Now, let’s compare those previous stories to a poem that a Chosen of Zephoreas told their congregations to recite regularly.
“O Zephoreas, Divine god of the Sky and Winds, let our praise echo thy name across all the earth! He who rules the sky with their authority.
Let our mouths only speak of your immense strength over our enemies, and that none will slight you, mightiest of the gods.
When the heavens cleaved, you remained by our side. The moon and the stars are now nothing but relics of the past.
What can we do but fulfill the only task he has given to us elves? We are to be mindful of him, reassured that he, who watches over our garden, severs those who dare enter our realm.
For he has sacrificed much for his crown and majestic wings, and thus shall be showered with glory and honor.
His Dominion of Authority rules over us all. King of kings, Lord of lords, the Watcher who watches us.
O Zephoreas, ruler of all, how most excellent thy name is in all the earth!”
Notice anything different?
---
Travis
Windsday, the 17th of Seventhmonth
I looked up at the statue of Sigurd the Archmage, Dragon Slayer, Consort of Queen Valeria, and founder of this academy. His Northman eyes accentuated his piercing stare, as if he was looking for yet another dragon head to add to the pile beneath his feet. In his hands was the legendary spear Echoing Eyeseeker, which according to bards, could strike three locations simultaneously, ensuring that no dragon could escape its strike.
I gripped Arc tightly, thinking back to the fresco that I saw a few days ago, and how Arc was able to see through my eyes for a brief duration.
“Anything?”
Arc groaned, “Nothing. Ugh, I’m not even sure if I was picking up your emotions on occasion as well, or if I’m just going mad.”
I crossed my arms, raising one hand so I could scratch the gap between my eyebrows, “Maybe we should have tried talking to Apheros.”
“That’s assuming we’d be able to get his attention with the myriad of people also praying, or even if we did, wouldn’t give some vague folksy advice like Adamanrion did.” Arc made a groaning sound, “I can almost hear him going, ‘To strengthen your blessing, you must strengthen the bond you two share.’ Or some other nugget of wisdom that’s supposed to induce a mind-blowing epiphany.”
“You make him sound more like Torbolt with that talk of bonds. Are you sure he’s not the one who gave it to me?”
“Hmm, we did save one of his followers, convinced them not to switch gods, and then lived with their family of other Torbolt worshipers for a couple of weeks. Plus, I would not be surprised in the slightest if Darius once posed for an artist’s rendition of Torbolt. My only issues are the long gap between staying at the Hopkin’s Estate and how the blessing showed up right after you visited Apheros’ church.”
Thinking out loud as I tapped my forehead, “Maybe it took time to take effect? His Domain of Comradery would be a better fit from what we’ve learned about my blessing.” I let out a sigh, then reached down to gently scratch Arc in his favorite spot, hoping he was ready to finally talk, “I suppose we could visit his church next Woodsday. Although, if you rather not talk to another god yet, I’ll understand.”
“Right…, it has been a few days.” Arc made the sound of a deep breath, “Ok, here’s the thing… All Adamanrion told me was to be cautious with what I share with you and advised me not to speak about the afterlife.”
“That’s… umm…”
“Not very helpful?”
I let out an exacerbated grin, “I was going to say poor guidance. You were already doing that.”
“Oh, the irony isn’t lost on me.” Arc made a sigh, “It’s part of why I was hesitant to repeat their words to you. It’s bad enough that I need you to test your faith in me. Though, I guess it’s a possibility that Addy was being ambiguous on purpose. They were initially worried when we showed up that I wanted to back out on our deal.”
“Or they figured out the favor you wanted was a Q&A session and didn’t want to pay you before we delivered.”
“On that note, are you still okay with me using our favor for that?”
