Hard at Work

[Anonymous]

There was always work to be done for a good builder in Essyrn, and Setac was a good builder. An excellant one, in fact. He'd been a journeyman when he'd left Serendipity to travel, and despite the heat he had settled in Essyrn a few years later, finding a master there and learning the ward-craft his bricks and his cement to make his buildings even more secure. And now he was at work on what would be his master piece, the reconstruction and reparation of one of the city's gate towers, which had been blasted by the recent sandstorms and which were, in Setac's professional and aesthetic opinion, out dated and in need of restoration.

So it was that he was painstakingly taking measurements of the gate in order to provide some cover while he restructured the building. Some builders might have used magic to get the job done in a flash, but Setac was not about speed. He was about quality. He could hear people complaining, of course, but it wasn't as if he was blocking the road. Not completely. People could easily go around him. If they wanted their city still standing after another century of sandstorms then they would just have to be patient. It was a virtue.

Muttering to himself as he stood back, he turned with a slight scowl as he bumped into someone. Couldn't they see that he was trying to work here?

[CastlesInTheSky]

There was no better place for heat than the desert, and he couldn't even get a sunburn. What greater place was there to be for a man of flames and red-hot metal? Zach walked through the streets in the city of the sun, a smile on his face. Awesome. Now he could perhaps get a decent job with metalworking here. He did hope that nobody expected him to work with iron, though. Fortunately, there were other metals with just as malleable as iron and just as strong.

As he was walking down the street, he played with a small strip of metal, heating it and twisting it into random shapes in his hands. He looked down, concentrating on shaping it when he bumped into someone. What were they doing, standing in the middle of the walkway? He turned, somewhat irritated, to find the other man staring at him as well. He held the metal in his hand, ignoring it now, though it was still glowing red. "Hey, what..." He looked over at the building. "Oh, are you fixing it? Sorry."

[Anonymous]

The younger male he'd bumped into (or who had bumped into him) apologised, mollifying Setac a little, but it wasn't the apology that kept him stood there, it was the red hot metal that the man held so casually in his hands. Set could feel the heat of the metal from here, even above the heat of the desert, and that interested him.

"What? Oh, yes, yes, I will be. What's that in your hand?"

His brain was working faster now. Metal reinforcement of bricks and mortar would be an idea. Metal was hard to come by out here, of course, but it didn't need to be thick reinforcement, not with the right wards attached. He could make sure of that, but he couldn't work metal. He didn't know many in the city who could, and those he did know were busy with other projects. This young man didn't look busy.

"What are you doing with it? It looks pretty hot."

[CastlesInTheSky]

When asked what it was, Zach looked at the metal in his hands casually. Sometimes he forgot that it was strange. Because it had always been a talent of his, it didn't seem strange to him. He simply replied, "Oh, just a bit of metal." He held it in a way so the other man could see it clearly. It was in a spiral shape. To Zach, it was easy as molding clay. However, it became tiring after a while and the malleability of the metal depended on what type it was.

"I'm just playing around with it, really." He demonstrated what he was doing by unbending it from the spiral shape it was in, then twisting it. "Magic, you see."

[Anonymous]

Setac nodded as the man said it was magic. He knew what that was; he was Serenian by birth, and had some skill in earth crafting himself, hence his decision to become a builder, but it was still fascinating, the way that the metal just moved in the man's hands. Setac couldn't work earth nearly so neatly.

"I don't get to see much metal work here in Essryn. But I have seen it done in Serendipity, and by hand in Connlaoth. I would have loved to stay in Connlaoth, but they are not accomodating of my own skills."

The forbidding of magic in Connlaoth, a country of inventors and thinkers and builders, sat badly with Setac, which was a shame but also why he was in Essyrn. Magic was a commodity here.

"Would you have time to work with me, do you think?"

[CastlesInTheSky]

Zach nodded as the man talked. He hadn't seen much metalworking in this part of the desert, either. Which, he supposed, made sense. It would get much too hot when used decoratively and probably enough so to singe the hands. As for in buildings, he knew little of architecture.

"Ah, I see. Connlaoth...I would like to see the country myself, but, well, you know why I can't go there either."

It was indeed a shame. He could of course go there and observe, marked as a mage, but there was always the strange looks and general feeling of being extremely out of place there.

"Hm? Hey, that would be great, I was actually looking for work." He offered a friendly look and said, "And I'll go ahead and say I'm Zach. And you?"

[Anonymous]

"I believe the Connlaothians frown on the use of magic more than on magical beings," the once-Serenian commented, with a shrug. "If one is willing to forgo magic whilst in the kingdom and wear a mage mark then it can be interesting to watch their craftsmen work."

But magic was a hard thing to put by, Setac had learned that. He could create the wonderful works of architecture that he made now without magic, but they wouldn't last nearly as long as they might if he used the wards and powers that he had at his disposal.

"I am Setac," he added, realising when the man introduced himself that he hadn't done so yet. A normal person might have blushed at the lack of manners, but Setac was often like this, absent-minded socially but a brilliant worker. It didn't do his reputation too much damage. "I am an architect and a builder."

[CastlesInTheSky]

Zach nodded. The Connlaothians were great architects. It was a shame that they didn't use magic to make it even more amazing. However, it was of great interest to him how they created such structured by only the strength of their arms and their will.'

"A pleasure to meet you, Setac." He glanced at the building the other man had been working on absently. "I see. Judging on what you've done with that building there so far, I'd go so far as to say you're quite a decent builder."

[Anonymous]

Setac smiled as his work was recognised. It was rare for people to comment on such things here; nomads were not always appreciative of buildings made to last, even in what passed for a capital city here> Obviously this man was no more nomadic than Setac himself was, although given the wanderer's blood in Setac that wasn't exactly a glowing comment.

"I am thinking some metal in the building might make it stronger," he said. "I am an architect too, see. I like my work strong as well as pretty. I want to be remembered."

[CastlesInTheSky]

"I understand that. I can see a framework of metal being great for the time a building could last. And who doesn't want to be remembered?" He took another look at the building, content. What luck, to find a job and a man who knew what he was doing.

"Just not iron. I can't really do ironwork."