Completed Getting a Grip

[Kuvarakh]

Fall 60, 512

The sound of swordplay met Kuvarakh's ears as he approached the door to Alchemmia Alchae. As if it was not bad enough that he had been forced to dodge ghostly blades swung by mischievous spirits on the way TO work. He did not know whether those blades would actually hurt him, but he did not feel intrepid enough to stand and test the question.

NOW, blades that he knew WOULD hurt him were in action within his workplace. Wanda must be in there and he was not about to stand by and let her be injured, or worse. He threw the door open and charged in, inspiring in his courageous recklessness, pitiful in his lack of training, comical in his amusingly swift dispatch at the hands of a competently wielded shield to the face.

"Kuvarakh! Oh my good gods, are you alright?" Wanda cried, her voice less than entirely sympathetic. "Are you crazy? What's the matter with you? I told you Sir Vendrik was bringing a sample in."

Kuvarakh took a moment to focus the several images of Wanda circling his field of vision into one before answering. Were he not a Nuit, he would surely be bleeding from his now crooked nose. "Excuse ME. I had a host of ghostly swordsman prickling my backside the whole trip here and I wasn't thinking clearly." He stood and faced Sir Vendrik "And let me thank YOU, sir, for slamming my brain back into proper alignment. Now perhaps you can reset my nose as well."

"Oh, for goodness sake, let me" Wanda scolded as she placed her palms on either side of Kuvarakh's nose, wrenching them slightly as she went on, her narrative punctuated by the sound of muffled crunching and gasps of pain. "I TOLD you he was bringing in a sword and shield with odd properties that he wanted duplicated." she said impatiently, nodding towards the man who, reason dictated, MUST be Sir Vendrik. "This sword is literally unable to strike this shield directly. I have swung it a number of times and it either shears a glancing blow or the haft turns in my hands to hit with the flat of the blade. The man who owned them said it was an alchemist who gave the shield this property. So Sir Vendrik brought it here, hoping I could figure it out."

Sir Vendrik now stepped forward, his expression telling of a slim tolerance for unprofessionalism, being strained by Kuvarakh's buffoonery. "Yes. I thought it preferable to allow her access to a demonstrative display of the desired effect, as opposed to an attempt to describe with words, especially given the...obvious inexperience...of the one most likely to be relaying that account." his gaze fixed ungenerously on Kuvarakh as he completed his statement.

Wanda stifled a snicker as Kuvarakh turned to face Sir Vendrik directly from less than a foot's distance. "I pray thee, sir, if my woeful lack of military bearing doth give thee offense, I beg thy sufferance to consider that I did but give greatest contribution to that most venerable of services by sparing it the indignity of my presence. And if this act of sacrifice on my part falls short of giving thee satisfaction, I can only hope that I may ingratiate myself anew by inviting thee to enjoy intercourse with thy most august self." he bowed low before the man, who stared incredulously at the display of utter insolence. Then he burst out laughing.

"Well Said, sir! Well said and well met. if you can craft an alchemical formula as well as you craft an insult, then the mystery is as good as solved! We'll call it even then? I best you in melee and you best me in wit."

"Would that my words were fists." Kuvarakh crooned with a smile and a nod.

Sir Vendrik saluted smartly as Wanda slipped up beside Kuvarakh, kissing her fingertips and touching them lightly to Kuvarakh's nose. "My Hero."

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh winced, "Ow!" and recoiled. "Did you bring metal to make more shields from, or were you looking to simply have this one shield transmuted?"

"Ah, well, it's not so simple as that. Not every martial style would benefit from this effect." Sir Vendrik began. "Some would prefer to have an opponents blade be drawn TO the shield. It would be more common to wish a bludgeoning weapon, say a mace or morning star, to be shied off at an angle. I was simply looking to have a shipment of tempered armor material be treated thus, and then allow the weapon and armorsmiths to see what they can do with it. Same with weapon quality steel.

"Also to have some treated to ATTRACT the metal. For instance, a flange about the inside of a sheath's opening to secure your weapon within, or to have gauntlets that attract the metal of the hilt's core so you are less likely to drop it. I can think of a number of ways both properties could be used to the benefit of the user." Sir Vendrik's enthusiasm began to build.

