CH48

When he opened the door and went to the living room he found Sonya and Thera playing a game of lowmage when he greeted them.

“Done your secret meeting with uncle?” Thera asked, some jealousy plain in her voice. Ben felt pretty bad about it, he knew she was bothered by the fact he refused to share what he’d been working on which led him to making a snap decision.

“Yep, I’m hoping to work on it throughout the night so if it goes well it will be done tomorrow. If it doesn’t then either I’m wrong and it’s impossible or my skills aren’t good enough yet, either way I’ll at least let you know what I was trying.”

“Really!” Her eyes lit up and she let out a bit more excitement than she probably meant to. “Then why not just tell us now though?”

He gave a little shake of his head. “I feel like that would only get my own hopes up, if this fails then I can accept it and move on.”

“Alright, fine. So when will it be done?”

“I’ll probably have to work through the night. Speaking of, I’ll need to borrow your arm.”

“Okay, which one?”

“Your choice,” He replied, and she held out her left for him.

“And is this going to take long?”

“Oh absolutely,” And with that he got to work. He was going to make her an arm-brace with a technique known as wire-wrapping, which involved cutting lengths of the wire and through a process of wrapping, tying, bending, and braiding, produced an intricate piece that would hold itself together. The main thing was shaping it in a way that would both hold comfortably to her arm, as well as being something she could slide on and off with enough ease should the need arise. Of course aside from that, it was going to be something she would have to wear all of the time. It would also have to be aesthetic, so he did his best to find a good balance between form and function.

He took all the measurements he needed to as he went, used some wire cutters he brought from the shop, and let his artistic vision take over, moving every wire as he thought would be the most aesthetically pleasing, losing himself in the act of assembly. He hadn’t paid much mind to the time itself and before he knew it, it was time to add the mana crystal. He had left a spot open in the top center, where the wires would be able to wrap around the mythril inlay to anchor it in place, and finally. he was done. A part of him actually wished it had taken a bit longer, it was a more enjoyable artform than he had expected, but he could always dabble with it more in the future, and it seemed that Thera was getting tired, she’d stopped supporting her arm long ago, instead just resting it on him as he worked.

When he let go she turned to him. “Are you finally done?”

“Well at least the first part, I’ll have to harden the metal later so it holds its shape but I should be able to enchant it first. So what do you think?”

She stretched her arm out in front of her to give herself and Sonya a look. “It’s beautiful,” She admitted. “Though I’d still really like to know what it’s for.”

Sonya could only gasp at first though. “Ben is that what I think it is?”

“That depends,” He said with a cheeky grin. “Are you talking about the mana crystal in the center, or the mythril wire?”

They both put on a stunned look when he said that. “Well I just meant the crystal, but you used mythril as well? There’s so much, what could you possibly be using this for?”

“Well it’s a fifty percent mithril alloy, so it’s not quite as much as it looks, but if I can’t make my enchantment work on this then it’s going to be impossible.”

“Ben, what could you possibly be trying to enchant on this? I’m pretty sure fractions of the quantity you used are added to most weapons or armors to enhance their magical effects.”

“Again, I’ll tell you in the morning. Anyway now all that’s left to do is enchant it.”

“Is it going to take long?” Thera asked. “I would really like to get to bed soon.”

“It… will probably be a while, but I think you can sleep while I do it.”

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“You don’t need to connect to me for it? Then what were you doing on all of your previous attempts?”

“No I’ll definitely need to be connected, but I’m pretty sure you can be asleep for it, it shouldn’t cause any issue.”

“Wait now, hold on,” she spoke with surprise. “That means you’d be in my room watching me sleep for how long?”