“I’m thinking that would be the most beneficial. Plus, I’m not sure what I could ask for anyways.” I let out a sigh, and began to shift nervously, “Though, I’ll admit… it… would be nice to have some tangible proof that you’re speaking to a god. Not that I don’t trust you, but…”
“No, I agree, it would put me at ease too.” Arc made another sigh, “I’m starting to think I’ve been too cautious when it comes to talking about my past. Adamanrion didn’t seem too worried, maybe I shouldn’t either? The more I think about it, the more I’m disappointed in myself. I was never this hesitant in my old life. Heck, I was the courageous one among my friends, always taking risks and dragging them along on some crazy adventure.”
My throat tightened, and I think my breathing even stopped. Was Arc really?
“I miss them. Sure, they’d always moan and complain before leaving, but for some reason were all smiles once we got on the road.” Arc’s voice began to crack, “I’m just… glad I hadn’t… picked them up before I…”
I gently cradled Arc, “Before you died?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a… traffic accident.”
Oof, no wonder Arc doesn’t like horses.
I gave his pommel a comforting rub, doing my best to remember the coaching my dad gave me on how to transfer my intent, “Thank you Arc. It means a lot to me that you’d share that.”
Arc didn’t speak as I left the statue to attend my next class, but he did begin to make a familiar canine purring sound as I continued to comfort my friend.
---
Voltsday, the 18th of Seventhmonth
Hector comes in with a thrust, so I parry his poleaxe with the axe’s flat of mine, catching the side of his weapon to push it away, and leaving his forward leg vulnerable to the spike at the other end of my poleaxe. Hector adjusts his stance in time though, leaving our weapons locked in place between us as we press against each other.
My mana surges as I contest my strength with his, and struggle to find an opportunity. A mix of a grunt and chuckle emits from Hector, and I’m left dumbstruck when he lets go of his poleaxe with one hand and grabs onto mine. Before I could comprehend what he was doing, his other hand is on my weapon, and he shifts his weight to pull it out of my grip.
He follows up with a threat to tackle me with his shoulder, forcing me to step back, and completely miss that he lowered the head of his claimed weapon to trip me.
My leg gets hooked, and I’m soon lying on my back looking up in time to see the hammer end of his poleaxe swing down with a Slam! knocking the wind out of my lungs and leaving me gasping for air.
Hector waits for me to catch my breath, then begins to lean in to give me a hand but stops after hearing the hourly chime in our helmets, and instead moves it to the side of his head.
“Training Battalion 3, you are dismissed.”
I let out a sigh of relief, or at least tried to, my chest was still throbbing when Hector finally pulled me to my feet and allow me to remove my sweaty helmet.
“You’re a strange one to teach.”
I looked back up after clipping my helmet to my belt, “Huh, what do you mean?”
Hector chuckled lightly as we picked up our training weapons, a pair of mock poleaxes that had layered tumblepig leather over lead instead of deadly steel, then started walking towards the weapons rack.
“It’s like you’re a walking set of contradictions. You have the physique of a knight, but you’ve only been training for a few months. You’re a quick learner and adaptable when it comes to weapon drills, or parkour on the obstacle courses, but freeze up with indecision when sparring. Oh, and you were able to both cultivate a sizable mana pool and trigger it without any outside help, despite living in the equivalent of a desert mana wise.”
Hector narrowed his eyes at me, “By all metrics, you’re a gifted savant who just needs training, but I haven’t once seen or heard of you displaying any ounce of boastfulness.”
I set my training poleaxe on the rack, confused about Hector’s last statement, “Do you… want me to be more arrogant?”
Hector glowered at me, “Travis, do you know why there are no inner-ring nobles in your battalion?”
“I assumed that was a side effect of providing security for the princess, since almost everyone in hers is.”
He rolled his eyes, “Yes, that too, but the other reason is so I, a first-year instructor, don’t have to worry about angering any influential parents when I beat their child’s ego into submission.”
Still not sure what he was getting at, I gave Arc’s pommel a scratch.
“Seriously, you’re going to make me spell it out to you?”
