Fall 16, 124
"Thank the godheads I'm finally done," Naru would think with an exasperated sigh. He had spent the entire day poring over his notes trying to calculate what exactly he needed to get a business up and running. He had spent his entire life daydreaming about the jewelry store that would take the city by storm. Now, he finally had the expertise to run a store and was able to put his knowledge to use. The only problem had been money. This was an apt summarization of most of his problems in life. His mathematics capabilities were nowhere near good enough to calculate profit margins, but he could at least calculate operating expenses.
"I'm going to need eight employees, then there's the cost of the land, then I have to build the damn place. Then I have to buy inventory, then I have to train the employees, then I have to advertise, then…" the list went on and on and on. In the end, Naru figured he would need a lot of help to see his dream come to fruition. He hoped that he could pay for it himself, but that part of his dream was not grounded in reality. He was going to need a pretty large loan, by his standards. "I just hope they'll be willing to give it to me. I've got no idea how loans work and I'm fearful that I'll blow through the money preemptively."
As Naru sat there in deep thought, he started to hear some squabbling. He was sitting in the library, near the door, and there was some yelling outside. He wished someone would go tell them to shut up so he could focus, but the library staff wasn't keen on operating outside of their domain. After ten minutes of incessant bickering, Naru got to his feet and stormed out of the library. He stepped outside and his expression quickly changed from anger to confusion. There was a woman standing there, an incredibly beautiful woman at that, and a man wearing classy clothes.
"I've told you for the millionth time that you gave me your word," shouted the man, "if you don't hold up on your end of the bargain, then you're finished!"
"Blah, blah, blah," the woman shouted with feign confidence, "your type is all talk. Just get over it already. You already paid me and you'll be lucky I don't tell your wife what exactly you thought you were getting."
Naru was sick of this, but for different reasons than he had originally thought. It was clear this woman was being harassed. Then again, the man seemed like he had been wronged somehow. He really didn't care, but the man simply being in such a beautiful woman's presence made Naru jealous. Even thinking about that woman in another man's arms made him jealous. "I just have to impress her then maybe…"
"Enough," Naru would shout when he drew near, "I don't care what your squabble is, but that doesn't give you any right to harass this woman. If you have a dispute I'm sure it can be handled in court!"
The man looked flabbergasted that someone would dare shouting at him and asked, "do you know who I am?"
"No," Naru responded flatly, "if you were trying to impress me with your status then you've already failed by being utterly unrecognizable." Naru then took the woman by her arm and pulled her away. The man didn't shout anymore and merely fumed in silence. He didn't follow, so Naru figured the problem had been solved. When they were finally out of earshot, Naru would turn to the compliant woman and ask, "what was that about? Causing a ruckus outside of a library and all."
"Oh him," she would ask as if she had already forgotten all about it, "I sold him some art and he thought that I came with the package. I wouldn't worry too much about him," she said with a giggle, "If his wife even gets a whiff of what he is implying then he'll be ruined."
Naru was sure he had met a couple of manipulative women in the past, but this was his first time getting a look into how their minds operated. "So you tricked him," Naru said with a sly smile, "don't try to act the victim here."
"Trickery is not against the law," she replied, somewhat annoyed.
"I was born and raised here miss…" Naru trailed off as he waited for a name. When the woman rolled her eyes and finally gave it to him he would continue, "Helun."
Naru wondered why this woman was even talking to him. He figured she would thank him and leave, yet she was still there. It was only now that he also realized that he was having a normal conversation with a woman. It was rare to find someone his age that didn't get infatuated with his appearance. While most women would stare at his features, this one seemed to be fixated on his shirt. "Oh, is that what's going on, Naru would ask himself, "[/i]she cheated that man out of his money and she must think I have money to swindle as well. Boy is she going to be surprised when she finds out I'm poor. Perhaps I can use this to my advantage?[/i]"
The two would stare at each other until the woman asked, "what do you do? I've never seen a library dweller wear clothing quite like that."
"Oh, I'm starting a business," Naru said, "a high class jewelry business." Naru would step towards Helun and grab her hand, "you know I'm looking for employees. Who knows what kind of wealthy people my workers will interact with?" Naru's words would trail off and he'd find himself standing within kissing distance of a woman that he very much wanted. He had no intention of hiring this woman, but he figured that she would take the bait.
