Weekly Digest 90 - (#285 - #287) (Patreon)

Warm Weather Bead Experiments

"It's always fun seeing you do that," Rian said, a wide smile on his face as he watched the river water wash over the Iridescence beyond her demesne's borders. "A pity you don't have much reason to do it more often."

Lori allowed herself a smug smile at the compliment. The binding had been simple, a basic redirection of the force of the flowing river using waterwisps. The scale wasn't even all that big, something she could have done back when she's simply been a Whisperer, if a bit more time-consuming. And it had resulted in a substantial amount of water seemingly throwing itself out of the river and dousing the area beyond the edge of her demesne.

The colors were all washed away, revealing the true colors of the surfaces beneath them as the water receded. A lingering layer of shimmering colors, like a thing scum of oil, glinted briefly on the water before fading away. Sooner if the water somehow flowed back across the border to her demesne.

It also made the ground muddy, but she could deal with that, claiming the waterwisps in the ground and forcing the water to turn the vapor. The ground turned very chill as a result, but it wasn't anything the sunny day couldn't quickly fix. Thankfully, the sudden flood didn't disturb a beast hiding near the edge. The one that had been drinking had wandered off, and while Lori would have really liked to know where it was, they simply didn't have enough people.

"So… shouldn't we be setting up something?" Rian said.

Lori hesitated. A part of her said that with the ground cleared, it was safe to go out. There weren't any beasts hiding nearby, so she was free to start experimenting.

A part of her that still screamed at the thought of being alone in the dark near high grass told her to douse everything with water just to be sure.

Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to listen to the latter, she couldn't. Not in this instance. They needed Iridescence crystals for making beads, and if she doused everything, they'd need to walk out to where the Iridescence was still growing to scrape some off, which might put them near any hiding beasts anyway.

Taking a deep breath, Lori help up the box with her tools and glassware. "Hold this so I can get something."

Rian held up his plank to serve as a tray, and Lori set the box down. She undid the clasps, half-ready to grab hold of the box in case Rian's hands faltered in their hold. From the box, she pulled out a clear glass specimen bowl, and some metal tweezers. A rectangular bowl made from bone, with a bottom made from an ingot of copper.

Lori looked around, then held out the bowls to Riz, who let go of her spear, letting it drop down to be cradled in the crook of one arm with a practiced movement. The militiawoman carefully took the bowls in hand, and Lori put the tweezers in the bone bowl. Then she closed the box and clasped it shut again, then carefully put the box back in the boat next to her wand. She wasn't sure if she'd need her wand for anything, but if they did anything with open flame, she would be more comfortable sticking that into the fire than her staff.

She took the bowls from Riz and handed them to Rian. "All right," Lori said, pointing to where the colors still clung on past the area she had washed. "Go out there and check for beasts for about five paces. I'll be right here to kill if you find any. "

"Yes, Great Binder," Riz said. Then she bent over, pickup up some rocks off the ground, and stared throwing them into the still-glittering brush.

… well, that was a way to do it, she supposed.

Still, Lori gathered the water she needed for a water cutter. It occurred to her that while she'd used water cutters after she'd made her core, she hadn't really practiced putting the power of a Dungeon Binder behind them. Normally, water cutters were constrained by factors like air resistance and gravity. It was a projectile on a predictable parabolic arc, after all. Waterwisps were used to keep the stream from coming apart, but there were always tradeoffs, especially if one was doing it quickly. Put too much imbuement into the waterwisps that would squeeze and send the stream flying, and there wouldn't be enough to keep the stream coherent, causing it to break apart into uselessness mid-flight. Make it too coherent, and range could suffer. But as a Dungeon Binder, she had the power for both…

Well, something to experiment with later. Right now, she used the water utter she was familiar with, since it was a binding she was reliable.

She held her staff up to aim, an unnaturally viscous glob of water on one end ready to send out and cut as Riz and her friend threw rocks. They listened as they did so, and Lori realized it was to hear what their rocks landed on. She tried to listen as well, but it was hard for her to distinguish anything with the river flowing nearby. Riz and her friend seemed to not have that problem, however. When they stopped throwing rocks, they walked boldly into the grass, their spears before them as they double checked.

"It's clear, Great Binder!" Riz called out. "You can come out now."