"Combinations would be, as well. As you may well know, there are always vulnerable spots, seams in armor where they are weak, where a precisely placed blade will pierce between the plates and drive into flesh. What if some metal with the repelling property could be used to line this seam? Coupled with a small strip beside it that attracts? With one property pushing the blade aside while another pulls it astray, why, a sword point would be hard pressed indeed to stay true to its target in such a case." he dramatized his point with deliberately errant thrusts.

Kuvarakh gazed into a haze of inner visualization, his imagination piqued. "Yes, yes, or a buckler that adheres to your arm and attracts the enemy's sword into an easy parry!"

Sir Vendrik's eyes gleamed, "Exactly!" his voice brimming with celebration that he was understood.

"So you want one load transmuted to attract, and one to repel?" Wanda asked, notepad in hand, seeing to the business end of the discussion, while the two men exchanged theoretical applications.

"Yes, well actually, I want one load of armor quality and one load of weapon quality metal done each way. And I was thinking you could add a small stack of thin metal strips to the "attracted" load. I'm not sure about how this works, but the man said something about "pull-ary"...or 'erity'..."pull-erity", something like that, where two pieces that attract other metal, repel each other. So I was thinking that some strips might negate or reverse this if it happens to occur when the interlocking flanges of two pieces need to be held together while the rivets are being hammered in."

"Polarity' is the word you're looking for." Wanda stated absently, not looking to explain. "This will take a lot of lodestones and cutting to the active vein will take some time. Do you have any cut magnets, Sir Vendrik?"

The man grimaced, "Uhh, I was hoping you had some, to be honest."

Wanda straightened slightly, negotiating now from a position of strength, "Well, I DO have 'some', but I'll be needing those to run initial tests."

On cue, Kuvarakh piped in, "And it may take a number of them to figure out how to get around this polarity issue." He was about to ask if the smiths realized how much trouble they were going to have working with metal given these properties, but decided that was not their problem and he didn't want to talk the man out of what could be a very lucrative job.

"I'll get all that I can, once you let me know if your tests are successful." Sir Vendrik responded, resisting the impulse to make exaggerated promises now that the deal was so close.

"Of course. Oh, Wanda, we need to finish testing those odor candles. You know, the ones used to drive rats away." Kuvarakh said, wanting to give Sir Vendrik cause to leave before it occurred to him to ask how many magnets Wanda had on hand.

She winked and feigned nausea, "Oh good gods, I had hoped we were done with those." she emphasized her disgust with a gesture of jamming fingers down her throat and gagging.

Sir Vendrik scowled and took a few steps back, calling over his shoulder as he hurried for the door, "Alright then, I will return in three days time. will you have tested the metal by then?"

"Oh yes, and we ought to have the shop aired out by then." Kuvarakh responded with a grin.

[Kuvarakh]

After Sir Vendrik left, Wanda sent Kuvarakh below to retrieve all the magnets he could find. He returned several chimes later with nine of them. He mentioned that there were three raw lodestones as well, but he had left them there.

"That's alright. I don't need them." she said, her face clouded with some anxiety. When Kuvarakh asked her what she was worried about, she responded, "I'm concerned about this "polarity" matter. I'm not sure how to test it. I'm afraid the metal may inherit that detail as well. It's mostly a matter of whether it causes a problem when they try to connect two pieces, that have already been shaped, together for the first time, and find that they resist contact."

"Well, all we can do is run a test and see what results. Besides, I don't think it's going to be an issue. You heard the man, he wants those thin metal strips for that purpose, so it sounds as though the people he's contracting with are aware of this problem. It will be for them to worry about that." he answered dismissively.

"How can you SAY that?" Wanda challenged, turning with a genuinely angry and disappointed look. "Doesn't it matter to you if we deliver a product that can't be used? Doesn't the reputation of Alchemmia Alchae as a place that SOLVES your problems mean anything?" she stalked towards him with a look like he was stranger caught robbing the place. "What if we charge him a bundle for this metal and it ends up collecting dust in some storeroom in Sylira? Don't you think some quartermaster might just ask where it came from? How much it cost? Why it's not being used?"

Kuvarakh recoiled in surprise, "Wait a minute, now. I never said I didn't care about our reputation. Of course I want to produce a quality product! Don't ever think otherwise. I'm just saying that it was pretty clear that the customer is AWARE of this potential problem. He's even the one suggesting a tactic for us to employ in case it occurs. I'm saying that we won't be disappointing anyone by producing exactly what the customer is anticipating."

