Chapter 18 – Hobbies

  “It’s strange since nobody batts an eye at a retionship between races but as soon as there is a mixed child, they bear the burden of this social stigma that is the ‘half breed’. Course that’s all been changing over time, but you still have some ancient beings off in the wings that harp on about it.” – Dwarf talking to CIA operative about paranormal culture.

  Kurt and Val stood looking at the pile of split logs that had been stacked as high as Val could reach. It had been a long few hours, but they had managed to get through another pile of trees and were starting to look pretty good for the upcoming winter.

  He had just finished backing in the now empty trailer and Val watched on. “How did you get so good at that?” She asked. She had been impressed by his ability to seemingly predict exactly where it would end up.

  “A lot of dents and apologies mostly.” He said while unhooking the trailer from his car. “It just takes practice and even with that, every trailer is different from where the wheels are and how long the tongue is.”

  At one point while they were working, a familiar truck came up the driveway and picked up the storage container. They were in and out in less than 5 minutes with only a wave out the window as they drove away. Val said the delivery teams were always pretty fast and didn’t hang around much.

  They went back inside, ready to be done with outdoor chores for the day. Val moved her stuff into Kurt’s room, needing a little help with the dresser. They also made some tentative pns to make a more permanent ‘guest room’ and get a bigger bed for Kurt.

  After lunch it was down to the workshop for both of them. Val collected their still dirty clothes or, hers at least since Kurt’s were unsalvageable. While she went off to handle that, Kurt pulled out the guns they had used on their rift dive. They had been heavily used and needed to be cleaned.

  Expecting the worst, Kurt cracked open the rifle Val had been using. He was a little surprised at how little carbon was built up but then remembered his silencers didn’t exactly work like silencers in terms of back pressure. Regardless, he dropped the bolt from both the 5.56 guns and his Creedmoor into the ultrasonic cleaner and ran it for 15 minutes.  While that was running, he began cleaning the upper receivers on the remaining guns and was about to put on gloves when he had an idea.

  Kurt began forming a spell construct for a cleaning spell. Outer circle, ft horizontal line with a 4-pointed star shape above it. Then he shrunk it down and touched the upper receiver for the gun he mostly used. A white glow enveloped the parts, spreading across the surface at a rapid pace.

  A moment ter, the glow faded, revealing the now pristine upper receiver group. “Huh, wonder why I never tried that before.” Kurt said to himself as he inspected the work while trying to ignore the crawling sensation along his spine.

  “Do what?” Val said as she came back into the room and came to stand next to him at the work bench.

  “Oh, I just used my cleaning spell on this instead of doing all the other stuff I normally did.” Kurt said as he held the parts up to her. “It worked out better than expected.”

  Val looked at the parts in her hand, turning them every which way and even sticking her pinky in the star chamber. Her finger came out perfectly clean and she made an appreciative hum as she considered it.

  Then her eyes widened as she got to the muzzle where the ‘silencer’ was located. “Think you could enchant it to be self-cleaning? Think about it, never have to worry about fouling taking out your guns.”

  Kurt was about to answer in the negative but paused and considered a little longer. He looked at the other receivers sitting on his bench, trying to figure out if it was possible. It took a few minutes, but he finally gave an answer.

  “I might be able to, but I would have to tinker with it. It couldn’t be a normal self-clean enchantment and would have to be modified a little.” He said.

  Val tilted her head again. “Why modify it?”

  Kurt reached up to a cabinet on the back wall of the work bench. He pulled out a bottle of gun oil and held it up. “I would have to make it only take away the residue of the burnt powder and other debris but leave the oil. If it takes the oil, then it might cause other problems like excess wear.”

  Nodding along, Val could see that being a major issue, especially on automatic weapons. She watched as he pulled out the parts from the cleaner and then cast the spell on everything, making it absolutely pristine.

