warm front

[cumulonimbus]

After Mathilde has left (and Stormy has her schedule for the next few days all written down), Stormy goes aprowl through the house again to make sure she's clear on the layout and see if anybody else wants to talk to her while she is still novel.

Comments

[allthebrightest]

Some time later, Niva comes back from wherever she was. She still smells like hot metal, which is an indication of what she might have been doing. She flops tiredly into a chair at the kitchen table.

[cumulonimbus]

"Hi, Niva. Mercy said I should ask you what braided wire's good for."

[allthebrightest]

"Not that much," she says. "But the spell that wards off pirates from Winding Circle is a wire net with bits of mirror, buried outside the walls. When the mages bring the spells up, anyone who walks over them falls over dreaming. I don't know how to build that spell, but Spruce had me help repair a little bit of it once. I bet you could put spells in braided wire the way there's spells in that net, but I don't know how yet."

[cumulonimbus]

"That's an interesting spell. Who does magic with mirrors?"

[allthebrightest]

"Well, mirrors are made of metal or metal and glass, so somebody who has magic with either of those, I guess. Or academic mages. I think they use mirrors a lot."

[cumulonimbus]

Stormy nods. "I'm trying to think of what it might be interesting to pick up in between all the learning about the sky and how to do magic with it, because if I don't do anything else at all I will get sick of it possibly. Any ideas?"

[allthebrightest]

"You probably don't wanna come to the forges with me. Sometimes I talk about mathematics with Elyth, but you probably don't wanna do that either... I dunno!" she says. "It's hard to think of things. Mostly I just learn stuff about my magic and whatever else I happen to pick up hanging out with people who're learning different things."

[cumulonimbus]

"Why don't I want to come to the forges?"

[allthebrightest]

"It's hard work and it's kind of uncomfortable and it's a little dangerous. I think it's the sort of thing you don't do unless you really love it. I really love it, and Spruce really loves it, and she says she's met people without smith-magic who really loved it too and I believe her... but I still don't think you'd like it. I mean, I could be wrong. But that's what I think."

[cumulonimbus]

"Why do you really love it, then?"

[allthebrightest]

"I just do. It's fun. I like making stuff, and I have magic with it. And I get to play with cool things. Did you know they're discovering a new metal? Nobody's sure what to call it yet. You need a smith-mage to get it out of the ore, so it's really rare. Spruce has been teaching me all about it. It's as strong as steel but half as heavy, and it's so finicky about how you work it. But it likes me," she says smugly. "All metal likes me."

[cumulonimbus]

"Metal can like people?"

[allthebrightest]

"Yeah! I mean, not the way people like people. But different kinds have different personalities. Gold's really friendly, it likes practically everybody. Iron plays favourites. Copper takes a while to get to know you sometimes, but it likes most people after that. And this new stuff is finicky, like I said."

[cumulonimbus]

"Can one amount of copper get to know you for all the other copper that there is or do projects in copper start out hard and then get easy every time?"

[allthebrightest]

"Sort of in between those. I think it has to do with where it was mined. I get along fine with Gold Ridge copper, but we got some in once from a different mine and it seemed like it didn't know me as well."

[cumulonimbus]

"Huh. That's funny. What does it do differently when it likes you?"

[allthebrightest]

"I dunno, it's just... friendlier. It feels different. And it's easier to work with, I just don't know if I can say any specific ways."

[cumulonimbus]

"What makes the picky ones like people or not?"

[allthebrightest]

"If any of them ever didn't like me, maybe I'd know!"

[cumulonimbus]

Stormy giggles.

[allthebrightest]

Niva grins.

[cumulonimbus]

"So I probably don't want to go to the forge. But braiding wire that's already wire probably doesn't take being in the forge, if stuff like that comes up and I'm bored."

[allthebrightest]

"Yeah."

[cumulonimbus]

"What did you work on today?"

[allthebrightest]

"The new stuff, mostly."