She cocked her hands on her hips and glared at him. "And what about producing a product even BETTER than what the customer is anticipating? Huh? How about that? Don't you think that maybe THAT is the way a craftsman truly makes a name for himself? If we are just another alchemist that produces just standard quality results, then why should a Syliran Knight come all this way?"

Kuvarakh was shocked. "He actually came all the way from Sylira? How did he even hear of us?" he winced at his wording, suggesting that Wanda's shop should not be heard of anywhere but in Alvadas. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that like it sounded."

Wanda scowled, but there was a bit of softness to it. "Don't be, because you're right. This is not a town that focuses on alchemy, so it's difficult to get the word out to other towns, other customers. That's exactly why this contract is so important to me. I don't have any IDEA how he heard of us! But I'm not letting this opportunity be shrugged off as just another job."

Kuvarakh straightened up and nodded, "You're right, and I'm sorry. I guess I let this take on the sense of being a hobby, or a source of support, not a legacy. Not a name to immortalize." His brow furrowed as he stared off into a vague distance. "Ok, so other alchemists have already found that they absorbed the unwanted 'polarity' property. I think we can safely assume that this was the result of a simple 'one-magnet-one-fount' transmutation. They got the attraction they were after, but pieces got the 'repelling' property as well. I can see this resulting from such a basic run."

He started to pace, "No doubt it stems from the fact that every magnet actually possesses both properties. But it would only be a problem if two pieces were cut from the same originally charged slab of metal and then one was turned so opposite end pieces were tried to be fit together."

He looked at Wanda with new respect for her perfectionism. "And while, after some trial and error, they would learn to keep track of which ends were which when they first cut the patterns, they would be greatly surprised to find that they didn't need to worry about this with metal transmuted at Alchemmia Alchae!"

"And they would remember! And they would tell others!" Wanda inserted.

"And they would remember! And they would tell others!" Kuvarakh echoed, continuing to pace. He stopped, stared ahead for a second, then turned to Wanda. "I think it's going to take a step just to create the proper magnet to use. Am I correct in my understanding that this...'dual-polarity' property runs the length of the magnet? I mean, so that cutting off the opposite end just brings the 'opposite-polarity' property to the newly created end?"

"Yes, that is my understanding as well." Wanda said, a look of hope in her eyes as she could figuratively "see" the gears turning in Kuvarakh's head.

Kuvarakh grimaced slightly and sighed. "Well, unfortunately, I DO think now that we need to conduct that basic run to create a control result to compare our tests with. That will leave us eight to work with."

"Hopefully, that will be enough." Wanda encouraged.

[Kuvarakh]

As they laid two strips of metal in the center of the ring and then set one of the magnets in a fount, Kuvarakh turned to Wanda. "Are you worried about the receiving metal being weakened by the property of the material the magnet is made of? It's more like stone than metal. It will break much easier. But we can't use one of the magnets to filter out the structural weakness without taking a chance on filtering out the magnetism as well."

"We don't need to worry about that for this step. it won't matter if the iron strips are weakened structurally, we only want to test if the polarity problem is transferred under this most basic level of transmutation." Wanda called back. "I've got that figured out anyway. Removing the magnetism is easy, it's the removing of JUST the attraction property or JUST the repelling property while retaining the other that is the trick...A trick I haven't quite figured out yet." she admitted.

"But, now that you mention it, we ARE going to need several pieces of demagnetized samples on hand as filters to eliminate the structural corruption from founting magnets into steel receivers. Why don't you do that while I run this first activation."

It was not a question, regardless of how it was worded, "How do I do that?" Kuvarakh asked, making his way to the stack of magnets. "And how many do you want me to do?"

"You only need to get one big one. Break it into several pieces, then go down and put the pieces on the heating tray. I don't remember what heat was required, so you'll have to check them after a few chimes. If they are still magnetized, drop them one slot closer to the heat and let them sit there for a few more and check again. Keep doing that until they no longer react magnetically."

"Just heat?" he said, incredulous at the unexpected simplicity.

"That's right, learner." Wanda snickered back. "Not everything has to be complicated."

