Closed [Lab 2-B] The First Lesson

[Strange]

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Timestamp: 17th of Winter, 513 AV

It was the day after Osd had achieved his freedom. The previous day, after his release from the magical shackles that had bound him, Silverheart had taken Osd to the Sleeping Quarters and told him to have a long hard rest because the first day of his apprenticeship started at dawn and it was going to be a long one.

Knock, knock, knock!

A furious fist seemed to be battering down the door of the small room. “Osd! Osd! Time's a wasting.” Osd couldn't know exactly what time of day it was due to the lack of windows in the room but it would surely feel as if he had just closed his eyes to sleep. “Got'cha breakfast but you'll have to eat it on your way. Big task today. We're gonna see if your brawns aren't overcompensating for your mind.”

When Osd opened the door he would indeed find the man he had spoken with earlier standing there with a surly scowl on his face and a silver plate laden with thick strips of an unidentified, grey meat. Contrary to what he might have been fed as a slave however there was buttered bread and cheese hunked on top of it as well. For a Pulser on Sahova this was a breakfast of Kings.

For the first time Osd had ever seen the man was not only fully clothed but he wore robes of an inoffensive, mild blue colour. As soon as the door was open the Isur thrust the plate of food at him. He fact he was holding the plate with his normal arm explained why it had sounded like someone was trying to break his door apart. Silverheart cleared his throat as he looked at the visible dent and scrapings of where he had struck the door with his black arm. “I'll see someone gets that fixed. Now, get that down you lad. Might be a bit cold. Had to carry it all the way over here from my lab.” Silver heart instructed him and began to stride down the hallway in quick, impatient steps.

He had barely made it a few feet before he stopped suddenly and turned toward his new apprentice pulling something out of his pocket with his normal arm. It was a bronze signet ring which depicted on it's flat side an unusual hammer striking a podium. “This is your Apprentice ring, Osd Messer. Made it myself. This is the symbol of your relationship with Sahova and of your Apprenticeship to me. It is this ring that grants you access to the Citadel above and beyond any visitor. Do not lose it or you might find yourself trapped somewhere... or worse.”
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[Osd]

Osd woke up when it sounded as if somebody was trying to break down his door. Old instincts reared their heads and in just a moment Osd was up and ready to beat down whatever thug that was trying to break in. He was still clothed in yesterday's clothes, he hadn't bothered changing from them as he dropped on his bed.Moments later it dawned upon him that he wasn't in sunberth anymore, nobody was able to break in here anyway. “Coming.” Osd responded back, not caring about the hour. Six years of being a slave of sahova had taught him that one didn't go against your supiriours. That and it had taught him how to preform hard labor on just a few hours of sleep. Today wouldn't be a problem. The groggyness of sleep was already fading and his body wasn't sluggish from a lack of sleep. He quickly made it outside of the quarters and met up with his teacher, accepting the silver plate of food he had been offered. He didn't have to be told twice to start eating. Cold or not food was food. Much to his surprise, the greyish meat and the cheese and bread actually had a half decent taste to them. A small smile made itself seen. 'I'm free, gonna learn something new and got a decent meal. Good start to the day.' He thought to himself. They didn't make it far from the door before silverheart stopped again and held up a copper ring. Explaining the significance of it. He balanced his plate of food on one hand as he accepted the ring, slipping it over one of his fingers. “I'll be very careful with it silverheart.” 'I'll have to make a chain for it one day. A finger is to easy to cut off, wearing it around me neck is probably safer.' He knew all to well what would happen if he lost it. The idea of the crazy broad burning him to death, carefully making sure he didn't choke on the ashes or smoke, was way to real in his mind. He wanted to ask questions about what he was learning, especially as he had seen a pedestal on the ring with a hammer. Was it just an artist's interprentation? Most likely not, artists don't have anything to do in this dreary place. So a pedestal was involved at least. His mind continued to mull over it as he followed silverheart and continued to scarf down his meal as fast and efficiently as possible without spilling anything.

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Silverheart moved like a man possessed. His walk was quick and full of drive as if he were very late or had too much to do. They walked in silence for some time clearing halls and stairways with ease but eventually Silverheart broke the silence. “There's a lot to learn, Osd Messer, and I'd rather we finish the basics today. When you're in the business of production as we are the general rule of thumb is to know how to do it and leave most of the why's to smarter folks. We work and work and mostly by accident but sometimes by ingenuity we hone our craft. We find better, quicker ways to create and in doing so we become skilled.”

