A lesson learned

[Vick]

310 Av, Summer 10th


“I am going to give you a project Vick. This project will take most of the season however it will push you to your breaking point but if you are a gifted wizard then you will climb but if you are not a gifted wizard then you will fall and can die. You are going to be given five daggers and you will need to make them harder to break and sharper. However you are also going have five blood samples which you will infuse in the workings of the magecrafting. Your will is going to make it so that the weapons do more harm to the races that the blood belongs to. Can take you about fifty days or more but you are not going to worry about any studies until you are done with this. This is for the better of the island.”

She was far different from Boss as she laid down five different weapons. A dagger, a half spear, a shortsword, a long metal chain, and a axe each looking almost new as the light from torches around the room touched them letting the metal shine slightly in his eyes.

“Time to learn about some weapons. You have your basic dagger. Stab and hide or use for some defense. A halfspear which is well a normal spear but half the size. This can be good or bad depending on the user. A basic shortsword which is a longer idea of a dagger. The chain you see is really called a Death-Head Stick. It is about six feet long with a metal skull at one end and the other has a metal dart. The last one is a basic wood axe. All very cheap weapons all in all but each having a different use. As a magesmith it is your job to understand just how new they are or at least the product. This is due to newer the product the better. Yet you don’t need to know how to wield them as it is not your job to use them in combat just forge them to be better.”


Vick felt like she could just keep talking when she did open her mouth but she never did go off topic when she made a topic or at least voiced it. He had no idea why she was putting him in change but maybe it was her task to push him and see his limits? He had to wonder how his Malediction studies would be if he was to spend so much time on her project and to think he took this for a simple magecrafted tools. Yet maybe this was to teach him the fact that they were not just simple items and he did agree to become her student somehow in the mix of things. Did Boss know what Vick would had gotten himself in to? Would he even care?

“I am going to be doing my own thing yet don’t think for one second I am letting you work on this task alone. I will be keeping my eyes on you little kid and if for one second I think you are doing it wrong then you will learn from your mistakes even if they cost you a arm or two. While you are still new to this I am going to stand by you and watch your first weapon but first thing is first. Make the sigil on the area where the weapon is going to go and make sure you do it right this time.”

Her words he could not place. They were not happy yet nor were they harsh and mean. As if she was always thinking of something else or working on ideas in her head and she really was not in the same room and time as he was. Which with that logic just made her sound like she was daydreaming of something and not caring of what Vick did but he knew that was not true for the work she put him though last time.

He took a paint brush and black paint over to the pedestal and slowly with care made the first runes around the main sigil. He really did not understand the dangers of magecrafting but maybe he would learn one day. Yet for now he was just focused upon the little symbols that looked closely like triangles in the sigil as he made the barrier.

He thought he was doing a good job until he felt a sharp pain along the back of his head as his body was pushed towards the pedestal. His forehead hitting it hard as he let out a yelp of pain.

“What do you think you are doing? You call that glyphing? Stop playing around and get to work. Don’t make me hit you again little brat.”

The female said as she held the halfspear in hand clearly the one who hit Vick in the back of the head as she pointed at his symbols. They were still uneven and sloppy compared to hers as she placed her hand along the marble pedestal. A second later his runes burned a bright shade of red before fading into nothing as she glared at him. He was learning that she did not like any bad work.

“Do it again and this time focus on the task. Stop daydreaming.”

With a soft mental sigh Vick just nodded as he took the brush once more painting along it. His eyes unblinking as he made the small runic symbols with an unwavering hand. He was almost glad that his drawing was paying off more as he took note of the markings as he kept his eyes just on his work.

“I guess that will work for now. You wasted enough time doing that.” She said as she pushed him out of the way before doing her own set over his with far greater speed and neatness.

“You will have 22 hours to work on one of the weapons. Then you will have a break to check over your body and get cleaned up. Once you are done then you are coming back here and working once more. The more energy and focus you put into this then the faster you will learn. Unless you want to be the other mindless Nuits who spend years on something and never once move in skill or status?”

