Advent of the Artisans. (Closed)

[Alberdyne_Cormyr]

Dyne felt very eager to get the process going. They were required to smelt some ore into its raw liquid form and create bars from the ore. Dyne noticed several different machines within the large furnace like room. Each machine had a purpose to it. Several different tools lurked in his apron and by the main work table. He found himself near Seti who seemed just as clueless like he, well, almost. The youth closed his eyes and started to try and remember every book he's ever read in his life.

He recalled reading a couple of books on smithing. Some of them talked vaguely about the process of smelting and refining ores. Dyne "pulled" the book out from his mental shelves and studied it again, turning the pages of knowledge very quickly in his mind's eye. The youth was hungry to learn and Karxen seemed to teach by example. He saw that there were several tools that he recognized that seemed part of the smelting process. Looking over to Seti's person, Dyne attempted to catch the other lad's attention. "Hey Seti, if you're confused just watch how I do it. I remember reading some books on this subject more than once. I'll show you the process." Dyne said waiting for Seti's response. There was that excited look on Dyne's face again.

[The Architect]

“That’s okay,” Kaerxen said as he placed a hand on Alberdyne’s shoulder. “How about I take you boys with me and I’ll clear up a few things.”

They got up and followed Karxen as he floated around eh room in a seemingly aimless jaunt, darting back and forth, left and right to every student until he finally came to one. The student was a young elf, who held a two tone lump of molten rock inside the great fire with a pair of large tongs. It melted and dripped away into the blue hot core until it finally was no more. “You see there’s a difference between melting and smelting. It’s something that this poor sap has yet to get a grasp of. He’s put a waste to my copper, but even if he had placed it on the anvil or some sort of surface to preserve what he had it still would have been melting.”

Karxen directed their attention to another student who sat in front of a slab staring curiously at a glowing mass. “If you think about it, that thing is still what it was before. 20% granite and 80% copper, 30% gold 70% copper, or whatever he may be working on at the moment. He’s still melting. Smelting, by definition, is separating. Now I haven’t looked into this but I figure that’s what the ‘s’ is there for. I’ll correct those guys later, but you two are the priority for now. Come here.”

Karxen sat at Seti’s spot and picked up a black bowl. “This is a crucible made of graphite. Take your ore, place it in here, put it in the fire, and take it from there.”

[Alberdyne_Cormyr]

Dyne partially understood what Karxen was saying. He listened carefully for anything he might have missed. Closing his eyes to better ascertain the lessons that the Master Smith gave them, the youth obsessed over every detail he possibly could. He saw the granite pieces taking his individual share. He nodded towards Seti. "Good luck." He said to his leader knowing that they were in for the long haul. He remembered the various percentages for mixing that were required for more advanced experiments.

But for now, they were focused strictly on the Copper. Separating and purifying the basic ores that they would be smelting into bars. Dyne didn't want to be chastised for failure like the other students were. He was eagerly wanting to make progress with the experimentation. He felt a flutter of excitement and eagerness in his belly as he moved back to his work station.

The smells of the smith in work filled his nostrils. Heat swirled all about about him like dragons made of air. He smelled the various portions of copper, lead, granite in different mixtures of the oxygen. The powerful scents in the room made Dyne cough since they stung his nostrils. His eyes watered but he worked through the pain. He felt his lungs were breathing with labor against the ultra thick air.

It smelled like a refinery. The youth to a moment to grab one of the many face masks located by his work station and placed it across his face. He breathed a breath of semi-purified air. The goggles around his face protected him from the stinging air he was momentarily exposed to. He wanted to pay attention to everything that the Master Smith so he'd raised his goggles in order to better observe the Smith's body language.

He knew that Karxen would probably much rather be working on his own projects than instructing. He was glad that Karxen made the necessary sacrifices to teach pupils as well. Dyne grabbed the granite cross and began the process of smelting ore. Dyne hoped for some better success than the Elven student who was simply just melting ore. He looked over to Seti to see his partner's progress.