Silverheart paused as they came to the exit of the sleeping quarters. He opened the door stepping out into the courtyard while holding the door open for Osd. When Osd was through it he let the door swing shut and continued his hurried march along the Courtyard path. He didn't seem in the least bothered by the eerie fog.

“The magics of creation, World Magics is the term, don't quite work like that. They need a different kind of trial and error. Rather than striking this way and that way and trying this or that fuel to heat things you have to learn the why's so that you can imagine what these things would do.” Silverheart's speech paused hesitantly as if he was trying to grasp a concept. “It's a bit like mindsmithing. Taking the physical process and doing it in your head but instead of getting physical results you have to know the why's in order to get mental results. Only when you know enough why's can you begin to physically implement your plan. Plainly, in blacksmithing a Master does - in magecrafting a Master thinks. Are you keeping up with this, Osd Messer?” Silverheart slowed and turned his head a bit to study his apprentice while he replied. It was rather amazing how much Silverheart could say without pausing for breath.
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[Osd]

With a bit of effort osd managed to keep up with silverheart. Listening as he explained how one got better with blacksmithing. Indeed, he rarely thought about why he was building something with balcksmithing, mostly following orders these day's. Though with some more involved things he could see why the why's were important even in blacksmithing, or the disciplines of armor and weaponsmithing. Though he didn't know that much about either of those. Still unless it helped him form the metal the why's weren't really important. He didn't care about how slag got on the metal Just that he had to clean it off the metal. He didn't care how or why the slag weakened welds when it got inside. He just cared about the end result. Not why it came to have such a result. “So just experimenting like we do with blacksmithing isn't a good idea with world magic then.” He said, the fog was slightly bewildering to osd. Though more for the fact that he hadn't been outside the forge in six whole years then the fog being creepy. It still baffled his mind at times that he was actually able to go outside and breathe mostly fresh air now. “I think I get it Silverheart. Work things out in your mind, don't do anything unless you know what it does to the product and why it does that way. Otherwise things will go wrong. Probably a lot worse then just a bar of unusable metal when things go wrong in magecrafting.” He tried to put it in his own words. Trying to show he grasped the concept.

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Silverheart nodded his head his lips dangerously close to curling into a smile. “Hmmm, yes. Quick, Osd Messer, very quick.” Silverheart responded thoughtfully as he seemed to measure up Osd's answer. “Well yes, you are right. That's exactly what I mean and that is what Magecrafting is. Exact. Magecraft is the business of change. We alter the very nature of things and nature is always seeking to put us back in our place.”

Their jaunt in the courtyard was not long as the doors of the Gug Andjak soon bore down upon them. “Here is the Gug Andjak; the place where all of the workshops and laboratories for practising Wizards reside.” He held the door open for Osd again. “The name is in the Ancient Tongue, Nador-Canoch. If you ever find the library you can check yourself out a Nador-Canoch dictionary. The deadies here speak it and all of the good books around here are in it. Learn it and you'll save yourself a lot of bother.”

He made for the steps and began to climb. “Djed's another Nador-Canoch word. You'll hear a lot about it in any field of magic. Djed means backbone. Backbone of everything. It's in everything and it makes everything the way it is.” They cleared the flight of steps and started to climb another. “The reason these robes are blue is because of it's djed. The reason it's soft rather than hard is it's djed. It's the fundamental principle of all magic. Any magic whether it creates or destroys is in some way interested in manipulating djed. If magecraft were simple I'd tell you that it's just changing somethings djed to make it different but that's the doing. The why is complicated. It's gonna take practice and reading. There is history and theory and tools and workspaces to get acquainted with before you can even begin to make the simplest item.” Another flight of stairs cleared. “It's worth it, Osd Messer. To learn and know things of Magecraft. Your creations will live forever and if you are good. If you are great, the Gods themselves will smile upon your work and grant them divine powers beyond your imagination. There is a saying in Magecraft. It is only limited by three things; Time, ingenuity and the deepness of your pockets. Ha!” This saying seemed to have deeply amused Silverheart for he was even smiling to himself. As they entered another flight of stairs Silverheart spoke again. “Are you getting all this, Osd Messer? I am afraid we have many more flights of stairs to go. Our destination is second floor from the top. The Gug Andjak is numbered one at the top floor down to floor 45 underground. Floor twenty is ground level.”
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[Osd]

