Completed Wandering For Perspective With A Pocket Full Of Skulls

[Kelski]

Timestamp: 29th of Winter, 517 AV

Jaren had sent her OUT. Kelski didn't know what that meant, really, only that he wanted her out of his hair for a few bells and out of his rooms. She made noise, smells, and kept unreasonable hours all in the name of doing work for him. And he needed some privacy for ... something? She wasn't sure. All she knew was he marched into her workshop - his spare room - and pointed towards his main door and said 'Out! ... for at least a few bells...'

And now he wanted something special for a very special person and told her to go OUT and get inspiration for it. He had asked for something unusual, reminiscent of Sunberth, and something that would cause her skill to shine but also be a sort of kick in the head to the person receiving it who was someone who could not refuse a gift form Jaren. The Kelvic was uncertain what would fall under that category so she headed out to look.

And she was hungry, so she swung by The Gold Lodge with her very polite and very visible dog collar tag on and was fed thin soup and given two end crusts of hard bread. She ate the soup - like it was her only meal - and pocketed the two end cuts of bread to nibble on later when she was hungry again. When she was done, Kelski had to annoyingly wait for Darvin to finish his meal before she could set off again.

It was a hard journey, wandering through the desolate streets of Sunberth looking for inspiration. There was nothing but mud, filth, and desperate people. The worst part was that the air was full of crows. It hurt her almost physically to watch them fly while she had no access to her wings. So while Darvin watched her back the Kelvic wandered not paying attention to where her feet took her watching the birds fly overhead and swoop down into the streets with a sheen that almost looked suspiciously like tears in her eyes.

"Girl, we need to get back. Them birds... they are skull crows.... they are bad luck. Seeing um.... especially this many ... means death. Our deaths." He said superstitiously.

Kelski shook her head. "I can't... can't go back. Jaren... I mean Master... ordered me out for at least two or three bells. It hasn't even been half that time yet." Kelski affirmed glancing up at the sky just in time to see Darvin draw a dagger and toss one directly at one of the soaring crows. She saw the metal pierce its breast and heard its death squawk as if fell from the sky. Tumbling to a halt near her, Kelski bent over and examined the corpse. The Kelvic reached down and plucked the skull off the dead crow thinking the practice the crow was doing was morbid.

Darvin retrieved his dagger, and looked around again. In a fit of rage at having to babysit her, he brought down a few more birds. Kelski collected their skulls as he collected his daggers, and tucked them in her skirt pocket. Darvin was obviously drunk, so rather than stay sedentary where it would just make him more surly, Kelski kept roaming.

The Kelvic was already planning what she was going to do. The skulls would be perfect. She'd either line them with silver or another metal or maybe even cast them for a lost wax carving so they'd be solid metal and then decorate them so heavily that Jaren's target couldn't refuse. She'd need more wax than she had, but she could probably acquire it in town while she was here. Then, tonight, she could start on the project back in town.

Already her mind was filled with swirls and delicate etched lines she'd add to the skulls and the chain she'd cast for holding them on. Kelski was excited. Here was her inspiration. Darvin AND Jaren be damned... the Kelvic kept walking, a lighter spring in her step.

Soon she was surrounded by what she could only consider a tent and wooden shanty town. They were on the far edge of the city, nearing the slag heap, and had been passing by the tents for some time as Kelski had been looking up tracking the crows rather than where her feet took her. Darvin looked extremely uncomfortable even leaving his hand on his daggers across his chest.

The Kelvic couldn't believe how some of the people lived. It brought her mind into perspective at her situation as one of Jaren's possessions. Half starved and stinking of filth, the denizens here were in dire straights and looked as hard as the ground they camped on. She passed more slowly now, Darvin trailing more beside her than behind her, as they strolled the winding eddies in the tent city.

She came out nearer the slag heap finally, after following the maze of what passed for streets in the area. There, an old woman - surprising for this city and this age - was awkwardly trying to tear apart what looked like some sort of scavenged pallet and re-nail the boards up on the side of what looked like a little wooden building with a canvas roof. The woman's frail hands were having a hard time with her clawed foot hammer prying the nails and out and straightening them so they could be reused.

