Completed There's Always One

[Kuvarakh]

88th Day of Fall, 514

The day was winding down. The season was winding down. The figuring of profits and losses FOR the season was winding down. It was one of the events Kuvarakh enjoyed. The tallying of all accounts and final calculations of mizas gained. And it always was gain. The only season there had been loss was when the buzzbugs had necessitated the reconstruction of the building, along with a few neighboring ones as well. That had gone hand in hand with the replacements of a massive amount of furnishings and small goods. Things like clothing items, drapes, cushions, plates and such.

But they had survived that debacle. He was closing the storeroom door, the lock for the front door already in hand, when the bell rang, heralding a new arrival. He hoped it was Wanda coming back to see if he was finished. "Hello? Anyone here? I've got a job I need done real bad. I'm in a real hurry!"

Kuvarakh tried not to groan overtly. "We were just closing sir. I'm terribly sorry. What is the job you need done?" He was hoping it was something that might not necessarily require alchemy. It was a two-edged sword when someone brought in a job that was easily accomplished though mundane means. Like if someone wanted all their drapes to glitter or be a different color. There were plenty of non-magical crafts that could accomplish this. On the one hand, it was an annoyance to have to do such mundane work, when it could be done by another means just as professionally. But on the other hand, it was work, it was money, it was good word of mouth. So they usually took the jobs when asked.

A somewhat elderly gentleman held the door open, gesturing though it, "I've got a wagon load of fire-hardened wooden poles and straight bones, that I'd like turned into staffs. What I mean is, I'd like the staffs to end up looking like large straight bones - I'm pretty sure they're thigh bones - but be as tough as the fire-hardened wood. I was contracted to bring them back to be used for mage staffs."

A different two-edged sword presented itself to Kuvarakh now. On the one hand was his original complaint; it was closing time, and the end of the financial calculation period. On the other hand... 'Oooh, I like this idea.'

"Why the hurry? Don't they have to wait for you?" Kuvarakh asked, still clinging to the hope of quitting for the day, despite the intriguing aspect of the job.

"Well..." the man hesitated, "I don't know how long you'd expect this to take, so I'm not sure. If you can do it in a single day then I'll be okay to get them tomorrow evening. But the ship leaves very early the following morning, and I have to be sure I've got time to bring them to the port and get them loaded before then."

Kuvarakh sagged sightly on his feet. It was a matter of catching a ship leaving in two days. That made sense. A ship leaving with the season's first tide. The start of a scheduled run. They would not wait. And this sounded reasonably important. Plus, such a cross country contract would add to what he hoped was a growing reputation for alchemical quality throughout Mizahar for Alchemmia Alchae. This was not the first time foreigners had come to Alvadas to have alchemy performed.

He made his decision. He was Nuit, he did not need sleep. "Block the door open, if you would, sir." Kuvarakh said, indicating a wedge by the wall. "Let's get that wagon unloaded."

[Kuvarakh]

The elderly man, who named himself Garren, aided Kuvarakh with the wood and bones and answered what few questions the alchemist had as they laid the materials around the inner room. Kuvarakh had to instruct him not to set anything inside the big transmutation ring until they decided the exact approach they would take.

It was primarily a matter of whether they chose to secure the texture and hardness first, or go for achieving the size and shape first. It was frequently an effective approach to go for all the changes in one activation. But he could not see how he could do it this time. He couldn't transfer the length of the wooden poles into the bones; and neither could he transfer the shape of the bones into the wood, though transferring the texture and color would be easy enough.

"It's too bad you're on such a tight schedule," he ventured. "If you'd had these wooden poles crafted to already have the shape of a six-foot femur, this would be easy." Garren looked puzzled at the word "femur", so Kuvarakh clarified that this was the medical term for a thigh bone. He explained that he could not alter size and shape of the target materials.

He went on to explain that because of this, the best he could accomplish was either to create hardwood poles with the color and texture of bone, but no true resemblance to the shape; or to imbue the provided thigh bones with the hardness of the fire-hardened wood poles.

Kuvarakh had an idea that could solve the problem, but it would involve a lot of extra hand labor, and necessitate a few extra rounds of transmutations. He estimated two activations per round due to the number of poles alone. He couldn't fit all of them in the ring without the likelihood of only marginal success on those on the outer perimeter. There was a further step that might make things easier ultimately, but it would force an additional round.