He did as he was asked, proceeding cautiously. He knew he had plenty of time, as Wanda would be upstairs doing the activation. After four adjustments and about twenty chimes, he found no magnetic reaction of any kind. He brought them upstairs and waited for Wanda to finish. As he sat there, he considered what would bring about the effects they desired and how to obtain it with the fewest spent magnets.

It occurred to him that if he took two magnets and placed them in a position where the polarities were complimentary with no repelling reaction while side by side, that might serve as a fount to create a magnet with no repelling property, but full attraction. Again, the way to test would be to place two strips of metal as receivers and then see if any placement caused the repelling action. When Wanda was finished he would suggest it. He also needed to keep track of how many magnets they still had. They were not all big enough to break into smaller, but still practical, pieces.

Right now, he had spent one breaking it into pieces that he had heated to demagnetize them. Then, there was one that Wanda was using right now, so that left seven. Testing his current thought would use two more. And it would not prove anything about the opposite test. Placing two side by side so that they repelled, would not eliminate the attraction capability that both magnets would still possess. But that could be accomplished easily enough simply by filtering with a single, plain magnet. it would eliminate the attraction as well as the structural weakness of the magnet material. That would take three more magnets. This was adding up too quickly. But once the testing was done, they would know where they stood on material requirements.

[Kuvarakh]

When Wanda finished, Kuvarakh stepped into the ring, picked up the two metal strips and let them slap together magnetically. As expected, when he pulled them apart and flipped one of them lengthwise, they repelled each other. Also as expected, the metal was now no more sturdy than the magnets had been. He dropped one of the strips on the floor, where it broke into several pieces.

"Well...now we know." Wanda sighed. "Have you come up with any ideas?"

"Yes, actually," Kuvarakh stated, "I'm thinking that the reason the repelling action still gets transferred is because its not being neutralized at the fount. We've got seven magnets. it will take two to test my theory. Two magnets and one of the demagnetized pieces. I'm thinking that if we let two magnets rest together, side by side, they will still attract, but the reversed polarity of each end will be complimented and negated by the other one beside it. And I'm thinking that we may as well use one of the demagnetized chunks in a filter slot to see if it will keep the metal in its original form and strength. Keep it from becoming like the cheap magnet metal."

Wanda cupped her chin, her eyes wandering the room as she pondered the suggestion, nodding. "It sounds good. It's worth a try. AND you can do it. I've got to rest a bit. The ring is yours." She flourished an elaborate gesture of surrendering the room to Kuvarakh, and went to sit at her desk.

Kuvarakh took a pair of magnets and let them attract into one unit. He placed it in the fount. He was about to place the two strips in the center when another complication struck him. 'Should I put the metal strips right next to each other, or keep them apart? Will it matter? By duplicating the exact positioning, am I testing that aspect of the transmutation or side-stepping it?'

He brought the issue up to Wanda, and they decided to test that if they needed to. But for now, since they would ultimately be transmuting stacks of metal, it made more sense to place the strips right against each other now to get an idea of the results of conditions as they would be during production.

So he put the metal strips together in the center of the ring and placed one of the demagnetized pieces in the filter. He pricked his finger and slid his finger along the ring to get the feeling of movement. As his fingertip reached the keystone, he let his feeling of movement flow into the ring. It started slow, but he didn't force it. He just adjusted his sense of friction to equalize the slower movement as the djed began to turn in response to his will.

The acceleration built and he felt his surroundings seem to rotate slightly in the other direction. He let his control swell out to bring this outer resistance into alignment with the movement of the djed stream. Slowly he brought his focus back in to where the ring was. He felt the points of resistance begin to "pour" into the stream. There was an oddness to the property as it melted into the stream. A sort of contradictory nature to it. It was both trying to join together and push away.

Kuvarakh used his control over the height of the stream to stretch the fount band of djed until he could feel the repelling nature dividing into two bands. He let the stream work back down on the outside while he left the middle raised. He let the two outer bands go while he applied more of his focus on the middle. He let the speed build and the bands stretch until the conflicting properties were both spread over the entire length of the stream.

Then with his focus still on the middle of the accelerating djed, he gave one last push to get as much of a burst as he could finish with, and pulled the middle section down into a tight band as the two fully stretched outer bands crashed together. He widened the center section out and pulled up the outer fringes, wrapping the the whole stream in a casing of blended djed and released the activation.

He felt it all crush together as it left his control to spin into the receiving metals. He fell back into a chair a few steps behind him and let the room spin for a few chimes until the dizziness passed.