[The Architect]

Seti returned to his seat and took the tongs in one hand and the hammer in another, placed the chunk of sediment just above the blue core, and waited. He was pleased to see the rock slowly react to the heat. A molten orange inflammation began to spread from the bottom like a bad rash. It reminded him of a pale Raiaeran elf getting a sun burn in the Tular Plains, and then he asked himself why such an unorthodox image came to mind. Alberdyne seemed to be doing the same thing as Seti, confirming he was doing the right thing, but how long would it be before he would have to take the ore from the fire? There was already an image in his head of valuable bronze dripping into the fire and slowly pouring down into the magical source of the heat like molasses.

“Alright, Seti.” A large hand pressed down on the architect’s right shoulder. “It’s time to take it out. Start hammering out the bronze from the rest of the minerals. Pay attention to the different tint the bronze is from the rest of it. This is a good one to start with. At least seventy percent bronze.”

“How long does it usually take to get to this point?” It was a necessary question for Seti. He was always a good judge of time except for these situations, workplace situations where his mind tended to drift off. When he brainstormed or drew up blueprints for new buildings he would take a freefall into his own imagination. Time in the real world would move the way it wanted to. Hours could pass as quickly as minutes or even seconds would pass as slowly as days.

Karxen took a moment to ponder his answer. It was a complicated one at best. “Well it really depends on a lot of things, The purity of the element your smelting, its proportion compared to the rest of the rock, how much you’re smelting, so on and so forth. What I can tell you it can range from under an hour to more than nine.”

Seti shrugged his shoulders. So much for a definite answer. He was used to definite times and deadlines in his line of work. Even if the completion of a building depended on a labor force he didn’t know, he was able to run a tight ship – as either an inspirational commander or a ruthless dictator – to make it to his personal deadline. “So what will then next step be?”

“Depends on what you’re making…”

[Alberdyne_Cormyr]

Setting himself up for the physical labor, the youth placed the granite in the fire. There were several more students who also placed granite in the fire as well. Dyne took a moment to acknowledge all of them in kind with nod. Some nodded back but all took into account the boy's presence amongst them. He wore his House of Sora pendant out in the open now, in the presence of family since this was clearly an excursion for the House of Sora. Dyne knew he couldn't afford any mistakes. This was a mission for gain and profit, and also the tempering of a newly found skill.

Time passed. Dyne could see the mixture of bronze peaking through his granite slab. He held it by the tong in his hands. His muscles ached from the burn, but he held it fast, turning the granite every so often. It was almost like cooking a meal. Red burned angrily through the granite as the bronze element was activated by the heat. He could almost see particles of ions and atoms exciting themselves in reaction to the heat being poured on the granite. When he was certain that the granite was ready to be worked, the youth pulled the granite away from the fire and moved back to his work station. His muscles burned with pain from the intense physical labor. He was already exhausted from the lack of water and food. The intense heat was getting to the youth.

Despite all that, he fought through the pain attempting to just get it right the first time around. Knowing he didn't want to make any sorts of mistakes, the youth took his hammer in hand. It was made of liviol and quite sturdy for the task at hand. With the burn in his muscles, the youth prepared for the journey ahead. Thinking about whatever he wanted to think about, the youth thought about his Mother's betrayal.

He didn't want to remember Alma Cormyr as an enemy. So he thought about the positive moments. Moments of tenderness shared as a family before that awful betrayal happened. This brought a smile to the youth's face as he thought about what he might be doing now. Training at the Cormyr Residence with the rest of the students seeking lessons from the Monks of Ai'bron. Stealing a moment away with Jessa Reyes, his youthful crush. He felt his cheeks go red as he thought about the pretty girl and wondered what it was she might be doing at that moment. He could guess. The first set of impacts caused cracks in the chink of the granite slab. Dyne cursed as he felt how hard the substance really was and understood then why it needed to be super heated first.

The heat made the granite much softer and easier to break. Its black, sparkly surface shone with the light of the fire. Somehow, all the haze in the large room made the boy feel extremely light headed. This wasn't enough to distract him too much, but it was enough to be noticeable. He felt light headed and felt like he could take on any task that was presented before him. He let out a mighty scream and brought the hammer down upon the granite with all of his might. What started off as a few cracks quickly became a torn chunk. Soon, after a few more hits the boy had slightly cracked the first corner of the granite slab. Now..he only had the rest of the piece of granite to go. Nine hours huh? All right, let's get to this then, I want to get to the fun stuff. After a few moments of getting used to the motion of his hammer hitting the granite, he moved into an almost zen-like movement, his eyes were very far away.