Before Arc could explain, Hector caught sight of my face, then sighed, “Forget I said anything.” He raised his training poleaxe to return it to the rack, but stopped to give it a look, “I think I’ll get a real one commissioned, I’m starting to really enjoy the versatility of this thing.”
I smiled, not sure if that actually was Arc moaning or if I had just internalized him, “I can give you a copy of my blueprints, including the additional inscription attachments, although I haven’t tested them to see if they’ll work or not yet.”
Hector nodded, “That’d be great. Although, I doubt I’d be able to match the materials you used. Marcia and I are hoping to have children soon, and I’d rather not get cursed by both the god of Fertility and the god of Childish Mischief for greedily chopping off an Aelder tree’s limb.”
I let out a chuckle, “I still vividly remember when the branch for my poleaxe fell down in front of me. Ended up waking my village’s woodworker in the middle of the night because I was terrified that I’d get into trouble and begged him to help me keep it a secret.” A melancholic sigh escaped me, “In hindsight, I probably panicked for no reason. Father Viburnum always collected the smaller branches and twigs that would fall after a bad storm and have them made into idols. I’m sure larger branches have fallen before.”
Hector joined me in my amusement, then gestured for us to start heading towards the armory, taking off his helmet to let me see his textbook Packer features (minus the glaring exception on his chin). His beard was on full display, taunting me with how he was more of an adult Lakelander than I was, then double downed on the insult by combing his fingers through it.
He raised an eyebrow when I unintentionally let out a groan, then gave me a goofy grin, “Something bothering you?”
I debated on whether I should be honest or not, but once Hector started stroking his beard mischievously, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, “Your beard infuriates me!”
Hector began to laugh, and even had to stop walking for a moment, “Is that all? No wonder Marcia’s brothers ‘adopted’ you into the family, you fit right in.” He fought off a few residual chuckles as we neared the armory, “Speaking of family, excited for Percy and Lucia’s wedding?”
“Yeah, my friend Jethro just finished assembling an outfit for me, but I haven’t gotten a gift yet. Any ideas?”
“Hmm, I heard there’s a new shadow show that’s growing popular…”
I stopped before the door, strongly tempted to pound my head against it, “Any other ideas?”
---
Arc
The woman behind the event counter at The Exotic Axe smiled nervously after a familiar looking old man cleared his throat from behind her and tilted his head towards Travis’ shoulder, “Apologies, I was looking in the wrong section. Two tickets right? Any specific date?”
“Yes, two tickets. And as far as dates go…” Travis grimaced, then uttered a silent curse.
“Maybe ask if they can change reservation dates if the one you pick doesn’t work?”
Travis gave my pommel a scratch, “Sorry, they’re a wedding gift, and I didn’t think ahead to find out their schedules.”
“That’s alright.” She filled out the tickets, scribbling something in the corner, “Here, they can simply bring these in to finalize the date at a different time.”
“Look at you, already living the life of a noble elite, and using your connections for personal gain. Won’t be long till you’re having your meals prepared for you, hiring a stylist to assemble your look, hosting parties for royalty, and… oh, wait, never mind.”
Travis groaned as I began to chuckle in his ear, making him quicken his pace to get back to campus.
“Don’t worry, I’ll pound your ego back into submission if you start complaining about how the peasants aren’t working hard enough and just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps."
His whole body suddenly deflated, “Oh, that’s what Hector was talking about…”
An angry growl then emanated from Travis’ stomach, loudly voicing its protest, and demanding the growing teenager’s attention.
“I’ll make sure your future statue includes the epithet, ‘Humble Eater of Hotdishes.’”
---
Burnsday, the 19th of Seventhmonth
Travis joined the princess for their weekly supper together, and the lively table was sharing gossip about the extracurricular clubs they were in.
“I still think you guys are wasting your time,” Miller Bowitch, an Ice Mage from a family that was producing spellcasters long before contact was made with the elves, spoke with a weary tiredness, “if there were other civilizations across the seas, don’t you think the gods would have told us?”