Kelski stepped forward, despite Darvin's attempt to grab her shoulder and restrain her and was kneeling by where the old woman was before she could stop herself. "I have young strong hands. Would you like me to pry your nails out for you?" She asked, in a soft gentle voice.

The old woman peered at Kelski as if suddenly seeing her. She took in her unique coloring and her odd mannerism and abruptly handed the hammer over. "Don't be stealing it now, its all I have." The woman said, her eyes turning towards the guard with Kelski. She knew what this was. Most likely a rich lady out to feel better by staring at the poor and maybe helping them....

The woman thought uncharitably until she caught sight of Kelski's slave collar. That cleared the picture even more. Not a rich woman, a rich person's pet. The old woman began to chatter then, opening up, as she identified someone who was probably in a worse situation than her, albeit a gilded cage.

Meanwhile Kelski carefully tapped on the wood, pulling two pieces apart and once the nails were loose enough, grabbing them with the claw of the hammer and carefully prying them free. She started to make a neat little pile next to the wood of both nails and freed lumber.

[Kelski]

Kelski was most happy when she was doing something productive and helpful. This was that sort of work... tearing something old apart to make it new. She had a jewelry project ruminating in the back of her mind so she could get something done for Jaren... and she had someone to talk to who would pay attention to her (that wasn't Darvin) as long as she helped.

"I'm Old Lady Mosa." The woman started without preamble. Her voice sounded like parchment and Kelski somewhat loved it. She looked human to the Kelvic and seemed to appriciate the rather large pile the Kelvic was acquiring.

"I'm Kelski." The Kelvic responded as prompted, knowing that was the proper thing to do. "I'm owned by the Sun Birth's but sometimes they let me get out and go wander for inspiration. That man over there sneaking drinks from his flask while supposibly watching me is my guard Darvin." Kelski said without looking at Darvin. He was actually drinking from a flask he had concealed in his leather armor and was scowling at Kelski because he could hear every world.

The old woman chuckled. "It's good you are walking around with a guard. A pretty thing like you? Wouldn't last on these streets I'm afraid... not with whats been going around in rumors. Myself? When I was your age I was ugly as the mongrel dogs that roam this tent city.... but I was good. Divined stuff you see... read stones and bones and made a decent living... still do. That's why I've been around so long. See? This aint my spread. That one there is claimed... that wall... and that one there is claimed... that wall... and once we build this wall, all the empty space inside is mine. I even got the tarp over it already to claim that I'm building in it. But your helping me out by doing this... building a wall. I'll be home in my own bed by dark tonight." The woman chuckled, gesturing wildly at the space she'd already tarped off.

Kelski surveyed the area and decided it was about as big as the wardrobe/closet she slept in among her stuff in Jaren's extra room. "I think that tarp looks like a fine one too... It will keep the rain out if you run a board across the highest point to give it a slope." Kelski suggested, having landed on many a roof in her life as a bird.

When the pallet was torn down and the wood was laid out, she went to stand the bigger wood on its ends and nail it to the walls that were owned by others at Mosa's direction. Then, she carefully did what the woman asked and basically made the simplest of simple frames out of the larger pieces. The smaller pieces then went across the front, seam to seam, so there would be a minimal of gaps in place. Kelski was careful to conserve the nails, using them where they would do double duty. It turned out she didn't need to because before long Mosa - out of her pile of stuff - had pulled tin can that had a ton more in them.

Out of the corner of her eye Kelski noticed several people approach Darvin as if they knew it and him give them something quietly in exchange for coins. The Kelvic pressed her lips together. The man looked like he was doing a steady business out here in the middle of the poor with an excuse to be here and probably getting a fee from Jaren.

The Kelvic's arm ached as she hammered, happy that old woman seemed pleased with her work. The space she was creating was slowly growing darker and darker inside. She even peeled back the tarp, set up a roof beam board for it, and then carefully nailed it down over the board and on both sides so that the wind or heavy rain wouldn't catch it and blow it or pool in its depths.

