5th of Ash, 124th Year of the Age of Steel
Together, her and Private John Baccas, worked well into the night. She had pried as much as she could from him and yet it still wasn’t enough. Olga hadn’t realized how carefully the Gelerium Imperium selected its operators; that, and she hadn’t even realized Baccas wasn’t considered a simple driver, that his title was Operator. A stupid mistake - and costly. Once she’d dismissed him, Olga had spent hours navigating the freshly weaved layers of the core. Driver, to it, became Operator, and all of which she’d once inscribed need to be done again.
But it wasn’t a mistake she couldn’t recover from. By the next morning, things were well enough she invited Private John Baccas to continue the work.
Tolfar, too, to stand in for the Gunnery Sergeant Jamison R. Dusseldorf. Olga had called him late into the night. That there would only be two (her and Baccas) in a circle meant for three risked an imbalance, all the more greater that there were five cores being enchanted over the single one. He’d brought his own copies of the Operator materials, the written instructions, and elsewise, but his role was largely to be a third set of ears.
He’d come early, too, this morning. The change in individuals meant a change in glyphs. Olga had to order in a third Scrivener to help strip Dusseldorf’s information from the cement floors ger lab. It took time and effort, but together, they were able to remove the glyphs and pictographs, and then more time and effort to add in Tolfar’s. Olga didn’t enjoy this part of her work, the sudden changes, the resources required (and lost) to adapt. As much as she would never wish to burn her own soul with one of the Runes of personal magic, she did (begrudgingly) admit envy in one regard: flexibility. World magic was so set once it began. Everything required a plan, and the resources to complete it.
A mistake in personal magic might cost a hand and then some, but what was done, was done - nothing but a well-earned caution would stop a personal mage from casting. Money, time, and then some all worked against a world mage.
“I am expecting Private John Baccas to arrive soon, Tolfar,” Olga said, doubly - and triply - checking the work. She was sure to match the actual glyphs to those she’d sent for examination to Professor Windrow. Another mistake would be doubly costly to correct for - that, and with another individual’s ideas and thoughts to consider, all the more difficult to unravel the Core to a point where she could undo and redo the work. Regardless of the time, she’d have to do it, too. Already she’d cost the Gelerium Imperium five dragonshards. A small cost and one well-rewarded if she was able to see this through. But if she failed, well.
If she was lucky, it would only be her checkbook that suffered.
“Yes ma’am. Will he need a copy of the Operator’s manuals? Or the instructions for the tank’s Operators?”
“No. You and I will be busy reading, and confirming his word. All I need from Private Baccas is to remember his training.”