Ansel Raycraft, a Lightning Mage who’s dad is on the advisory committee for the kingdom’s weapon development programs, countered with their protest, “Oh c’mon! We were snuggled right between the elves and dwarfs for ages without them knowing, and it’s practically guaranteed that there’s other continents.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Travis kept swapping glances between the two boys, “Isn’t it… impossible to randomly attune to a foreign Message channel?”
“Exactly, Wardenstone’s Paradox. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your equipment is, you can’t synchronize two motes of mana without having them touch.”
“That hasn’t been proven. Plus, there’s plenty of accounts of people hearing strange whispers when using Wind magic in combat.”
“Yes, from madmen who were wielding their fathers into battle.”
The two kept going at it, and Travis slid out of the argument after noticing Seleyna look his way.
“How’s Drama Club going? You guys had auditions for the Winter Solstice production last week, right?”
“Would you believe me if I told you there was drama going on in the drama club?”
Travis gasped in mock surprise, “I for one am shocked. What could cause such a thing?”
“Well, the actor who got the part of Oskar is a Goliath, so a ‘few’ people were upset that the director cast a 6’4” handsome tower of muscle that can’t even touch his hands behind his back.”
I mentally shook my head, despite switching universes and living in a world full of magic, historical figures are still depicted by better looking versions of themselves. I’ll have to check my memories, but I think Travis at 5’10” is taller than Oskar’s recorded height, since the Chosen was half Northman.
The table continued to gossip, Travis not really able to contribute much, but everyone seemed to enjoy his company regardless. Whether it was because they didn’t want to anger the princess by insulting her guest or because they genuinely liked him, I’m not sure, but hopefully it was the latter.
“I forgot to ask last week; do you know what happened to the protesters outside the church district?” Travis asked after a lull in conversation formed.
“The opposition group finally organized enough to send a few representatives to the crown, and Mom had a talk with them, so they shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”
Whoa, I hope the Queen didn’t go full tyrant on them. Monarchies and Stratocracies in my world didn’t have the best reputations, and the hybrid one this kingdom uses hasn’t had the best either due to a few bad Queens and Generals.
Travis must have thought something similar, because his expression made the princess put up her hands to alleviate his worry.
“No no, not like that.” Seleyna paused to think before explaining, “The law was actually one my grandmother originally drafted, but the plan wasn’t deemed feasible at the time due to there not being enough Mages and Knights to assign to every fortress.”
“So, it wasn’t a reaction to that Jarl not removing me from my village?”
“No, the original idea was to implement a communication network using Messaging artifices, allowing Jarls to directly report to the capital and eventually…” Seleyna cut herself off, then gestured to Sir Asher.
The Royal Knight nodded, then held up a hand to create a wall of Air Mana around the two teens. I made note of the spell structure, but continued to listen in.
“Keep this to yourself, but the law is intended as a precursor to another one my mother intends to implement. The formation of a Parliament.”
Travis’ eyes grew wide, and he leaned into whisper, “She wants the Jarls to be able to vote on new legislation?”
Seleyna nodded with a big smile, “I wish I could have seen the organizers’ faces when they found out they were actually harming their cause. Especially the part when my mother agreed to include a few addendums to the law, then told the protestors to return, and tell their followers that they convinced her to change the proposed law.”
Not surprising, Travis was shocked by the Queen’s manipulation, then finally noticed the lack of sound from outside the bubble Asher made and grew worried, “Wait, are you really allowed to tell me this?”
Seleyna leaned into whisper, leaving the two teens only inches away from each other, “I’m allowed to divulge some secrets to trusted people.” She tilted her head to draw attention to her bodyguard, who was keeping a watchful gaze on Travis, “There’s a lot of eyes on you, and given your status, it’s important that we build trust between each other.”
Travis gulped, no doubt wondering just how fast Asher could draw his sword, but managed to focus enough on the conversation, “Because I’m the first human Elementalist Mage?”
