Phase one:
"Kuvarakh, attend me!" the voice rose from behind the wall. Kuvarakh slipped a strip of cloth into the book he'd been reading and closed it, replacing it on the shelf. He stepped around the corner and lifted the floorlamp. The post came out of the base, which was an iron circle two feet across with three heavy spokes, decorative, but sturdy. He leaned the post with the candle holder against the wall. The candle looked well used, but had never been lit in the time Kuvarakh had been here.
He carried the base to the fireplace and slid a particular brick to the side, revealing a metal stub, cut into a hexagram. With a little jockeying , he was able to slide the hub of the base, where the spokes came together, over the metal stub. He began to turn the base like a wheel, which, in fact, it was. Slowly the hearth slid aside, revealing a metal ladder into his master's lab.
He replaced the brick and reassembled the lamp and climbed down, where an equivalent iron wheel was used to crank the hearth back into position. He did so and turned to see what his master wanted.
"Here, catch." his master said, casually tossing a 2-foot-square pane of glass in Kuvarakh's general direction. Gasping, Kuvarakh scrambled to catch the thing without slicing his hand open. As soon as he got his hand on it, he knew something was special about this glass. It was flexible.
"Yes," his master chuckled, "founted with purified leather and filtered with lacquered hide. Captured the durability and flexibility, but eliminates the stiffness and the color. Took me a few adjustments, but its perfect."
"Perfectly useless." Kuvarakh smirked, "What is this for, anyway? Glass that bends? It's not as though it will hold a shape, master. It won't replace glassblowing. If you could shape it how you wanted and then return its solidity, then maybe, but..."
"Always dead on with what a thing CAN'T do, aren't you." the old man shook his head, but the grin remained, "Let me tell you what it WILL replace...You are well aware of Lefrik, the Magecrafter? Yes, of course you are. He has that book you want so badly. I am convinced he has a strongbox of mine in his shop somewhere. I would like you to retrieve it for me, along with whatever else happens to fall into your eager hands."
"I will always do what you ask me, sir, but how will...this...get me into a magecrafter's shop?" Kuvarakh asked, intrigued. He knew his master would not have gone to the trouble of crafting this material if there was not already a preconceived purpose.
"Listen up, learner, and absorb the wisdom." he invited conspiratorially. Kuvarakh leaned in as his master outlined his plan. His grin began to mirror the older man's.