"Imagine my luck then," she would say with a much different tone. She had been apprehensive before but now it was if a switch was flicked and her mood had instantly switched to seductive. "Perhaps we can make a little trade then?"
Naru grinned and they were off. Not a single word was spoken on the walk back to Naru's place, mostly because he was frantically trying to solve his one problem. If he brought Helun back to his place, he was almost certain that she would think he was lying about the business. His home was "meh" at best and wasn't very tidy. "Perhaps I can play it off, somehow."
The two finally arrived at Naru's home and things went as he expected. The woman wrenched her hand from his and gave him a raised eyebrow. "You knew what this was," Naru said calmly, "you think I'm going to bring you to my home where everyone can see? Just get inside." Naru tried to get a sense of Helun's mood and wasn't surprised to see that she didn't look very interested in him. What he did feel was a sliver of doubt that was growing very steadily. He just needed her to come inside; then there was no way she was going to back out.
Still not entirely convinced, Helun stood there contemplating. Naru shook his head and slipped inside long enough to retrieve some jewelry. "Does this look like something a poor person would own," he would ask. Helun rolled her eyes and entered his home. He thought, "yes! Now we just have to get started before the doubt starts to surface again."
Naru wasted no time once Helun stepped through the door. His shirt was on the ground before the door was closed and he started with a firm kiss on the woman's lips. She reciprocated, but she was more focused on looking at the jewelry than she was being intimate. The time they spent together was very standard and didn't last nearly as long as Naru had hoped. At the end of it all, Helun got up and stated, "The deal's done. I'm working at your business when it opens. I'll be around to make sure you hold up your end of the bargain." The two had never made a deal and Naru wanted to argue. But by the time he finally formulated what to say, Helun was gone. "What have I gotten myself into?"
From outside the window, Kage's treant bird spy watched. Kage had seen their love making but was unimpressed. He wanted Naru to grow and get more powerful... to have a successful business. Naru's life was like a story book to him. One with potential, but it would take decades for it to pan out into anyting meaningful.
She was gone, and Naru was stuck wondering what to do next. Then he remembered he needed to get to the college because he needed to work on his jewelry crafting. His last experience at the college had been quite enlightening. He had been wrong about it being a waste of time and he had actually learned a lot from his business studies so far. Although he wasn't quite sure what to expect from a jewelry crafting class. What could a classroom setting offer that he couldn't get from working on his own? "I guess I'm here to find out," he would think as he walked into the classroom.
Inside were many faceting machines and many buckets of stones and uncut gemstones. They weren't valuable by any means, but they would do to help teach people how to properly cut gems. Naru had gotten experience cutting in the past, but his boss wasn't all that great of a teacher. Naru was actually excited for the chance of learning from masters. As soon as Naru sat down, he was approached by an old man with a grey beard that dropped below his neck. He gave a deep bow with his hands spread out at each side revealing an elaborate tattoo that must have started at one hand and ended on the other.
"A newcomer. Welcome. What formal training have you had regarding the art of cutting gems?" The professor looked down at Naru as if he was a child.
"None?" Naru wasn't sure what to say so he kept silent. He wasn't sure if he could call fiddling around with a faceting machine as "formal training."
"As I thought, you shall address me as Professor during the lesson. Now pay attention." The professor smiled at the puzzled look on Naru's face, "it's time you did a little studying. Go fetch the reference documents." The professor gathered up some paper and pencils as Naru brought over the reference documents for standard brilliant cuts. Professor continued, "you will copy the image of that gem and commit it to memory. Not only the angles but also the patterns and dimensions. This cut is one of the most common and I won't have you messing up because you accidentally misread a number."
The younger man groaned and looked at the drawings in front of him. He hadn't the faintest idea of how to draw and he refused to accept that this was necessary to becoming a master. That being said, the same name was located at the corner of each page of the reference documents which probably meant that the old man had created these himself. If it meant becoming a better jewel smith then Naru would do it, albeit begrudgingly. If he had learned anything from his business class it was that this college at least employed intelligent people.
