Ok, I had some requests and I also wanted to write it, so here's a quick fluff chapter to ease tensions a little.

 

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Aerien’s POV

 

[So, this is your workshop Logim?] I asked as I admired the only clearly unnatural structure in this entire little village under the eaves of Isanil’s branches. It was a building that seemed to be formed from a single piece of stone, a stone that had been molded into shape like clay without the use of a single tool. It was nestled in at the edge of a lakira grove growing on the dirt island that Isanil’s roots held together.

 

[Wow! That’s neat!] Levin cheered. Meanwhile, Logim just stood there with a look of pride on his face.

 

[Well, I’m certainly glad a young-en like you can appreciate it.] He said. [Would you all like to look inside?]

 

[Lead the way.] I said with a gesture. [It IS your workshop after all.]

 

Logim chuckled and brushed aside the animal skin that acted as the door. He stopped in the doorway and turned to look at us. [Well, before we enter, I need to warn you, uhh…]

 

[You can say my name Logim.] I scolded the old gnome, [I told you this already. I have dropped your title, so you can go ahead and call me by name as well.]

 

[Well then, Aerien.] He said, clearly uncomfortable. [There is actually a functional reason my workshop is made of stone, and it is not just because of the fire pit I have inside. Dealing with iron means handling a material that is harmful to all fey, including elves such as yourself. It will not be as pronounced as it would be with a fairy, and you do not use magic and are quite strong so there is a chance there will be very little effect on you, but I just had to make you aware of it. Take it easy if you feel a little dizzy when you come in.]

 

[I see, iron is harmful to fey?] I summed up the gysts of his words. [If that is the case, what is it that makes your gnome steel different? That is, I DO assume that it actually IS different.]

 

He had another smug smile back on his face. [Well, pr.. uhh..] He catches himself seemingly in the middle of using my title. [Uhh, well, that’s something I plan to show you. Come on in.] At his invitation, Levin and Rolwen stagger forward until they both catch themselves hands-first against the frame of the door and then smile at one another before slipping in. I then follow behind while acting as a support for Gaerien to walk.

 

‘I don’t know if this iron will affect us, but I can protect us with some divine energy.’ Gaerien says.

 

 

Yes, that’s right isn’t it? Her divine energy mostly came from her leeching it directly off of the abundance of energy flowing through my spirit. It seems divine energy flowed through my spirit as well, but according to Gaerien none of it leaked out because it was cancelled by an equal proportion of arcane energy. She said she was processing my excess spirit energy, but I am forced to wonder if she might be cheating at times and skimming a little of that divine energy as well. Or rather, didn’t she just slip and admit that she was doing exactly that? Well, I guess this one is not big enough to make an issue out of it.

 

As I walked through the door, I did indeed feel something was off. It wasn’t anything serious, just a little bit of tingling in my fingers. Actually, it made me feel a little restless, like all the defenses in my body had raised on their own, a state of light tension that would make me ready to deal with any threat that may assault me rather than any form of weakness or dizziness. It was most certainly an indication something was wrong, but I did not think it would be a detriment to me in any way.

 

As we got deeper into the workshop, I quickly identified the sense of unease was coming from one specific location in the workshop. The boys’ eyes were wandering everywhere in the workshop, but after briefly noticing a fire pit in the middle of the room for a second, I couldn’t help but look over to another lowered pit in the ground that seemed to be the source of all the tension I felt. I had to see what was causing this. I walked over, and what I saw looked like a bunch of grayish ooze that had hardened into something stone-like, but still retained the appearance of liquid. Actually, the thing it would be most closely comparable to would be cooled wax, as though several drops of liquid wax were poured from a burning candle and then hardened in layers on top of each other, except that instead of wax it was stone.

 

[Looks like you found it.] Logim said, walking up beside me. [These are all of the impurities present in iron. Among this mess of all kinds of different substances is one that is present in all iron, and it is this substance that causes the actual harm to the fey. Gnome steel has all of this substance removed, that’s the very first step in the process.] He explains. [Oi, you boys ready!? I’m about to start!]

 

At his words, the boys run over. Meanwhile, the gnome walks over to a nearby table where a lump of twisted metal ore is waiting for him. He retrieves the unprocessed iron and brings it back to us. [Now, I will show you all the first step in making gnome steel, purifying the iron. Have any of you seen magic before?]

 

[Well, we all kinda flew here on the back of a dragon.” I told him. “Also, the robe I left back in my room is enchanted and allows me to fly.]

 

[We saw “Ether guy” grow his arm with wood!] Levin said in his choppy Elven, even switching to English to say “Ether guy.” Logim gave him a little bit of a strange look for that, but it seemed like he must have decided it didn’t really matter because he just continued anyway.

 

[Ah, silly me. Perhaps I ought to have asked if you’d ever seen Earth magic.] He lamented, almost grumbling in his tone. [Well! Here it goes! So, the thing about the impurities that harm the fey, they do grow more potent if the iron is heated with fire and then pounded with a hammer as the humans do. And, they also grow weaker in their effect when they are removed from the iron. It is pretty impressive that you two don’t even seem dizzy though,] he said, indicating Gaerien and myself. [Although it’s weakest in this form, there are a lot of impurities from the iron in this pit here. Guess you both are actually pretty powerful. Anyway, so, the special thing about gnome magic is we can remove all of these impurities without heating the iron in any way. All I have to do is this.]