Her words cut along his little heart in a way as he just looked at her. She did not sound mad or even meaning to but she held to her point as a fact almost in life. Maybe it was a fact in this island and maybe this was her way of helping Vick or it could also be the fact that she did not like anyone who dealt with her. Yet surely she was not a icy statue was she?


He took the dagger off the table and placed it neatly over the center sigil on the pedestal. He then turned the mirrors overhead down facing the dagger before looking inside the lenses watching the aura of it. It was a soft green to him for some reason but it was just like a wisp of a aura as it was not magical yet so it did not have a strong one even if he knew all objects had one.

He had the use of many different types of lenses both hanging around the object and on the table but he did not know what they were for. When he made the arrows he just used one of the smaller ones as they came in many sizes. As he was about to open his mouth the female Nuit spoke first.

“If you are going to ask what I think you are going to ask about the lenses then I will tell you now. Your power over auristics is still low and you won’t see key details deep in something unless you spent ages looking and trying to focus. Well we don’t have ages when dealing with this so you have different lenses that hold the same power over auristics. Each size can tell you something different about the object along with the mirrors. You need to use them all to understand all of the item. The surface Djed will only tell you so much but if you use the smaller ones you will see many different things deeper in the object that you will never have seen before. Even with your power of sight into the auras unless you spent time looking.”

She at least did answer his question without him asking but he just nodded towards her as he took the hammer. He had to change the structural of the dagger like with all the weapons but they would had been just minor structural enhancements really only letting the user know of them and see them. Yet it was going to be slightly sharper and harder to break then a normal dagger. Plus if it did attack anyone who was the same race as whatever blood sample he used it would do more harm to them even more. Last time he just made the weapon sharper and even a person not using it would have taken note of how sharp they were. However he still did not understand that this was a good way for him to really learn and understand how to change a item and even add another step in at the same time. Without looking towards the female nuit he just brought down the hammer along the dagger starting the long work of magecrafting.

[Vick]

The sounds of metal hitting metal filled the room that was almost like a heartbeat to Vick. He had to wonder if he would forget what a heartbeat felt like as he lost track of the time spent on the island. Was it just a few days or was it more then a season now? Even events in his own head became a blur now and then when he kept his eyes in books. His left hand moving towards the larger lens on the table as he put it along his left eye. His right hand working along the hammer as he saw the djed path lines along the dagger slowly change as if moving upwards and rewriting themselves like a mix between mountains moving along the landscape and a story being redone in the waves of sand along a beach setting.

He placed the glass lens down back on the table as he kept working along the dagger. The hammer moving along the base of the hilt down to the tip of the blade as he slowly willed the pathways on the metal to become harder. He knew he was not making a dent and he understood the length of time it could take him from his last lessons. Magecrafting was not something you did over night unless you were a master.

“Tallshade, if you are paying mind to me last time I spoke of her then you are about to learn a bit more of her. She was fifty something when she made a item that was called her great work. It’s called the anvil of souls and was marked by Lnex. His only mark ever known to Mizahar and it was put on some object that is lost. This item would let you move out of the cycle of life and death and become something above it. It is my dream to reform the lost power and push myself and the leaders of Sahova to become gods.”

The female nuit said mindlessly talking to Vick as she moved from book to book keeping a eye upon the young nuit. He was learning more of Tallshade it would seem and he understood a goal the nameless master had. Would she ever make it? Was that why she was always funding her own projects for more funds as she did task for the island? Or was there more to her?

He took the smallest lens on the table and looked in it again using his left eye as his hand stop moving along the hammer and dagger. He was taken back as he saw far more detail then he did with the others but it was such detail his own brain could not understand it at first. It was like watching a storm from over the clouds as he saw such chaotic movement from the djed. It was not being changed in a soft gentle manner but in the deepest roots of the dagger it was being ripped apart and turned along and only showing a gentle movement on the most outer layer of the djed. He found it to be such a joy and wonder to watch on so many levels as his mind slowly came to the idea of what was going on. Magecrafting was not kind to djed but it did get the task done.


