Chapter 52: Artificing
Dropping the hammer off my palm, I let a number of my threads spring into motion to take hold of the artifact. Tera was not waiting ceremoniously either. Noting the chance, she brandished all her essence threads to claim it. In mid-air, our threads met, hurling waves of air and sparks of essence.
“Hey, I saw that first!” Tera cried.
“That’s debatable.” More importantly, she hadn’t yet managed to claim it, which made the frame fair game for anyone to take.
“Let go,” she ordered.
Despite her skill in crafting, Tera was no fighter. I could hold her at bay with half of my essence threads. And as that became evident, she sprang forward to clutch the item with her palms.
The corner of my lips curled upwards in a smirk as a few of my threads diverged from their path to get to the frame first. Tera could only watch in dismay as the artifact flew into my palm.
Tera turned towards the two judges. “That’s against the rule, isn’t it?!”
Master Luc shook his head, while Administrator Aurine added, “Time is running out, Miss Albanius.”
Distraught, she could only glare at me. “Do you even know what this is?”
I shot her a grin. “Probably more than you.”
Collecting the hammer from the floor, I tossed it to her. “Here, you can have this.”
Tera caught it, noted its grade, though glared all the same. She didn’t like losing. While the round was yet to conclude, both of us were aware that as long as I managed to repair the frame, the victory was as good as mine.
Still, I kept the shovel for security. I didn’t believe I would have any time for it, as the antique artifact would take all my time and attention if I were to fix it.
Returning to my workbench, I set aside the broken tempered glass that had came with it and thoroughly examined the broken artifact. The frame was likely an antique piece as much as the portrait hung in it. The reinforced silver alloy gave evidence of that. It was at least two centuries old to accumulate a layer of gold tarnish, but not significant enough for it to foster into a relic. Perhaps the photo it held wasn’t important enough.
But ignoring all that, there were thirty-two essence threads concealed within the frame, their essence composition fading in the river of time. Even the weave formation had wilted into something unrecognisable. I deemed it some kind of defensive build, woven to protect the painting within. Even in its fair state, it wasn’t at all complex like the bracelet Mum made for me, much less the relic it had turned into.
Blight and ashes, I could engrave a rune formation that could work better than whatever the artisan had constructed. I guessed I could only attribute this wastefulness to the old artificing methods, which weren’t anywhere near what they are today.
Finally satisfied with my inspection, I calculated what it would take to fix the item. A defensive weave wasn’t really difficult, though I reckoned the task would be quite hazardous if I had to work with essence threads that were not my own, let alone ones this worn out. I should begin by strengthening them with the dawn essence solution.
The toolkit only held a small vial of it. I wondered if they’d allow me to buy more Dawn Essence solution, as the little quantity here would only give me one shot at rehabilitating the worn-out threads.
Of course, I had worked with Dawn Essence or other essence solutions before and knew full well how to apply and reinforce the essence into matter. The only reason I was hesitating was due to it being my first time working with an artifact.
The only experience I had with it was the couple of times I had observed Mum artificing, and I had deduced much from all the artifacts I could get a hold of. There were more than a few in Mum’s possession, from her battle axe to the armour set.
On top of that, Fractal Sight gave me more of the vital nuances required for the task. The practical work was definitely going to be more difficult than the theory in my head. Thankfully, there were only thirty-two threads involved.
“What?” Tera asked from behind. “Already stumped?”
I craned my neck to give her a glance.
“If you know better, you should return it to me instead of wasting such an antique piece with your fat finger.”
My fingers are slender and handsome, thank you.
Snorting at her comment, I eyed the judges. “Excuse me.”
Aurine gestured for me to ask away.
“Can I get more Dawn essence solution?”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “You can, but the cost will be debited from your budget. And it will also be taken into account during the judging.”
And the dawn essence solution wasn’t cheap either. I sucked in a breath. So many constraints.
“Can’t I just exchange a vial of Transformation essence for it?”
The woman smiled and shook her head. “Do you need more dawn essence?”
“I’ll ask if there’s a need.”
With the confirmation, I got to work. Slowly uncorking the vial, I wielded the dawn essence solution on only eight of my threads. I didn’t let the solution permeate into my own essence, as that would be sloppy. Then, with slow and careful steps, I allowed my threads to connect to the weave within the frame. The worn-out threads surged to life at once upon contact, voraciously devouring the dawn essence.
I guided the process, allowing more solution to pour towards where the composition was too weak. There were a few synapses where the threads had jumbled together into a mess, but I refrained from unknitting them yet, fearing even a cautious touch of mine would tear them apart.
Within a couple of minutes, almost all of the solution was absorbed into the weave, and the threads were barely rejuvenated. No, it wasn’t my fault. Well, not entirely. Only about a fraction of the solution was wasted under my grasp. The essence threads involved here were just that frail.
Without wasting breath, I got another vial of dawn essence solution from the judge, spending another four gold Leafs. Not a long ask, considering if I managed to repair the artifact, those four gold Leafs would be nothing. Whereas a relic is priceless, an artifact was the priciest object in the world.
The second round of strengthening took a lot longer. I bet a healer would do a much better job, especially if they were an alchemist as well. They could work with their own dawn essence, whereas I had to graft my Will into the solution, which was far more diluted than the real thing.
In total, I had spent nearly twenty minutes restoring the threads. As for the little runes still intact here and there, I erased them all without blinking an eye.