[Kuvarakh]

Wanda was standing over him, looking a little concerned, when the disorientation passed. "Are you Ok? I don't remember you having to push yourself to such a limit for something like this. I mean, just a single activation. You're not usually drooling and crawling on all fours until your second or third go-round." her blend of sympathy and sarcasm was at an elite level. Kuvarakh was envious.

"It was a little more complicated than that. I could FEEL both polarity properties, and I had to compartmentalize them while I created a djed channel in the stream to blend them in. It worked, though, I could feel the opposites complimenting and balancing. Check the metal pieces, they should attract in any position, and NOT repel regardless of position."

Wanda stepped into the ring and picked up the two pieces of metal. They were firmly stuck together. She pried them apart with some difficulty and spent a few chimes repositioning them to account for any combination of side and end alignment. There were no combinations that resulted in repelling.

Kuvarakh's spirit and enthusiasm bolstered his recovery as he saw Wanda's satisfied nod with each successful attempt. "Very good. You appear to be on to something. But, it took a lot out of you. Are you prepared to exhaust yourself this much just to do one load of metal?"

"Yes I am. But I think you're missing the real point here. We CAN settle for this level of success, and it definitely will be something we can fall back on if what I REALLY have in mind doesn't pan out. But this was just to test the theory. NOW is the phase to truly capitalize on it."

"Okay, I'm listening. What is the REAL goal of this experiment?" Wanda asked, trying to hide her eagerness beneath a cool facade of professional detachment.

"Well I didn't want to try this out with any risk to our limited supply of magnets. But I think the same array could be used to create a supply of magnets that have no polarity to them. They, in turn, could be used for a lot of things. Both as founts and filters."

"Anything where we need to isolate the attraction property for founting or filtering without getting the repelling property with it. Yes, that could be very useful." Wanda paced as she considered, "So, what you're suggesting is that we repeat this activation with magnets as the receivers rather than metal. Then, when we want to imbue magnetic attraction onto something, we don't need to figure out some elaborate filter formula to block the repelling property."

"I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work." Kuvarakh ventured, his fingers crossed against the possibility of Wanda thinking of an unexpected snag in his formula.

Wanda turned suddenly and broke into a big smile. "I don't either. Kuvarakh, you still have some surprises for me." she hugged him tightly for a moment then broke off, looking with a hint of a frown at her remaining magnets. "We don't have enough left to make it worthwhile right now, but when Sir Vendrik gets back, we ought to treat half his stock this way." She put her upraised finger to her lips, "And we don't say a word to him."

"Trade secrets." Kuvarakh agreed.

[Kuvarakh]

Three days later, Sir Vendrik returned. Wanda greeted him at the door, apologizing for having to be blunt, but then asking him if he'd been able to procure any additional magnets.

The old soldier gave a slight grimace and admitted he had only been able to get hold of twelve more. "Is that going to be a problem? Weren't you able to get the attraction tested with the ones you had?"

"Yes, of course we did, but we found it will take considerably more magnets to counter the repelling property while retaining the attraction than we first thought. It takes three for each process, and we can't risk overloading the ring, so, depending on how much metal you want treated, it will take all of those and more. Unless you no longer want the other metal treated the opposite way like you mentioned before."

"No, I still...uh...I mean, yes, I still do." he waved his hands in the air and started over. "I still want both treatments done to an equal portion of the metal I have brought. Half done to attract with no repelling, the other half to repel with no attraction.

"Are there any needs for simple magnetism properties?" Kuvarakh ventured, "I mean, there must be some applications where it won't matter if there is the normal polarity. Some spot where it isn't going to be close enough to other magnetized armor to be a problem, because that will only take a single magnet."

"That was only if you were unable to accomplish the purified polarity effect we were hoping for, but since you HAVE, we don't have to settle for less." Sir Vendrik beamed in anticipation of his acknowledgement of Wanda's superior results bringing a smile to her face.

He was not disappointed, though it was Kuvarakh that spoke up, since Wanda seemed at a loss for words. "That's right. You can trust Wanda to get past a problem other alchemists get stumped by." He grinned and patted his boss on the back as she blushed and downplayed her efforts. Kuvarakh became insistent. "Hey, now. I'm completely serious, Wanda, you were completely right. I was the one that was ready to shrug off trying to find the complete solution and just settle for the probability that they were ready to accept the polarity problem since they were asking for the metal strips too."