  He drummed his fingers on the benchtop, contempting for a while before he turned to Val with a smile. “You might have given me a bunch of ideas on how to enchant things. Runes in particur don’t have to be full spells, they can be fragments that eliminate or produce certain aspects.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Unscrewing one of the silencers, Kurt expined. “This has the spell construct ‘zone of silence’ in an enchantment on it. It generates that spell when certain parameters are met, in this case when the gun fires. But an efficiency rune is etched on all my sor panels and batteries. That rune doesn’t do anything other than make things work better. The effect is greatly reduced but they are simple and long-term items that rarely need any maintenance.”

  Val reached out and tapped one of the rifles. “So, you think you can put it on these?”

  “It’s worth a shot.” Kurt said with a shrug as he pulled out a bin of cleaning supplies. “I think it would be like when I created foci for casting.”

  “Wait, you created magical foci? Like the wands and rings and stuff?” Val was very impressed at the revetion.

  Getting a rag and a bore snake, Kurt oiled up everything that needed it before reassembling the guns and putting them back in lockers. Val noted that he was precise and methodical in how everything was stored and organized.

  “Yeah, I can make one for you too. We just need to visit a jeweler or something so I can get the proper materials. I also prefer using a ready to go item rather than trying to make it from scratch. They work but never look good.” He said and started grabbing things from another locker.

  When Kurt returned, it was with a few separate guns that he pced neatly on the bench, sliding the rgest of them to the center. He then grabbed the box of parts they had picked up the day before, opening it and pulling out the parts inside. As he unwrapped everything, he began to expin.

  “This is a little project I found interesting and have been tinkering with it for a while now.” He unveiled a barrel and some magazines. “I wanted to convert a ten-mil gun to fire a seven-five FK which is a hot little bottleneck round. Problem was the seven-five pistols can shoot ten mil with a new barrel but not the other way since the seven-five is longer overall.”

  “So, I had some magazines stamped by a local and then the guys over at Hamlets made a barrel for me. So, it ‘should’ all fit.” He began disassembling the gun on the table. “It’s a concept that was referred to as a micro rifle. Lots of performance out of a shorter package.”

  Val watched as he took the gun apart and then put it back together with the new parts and set it aside. He then picked up the next gun, which looked like a rge pistol to her.

  “So, I found this neat little caliber a while back, the Swedish military had a contract at one point, but the company never exported any in rge numbers. It is called six point five by twenty-five CBJ, pretty much their answer to the PDW problem. Instead of making a new gun, they made their guns a new caliber and can change when needed.”

  “One of the contracts was for this little thing.” Kurt pointed to the oversized pistol. “It’s a little nine mil called the TP9 made by B&T out of Switzernd or something.” Kurt had finished unwrapping the parts and id them out. He then picked up the TP9 and started taking it apart, setting the pieces in a small tray just like the first one.

  After he put it back together, Kurt moved on to do the handgun on the table, changing its barrel and recoil spring. After putting them all back together, he took a bit of red tape and put it on the grips of all four guns. Then he took out a red paint pen and put it on the slides or receivers of all the guns.

  “Paint and tape to keep them from getting mixed in with other stuff.” Kurt said and put them all away. “We can try them out ter, right now I say we go and get you something to turn into a nice bit of enchanted jewelry.”

  They drove into town and went to a jewelry store but quickly backed out after seeing the prices on the simple bracelets. The next stop was a pawn shop where they found a suitable bracelet of silver that Kurt would be able to modify for size with the enchantment he pnned to use.

  They returned to the house but had to wait for the garbage pick up to empty the cans before they could go up the drive. Kurt ignored the look he got from the driver of the truck as they passed. It was likely because he was the only person on this stretch of road, so they had to make a special trip.

  Back in the workshop, Kurt got out his grimoire for enchanting and some of his tools. Then he pulled out a small vice with padded jaws that he used to secure the bracelet in pce. After securing everything he pulled over a rge, bench mounted magnifying gss with a light on the bottom.

