Solo Slow Judgement

[Mordrion]

Summer, 14th, 515

It had taken three days of checking at the office if his requests had come in. Finally, they responded with a positive answer. But even then it wasn't the answer he had hoped for. Out of all three requests only one had been granted. It would have been better if all of them were approved but only the Soul snails had come through. Mordrion figured that complaining wouldn't help in a place like Sahova so he had accepted the snails, crawling around in a box container and had rushed up to the public laboratories, making his way to one of the labs dedicated to malediction.

Setting his possessions against one of the legs of one of the many workshop tables, Mordrion set his snail box on the top, opening it and peeking inside. There, ten Soul snails casually sat, doing whatever snails do when they are sitting around. Eager to start, Mordrion picked up the first lucky snail and put it on the workshop surface. From his backpack he pulled his own tools, formed to fit his grip and with various size blades for detail work. It felt good to hold them again after such a long time. Since he had left Zeltiva he hadn't used them even once.

While keeping an eye on his snails, Mordrion unrolled the leather container for his tools and picked them out one by one. Before starting on his work, he inspected them for any blemishes or signs of wear. He cleaned the blades and checked their sharpness. A few rubs with a piece of cloth and they all seemed back in top shape. From his backpack, Mordrion pulled a simple knife, used for various cutting jobs, and put it on the table next to the snail.

The snail itself wouldn't serve any purpose but the shell would be very interesting to use. Carving the shell wouldn't be possible because of it's thinness but he could paint on it, creating the malediction that way. But in order to use malediction on it and draw its powers out, the snail had to be dead. Usually, Mordrion had worked with dead animals or even skeletons, completely devoid of any semblance of life. But now, he was stuck with living resources. Lucky they were just snails. Mordrion took the knife and held the ghostly looking snail between two fingers on the table. A quick cut and the head was severed from the rest of the snail, although Mordrion wasn't sure where the head ended and the rest began.

With the knife still in hand, Mordrion started to cut away the rest of the body, making sure as much of the snail was removed before he started scooping out the remaining snail from the shell itself. It was smelly and disgusting work, with snail parts splashing down on the table he was working on, different liquids splashing about. Taking a quick look at the mess on the table and the splashed liquids, Mordrion stopped and put everything down before taking his backpack and rummaging through it. Whatever you need is always at the bottom. Mordrion stuck his arm deep in the backpack and pulled out an old and discolored apron.

Tying the piece of cloth in front of his clothes, covering them from any splashing that may happen, he turned back towards the table. The knife and shell were in his hands again and Mordrion continued with his work , trying to get as much of the snail out of the shell as he could without damaging the shell in any way. Once he was satisfied, he put the knife down. There was still snail inside but that didn't matter too much. He could work with this, finally, it had been too long already. Mordrion screwed open the small ink pot and put it on the table, carefully putting the seal next to it, upside down, and took one of two detail brushes from his small sized, home made malediction kit.

With a careful dip, he put the brush in the ink and held it close to the shell. First came the circle, the drill for the well of power that lay within the remains of the dead. Although called a circle, they can take on any form the maledictor seems fit or prefers. Old words from an even older book once written by his father. Underneath Mordrion's mask, a small smile appeared as he touched the brush against the snail shell. To make sure he had a good view of the project, Mordrion leaned forward, his nose close to the shell. He did his best to breathe through his mouth to avoid the smell of dead snail as he moved the brush.

From the pointy end of the shell, Mordrion moved the brush around, painting a line along the edge of the shell towards the front end, where the opening was located. Just above the opening, Mordrion turned back along the other side, dipping the brush in the ink once more for a quality circle. He completed the circle by painting along the opposite side of the shell and connecting back to his starting point at the pointy end of the shell. The two black lines connected with each other as the brush ran over the first line. Mordrion released his breath as he pulled the brush away from his first Sahovan Malediction Circle. It was a good feeling.

[Mordrion]

Leaning back, Mordrion looked at the circle he had created. It looked good, all the way around and with a good connection back to the start. He put the brush down for a moment, resting the head on the ink well, and flexed his fingers. Even now already, after such a short time of not using the skills, he could feel his fingers were unused to the actions they had to do. Mordrion flexed his fingers some more and picked the brush up again.

He knew exactly what he wanted from the snails, he just wasn't sure how to draw it out. Thinking of a good way to paint what he wanted, Mordrion looked around the room and towards the snails in the box, sitting or crawling around slowly. It was spooky how the snails didn't really seem to be there for that first split second that you looked at them. But then you could see their proper shapes and they became actually very clear once you were focused on them. That would be the way to draw it out, that picture he could see right now.

Satisfied with the mental image he had, Mordrion leaned forward again towards the shell and put the brush to the solid but brittle surface. Glancing to the side every so often, Mordrion started painting. He started from the tip of the snail and painted a wavey line, going up and down in small, short hops. The first two very small, the next three a bit bigger. After the fifth hop there was a sudden long drop, the brush going down in a straight line. The work was slow, each stroke of the brush calculated as best he could, aiming not to waste a single shell on a failure. From there it moved to the right further, a short pointy horn-looking protrusion from the line and then another hop, this time downward instead of sideways.

When he finished the hop, Mordrion dipped his brush in the ink again and put it back on the shell. From there he drew a horizontal line, somewhat parallel with the first five hops he had made, roughly half the distance. From there he changed directions and painted slightly upwards for a third of the last distance. When he had taken the distance he stopped for a moment and looked at his model. It had moved, slowly but surely and Mordrion sighed. If even the snail can't sit still... Mordrion picked the little creature up, carefully, and turned it back to its original position before putting it down again.

With his model back in place, Mordrion dipped the brush again in the ink and continued his work. One vertical hop, a bit angled, and then four more hops, two bigger ones, two smaller ones. And then finally, a slow, curving brush stroke back up to the starting point. With the main model down, he now had to find a way to express what he needed from it. He would have to go with the first idea that came up. Thinking more on the subject led his mind down more theoretical paths to useless answers than practical solutions.

From outside of the painted snail, Mordrion drew a small line through the snail outline he had made. From that line he branched out other lines, thinner and shorter but passing through the snail and sticking out from it in several directions. That should do it for this one. Mordrion stepped back from his work, tilted his head slightly and regarded it. The snail outline did look very much like his model, which was a plus. It was very basic, simply the outline, but that was the point. The snails were translucent, almost see through, and that was what he was going for. The lines he had drawn through them at the end were branches or twigs or grass in the background that were visible through the transparent snail.

It looked good. To Mordrion it did indeed look like what he wanted to get from the snail's shell. Once he had tested this one, he could start on the others and combine them together. With great care, Mordrion put the shell on its side and picked up the smallest malediction knife he had in his possession. Placing the knife on the inside of the shell, against the outer wall, Mordrion started to slowly turn it around. Taking his time to prevent a break of the shell due to its brittle nature, Mordrion drilled himself a small hole through the shell. He spun away small dust of the shell, little by little, taking his time. Patience had come over time and with practice and knowing what the end result would mean, Mordrion had no problem containing himself.

Once the hole was made, Mordrion pulled out a short, thin piece of string and pushed it through the hole. With his thumb as a measure, Mordrion looped the string around it, leaving some leeway to take it off again and pushed the string through the hole a second time. With both ends coming together, he tied them together in a tiny double knot, making sure everything was in place properly and couldn't shift. While loose, the shell had been turned into a makeshift ring he could wear for testing purposes. Mordrion reached for the knife he had used before to remove the snail. With two quick strokes he cleaned the knife against his apron before pricking his left thumb on the point of the knife. Let's see what you can do.