B3 – Chapter 20: It’s Artificing Time!

Dorni walked over and began taking the pieces of armor off the mannequin. “See, we Gnomes know the true power of artifice. You don’t need to apply the same artificed spell to the whole suit of armor. Hence, this.” He grabbed the bracer, pulled a little bit on one of the inner seams, and the top-most layer peeled back to reveal another layer of a thin, gold-woven cloth underneath. “The padding is three layers of stacked cloth – of fine enough weave to artifice.”

He began disassembling the armor with rapid speed, revealing that there was an outer layer of the protective encasement, three layers of padding – extremely thin but very strong cloth that could hold up to a knife’s edge. Around the bracers, he also rotated some of the ornamentation to reveal small compartments with intricately carved platinum rods.

In total, by the time he was done disassembling the armor into its components, there were six of the platinum rods which could hold a spell, the three layers of cloth, and the outer carapace. He also took the sword and whilst he did not pull it apart, he pointed out how the blade, hilt, cross guard, and pommel were all so finely crafted that they could hold spells.

“Now, Lord Tristan, you just need to decide what spells you want stored.”

“What can you do?” Tristan asked. “I only know up to Third Order spells.”

Once more, Dorni swelled with pride. “I can use up to Tenth Order artifice, and elementalism of earth and metal to the same capacity. Just tell me what Order you want in each part, and I’ll do the storing spell, you do the one you want.”

Tristan pulled out the Omnitome and began flipping to his various notations. “Okay…I think we are going to do a full overhaul of all of my gear.”

He began disrobing and removing his attire except for the under clothing. “We won’t do anything to my Silver Ear-Cuff, the Cloak of Winterbloom, Gloves of the Growth Shaper, or Tunic of Coiling Frost. Same goes for the Archon’s Favor, and my Citadel gear.”

“Ah, relics of Zeltana,” Dorni stated. “I helped make a few of them. She was a fine lass, she was.”

Tristan began jotting down a list in his Omnitome, wanting to keep everything organized both in his mind and on paper. Dorni seemed to hum in approval. “You’re a fan of order and rigor?” Tristan asked.

“Aye. About time someone got these capricious fairy dragons and horny Nymphs into a sense of order,” Dorni grumbled approvingly. “Gnomes like structure. Spriggan do as well. Fine folk, the Spriggan. Master woodcrafters and carvers – without harming the material, either.”

Tristan began lobbing ideas back and forth, referencing the various spells in his Omnitome as they came up with a game plan for what to artifice with which spell. After fifteen minutes, they had a game plan ready to go. And, thanks to artificed spells able to get around the backlash of elementalism, he would be able to use those lightning elementalism spells that had been so painful to work with. He looked over his list one more time to confirm.

Armor:

• Outer Carapace – Scales of Our Foe
• Padding 1 – Armor of Ice
• Padding 2 – Near Miss
• Padding 3 – Lucky Instinct
• Rod 1 – Fireball
• Rod 2 – Inferno Trigger
• Rod 3 – Fiery Burst
• Rod 4 – Bolt
• Rod 5 – Split Bolt
• Rod 6 – Chain Bolt

Sword:

• Blade – Elemental Imbuement
• Hilt – Rime Blast
• Cross Guard – Winter’s Wrath
• Pommel – Dragon’s Doom

Other Items:

• Greatbow – Frost Flurry
• Starmetal Maul – Frost Screen
• Expensive Dagger – Minor Invisibility
• Silver Ear-Cuff – Spoken Message: Half-Realm
• Queen’s Wood Staff – Control Ice
• Fey Realm Ring – Interrealm Warp
• Cloak of Winterbloom – Thrice Command
• Gloves of the Growth Shaper – Plant Shaping
• Tunic of Coiling Frost – Hampering Growth
• Omnitome – Endless Knowledge
• Citadel Student Pin – Limited Teleport
• Anorox Family Crest – Disguise Form
• Archon’s Favor – Receive Message – Realm
• King’s Favor – Break Enchantment

“Lots of spells at your disposal, just by spinning your crucible,” Dorni commented. He clapped Tristan on the mid-back, “All courtesy of yours truly and my fellows.”

“Pass along my compliments,” Tristan replied. “Come on. Let’s get to work putting these spells in place.”

Hours passed and by the time the two had finished, Tristan had fully stored all the spells that he wanted to. Dorni was absolutely exhausted and had swapped out with several of his Gnomish brethren. But Tristan, thanks to his connection with the Fey Realm, could just keep channeling essence until the work was done.

“Great job,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’ll test it out.” He waved goodbye to the Gnomes who seemed quite pleased with their work as they retired to their housing near the market area, and Tristan headed into the Queen’s Wood.

Going downstairs, he entered his bedroom and saw Felicity already fast asleep in her elfanoid form. Stripping down, and quickly dipping into the pool to wash away the grime and sweat of the day, he got out, dried off, and slipped in alongside her, pulling the sheets tightly around them.

Tristan was woken up by a loud knocking on his chamber door. Rolling out of bed, he went over and opened it.

His grandfather was standing there, tapping his foot impatiently. “Sleeping in?” he asked.

Tristan just shrugged, “I’m the lord of this Realm. I’ll sleep in however long I want to.”

His grandfather chuckled, “I don’t blame you with that companion of yours,” he said.

Tristan glanced back and saw that Felicity had sat up in bed and was staring daggers at his grandfather, “Go away, old man!”

Hurvun chuckled and rapidly turned about, “Where’s my armor, son?”

“Check out the market stalls,” Tristan replied.

“Putting it on sale already?” Hurvun asked with mock hurt in his voice.

Tristan just shook his head and closed the door, going back to Felicity. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean for him to see you like this.”

Felicity shrugged, “I don’t mind being seen in any way.” She shifted to her fairy dragon form and flew up to the top of his head, resuming her normal perch. “Get dressed.”

“What are you in a rush for?” Tristan asked as he slipped on some freshly laundered underclothing.

Felicity began making paw-claw biscuits, “Court meeting today and I was asked to take part!”

“When?”

“After noon.”

Tristan pulled out his Omnitome from his hip pouch and glanced at the time, “Got a few hours left.”

She frowned and flopped on his heat, batting at his ears. “Bat. Bat batty bat. Bat.” She then let out a groan, “What am I going to do for a whole few hours?!”

Tristan exited his room and headed upstairs as he spoke, “Well, I need to test out my new armor and weapon.”

“Just swinging a sword and wearing new gear? B-o-r-i-n-g.”

Tristan chuckled as he exited the Queen’s Wood and went to the merchant stalls, “I artificed a ton of spells into the gear. That should be interesting to see.”

She sat up at that and sighed, “Fine. I guess that’s fun.”

“You could always go prank the Nymphs.”

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