24th of Frost, 119th Year of the Age of Steel
Talon stood at his workbench in the Skyforge. At the center of the aetherite slab rest a clear crystal within which ran fine red veins giving it a fractal appearance. To his right there rest a pouch of a finely ground powder that shimmered slightly at he tapped the exterior of it. To his left was a book. The cover was a bit worn. The pages had ink stains and some even had tears. The book had obviously received a large amount of attention. Reaching forward, Talon picked up the crystal. He rotated it in front of his eyes so that he could study it from every angle. This was what he had delved into the deeper reaches of the Warrens to retrieve. It was incredible to him that such a small thing could make such a large impact on the crafting work that he had in mind. There had been much deliberation about how to approach the forging of Taelian’s blade. The very page that the book beside him was open to had numerous drawings and notes scribbled into it and scratched out. The makings of a rudimentary reagent list were visible on the surface.
Talon set the crystal down off to the side so that it was not within his immediate workspace. Picking up the pouch of powder he turned it upside down so that he could empty its contents onto the surface of his workbench. He poured a large pile of the powder into the center of the workbench then cinched the pouch closed. Carefully he began smoothing out the pile so that it flattened and was distributed evenly across a small surface of the aetherite slab. With his fingers he began the careful process of slowly mapping out a pictograph to assist him in the identification of the properties of each of the reagents that he had gathered.
Talon began with a circle at the center of the sorcerer’s sand that he had poured. It was simple enough but would serve as the hub for his work. With his index finger he drew a smaller circle within the first larger one and then connected it by dividing the outer circle into fourths. From there, Talon created a series of interlocking patterns that lightly touched upon the outer circle. At the edges of it he created several spirals that had lines connecting them to both the interlocking pattern and each other. When he was finished, Talon stepped back to examine the intricacies of the symbols that he had drawn. They were all relatively simple but they would suit his purposes well enough. Touching his fingers to the edge of the workbench, Talon tapped into his aether unlocking the powers of Semblance. Gently he brushed that thread of magic into the sorcerer’s sand blanketing the aetherite slab.
There was a sound like static electricity crackling in the air as a blue glow passed over the sand covering the slab. The aetherite of the workbench illuminated softly, the aether within it awakening to what would be a long afternoon of examining the very fine details of each reagent that Talon had gathered. The Avialae picked up three stands upon which were affixed different pieces of aura glass that would help him monitor the status of the items he placed within his workspace. Once he had the aura glass in place he picked up a few tonal forks, some tongs, a selection of hammers and even a chisel. Talon double-checked the status of the pictographs that he had drawn. While they would only last for a few hours before the sorcerer’s sand burnt out from prolonged use, that would be long enough for him to at least start. So long as he didn’t move the reagents that he was working on from the surface of the workbench, they would be fine.
That was one of the first lessons that had been instilled in him as he’d been learning runeforging. Never remove anything that had not been worked to complete satisfaction from either the workbench or the anvil. Picking up the crystal that he had delved into the depths of the Warrens to find, Talon set it in the center of the pictograph, surrounded by the aura glass. As soon as he beheld it within the aura glass it was a curious thing. Talon’s semblance was not so powerful that he could accurately grasp the depth and gravity of everything that he was staring at all the time. Viewing something from the lens of the aura glass however, brought an entirely new dimension to anything he worked on. Before him swirled an aura of red streaked with black and violet lines. He recognized it as the corrupted touch that often associated items that came out of the Warrens. He wasn’t honestly surprised. It was only to be expected. It only made this current process all the more necessary.
More haphazard runesmiths might have been tempted to simply throw all of their reagents into the aether forge or into their kiln and get the forging process actually begun. The creation of viscerite was, as Talon had found, a favorite part for runesmiths who practiced the craft. It was the step that represented the true beginning of the enchanting of items in their hands. The pooling of the resources they gathered into the creation of the arcane ore only they were capable of making was exciting, Talon could admit. However, what made him stand out as a runesmith in the city of Kalzasi was his patient and methodical approach.
