20th of Glade, Year 124 of Steel
Kilvin's Forge & Sunrunner Alchemy
Kilvin's Forge & Sunrunner Alchemy
just like the seed, I don't know where to go
through dirt and shadow, I grow
I'm reaching light through the struggle
just like the sea, I'm chasing the wonder
I unravel myself all in slow motion.
through dirt and shadow, I grow
I'm reaching light through the struggle
just like the sea, I'm chasing the wonder
I unravel myself all in slow motion.
It was spring—it was finally well and truly spring. Kalzasi was colder than both his homelands, but he had spent a few years here, long enough to fall into sync with the local spirits and the local climate, long enough to put down roots of sorts and actually make friends. That was as much a miracle for him personally as the new moon was for the world. What either portended, he couldn't say.
"Thanks, Sivan," Timon said as he slipped out the back door of the storefront to cross the yard into the home he shared with Torin Kilvin, whose name had originally been alone on the sign outside. The young apprentice would likely shoot up like a weed now that the sun was coming out. He was less apprentice to Torin anymore than to Master Kavafis or Lady Leukos, who fostered his true talent for business rather than his passing acquaintance with the forge.
In any case, Torin's talent with the aether forge eclipsed that of the mundane, and he had managed to persuade the normally itinerant elf to stay in Kalzasi when his second apprenticeship was over. Now, not only did he create alchemical agents for Torin's runeforging projects, but he sold them through the storefront adjacent to their workshops. He was returning to his artificery, as well, but there was less call for that here.
When he had been Master Jacun's apprentice in alchemy, he had spent a great deal of time in his storefront, forced to interact with customers and more speedily acquire the common tongue. It hadn't been a terrible challenge; that language was far more simplistic than Rivach, Mythrasi, or Vallenor. Sometimes Common was superior, though, in its simplicity. Not everything had to be poetry.
While Timon lunched, Sivan moved around the modest showroom. There was nothing that needed cleaning, nor accounting to be done, and so he looked at some of the displays of his wares and Torin's wares, marveling at how the lad made everything look more appealing somehow. He almost wanted to pay Timon for things he himself had created.
By this point, most people came to the forge by appointment. Torin's reputation was ever climbing. He was, Sivan gathered, better even than Talon Novalys with the aether forge. Sivan's own reputation was more modest; he was known as Jacun's old apprentice, and perhaps as Torin's junior partner, but that didn't bother him. In fact, it seemed to bother his neighbor, Laurevere Val'Istra far more, but then, he was a Hytori nobleman with Siltori blood; he seemed invested in Sivan, who was a Hytori nobody with Dratori blood, proving that even Hytori of mixed ancestry were perfectly capable of shining.
It mattered less to Sivan, who had left Dalquia and Sol'Valen with no plans to return.