'Altering the nature of things, I can see how that can backfire horribly.' If you bend something to your will, weither using physical force or however they did that with magecrafting. You always had to be carefull for it to spring back in your face if you made a mistake. Metal could burst into pieces when to hot, wood broke or shot back into your face. Who knows what happened to djed when you pushed it around the wrong way? Nothing pretty he thought. Osd patiently followed the isur, absorbing the things he was saying. The idea of leanring an entire ancient language just because some old farts didn't care translating it in common didn't look like an appealing thing though. Still the way he explained magic was intrueging. Osd long left behind his fear and loathing of magic that was beaten into sunberthians since they were kids. True he still was weary about it, feared the insanity that seemed to plague the wizards. But the very idea that magic existed wasn't something to be hated and feared by him anymore. The fact that every single piece of magic came back tot he same source was rather surprising. So many things he heard magic could do. Things that didn't even look the same or related. All were possible thanks to the same thing. “If it's going to be complicated it's good that we're starting early then. No sense wasting time.” He said. Smiling a bit when Silverheart continued his talk and mentioned the three things magecrafting needed. “I don't have very deep pockets. So I better make the best of my time and be very creative if I want to create things that will last.” He knew sahova gave them resources. But they weren't endless and all wizards were struggling to get a slice of that pie. Better learn how to work with what you could get. “I'm still following silverheart.” He meant both mentally and physically. His body was awake, the harsh work in the forge he did daily was a lot worse then just a few stairs. The fact this building went twenty floors up into the air did shock him a bit though. He grew up in sunberth, where a second story was a rare thing. “Twenty stories high. How did they ever manage to build such a thing?” He was genuinely curious. Till yesterday he never got out of the forge. But even that wasn't that awe inspiring as a citiadel that went more then twenty levels below and above the ground.

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Silverheart's face cracked into a smile and then a booming laugh issued from deep within his gut. He even stopped to chuckle. “Ha! I tell you about magic and you marvel instead at a perfectly ordinary construction.” Silverheart seemed to find this quite humorous as he continued to laugh for many minutes. “You amuse me, Osd Messer. Where I come from twenty stories isn't any miracle. This Citadel was built in the years before the great Valterrian by the ancient Empire of Alehea. Perhaps I'll lay aside some time to teach you history one day. Information is a lot like a craftsman's tools. If you have lots of useful ones than you can make something great of yourself. If you find yourself lacking an essential tool at the right moment you might just botch up the whole job.”

Silverheart's pace quickened the higher and higher they climbed. He seemed to possess a great amount of endurance for not once did he falter or rest as he climbed the steps quicker and quicker. At the speed they were going it was not long before Silverheart stopped and changed direction as they exited a flight of stairs. Instead of heading for the next flight he continued along a corridor into a wide open hall. He turned and proceeded toward a perfectly ordinary wooden door. There was a metal plaque hung on the door that simply read 'Lab 2-B'.

“This is the door to my lab, Osd. You need two things to make this door open. A ring and a password. Don't try to open it any other way. You are a man of honour, Osd Messer, and this Lab will be your new home so I will tell you the password. If you steal from me, if you tell anyone the password without my approval, I will personally make sure you are the newest test subject of the most horrific research I can find. Do you understand?” Silverheart gave Osd a stare that seemed to rake his very soul before continuing.

“The password is 'Idurn'.” The moment the word was issued from his mouth the door swung toward them revealing nothing but the inky darkness of a room unlit. “I-dour-nuh. If you must, you can whisper it to the door. It changes every season.”