Talon picked up a knife, pressed his thumb to the edge of the blade until he drew blood. Touching the bloody thumb to the crystal, he watched through the aura glass as it absorbed the blood. Through the medium of the aura glass, he observed that the veins within the crystal shifted, winding together to become almost a spear that reached out to plunge into the cut, drinking in the blood that came from his thumb. He pulled his thumb off of the crystal watching as the red veins followed his thumb for a short distance before retracting back into the crystal. Talon folded his thumb into his fist so as not to drop blood onto his pictograph and ruin it. The veins within the crystal webbed their way back through its inner structure, almost as though it were feeding the gemstone the essence that it had taken from Talon.
Stepping back from the aura glass, Talon gently picked up a quill, dipped it into some ink then began writing his observational notes into the well worn journal beside him. He turned back to the aura glass after making those notes. Picking up a small hammer that was sized for what one might see in a jeweler’s shop, Talon reached out and struck the surface of the crystal. The pictograph glowed softly as the aether within the dragonshard was awoken in a different manner than simply being active in its natural state. Through the aura glass, Talon watched as the veins within the crystal seemed to shift and flow as though suspended in a container of blood. It was a fascinating phenomenon to behold but he didn’t let himself get distracted by it. There was a theory that he had to test though he was wary of doing so.
Talon was not unaware of the reputation of this particular crystal and its associated properties, at least in theory. It was one of the reasons that he had foraged into the Warrens in order to find it. He’d simply followed a hunch and some investigative digging based on what little he knew about the layout of the Warrens themselves. Taking a breath, Talon reached out and pressed the fingertips of the hand not bearing the cut onto the crystal. At first nothing happened and Talon thought for a moment that he would not be able to produce the results that he was looking for. After a moment or two of waiting however he watched as the veins within the crystal shifted. Threads of red light slipped out of the crystal seeking out the veins within Talon’s hand. As soon as they came into contact with his flesh, Talon felt a tingling sensation that became a sharp and pleasurable buzzing. He gasped, his eyes growing wide.
Talon looked at his hand around the edges of the aura glass. The whole of his hand was illuminated in a red light that reminded him of the glowing of firelight. He could see the whole of his vascularity within his hand and into his wrist. It was both marvelous and unsettling to behold. Through the aura glass he watched as the red energy filling the crystal, his blood, began to pump into his hand. The veins that had inserted themselves into his hand were pulsing as they fed the energy contained within the crystal into his body. Talon felt his focus drawn to feelings of curiosity. His mind turned its attention to the memory of him pressing his thumb into the edge of the blade and then centered on his almost studious approach to reaching out and touching the crystal. Almost as soon as the focus arose in him, it faded. Talon turned his attention to his thumb. He blinked as tendrils of red energy jutted out from the cut in his thumb.
Like a tailor's thread, the tendrils stitched together the small wound closing it as if it had never been there. The Avialae laughed aloud as he beheld what the crystal was capable of. At least to a small degree. Quickly, Talon turned his attention back to the crystal as seen through the aura glass. What caught his attention was the sliver of black and violet corruption that pushed itself into his bloodstream.
“There you are.” That was what Talon had been waiting for. He was vaguely aware of what prolonged use of blood dragonshards induced in those that used them. It was why the collection of them was so tightly regulated in some parts of the world. His family, having owned the Novalys Mining Company for generations, traded in blood shards from time to time. They fetched a high price for those willing to buy them and most often they were purchased by alchemists or apothecaries seeking to use them for more medicinal purposes. Talon had a suspicion that he might be able to either refine the corruptive qualities out of the shard or to at least counteract them to some extent.
Pulling away from his workbench, Talon turned to his journal. He made his notations carefully, jotting down the various methods he intended to test his theories. It would take some experimentation but he had confidence that he would at least be able to neutralize the corruptive properties if not eliminate them.
