73 Ash 121
The most recent news which reached Dakkur no doubt increased his timetable. Sure the orb was pretty important but the obelisk? That obelisk? The one right by his home? That was a lot more important to Dakkur. Born and bred in Zeraphesh and, one who actively took the opportunity to join in on expeditions in the all the ruins uncovered by the sands whenever he had the chance to, the obelisk and the mysteries which surrounded it were considered the peak of the archaeological field in the city. With that in mind, just one more set of enhancements... that could be missed out on, right? After all, there was three sets already completed on the orb and, at least one was made with the utmost care and skill by himself while the other two sets were at least made with hopefully the same under his observations and guidance? Yeah whatever the sets were, they were at least simple enough for even the most green runesmith to do and he did the most important part by himself.Which only left the finishing of the orb which he was going to have to rush it through on the day itself if he was going to be able to make his way to the obelisk as soon as possible. Fortunately the finishing he planned for was not too crucial to the orb's function and its importance was more for Dakkur's own aesthetic taste. As a runesmith of course the items he made, especially for those he wanted to sell, was important to work well and effectively without causing any explosions or accidents; items of his own however had much more important considerations. He was the one to use it so if it was going to be something he had to carry around it should be nice to look at, feels great to hold, gives a sense of power when held. It brought to his head a little nugget of information he remembered being discussed during one of his digs. Something which only archaeologists could appreciate. Kings, rulers and leaders, they liked to have on them orbs, scepters and crowns which were all completely and utterly worthless except for its perceived value as power.
Interestingly enough the form he had chosen to have with his new tool was an orb as well.
Of course those things were by nature really pretty and did not even need magical means to look good; the appearance of those symbols were polished through mundane means. Unfortunately Dakkur knew using the mundane tools of gemcutting to pretty up his orb, smooth it all up especially with a little polish could likely mess around with the pathways he already made for the aether to flow through. The runesmith ran his hands along the sides of his orb. Ooooohhhhhh. Even if it was not fully smoothed out, the sensation of the troughs dug into orb felt really good when his fingers got to go right in between the sides real good.
And Aerolyth? The raw materials the orb was made of? It was considered one of the more prettier dragonshards. One could see right through it just like the quartz a lot of people likened it; those had their own charm which a lot of people appreciated- Dakkur saw for himself, his hands blurred as they were, handling the orb right through. So there was not much Dakkur had to do and he started with the tonal fork to find the resonant frequencies of the orb, maybe by luck the sound of one would inspire him on how he could make the orb which, had become his obsession, a lot more beautiful and then as the tonal fork passed through the bottom, shape Dakkur could barely make out himself because of the orb's opacity, he got it. He could get the orb even more clearer and that way, he would even be able to observe the mists which would be inside of it- once he got some of it into the orb that is.
As he went through the frequencies he found and wondered just which of those sounds could have best represented the clarity of the orb most, he took the smallest hammer he could find, like it was made to test the reflexes of a tiny wooden soldier, and knocked the orb here and there. The struggle was real as his efforts to make only the minutest of changes meant he himself had to strain the limits of his sight to watch out for the smallest of the changes but once he had the correct frequency, things became really easy as he only had to do the same thing throughout the orb and that is taking into account he was going to be able to use the bigger hammers as well. In no time, his orb was not only a completed work which well, worked, and looked like it too.
If nothing else, Dakkur was sure the odd ideas which got into his head is something which he could realize on his own with his skills. Which was why he went on a second go at it the next day. He was not aware he was going to make use of that side deal so quickly but after he was able to make sure what he needed was indeed something the spirit could and would provide, he went right into making another orb for it as payment. Well not the nice and completed orb he put so much time and effort into making, but the exact sort of viscerite the spirit saw and asked for. Orb? What orb?
Fortunately with the timeframe of it being so close, Dakkur was able to sneak in more slivers of viscerite from the products they have been making and make a new one from scratch as if it was the first process he was allowed to indulge in. As far as he was concerned if asked him about it, it was all one and the same- no one else would know as no one else was involved in the process, being more occupied with their own projects. Surprisingly enough the spirit wanted to be involved in the process from the start this time, which Dakkur had no issue with. It could be a chance to draw out more advantages from the spirit when he will finally cash in on their deal. It was quite easy once he tried to think of all the negatives he brought up to the wind spirit like... did it even have hands? Other than the process it was involved with, once, did it even know anything about runesmithing? And what if something went wrong? Would their deal be still valid since Dakkur actually attempted it, or was he out of luck and had to waste more time and resources for another attempt. Imagine how suspicious his colleagues would be if they found out? Mistakes, any, would make that more likely.
His concerns were then put to the test. Just as Dakkur was putting in slivers of the aerolyth, so did the spirit- as long as the slivers were small enough that it could be carried by the wind. An interesting thought Dakkur had while he was watching this. A runeforging spirit would be quite funny, no doubts about that but other than the usual amusements Dakkur tried to find in his day to day life, he had the idea of maybe shavings from dragonshards he worked with could be collected to be enough for a project at some point but could he really do it? It would be really skeevy, Like that one time he and his friends in a dig found some old coins and found them all a lot smaller than they should have been because they were shaved by squally skeevy assholes. Did he want to become one of them?
Nonetheless Dakkur continued with making the viscerite, giving some words of encouragement to the wind spirit as he did since in the end, it was quite the unexpected accomplishment. It looked like the spirit enjoyed it based on its increased enthusiasm which was when Dakkur had to tell it to calm down because accidents could happen. Mortals doing runeforging, they were all about avoiding dangers but it seems like these spirits have a completely different value system and the wind spirit being a free loving elemental spirit only took those to an entire extreme so Dakkur gave his excuse that now there was a significant amount of it he had to have more control over the forge and the spirit should wait and observe for a little while.
And then when the molten hot viscerite was pure fluid, Dakkur got to work but had an epiphany a little before that and took the opportunity to ask the spirit if it wanted the exact same viscerite he had or if it wanted to have a little changes to it, completely customized for it. The elemental seemed elated by this show of concern and had a lot to say which Dakkur decided to summarize it into a little tweak it could understand but at least the spirit seemed pleased. The runesmith could only hope trying to butter up the spirit so much this time was going to be worth it in the end. He made the tweaks to the sorceror's glass, told the spirit the adjustments it had to make while channeling its energies through the glass and then got to observing the viscerite in the kiln. After that, they were done. Finally! Still the viscerite had to be cooled down and Dakkur did not want to wait too long so he gave the spirit a little nudge that it could try cooling down the viscerite a little faster which seemed to have it take the initiative.
"Great. You are happy with this right? That's my part of the deal out of the way so... I'll summon you in a few days for you to do your end of the deal? I'll just keep this gem until then. Thanks and see you around." There was no need to suspect that Dakkur could run away with this batch of viscerite at all. After all as a summoner, the last thing he wanted was a tainted reputation being passed along all the other spirits.