Naru pressed his pencil onto a blank sheet of paper and tried to draw the cut gem in question. The complex figure with many angles and facets looked more like a hexagon after he had tried to draw it. His next attempt of simply doing it from memory with his eyes closed also didn't work out quite well. Since his eyes were closed his uncoordinated drawing sense had sent his hand scribbling over onto the work table. Seeing his employee's anguish, the professor looked at the boy's drawing and realized that he was absolutely terrible at it. Perhaps this was something best tackled in pieces rather than all at once.
"Just focus on the girdle facets," the old man said as he handed over a protractor, "use this to measure out angles. Don't try to take on the whole drawing at once time." Naru complied and used the protractor to find the angle on the reference drawing. He then used the protractor to mark the same angle on his own drawing. He repeated this for a total of sixteen girdle facets all looking quite horrendous in every possible way. The young man connected the marks with a wobbly looking line and looked to the professor for affirmation. "It's good enough for now lad. Take that angle you measured and apply it to the girdle facets. And use the same lap until I tell you. You still have some work to do there. I see you have not grinded enough excess away. I know you're scared to go too far but you have to learn control."
Naru found himself back at the faceting machine staring fearfully at the course lap. He wasn't sure if he was even capable of pressing the gem down gently enough to avoid going overboard. But his boss believed in him so he did his best. He would shave down the girdle facet areas extremely slowly and evenly, making sure to maintain the angles he had measured out beforehand. Now that he had drawn it out it was actually easier to visualize the angles in his mind. Every time the professor gave a word of caution, he would lift the gem and rotate it to the next facet. Every so often Naru's muscles would twitch and send the gem pressing into the lap a little too hard. It was clear that all this muscle strain pushing his limits.
At last, the professor gave his command to switch laps and Naru complied. "This next lap is called a pre-polish lap. Its purpose is quite self-explanatory - it makes the gem ready for polishing. You will smoothen out the girdle facets then we will move onto the star facets. You probably haven't noticed but that coarse lap has made your gem quite rough. You need to use this lap in order to make it smooth. If you forget this step then you will tear up my polishing lap and you'll be in a world of hurt boy!"
Naru gulped and started to smoothen out the girdle facets. He pressed gently and could feel the rough spots on the gem tugging at the lap he had just installed. With more pressure he could feel the rough spots being stripped from the gem and could even see tiny gemstone bits being rinsed away by the water. "There are a couple of different types of pre-polish lap," the professor lectured, "Copper is always a good choice if you have the right powder to make it coarse enough. You need to maintain this lap quite meticulously and know which powders are acceptable for whichever material you are trying to cut. I've given you a lap coated for precious gems but you need to do this yourself in the future."
The younger jewel smith was feeling a bit overwhelmed with information. All he wanted to do was focus on pre-polishing these facets. The only probably was that his muscles were getting more and more tired by the minute. "Professor," he asked desperately, "could I take a short rest? My arms aren't used to this strain." The professor nodded and left the room. Naru was confident that he could finish the final facets on his own and would probably be able to polish the gem without much trouble.
The faceting machine slowly became still as the room fell silent. The young man slumped in his chair and figured he might as well practice his drawing while he was resting. He was so awfully bad at it that it didn't require much mental focus. He pressed his pencil into the paper and pulled down to create a line. His hand wobbled with every attempt and the young man wondered how anyone could master this kind of art. Naru pulled down to make a line and moved his hand abruptly to the side to make an angle but he made a rounded corner instead of a pointed one.
Naru continued practicing his pen(cil)manship as his angles became more and more sharp. They weren't uniform in the slightest but at least he had grasped the concept of drawing an edge and a corner. He spent a little more focus than he thought necessary to keep at it, sketching away at his piece of paper. Before long he had drawn his own rendition of a brilliant cut diamond except it looked more like a circle with a bunch of lines. Naru didn't care - he was proud no matter how bad it was.
Naru would pass by the professor's desk when he was done to present his work, but there was no point. Papers litter the front marble desk, the old man at it taking a nap, several odd paintings littered the walls haphazardly, the odd man in charge truly hated the formality of the room. With a small re-adjustment to his drawing so that it would be the first thing he would see when he woke up. "Now then," he muttered to himself, "looks like I'm done for the day." As he walked away, he'd hear the old man speak up even though he must have been sleeping, "keep up the good work." Naru turned to look at the man but he was snoring again. "What an odd man."