“And other things,” she darted her eyes to the sides, drawing attention to the table of inner ring nobles looking on in curiosity, “but that’ll be another, more private conversation.” She leaned back in her seat and held up a hand for Asher to drop the spell.
Travis sat there looking like he just had a brush with death, and still looked like his nerves had been fried long after he left the table to practice at the spell range.
Hmm, maybe I should warn him that Seleyna might want to marry him and make him King Consort…
I looked down at Travis after he entered his private range and collapsed on the bench looking utterly exhausted.
On second thought, I should probably keep that to myself for now.
---
Travis
Steelsday, the 20th of Seventhmonth
The interior of the Artificer Burrow was well deserving of the name. Unlike the other buildings on campus that had human and elven elements added in, this building was purely dwarven. At the heart was a communal workshop full of machine lathes, presses, drills, sanders, saws, and even a few forges. Rows of columns holding up the high ceiling separated the equipment from large workbenches or cleared floor space for projects.
Encircled around that were multiple stories of private workshops, some facing the public area, and others that extended down long tunnels that… weren’t very tall…
“You might want to carry your poleaxe in hand. I doubt you want to get into trouble for scratching one of the ceiling windows.”
I gave Arc a scratch, carefully removed my poleaxe from my back, then dug into my backpack for my directions to Durinn’s spot.
That ended up being a smart call. Arc couldn’t see very far due to the mana density of the walls and amount of mana crystals being used. Plus…, he was having another one of his episodes…
“I am a dwarf and I’m digging a hole…”
I did my best to try ignoring Arc sing about a bunch of dwarves going into a mating cycle, following the signs in the tunnels, stopping at each branch, then continuing along until reaching the outermost arteries of the complex where the apprentice artificers worked. My feet eventually stopped at one of the heavily barred doors, and after double checking to ensure the rune matched, I knocked on the steel door.
No one responded, only silence greeted me.
Was I at the wrong door?
I double checked the rune with the one on my paper, then compared it to the neighboring one to confirm that I wasn’t misreading.
Ok, so I’m at the right place. Am I here at the right time?
I gave Arc a scratch, “Did I mix up my dates?”
“No, it’s today. You’re two minutes early, but—"
“Travis! I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to find my little hidey-hole.” A familiar deep voice echoed in the tunnel.
I turned my head to see a pair of dwarves walking towards me; Durinn and a beardless dwarf. Both were clad in full plate-mail, but unlike the usual orange hair most of the dwarves I’ve seen, the beardless had a magenta pink mop of hair, leaving me entranced by the strange sight.
“Travis,” Durinn waved their hand in front of my face, “you there?”
I snapped back to attention, and felt my face turn red, “Sorry, I haven’t met any dwarves with pink hair before.”
Durinn let out a chuckle, “Let me guess, you thought all dwarves had orange hair?”
Feeling a bit more relaxed now, I joined in on the amusement, “I did notice that a few had red or golden hair, but just assumed it was similar to how Lakelanders like me occasionally get auburn hair.”
“Believe it or not, Pinky here isn’t even that odd by dwarven standards,” Durinn slapped a hand on the beardless’ shoulder, “even this guy thinks the dwarven Water Mages with their blue hair are a bunch of weirdos.”
If I was entranced earlier, then pink-haired dwarf must have been fully hypnotized, because they completely ignored Durinn’s touch and was staring at my poleaxe.
Noticing the lack of presence, Durinn gave the dwarf a good shake, “Thramreat! You there?”
The dwarf startled, then looked around the tunnel confused, “Sorry, got distracted…” they gave me a look, before their eyes grew wide in excitement, “You’re Travis! Aren’t you?” Their head jerked back to my weapon, “And that’s that poleaxe I’ve been hearing about!”