  “So, is there anything specific you want this to do or just a general amplification base?” Kurt asked while leafing through his binder.

  “I don’t know at the moment. It would be nice for it to just improve spells or my efficiency. I know these things cost a lot to make so I’ll be happy with whatever you eventually come up with.” She answered.

  “What do you mean ‘cost a lot’?” Kurt asked. As far as he knew enchanting wasn’t any more costly that spell casting other than the base material and some time.

  Val looked back at him like he was an idiot. “Why do you think I don’t have any enchanted stuff? It’s all so expensive that I couldn’t afford one with anything that I could use.”

  Kurt paused midway in unrolling his engraving tools in their fabric roll. He turned his full attention on Val. “So, what would a ring that identifies creatures it comes in contact with cost?”

  “In the online market? I don’t know, something like ten grand. Well in USD anyway.” She then saw the look on his face. “What?”

  He didn’t say anything, just walked over to a locker and pulled out a long thin box. He brought the box over to Val and handed it to her. She opened it and nearly dropped it from shock. Inside the box was twenty-one silver rings all of which were enchanted.

  The bel on the inside of the lid expined that they were ‘rings of creature identification’. The enchantment worked when the ring made contact with a living being while the owner wore it. It would then telepathically transmit information to the wearer about the person it touched.

  “I made those over a weekend. Well, a 3-day weekend.” Kurt said as he plucked one of the rings out and held it to her. “I gave some away, Alec, John and his dad, just people I trusted and knew could benefit from them.”

  “I thought each of these would take a week to make if not more.” Val said as she put the ring on, it automatically sized to her finger, and tapped Kurt on the arm, getting a mental nudge that made her think elf, human, wolf. The sensation was subtle and if she wasn’t looking for it, she might have missed it.

  “Nah, y’all are just getting scammed. I have a feeling the enchanters resource group or guild are price gouging all of you.” He then tilted his head back and forth as he thought of something. “Or there might be something else. It’s hard to say until actually meeting them.”

  Kurt finished unrolling his tools and swung the magnifying gss over the bracelet. He inspected the surface and found it was acceptably smooth, not needing further polishing. Since no prep was needed, Kurt picked up his first tool.

  It was a simple divider, nothing too fancy about it other than a sharpness enchantment on the legs. He set the distance and pced one of the legs on the outside edge of the bracelet while the other was on the surface. He then scored a line all the way along the edge, creating a perfect border. He passed over the border a few times, deepening the groove.

  The process was repeated with a slightly wider gap between the divider’s legs making 2 lines that had a gap between them. Kurt took out a simple dowel that had a rounded, chisel like tip and a piece of fine sandpaper wrapped over it. He used this and a little water to clean up any burs that were raised as he scribed the lines.

  He next pulled a stylus out of the roll and began, for ck of a better word, writing on the silver band. The runes he carved were faint and he constantly referenced his grimoire but, after a half hour, he finished the etching.

  Next came another small mp with a naked bulb atop it that Kurt plugged in and moved around, looking at the bracelet more than the mp. Eventually he was happy and went back to the tool roll for a square graver. He began going back over the lines he previously drew with the stylus.

  He carved each line in 2 passes, a first light one to set the line and a second one to set the depth. Slowly he worked his way around the bracelet again, turning and twisting the vice to change the angle of the work. Val watched in fascination at his steady, methodical progress, not daring to interrupt.

  After the second pass, when Val was certain he was done, he grabbed ft graver out of the roll and carefully traced the lines once more. This third pass seemed to be a sort of stopping point since he then stood, stretched and shook out his hands.

  “Phew, hard part done.” Kurt said. “Now for the fun part.” He walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a spool of wire.

  When Val saw the spool, she was a little confused until she saw the sticker on the side. It read ‘18k Au/Pt’ and looked like it had been used already, judging by the bent and clipped end of the wire.