Lori didn't lower her staff as she hesitantly stepped up to where she knew the edge ot be, even though the line had been washed away. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through. Cold slammed into her, and Lori shivered as the pleasant, comfortable warmth that had been surrounding her was pushed away by the cool spring weather. It took her a few moments to adjust. It wasn't really that cold, but the sudden change was uncomfortable. Why did she keep forgetting this happened?

"You forgot it would be cold again, didn't you?" Rian said, his face innocent.

"Of course not," Lori said. "Come on, we have work to do." She handed him the glass bowl. "Go collect Iridescence."

"Yes, your Bindership. Going to get the disturbing colorful substance!"

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It didn't take long for Rian to find some large growths of Iridescence growing not far away. As long as they were undisturbed, the colors would keep growing indefinitely, and Rian had apparently found some places sufficiently sheltered from wind and rain for that to happen. There were several shards on the bowl, each about half the size of her smallest finger.

"Iridescence specimen is two and a hand yustri long, and about a yustri wide," she dictated to Rian. "Exact dimensions are difficult to quantify due to nature of Iridescence growth. Moving sample to container to begin process."

Lori carefully picked up one specimen and placed it on the bone bowl with the copper bottom. After today, she'd probably finally get around to making something specifically designed for bead making. For now…

Keeping the bowl well away from the border of her demesne, and telling herself she was only imaging the feeling or Iridescence starting to grow all over her, Lori reached into her demesne with her other hand. The heavily imbued binding composed of multiple types of wisps that she'd prepared beforehand anchored to the earthwisps in her nails, and she reached through her bones to claim the binding properly, not simply though her connection to her core. Only then did she pull the binding out, and carefully moved it towards the bone bowl.

Tilting the bowl to cause the Iridescence to slide down to one end, she anchored the binding to the bone at the opposite end. Then she took the metal tweezers and used that as a conduit to keep in contact with the binding. Taking a deep breath, Lori tilted the bowl the other way, causing the Iridescence to slide down and touch the binding. Well, touch it after Lori budged it into place with the tweezers.

She claimed the binding again—the contact with the Iridescence was already slowly pulling the wisps and imbuement towards the shard—taking direct control of it and bound the shard of Iridesence. As she expected, her whole binding was violently drawn into the shard, which began to grow. In a few moments, there was a cloudy white bead rattling in the bowl.

"Growth rate is noticeably faster," Lori dictated. "Likely from the increase in temperature. Iridescence growth known to accelerate with heat. Phenomenon is likely related."

"We can test that," Rian said. "You can make a block of ice, chill one of the Iridescence crystals, then do… whatever the thing you do is. Possibly do it in cold air too, to remove environmental temperature as a factor. "

Lori tilted her head, then nodded. She put the bead into her belt pouch, then reached through her connection to her core. Next to the boat, a block of ice formed as she used waterwisps to solidify water, decreasing the heat from the expunged firewisps so there weren't any unfortunate explosions.

Rian looked towards the block of ice. "You'll have to reshape that," he said. "And I'll find some branches we can sue as handles. If it's as cold as you like to make your ice, our fingertips are going to peel off."

"…yes, go do that."

Lori shaped the block of ice while Rian went to find some suitable branches. She'd need space to stick her hand in, after all. When her lord came with some long branches, she directed him to put it to the sides of the block, altering the solidified water's shape to surround the branches so they could be used to lift the block up. Which they did, lifting the block of ice beyond her demesne's borders. She got another glass bowl from her box and placed several Iridescence crystals in it to chill.

The glass bowl was being place in the space she had made to chill it when Rian suddenly said, "Wait! Is there water in that?"

Lori looked up at him. "Of course there's no water, Rian. If there was the colors would be dissolving."

"No, not that," Rian said, waving a hand dismissively. "I mean inside that space. When it gets cold, the water vapor in the air is going to congeal, and that might dissolve the crystals if a puff of warm air blows over it."

Rainbows.

The experiment was delayed as she made sure to isolate the experimental space, which involved carrying the block of solidified water back into her demesne so she could put a binding of waterwisps in place to block off vaporous water from entering the cooling space. Then she had to remove the Iridescence from the bowl so she could bring that back into her demesne too so she could surround that with the same binding, which she had to anchor to a rock that she put in the bowl since she couldn't anchor wisps onto the glass.

The binding in question started deteriorating since the Iridescence had to go right up against the rock that was the anchor, but that was fine. She'd be removing the crystal she'd use in her test anyway, so a little miniscule growth shouldn't be a problem. They'd probably have to make a note of it though.

