[Flashback] Smart Knife (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 68, Summer of 505 AV
Midday
MCL4

This was the second major session of the season, and it was one where Professor Wejerx promised a more in-depth look into intellectual enhancements. After the first one, he had been heavily involved in the theory of it, reading and researching on the composition aspect of magecrafting.

Apparently, every note and every chord played by the fiddle has a reason behind it, and the theory itself was an incredibly complex topic. Already, he had read Inouli Rambert's journal on it, for he was the one who first pioneered the use of the fiddle in Resonant Harmonics. He had also saved up a little miza, and he was confident that by the end of the season he should be able to afford to order a copy of The Enchanter's Grimoire, that huge reference book on everything a magecrafter would ever want.

It was here that he was scratching out notes and writing new ones as he finished up his homework due by today. He was supposed to compose a short piece that would manipulate an item's behaviour through a specified stimulus, though he was supposed to leave the specifications empty.

For the assignment though, he was supposed to write out the progression of notes that would move the procedure along, but leaving the input and output empty. Wejerx told him that it was not only to practice his understanding of intellectual enhancements in Resonant Harmonics, but also to practice collaborative writing. Especially in large teams, it was more practical to divide up the work of such massive composition, and so it would be in his interest to start practising now.

[Eridanus]

Soon, Professor Wejerx entered the room and it took little fuss for them to get everything set up.

"Have you done your homework, student Eridanus?" The stout, ruddy man inquired, a hidden strength behind his eyes that threatened to smite the vantha mercilessly should he not do so.

"I did it, Prof, take a look," The child of Morwen replied, handing him a sheaf of paper.

Taking a seat as the mage scrutinized the musical scores, he nodded to himself while ticking some parts, but scratching out other parts and adding his own notes.

"You do not want to limit the output so much, student Eridanus, leave some variety at the side. This means using double notes at the most, try to stick away from triads within this part of the phrasing," Wejerx muttered as he marked the papers.

"Let us begin," The teacher intoned, gesturing for Eridanus to pick up the heavily glyphed fiddle that he had prepared. The professor took up a fiddle of his own, and the two of them seated together side by side, making the student feel a little awkward.

It was his time time collaborating with someone in magecraft simultaneously. Well, there were previous events, but not two working at the djed at the same time. The musical score was placed before them on a reading stand, and Wejerx peered at the sheets of paper carefully one more time before he gestured for Eridanus to begin the first stanza.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus gingerly struck the string of his fiddle with the fiddle stick which was quite surely enchanted with some sort of magic, even if he ignored the mass of glyphs that were present as tiny engravings upon the wooden finish.

The first sounds of the melody began to waft over the room, and the vantha imagined that the music served as a sort of activating method for the knife that Wejerx had placed over the pedestal. He played the beginnings of the music, a simple tune that spoke of sunshine, spring and new beginnings. It spoke of a humble farmer out to sow the seeds of his newly settled farm, and it spoke of a new infant ready to start its life in the mortal world.

It spoke of dreams just before they were conceived, and it spoke of the seed of possibility before a great idea was formed. And so as the first phrase of the music was created, though crudely but generally played on the enchanted fiddle, the djed pathways of the dagger began to detect the change.

The music, warped by the glyphs that cover the instrument, interacted with the knife upon the pedestal, the magical sound waves colliding with the cantrips engraved throughout the pedestal to identify the item that was to be enchanted.

With that, the priming step was completed, and as the first phrase of the fiddle music reached its end the astral structure of the knife was prepared and ready to be changed. Ready to be modified like a young boy's idealistic dreams; ready to be cultivated like the literal seeds in the farm and figurative ones in a wisher's heart.

And that was when the faint sounds of the second fiddle joined in with that of Eri's as they approached the second phrase of the music.

[Eridanus]

Following the scores on the sheets of paper, the sounds from the enchanted fiddles were emitted, moving across the laboratory, onto the pedestal. The pedestal hummed as it received the astral messages, re-emitting them upwards onto the knife. And so the knife would be changed, just as how music could change people.

The second phrase of the music was harmonizing at best and grating at worse. It spoke of the introduction of strangeness, of something unfamiliar - to which the role of which was played by the second fiddle. It spoke of harmony with doubts and with oneself, but it also spoke of conflict with disagreement. As Wejerx continued to maintain the tone of the piece, Eridanus stuck with his role, gradually switching to another role as planned.

The two fiddles soon took on the roles of parties in a negotiation, a speech, a rhetoric, a debate, a disagreement. One fiddle confided in the other, the other fiddle betrayed it. One fiddle trusted in the other, and the other clashed against it. While one argued for peace the other demanded hostility. There was disagreement, as personified by the imperfect chords and unorthodox arpeggios present in the stanzas.