“Ugh, seriously? Not again…”
The beardless raised their eyes to the skylight, allowing me to almost see the gears turning in their head, before snapping their head towards Durinn, “That project you had to get back for…”
Durinn grinned, “Yep, gotta supervise Travis’ lab work.” They moved to open the door to their workshop, grabbing the handle, then began pushing it in and out while twisting at odd intervals. A series of clicks sounded off, before a loud thud, and the door opened to reveal a simple workbench and tool storage.
A swath of pink hair crept up into the corner of my eye, and I looked down to see an excited grinning dwarf staring up at me.
“Need an extra set of hands?”
“Weren’t you just complaining about not having enough time for your own project?” Durinn admonished.
“What? No… I… uh, can spare a few hours…”
Durinn, not having any of it, reached forward to spin the beardless around and push them out the door, “Out wit’ ya. It’s gonna be crowded enough in here with just the two o’ us.”
I laughed hard with amusement as the other dwarf was kicked out, then took the opportunity to give the place a more thorough look around while I waited for my gaiety to calm. My bearded friend wasn’t lying about the lack of space. While there was probably enough room to set up a hammock, I doubt a cow could have turned around in here. Tools and supplies were neatly organized into drawers or on wall hooks out of necessity rather than want, and there wasn’t even a second stool to sit on.
Durinn backed up to the wall, then their plate-mail began to open up with a series of clicks, completely hands-free, and allowing them to shuffle out of the side of their armor like a hermit crab, leaving their armor looking like a statue.
Thinking of how much of a hassle it was to put on armor, even with help, I grew jealous, “When do I get to learn that?”
Durinn smiled as they began to air out their red arming jacket, “You’ll learn the theory behind it during Metal Spells 1, but it probably won’t be practical until the end of your second year once you’ve built a large enough mana pool. Attuning to a weapon is one thing, but a full set of armor and still having leftover mana to cast?”
They shook their head as they opened a drawer to pull out a folder containing a copy of my blueprints for my poleaxe’s mana scale attachments, then opened it on the workbench, “Speaking of attunement, I’m worried about the mana conductivity. Switching materials and mana types when forming a circuit reduces the efficacy, especially when using wood. We’ll have to do a few tests after you complete the first attachment to be sure this is even a viable option.”
I moved up next to Durinn, nodding my head, “Yeah, I’m not confident that I’ll be able to connect to the mana scales while my poleaxe is mounted on my back. The initial pathway to my poleaxe is already really narrow, having to go through my arming jacket, then back plate, then carrier, and then magnet inscription.” I let out a big sigh, “But that will be a future problem. I don’t have room to rivet two different attachments on one side, so I saved room on my mana scale design for a new inscription.”
Durinn twisted their head towards me, “That’s what you’re worried about?” They studied my face, then patted the bench, “Alright, let’s have a look at this poleaxe everyone keeps raving about.”
Being careful not to hit anything, I maneuvered my poleaxe to allow it to sit on the bench and let the future Artificer see what we were working with. The moment they activated their mana sight was obvious, because the dwarf immediately did a doubletake, then gulped hard, and started shuffling their feet anxiously while their hands began twitching.
“Stay strong Durinn! Don’t fall into temptation.”
Arc’s words fell on deaf ears though, because the bearded soon began adjusting their collar while speaking at a rapid pace, “Is it just me, or is it drafty in here? Maybe we should shut the door? I know it’s not proper for a bearded and beardless to work together in an enclosed space, but…”
Something jabbed at me upon the word beardless. It was accurate, since my future beard was only showing glimpses of its future magnificence, but something about that word just felt wrong. Maybe it was the way Durinn said it?
“Durinn… No… You were the chosen one!”
My mind snapped back to the present at the sound of Arc’s ranting, “Ok, we can shut the door, but I have a couple of requests.”
“Sure, whatever you want.”
“First, do not call me beardless.”
Durinn gasped in horror, “Travis, I am so sorry! I should know better. It’s blatantly obvious you’re from that tribe of humans that grow beards after reaching adulthood.”