While they waited for the iridescence to cool, they made more beads with warm Iridescence. This time they actually counted how long it took. They didn't have a time piece, but Rian put fingers to his wrist and counted his heartbeat. It wasn't a perfect replacement, but he took several deep breaths to calm down to keep his heartbeat from increasing erratically in the middle of the process. For Lori, it still seemed like the beads grew faster than they had in winter.

This was confirmed when they pulled out the Iridescence they had cooled—Lori had to use the wire tongs in her box—and used those to make beads. According to Rian's heartbeats, it took a four times as many more heartbeats for the beads to form to a similar size, which was far longer than it had taken during the winter.

"So temperature definitely has an effect," Rian said, writing it down. "Interesting. Should we try warming the Iridescence and seeing how quickly it forms, then?"

Lori twitched. While it was a perfectly logical suggestion… she couldn't think of a way of doing it that wouldn't result in disaster. Usually the method of warming something slowly was to immerse it in water and start warming that water. That wasn't possible with the colors, and putting it to open flame… No. At best, they could lay it on a metal pan over a small flame, but that still felt extremely dangerous.

"Let us set that aside for later," she said. "For now, go and gather more Iridescence. Let's make beads…"

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To be Pleasantly Surprised

They did manage to try using warm Iridescence to make beads by laying it out in the sun and using lightwisps to concentrate the heat of the sunlight to warm the sample. This this meant they didn't need to risk moving it close to open flame or putting imbued firewisps near it that could potentially be drawn to the Iridescence. She was able to set it up some distance away, and when it didn't explode violently, she sent Rian to retrieve it. When he returned with the sample held in a glass bowl, there were new growths visible on its surface, as if someone had sprinkled salt on it that had stuck. It was warm enough that she could feel it by putting her hand near it.

Using it to make a bead was faster than the other crystals, taking only three-quarters as many heartbeats.

"So, by the results so far, it would form even faster if we got it hotter," Rian said as he noted the results. "Should we try?"

Lori shook her head. "No. Perhaps when we initiate mass production, but at the moment, the growth rate of the initial environmental temperature is sufficient for my purposes."

Rian nodded. "So… did you bring any of the white stuff?" he said, grinning widely. "Because all the way out here is probably the safest place for doing the fire tests."

"No," she said, and Rian visibly slumped, a theatrically comical expression of disappointment on his face. He straightened silently, eyeing the beads that had been made. "No, I'm not breaking one open."

"Why not?" He actually whined and pouted. "Surely it's an important experiment that needs to be conducted? W-what if it results in more of the white crystals growing?"

"Doubtful. The white does not show any auto-crystallization tendencies."

"We should confirm and make sure…?"

"Rian, this is bordering on actually pathetic instead of merely theatrically pathetic."

"Dignity is for people not secure enough in being themselves to be themselves!"

"Rian?"

"Yes, your Bindership?"

"Be quiet about the fire experiments and go back to taking notes."

He sighed. "Yes, your Bindership."

They didn't have to stay through lunch, as the day grew very hot even with Lori's hat, so she decided to cut their stay short. She had managed to make a sizable number of beads anyway, such that she had to make a container from a rock since she had forgotten to bring along something to carry the beads in, and there was too much metal in her box to put them there without potential seepage. She should have remembered to bring one properly, ugh!

The trip back was more crowded, since cut ropeweed was stacked on the boat. Fortunately, they were heading downriver, so the added mass wasn't that much of a problem, but their speed was still reduced. Lori also had to use bindings of waterwisps to slow down the boat, lest they drift past the docks because Rian had been unused to steering Lori's Boat when it was loaded so heavily.

Once they were docked, Rian saw to the boat being unloaded, and spoke to… whoever operated Lori's Ice Boat to start bringing people upriver to gather more of the ropeweed near the edge, while Lori put away the beads in the container she stored them in. She'd need to make far more soon, possibly begin true mass production. That meant it was time for her to finally have the smiths make her tools specifically for bead making.

She'd need to tell Rian to do that once she figured out the best shape of the tools she needed.

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"So, do you need me to take notes for anything this afternoon?" Rian asked as they ate lunch.

Lori considered that. She will admit, if only to herself—the only one to whom such an admission mattered—that she hadn't really thought this through very extensively. On consideration, however, she might as well continue on with experimenting with white Iridescence and have Rian take notes. Though they'd have to find a sufficiently isolated location for seeing what happened when the substance was thrown directly into fire.