His eyebrows rose with a sudden realization, "Oh, then, you won't be needing the thin metal strips, correct?"

Sir Vendrik pondered, "Hmmm... No, I guess not. Will that make the magnets go farther?"

"Not by much, I'm afraid. It takes three for each process. After our testing we have five left." She winced as she said it, showing the frustration of coming up one magnet short of being able to complete a third matched set of treated metal.

"Well, I think I know where I can get one more. It'll be another three days, but that will give you time to do the rest of them, won't it?" The old soldier said hopefully, holding his breath.

Wanda took his hand and gave it a shake to confirm the impromptu deal. "That will do the trick very nicely, Sir Vendrik, we will have three sets of attraction treated metal and two sets of repelling metal ready for you when you arrive. Then we will do the last set of repelling while you wait. Will that be alright?"

Sir Vendrik exhaled gratefully, "Excellent." There were handshakes all around and he took his leave.

When he left, Wanda and Kuvarakh, faced each other, grinning. "This is really paying off. We ought to be able to get fourteen depolarized magnets out of this deal. We'll only need to use five of them."

"Well, I've got good news and bad news...The bad news is, it is still going to take three magnets to create the repelling only effect. Since depolarized magnets won't have the repelling effect at all, we have to use regular magnets to do it. Two in the fount, held together to generate the repelling effect, and one in the filter to eliminate the attraction."

Wanda's face fell in disappointment, then took on a wry curiosity as she saw the grin on Kuvarakh's face grow even wider. "And the good news?..."

Kuvarakh leaned in close, conspiratorially, "Did you SEE the magnets he brought? They must be a foot long! We can break each one into three smaller, but still usable sizes. He brought us thirty six magnets!"

Wanda's jaw dropped in an open mouthed smile as her eyebrows shot up. She clapped her hands and whirled around, falling into Kuvarakh with an excited hug. She pulled back a moment later, adopting a facade of boss-to-employee authoritarianism. "Well, What are you standing around for? Grab those magnets and "re-size" them. Then get to work depolarizing them!"

Playing along, Kuvarakh adopted a pose of whipped subservience and grovelled into the back room. "Yes sir, right away sir!"

[Kuvarakh]

He brought the magnets downstairs to the stockroom and pre-post transmutation area was. This was, for instance, where the heating tray and oven array was. This was also where items would be painted or polished or cut to size. This is what he was here to do, but now, the degree to which he should pursue this gave him pause. There was a cut-off point where you could neutralize the property of an item by breaking it down too much.

You could break a magnet into smaller pieces, but there came a point where it was too small to provide a pure, dominant djed property in a transmutation. Otherwise alchemists could grind a piece of iron into tiny fillings and have literally thousands of samples to use. No, that simply didn't work. Kuvarakh was also concerned that since they were looking to use magnets to alter magnets, by trying to reverse and impose non polarity onto an item that contained that very same polarity property, he figured it would either greatly aid the process and require a smaller sample to complete, or just the opposite.

He brought this concern to Wanda, who glared for a moment and sighed. "Why do you always have to ruin my overly-optimistic expectations with legitimate and significant drawbacks? Why do you keep having to bring 'Reality' into the picture?" She paced a moment, considering, "What do you think? I'm inclined to say go ahead and break the magnets into thirds for the founts for this project. After all, if it turns out to be too weak, we'll have only used a single magnet to learn."

"I agree, but I think we need to gauge how MUCH effect we will have achieved, or we might still have the same dilemma afterwards. Also, do we conduct this test on ALL the magnets we intend to transmute this way right now, or be conservative and just use a single receiver magnet this time?"

"The way I see it, since we know we can break Sir Vendrik's magnets into thirds to do his job, even if THIS experiment fails utterly, we know we only need to keep..." she tapped fingers off on one hand quickly. "four of them. Breaking those into thirds will give us the twelve we need for the paired sets for the founts for all six of HIS runs. I have enough left over pieces for the filters we need, though you will need to demagnetize one of them."

"That's no problem. So, we have eight to work with. I say we break two into thirds for six pieces, use two of them for a first test, then we still have four to use if we need to increase the power of the follow-up." Kuvarakh proposed.