Shrugging off the unintentional backhanded comment, I held up a hand to placate the dwarf, “It’s alright, I know you didn’t intend any harm.” I gave Durinn a pat to help calm them down, “The other request is to explain to me why every dwarf I meet wants to take away my weapon and stroke it lovingly in the starlight.”
Durinn chuckled at my wording, “Let’s see, how do I describe it to a human… it’s like staring at a massive mound of sculptor’s clay or unblemished hunk of marble. Raw potential that you can make into anything. I have no idea how you got your hands on high grade dwarven steel, but it certainly wasn’t wasted on this weapon. Normally putting it atop a wooden handle would be considered a waste, since you’d be strangling your connection to it when attuning to the weapon. But you have almost the opposite in effect here with how mana dense your handle is.”
Durinn looked at my poleaxe, then back to me with an inquisitive look, “Can you even attune to this thing fully?”
“Yeah, it takes a long time, and it’s difficult to cast even a small Earth spell afterwards. Like trying to grab one more thing while your hands are full.”
Durinn nodded, “Not surprised, your mana supply is still growing, and you haven’t started building internal pathways to optimize connectivity for spellcraft.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Right, sorry, that’s advanced artifice…” They rolled their head to think, then patted my poleaxe, “Basically, your body is currently like your weapon here, a raw mass of mana. When you advance in artifice, you’ll learn how to mimic something your body will do naturally when synchronizing with foreign mana; creating mana channels.”
Durinn paused to think, “How do I simplify this… umm, oh! You’re a farmer, you probably know about creating irrigation channels and tiling a field to regulate the amount of water in the soil.” He checked to ensure I was following, “Creating mana channels is similar. You’re taking what’s already there but optimizing the flow. Pretty much every fully fledged mage could pick up your weapon right now, and create a high tier enchantment without inscribing it, but modifying it in combat would be hard due to the slow connection.”
“Oh, it’s like how you can easily see the nervous systems in initiate dwarven mages!”
That made it click, “That explains why the Quartermaster doesn’t want me to even think about inscribing this until my senior year. If I advance far enough in artifice, I’d be better off using enchantment on my weapon since I can easily change or modify it, instead of being stuck with whatever permanent one I inscribe.”
Durinn gave my thigh a slap, “Exactly! Now, c’mon, we don’t have all night to prattle.”
---
The first step was to head to the shared workshop’s storage to grab supplies. I didn’t need much, my mana dust was already secure in my valuables pouch on my belt, so a single piece of ironwood and ingot of dwarven steel was quick enough to secure.
After that came shaping the housing for my basic inscriptions. My block of ironwood first went through the bandsaw the long ways to create a pair of narrower planks, then were cut to correct length using the miter saw. After that, I marked up my still raw piece of wood to denote where the holes for the rivets and mana dust will go and had Durinn doublecheck my measurements. Once confirmed, I moved over to the drill press and started with the tiny holes on the long narrow side for the dust, and then the larger ones on the large side for the rivets. The final step for the wooden housing was to take the planks over to the router and smooth out the edges on one side.
“That was insanely fast.” I commented to Durinn while we got in line for the steel rollers to start the metal attachments.
“Really? I was about to complain about how long the lines were tonight.”
“I was referring to the sawing and drilling. Most of the tools in my village were hand-powered.” I pointed to the gears that glowed with orange rotation arrays under my mana sight, “If we had inscribed equipment that made gears turn just by amping up the mana inside, we’d get assaulted by monsters.”
Durinn was quiet while we prepared the steel attachments, constantly looking around the shop or hyper-focusing when drilling or shaving my future artifice. When we got back to their shop though, they finally voiced their thoughts.