“Come in. Watch the door behind you.” Silverheart beckoned stepping into the dark room. When both he and Osd were inside the door swung shut behind him leaving them in complete darkness. Osd heard a mighty swoosh of air from where Silverheart was standing and a mighty bell clanged out from Silverheart's side and the room was suddenly bathed in light. The room was filled with odd looking equipment and cabinets and worktops and all manner of things. In the center of the room was three podiums arranged almost like the points of a triangle each far enough away to provide a hell of a lot of working space around them. It was almost like three separate labs. On the far side to the right was another wooden door. This one had a handle. “The most fully equipped Magecrafting Lab in Sahova. Welcome home.”
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[Osd]

Osd couldn't help but chuckle a bit at his masters mirth. He got why he found it quite humorous. "Well I've seen quite a lot of magical things that made my mind boggle already. But when you grew up where the largest building was two stories and it fell over every few years. A non-magical building this big just boggles the mind. I always thought some kind of magic held the citadel up." To be honest, osd was still boggled by the fact that in his teacher's home buildings like this were the norm. NOt the exception. "So where did you come from? If all the buildings are like that. I might just visit one day to take in the architecture." He said adding the last thing as an ofhand joke then a real desire. He was stuck in this place for the rest of his life. No need to yearn for things that couldn't happen ever. He frowned a bit when he heard the name fo that empire. "Alehea, I remember some stories about it. Sunberth used to be a mining town for it. They were mage-tyrants if the stories are even partially true." But that was all he knew about the empire, stories and legends. Usually told with bile and hate aimed towards them. They really had to be a bunch of bastards to breed a hatred that endured centuries. "I wouldn't mind checking the facts over if you ever have time though." THe climb had been long, but finally they were standing before the door and gone was the aimable teacher and it was replaced with a man whose glare could have frozen magma. Outlying the rules of his laberatory. HE wanted to say that he was from sunberth and that he didn't even know what this honor was. But that would probably be a bad thing to say too his face right now. But he knew loyality and he knew that his teacher probably deserved just as much loyality as his last one. "I understand. What happens when I accidentally mispronounce the word? do I get set on fire by the lock?" he asked. Sounding out the current password a few times. "Is it just random gibberish or a word of that nader-canoch language that's used here?" He stepped inside of the room. Wondering how the door was enchanted. Was it magecrafting? Or some other discipline. there seemed to be as much magical disciplines as leaves on a tree in this place. He narrowed his eyes against the sudden flash. Then his mouth dropped as he took in the size of the laboratory. A lot better then the tiny workstation that he was allowed to use in the forge. He dumbly stared for a few moments before he got his wits back. "Well, I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it before." He let his eyes wander over the room. It really was big as hell. "home was it? So that door is for the sleeping quarters?" He pointed towards the single remaining door. "So do we start the learning? now?" He asked afterwards. HE didn't have any things to put away and they had time. He was also very eager to get started to learn this magecrafting discipline that he was speaking so highly about.

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“I hail from Sultros where men and women are defined solely by their creations. The only place where beauty and creation are the same thing.” Silverheart had answered in reply to Osd's question about where he came from. He spoke with admirationa and perhaps even a touch of longing. He looked down sadly at Osd and patted his shoulder. “I am afraid it is a place unwelcoming of strangers. My people have grown to fear outsiders. To even take you there would be a great betrayal to my people and a stain on my honour.”

Silverheart chuckled at Osd's description of the Alehean mages. “I wouldn't say things like that around here.” Silverheart cautioned. “The walls have eyes and the eyes are attached to some of those very Tyrants you may be speaking off. The thing to remember of Sahova's history, if you should remember anything at all, is that much of it's History is still up and walking around. Not necessarily breathing mind but quick to temper and sometimes oddly patriotic to that long dead Empire where many of them were born.” Silverheart tutted to himself. “Now I'm the one talking like a wizard ay, Osd Messer.”

“It is not mispronouncing the word that matters, Osd Messer, otherwise fellow Wizards and Apprentices would be in danger merely by speaking within earshot. You stand directly in front of it and you keep saying that word until the door swings open. I advise against anything else.” Silverheart explained. “The word is Isurian. Nador-Canoch is too common.”

“Yes.” Silverheart responded to the question of sleeping quarters. “A bed, a warm hearth and a chest of your own to store any belongings you may accrue.”

