Feral: Chapter 11

The next day, I was doing work on the gauntlets. The chestplate and backplate were cooling off, with the runes I’d place within them merging with the armor. The gauntlets, on the other hand, needed a lot of work. While armor on the whole tended to be very intricate over all, gauntlets and greaves, or hand and foot armor, need to be able to move with the wearer while still protecting them. This made them the worst parts to make in a time crunch. So, I was cheating.

I placed a diamond on top of some silk cloth I’d brought. Well, that Richard had bought. Then, I pressed my magic within the diamond. Crystals, thanks to the many facets, tend to reflect magic well, making it easier to bounce the energy within them. Slowly I sought out the carbon of the diamond. This part was part imagination, part physical magic, and part wishing very hard. I wanted to force the properties of the carbon within the diamond into the silk cloth, and force it to form as I wanted. Once done, I should have the sheet of pure carbon lattice. Not just a sheet actually, but over a million layers of sheets!

Of course, I might end up failing, and destroying a very expensive diamond. There was a reason I was doing this in the privacy of my workshop. While Hasha mixed more alchemy potions and Arthur made more sheets of chromoly steel, I’d see about finally making this dream of mine come true.

It had worked before, when I had transmutated cotton into steel. But what I was doing now was transmutation on another level. Not just transforming the silk, but doing it on the most basic of levels. Knowing it could work, should work based on my earlier experiments and research, wasn’t the same as making actually work.

If it did however… I pushed that thought away. I pushed away my hopes, my fears, and my feelings of inadequacy. When the realization that the chair I was sitting on rested on the spot where Andrea died, I pushed that away as well, hard as that was.

Transmutation magic, rune magic, blacksmithing magic, alchemy magic, they all only benefitted from a cold, logical mind. You sit, you wait, and you do it as clear minded as possible.

So I pushed it all away, made my focus as clear as I could, and began to do some damn magic.

My inner energy, the steel core that poured molten metal into my limbs slowly merged with the diamond. The carbon within was there for the taking. Then I reached into the silk cloth. I could feel the strength of that white piece of fabric. Despite its beauty, there was a large amount of tensile strength in it. It was why I’d picked after all. Sympathetic magic would make a connection between the silk cloths current strength, and its later durability.

Bit by bit, I let my magic permeate through the diamond and the cloth. My hands glowed a deep blue while they rested over the two objects. The glow intensified the more I felt my magic flow the way I needed.

Then, once I was sure I had enough of the structure of both objects down, I began the transmutation. Slowly, the diamond began to break. On the outside, it must have looked like the diamond was turning to motes of ash. On the molecular level, the carbon within the diamond was pressing into the silk. As I worked, I began the hardest part.

Slowly, I forced the silk cloth to follow my design. A carbon lattice layering into the thick weave, over and over. Molecule thick, pressing together, becoming stronger and stronger. My mind shuddered under the stress. Creating such detail, forcing the silk cloth to turn into such a different structure, was hard, even with the sympathetic connection. I kept calm. Over and over, I used the molten metal of my magic to form the crisscrossing form I needed.

Four hours later, I stepped out of my workshop. Hasha looked up from his alchemy set. Arthur stopped hammering. Mountain, Richard, Katya, and Jennifer, all sitting around the table that we’d dragged from the dining room, looked up as well.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” with a certain satisfaction, I held up a piece of cloth big enough to cover a door. “The strongest sheet of material in the world. With a tensile strength of over 130000, this can stop arrows with ease. It’s almost too strong.”

Katya clapped, smiling proudly. Mountain barked. Even Arthur nodded in fierce approval.

Richard, Jennifer, and Hasha started at me for a moment. Hasha hesitantly spoke.

“Char… if it’s so durable, so strong—”

“How are you going to cut it?” Jennifer finished for him. Richard nodded.

I stared at the room, the satisfied look on my face freezing. I stared at the sheet of black cloth in my hands, made to stop anything short of a dragon’s claws. The large, square shaped fabric that I’d need to cut to fit Katya.

“…damn it.”

------

Later, I began work on a personal project of mine. While Katya’s armor took up most of my time, I couldn’t help but want to finish one or two things for later. 

After all, people had tried to kill me twice now. Best to make sure they didn’t succeed the third time.

So I stood in my workshop with Hasha, working on the first project in tools to prevent my murder.

“The exact amount, Char, is the key,” Hasha said as he slowly measured out the saltpeter. He was smiling as he did so. “Where did you get saltpeter anyways?”

Oh boy. This would go well. “I made it.”

Hasha froze. He looked at me, eyes widening. “You… made it?”

I gave him a sheepish look. “Uh, yes. I got the instructions from a book. A process where you take a drum affixed with a drain, valve, and filter at the bottom. You fill it with manure, urinate into it, then top it off with water. After about 10 months, dry it out on trays.“

Hasha stared at the saltpeter. “You’re saying that you... made this with your urine. And manure.”

“I ran out of the market-bought kind. This was all that was left.”

“Why did you even have it!?”

I winced. “It was just an experiment!”

Hasha blinked. Then he nodded. “Well that’s fine then. Seems the experiment went well, this is good saltpeter.”

Apparently I’d said the magic word.

I grinded the saltpeter with a mortar and pestle, turning it into a fine powder. Hasha did the same with the charcoal and sulfur. We calculated the weight of the powders. For one kilogram of our final product, we’d need 748 grams of saltpeter, 133 grams of charcoal, and 119 grams of sulfur. 

Next, we moistened the powders, placed them in the mortar, and grinded them together with the pestle for 12 minutes. I took a minute to thank god for my workshop. If he’d done this outside, where Art was forging, a single stray spark could have lit the black powder.

We kept adding water in small increments, until the powder had the consistency of thick clay, forming it into a ball. Then, carefully using a sieve, we split the ball into several small pieces, putting them on the table.

“Okay,” said Hasha as we stared at the innocuous looking piles of black balls. “Now we just wait for it to dry. You have a bag ready?”

“Yes,” I took a brown leather bag off a shelf. “Put runes against fire and electricity on it.”

“Good man,” he patted me on the shoulder. “So… we’ve made black powder. And you have the powdered aluminum and ferrous oxide as well. I have to say, if I didn’t know how careful you are, I would feel nervous about giving you these.”

Despite the joking tone, he did sound worried.

“It’s all for later,” I sighed.

“What do you need an explosive compound for anyways?” Hasha asked nervously.

“I’m experimenting with tools for Katya,” I said. This was a half-truth at best, but a good one. “I figure she might want non-lethal options one day. So I’m going to use gunpower and skunk oil to create a bomb to disable opponents.”

Hasha winced. “Oy. You have a real hatred for her future opponents. Skunks have been known to knock dragons on their asses.”

I snorted at the imagery. Even as I did, I began planning for the next tool.

No one would ever get the drop on me again. Not without paying for it.