66 Ash 121
There was a little something Dakkur had decided to do after the mists rolled into town and after he was sure they could also be controlled and manipulated to a degree through special means was sure that it could work out for a while. Through plenty of cooperation with his boss in the smith to capitalize on the mist situation, something they were able benefit off of immensely, Dakkur decided it was time to collect. Some vacation days, well not really vacation days but more of the days he was promised being converted into some personal time with the forge. He did not mind if he could only use that time at night or during the after hours where everyone was gone, just so long as he ended up with a few days to work on this uninterrupted. Oh that and some of the scrap viscerite from the aerolyth they have been cutting out of their products. When asked if he was sure if he only wanted the scrap instead of a brand spanking new chunk of it, not for free but sold on a discount of course, Dakkur said he was sure. There was no need to abuse the employee benefits that way.And if he really wanted to get that chunk of aerolyth for free he probably could have gotten it for free on his own. He had after all been in the smith for seasons and found others making use of very minor errors which could be avoided, creative accounting of the stock and pure negligence among other things to get some free products from the smith. Was it a bad practice? Absolutely. However Dakkur was not going to draw hostility to himself by ratting anyone out, which he believed was the very same reason why no one else had done it before him. Not to mention these incidences were relatively minor and petty. He would probably get involved whether he wanted to or not, dragged in kicking and screaming he was not going to be taken down with the others, if the issue became too big that the boss could no longer turn a blind eye and had to take action on that behavior itself.
But that would take someone really greedy and really stupid which was not Dakkur which was why he never concerned himself with it and why he very readily asked the boss for permission and some benefits in the first place.
Just as how most of the runeforging projects Dakkur was involved with over the last few days, well, the ones he was involved with for most of the season even, Dakkur collected all the scrap viscerite which were leftover from all the projects involving aerolyth lately and stuffed them all into the aether forge. Actually it was not so much as crude as stuffing them all into the aether forge like that. As a runesmith and a professional one at that, Dakkur took due care and skill into the effort of putting the scrap viscerite into the aether forge one by one. The scraps which were already made into smaller slivers, a trick Dakkur had learned a long time ago which he only did not use in his current job because of his billable hours: the smaller bits would actually melt quicker compared to big chunks and, by trickling in slowly he would also have a better chance to observe any changes into the fluids he was making.
One sliver in melting completely into fluid, followed by another sliver, melting and mixing into the molten viscerite of the aether forge, and another sliver into the aether forge continually until he ran out and all the different scraps of viscerite he used all came into one big vat of the stuff. Normally for most runesmiths like him this would be the point in which the project could progress unto the next stage but for Dakkur this was personal and the better it turned out the better it was for him. That was also one of the reasons why this became one of the rare times he was sure to have his own assistant to help him with the project. A special assistant too, just like the process for the project.
Well actually two assistants but the other was nothing special and of note, just someone to help with the even more boring and mundane stuff so Dakkur could concentrate on the work which matters more which better pay off since... Dakkur also had to pay for the assistant's overtime but fortunately he would not even enter the equation until later, much later.
The first assistant's help and payment had already been squared away earlier on and settled even before that was Dakkur did not want any other people to catch wind of him. Heh. Wind. Dakkur got to know this one this particular wind spirit from one of the lesser wind spirits whose abilities he had employed for minor tasks every so often. As for payment? Alright Dakkur lied. He did end up using his employee benefits for a cheaper chunk of aerolyth which, he then used to pay the spirit in lieu of his own aether. It seemed a better idea at the time after he got a feel of how his negotiations with the spirit went. Still it was something he could handle, something he was also confident about when he was told about this spirit and the name to call on. A pretty neat fact about all these wild, elemental spirits. They saw themselves all as part of a bigger spirit; not a collective but a bigger individual and the easiest way to distinguish them from one another is the prefix of their names which denotes their seniority? Maturity? Significance? Well at least that applied to the spirits which he knew of.
Although the negotiations were still terse as the airhead seemed to not be all there, attentionwise if Dakkur did not want to comment on any of its other shortcomings but eventually through the relationship they could build on because of their mutual friend, a little hot air to inflate the ego of the spirit, heh, and then finally leading up to the topic of payment which allowed Dakkur to bring out that sweet, enticing piece of aerolyth, Dakkur was able to seal the deal. And all the spirit had to do? It was just one bit of the process, this one part. While it may seem like Dakkur had been overcharged, the runesmith knew that it was actually he who was getting a bargain out of this as this part was the most crucial part to his project. Quite fortunate indeed that the spirit would not be expected to have any knowledge on runeforging.
And for this part, the molten hot viscerite, still not let to cool and in fact was deliberately kept at a high temperature in the aether kiln it was left in. Dakkur, all he could do was monitor what was going on in it through the aura glass as there was nothing else he could do. He was no elementalist after all but did not see himself in any disadvantage as he had the next best thing, if not better than an elementalist. An elemental spirit! As the runesmith in charge, Dakkur already did his part by fixing in the appropriate sorceror's glass and blocking off the others which would not be used. The spirit, it would manipulate and channel its natural energies and work its way with the viscerite, the viscerite of various different aerolyth blending and mixing not only in its appearance but now its very essence itself. This was not something Dakkur could hide from the spirit either and it was intrigued and asked if it could be paid in the final product instead. Dakkur would laugh at it because if he did that, what was the point in making this if he would end up with nothing? However, not wanting to anger the spirit he just held off making any promises and kept up empty conversation to change the topic before resuming his instructions the moment he saw some changes he did not like in the viscerite's aura.
When he could finally tell through the aura the viscerite emitted, it was brimming with the various energies of the wind but nevertheless maintained its stability Dakkur halted the job and thanked the spirit while he waited for the viscerite to cool down in the mold although, it was quite worrisome that the spirit did not want to dismiss itself yet as it wanted to see the final product. As much as Dakkur wanted to suggest it leave, he decided it would be better to let it do what it wanted as long as it was not harming him or costing him more in order to maintain a good rapport for the future. Who knew, something might even go wrong and he would need it to help. While nothing happened and the crystal was completed without issue Dakkur could tell, even if the wind spirit had no expressions, that it was mesmerized with the crystal and again it started to suggest swapping it for the payment.
In the end Dakkur conceded, not this crystal but one in the future. One which the spirit would also have to help in making and only after it had helped him with another task both agreed was appropriate for the payment. While that meant he would be beholden to summon this one before any other wind spirits for the next appropriate task unless he wanted the other wind spirits to snub him, it was not entirely a bad thing. After all this meant it was going to be a lot easier to secure the assistance of this wind spirit in the future, especially when the subject of payment was already a done deal.
