked Dylan how to turn the settings on the device down. To which Dylan replied that they couldn't.

"Why not?"

"Well, because we want so much within a short amount of time."

"Well, now we don't. So how do we fix that?" The human asked.

The two brainstormed, with Alban injecting a grunt here and there. Eventually the three decided that a manual pump was needed for the test as they couldn't figure out a way to slow the process on their current model.

So a small handpump was retrieved from somewhere within the toolbox and jury-rigged to the device with a drill and yet more ducktape as Dylan heard the human call it. He wasn't sure what tape was or how it came from a duck but it was pretty handy to have around it seemed.

With pump in hand, and their device covered in the shiny gray tape, the human began to slowly pump away. For a long few minutes nothing happened within the canister. Dylan thought that the pump was wrong, or how it just proved that they needed to go faster.

But then they saw it. A dark blue mist was slowly condensing in the glass canister. Something which Dylan and Alban didn't like. Something the human picked up on as he looked from fascination with the mist that was appearing to concern and confusion at the two of them.

"What's wrong?"

"It's not supposed to be that color." Dylan said as he and Alban started to back away from the canister as it slowly started to rock and shake.

The human continued to pump with one hand as he retrieved a magnifying glass and peered into the mist.

"Uhm, are those supposed to be in there?"

Dylan's curiosity overpowered his fear of a explosion as he hurried over and swiping the large magnifying glass and peered into the mist as well. From there he saw the buzzing motes of mana that he was familiar with. But they were saturated with some kind of dark essence that seemed to be agitating it. Forcing it to become erratic and volatile.

The human stopped pumping as the canister began to steam and shake. The three quickly retreated to behind the shield as the canister popped like a balloon. But no fiery explosion, Dylan thought.

The three looked over the shield at the remains of their device. The canister was nothing but glass shards. But the device itself was still mostly intact!

"What a breakthrough!"

The human watched as Dylan ran over to a table and pulled a notepad off and began to scribble furiously at it with a stick of charcoal as he muttered to himself as he went over every inch of the device. Meanwhile, the human and Alban watched on.

"Is he always like that?"

Alban grunted.

"That was fantastic! I mean, not when it exploded, or about the strange motes within the canister with the mana, or the fact that this still isn't a success and we are still at risk of being thrown out and losing our workshop and patronage-"

"But it's a start?"

"It's a start! Thank you, er?" Dylan cheered before cocking a brow that only barely made it past his large glasses.

"Cliven, Clive to my friends." The human stated as he extended his hand for Dylan and Alban to shake.

"Thank you for your assistance Cliven, Clive, Cliven-"

"How about Clive?"

"Clive! Welcome to the Artificer's Guild!"

"Great! Something unique I can add to my resume." Clive cheered.

"Your what?"

"Resume? You know a- never mind. Anyway, now we know WHAT is causing the explosion, now we can figure out HOW to get rid of it." Clive stated.

"Well, we don't know WHAT it is though."

"No, but we'll figure that out as we develop a filter to separate it from the mana. Oh! Then there's what would happen if we could refine mana!"

"Refine it?"

"Yeah! Imagine what it could do in a purer liquid form!"

Dylan was going to argue that mana couldn't be turned into a liquid state naturally. Even "mana" potions weren't actually mana but was instead remedies that offset the strain the body faced when subjected to too much spellcasting. The only time it enters such a state is when magic is over used and saturates an area, turning it into a place filled with chaotic mana that it terraforms the area into a apocalyptic hellscape where mana completely turns the laws of nature around and inside out. Some that have braved such areas and survived would tell of rivers glowing blue with mana. But it was never clear if it was just water heavily saturated with mana or if it was liquid mana.

But Clive was so excited at the possibility, and Dylan was just glad that they were making progress at last to say anything. Alban merely stood there with a smile and grunted when ever a question or statement was directed at him.