24th of Frost, 119th Year of the Age of Steel
Talon wasn’t much of an herbalist but he trusted the advice of Jacun, the local alchemist. That man had been practicing his craft since Talon’s grandfather had been a boy. If there was anyone in Kalzasi who knew how to piece together herbal concoctions it would be him. He stared down at the handful of dried burdock root in his hands for a moment then set it upon the workbench so that he could begin the process he had in mind. Supposedly it was a good way to help cleanse the blood of poisons. He would just have to take Jacun at his word. Grabbing his mortar and pestle, a knife and a few brushes, Talon spread out the pieces of root in front of him. He began chopping up the strips of burdock root into small pieces.
Talon wasn’t a chef but he at least knew how to handle a blade and he didn’t need to be terribly precise with his cutting. His preparations weren’t for culinary endeavors. Once he’d chopped up the strips of root into small pieces he scraped them into the mortar being sure to gather in all of the pieces. Setting his knife aside he picked up the pestle and began grinding the burdock root into a powder. He watched as the pictographs upon both the mortar and pestle began the work of breaking down the burdock root not just into the powder but into its base aetheric essence. He kept at it for several minutes until after a while, in the bowl of the mortar there wasn’t the powder of the burdock root but an opaque grey liquid that had a slight prismatic sheen to it. Talon set the pestle aside then turned to the blood dragonshard that still rest at the center of his workbench.
Looking at it through the lens of the aura glass, Talon picked up a hammer and a pair of what looked to be jeweler’s forceps. He tapped the surface of the blood shard watching as the aether within it was awoken to a state where he could work with it. Using the forceps, Talon grabbed a hold of the black and violet aether that presented itself. Carefully he began pulling the corrupted aether toward one side of the crystal, dragging it gently along the aether pathways within the structure of the shard. Repeatedly he tapped the crystal so that he could continue to tug and pull at the aether. When he had finished working on one side of the crystal, he used a pair of tongs to rotate it so that he could begin working on another face of the gemstone. Little by little, Talon dragged the wisps of corrupted aether toward one area within the crystal.
It was slow and tedious work but Talon didn’t mind it. It was not often that he got to practice the more advanced forms of his craft and this was for a very special reason. Talon thought on why he was going through the trouble of exerting so much effort into creating a more refined weapon for Taelian. If he had wanted to, he could have simply forged a basic claymore and added a few structural alterations to it so that it met his specifications exactly. Instead, Talon was exhausting every ounce of skill he possessed in order to create a true enchanted blade. Not just something that swung faster and was easier to maneuver with, but something that possessed magic as well as durability.
It was because Taelian meant the world to Riven. He didn’t know how long the love between the Siltori and his companion would last. Knowing Riven, the large Avialae hoped that it would last for as long as the two of them lived. To that end, Talon saw it as his duty to ensure that Riven’s lover had the best chance of being protected while he faced whatever challenges stood in his way. While the two of them hadn’t talked much, barely at all, Talon had gotten the distinct impression that Taelian was a fighter. A battlemage, which meant that he rushed headlong into dangerous situations. The least Talon could do was provide for him a weapon that could boost his chances of survival.
Talon finished tapping and tugging on the wisps of corrupted aether that swirled within the dragonshard. He brought out his chisel then carefully tapped a circle around the portion of the crystal where the corruption was now housed, locking the aether in place so that it could not leak back into the rest of the crystal. The black and violet corruption almost writhed within the confines of the prison that he had created for it. There was a sense of gnawing hunger from it that was unsettling to behold. Undoubtedly this was the source of what drove those who used the blood shard to become ravenous and hungry for sustenance that only it could provide. Talon wasn’t sure if he could expunge that property from the shard completely, not at his present skill level. He could at least get rid of the worst of its side effects and prevent the formation of a dependency upon the shard.
Bringing out a pair of stands, Talon affixed the ends of the dragonshard to both of them so that is was suspended between the two. He then picked up a filing tool and began slowly whittling away at the end of the crystal that contained the corruption. Some runesmiths might have been content to chisel off the end that was corrupted. Talon could have done that. He didn’t want to risk cracking the rest of the crystal by breaking off a chunk of it however. He’d done enough chipping away at its structure without risking the whole thing shattering. That alone would have been an unpleasant result. He did not want to have to go back into the Warrens and begin this whole process all over again.
Talon continued filing the crystal until the edge was thin enough that he could break it off without damaging the rest of the dragonshard. Carefully he brought up his chisel and made a few taps until the distinct sound of snapping glass was heard. He moved the two pieces of the dragonshard apart from one another. The corrupted end was filled with nothing but black and violet corruption. Just staring at it evoked in him feelings of unease and gave him the impression of a clawing hunger just wanting to break past the confines of the crystalline cage within which it was contained. Using a pair of tongs, Talon very carefully took the corrupted piece and walked it over to one of the containers meant to hold unstable reagents. He set it inside. He would have to think of a way to dispose of the shard piece later.
Returning to his workbench, Talon set the remaining part of the crystal back into the center of his pictograph so that he could finish working on it. Sliding his mortar closer, Talon picked up a brush and a small hammer. He tapped the surface of the dragonshard then dipped his small paint brush into the opaque liquid in the mortar. Slowly he began applying the burdock root essence to the blood shard. As he did, he used a pair of jeweler’s forceps to guide the new aether into the pathways of the dragonshard, carefully laying it inline with the natural aether of the dragonshard.
Talon’s hope was that by adding the blood purifying properties of the burdock root to the dragonshard that it would further mitigate some of the negative aspects of it. Adding that to the curative nature of the root in general, he intended to compound the restorative nature of the reagents he was using. He repeated the steps of painting, guiding the burdock root essence into the aether pathways, painting and guiding over and over until the whole of the essence sitting in the bowl of the mortar had been added to the dragonshard. It was as he was finishing up this work that the sorcerer’s sand covering the surface of his workspace gave a final crackle then the whole of the sand turned black.
Talon set aside his tools. He picked up the aura glass stands, he picked up the dragonshard with a pair of tongs and moved aside all of the utensils that he’d been working with. With a handheld dust-broom, Talon quietly swept the now useless dirt off of the surface of his workbench and into a bin that he used to dispose of the dust. The depleted sorcerer’s sand was now no more useful than sawdust. Once that was done, he grabbed the pouch containing the remaining sorcerer’s sand and deposited it onto the surface of his workbench. With the same diligence as when he had begun this whole process, Talon went about drawing the pictograph necessary for him to continue his work.
As he finished drawing the pictograph and awakening the sorcerer’s sand to the presence of aether, Talon glanced up at one of the clocks that he had hanging on the wall. With a sigh, he took off his apron walking over to hang it on the wall. Rolling his shoulders and stretching, Talon decided it was a good time to take a break so that he could fill his stomach with food. He intended to continue working on refining the reagents he had gathered for several more hours. It wouldn’t do to continue such work and neglect himself. It took a sharp mind to remain focused on the process and Talon wanted as little room for mistakes as possible.