[The Architect]

The world outside this intensely torrid little shop of metals was approaching its twilight. Cool breezes gave the flora a lively pulse as they danced in the pale moonlight. Seti’s internal clock told him that much. Here it was neither night nor day, dusk nor dawn. It was all a hot dry afternoon in Haidia. Hopefully it was the end of his afternoon, for he was among the last of the group to complete Karxen’s assignment. As simple as it sounded, separating sediment from bronze, it was astonishingly complicated. Visions of the stereotypical blacksmith from the story books began to deteriorate as the architect ignited the rocks like candle wicks and began meticulously working on the smelting process. Apparently this was a different kind of work than previously expected. One had to dive into it with confidence and never cease for anything.

The architect, being used to halting construction for the slightest misbalance in a foundation or restarting the construction of a wall from scratch, discovered within his ten hours of work that starting over was just not an option. Every thirty minutes to an hour, Seti would take the sediment to the side and see if the separation process was working out the way he wanted it. He would examine the chunk for as long as he could with only a moment of two of hammering in between narrow eyed glares. Once the incandescence wore off he would place it back into the flame. Soon enough his priorities switched places and he was inserting the ore into the flame only to be able to see it again. This was his custom as an architect, to debacle every measurement, angle, and scale because lives depended on his choices. The life of a warrior depended on the armor they would construct, so why not apply the same self questioning to this endeavor?

The result wasn’t exactly the same. In a line with the perfectly shaped bricks of bronze, stood his amoeba, glimmering in all its mutated glory. The league of aspiring metallurgists stood around Seti’s workbench with hands on hips and heads tilted in perfect right angles.

“Well the good news is this is probably the purest bronze of the lot. I can already tell by looking.” Karxen lifted the hardened brown glob then dropped it back down. “At least that’s where you’re meticulousness paid off. Well let me correct that. That’s where your fear paid off. You kept on checking little portions of the ore and nibbling the bronze off bit by bit because you were afraid of getting the whole thing wrong. Well now that you’ve done it once you can take what I’m about to say to heart. Just do it! Did everyone hear that? Just do it!”

Seti nodded with his hands behind his back. “Is there any way to get a composition as pure as the one I got without losing the opportunity to mold?” He was never one to apologize. He reserved those for times of heartbreak. In this situation it was best to correct the faux pas.

“Yes, that’s a good question, Seti, and I was just about to get to that.” Karxen turned to the crowd. “If the rest of you want metal as pristine as what you see here you’re going to have to be patient. Some of you only needed to leave the ore in the fire for twenty more minutes and it would’ve been just as pure as Seti’s. As for you, stop pulling the ore in and out of the flame and use larger portions.”

[Alberdyne_Cormyr]

Listening to Karxen's teachings whilst he worked distracted the youth just a bit, just enough to mess up several times. He lost some of the carbon pieces to the fire along with their bronze. Failing frustrated Dyne greatly since he was so used to learning things quickly. The air inside the inferno made it difficult to breathe even with the mask on. He could vaguely see his own reflection in the fire since it was so intense. The metal he managed to work was few and far between. Ten whole hours passed and only a bare minimum of progress was made.

Karxen occasionally walked by Dyne's work area to give the youth tips on this or that matter. "Your angle of approach is off." One of the statements of advice. "Put more feeling in your strokes with the hammer." After all of his failures, Dyne had managed to get a small amount of bronze ore out of the granite. It was liquid in nature so the young apprentice could easily mold it to any shape he wanted. It was a long process of shaping and reshaping the canvas to suit whatever form that Dyne wanted to create.

He placed the ore in the mold of the bars and watched the substance take shape and ultimately cool into one of the bars. Dyne heard Karxen talking to Seti for a long moment. He vaguely paid attention to what was going on since he was concentrating on his own work. Karxen's words touched his large ears after a moment's passage. Securing his first bar, the apprentice clapped his hands together at his first victory. Though his ore wasn't as pure as Seti's creation was, it got the job done. And Dyne learned a valuable series of lessons.