And so she nodded decisively. "Yes, we'll be doing experiments in the alcove after lunch."

"And—?"

"Yes, we'll set some on fire." The words were supposed to come out irritated but became a tired sigh instead. "Outside, on the river, where it's safe."

Rian grinned widely. "So… I think you need a shed for you to work in at the edge," he said. "That way, you'd be safer from beasts, and you can keep working if it rains, which it still will."

Lori frowned. She had no real objection to that—it was for her safety after all—but given the location, building such a shed would be difficult. "I have no real objection to that, but given the location, building such a shed would be difficult. Bringing the wood upriver will be difficult, and building it will take time."

"Not if youbuild it," Rian said.

"It's outside my demesne. Building there will be like building in River's Fork." She paused. "Admittedly, perhaps slightly less agonizing, since I can literally step back into my demesne at any time…"

"Actually, I was thinking that maybe you can building the shed inside the demesne, and we can push it out over the edge. That way, you can build it with the convenience of your full capabilities."

Lori blinked, then tilted her head thoughtfully. "That… I suppose I could do that. But building material will still need to be moved there, unless I draw from the bedrock."

"Not if you make it out of ice," Rian said brightly.

Lori stared at him. She shouldn't have been surprised he'd think of something like that, but she was. "I shouldn't be surprised you'd think of something like that, but I am," she said.

"I point out you thought of using ice to roof the back of the bathhouses all by yourself. This will be the same, and like the back of the bathhouse, it won't need reinforcement like the boats do because no one will be putting any weight on the outside. And since it will be clear, you'll have plenty of light to work with."

"It will have to be constantly imbued, though" Lori said. "Which I'd have to do personally, since it would be outside my demesne."

"Ah, but it's a building," Rian said. "There's no reason a little bit of it can't be inside the demesne so you can imbue it, right?"

That… well… "I'd still rather not have one more thing I have to add to the list of things I need to imbue."

"Ah. Well, it can understand that. If only we have a way to keep things imbued without you having to really bother with it. Perhaps something that will be produced in large quantities…"

"…"

Lori considered that. "Tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't want to go back there today."

"Completely understandable. Hopefully it won't be raining."

"In the meantime, after lunch have the smiths draw me a quarter ingot's worth of wire."

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After lunch, as Rian was getting her wire made, Lori got her box of equipment, a long-unused wooden mold from her room, the leather sheet she used to make stone tablets, and one of the bone tablets she had started making, and took them down to the alcove she had claimed and sealed off in the second level. Then she went outside to gather some bones from the bone pit. Claiming and binding the earthwisps in the bones, she made a large jar by fusing together the bones and flattening them out into a sheet, using the leather to smooth the surface and get rid of any bumps.

She then wrapped the bone sheet around the mold for the ice furnaces she used to smelt the copper last winter. It didn't go as smoothly as with the furnace, since bone was not completely frictionless, but she managed to get the mold out. The resulting vessel was a little small, so she stacked two such bone cylinders on top of each other and fused them together, making a taller vessel that she was satisfied with… that she had to cut in half again when Rian came back from his errand and pointed out its height made it more likely to fall over on the boat ride back, potentially spilling beads everywhere.

"Maybe you can have Gunvi make it for you?" Rian said as an annoyed Lori finished separating the bone vessel again. Well, two little bone buckets were good containers, she'd just have to add on some handles. "Give him some softened… bone… that he can slap down on his potter's wheel to shape and when he's done you can harden it? It probably won't turn like wet clay would, but he'd still have more experience than you do on the matter."

Lori considered that and sighed. "Fine. Speak to him about it later. In the meantime, use this to write. I don't have time to transcribe your plank right now."

Rian blinked, hastily putting down his blank and charred stick so he could take the tablet made from bone that she handed him. "Wait, won't this bre—hey, this is really light!" He hefted it in his hands. "Feels familiar, though. Like… wait, is this bone too?" A strange expression came on his face as he hefted it again. "Huh, I wonder why you didn't think of doing this sooner. Well, I'm not really one to talk, I didn't think of this either…"

"Does it write?" Lori asked, opening the box with her tool and taking out a glass bowl and a little ceramic spoon.

Rian hummed, and picked up his charred stick. Holding it, he carefully rubbed the blackened end on one corner. "Yeah, it writes. Ready to take what notes you need taking, your Bindership."

