Elevation of Mana Chapter 60 Visitor

Iron was hard.  Not in the sense of being physically difficult to move, well it was that, but in other ways too.  It was not so easy to shape as copper, leading to a whole plethora of problems.

I looked down at the chunk I was holding in place with magic with a small bit of rage.  It was a chunk of the bloom, since the whole thing was rather unwieldy.  There was metal there, I could even see some of it.  Irritatingly it was not doing what I wanted it do it, it was not coming together.

Copper was mostly cast into shape and then worked lightly afterwards, but that wouldn't work with iron.  Iron needed to be folded and worked, I knew this, I didn't know exactly why, but I knew that it helped with impurities, somehow.  There was a problem though.

Delamination was my newest enemy.  No matter what I tried, my little hunk of metal was just not staying together.  There was probably a really simple explanation, and a really simple fix, but for the life of me I didn't know what it was.

I tried getting the metal hotter, and while that seemed to help, only once it got to a state where it was just beginning to melt, even then I was having issues, less issues, but issues.  Perhaps heat was part of the problem?  I was sure that was a factor, but it didn't seem to be the only one here.

I quenched the metal and then using magic sliced it in half, I needed to take a closer look here to see what was going on.  First I used only my eyes and that gave me a good bit of information.  There was clearly something in the broken welds, some kind of undesirable inclusion, but that didn't tell me what it was.  It could be impurities in the metal, and that was almost certainly part of it, but it could be... oxidation?  Carbonization?  Hmm, hard to know without a tool to test it, something I had little chance at getting any time soon.

So I needed something to keep whatever it was out of the join, a flux.  Sifting through my memories was easy enough on that account, and I found a few potentials after a couple hours of meditation.  A video of Japanese sword-makers told me that they put burnt straw ash in their joins, so that probably would help.  There were several references to borax, but that was less useful.  Perhaps sand or lime would work, or even some of the black sand I was using as ore.  Those should melt at the temperatures I was using, but I wasn't sure what they'd introduce.

There was only one proper solution, science.  Taking the time now to work this out would save me unbelievable amounts of effort in the future so I began to chunk out my bloom into roughly equal sizes.  It wouldn't be perfect, as I lacked some of the tools, but I could at least get a good idea of what would work best.

Some of this was going to be subjective, figuring out which flux or technique worked best for me was not something that would carry over to everyone, but I also aimed to learn more about the metal itself.  To that end I was now leaning over one of my pieces, focusing my magic with intent.

I was trying to bend the light, to create a lens I could use to watch the structure of the material as I worked.  Slowly, very slowly, I started to get it to focus.  The first version wasn't that much better than just my normal eyes, but as I refined it I started getting clearer and clearer pictures.  In time I hoped I could get close enough to see the crystal structures, but for now getting a better look at inclusions would be enough.

The next day as I was working someone called from the doorway.

“Come in,” I answered after popping my head out to see who it was, not wanting to leave my forge alone.  I'd already ruined one of my test pieces doing exactly that.

“Came to see how you were settling in, and you certainly have,” Ian the guardsman said, looking around the part of the house I was using for work.  His eyes settled on the stack of pottery I'd finished, quickly going over to it.

“Think those will sell?” I asked with a smirk, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, I do.  These colors...”

“Honestly not quite what I expected.  The materials around here are a bit different.  Not unhappy with them though.”

Even unglazed those vessels had come out vibrant shades of orange and yellow, much more than the clays back in Elayatol had ever made.  I was sure it would mess with the glaze recipes too, but how I wouldn't know until I tried some out.

“And are you working copper?” he asked amazed, watching as I pulled one of the pieces of iron out of the forge.

“Not quite.  This is a different material, and one I'm having issues with.  If I can find a way to fix my problems I'll let it out into the wild, but until then it's kind of useless.  Stand back a bit, this can be messy.”  After adding flux I brought it over to my small anvil and pounded it, sending a shower of sparks out.

“Thunderous death!” he cursed, jumping back.  “Are you mad?”

“Ha, Chien seems to think I'm a bit odd too, but no, it's quite safe.”  Ian was still giving me a concerned look.  “If I was worried about it I'd be doing something about it.”

“You're working with the kid?”  When I nodded to him he shook his head.  “All he wants is money, you know that right?”

“People who want money are easy to predict Ian.  I'd rather work with someone who is telling me exactly what they want than with someone who is hiding it.”

“He's right, you are weird,” the guard observed.  “I suppose wanting money does explain your actions though.”

“Oh I don't want money,” I explained with a smirk.  “I want the world to be a better place.”

“That is something I can get behind.  One of the reasons I took the job I did.  Question is though, how does all this make the world a better place?” he asked, motioning to the room.

“Small steps, little things that can make people's lives better.  There are times for big changes, big things, but mostly it's the small ones.  Bit by bit we can add, improve.  It's like walking through a forest, you don't have to jump high or far if you can just put one foot before the other.  Do that over and over again and soon you'll make your way through.”  I looked him in the eye as I spoke, because I knew the steps I could take, and that they would lead me forward, perhaps the road would be rocky, but it was clearly set out before me.

Ian just nodded, seeming to process all that.

“By the way Ian, if you don't mind could you take this to your grandfather, get his opinion?  He said he might be interested in selling the things I make and I think that might work well for us both.”  I passed him one of the bowls with a smile.  “And I can see you want one.”

I knew that soon enough pottery would be spreading.  Even now it should be, and I would be seeing that it did.  For the moment that bowl was a rare product, something worth selling, but in the future?  Probably not.  That and I rather liked Ian, he seemed a decent guy.

“Thanks, I mean it,” he said.  We both knew that in the market right now that piece of work would fetch a good price, even if I didn't overly value it.  We said our goodbyes and he left, letting me get back to the task at hand.