However, disagreements could be fostered and so the two fiddles began to see the light in the differences. It was not so major after all, and issues could be fixed. The two scores converged asynchronously, one slipping into a major chord while the other fluttered briefly into the same key before dancing into ornaments above it like a butterfly.

As such the scene is then again changed from a blood fueled gang confrontation to a flower freshly picked, and a butterfly flitting about the morning dew. The starting disharmony that segues into the harmony directed the knife to accept the understanding of the importance of verbal commands, granting it a sort of singular mind and opinion.

Views are not singular, and so should your thoughts.

But it was not done yet, and Eridanus plowed on, pulling away at his fiddle as they approached the third and final phrase of his hand-crafted music. Wejerx did not seem hampered at all, for it was obviously not his first time handling this enchanted instrument in the course of his magecrafting work.

[Eridanus]

Thus they entered the third phrase of the music. An unlikely student and teacher duo, sawing away at light fiddles heavily inscribed with mystical markings, making their own form of musical, harmonious magic amongst the original craft of magic they wrought.

Enchanted sound waves clashed against the soul of the dagger, its astral structure tender for manipulation, ripe for modification. And within this maelstrom of magic and music, a new intelligence began to birth. Though limited in scope, it was still a sort of intelligence, capable of understanding basic variations.

Yet it was not complete.

The third phrase of the music spoke of closing. This was where the empty parts of Eridanus' score lay, and where he had to resign to a supporting role while Wejerx took up the primary role by following his edited markings. There was little Eridanus could do but to harmonize with his professor, sometimes improvising with the same structure of chords and key to keep the variation. If there was something about Resonant Harmonics, it was the idea that only constant change could bring about change. Even if they played to the same theme to shape the pathways of their magecrafted item, there had to be variations in the method.

In a way, it was similar to the idea of requiring acceleration to be the variable factor of change, rather than velocity. That way, one had to constantly shift the rate of speed change just to change the acceleration rather than simply changing speeds. That was the heart of constant change in Resonant Harmonics.

Finally, the music took to a close, and the academic duo reached the end of the score, both of them stopping in silence. Without a word, the two of them proceeded to the knife, applying the standard measures to keep it in stasis for the next session. Intelligence without abilities was simply not procedure in magecraft. They could attempt the next step of course, but it might be bound to failure due to their inability to stabilize the freshly modified pathways.

Eridanus remembered reading a research journal once about the need for stasis in magecraft to allow time for stabilization. That was the reason for long durations of magecraft operations. In theory someone well-versed would be able to hit the right mixture of improvisation and ornamentation, striking the 'sweet-spot' of djed pathways so to speak, thus degrading the astral integrity of the enchanted item less. They were definitely not in that category.

If Wejerx were he had no intention to do so, likely to facilitate his apprentice's hands-on learning. There was a reason why he made Eridanus do most of the work when he could have easily done it. It was all in the name of academic progress and the pursuit of growth.

[Eridanus]

"We are done for today," The professor commented, handing the sheet of paper back to his student. "Expect to be given a host more research to do and of assignments to complete, and less practical work. From now on, practical work will be the result of a series of carefully thought out plans, as per high-level collaborative magecraft operations would be like. You have garnered enough hands-on experience to be vaguely comfortable with magecraft, and so now we must focus on the quality of craftsmanship. Quality that can only come with sufficient research and planning."

With that, the student was dismissed with even more homework, though with the assurance that the rest of his season was free from practical work. Lectures and assignments still existed, but they did not have the stress that came with every session in the laboratory. Magecraft was difficult, it was highly abstract, and it was artistic yet scientific. There was no need to mention, of course, its exorbitant costs despite the potential of its power. There was often the saying that the University was rich because of its relics, and that it had more artifacts in supply than buyers on the market. The vantha believed it to be true.

And so he departed the lab, deep in thought as to the schedule for the rest of his season. Should he spend more time on his other courses, or perhaps take the time for a little rest and recreation in the city proper?

Perhaps his dormitory mates could help him with this dilemma.

He highly suspected that the result would be the latter.

[Eridanus]

Skill Requests

• Magecraft
• Instrument: Fiddle
• Music Composition
• Leadership

Lore Requests

• Intellectual Enhancement: Moderate
• Magecraft Collaboration

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Eri's Loot : Skill XP Reward Magecraft +2 Instrument: Fiddle +3 Music Composition +2 Lore: Music Composition: Varieties Music Composition: Double Notes and Triads Intellectual Enhancement: Moderate Magecraft Collaboration Magecrafting Homework: Notes That Move the Procedure Yo, musical one. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!