Legend of Ransera

Another day another job but at least it was easy which for Shuai meant him being able to spend more of his time and energy on the stuff which truly mattered. Fortunately in Kalzasi, there were also plenty of people with the same skillset as he had to offer and as such, any work which he did have to do to fund his fun would be work he has chosen unless of course it was something which was pushed unto him by his family. The work today was one of the latter and being in line with the whole idea that the Chisuo should always be working towards the betterment of the people of Kalzasi, Shuai found it hard to refuse- unless he was looking forward to give his family something to hold over him in the future that is. Well if the trouble could be avoided, it may as well be avoided and spending a few days indoors working is actually a whole lot better than the alternative of going about outside in the cold; the weather was another thing he would like to avoid if he could help it.

And what else could be in such high demand during the Frost than firestones? Of course in Kalzasi there were plenty being used all over the city already but there could never be enough especially when someone, like Shuai, did some scrivening on them to make shards much more accessible and easier to use by the masses. It was such simple tweaks to the shards that it did not even need much effort and just about anyone with some knowledge in the world magic could do themselves. Plenty of firestones were laid out in front of him and throughout the day one by one each them were worked on quickly before being put into a pile to the side. One of the firestones came into Shuai's hands, a few paths led from their respective mirrors were made into a convergence, and then to the side as they were finished. It was that easy.

Of course it could become a lot more easier if Shuai just made do without the convergence altogether and instead utilize just the mirrors but the problem with the added simplicity especially where the paths were actually being used to facilitate the activation of the firestone is it would become too easy to get the heat started on the shard- just about anything could trigger the firestone and it could activate prematurely wasting the work he had put into it altogether; the more paths involved, the more complicated it became, the more precise the pictograph would become. This same core idea applied to just about anything else one would make from scrivening. That said, some of the arcane practitioners would love to throw out products on a hair trigger into the market as that would mean if the glyph was triggered at a time it was not intended to be triggered, they would have a repeat customer... assuming it was not some important glyph which pertained to life and death.

Shuai did not need to have such tricks of course as what he was working on was neither for profit or to his own interest so wanting it to be done quickly and properly so he would not be forced to redo anything, he continued right until a little after lunch and then stopped for the day. Some would consider him to be lazy but having to focus on maintaining precision in the additions he made into the firestone was still something quite mentally taxing to him and more importantly, it was not like he had promised to deliver the shards by a specific deadline nor had led anyone to believe the job was going to be a quick one. Even if he did know there was some importance in being able to deliver the shards to those which relied on it, well, it did not sound like a good idea to burn himself out over some easy tweaks towards one of the most common shards out there. If he was going to put the pressure on himself for any work, it better be something significant and on something he would rarely have a chance to get his hands on.

In any event if someone confronted him about it, he could simply said he had scheduled it out properly and that whatever he had done right until past his lunch time would be doubled because of what else he would have to do on the next day. While for the every man it is important to have a way to trigger the firestones the way they wanted, which for Shuai's current assignment meant a way to get the heat going, it was not the only thing which was needed for something they would be able to use. So why was Shuai so sure he would need double the time in the following day? That was because he was going to have to add a lot more components into the glyph he had made. Now came the hard part. Where he had to dig in deep into the shard for a more lasting and permanent mark, at least physically until it wore itself out, Shuai had to now use the brush and ink which although needed a lot less force was too prone to being smudged, ugly and inaccurate- one of the reasons he knew he was going to take a longer time.

With the ink Shuai started to continue on from the paths, now joining them up into a new continuum and finally a vortex. These and especially the latter needed a lot more planning in terms of where they were positioned to ensure how the aether which would be working from within the shard would function and maintain itself right until the firestone was either deactivated or burns out all its energy to make itself useless. Actually, Shuai may have underestimated this a little bit as he found himself taking a lot longer than he anticipated as it soon started to get dark out. It looks like he was going to have to continue with the shards which were left over on another day although, that was just another benefit to himself never promising any deadline for the work he had to do. That said there were still the sceptics, as always, because there was always someone to come about to check on his work and finally just to prove that he had done enough to end the working day for himself, he decided to give a demonstration.

It would be one less to the batch he would end up handing in at the end but...- wait no, why should he have to take the blame? "I guess this is yours then" he said before proceeding with his demonstration before he could be stopped, his fingers already on the mirrors to activate the firestone. The moment he felt the heat starting to come from within the firestone, that was already the point of no return and he continued with his explanation which if it was not already obvious, "once you feel the heat from the firestone it's already activated then you have to..." see it through to the end. Without removing his fingers from the shard he continued to slide his fingers around slowly while he tried to get a feel of the heat, "right until you get it to just as hot as you want, or you can slide it all the way if you want it at the hottest like you want to boil some water or melt some ice or something" although in that case it would just kill off the shard once it burnt out- not that Shuai was going to tell him that.

But more important to the purposes of the demonstration was the smudges from where the inked out paths once were as "this is what adjusts the heat and then it will be stuck at that heat until its burned itself out. Or you turn it off and back on but it will stay at that temperature" all thanks to whatever pathways remained. Then he rolled the shard over the table. "Yours." That was also the last firestone he was working on that day and Shuai did not hold back into blaming the other for wasting his time that he had to leave the rest for the next day. An obvious excuse of course but who actually knew better here? Shuai, of course. Although if someone did want to make an issue out of it... "I think I've shown you enough for how it works and the components involved in the glyphs right? If you think you can do a better job..." there was still a whole pile left which Shuai would love to load off unto some other sucker.