Lori nodded as she began spooning some of the white iridescence from within the broken open large bead. "All right then," she said. Best to get this out of the way so he'd stop bothering her about it. A part of Lori wasmorbidly curious as to what would result, anyway. "Do we have anything we can heat this in? I'm not risking one of my glass bowls."

"I thought the experiment was putting it into direct flame?" Rian said. "It's probably been exposed to enough extreme heat when we did the evaporation tests, and that didn't do anything."

Lori frowned. "We can't just make a fire and throw it in. At the very least, the fire needs to be in a vessel so we can easily recover the sample."

"I'll be honest, I'm sort of expecting the white Iridescence to act like a concentrated fuel, and doubt we'll recover anything, but I see your point. Maybe you can make a bowl out of ice?"

"Is 'made out of ice' the only solution you can come up with anymore?"

"No, but it's a surprisingly versatile answer when you use it."

"No. I don't want a nearby binding that might potentially skew the results."

Rian hummed thoughtfully. "Well… we can take one of the clay ration jars and you can reshape it with Whispering. The baked clay should be resilient enough to not crack from the heat of a fire, and it won't need magic to hold its shape. I'll just tell Gunvi to make one to replace it."

Lori considered that as she slid the white crystals into an empty glass bottle carefully, taking care to not let any fall. "Do that, then," she said as she stoppered the bottle. So many things she needed made, and she wasn't if she'd be using them more than once.

Rian nodded, but didn't go to retrieve the jar just yet. "What else will we need?" he said, picking up his new tablet and starting to write down what seemed like a list.

She eyed him, but she supposed doing a full inventory of what they needed before he left was only prudent. "Firewood," she said. "For the open flames you want."

He was nodding before he stopped mid-gesture. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we didn't check if the white Iridescence is affected by steam, right? I don't thinkwe did, but I haven't finished going back through the notes yet."

Lori shook her head slowly. "No… we did no experiments involving exposing the white Iridescence to steam, but given how it interacted with evaporating water, I doubt will be affected by steam. Why?"

"Well… firewood contains a minute amount of moisture, so its smoke contains a little steam. If we want to remove that factor, we should use some of the charcoal. The production process removes the moisture out of them, so…"

Lori frowned. "Where do we keep the charcoal?"

"Back of the firewood shed, though it's mostly the smiths who've been using it. Mostly people mix it in with their firewood so that they'll have something to banked in the ashes," Rian said promptly.

She grunted. "Get both then. We'll do the experiment twice."

Rian grinned. "Really?"

"Don't make me repeat myself. Anything else?"

"Uh, vessel, fuel, ignition will probably be you… that should be everything, I think. Though we should probably mention what you expect to happen for the sake of completeness, and why."

"I expect it to explode," Lori said. "After all, that's what happens with Iridescence."

"This isn't iridescence, though…"

"Then perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised."

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Pleasantly Surprised, But Slightly Disappointed

Lori ruined a perfectly serviceable jar by softening the earthwisps comprising its sides, and then slowly spreading out the material to make a vaguely bowl-shaped… thing. It was lopsided, but serviceable, and when stood on the base—the only part she hadn't touched—it was stable and didn't wobble… much.

Rian, for his part, went to gather fuel, returning with a basket filled with both firewood and some charcoal. "So, where are we doing this?" he asked cheerfully. To Lori's ear, it sounded like a perfectly natural cheer, rather than an annoying cheer, and therefore far less irritating.

"You've obviously been eager to do this," Lori said flatly. "I'm sure you have some ideas."

"Other side of the river," Rian said immediately. "Well away from anything important, and if it does explode, the river is nearby to douse any fires. Probably best if we do it in a shallow pit, so that any explosion is directed upward, and less chance that any debris flies towards us." He thought for a moment. "I should probably get a shovel, so I can clear out any soil we don't want to turn into rock."

With everything in hand, they loaded all the equipment aboard Lori's Boat. Riz still followed after them, mostly to make sure they weren't bothered by chokers or anything else growing wild on the other side. Lori thought she'd probably have heard if there was a large beast roaming the other side—at the very least Rian would probably have told her—so another guard probably wouldn't be necessary. There were still no clouds threatening rain, which was fortunate

On the other side of the river from the docks, a pile of cut ropeweed was stacked, waiting to be taken across. Since they'd begun harvesting this side late in the year, there was still plenty of ropeweed to harvest. Rian waved at those who looked at them, but fortunately he didn't stop to talk. Instead, he led the way towards a rocky part of the shore. "Here should be good," he said. "If you reshape the rocks a little, I don't have to dig, we'd have a decent recess to set the fire in, and we can be well back once the fire's lit and we've added in the white stuff."