Mosa talked the whole time. Kelski sometimes paid attention and sometimes did not. She had very little carpentry experience so she had to concentrate just to drive the nails in straight. Luckily nailing boards was not that far different than using a hammer in her workshop so her fingers ended up being clever and limber.

"Did you hear about the treasure? There's a ton of it I heard. The Daggerhands are organizing something for people to go after it. It's possibly guarded by spooks or something else equally horrible, but they got an invite out for everyone to go help. They are meeting down at the docks tomorrow. You are a handy young thing in slavery... you should go. Maybe if you meet with this Calidus fellow at that keep they are ferrying everyone too.... ugh... Robern's Sea Tarrif Keep... you can win enough treasure to buy your freedom. You should think about it, youngling. A pretty bird like you should be flying not dying..." The woman added, looking at Kelski sternly as she already unloaded her things into the newly and poorly constructed shack made of pallet wood.

Kelski wondered how she knew she was a bird, but didn't say anything but "Thank you... I'll consider it." Her mind raced with a thought. Could the woman be right? If she stayed up all night and did a good job on the skulls, Jaren would let her go she thought. Or at least he'd give her more free time to go and that would be all that mattered right?

Kelski thanked Mosa for letting her help and collected her rather tipsy guard who was bitching about having to wait on his feet so long... and headed home. The Jeweler mostly ignored Darvin, not because it was easy to do so, but because she saw him make several sales and knew he had a pocket full of coin from his unconventional drug sales. The Kelvic was never truly shocked that Darvin was so ambitiously lazy... it was an odd combination. He made money everywhere, but never really wanted any responsibility to go with it. He certainly didn't like guarding her and bitched about it, but in the end it always did him a good turn of hand.

She didn't understand it. Kelski's stomach grumbled and she reached down to pat her pockets, looking for one of the thick end crusts she had tucked there. The Kelvic didn't feel them, oddly enough, and looked back towards Mosa's place in time to see the old woman starting a tiny fire in a little brazier and munching on one of the end crusts.

Darvin followed her gaze and had noted her hand gestures and burst out laughing. "Old ladies are good for nothing but the blade, little bird. You helped her out for at least two bells and she rewarded you by stealing your dinner." He laughed as if it was the funnest thing he'd seen all day which caused Kelski to color a bright red.

Not wanting to go home yet, and having never seen it, the Kelvic quietly decided to walk the extra little distance to The Slag Heap since they were already almost there. Darvin noted her direction and groaned, starting to point out that they were not going in the direction of home or the Gold Lodge to get more food.

"I want to see The Slag Heap while I'm out." She said softly, turning to look at him. "Just for a moment, then we'll head home." The Kelvic added, trying to reassure him. He nodded, but only because she'd said they'd be quick and it was true they were almost there.

[Kelski]

It was a mistake. Kelski knew it the moment they came downwind of the Slag Heap and her sharp eyesight caught what could only be trash on fire. Sure they called it slag from mine tailings, but it looked like a soup pot from the Tent City with everything thrown in that could burn. The smell was putrid, a combination of oil, wet or dead animal, something herbal that smelled moldy to her, and some kind of chemicals of which she'd never seen.

Her eyes were watering in moments. And the terrible thing about it was that people were gathered around its parameter as if it were a party. Mostly young gaunt people that looked like they had nothing better to do or nowhere else to turn. Several approached Darvin, but quite a few he turned away with excuses or the fact that he was probably running low on his products.

Kelski paced closer and then wished she hadn't. A woman approached, someone young that had been once pretty but now had hard lines etching her face. She carried a tiny bundle in her arms. She was crying and angry all at the same time and Kelski didn't understand why. The woman got really close to the heap, closer than Kelski ever would have, before she took the bundle she had in her arms and tossed it up on the pile. The Kelvic wondered what the woman was throwing away until the bundle rolled down the pile a bit, into a hotter section, and the blanket came unwrapped. A tiny arm spilled out, still wiggling, as the heat of the smoldering mess caught the dry cloth on fire and a tiny little sound could be heard... the limbs twitched like the body was in agony and pretty soon the whole bundle went up in flames.