“I think I finally get it now; why Adamanrion blesses so many of your craftsmen.” They pointed at my poleaxe, “I could easily make something similar in an afternoon. Granted, I’d have to settle for elmek horn instead of aelderwood and use a lower grade of dwarven steel to meet that deadline, but it’d be possible.” They let out a deep sigh, looking completely downcast, “If you told me to also make it without any artifice machinery, or advanced magical knowledge, I’d tell you it was a waste of time though, and not even try.”
Not sure how to respond, I resorted to my default behavior of giving a shoulder pat. It seemed to do the trick, and the dwarf barked themself, going from a thin-skinned birch to a proper oak.
“Right, you got a project, let’s start with the Fire and Wind scales.”
I pulled out my vials containing my precious mana dust and began using Durinn’s weight scale to measure out twelve portions. Each portion was then carefully dropped into the tiny holes I had drilled, then had a drop of binding agent added to each one. After enough time passed to let the oil fully soak in, I used my mana sight to confirm all the mana dust was at the bottom of each hole, then pounded in a wooden dowel to stamp the dust into a tiny ball and seal in the mana dust.
“Now for the first test…” I set my hand on my poleaxe, the mana scale already attached using temporary rivets, and tried to attune to feel the inscriptions. My internal mana amped up as I raised the pulse rate in my handle, then langets, then the housing of the mana scale, and finally the inscriptions.
Grinning, I looked over to Durinn, “Success!”
Durinn nodded, also sporting a huge grin, “Excellent, I’ll cut and sand off the dowels for you so you can keep going. Let me know if you’ve got questions.”
I nodded, then continued with my other artifices.
The Fire Mana scale was made exactly the same, so that went a tad quicker the second time around. Leaving me with plenty of time to work with the steel for my Earth and Water scales.
Unlike the wooden housing, I had to first drop cutting oil in each hole before tapping them to create threads, then wash it clean before adding the mana dust. After that, it went about the same, using a binding oil to keep the dust collected, then compacting it down with set screws.
It took a while to test the scales and file down the excess material. In fact, so long that Durinn must have started working on a personal project. They pulled out extra tools and were huddled at the other end of the workbench, hiding what they were doing so I wouldn’t get distracted.
“Just need to rivet everything together now.”
“One second… there.” Durinn leaned back, “Just got to varnish these real quick and then we can do the real test.”
I cocked my head as Durinn pulled out a jar of lacquer, then created a tiny spell that blew warm air over my weapon attachments after coating them. Curious as to what the bearded was up to, I was about to activate my mana sight when Arc interrupted me.
“Hey! Don’t spoil the surprise.”
Durinn, looking like an excited child, eventually brought over the dried inscriptions, then helped finish by riveting using their impressive Metal Mana control.
“Alright, put your chest and back plate back on, let’s test this for real!”
Confused about what they were getting at until I was handed my poleaxe, I noticed with my mana sight that my Fire and Wind scale attachments each had a pink rotation array composed of six arcing teardrops around one of the rivets. Much fancier than the straight triple lined one I had before.
“You inscribed them?”
“Figured I’d save you the trouble of having to go back to the Quartermaster. Go ahead. Give it a try, should be able to set it at more angles now, and even swap sides.”
I nodded, then mounted my poleaxe onto my back, but instead of the handle pointing out at an 11 o’clock angle, had it sitting more on my right side with the handle at 7, only a few inches off the ground.
Note to self, will need to detach before sitting… but first…
I focused on trying to attune with my poleaxe and found the connection much stronger now. In fact, I had no troubles forming a connection to the four mana scales on my poleaxe. Durinn’s modified magnetism inscription must have fixed my problem.
Leaning forward to give the dwarf a hug, I gave them a hard squeeze, “It works! Thank you so much!”
Durinn gave my back a pat, “Well, I owed you a favor. Plus, I kinda felt bad for you, given all the hassle you’ll have to deal with now.”
I broke the hug to give Durinn a stare, “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Well, the reason we have you make wands, is so you got something portable and easy to stow away. You’re gonna have to lug your poleaxe with you everywhere now.”
Oh… rot… I did not think this through…