Lori didn't really have a preference—she was mainly doing this experiment out of morbid curiosity—so she simply shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. "Fine, then," she said. "Get me more rocks."

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As it turned out, white Iridescence thrown into open flame didn't explode. It didn't even burn.

"Are we doing something wrong?" Rian asked. He looked almost betrayed as he glared at the latest fire, this one fueled by pieces of charcoal that had been ignited by wood shavings and tinder. "The color of the flame isn't even changing! Are we sure that it's in the fire?"

"You were the one who carved out the piece of charcoal and put the white Iridescence in it," Lori said. "Unless you were careless with placing the charcoal, it should still be there. After this many iterations, I can only conclude that white Iridescence neither ignites nor reacts to direct heat."

"Or the temperatures needed for it to react are far higher," Rian mused.

"Rian."

"Yes, your Bindership?"

"You're not taking note. Take notes."

"Ah, right, sorry, sorry." He began to write. "So… what does this mean, exactly?"

"White Iridescence is clearly an inert substance," Lori mused as a Riz based back and forth behind the two of them, either watchful and vigilant for chokers or bored out of her mind and restless.

"Inert to heat," Rian corrected, "and only up to… well, however hot our fire is. We haven't put it in a vitriolic substance that's doesn't contain water." He paused, his writing pausing for a moment. "Though I'll admit, off the top of my head I can't think of a vitriolic substance that does not, in fact, contain water."

Lori tilted her head as she tried to remember. It had been so long… "I think a substance only becomes vitriolic or caustic after interaction with water."

Rian sighed. "So, absolutely no point doing those tests, since it will just dissolve into the water…?" He frowned. "Or would the White Iridescence be mixed into whatever the dissolved substance was when all the water is evaporated?"

"I see no reason to test that at the moment," Lori said. She had reached the edge here, and wasn't willing to go beyond into the colors. "And unless you can think of a good reason to try, you will leave the subject alone."

Rian began to stroke his chin, looking thoughtful. Eventually, he said, "All right, maybe there's no reason to try to find out if White Iridescence is inert to a vitriolic substance with no water in it, but just because we can't think of anything doesn't mean some can't. But yes, I suppose in this instance we don't have to go that far. And hey, we found out we don't have to worry about fire damaging our product! That's something, right?"

Lori supposed that as one way of looking at the results.

They'd placed the white Iridescence in firewood that smoked and, according to Rian, was releasing some still from residual moisture, and in nearly-smokeless charcoal fire. They'd put the substance right next to open flame, and on portions that were actively on fire, and in all instances, the white Iridescence had simply lain there. The shards had gotten hot, which Rian had found out when he'd touched one of the samples after pulling it out of the fire. but beyond that the samples hadn't reacted. No change in color—after they'd gotten the ashes off—no noticeable change in shape that implied deformation, no strange smells coming up with the smoke, and contrary to Rian's hopes, no energetic combustion or violent explosion. There hadn't even been a little pop or sizzle.

It was honestly an anti-climactic result. "Honestly, it's an anti-climactic result," she said. "While I did not wish it to explode the way you did, such an outcome would have been understandable and usable in a conventional way. This lack of result, while intellectually interesting, does not bring to mind any further avenues of experimentation and inquiry."

"I was notwishing it would explode," Rian said with theatrical offended innocence. "I simply thought it would because that seemed like the logical result. Iridescence explodes, after all, so it's only logical to assume this does too."

Lori rolled her eyes. "Well, come on, get the bowl and the last sample so we can get back to working in the alcove."

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In the alcove on the third level, Lori set aside the samples that had been fire-exposed. While they had no visible differences, it would probably be best to set them aside for any further experiments, in case something had still changed that wouldn't be obvious unless they were used for something else. She couldn't conceive what that could be, but best not to risk it…

For a moment, she just sat on one of the benches on one side of the alcove and stared at what was laid out before her. At the large bead that had its semi-transparent shell with its bizarrely directional properties cracked open, revealing the cloudy white insides; the small collection of stone containers in one of the niches, filled with the white Iridescence they'd previously extracted for experimentation, set aside so they wouldn't get mixed in with the source sample; and the box with her glassware and equipment. To one side, Rian sat quietly, the bone tablet balanced on his knees, charred stick in hand and ready to write. Lori half-expected him to pester her with suggestions for things they could test, but he remained silent.