The Kelvic was cold through and through. The thin soup she had eaten came neatly up even as she backed away and almost ran into Darvin. Turning, she sprinted away, not wanting to be anywhere near that fire. How could someone do that? What kind of people lived here? No one in Lhavit would ever do such a cold thing. Kelski's life wasn't what these people had. It was so much more... so much richer. She fled the place, unable to unsee what she'd just seen in her mind over and over and over again. The skulls in the opposite pocket from her empty bread pocket banged against one another as Darvin gave chase, cursing her slightly faster form.

Death. This city was the epitome of mortal misery and poverty. She wanted out, away, so very far away. The power in her grew, her kelvic shift wanting to come forth but prevented from doing so by the collar around her neck. She didn't notice the tears running down her face or even seemed to realize that Darvin had caught her and was staring down at her. He asked her again what was wrong and in staggered sentences she told him what she'd seen. A baby. There had been a baby a woman had thrown onto the heap to burn alive. It had cried out as it caught fire... as it died. She sobbed again.

Darvin cursed and gathered her up in his arms. He picked her up as if she weighted nothing and carried her from there. She didn't know how long he did it or where they went. She only slightly came back to herself as he opened her closet/wardrobe door and tucked her into the nest of bedding inside. Then he carefully drew her a ladle of water from the bucket she kept to wash and drink from and upended powder into it. He pressed it to her lips and ordered her to drink it... all of it... and she did so because the shock was so acute.

Soon she was floating... drifting... without a care... without even knowing her name. He closed her wardrobe door and she laughed in delight because the dark was welcoming and full of shadows of whom their names she knew. She called them all by name, greeted them like a friend would, and then told them with a laugh all she'd seen at the slag heap and all she'd done in the tent city. They whispered their own stories to her, brighter ones of better things, trying to sooth the little jeweler's soul.

And after a while, still floating in Darvin's medically induced haze, Kelski got up, found the skulls in her pocket, and got to work on making them happen so she'd have free time to maybe go visit that island the next night. Getting out again didn't make her happy. Getting out again made her sad, but in a distant way, because Darvin had padded it all for her and now nothing bad would ever effect her again.

The shadows danced around worriedly as the jeweler laughed about sad things and got metal melting on the fire... and even dug into her wax stash to get things ready for the skulls. There would be one silver and one copper. Beyond that Jaren could pick which went to whom and she'd let the details sort themselves out on their own. She even laughed a little getting to close to the fire and catching her sleeve aflame. She waved it out, patting it with her free hand, and then changing into a sleeveless tunic so she could work without worrying about joining that baby in whatever place people went when they died.

[Kelski]

Kelski decided the first skull needed to be silvered. It was something she’d seen Master Li do a million times though nothing she’d done personally herself. Jaren had wanted the piece to be well done but not expensive, so rather than use actual silver, Kelski decided she’d use copper. Silvering was actually a very simple process of covering anything really – metals, wood, paper, or glass, with a thin film of metal. One could use silver, gold, bronze, copper, tin or any combination therein. The secret was the prep of the surface. She got sanding paper out and began to gently sand the skull, roughing the surface up so it was not only clean – the copper wouldn’t stick to something not clean – and covering everything she didn’t want silvered in this case with jewelers wax. Silvering could be done by dipping but Kelski had been told over and over by Master Li that it came out badly in the end and wasted material. Kelski had nothing to waste, barely having enough stock to keep her jewelry going.

Studying the skull she tried to decide if she actually wanted anything NOT covered. In this case, the answer was no. She wanted everything silvered in copper, and while it was still molten she could carve and draw on it. Perhaps scrolling designs would work well, swirls of a more mystical nature that were often popular with some of Sunberth’s dumber crowd… and certainly that constituted Jaren’s friends and enemies.