Bells passed as Vick moved from lens to lens as he kept working nonstop on the project. It was such a time consuming event on his part. He had to wonder if the speed of working would get better as he kept his eyes upon the dagger. His normal sight did not see anything different. It was just hitting it with another solid object but even then he did not see any dents or marks along it for some reason but he knew what the hammer really was doing to the object even if he was new at it.

“She also made a few other objects that you should take note of. If you really are going to do this craft more often it will open up your head but as a kid you should have the sky to look forward to with ideas. Zariath. A name of a blade she once made that did not harm any living or dead person but it could only cut and harm gods themselves. Once more lost or she just hid it like all her objects.”

He changed to a smaller hammer then the one he was using trying to fine tune the djed pathways. His own djed flaring to the surface of his eyes from deep within his soul as his auristics came about. The surface of the dagger had the same silvery pathways of being raised and lowered over and over again always moving about. However as his eyes kept looking at the item it became more clear that the djed storm was just not stopping but he could not see as well as the lens that he did use. Yet he was not paying mind to his own flow of djed or the fact that he still should not have played with his magic while working on something else all together.

His auristics left or it was more like fleeing from him as he felt drained off all energy as he kept looking just upon the dagger. His sight over the aura was no more as he lost senses of his body and his own body and spirit feeling heavy and tired like never before. It would had been fine if he was not working on a magical object but it just was not going to be his day as his hand kept hitting the dagger with the hammer and he was not checking for mistakes. When it came to mistakes time never did take a break as it just took a second to do something stupid.

The dagger did not show any signs of change on the surface but under the surface with the djed it clearly was a mistake waiting to take place. If Vick checked it or even if his teacher kept a better eye on the project late in the first stage then maybe it could have been different but by the will of Lhex maybe it was not so. Without a sign of what was to come the dagger upon the pedestal was gone. It did not just poof into thin air but it blew up in a bright flash of light blinding the young nuit as he moved his hands around his eyes. Cold shards of metal fly in every way hitting Vicks arms and body along with half of the lab. Even the female nuit found shards laced in her chest and stomach as the young nuit yelled in pain. The glyping wards along the pedestal glowed like a firebug in summer time but were gone once the light left.

Vick thought he heard someone yelling at him but his senses slowly came back as he looked up from the ground looking at his master. “You idiot, what do you think you were doing?! You could have killed us both!” He felt his arms were sore, his own white ichor dripped along the ground as the shards cut into his flesh like a knife cutting in bread.

“Just go, go and get cleaned up. I will have a golem fix this mess and when you come back you better pay mind to what you are doing. I can’t even stand the idea of looking at you right now!” She yelled in a rage as Vick stood up and left the lab with haste still unsure what he did wrong with the project.


He found himself in his room, it was only a 400 square foot room but it was still his. He might have been undead but he still enjoyed things in life like the badly felt bed, a chest, mirror along a desk. The next room of his was a simple bathroom that held a stone tub with a pump and drain system for bathing. He moved to the chest pulling out a thread and needle before moving to the bath area.

He pulled out the metal shards as best as he could using the needle to dig in the skin. He was not bleeding a lot but just enough for him to take note of it as his eyes saw the auras once more as his djed came back to the surface. He saw that the metal shards had a different djed to them and as it was along his body it was acting like a poison of sorts but that was all he knew from the basic fact plus he knew more of djed from his time on the island.

However that was for another time as he did his best to pull out all of the shards in his arms and body. Using the needle and thread he slowly patched up the wounds, use to the pain of burning himself he did another path to trying to patch himself up with this way. He was unsure of what he liked more as the needle broke along the layers of skin over and over again.