I exhaled sharply. Now that one scary part was out of the way, I made up my mind for the other one, which was to restore the weave formation.
I had a multitude of experiences in weaving threads. I had spent thousands of hours practising with my own essence threads, but to weave one into an artifact—that was something I thought I would only learn later. Mum said the actual process was similar; I merely needed to keep in mind that I wasn’t weaving with my own essence. Grafting my Will onto it would be tricky. Good thing I had an abundance of Will.
As I began unravelling the mess, it occurred to me that a defensive weave was kind of a waste after all. Even a half-decent rune formation would get the job done. These threads could have some greater use.
As far as I was concerned, an illusory illumination weave would be far better than a defensive one.
Well, it was possible to engrave the illusion directly into the painting with runes, as I had done before. However, with essence threads, it would allow the image to blossom in its full flourish and enthral the spectators.
I would have to remove the essence veins completely if I were to go in that direction, which wasn’t really that difficult, only adding to the list of work.
For a couple of minutes, I played around with thirty-two of my own threads, weaving them through various variations of illumination weaves. I even brought out my Illuminator to observe its formation, finally coming up with something I was satisfied with.
Making a defensive formation with thirty threads wouldn’t make it any tougher than entry-grade prestigious wards, but an illumination weave that could work with a rune formation could broadcast an illusion into the sky.
Thinking it would be held in some art gallery or museum, I worked from there. Carefully unfurling the mess of a weave, I began knitting it to my design. With each knit I made with the threads, I double-checked and triple-checked for confirmation, as the bundle of threads was threaded through the four sides of the frame.
The threads responded to my Will far better than the solution did, making the process much smoother than I had imagined.
Is that right? I observed with Fractal Sight, astounded that I hadn’t made a single mistake. Is it supposed to be this easy?
After completing the weave, I checked its efficiency by holding it aloft with my palm in the middle.
A large imprint of my palm appeared in the air, adorned with all the little details of veins and the impression of my fingerprints. Everyone faltered in their tasks to shoot a glance towards me. I saw Tera clench her teeth; many others looking at me curiously.
Much as it pleased me, I moved on to engraving the formation.
After a little consideration, I decided not to remove all the tarnish from the frame. Instead, I made some embellished marks with the rune formation. It was probably an acquired taste, but I liked it. Perhaps because I was an enchanter, I found the bare rune scripts strikingly flamboyant.
It displayed my work as much as the painting that would reside within. And who knows, some people might like my work more than the painting itself. The thought alone put a smile on my lips as I swiftly drew a formation on parchment before laying it down with Rune Imprint.
I hadn’t thought the whole process would be complete without a hitch, but finally, when I found myself in a dilemma, my heart lurched into my chest.
After completing the rune formation, I once again checked the illusion with my palm and found the illusory impression of my palm wasn’t as clear as before. The lights were fluctuating; the illusion was see-through and much more.
I observed with Fractal Sight and noticed no change in the weave for it to malfunction.
So what might be the problem?
I examined everything from the start and found nothing amiss. The problem appeared when I connected the rune formation to the frame, so it was likely creating some complication.
Considering that, I activated the frame once again, but this time, leaving the defensive ward in complete isolation from the essence flow. As I suspected, the illumination weave worked perfectly.
I repeated the process, on this occasion with the illumination weave in isolation. And the defensive formation functioned without a fault either.
So if they both functioned perfectly on their own, that could only mean there were some dissonances between the two. I changed the essence output, the points of input, as well as disconnecting the two of them, but none of it provided a solution I was satisfied with. Yes, disconnecting the formation from the weave did make the weave function a tad bit better, but that was all.
It was only after multiple tries and careful observation of the frame that I found an actual fault with my design. As it happened, although my illumination weave was protected from any echoes of essence coming from the defensive ward, the illusion itself was not. So whenever the defensive formation was on, its echo would restrict the illumination from blossoming to its fullest.
Yet finding the actual problem only made me want to pull my hair. Not only should I have recognised it sooner, but I should also have considered the problem before even engraving the runes. The solution only added to my headache, as I’d have to rework the weave to make it function.
It was really silly that the problem wouldn’t even have occurred if I had layered the illumination shell over the rune formation, or adjacent to it, but that would require some adjustment to the weave composition. I chose it anyway, since that would allow the flamboyant rune design to remain on the frame.
Slapping my cheeks, I began my revision. It took more time than the actual carving or weaving did, mostly because throughout the process, I was double-checking the illusion every step of the way. The flickers of light began to disturb others to the point that some complained, but I didn’t heed their calls, fully transfixed in my work.
Finally, only a minute after the first hour bell rang, I finished. Even to my surprise, it only took an hour. I had thought it would take longer. Then again, I wasn’t artificing from scratch. I was still mighty proud all the same.
I could not help but turn my gaze towards the stand where my family stayed. My eyes met my mother’s, and we exchanged a smile. Then my gaze drifted to the section where the Endurance test was unfolding. There were four participants still standing tall, and thankfully, Eran was one of them.
Silently praying for him, I went to fix the glass cover when a thought crossed my mind.
Now that I had a fine frame and about an hour to spare, should I repair the shovel or other items, or should I try something even more outrageous?
For example, drawing a painting for the frame at hand.
That left me with much to consider. For example, what to draw—a landscape, an architectural piece, some mighty figure, or something abstract. So much to consider, indeed.
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