Kelski had a small second hand, probably stolen, silverer. She’d noted it when the rest of the stuff she’d requested for her workshop was delivered. It was a clever device, often cobbled together from other things, that used the jewelers own breath via a tube to force small quantities of the molten metal onto the surface they were working on. Though small, hers would be prefect for the crow skull since it was such a tiny little thing in and of itself.

For Kelski, learning to silver took her a great deal of practice. She found that out almost immediately when she had the copper melted, the skull prepped and the silverer all set up. It was awkward and clumsy and Master Li had made it seem easy. The Kelvic had to force herself to be patient, getting nice even coats. Several times she had to sand down where she had breathed too unevenly or had gotten excited and blown too hard. The copper sprayed out and where it missed the skull it formed little pellets that could be swept back up and put into the crucible to remelt. Then once melted, she loaded the liquid metal into the Silverer and blew on the tube aiming the silverer at the skull like she was dusting the piece with the warm copper. She had to stop continuously namely because she couldn’t use big batches of copper – it would harden in the silverer – and because it was necessary for her to shoot a small batch then carve in the still molten copper the swirls and whirls she wanted to show up

[Kelski]

Silvering was more difficult than it seemed. Not only did she have to silver it, but she had to turn it, not mess up the still hot metal, and then even flip it upside down to make sure it was evenly coated. It took far longer than Kelski had imagined or ever seen Master Li take. She thought back and realized abruptly that he had all kinds of stands that suspended things so they didn’t rest on a solid surface and that he could turn the stand without touching the piece to keep the spraying even. She quickly bent up some spare wire, heavier stuff, and hung the skull on it in a way that would let her coat the underside and finish it up with the right side up where she could cover the places the wire touched the skull. It seemed to go a lot easier with carefully planning and a determination to make it look beautiful, even if it inherently was supposed to be a thing of evil.

Once the copper was silvered on in place, Kelski then had to polished it to a high sheen. At that step, she could add any additional adornments such as gemstones, but Kelski hadn’t thought it necessary. Jaren had wanted her to make it simple, expensive, and slightly horrifying. Kelski knew the skulls meant bad luck, but silvered with Copper it became a piece of beauty. She decided to limit the decorations to its forehead, adding whirls that cascaded over the skull like locks of hair, parting in the middle. Then in the middle she did a combination of a spiderweb ginkgo leaf that looked like nothing at all. However, in the squiggles of the metal where the decoration was, the seemingly innocent looking lines spelled out the words death, misfortune, and folly. She thought it was a nice touch and in the spirit of what Jaren wanted. It would, after all, be just one of his choices. She’d make him three.

Next she had to make a chain for it. She had several choices, though Kelski knew it had to be heavy. She opted for a cable chain and got out her wire blanks and molds. She gathered up all the scrap from the silvering and added to it more copper ingot. Then she set it in the crucible and began to let that liquefy. She oiled her wire blanks, both the pull through and the initial molds where she would pour a square piece, and then oiled the wire stretcher. When the copper was fully liquid, she poured several runs of it out in the wire molds until she’d used all her copper. Setting the still warm crucible aside, she let the wire molds cool and once they were done she popped out the square chunks that looked more like lengths of sketching charcoal and took them over to her wire stretcher.

She laid them in the first groove of the two heavy wheels and rolled it back and forth, easily stretching out the copper. She moved it to a smaller groove and got even more length out of it. She did this until she had a workable length of copper that was uneven and certainly not perfectly round.

Next she’d stretch them to length.

(The finished skull.)

[Kelski]

Kelski took the length of wire over to the vice and made sure the draw plate was firmly in the vice and held tight. She oiled the draw plate and looked over the holes. The draw plate was a simple device. It was made of a flat piece of iron and had holes bored in it of various diameters. A jeweler could take a large uneven length of wire, fit it into a hole that was roughly the same size as the wire and then gently and firmly draw it through using pliers. The hole would smooth out the wire and lengthen it. Once that was done, Kelski could stair step it down so she kept drawing it through progressively smaller holes until the wire was the diameter she wanted. It took a lot of brute strength to fit the wire through the hole, grasp it with the pliers, and drag it through stretching it out. The result was a sweaty jeweler with swore fingers, wrists, and a length of wire that was nicely shaped and the perfect diameter in a uniform way that looked professional. And the great thing about it was that wire didn’t have to be hot to have this method work. She could make a lot of thick wire, store it, and thin it down without having to heat metal or pour it into square wire molds and put it through the wire press.