"Okay, what I have in mind is to imbue these poles with the malleability of clay. Then, we can take time to mold the shape of the ends to resemble the rounded, bulbous ends of bones by hand. Them when I run them again to imbue the look and feel of bone, we filter the clay back out, so they are fire-hard again. But I myself have little confidence in my ability to do the artistic work of shaping clay. I really have no experience with such things."

Garren's face, which had at first brightened with enthusiasm, sank back once again to frustrated gloom. "I'm no artist either, it would take me a preachin' bell just to do one to the satisfaction of my contractor." He looked up at Kuvarakh's face, and saw the glint of resourcefulness in his eyes. "You have an idea, don't you."

"Indeed I do, but we're talking about another round, over and above those required to add the softness of the clay, which is already above those required to add the color and feel of bone. Basically we're more than doubling the effort, and therefore the cost. But if you do as much of the hand work as I do, I'll let the extra slide. Is that something you can do?" Kuvarakh asked.

Garren let just a hint of a grin reside on his face, "Well, the way I see it, we have not yet even agreed on a price, so this notion of having "doubled" that price is not even relevant. Besides, I was only told to acquire these staffs, there was never any mention made of what would be too high a cost."

"Splendid." Kuvarakh clapped, "Grab one of those bones. I'll be right back." He disappeared into the storeroom for a moment, returning with clay, there were two individual lumps, and one large block. He made a second trip to retrieve a piece of metal, some sheets of special paper; which had been previously activated to have a waxy coating, a cup of some powder, a small hinge with the appropriate set of screws, and, of course, a screwdriver.

"Well, we can get started right after I make some notes." he said, rubbing his hands together.

[Kuvarakh]

The Nuit stopped his scribbling for a moment and looked at his notes to see if he'd overlooked anything. It was actually going to be pretty simple, but would take several rounds of activations. The first step was nothing more than to give the block of clay the hardness of wood. His notes indicating this same simplicity:

SFC=soft clay mold
HW=Hard wood
WHCM=wood-hard clay mold

SFC + HW = WHCM

But before this step was taken, the mold had to actually be formed. He took a thin but sturdy wire with handles at the ends and used it to cut through the center of the block of clay. It was, in fact, a garrotte he was using, but he chose not to think of it as an assassin's weapon, but rather as a tool.

Garren was unsure what step this was supposed to be, since he didn't see how this fit into the scheme Kuvarakh had thus far outlined. Kuvarakh waved to indicate a coming explanation. "Let me get this ready, and then we will make an impression of the end of that bone, so be sure and select one which you think looks good for a mage staff."

Kuvarakh set paper around the outside of the inner facing of the newly cut block so it would separate more easily. He then applied a generous coating of the powder to the area where the bone's end would be set to make the impression. Lastly, he applied this same powder to the bone itself. Then Garren set the bone onto the center of the cut facing, in the midst of the strips of separation paper and they placed the other half of the block, likewise coated with powder, and pressed it down to form a mold of the end of the thigh bone.

Garren nodded his understanding. "And now you're going to harden this block of clay to be hard as wood. But why not stone?"

Kuvarakh's eyebrows popped up, and he grinned widely. "By the gods...The man gets it! Yes, sir, you are precisely correct! That is exactly what we are going to do" He then held up the hinges and screws. "I don't use stone because they don't take screws well."

With the shape of the bone now impressed into the two halves of the block of clay, Kuvarakh set them in the ring and filled two founts with small pieces of hard wood. It was time to begin. He handed the bone back to Garren, who placed it back with the rest and left the room. Then he pricked his finger and set it upon the transmutation ring.

He did not start at the keystone, but rather slid his finger along the surface toward the keystone to create a sense of having the ring moving beneath his fingertip. By the time he reached the keystone, this oft-repeated, semi-meditative technique allowed him to generate the movement of the djed stream within the ring. He had always done it this way, and it had been long since he'd had to do it more than once to achieve success.

Due to the simplicity of his transmutative goal, it did not take long to accelerate the djed stream to sufficient purpose. Nor would it be any great difficulty to return the clay block to its original condition after they were finished. He wondered absently if a potter might like having clay that looked like wood. He shook this distraction free of his thoughts and focused again on the djed stream.