Wanda nodded as he spoke and gestured to the unused transmutation ring to indicate that he should feel free to get started. "We need to find out where we stand, since we still need to get the contract done. That's five transmutations outside of whatever testing we get done ahead of time."

Of the eight they had to work with, Kuvarakh took two and broke them into thirds. He placed the six unbroken magnets in the center of the ring, and took two of the six smaller lengths and turned them for full attraction. He placed the two attracted magnets in the fount. This time, at least, there was no need to use a magnet of any sort to filter the lodestone-type mineral structure from the receiver.

He began as he he had done before, feeling the movement develop from the sense of movement and friction generated in his mind by sliding his finger along the ring until it reached the keystone. Again, he stretched the height of the djed stream until he could separate the dual nature of the polarity in the fount. As before the focus of the attraction gave it a much stronger presence in the stream, but the repellant nature of the polarity was still active and needed to be blended. he let his focus become second nature to let everything remain static as he concentrated on opening a channel in the center of the stream.

Again, the whirlpool representation allowed control of the next step. He applied a mental awareness of the attraction polarity by attributing it to the outer ring of the whirlpool and the repelling property to the inner wall. he pictured a buoy in both bands and then concentrated on speed. The buoys started in the same latitude , but as the stream gathered speed, the central buoy slowly began to advance beyond the outer one. Kuvarakh strained himself to apply precise increments of advancement on the inner buoy while still applying energy to increase the overall speed of the entire stream.

It was a torture of concentration, trying to speed the whole ring up, while simultaneously holding one section back. But when he felt he would not be able to increase the speed any more, he let the buoy from the repelling band achieve a position exactly opposite of the buoy representing the attraction band. Then he 'floated' them both into the inner channel and enclosed the walls of the ring on it and released the ring, slamming the activation into the receivers as he fell back, stumbling and falling on his back in exhaustion.

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh came to, not sure how much time had passed. He had a vague memory of crossing some long, blank, dark space and falling back into sand. It seemed that the sand rotated both on an axle and on a pole, occasionally orienting to position itself so he was upright and not leaning, but then it started its cycle of rotation again.

Eventually the dizziness passed. And he found Wanda watching him as she excitedly tried to find combinations of positions that resulted in any of the magnets repelling each other. Never had complete failure been such a triumph!

"You did it! These are perfectly non-polarized magnets!" she crowed. The gleam of victory faded to affectionate sympathy as she saw how drained he was. She had been worried that he may have actually broached the realm of Alchemical overgiving. An event theoretically held to be impossible. "Do you understand what I am saying, Kuvarakh?"

It was not asked in a manner as if she was puzzling over why he was not celebrating. She knew perfectly well why he was so spent. It was more the way a healer will begin an examination of a man with a nasty blow to the head 'How many fingers am I holding up?' or 'Can you tell me your name?'

She was relieved to see his eyes flutter open and a grin lighten the pained look across his brow. "Can you turn down the lights in here, Wanda? My head is pounding like a sledgehammer." She hurried to comply, figuring them both to be done for the day.

"How long was I out?" he said, with pauses to catch a breath as he laid his arm across his eyes.

"A few minutes." She lied, knowing full well it had been a generous half a bell. She had been nearly paralyzed with concern after the first ten chimes with no response. When he had started to show signs of recovering, she had come to tears of relief, and decided to feign them to be over the successful transmutation. She fully intended to tell him what had transpired, but clearly, he needed to relax and telling him of his collapse and short coma would not be conducive to relaxation.

She pulled out some fabrics off the shelves of the storeroom and fashioned him a crude mattress to lie on. She knew that Nuits didn't truly "sleep", but they did indulge in a meditative convalescent state that would revive them when exhausted. She then spent the better part of a bell ordering the room and tidying up, dousing the residuals and shelving the leftovers.

"Sleep tight, Ku." she muttered, her appreciation waxing affectionately.

"mmm.. hmm" Kuvarakh mumbled as he rolled on his side, tucking his knees.

Wanda's eyes popped open and she grinned at how ingrained the fetal sleep position could get, even to an undead that didn't truly sleep. Her mind puzzled randomly on the subject. 'How old can a Nuit get before he passes beyond the instinctive fetal positioning while relaxing?' She shook her head at the pointlessness of the question and went to stretch out on her own mattress.