Once the wire was made, Kelski then removed the draw plate from the vice, cleaned it thoroughly, and stored it away. Then she put a metal rod in the vice, just a simple plain piece the diameter of the links she wanted and began wrapping the wire all around the rod. She wrapped it until it was basically a large spring and slid it off the iron. Once off, she sharpened her wire cutters and carefully cut STRAIGHT lines through the wire roll, causing the spring to fall apart in links. At that point she lined up the links on another plate and gently pushed them together. She’d do half ahead of time, using a set of two pliers – one in each hand – to bend the wire completely together so the links formed a perfect hoop.

Then she’d lay them down with the line of where the circles touched themselves all facing the same direction, flux them, and after her soldering iron was heated up, solder them together. Then, making a nice pile of the links, she took the other remaining links, threaded two of the solid hoops through, touched the broken link together, soldered it, and made sure it was fused solid. From there she built the chain, linking soldered loops with open loops in a continuous line until she had twenty-four inches of chain. Then she carefully bent a final hoop into an S curve, closed the top end of the S just like she would a link, and left the second last link open on the chain for the open part of the S to fit through making a neat clasp.

Finally, she threaded the chain through the skull and was completely done with that one. Kelski was certain Jaren would pick it. It was unique, ominous, and had turned out better than what she thought. He’d particularly like the hidden words, she supposed, for that was the kind of person he was.

[Kelski]

Setting the first copper skull aside, she decided to tackle the biggest of the three skulls she had. Looking it over, instead of silvering it, Kelski decided she would leave it raw bone so there would be no doubt it was real. It would look nice though, much like the other skull, with a decorated forehead and some chain to hang from it. It could also use with some glasswork beads… not gems. Jaren had said these were not to be expensive gifts. Luckily Kelski had glass she had salvaged from the stolen jewelry and she could melt that and refaucet it in order to make them look like expensive beads. She’d start there, then work through filigree molds for the forehead decoration and then do chain again.

It would be an easy process. The Kelvic dug through her glass, found as much of the same color as she could, and then added some clear to finish off the amount she needed. Loading one of her crucibles, Kelski set the glass to melting after she stoked up the kiln fire. Then, she went to get her gem cutting tools ready. Once her lap wheel was set up and her dops were ready, she pulled out her bead molds and laid them out after a light oiling.

The crucible she grabbed with tongs and gently upended over the first of the bead mold holes and carefully moved down the line filling the molds until she ran out of glass. At that point she cleaned out the crucible and set metal into it to melt… a nice silver … and laid out her wire molds that would make the initial square ingots she’d turn into wire. Kelski knew the beads would be ready by the time she was done with all that, so she left the silver to melt and broke open the bead molds.

All she had were dark blue shimmery beads with a hint of purple in them. There were no facets on the beads, but that was okay. She could cut the glass just as if it were a gemstone and make them fancy for Jaren’s pleasure. She cleaned the molds, stored them away again, and then cleaned the little beads. She had a dozen of them from the mold, not many, but it would be enough with her design plan.

Kelski decided she’d work on her math and geometry and cut the glass beads in a simple series of removals using her lap wheel. Once she made the cuts, removing part of the glass material, she’d polish the sections which then became the facets. When she was just starting out she cut a lot of glass and quartz for practice, so faceting the beads was not much of a challenge other than their small size.

The trick was that faceting, while relatively simple, takes a lot of time, patience, and preplanning. The most common style of cut is called a brilliance such as the ones most diamonds are cut in. Kelski wasn’t going that route. She was actually going to simply cut the beads in hexagons that bumped up against each other so they stayed round. There would be no true pavilion or crown. Instead, for the beads, she’d draw an invisible line through their equator and cut the top and bottom halves identical. Beads were not gems. They did not get the same privileges.