Experience. Now that he had a process for creating the bars in his head, the young man could repeat it a billion times over. Across an entire life time's worth on his way to becoming a skilled mastersmith. Little did Dyne know that he was taking the first few steps in a long journey. A journey that would shape his future. Inside the smith's furnace area the youth would soon call this place home. Dyne took a few deep breaths and began to prepare more ore from the stack of granite. Already, he was seeing visions of flaming swords and enchanted hammers.

The youth had his first smelting bar. Now it was time to prepare as many as he would need for the rest of his project. Smithing items was a lot like creating a painting. One needed to carefully sketch, plan, and measure each aspect of the final piece before committing the finished details to the canvas that one was painting as. Dyne considered himself a painter working with a forge as his painting tools. Repeating the process anew, Dyne took more slabs of granite to prepare more of the ores. It never got any easier, but the job became more accurate. More time passed, another five hours, and Dyne had casually prepared six more bars. He now had seven bars all together of raw ore. Looking at his creations, Dyne made some careful calculations preparing what he wanted to make in his head. He allowed the visions to dance in his head...

[The Architect]

“Alright, Astrophel, let’s take a look at your progress in the past seven days.” Karxen glanced up at the architect as he entered the wood clad workroom. Seti liked that about Karxen. The blacksmith was task oriented like him, never the type to waste precious seconds on formalities. “What was a slow start became a great improvement. You have managed to cut your smelting phase down from ten hours to six, while also maintaining the purity of your copper alloy. I want to see a couple of things from you though, and taking these suggestions to heart will certainly cut your time down even more. Use the crucible. There shouldn’t be a moment when you aren’t using it in the smelting process, yet you have the habit of only using it when you’re certain you’re doing things correctly. When are you certain you’re doing things correctly?”

That was a rhetorical question, Seti could tell. He was never certain everything was going smoothly, so he barely ever used the crucible. The blacksmith continued. “Micromanagement is not a good path to take during the smelting phase. I believe I’ve told you that before. Another thing you could do is add the tin a little bit earlier. The speed at which you’re separating the copper would allow you to add it about half an hour earlier, and if you use the crucible you could add it an hour and a half earlier. So far you’ve managed to make a total of nine bars of bronze, with two yesterday and the day before. That’s good because it leaves you more time to invest in the equipment you’re making. That leads us to the next phase, molding. What would you like to make for yourself, Astrophel?”

“That’s easy.” Seti looked down at his left arm as he balled his fist. A ray of dusty sunlight brought down a spark that settled on his forearm. With a flash of concave light his imagination once again came to life. “A buckler shield, light and not much lighter than my forearm. I’d like it to have a sharp bottom edge, and the symbol of the House of Sora.”

“I see.” Karxen said. His voice ended Seti’s image and the shield on his arm disappeared with a convex flash. “Normally I would keep you on the bronze, but I have a feeling you’ll be using this a lot. What I’m going to do is give you, Corona, and a couple of other students the chance to work with steel. The particular form of steel I make is called crucible steel, so you’re definitely going to have to take what I told you to heart.”

[Alberdyne_Cormyr]

It became a pattern of behavior really. Dyne worked whilst the Master Blacksmith came in from time to time to check in on his students. There were many others eagerly learning the trades of the blacksmith just like Dyne was.

A few of the students were having more difficultly than they should be. They were having a hard time adjusting to the process of removing ore from the granite slabs they were able to use as their basic materials. Dyne allowed his eyes to wander when he was waiting for more bars to be made. He had six so far, but he'd taken the extra time to manufacture a few more bars of the bronze ore. They sat majestically in their molds as they waited to be shaped into whatever forms that Dyne could think of. He knew that each piece of equipment he made required a certain amount of the bars and the more complex pieces of equipment required more bars of ore.

Karxen spoke to Seti for a long moment. That's how he was addressing the whole class now, by speaking to Seti. It seemed clear to Dyne that the Mastersmith had a special respect for the Architect's way of doing things. He admitted to himself that he was slightly jealous of this, but there was no danger in his envy. He wanted to simply work that much harder.