He learned a good lesson he thought as he let his naked body stay in the tub that was filling with cool water. Never use magic when trying to work on a project when he was not good at magic yet. Maybe he did learn more but he felt tired as he lowered himself under the water as the pump stopped filling the stone tub. He could not breath and as the water filled his lungs he did not panic. It was not like he could die again after all as he just stayed resting under the water.

[Vick]

Bells later he found himself standing in front of the female nuit. She did not let him in her lab as she just glared at him. He really was unsure if it was out of anger or just great acting skills but he did not want to push to find out.

“Do you know what your problem is Vick? Really do you know? It is not that you lack brains but I do have to wonder with what you pulled last but you lack the goal of being a wizard. You are spreading yourself thin and I think you need to focus on what you really want to do. The key to being a good wizard is specialization. Once you do that then you can branch out and do more but for now you are nothing more then a sack of bones who lacks the grace of a wizard. Just knowing things is not enough to pass in life. So go Vick, go and find your reason for being around. Once you do then you can do more work in my lab.”

Her words were like a knife pushing inside his little heart as she left him standing in the stone hallway. Her door closing behind her and he knew she was right. He just knew things in the book and still lacked the skill to really be a real wizard.

He was not sure how but he was standing in front of Boss who it did seem was waiting for a answer of sorts. The young nuit just tilted his head and shook it was if clearing sleep from his head when he was still living.

“Sorry, What did you say Sir?”

“I asked if you wanted to work on Malediction and if you were okay. It seems you have had a patch of bad luck.”

“Yeah, I think I am having some bad luck but if you could I would like to work more on malediction. I think I should until I am more skilled.”

“That would be wise. Go to the public labs, you have a box with your name that have a few items for you. It has a ice glyph on it to keep the body parts safe and sound but I thought you would enjoy what is in the box. I think you are gifted enough now to work and I will see you in a few Bells.”

Vick had to wonder what was in a box for him as he made his way to the public lab where he found the box in his normal working area. The lab did not have many Nuits in it for some reason just golems moving about cleaning and lighting new torches.

The box was made out of a rough wood, the name was just in red paint that held “Vick” but no lock or anything of that as he took note of the glyphs around his name that he took note of as Ice. His small fingers touching along it before opening it as his eyes saw the contents of the box.

A large tongue, a eye ball, snakes body and a semi large cat paw laid inside the box as he just had to blink at the random items inside. No notes or anything of the like but he just picked up the cats paw and nodded to himself as he would use that for his work.

He had his own craving kit now that Boss gave him as he had a golem pull it down from a high shelf as he was not worried about thieves inside the island. Why would people dead or alive steal from each other if you worked together for what could be lifetimes? It made no sense to Vick as he thought of what he would do along the cats paw and he wanted to try something new for once.

He took a small fine point quill out of a box that was open for anyone to use and a set of paints as the idea came to him. He knew that the circles did not need words and could use drawings that he made as he willed them to tell the story and even if the cat paw was small it would still work with the fine point. He did not need to dig into the bone as the paint would work just as well but he did craved it due to let the circles last as if they were broken then the magic would fade away or if the item was broken then it would not work.

He brought the paw near his eyes as he used black paint to make the outer circle. He would bend the bones to act like a ring on the wearer as he started working on the details inside the first circle. It was a rough image of what looked like a cat along its back falling. It was not a good drawing in the least and could even been called stick figures with cat like ears but he was hoping it would work to what he wanted as he made the second circle on the first bone before moving to the next.

The second drawing was done in a red paint both the circles and the inside drawing that told the story he was making. His arms still felt sore and painful as he held the paw in his left hand as the right moved back and forth from the paints along the table and the bone keeping a close eye on the details as he was trying to do his best.

The drawing was of the cat that was falling turning in midair. Almost like the first but he made a point in showing the mid body of it was turning with the head as he made a line to tell the ground of where the cat was. He really did need to work on his drawing and painting skills as he blinked at it almost glad no one would know who made it if he sold it.