Putting her foot on the pump beneath the lap wheel, Kelski sent it to spinning, pumping it with her feet harder and harder until she got the lap wheel turning at the speed she wanted, then dipped her dop in the forge, warmed it just enough to pick up some wax, then tapped the bead to get it trapped on the end of the dop. She let it cool then gave it a hard yank to make sure it wouldn’t come loose from her dop… and got to work.

[Kelski]

Once Kelski had the bead ready to cut, she attached the dop to the quill and added the quill to the facetar. The faceter was just a fancy arm the jeweler used to keep the dop and quill absolutely even and still against the lap. Kelski’s wasn’t the best, rickety would be a nice description, but it got the job done as long as she was careful with it. She pulled out a little protractor, measured the angle, and set the cutting angle by putting the faceter at the correct index. Her hexagon would be gentle, the beads no bigger than small dice, so the process took almost no time. She adjusted the height of the mast arm and gently pushed it against the lap wheel.

Immediately the glass began to be ground away and her facet was slowly cut. Kelski took her time, keeping the pressure against the wheel by the faceter even by pressing the quill. The dop took the pressure, transferred it to the glass bead, and before she knew it one side was done. She gently slowed the wheel, pulled the gem away from it, and reset the whole contraption 1/6 of the way around the bead and started yet another cut.

The process was tedious but Kelski didn’t mind. It gave her time to think and also gave her time to commune with the shadows that always drew closer when she was working in her gloomy workshop. She hummed a little as she cut, moving the whole apparatus back and forth because she knew the lap wheel wasn’t exactly going to wear even and she didn’t want the cutting surface grooved. Quality wasn’t Jaren’s specialty so neither was her equipment.

Kelski added a bit of oil to the wheel, gently rotating the glass bead again, making yet a third cut. She repeated the process, starting and stopping the wheel and assembling and disassembling the whole setup each time she moved to another facet. It was so relaxing for her, working at the wheel, grinding away parts of the glass bead. It reminded her of what was happening to her. Sunberth was doing something similar, taking bits away of her like some giant lap wheel. Life was reflected in everything around her… on micro and macro levels.

The jeweler eventually lit her alcohol burner, got a good flame going, and passed the dop through where it was attached to the bead. The wax melted almost instantly and freed the bead from the dop. She turned it around, attached it again by heating the dop in the forge and dipping it in wax so the cut edge of the bead was now against the dop buried in wax. Then she cut the uncut bottom half, the southern equator of the bead.

The drug Darvin had given her kept her floating, kept her happy, as she cut away, her mood mellow and leveled out. The dozen beads went fast and soon she had a happy little pile of them waiting to adorn the skull. Speaking of the skull, Kelski pulled out her bleach… a mixture of lye and vinegar, thinned it with water, and dropped the skull in it to whiten it for a few bells as she finished the ornamentation for it.

Next she had the filigree and chain to make, some small separate beads and maybe some tiny carved skulls to add to the final piece and she’d be done.

Continued In: ... With A Pocket Full Of Skulls II

[Kelski]

Kelski



Experience: Jewelcrafting +5, Planning +5, Carving +1, Metalsmithing +1, Construction +2, Body Building +1

Lore: Gold Lodge: Feeds slaves free, Sunberth: Layout of Streets, Sunberth: Tent City, Sunberth: Slag Heap, Tent City Denizen: Mosa, , Skull Crows: Omens of death, Bad Luck, Darvin: Deals Drugs While On Duty, Body Building: Construction Is A Good Workout, Larceny: Having Bread Stolen, Slag Heap: The Air Quality Is Terrible, Slag Heap: People Burn Bodies (even Babies alive) On It, Darvin: Drugged Her, Slag Heap: Thing of Nightmares


Notes: Three Skull Crows, Rumors of Treasure On The Isle, Rumors of Mustering at Robern’s Sea Tarrif Keep, JC: Silvering Skulls with Copper, JC: Making square point chains, JC: Carving Still Hot Silvered Items, JC: Cutting Round Glass Beads Into Faceted Ones