Cid moved quickly down the now lighter and warmed hallways of the upper levels of the Gug Adjak. The wizard must have accomplished some task or finished some project to be in such a good mood. Good being defined as something other than disappointed in his apprentices and their work. Cid did have some very high standards when it came to his gadgeteering and animations. Pan was adequate in one regard, but glaringly lacking in the other. He was a notoriously bad crafted of golems, depending almost completely on his ability to animate rather than build.
He hoped to change that sooner or later. He just didn’t have the passion for it like he did for animation. Besides, when he was living with Lowych, they never used such things as golems. Their supply was much darker, and the memories Pan was bringing back still made him shudder. Cadavers, freshly dug up from graveyards or worse, bought off the most vile of men. It was no life for a child to live, but it was what he had been slotted with. But now his work was slightly more respectable.
Crail bubbled excitedly from his perch upon Pan’s shoulder. The Sarawanki was always pleased when they left the dark gloom of Lab Fifteen and ventured into the less dark gloom of the greater Gug Adjak. He had voiced earlier in the week that he was eager to meet more of his own kind. Pan was not sure how likely that would be. He had had to jump through hoops to acquire Crail. The summoners guarded their knowledge with a jealous paranoia, just like every other manner of mage on Sahova.
Cid stopped in front of a heavy looking wooden door on level twenty-two. He knocked on the door three times with more vigor than Pan thought the old scholar could manage. The door was answered by another pulser, a rather aged human with no beard but long hair worn in braid. “Pandaemus, this is Borin Gnym. Gnym, my apprentice here is ready to animate the Gatekeeper.” Cid gestured toward the Nuit apprentice. Pan found it a bit disconcerting that the only Nuit present was the lowest ranking member.
“Very well, be quick about it then. I have a lot of important alchemical research to do, and I can’t very well do it with you in my doorway!” Borin Gnym intoned in a rough, ancient voice that hinted at years spent in a lecture hall. Perhaps Gnym had also spent time in Zeltiva? Pan nodded at his words, realizing he did not care enough to ask, nor enough to worry about the disgruntled manner he was in.
Everyone thought their work was the most important. We can’t all be correct.
Pan crouched down and began to etch the animation circles in the ground as Cid, satisfied that his apprentice was successfully put to work, left down the way he had come. Crail slid down Pan’s arm and onto the floor of the wizard’s office.
”Don’t worry, we’ll be done in no time.” Pan was amused at the Sarawanki’s misplaced confidence when assuring Gnym. For one, he really had no idea how long it would take to animate the Gatekeeper. For another, Crail wouldn’t be doing more than observing. The familiar was quick on the uptake when Pan tried to teach him something, but he only knew the rudimentary theory behind his animation worked. Crail could not hope to actually perform such magics. Nevertheless, Pan agreed with him for the sake of being left alone by the wizard.
“Yes, shouldn’t be long before we can leave.” Pan hadn’t meant to phrase it like that. He really was quite bad at sucking up for someone who actively tried to do so.
The yellow chalk, a product of an accident aboard the ship that had brought it to Sahova, left a wide streak on the doorway’s floor as Pan carefully made a circle where the door would be if it were closed. He then slid the chalk across the ground to make a short link before etching another circle.
”Hey Pan, you know that forest out on the island?” Crail inquired, his watery voice making Gnym look up disapprovingly from where he sat pouring over a dusty old tome.
Say it with your mind, Crail. Don’t want Gnym making our lives hell. But yes, I know of the forest.
Right, sometimes I forget we can do this… Anyway, do you think we could go on a walk through there sometime?
Pan began to etch his now standard glyphing into the animation set up. The chalk traced first the swirl of the focus centered inside the source circle. Then he drew sets of pathways leading toward the link. At the link Pan carefully placed three dots, signifying the switch that would shift the djed flow from the pathway to the link. He did not bother to glyph the Shell circle. Gatekeepers were relatively simple things and he found he did not really benefit from glyphing the shell circle when pressed for time. Not with his expertise in glyphing anyway. The apprentice continued his mental conversation with the familiar absentmindedly while etching in the glyphs.
Well it’s pretty dangerous, lots of wild animals and stray… projects. He struggled for a moment before finding a delicate word for insanely horrible experiments gone murderously wrong.
It sounds like it’s exciting. I want to have a say in what we do also. I’m not your sidekick. You missed one there. Crail pointed with a temporary tendril at a gap in Pan’s glyphing. The apprentice nodded thanks and drew in the correct diamond shaped Path glyph.
You’re right, but we don’t have any real means to defend ourselves.
You have that voiding stuff. Crail’s words, though innocent, send chills down Pan’s spine. The last time he tried to utilize a void portal it had gone horribly wrong and the wizard was extremely hesitant to try again. And he was definitely not prepared to try it in defense against an even more horrible threat in the Forest of Thorns.
We’ll figure it out. Later on, after this and after we clean up the desk we can go outside and see what we can find. Pandaemus always found it odd how easily he could be sociable with Crail. It was not ever that easy with anyone else. It must be their connection.