[Kuvarakh]

This time, it was Kuvarakh waking Wanda up. As he shook her, she made soft muffled whimpering coos that reminded him of the semi-conscious mutterings he used to coax from his wife over a century ago. It was a combination of nostalgic sounds he would never forget. He shuddered in a shock of memory as Wanda swung her arm sleepily as though swatting at a fly in a dream.

'Was she messing with his mind? Had he mentioned his wife's old morning 'wake-up' behavior before?' Even her hair was disheveled and curly with 'bed hair' similar to what his wife, Raellen, had been afflicted with. She rolled on her back and stretched, one arm flung back, full length, the other staying, back handed, over her mouth, just like Raellen. She took a deep breath, held it for a second while her eyes fluttered open, looking straight up and exhaled through her nose, just like Raellen. She folded her hands behind her head, pulled her head up off the mattress, looked right, then left, just like Raellen. She saw him and smiled as her eyes relaxed to half open, just like Raellen.

It was insane. Kuvarakh stared in disbelief and an odd fear. There were ghosts wandering all over Alvadas and yet, right now, he felt like he had just seen one. He took a step back, and now Wanda's eyes grew wide in concern. "What's wrong, Ku?" she said as she rolled to her left and propped herself up on her elbow, smoothing the dress she had worn while napping, the same way his wife, Raellen, would smooth her nightgown.

Kuvarakh trembled in genuine turmoil, his emotions a blend of longing and revulsion. A strangled gurgle escaped his throat as he took another step back. It occurred to him he had never seen her as she awoke. He fought for reason and control. He could never explain to her what was panicking him.

She was on her feet in a rush, anxiety radiating from her as she stepped towards him. "Kuvarakh! What IS it? What's wrong?" she commanded as she grabbed his arms and shook him. Her face flushed with concern that he truly HAD suffered some manner of overgiving during that last transmutation.

He lost control and pulled her into a fierce hug, shuddering with confusion and loneliness. "I... I can't explain it. Please Wanda, it's nothing... I... it's nothing I can explain." he knew he was talking himself into a corner, but he was terrified of the scorn she might heap on such a claim as he was feeling compelled to imagine.

She looked him in the eyes. Then pulled back slightly to give a general look at his entire face, as though for signs of a fever. He inhaled deeply and got a grip on himself. "You have to trust me. It really is nothing that has anything to do with anything real. It was a sort of vision, but it's over now."

She gave a sidelong look, dissatisfaction with his answer plainly written on her features. But after a few moments, she shrugged and gave him a hug of reassurance. "Okay, I won't press it. I'm trusting you to tell me when there are things I NEED to know. I'm trusting your judgement that this is NOT such a thing. If you change your mind, I'm willing to listen. I care about you, Kuvarakh. Anytime you need my help with something outside of the shop, just let me know." she inhaled deeply and let it out in a cleansing rush. "So, are we rested enough to do any more? Don't push yourself, Ku. I think it's affecting you more than you'll admit."

"I think you may be right. I'd like to go meditate for a few bells in some quiet spot if you don't mind." he said, by way of asking permission.

Her response was a soft smile, her eyes full of concern, but also a hint of relief, thinking it was just what he needed, but was usually too proud to ask for. "Of course. I know these transmutations have been especially taxing on you. I'm not sure why, but it seems pretty obvious. If they're giving you disturbing visions..." she let that hang in case he wanted to respond and maybe reveal some part of what had been clearly bothering him.

It occurred to Kuvarakh that she was right. These transmutations HAD been overly difficult and he also did not understand why. What he did know was why Wanda had seemed such a good "fit" as a boss and work partner. He hadn't noticed it before, since he had never seen her waking up. But now that he had, he realized that everything about her reminded him of his long dead wife, Raellen. Was he supposed to actually suggest to her that he suddenly thought she might be the reborn soul that had gifted his wife with such appeal?

The thought of her reaction as one of loathing and revulsion stabbed his soul with a barbed spear of emptiness. But what else could he expect? She was alive, he was dead. He was a walking corpse. She would probably scream as though he was some sort of ghoul trying to drag her to a grave to rape her, his seed, maggots and pus. Any romantic thought, an abomination, a corruption of life and an intimacy with decay. He stepped outside and walked aimlessly to find a spot to meditate, an eternity of solitude, his shadow. Did he truly wish to continue?