The third drawing was done in a deep pink color. He was limited on colors in the paint set as he did not mix any nor did he want to spend the time to mix the paints when he did not have a large care of the shades of colors on the bone. The drawing told of the cat landing on the ground on its feet. A clear image of the paws and the line for ground showing in the circles.

The forth circle along the forth bone of the paw was made in a light green paint color. The pain flaring in his body from where the metal shards hit him at and he had to wonder if he missed a few. Yet he was glad he could not be poisoned from it due him being undead. If he was living he would had been very worried of the high amount of raw djed. It told the story of how the cat stood up in no pain.

The last circle was done in a dark shade of yellow. Each time he moved to a new color he took the brush to a glass of water clearing it of paint before moving on. He was moving faster then he did last time. The story in the circles told of how the lone cat just walked away without any problems going on with its life. With that he placed the brush in the glass of water clearing it of the dark yellow paint before putting it on the table as he waited for the paints to dry on the bone. As he did wait he got a golem to help put the paints up on one of the high shelves he was using for the most part. He would take his craving kit to his room.

At last he moved the bones flexing it as a ring along his right hands index finger. His white ichor leaving his left index finger once more as he moved the finger along each circle before sealing the skin once more with a small candle flame. His body not even filching under the pain as he was getting so use to it.

However it would seem it would not be his season as the cats paw did nothing as he looked at it before standing on the table and falling backwards. All it did was letting a crashing sound fill the room as a small laugh left Bosses lips who was just standing near him being his quiet self. Vick was unsure if that was a real laugh or just something else.

“Vick, what are you doing?”

“Trying to see if this product works. I made a story of how the cat would land on its feet. Yet I don’t think it is working right.”

“Well Vick, maybe you need to be from a larger height but if you do then you might hurt yourself. For now just take it off and lets go work on your glyphing studies. I heard you need to work on it still.”

“All right Sir.” Vick said as he moved his left hand along the new found ring pulling it off however it did not move. The ring felt tighter as he kept pulling along it as he just looked at it. A wave of fear rushing over his body as he looked towards Boss who did not say a thing but kept his eyes along the young nuits hand.

“My my, I think you are seeing a danger of Malediction. A lot of products can be cursed and won’t let go and it seems this can be one of them.”

“What do I do? How can I get it off?”

“You did not use your magic to see the end effect did you? I know your magic did harm you but you must get over that fear and understand all magic holds a risk and you can learn more by making mistakes then always winning at something. As for how you take it off, I don’t think you can as long as the magic stays but it does not seem to be harming you. I would keep it on for now and see what takes place. Who knows you may like it. At least you did not put it on your neck. You can still write so go work on your studies.”

Vick was unsure what to say as fear was still along his body but he just had to nod as he kept pulling but soon understood that each time he did try to remove it the ring just held on tighter as if clinging out of fear along something to not to fall.

He just left the room with mix emotions as he made up his mind it was just a risk with the use of magic. He was learning the darker side of things but he had no idea just how much he would learn of the darker side of things.

[Panna Cotta]

VICK Painting 3 Drawing 3 Auristics 4 Glyphing 3 Magecrafting 2 Malediction 4 Surgery 1 Philosophy 1 Lore of being driven like a slave Lore of runes for weapons Lore of 99% perspiration 1% inspiration Lore of improving a weapon using magic Lore of the Anvil of Souls (partial) Lore of the Zariath (partial) Lore of enhancing performance by using tools Lore of failing to magecraft an item Lore of addressing minor wounds Lore of using carving versus painting Lore of color palettes Lore of drawing a story within a magic circle Lore of product testing OTHERS: Vick has improved his sigil making! NOTES: You can make a weapon sharper by using a sharpening stone, you don't need use magecraft for that! Motivation behind unknown Nuit's magecrafting made me *gasp*! Good one! Would you like to permanently make her an NPC for Sahova? A well written magic thread, I love it!