He found the stream spinning smoothly and quickly. Further concentration was bringing no further benefit, so he released the activation and took a slow step back as the djed flashed in an implosion to bring wooden hardness to the split block of clay.

Eager as a child, Gerren stepped into the chamber, "Is that it? Are we done?" His eyes locked on the block of clay, with the impressions of the bone end set into the center of both halves.

Kuvarakh turned quickly and motioned him to step back, "SIR! Do not enter in here! There is residual djed that can affect you. And it's most likely to affect you adversely. I have to wash down the ring and chargers and floor and such. It will be at least a bell or so before I can begin the next step."

"Well, while you're doing that, I can be putting the hinges on the mold, if you like." Garren offered helpfully.

Kuvarakh nodded agreeably, "Yes, in fact, that would be helpful." he was liking this old fellow more all the time.

[Kuvarakh]

Garren, sociably enough, went on about the need for the staff stock while he got the two halves of the mold aligned and hinged. Not being a magic user himself, he really had no idea what the dynamics of turning a plain staff into a "Mage" staff were.

For that matter, neither did Kuvarakh. And his combined craft resume of Alchemy, Hypnotism and Architectrix, didn't strike him as being a skill set likely to gain from such an item. He knew that it needed to be made from a source that had known life. He took that to mean that combining wood and bone should be a compatible blend. So it was time to be about it.

Yet there was still the need to soften the wood poles to that of clay, so the ends could be shaped in their new mold. But this was another simple activation:

WP = wooden pole
SC = soft clay
SWP = soft wooden pole

WP + SC = SWP

It was little different from the first stage, except for the number of items set in the center of the ring. Rather than a single block of clay, there were two rounds, each imbuing half the wooden poles with the soft malleability of clay. Kuvarakh needed short rests to collect his focus before and after these stages.

The two men traded stories as they waited. Kuvarakh was surprised at first that Garren wished to wait during the entire interim span between the activations. But it definitely helped the time pass quicker, for both of them. Soon enough Kuvarakh acknowledged that he'd had sufficient rest, and rose to conduct the activation on the rest of the bones. Twenty chimes or so later, he flopped again into his chair. This time Garren had removed himself from the activation chamber and simply called in to inquire if this completed the first phase of the job.

Garren asked if there was anything he could do to spare Kuvarakh some of the clean-up or preparatory work. The Nuit found himself genuinely taking a liking to the old fellow. It was hard to describe how he knew, but he was certain that Garren's motivation was a genuine desire to help, not a hope to get "his job" done sooner. He had, however, already stated plainly that he now had no worry about meeting his schedule. Without being pressed, he'd already offered a fifty miza bonus for the rush job.

Kuvarakh had stifled the impulse to refuse. This was Wanda's shop still. and in a sense, he did not have the authority to refuse an offered bonus for pushing through the night. This WAS extra duty. It was consuming his free time. There was good justification for a bonus to have been charged. His concession to altruistic generosity had been deciding to DO the job at all. He gratefully accepted the bonus. Wanda would appreciate the extra mizas.

Now Garren was a great help, as he was every bit as capable as Kuvarakh in shaping the ends of the softened wooden poles into blobs, which were then pressed in the mold to acquire the genuine shape of the end of a thigh bone. It took some time to mold them all and smooth out the seam where the two halves of the mold met. But it was not yet starting to grow light on the eastern horizon when they finished.

There was only one stage left.

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh scribbled his notes down for the last stage, figuring that the remaining two activations, the rests, clean-ups and preparations of each would bring them to early dawn. Garren's curiosity was giving in to sleep by now, and he napped off and on. Kuvarakh was not sure if the man had been entirely awake as he described the elements of his equation:

BCW = Bone-shaped, Clay-soft, Wooden poles
SC = Soft Clay
HW = Hard Wood
TB = True Bone
CS = Charcoal Stick
MSS = Mage Staff Stock (finished item)

BCW + HW + TB - SC - CS = MSS

As he set the founts and filters, he explained their purpose to Garren. In the founts would be the hard wood and actual bone. Having softened the wood, it was now necessary to reestablish its hardness with the sample of hard wood.