  Kurt brought the wire over and got out a small hammer and punch. Then he pulled a set of very fine wire cutters out and began snipping small sections of wire off after holding them up to the engravings. After he cut a few, he carefully pced them on the engraving with a pair of tweezers.

  Tap, tap, tap. Kurt began inying the white gold onto the silver bracelet. Val rather liked the look, since the metals were so simir in color that nobody would know there was engraving unless they got really close. Round and round he went, slowly pounding the gold into the groves.

  Finally, he set down the hammer and punch, getting out the sandpaper again and a square steel bar. He used the bar as a backer and slowly took down the high spots and cleaned up the leftover gold. When he was finished, he held it to the light and carefully inspected for anything he missed and any voids that might have opened in the iny.

  Then Kurt brought out the same metal pte he had used when making talismans, setting it on the bench top and pcing the first spell atop the pte. Then went the bracelet before he manually cast a spell.

  “Didn’t you already cast the enchanting spell?” Val asked.

  “That was for that talisman. This is a general enchanting spell that starts and activates the enchantment on the item.”

  Val continued her vigil as the spell id down on the bracelet and both circles glowed then the item began to glow a bright white before fading away. In pce of the brilliant light was a glistening silver bracelet that shimmered slightly to her eye.

  Kurt picked it up and inspected it briefly before turning and pcing it on her outstretched wrist. He closed the csp, and it shrunk down, fitting perfectly before almost fading from view. Val was confused at the st part. While she could still see it, there seemed to be something telling her to ignore the item. She eventually got over it and was able to see it clearly but gnced up to Kurt.

  “It’s a very simple obscuration rune. It makes people look past it at a gnce unless you point it out or they are specifically trying to see that exact item. I put the same thing on those rings I made.” He then waved his hand at her. “Go, on, try it out, see how you like it.”

  Val thought about the spell she wanted to cast, staring at her now slightly heavier left wrist. After a moment, it came to her and she cast a simple illusion of herself, making it appear right next to her. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the process and noticed that it was a noticeably reduced cost. She didn’t have exact numbers but figured it was about 10% more efficient. She then opened her eyes and saw the absolutely real illusion standing before her.

  The illusion was an exact copy of Val, down to the clothes that she was wearing. She then made the copy walk around the room. Unlike normal illusions that were more like a moving snapshot, this one must have had some substance.

  They could hear the soft padding of feet on the ground as the illusion walked. Kurt noticed immediately that the copy also had a smell, it was close to what Val smelled like but not exactly. Val picked up on the sway and movement of the copy’s hair, how it actually reacted to a small breeze when she blew on it.

  “Holy shit.” Val said after a moment. “This is a top tier illusion. It has presence and everything. Like I didn’t need to bring out my other tails to cast this and it cost less. And it looks amazing. Do you think I could make a real copy if I used more power.” She had begun to rave as reality fully began to set in.

  “I’m gd you like it.” Kurt said with a smile as he turned around to begin cleaning up his tools and materials. He was stopped a moment ter when a weight smmed into his back and what he could only assume were pythons wrapped around his waist.

  “Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou. I will pay you back, I swear. I’ll…” Val was stopped by him uncoiling her arms and turning around to give her a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “You don’t have to pay me back. You bought the bracelet, and the gold wire was probably all of a hundred bucks. All I really invested was a couple hours and a little bit of effort.” Kurt said while running a thumb over the happy tears leaking from the corner of her eye.

  Val sniffed and smiled up at Kurt. “You know this would sell for like, over a hundred thousand, right?” She held up her left hand again. “This enchantment and this quality, you could be a set man selling a couple of these a year. People would line up and special order them, happy to wait years for their turn.”

  That was giving Kurt ideas. Well, not exactly ideas since he had plenty of those already, more like questions. He was beginning to wonder what was going on with the enchantment scene at the order for it to be so out of sorts. He quickly let those thoughts slip away as Val admired her new focus and he admired her. Those questions could wait until ter.