29th of Spring 510 A.V. Wright Library Torc had accepted the position with Professor Stonemiller just yesterday and the excitement had yet to fall away from him. Working for a real magecrafter was something that Torc had dreamed of ever since working in the temple, creating harden support beams and building an extension to the bath house. However, this wasn’t just simple craftsmanship to improve everyone’s living conditions. Nay magecrafting was about leaving a legacy for all time, to have one’s name echoed throughout time based on one’s skill. The call of immortality and fame was a great pull, but no one really mentioned the hard work that awaited the craftsmen that took up this call. In the tales, Crafters merely had to strike their hammers but a few times and all would be done, Torc knew enough of the craft to realize that even the most simple of magecrafted devices needed time and resources. So with the understanding that Professor Stonemiller wanted a true assistant, Torc had come to the library to start his studies early. After asking a few students and librarians Torc went into the glyphing sections and began to choose several tomes that were dictionaries of glyphs. Torc quickly paged through the tome thinking that he knew most of the glyphs already, and as he went through the first ten pages he began to realize that he had a long way to go. Torc shook his head in a little dismay, how could there be this many glyphs? Torc knew that this would not be an easy goal to obtain, but almost all research into the magical arts was based on glyphing, and Torc knew that if he was ever to be considered a learned man this was where he should start. Torc took out his supplies; slate, chalk, pen, ink, and paper. Torc shook his head in disgust at his melchanody attitude. When was he ever afraid of long hours and hard work? Just because this would exercise his brain and not the large muscles about him, didn’t mean there was no honor or respect for the job. Opening the large volume in front of him Torc took up the slate and chalk. He studied the glyph and its meaning, then slowly and with painful care Torc began to draw the symbol upon his slate over and over again. Torc knew that before he ever put ink to paper his mind must not hesitate when he drew the glyph. True glyphing wasn’t just about the symbol, but also about the idea behind it. When one drew a simple glyph he was drawing the meaning. So as Torc drew he spoke the glyph’s name again and again. Once Torc was sure that he had the glyph mastered, he took up his pen and began the copy the glyph onto the page. He took tedious care to make sure that pen didn’t hold too much ink, and as he set his hand onto the page he began his work. The difference between the pen and chalk was amazing. However, just because the hand movement was smoother Torc had mastered the strokes to pen it. He sat there with his tongue sticking slightly out to the right as he penned the glyph. However, his hand didn’t show hesitation nor did it need to dip once again into the ink well to complete the character. Softly, Torc put a small amount of sand on the paper to absorb the left over ink that hadn’t soaked through. Waiting a few seconds before lifting the page and allowing the sand to fall to the table, he began to blow to dry the last of it. As Torc set down the page to scribe the glyph’s meaning and pronunciation, he spied other grains of sand on the table left from previous students, and felt somewhat revealed that he wasn’t the only one who would spend long hours here. Perhaps with less care then with the glyph, Torc set down his pen on the page and began to copy the meaning. He wanted to make sure that he could always go back and look up the glyph if need be. ~~~~ Hours had gone by and Torc looked at the few pages of glyphs that he had been able to do. Standing up he felt his back stretch and rid itself of tightness. His right hand felt tight and cramped, as he began to message it with the left. Torc was done for the day, but he needed to look around and pen some titles down. Torc picked various volumes of complex glyphing and their meanings, Torc was sure that by the end spring he would have the basic glyphs down and understand sentence structure, but to understand advance research articles Torc was going to need advance dictionaries. With a list of four to five books, Torc picked up his supplies set the books back where he found them and cleaned up the table. As he left for the day, Torc asked a librianian about scribes or book salesmen that did scribe work. When he was directed to one, Torc went there and gave the man the titles telling him that he would buy the books or services to scribe them if needed. Finally Torc went home, to study the work he had done this day. |