It was also time to finally modify the product with the look and feel of bone. This would be accomplished by the combination of two factors. First, by the direct application of true bone in the founts, and by the elimination of soft clay properties by putting soft clay in the filters. This filtering would remove not only the softness, but the look of clay as well.

The charcoal was due to Kuvarakh's concern that bone was fairly brittle. He feared it might offset some of the hardened quality of the wood in the fount. So he reasoned that a charcoal stick in the filter would not only remove the property of brittleness, but that it also possessed no common properties that needed to be retained. What matter if the dark color or scribe ability of charcoal was removed? Neither were needed in a mage staff.

For the fourth and fifth time that night, Kuvarakh pricked his finger and attuned his essence to the djed stream empowered by the alchemy ring. Again, the focus on acceleration and the blending of elements. Again, the recognition of properties eliminated. Again, the eventual awareness that no further blending or transferring of qualities was to be had. Again, the release of the activation and flash of transmutation upon the target materials. Again, the disorientation of mental focus as he sat, to rest his mind. Again, the clean-up and preparation for the second run-through of the same equation.

But the knowledge that he neared completion gave him all the motivation he needed.

[Kuvarakh]

By the time the job was completed, the light grey of Syna's approach graced the window sill. "Got us facing east today, Your Divinity?" Kuvarakh asked rhetorically of the patron deity, Ionu. "Well thank you, I love sunrises." he finished.

"Aaand, I love my boss." he added, as Wanda entered, and stopped abruptly at the sight of him, exhausted in the chair. He chuckled as she scowled. They'd had this discussion numerous times.

"Ku...? How many times..." She began to scold, not really meaning it. It was only an honor offense to her to have her employee work such extended hours. But she knew he did not need sleep. "You may not need sleep, but don't you want a life?"

Kuvarakh waxed poetic, complete with dramatic flourishes, "And of what quality is a life spent in the darkness that is any room lacking your presence? I have known far too much of such existence to grace it with so glorious a mantle as "life". Besides..." he returned to a normal tone. "...it was a rush job."

She rolled her eyes, and looked at Garren as if in hopes of sympathy. "You see what you've done to him? Now he's going to be like this all day. So, just what are you making?"

Between the two of them, Kuvarakh and Garren explained what the job entailed in roughly twice the time it would have taken either one of them alone. Wanda shook her head as they interrupted each other repeatedly, to clarify one point or another. The stack of fire-hardened poles, that looked like the thigh bones of some huge animal, was more helpful than their babbling.

She got to work writing up a cost sheet. "You know I don't like it when you complete a job before I've had a chance to get the customer's signature on a contract. What if you misunderstand what he wants? He's not going to know what you're doing so that he could correct you."

"Well actually, he made it pretty clear to me. And you came highly recommended." Garren ventured meekly, as Kuvarakh beamed triumphantly. Garren took the contract in hand, a sudden look of surprise on his face. "Why, this is even less than the guy at the 'Scholarly...Abode of...Some kind of Pursuits' said he'd do it for. And that wasn't even going to be rush. I can see why he recommended you."

"Actually, I'm kind of surprised." Kuvarakh muttered, earning a side glare from Wanda, that did not completely mask her smirk. "Now that we've established the viability of alchemy in this illusion-obsessed town, they are usually trying to ride our coattails."

"Now, be nice, Ku." Wanda scolded playfully, but added, "They can't help themselves."

They all had a good laugh, and Garren paid up without hesitation, leaving behind a pair of samples as a "tip" of sorts. He knew now that he had all day to catch his ship. He offered to take them out to breakfast, but they both graciously refused; Wanda on the basis that she had done none of the work, and had, in fact, only just arrived; and Kuvarakh on the basis that, as a Nuit, he doesn't eat.

"Besides..." Wanda added, "...there's no telling where the port might be. you'd best get your goods loaded as soon as you can." There had been a day or two where the entire port had been landlocked at the behest of Ionu. None of the vessels were run aground by it, but neither were there any arrivals or departures those days.

Garrent settled for repeated thanks and went his way. Wanda was delighted to hear of another contract, come from outside Alvadas. And Kuvarakh was delighted to see Wanda happy.

[Fable]

Pending