Silverheart strolled over to one of the podiums. It was made of stone and rose up from the ground about four feet and then some. Perfect tinkering height for say a five foot tall Isur. It was adorned in glyphs but to Osd's untrained eye they surely must have looked like strange scratchings. “You might recognise this kind of podium from your ring. Magecrafting Podiums are where all Magecrafting begins. After a lot of thought, of course.” Silver heart traced his normal hand across the top. “Notice the flatness and wide breadth. For most of the project's creation it will rest on this surface. Once you have begun to work on an object you are never to lay it to rest anywhere but on your podium and never, ever on a different podium. Before starting any project you must make sure that your podium is the right one for the job. If, for example, there is an inopportune bump on the surace or it unintentionally slopes to one side it could mean disaster. Disaster can be lethal to you or the project. Nothing worse than working on a project for months and sinking all of your resources into it for it to come out lacking.” Silverheart patted the surface affectionately.

“Come.” Silverheart led Osd over to the next podium. It was roughly the same height and mostly identical but for the top which edges sloped up like a pizza crust. “The other one was more for objects with a flat surface to stand them on. This podium would be for a spherical object. Not the smoothness of the stone and if you put your hand down you can feel a slight gradient. A sphere or object with a rounded base will always sit perfectly in the middle.” Silverheart tapped the centre with a thoughtful forefinger.

“Okay, last one.” Silverheart let Osd to last one which was identical to the first except that it was taller and obviously built more for the average human to work with. It's flat top was also much bigger which was probably to allow for a much larger variety of projects from small to large. “This is your podium. Every apprentice I've ever had has been of human stock which it's much bigger than it would e comfortable for me to work on. Not that I have had as many Apprentices as other Masters around here, mind. With careful guidance my Apprentices tend to walk out of this lab alive and with most of their limbs. If you want to number among them you don't start any project without giving me the full run-down beforehand. I've had my fair share of failures and usually I'll be able to tell if you're heading toward one.”Silverheart drummed his finger on the top of the podium. “Before we go on to the next thing I suppose I ought to take any questions you may have.”
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[Osd]

Osd recognized the look in the man's eyes almost immediatly. A longing for home, the way he was talking about it his home though. He could relate to why he missed his home. All that mattered in sunberth was how good you were at surviving and distrusting others. Whatever else they could do didn't matter at all. When he was told they were fearfull and distrusting towards outsiders. “I can understand why. Pity though. Maybe you can tell me some more about Sultros when we have time.” When silverheart warned him that those very people who ensalved sunberth were the ones that created this place. He felt a cold chill over his spine. If they created this place, all those other stories that were told suddenly didn't seem to be exaggerated anymore. “I'll keep that in mind.” He said, if silverheart didn't know if they weren't being spied on in his own laboratory. Then he doubted there wasn't a place where there weren't people listening in. “Sahova does that too the people on it. I did it, you're doing it. Might be contagious.” He said with a small smile. He nodded at the explanation of the password thing. Though silverheart didn't tell him what happened if he said the wrong word. If he didn't want to tell him then he wasn't going to pry, he wasn't going to test it out either. It probably was lethal at the very least. Everything on this damned island was. “Makes sense, what does the word mean?” It was nice that silverheart cared enough about the rest of the isle to make sure nobody got killed without them trying to get inside. Another thing that was pretty rare on this isle of the dead. The heart and bed was a lot more then he had in six years though. Even a chest to stow his belongings away safely. It almost felt like he had been dropped in the lap of luxery. And that showed on his face. “Thanks for those.” Osd simpely said in gratitude. He owed a lot to this isur. He pulled him out of his doom, pulled him out of slavery and now gave him a home and things to teach. Even if he had an ultiriour motive. Which he no doubt had, he still couldn't help but feel indebted to the man. He carefully listenend as silverheart explained the three podiums and for which they were used. Why they were shaped like they were and all such things. He also gave him a firm warning. One osd wasn't going to ignore. He knew magic was dangerous and he liked staying alive. So he was going to keep his attention to the lesson and heed silverhearts warning. Osd actually reached out and felt the top of the second platform. Feeling the gradient on it. “Right, Walking out of here with all limbs in place does sound like a good idea.” he commented. “Only one. Why is moving the item from one podium to another, or taking it off such a bad idea?” He wasn't planning to find out for himself. But just moments before Silverheart had been saying that knowing why's was very important in this job. So it was better to get in the habit of trying to find the reason for everything. Otherwise he might just dissapoint him and he'll be back to the forge. Or worse as a testing subject.