Ink, scrolls, and employment

[Ivar]

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123 Glade 1st

Ivar stepped into Ale'Epherium, which was a shop he’d actually been to on occasion to pick up supplies. A waft of parchment and ink filled his nostrils, eliciting an instinctive smile. Ivar spotted someone he recognized as an employee. It was Rean, though he’d never bothered to learn her name. Usually he was in a rush and bought lots of stuff at a time because he did have a habit of messing up many times before getting things right.

Gathering his nerves, he approached her. He said, “Hi, I’m Ivar. I studied… well I’m study-ING at the College of Entropy and I am looking for employment. I was hoping Ale'Epherium might have a position open." Ivar reached into his bag to pull out a few scrolls he had prepared to show he wasn’t totally clueless. There was more he could have done to showcase his skills but that was expensive and at his skill level complicated things were not exactly guaranteed to work.

It wasn’t as if he had trouble finding people to buy his work, but he would certainly prefer consistent pay as opposed to his current arrangements which were spotty at best. He hoped that by working under some more experienced scriveners he might learn more than he could at school. He’d noticed that there was a certain lack of practicality with some of the stuff that he was taught. Also, he wanted to learn how a business such as this actually ran so that he could start up his own place someday, if he chose to go down that path.

Ivar was dressed in his robes from school. There were ink stains along the sleeves which he only just now noticed. He could have sworn he wore his good set of clothes but then again there was a good chance that all of his robes had those stains.

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[Lyra]

Rean looked up from the cart she was slowly pushing down the short hallway of the shop. The cart held a stack of scrolls, several ink bottles that held a slight glow from the ink inside, and a set of quills with long silver feathers. Pushing a strand of her red hair back behind one ear the young woman gave a slightly awkward smile.

"You attend the college?" she asked it rhetorically, quickly noticing the robes and the scrolls that Ivar carried, "I am not sure if there are any open positions... but give me a moment, I will talk with one of the mangers."

Leaving her cart behind Rean walked to a side door, gently running her hand over several glyphs before the door opened with a click and walking inside. She was gone for only a minute or two before the door opened once more and Rean waved Ivar to follow.

"The owner is in today. She wants to speak with you." Holding the door open for him, Rean smiled and closed the door once Ivar had entered, leaving him in the room with only one other person.

The room beyond would have been a decently large work area were it not utterly filled with shelves along the wall. Each shelf contained papers, stocks and supplies, inks, and even various types of dragonshards ordered and arranged in a particular fashion. Along the right wall was a long table on which set several Grande dragonshards in metal holders with a glass tip pointing down toward the table tope beneath each shard. The entire middle of the workshop was filled by one large square table with scrolls and staves in various stages of completion. At this table sat Lyra, her Hytori features apparent as she looked up from the scroll she was examining to look at Ivar with golden red irises.

Lyra studied the man for several long seconds, tapping a long nail on the table before brushinging back her silver hair and sitting up straight on the stool she sat on. She wore robes of black with golden trim, and though barely visible there were faint signs of movement as black markings like tattoos shifted slightly at her collar and at her wrists.

"You are Ivar, I presume. Rean tells me you are a member of the college, and are looking for employment." Her expression was unchanged as she said this, impassive and only mildly interested, "It is true that I am always looking for talented individuals to assist my work. What can you tell me of your experience in the scripts? Or other magics if you are not familiar with scrivening specifically?"

Her voice was soft but not whispered, and her accent was melodic like she humming as she spoke. If he were familiar with elven cultures he might catch hints of those languages, though hers was a somewhat older sounding dialect. As she waited for his answer Lyra examined his symphonies, a thread of aether carefully twining into Ivar's as she listened to the melodies he produced.

[Ivar]

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Ivar’s eyes lit up when he was told he could speak to the owner. He stepped into the room, his gaze immediately drawn to the shelves filled with neatly arranged supplies, and especially to the grand dragonshards perched on the long table. There was a moment of longing in his eyes as he studied the shards, his mind wandering to the possibilities they represented. The power they held, the research he could conduct with them. They were truly a treasure to behold.

"Amazing," he murmured under his breath, not directed at anyone in particular but rather a testament to his fascination.

He had to remind himself of why he was there, of the position he was in. He was not in a place to get his hands on such coveted items, let alone consider stealing them. As much as the thought crossed his mind, Ivar was wise enough to push away the tempting notion.

Looking over to the woman seated on the stool, he quickly composed himself, masking his momentary lapse of awe with a calm and professional demeanor. He couldn’t help but notice just how pleasing her voice sounded. It made him feel relaxed and a little more confident.

"Greetings," he started, offering a courteous nod in her direction. "I am Ivar. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me." He noted her black robes and wondered if she had gone to the same college as he had. Perhaps she was still associated with the Circle of Spells?

Gathering his thoughts, Ivar continued, "Yes, I have some experience in storing spells within scrolls." He pulled out two scrolls from within his robe, holding them out to the woman for her to take if she wanted to. "These are examples of my work."

“One contains a simple teleportation spell, which moves the holder ten meters in the direction they point it. The other, upon activation, causes the holder of the scroll to experience happiness."

