Closed [Sultros Blades] A Fall Journal

[Eanos]

2 Fall, 513AV

Eanos rarely worked the same hours as most of the others in the castle. There were always going to be some others who also kept odd hours such as some of the Knights who would be patrolling and sometimes passed by the door to his shop and some tradesmen such as bakers who needed to have bread baked and cooled in time to be selling to newly awakened customers.

Around him came the sounds of the castle coming to life. It was an odd time for slowly and almost imperceptibly the silence that could not be heard disappeared as it was drowned by the faint and distant stirrings of people and was only noticed when it was gone. Eanos took this time to draw out his journal and to start making notes.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Hadyn with regards her part of the shop. It is time that I officially gave her the responsibility for the apprentices for I have neither the time nor the interest in so doing. In any case it is a critical part of her training. Her skill with metals I am very happy with and she is able to interact well with customers. She has started to build her own clientele but I think that taking responsibility for supervision rather than doing so informally as she has done is a good step forward in rounding out her education.

We did discuss, or I suggested that she might wish at some point to have her own forge. She did not take up the suggestion but I think that the time is not right for it in the circumstances. But it did remind me that soon I should think about taking a trip to Sultros to discuss the possibilities of importing steel. But it is a long trip which I judge would take up most of three seasons and I would need a weighty purse before even considering such a thing.

In addition there is the fact that as yet I have not managed to make much headway in the discovery of knowledge that I wished to. Hadyn would be very capable I judge in looking after the forge here in my absence as she has done when I have been busy with projects. There is a difference though in my mind between running the shop with my presence at hand to help if needed, even if that help is never asked for and being responsible for the shop when there is no one to call upon and when reliance on ones own wits is the only option.

However, it seems that a trip to Sultros is not yet an option for I lack the funds necessary and I refuse to be baited there by my lack of progress towards the goals that I proclaimed before my departure. In truth I am satisfied as to my progress, though there is more to be done and always will be.

But that said it is perhaps true that there is more that I can do. When I first came here I was interested in exploring what could be done with the local metals and yet I have do but little to progress that. Who knows what is possible with the steels here? Even if I were to set up a supply of steel from Sultros, there would never be more than a trickle and at what cost to ship it half way across the world? No, I think that it would be best to explore what can be done here first, especially since I think that Ros would be my ally in this. Then too there is much knowledge here and in the university of Zeltiva which remains untapped. Perhaps not with regards Magecreft though as the Master here came from Zeltiva. But there remain constant tales of unexplored caverns below the city here and across Syrila. Who knows what remains to be discovered there?

[Eanos]

3 Fall, 513AV

The conversations with Hadyn have served to trigger in my mind the fact that I have been single minded in my obsessions. Whilst it is true that this is not Sultros and the standards that can be expected from the humans and other races here is not Isurian, perhaps I have misjudged them. I think that it is Hadyn that has opened my mind to the idea more than anything else for she has a very fine hand. It is true that I still not think that she can do the heavier work in a forge, but she will realise that or not and there is little that I can do about it. We all must realise our strengths and do what we can to work towards them. Yes, it is important that we work our weaknesses too, but in doing so we should also be aware of our limitations for attempting everything ourselves is a mistake.

I have decided that I should seek out the other craftsmen in the city that can assist me. Whilst I must ensure that their work is to the standards I uphold, too some of them are more skilled in their fields than I can hope to be this season or the next. I do my customers no justice if I attempt shoddy work simply because I am too proud to use others. Ros of course is my main contact in this, for he will know which are the best and better than I who had only limited contact with them. He may in fact employ them himself.

Still, I cannot escape from the conviction that this is but a short term thing and that in the long term I should master myself all the skills that relate to the skills of a mage smith. I have so far concentrated on the physical skills and even there I find that there is an ever growing list of things to be mastered. What of the dejd mastery that I also need? There too it seems that even though I attempt to avoid the personal djed skills it seems that they are always the ones that attract me.

Reimancy now seems to be a possibility as a way of charging tools for magecraft, so must be added to the growing list, none of which have I come close to mastering, not even Auristics where I have made considerable progress over time. I must start to monitor my use more carefully if I am to avoid the risks of overgiving which even now haunt my dreams and the temptation is so strong.

Despite the risks, still I remain convinced of there being a greater magic of which we know but fragments, each of which are jealously guarded despite being mere chance discoveries around which rigid rules have been built, as though each were in themselves the teaching. Safety I can appreciate, but it seems that there is too much even for an Isur to learn in one lifetime.

Somehow I must decide where to focus my attention.