Jeb worked for six breaks while trying to make a window of high enough quality to see through. He managed to make the glass translucent fairly quickly, but seeing anything, even distorted, was still more than he was able to do. As he stood up after his sixth break, ready to begin work again, his knees buckled.
“Well,” he said to no one in particular, “it looks like it’s time for me to take a nap.” Like his grandfather suggested, Jeb had been taking his breaks in the well lit closet beside the forge. As a result, he had no idea what time of day it was, or even how long he had been working.
After the first time he had asked his grandfather for food, Jeb noticed that there was always at least a little food in the closet when he took his breaks. It was replenished while he worked, though he wasn’t quite sure how. When the question bothered him, he searched the room. As far as he could tell, there was only the single entrance through the forge as a whole.
All that was in the past now, though. The bare stone of the closet seemed like a better resting place than his bed ever had. Jeb lay on his back and fell unconscious as soon as he closed his eyes.
When he woke up, he ran through some basic stretches. He was shocked at how fine his body felt, especially since he had just been sleeping on a bare stone floor. Shrugging, he decided not to question his good luck and returned to working in the forge.
By the time that he needed sleep again, Jeb had nearly managed to make a window large enough to meet his grandfather’s specifications. He even stopped himself before collapsing, mentally praising himself for the growth. Upon waking, he once more noted the lack of pain but went quickly to work.
Jeb quickly spun out three pieces of glass large enough to cut out a transparent pane of glass. His grandfather came up behind him.
“Good job,” he said. “I’ll let you pick your next project. You have three choices.” Ticking his fingers, his grandfather continued, “first, you can learn another way to make windows.”
Seeing Jeb’s face scrunch at the option, he moved on, “you can start working with colors. After all, clear glass is only one of the many types of glass that you are likely to need to work with.”
That appealed to Jeb, which must have shown on his face. Nodding, his grandfather went on, “I thought that might appeal to you. Finally, though, you could begin working to make lenses. Focusing light is an important aspect of Glassblowing, and one that I expect will be relevant to your future Classes. Unless things have changed significantly since I was in the Capital,” Jeb wanted to ask, but his grandfather barrelled on, “it will be much easier to get bottles, windows, and even competently colored glass than to get well made lenses. Nearly every Mage I knew-”
His grandfather coughed, “sorry, I lost my train of thought. Grinding lenses is not as exciting as making windows or stained glass, but it does have its benefits. It is far less physically straining, though I suppose that’s less relevant when you’re using a Glyph to move air.”
“One moment,” Jeb said. “What Mages did you know?” He had never known that his grandfather had spent any time in the Capital, let alone that he knew people there.
“That was another time,” his grandfather replied.
Jeb waited for his grandfather to continue. When it became clear that he wouldn’t, he prompted him, “it was another time and?”
“And I would rather not talk about it right now,” his grandfather said, tone sharp.
“Sorry, Grandfather,” Jeb replied.
His grandfather’s face softened. “It’s all right. You’ll have to go there eventually, so I should do my part to help prepare you. Which of the three projects sounds most interesting, though?”
Jeb considered. “I think that grinding glass seems like the most useful,” he finally said. “If only because I can think of far more cases where having different lenses would be more useful than different bottles or windows.”
Though Jeb didn’t say it, he was privately beginning to wonder if he would even want windows in his future work spaces. Not being able to keep track of the passage of time was far nicer than he thought it would be.
“Then let’s get started.” His grandfather walked Jeb over to a row of thick glass rods. “We’ll need to pull some stock from here,” he said.
His grandfather showed him how to cut slices off of the rods, giving Jeb the thin cylinders as they came out. “Now, there are a few steps to make this into a lens,” his grandfather said, walking over to a table Jeb hadn’t paid attention to before. “Most importantly, you need to decide how quickly you want the light going through your lens to focus.”
Seeing Jeb’s confusion, his grandfather pulled some lenses out of a case underneath the table. “Now, where did I leave the candles?” his grandfather muttered, searching around. After a few minutes of searching, he slapped his forehead. “Jeb, would you mind making a small flame right here?” he asked, gesturing between the two of them.
Jeb quickly called Least Create Fire, producing a small candle sized flame where his grandfather had indicated. He watched as the different lenses focused the light coming off the fire into larger and smaller shapes on the opposite wall. His grandfather continued the demonstration, showing the ways that multiple lenses could combine to produce effects of their own.
Jeb was entranced.
“Well, then,” his grandfather said after grinding the discs he’d cut into new lenses, “do you think that you’re ready to try this yourself?”
Jeb nodded. “I’ll do my best,” he said. He expected his grandfather to leave the room, like he had the past times. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat down.
“Well then,” his grandfather said, “I think that I should start preparing you for life off of the farm.”
Jeb listened closely as he worked, focus split between cutting thin discs of glass and the tales his grandfather was telling him. At first, he told Jeb about the wonders of the greater world. There were statues crafted so expertly that metal blended into marble which blended into shining glass. He painted a picture of towers of stained glass that told intricate stories.
Slowly, though, the stories shifted. “I was born in Humdrumville,” his grandfather said softly.
Jeb turned off the grinding wheel, straining to listen to what his grandfather was saying.
“I was the youngest of my friends, so each of them received a Class before I did.” He paused for a long moment, clearly bringing back details he hadn’t thought about for years. “First was Ethan. He was given some introductory Swordsman Class, though I do not recall which one. He was so proud,” his grandfather smiled wistfully. “Immediately, Ethan left to become an adventurer. When Sarah received her own Class, some variant of Healer, we all knew that she would follow after him. She did, of course.”
His grandfather sat in silence for a moment, clearly unsure how to continue the story. Jeb froze, unwilling to even breathe. He did not want to do anything which would stop his grandfather from finishing the story.
Stolen novel; please report.
“They came back before I turned sixteen,” his grandfather finally continued. “He was missing an arm and one of her eyes was gouged out. They did their best to settle back into life here, but whatever happened while they were adventuring changed them. Just a few months after they came back, they left in the middle of the night. As hard as I tried, I never heard what happened to them after that.”
The fact that they had come back missing parts of their bodies was not the most striking part of the story to Jeb. He had at least a few aunts and uncles who had lost limbs or eyes, and he knew that they had all learned how to manage without them. It was the fact that they disappeared that shot a bolt of panic through his heart.
Was that going to happen to him? Would he see something that would make him unable to return to his family home, in mind if not in truth? Before he could dwell on the story too deeply, his grandfather continued his story.
“There were a few others, of course, who came back broken in some way. We would all try to help fix them, or at least to give them what they would need to fix themselves. Occasionally it worked.”
The next words seemed to pain his grandfather to say. “As I grow older, though, I have to wonder. Is the pain of losing so many friends worth the joy that I managed to rekindle in the eyes of the friends I could?”
His grandfather fell silent at that, and Jeb watched in silence as he got up and left the room.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 6457/100
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Total Statistic Load: 352 Physical Load: 127 Strength: 29 Dexterity: 22 Endurance: 31 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 225 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 52 Magic Affinity: 55 Mana Depth: 37 Charisma: 34
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Mana: 1070
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Glyph Attunement: 26 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Improved Glyph Groking Gift of Gab Running Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lifting Athletics Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Bardic Magic Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Enchanting
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)