He paused for a moment, then added, "I suppose it goes without saying that I can use Traversion magic and have some experience handling average quality dragonshards. I’m hoping to get initiated in another magic later this season, but I haven’t made up my mind on which one yet…”

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[Lyra]

Curiosity twined with the brass tones of greed in the man's symphony, a trait which Lyra herself did not mind. One who was greedy was also one who would strive for what they desire. So long as that greed did not turn to envy, Lyra would ignore its presence in most. Her weaves of mesmer twined deeper into Ivar's mind, tracing his surface thoughts as he turned his focus on her.

A small smile twitched at the corners of her lips, quickly masked as Lyra accepted the offered scrolls.

"Ivar..." Lyra spoke the name again, slowly this time, as if tasting its flavor on her tongue, "An unusual name. Is your family from this region?"

The scrolls were gently spread open side by side on the table, and Lyra's eyes scanned them quickly as she half listened to Ivar's words. She first began by feeling the paper each was made of between her fingers, nodding slowly as she did. Next she carefully traced the lines of the teleportation scroll with a finger, not touching the ink itself, but holding her finger just a fraction of an inch over the paper itself. She then repeated the action with the second scroll before waving a hand over each. A thin trail of black smoke fell from her finger tips, engulfing the pictographs before flowing upward to form exact copies of the glyphs which hovered in the air at Lyra's eye level.

"These are well made." Lyra said, spinning the glyph of teleoperation around before a slight frown formed, "Or rather, they are well enough for one who is self taught."

A few strokes of her hand and several more glyphs were added, as well as a wring of concentric circles which linked alterations back to the original focus.

"Your skill in rune magic excedes your expertise in scroll making. Traversion is a notoriously difficult magic to capture with the scripts, as the aether that suffuses the glyphs is eratic as is the nature of the magic itself. This is why traversion magic is often captured on more stable mediums such as wands or staves." she turned the glyph to face Ivar before having it float over to the man to examine closer, "With the addition of a few more aether stabilizing points, and a slight delay of casting upon activation, the range of this scroll can be nearly doubled without any additional aether expense... assuming a man of your weight and built were to use the scroll of course."

She turned her eyes on the second pictograph then, examening it curiously, "What method was used to create this scroll?"

[Ivar]

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A flicker of surprise passed over Ivar's face, swiftly replaced by a faint smile. He watched as Lyra skillfully manipulated the glyphs and ink symbols into something more complex. He wondered what exactly she was doing. He idly fiddled with the edge of his sleeve, gaze riveted on her every movement.

"My family?" he echoed, a bemused chuckle escaping him. "We're as local as they come, I suppose. My father lived here all his life, as far as I know." His voice softened a touch, nostalgia creeping into his tone as he thought of his childhood, of home and hearth and family. "I can't say I've ever really delved into our family history, though. I was always more interested in... well, other things."

"As for my name, it's an old one. Passed down, I think, from generations before. My father told me it meant 'archer' in some old language, but I've never had much of a head for that sort of thing.”

He watched as Lyra spun the glyph around. "I learned at the college but I do a lot of experimentation on my own time," he admitted, not without a hint of pride. His experiments didn’t always turn out well but sometimes they paid off.

Ivar examined the floating glyph with an intrigued expression, studying it with an appreciative nod. He was silent for a moment as he absorbed her words. What she said made sense but it wouldn’t truly sink in until he actually tried out her advice.

"Thank you for the insight," he said finally with a sincere tone. "It took me years to get even halfway decent at traversion and that got me to develop a very methodical approach. I suppose that learning it in unison with scrivening helped as well." It was nice to get some praise for his work.

"As for the scroll paper," he added after a moment, "I actually got it from this very shop. I have a bit of a stockpile at my place, over a hundred sheets of varying quality. I’ve actually always wondered how the papers are made,” he admitted with a chuckle. “Seeing as though they’re so expensive and I don’t really make all that much money.”

.

[Lyra]

"You have good instincts in material at least. It was the right choice to use the materials we craft here. The infused papers are generalized enough that they are stable for most magic up to the journeyman level, but the more complex the effects the more you will find you need more specific materials." She said this idly while still studying the glyph, "It is inevitable. Every scribe comes to the same conclusion and begins to craft their own papers and inks. There is simply no other way to progress otherwise."

Lyra waved her hand and the glyph in the air broke apart into its subsequent parts, focuses remaining still while the triggers and connecting pathways spun in a slow circle around its center. She trace a few lines before breathing out another puff of smoke that suffused the glyph, making it glow slightly and give of a faint pulse that sent a sensation of happiness through the room.

"While not as costly as other crafts, there is still much that goes into the creation of paper and ink. The study of alchemy is required, and runeforging is also used when creating more stable and long lasting materials." Lyra looked at Ivar curiously, "Do they not teach this in the college?"

There was a slight pause before Lyra chuckled with a shake of her head, "Never mind, it matters not. This scroll is less impressive than your first... You used a dragonshard to infuse the scroll, not your own aether. You often find the affects are lacking when a dragonshard is used compared to a rune mage, at least when compared directly. That is where the skill of the scrivener truly shows, as the scripts can mimic, and even surpass, the innate will and intent that a rune mage will imbue a pictograph."

The glyphs hung in the air for a few seconds longer before they all dissipated into smoke that flowed back into Lyra's upturned palm, swirling before disappearing into her skin. The shopkeeper turned to look at Ivar full now, crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap as she asked, "Why do you wish to work here?"