 

Having said these words, he holds the hunk of iron out over the pit and squeezes it. In response, the iron actually squishes like a sponge, and a filthy looking grey and grainy viscous liquid begins oozing out of it and into the pit. Logim continues to squeeze the iron, and even starts wringing it like a towel. As he continues to mold and manipulate the iron, it stops acting like a sponge and begins to act more like clay as it keeps the shape he had warped it into.

 

[Alright, that step removes most of the disgusting stuff.] Logim says. [Now I will need my extracting table to remove the rest.]

 

Having explained this, he brings it over to a table with an indented ring in it. He rips out a chunk of the iron and places the larger chunk on a corner of the table, while the smaller went inside the indent in the center. After setting this up, he pulls out a small glass bottle and places it on the other near corner of the table. With practiced fluidity, he waves his hand over the small chunk and causes it to completely liquefy and then it solidifies the very moment it has dispersed evenly across the indentation. After this, he waves his hand over it again and the flattened iron begins to sweat grayish grainy beads which then float up from the surface of the flattened disk of iron and are then directed with a small wiggle of Logim’s fingers into the small glass bottle he had prepared.

 

[Now we have purified iron.] Logim explains. [The purification is the hardest part really, now’s the part where we turn it into gnome steel. We’ve gotta add a little something special for that, this is the reason why the best gnome steel is only made here in the fey capital.] He opens a drawer in the table, and pulls out a dried leaf and shows it to us. [This is a leaf of the great tree. Most any leaf or burnable material will do the trick so long as you’ve got the measurements proper, but the power in these leaves imbues the steel with a special power that makes it superior to any other metal and even allows it to gain extra magic, making it fantastic for enchantments as well as imbuing it with elemental energies.]

 

[Hmm…] Rolwen nods at his explanation [you are adding “carbon” back into the iron.]

 

“Car-bone?” Logim responds.

 

[It is the stuff that makes steel.. steel instead. of. iron.] Rolwen continues with words that are a little halting due to the fact he’s stretching his Elven vocabulary a little bit in order to say all this. [Steel has between half a “percent” and 2 “percent carbon” in it.]

 

[Ahh!] I interrupt before Logim can respond in confusion again, [“per-cent” means for every one hundred. So, one “percent” would mean one part carbon to 99 parts iron.]

 

Logim seemed to be trying to follow the math on his fingers as he processed this. After a few seconds in which you could almost see the gears in his head turning, a look of comprehension passed over his face and he gave a satisfied nod. [So, “car-bone” is your word for the ash used to make steel then, and the humans of Earth know all about it?] He grins and shakes his head. [Honestly, the humans of your Earth are able to make gnome steel, the more I hear about it the more your world sounds like a truly frightening place.]

 

[Well, we make it with technology] I tell him. [We did not have the magic to pull the impurities out like you just showed us, it took a number of different techniques that involved “smelting” the steel and burning away the impurities.]

 

[“smel-ting…”] Logim struggles over yet another word I had only just realized I took from English. It had been completely subconscious, so I suppose my mind must have just put in the word because there actually is no equivalent word in Elven. [Bah! We can discuss curiosities about your human no-magic technique later.] Logim concludes.

 

Logim groans and places the dried leaf on the center of the iron he had just purified. [We ought to get to how we finish off the process, although by the sounds of it you may already know a thing or two about what will come next. Yes, as you may have assumed, this ring is also for measuring out a fairly consistent amount of iron, so it is much like you said about a consistent amount being necessary. More leaves in the same portion of iron will make the steel stronger, but it will also be more brittle. For this next step though, I am rather sure this is something Earth humans couldn’t do.]

 

Logim waved his hand over the iron disk, and it immediately lifted up at the edges and enclosed the leaf in a spherical ball. [There we go!] He says, and then chucks the ball into the fire. [I’m not quite certain about why, but if there’s a lot of air inside the ball the leaf will be able to burn even inside the metal. I’ve tried flattening the metal and getting the air out first, but all that happens is the leaf turns a little black.]

 

[That would be “oxygen.”] I said. [I guess I will explain the mechanics of it later.]

 

[Hmm… Now I think I’m actually considering going to your Earth if you actually know all this stuff] Logim shakes his head with a smile. [Well, moving on from that, it’s actually after the fire’s done it’s work that we have the part where skill makes the greatest difference. Once it’s done, I gotta try and get as much of the leaf’s power infused into the steel as possible while getting that extra air out. There’s a certain technique to it, and it’s quite involved.]

 

[I’m going to take a guess.] I say, holding up my hand. [Let me start by saying we don’t have anything like this back on Earth, but… based on what I’ve seen so far, you wait for the ball to cool and then roll it around a little bit while liquefying the metal on the inside only so it can absorb what’s inside it.]

 

[Hahh…] Logim sighed. [Did someone else tell you about that?]