The work area before him contained the various molds he would use in order to complete his project. Dyne suddenly had the feeling that he knew he would be working at this station for a long time to come, so he would need to forsake almost all other matters. Except for his combat training. After all what was the point of creating a subject if you didn't know everything you could about your chosen subject matter? Dyne knew this. Tactical warfare became his daily routine.

As a rising member of the House of Sora, Dyne wanted to succeed in every project that Seti Dylan assigned him to. Even if it was just boring, tedious, manual labor like this. Despite the repetitive nature of the work before him, Dyne grew quickly used to it. His strong body and mind worked the hammer in his hand. Each set of tools required for the process was a different side of the art. Working his canvas, Dyne searched for the proper molds he needed for this particular job and set them aside. Inevitably, one became faster when they understood the process at hand.

It was an art of repetition after all. Dyne reached a zen like state as he concentrated on the prospects before him. The troubles of the others were ignored as he focused on the job at hand. Right now he was building himself his first piece of equipment and he wanted to start off with something exceedingly simple. Yet, with enough manageability that the young smith could exercise some creative tendencies with it. Memories of the past inevitably touched his thoughts whilst he worked.

"What are you doing?"

"Working on this homework for class. It's quite a bother don't you think?"

"You need to practice your art everyday Dyne. It's the only way you will become a Master of the art."

"I know this Father but isn't there a way we could work around homework? It's so boring."

"Many things in this life require repetition in order for you to refine your style."

"And what is a style my Father?"

"It is what makes you uniquely you."

"Isn't there more to it than that?"

"Every artist has a style. You have to develop your style over the course of many hours and even days of repetition. Develop your style. There is no way around the hard work that is required in order to become successful at something. Remember that always my son."

"So I have no choice but to finish my homework?"

"No. The sooner you finish your homework, the sooner you can return to your other studies."

"All right Father. But can we have dinner when I'm done?"

"Aye. That we can do."

Laughter.

Dyne couldn't help but to smile when he remembered that particular exchange with his Father. His Father was oft in his thoughts of late and the youth missed him deeply. Seti and Karxen are respective adults that could help serve as educators. I will have to listen to their teachings. In order for me to set aside my own style. My Father was right. There is no skirting around the homework process. And so, Dyne continued to work. He knew what he wanted to build, he was just building extra resources for the project.

After he was done, Dyne had constructed himself four more bars for a total of ten. They were all bronze in nature. At the idea of working with steel, Dyne at once grew excited and then nervous at the same time. Bronze was difficult enough to cast out from the granite slabs, what would be the process for steel? Would refining Steel be much more difficult than refining bronze was? Dyne was used to the process of refining bronze. He decided that he would save steel for another day. Karxen passed by Dyne after he finished addressing Seti and the rest of the class.

"How are you doing Dyne?"

For a moment, Dyne didn't answer because he was in a trance like state. The youth let a full minute pass before he became aware that he was addressed by Karxen himself. Blinking several times, the apprentice looked up to Karxen briefly and wore a stern expression on his face.

"Very busy. This is hard work, but it pays off." Dyne responded.

"I see. You can learn how to smelt steel today if you'd like to."

"All though that sounds promising Maestro, I think I'll stick to bronze until I am ready to move on." Dyne said.

"A wise answer. The slow but sure road often leads to greater success. You are doing well with your bars. Remember the proper percentages of granite to bronze and you will become a successful smith in no time. There will be those who work with Steel today so the air will grow thicker with the scent. I shall monitor their progress and yours. Do you have an idea of what you are going to build? Remember, all things start off with a basic idea."

"I'm going to build myself a sword. A proper sword. All I have for combat are these melee batons made of brass. All though they are good weapons, I have outgrown them and require a fencer's weapon. I'm probably going to make myself a short sword or a rapier of some sort." Dyne kept the image of his sword in his head.

"Sounds promising. Remember that the process for a hilt is slightly different than the process for a blade. You have to combine the two parts together, hilt and blade in order for you to construct a completed weapon. However intricate you want to make your weapon is up to you. Just remember, the more intricate you decide for your blade to be, the more bars it will cost you on top of the basic cost of the item you are building. There is a chart over there if you haven't seen it yet." Karxen pointed in an idle fashion towards the chart. Dyne glanced towards it and nodded. "Very well then, I'll leave you to your work."

And Dyne went back to the job at hand...