Elevation of Mana Chapter 34 Copper

“I honestly don't know why you bought that son,” dad said as he looked at me messing with my chunk of copper laced rock.  “It's not useful.  The bits inside are weird, but they don't carve at all.”

“How about we get them out and try some things on them?”  I asked.

“You'd have to break it up, and you just bought it.  Your mother will be mad if you paid that much just to make a mess Elian.”

“You said they were weird though,” I replied.  “I like weird things, weird things make new things.”

“Fine, it's yours, but don't expect me to help you,” he said.

“Can you at least help me get the weird bits out?”  I asked.

My father frowned, but did do that.  He showed that he could carefully meld away the stone, leaving only the chunk of copper behind.  That alone was more help than I thought I'd need, so I left him after that and began experimenting with part of it.

Some of the things I did I didn't need to at all, no, I only did them for show.  I didn't want anyone to expect that I was trying to invent things I already knew how to do, that's why some of my failures didn't bother me.  I could try them again later and people might remember that I'd been playing with them for a long time.  Making success after success perfectly would be very eye catching, but being the weird boy that beat on odd rocks until they did what he wanted just made me a  bit odd.

The merchant had left well before I'd finished even the initial run of testing.  I tasted the metal, tossed it, put it in water to see if it dissolved.  I did every weird thing I could think of to the odd spikey blob of copper while also playing with my pretty green stone.  Dad had saved the rock itself, which I might be able to make into something later, but for now I was just playing with it.

None of this was important at all of course, nor all that surprising to me.  Some of the other boys, mostly Rindal, began to tease me off and on about how I was way too interested in my weird rock, but I ignored them.  We'd see who was making fun of whom when I made a copper... something.

It wasn't much copper all said, less than a pound, so there were limits to what I could do with it.  Mother would want beads if she knew what I could do, and at some point might get some, but not from this piece.  I was leaning towards a knife, a metal knife would make so many things so much easier and stone ones just weren't the same.

The first thing I tried though was mixing some of the green copper laden rock with some of my glaze.  It went in with a number of other random types of rock I'd found.  I didn't know what these might do, but I intended to find out.

“Auntie,” I said one afternoon.  “There's something I want to try, about maybe getting different colors on pots and stuff.”

“What's that Elian?”  She said, looking up.

“I want to try putting a bunch of different things into the mix in small amounts.”

“Why?” she asked.

“To see if it does anything, maybe it doesn't work, maybe it does nothing, maybe we get some new colors,” I explained.  “Or maybe something else I don't expect, who knows.”

“Okay, I'll make up some pieces and we can try later.  Let's do fancy ones in case they do well!”

“I was just thinking a couple of trials on a flat piece of pottery to see what it does...” I tried to back out.

“But that's boring,”

“But it's repeatable and quick,”

“No, that won't do.  Making pieces is hard enough that we shouldn't waste the time,” she argued.

“I can just do it myself...”  I saw her twitch a bit in anger and knew that I'd come to her, so I should at least do something like she wanted.

“Fine, whatever, we'll make something pretty, but simple okay?  I've got some things I want to try, any for you?”

“I'll think of something,” she singsong voiced.

After the daily work was done the two of us made about a dozen small bowls.  They weren't bit enough for much, but it made her happy, and that was what mattered.  I ground up my green rock, along with bits of other slightly colorful rocks, and added them in to the basic glaze we had.  Making sure that each bowl had a marking so I could tell which was which.  Auntie was trying out a bunch of different sands, I honestly had no clue what that would do, but it wasn't like we needed these.

The results were, interesting actually.  I'd been hoping to get a pretty green glaze, but it had come out light blue instead, probably some reaction with whatever was in the local clay or ashes, I didn't know.  There were a couple of other colors in muted reds and blues.  This took us away from the normal purple into something new, but nothing truly stellar.  Small wins though, small wins would add up into big ones.

About a week later, months after getting my copper and at a time period that was seriously testing my patience I borrowed a hammer from my father, and I did what I'd wanted to for a long time.  I began to hit it.  It bent slowly on the rock I was using as an anvil as I struck it again and again.

“What are you doing?”  He finally asked.

“Trying to get it to move into a different shape,” I said.

“It won't, I've tried to knapp it before and it just crumbles.”

He was right, it wasn't a bar that could be shaped, and cold as it was the piece began to break very quickly.  When it did though I wasn't bothered, all things had been planned out already.

“Hmm, could you make me some glue?”  I asked.

He sighed, and began to sing some into the world.  I could tell by the unhappy look on his face that he was disappointed in me 'destroying' the thing I'd wanted, but I knew that in the end I would be right.  The glue was just another distraction, after it had dried I broke the piece up again, separating out the dry bits of adhesive.

“Are you happy now that you've destroyed it?'  He finally asked.

“No, maybe if I get it hot...”  This was what I'd been waiting for.

With another sigh he pointed me to the generally unused spot in the hut we sometimes had small fires in.  Safety was important.

I floated the copper dust in my hands, magically gathering it all up and forming it into a ball as I took it over.  Then I held it there, between my two open palms, and began to make heat happen.  I went slow at first, but gradually the temperature increased.

“Careful Elian,” he said, looking up from his own work.  “How hot do you need to make it?”

“Don't know, until something happens, or it burns I guess.”  I knew it wouldn't be too hot, something that could be done even in ancient fire pits, or covered mud foundries.

“Fine son, but be careful.”

To help with things I moved around my hands and made a dome to hold the head in.  It wouldn't do to have him get worried and stop me here.  Of note, there wasn't a need to use your hands when casting, at least for me, but it did seem to act like a sort of focus aid, making things just a bit easier to visualize.

Hotter and hotter the little ball of metal dust got.  There were a few worrying moments when small pockets of missed glue, or some other impurity ignited and I thought my dad would come to do something, but he was busy, and trusted me not to hurt myself with my magic.

With a bit of time, and a bit of effort, the ball began to glow, first a gentle red, then brighter into oranges and finally yellow.  It was hard to tell where exactly the point that it was all liquid came, as it seemed to happen in bits at first; a little droplet on the surface here, another there, until finally...

“Hey dad, come look,” I finally said, drawing his attention.

When he saw the glowing ball of molten metal he rushed over.  “Elian, be careful!  You don't know what will happen!  Remove your light now!”

I did as he bade me and stopped heating it, letting it cool quickly through the reds until it settled back into the color of the reddish metal.  I smiled as I finally let it drop, watching it bounce on the stone of the fire-pit for a second.

“It worked!  Look how neat it is!”  I enthused, internally I thought 'welcome to the copper age father'.

“It is still smoking,” he said angrily, unhappy that I'd let it get that hot.

“I told you I was going to get it hot...”

“Not that hot, and not inside.”

My father had never been the one to punish me before, but he took that time now.  He went for the ears, because of course they always went for the ears first.  I wasn't sure how long he roared at me about the dangers of unleashing that much magic inside the house, but eventually the other people of the hut arrived.  Mother and Auntie Atie both stood back, eyes wide as he lay into me about responsibility and utter foolishness, and how I was going to hurt myself.

When my ball of copper was fully cooled, which he checked, it was taken.  If I was going to do stupid things with it, then I apparently wasn't allowed to have it any more.  When I opened my mouth to complain that only led to another lecture and round of ear twisting.