 

[No, I’m just taking what I’ve already seen and made some conclusions based off of it. It just seemed like the most reasonable way to do what you said needed to be done.]

 

[Well, it most certainly is!] Logim confirmed my guess and then shook his head with a large smile. [Well, I suppose I don’t need to show you that long and boring step then, not like you lot can use magic of the Earth domain anyway. Perhaps the two of you might be able to use Earth elemental magic,] He said, indicating Gaerien and me, [but you just don’t have the bloodline for the domain like us gnomes do.]

 

[What are you talking about?] Rolwen asked as Levin stood there looking rather confused.

 

[Yes, do tell.] I picked up the question [What is the difference between Earth elemental and Earth domain magic?]

 

[Well…] Logim scratched his short grey beard as he looked up to the ceiling. [It’s really quite simple actually. It is demons who use elemental magic, and you can only use domain magic if it’s in your bloodline. Grey races like the two of you can use the elemental magic of your demonic line, as well as whatever domain you might or might not have the bloodline for. Since you are grey elves, that would be the plant and nature domain. That’s the reason you likely found it easy to learn to use the green word. The Earth domain allows me to use it as well, but it requires a great deal more effort for me than it does for you.]

 

[Wait, so what bloodline do humans have?] Rolwen cut in on the conversation.

 

[Well… none actually.] Logim turned to him and explained. [Don’t worry though, humans can still use magic. Effect magic can be used by anyone. It’s the least powerful of the three types of magic, but I hear human mages have created a very wide variety of spells that can do all sorts of different things. Basically, they make up for their lack of power with variety. For the most part though, those who have access to domain magic tend to stick to that, and of course the demons tend to not really care to put in the effort to learn effect magic either.] 

 

[The method for creating the spell vessel is the same between domain and effect magic,] Logim continued, [but the difference is that you have to craft almost every aspect of the spell for effect magic while domain magic is a little more lenient and responds to your will a bit more. Elemental magic is only really good for destruction though, it has little in the department of the fine control you can get with domain magic of the same type, plus there’s a far larger variety of domains for domain magic.]

 

[Hmm…] I took in all the information he had just told us. [Logim, by any chance, is there a domain attached to demonic bloodlines?]

 

[Not that I’ve heard of, but then there’s not a whole lot that’s known about demonic magic other than the power of their elemental spells.] He responded.

 

[Well, I was just wondering…] I continued. [Gaerien and I have always been able to see in the dark. It’s never bothered our ability to see. I thought this had something to do with being an elf at first, but Eirlathion and… our birth mother would both always have dryad give them some light when they entered a room, so I do not think they had the same ability.]

 

[Hmm… well, you’re right. Elves certainly don’t see in the dark.] Logim confirmed [Well, if this is due to a bloodline, you ought to be able to pull some kind of darkness related spell from your bloodline once you’ve formed your spell vessels.]

 

[Perhaps demons just don’t train darkness magic because darkness to them is like water to a fish.] I suggested. [Since they do not live on the surface, it simply does not occur to them that their ability to see in the dark is the effect of a bloodline.]

 

This was all a very interesting conversation, but honestly, I do not think the subject of discussion really mattered much at all. This was the most free I had felt to converse and relate to others ever since being born into this new world. It was only my friends here right now, and there was no threat of someone from outside our circle intruding. It felt truly liberating. I would have to find some excuse to make more trips down here.

 

 

 

 

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"Refreshing!
now... time to revolution metallurgy on the side xD. Well, they seems pretty advanced already, so probably not ^^"

                                                                                                                                                                                     -Asekhan

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Yeah, went a little short for this act. Or, to be more specific, I decided to make what was supposed to be the wrap-up chapters for this act into the 2nd act, because THAT was running fairly long.

 

On a different and completely unrelated note, I'm dealing with some stress and I want to vent to a sympathetic audience for a moment. (you can skip the rest here if you are not interested in my personal issues. This IS related to the series though, just not something you exactly have to be aware of.)

 

I'm trying to get a picture of Aerien finished up on Fiverr, and the artist I'm currently working with is refusing to work with me. The resolution center agrees this guy is not delivering the proper product, he keeps submitting some simple line-art sketch as $120 work, and refuses to make corrections when I tell him that calling that sub-par for the asking price is the understatement of the century.

 

Basically, I asked for her to be holding a specific weapon I had in mind for her to eventually get. It's a little bit of a custom job. The guy made a very beautiful picture, but the character in the picture was holding a monk's spade instead of the weapon I asked for, which made it flat out wrong. He then asked for $80 extra to do it right, and when I refused he showed me a bad sketch of her holding something that looked closer to the correct weapon and told me to just accept that.

 

So, I'm working with the resolution center now to get that resolved. They agree he hasn't delivered the work, but they want to try to talk to him first before they will cancel the order. Dealing with this absolute nonsense has been distracting me and demanding way too much of my limited mental time just trying to work with this idiot. Well, I hope things can get back to normal soon.

 

UPDATE: A few hours after posting this, I checked fiverr and the dispute resolution team had decided that since the artist was not delivering they were going to cancel the order. The team member who cancelled it seems rather nice and is now offering to help me find a new artist to complete the order properly.