Summer 60 124
Sjal still hadn't figured out what exactly she wanted to do with the alkahest that she'd acquired to train her ensorcelling a little. Lumina had made some suggestions and she'd even come up with her own ideas, but even as she sat there preparing the dust, she still didn't have a concrete clue. She dunked the tools into some water and swirled it around absent mindedly while counting to ten to make sure she had spun it around enough to shake off the debris.
She pulled it back out and sighed, seeing just how dirty it still was. It was somehow more difficult to get grime off of her tools than it was to get dirt off. Furthermore, the cheap tools she'd bought smelled terrible. It was what she got for waiting so long to use them.
"How's it coming?" asked Lumina as she came into the inn room with an armful of supplies and groceries. The smell of fresh bread wafted to Sjal who set down the dust to take a break.
"It's slow," Sjal said with a yawn. She stretched her hands high above her head, touching the ceiling of the cramped room despite her smallish stature. She grabbed some bread without asking and ate crammed it into her mouth. "Ish good" she said with her mouth full.
Lumina shook her head but she couldn't help but smile slightly. "Sorry I'm late. I was doing a lot of shopping and I even scoped out the area for some good smiths we could talk to. I know you would probably want to do it yourself, but if you're too busy then we will at least have a backup plan."
"Smiths, so you're still thinking about making a metal item," Sjal said before eating some more.
"I think it'd be best. Neither of us can come up with a good idea for what the hell to do with the alkahest so making a spell or a very low level artifact would be the most straight forward and simple option."
Sjal wasn't entirely on board, but she didn't want to argue about it. Lumina wasn't her servant and the woman was mostly tagging along with because it allowed her to get more hands on experience with ensorcelling. Though whatever they made would belong to Sjal, she thought that it would be nice to allow Lumina her input. Besides, a ring that could emit a jet of wind didn't sound entirely useless. She imagined that it would at least be powerful enough to push someone back a little.
Sjal swallowed the last bit of bread that she could without feeling stuffed then took her seat back at the table. She washed her hands off in a separate bucket then went back to cleaning the tools. This was hastened by Lumina's arrival. They took turns scrubbing and rinsing so that neither of their hands got too tired.
After the tools were unmistakably clean, then moved on to other parts of the process. They worked in tandem, one calling out good spots while the other did the engravings. The parts that actually used the dust was the only part that they couldn't work together on, but they still took turns getting the job done. It wasn't that they were even in a rush - they just both wanted to build experience and they only had so many dust to work with.
"Is this how you used to work with your uncle?" Sjal asked as they neared the final stages.
"Somewhat," Lumina said slowly. She paused, tapped a little, then continued, "whenever I worked with him I usually played an assistant role. I'm sure you can understand why they wouldn't let me work on things on my own. Dust is expensive and hard to get ahold of, not to mention dangerous. I feel like I'm in a weird spot of knowing a lot about ensorcelling but also not knowing enough to feel confident."
"No, I know what you mean," Sjal said. "As a decent swordsman, all I can see are areas where I can improve. Sometimes I feel like I'm even getting worse, but then I realize that I'm just noticing things that others wouldn't. I think it's good to know that there's a lot that you don't know… if that makes sense."
"I see," Lumina said, yawning and setting the dust down.
Sjal picked it up and continued with the ensorcelling. "Imagine how I feel. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I can refine the dust, but after that… I've got no clue."
Lumina chuckled. "I have to say, you work just as well as I do nowadays. And it's simple if you're not trying to deviate from the dust's natural power."
Sjal took the compliment, then passed Lumina the work they'd done to check. She said, "I think you mentioned a while back that dust can be used in many different ways. I wonder if we could make a defensive spells. That sounds mighty useful if we're going to spend more time in an area known for danger."
"That might be true, but how likely do you think it is that we will encounter danger that we can't teleport away from? Defensive magic is not something I'm familiar with." Lumina thought hard as she looked the engraving over. It was almost done but there was still work to be done.
"Oh," Sjal said, scratching her head, "so I wonder when it might be useful. There must be magic out there that emits some kind of barrier. It would be nice to be protected from it if we ever encountered it."
"Your guess is as good as mine. Unless you're planning on going up against mages I don't think you will see any practical use… but I think the bigger thing to think about is that producing a barrier would give up offensive capability."
"Ah, there's always a catch," Sjal said with a sigh. "Let's not do that then." She sighed again, "Plus, now that we're getting closer, I'm getting excited to see the final product. To think that we could be testing it as early as tomorrow."
While she finished up putting dust on paper, Sjal thought about whether the power of the dust could be harnessed in other ways. Was there anything stopping her from making a ring that allowed her to fly? To allow the wind to envelop her and carry her where she wanted to go? Or did ensorcelled items not allow for that sort of control? She didn't want to pester Lumina with these questions, lest they get in an argument again… but she couldn't keep the thoughts from creeping in.
"I think it's done," Sjal said, finally setting the spell down into a safe container. Her hands were tired from working with dust. It'd required a lot more effort to work with than weaponry, in her opinion.
"Looks fine to me. We should meet up with a smith and finalize our plans," Lumina said with a tired yawn. The bread wasn't fresh anymore but it still tasted decent as she ate some. She had splurged on some jam which she scooped out of a jar with a finger to spread across her meal.
"Sure, but not today. Any other plans? We still have hours to kill until it's time to get to bed."
"We are in a town, we should probably go for a drink."
"Yes, but I don't want to be drunk when I'm messing around with dust," Sjal added.
"True… I don't know."
Sjal's eyes lit up, "we could workout a little."
"Oh please, you obtain dust without me even being around. I hardly think I need to be trained anymore." Lumina didn't like training when there were other things to do.
"Alright, you stay then. As for me, I need some fresh air." Sjal got up and grabbed her sword, not that she thought she'd need it.
She left the inn and wandered down the seedier looking streets. She told herself that she was just exploring, but she knew deep down that she was itching for a fight. Nobody tried to hassle her, however. She was able to walk around without issue and didn't even see any crime to stop… not that she felt she had any right to enforce the law.
She ended up wandering around and finding a nice little locksmith's shop. She bought some lockpicking tools off the man, fairly poor in quality, but enough to try her hand at picking some simple locks. She also bought some locks to practice on. She sat in a corner of the shop fiddling around with the locks and getting acquainted with the various tools as she chatted with the locksmith about his business and life. She ended up spending hours there, not noticing how late it was getting until it was closing time. She thought that she might have found a new hobby. Locks challenged a part of her brain that she wasn't used to using!