Eventually, Lori stood up and reached for the stone container on which had been inscribed the words 'anchor sample 1', and checked if there were any wisps still anchored to it through her connection to her core. Carefully, she shook the contained white Iridescence, simply watching as the pieces moved. They didn't clump, since clumping was a reaction with moisture, but the different sizes of the pieces meant they didn't all move the same way.

Lori reached into her equipment box, and drew out her metal tweezers. Instead of using them to pick up a piece, she hung it from the side of the container so that one tine was touching the samples. Drawing lightwisps out of the air, she made a simple binding that emitted light and anchored it to the white Iridescence in the container, making sure the binding was contacting the tweezers.

A glow began to emanate from the container.

"Um, is that something I should take a note of?" Rian asked.

Yes, she supposed she should… "Affirming previous findings," Lori said. "Wisps anchor onto white Iridescence, and remain anchored after the imbuement is consumed, as well as retaining the binding." She hadn't put a lot of imbuement in it, but it would still be a few moments before the binding stopped glowing. Lori got to her feet. "I have to go get something. Stay here and make sure no one enters to alcove. Do not disturb the sample."

"Yes, your Bindership!"

By the time Lori came back from her room with a handful of the beads she had made this morning, the lightwisps were no longer imbued, and the container of samples appeared empty. She nodded. "Note: the imbuement has run out, but as per previous results, the lightwisps remain anchored, and the binding remains intact. This despite the lack of imbuement." Reaching back into the equipment box, she drew out a pair of springy metal tongs with curved grippers meant for lifting certain kinds of hot glassware. Pushing the tongs open, she reached down to clamp one of the beads she had with her—

Lori paused, then looked at the tongs in her hands. At distinctive copper sheen, darkening slightly in some spots with patina. "side note," she said. "Inquire with the smiths if they know how to make springs using copper, and what other metals and equipment they might need to do so."

Rian blinked, and also stared at the tongs in her hand. "Huh. I should have thought of that. Making a note of it, your Bindership. The smiths probably know, they just haven't brought it up because it wasn't relevant or needed for anything."

He was probably correct about that. Lori couldn't think of a use for springs made from copper off the top of her head at the moment, but knowing it was a possibilitywould be useful for the future. "Continue the notes. The test setup is arranged as follows: a stone container filled with white Iridescence. Anchored to the white Iridescence are lightwisps in a binding that is meant to radiate light. The binding contains no imbuement but persists because of being anchored to the white Iridescence. A pair of metal tweezers hangs on the side of the container. One tine is intersecting the binding of lightwisps.

Lori paused a moment to allow Rian to finish writing, then continued when he nodded. "Further equipment is as follows: a pair of copper spring glassware tongs and a wispbead, undenominated. The bead is gripped in the tongs, directly contacting the metal to allow for seepage." She opened the tongs and clasped the bead in the curved grippers as she spoke.

"Observational note," Rian interrupted, still writing. "Seepage is probably currently happening, because you're holding the tongs and you're surrounded by some kind of warmth binding you keep forgetting about."

Lori blinked, then blinked again as she realized Rian was right. She hastily put down the tongs that gripped the bead. She glared at her lord, who gave her an innocent look of the borderline-annoying kind. "Get over here and pick these up," she said. "Give me that tablet."

Rian put the charred stick on the tablet and held it out to her. Lori took it carefully, but the charred stick still rolled off. Sighing, she put the tablet on her lap as Rian bent down and handed her the stick. Taking it in hand, she ignored the way it smudged her fingers as she held it like a pen or stylus, ready to write. "All right," she said, "pick up the tongs—don't let the bead fall out!—and carefully touch the metal of the tongs to the tweezers hanging on the side of the container."

Her lord nodded, picking the tongs up by the grippers and the bead—which was actually a good idea. Lori wished she'd thought of it—and carefully moving it until the coiling spring at the fulcrum of the tongs made contact with the tine of the tweezers that hung from the outside of the container.

Light suddenly glowed from the container of white Iridescence.

Lori nodded, making a note of it. "Remove the tongs from the tweezers."

Rian complied. The light vanished immediately.

"Contact them again."

Light.

Lori nodded. "Rudimentary bound tool constructed."