[Time of day: Afternoon]
Luvi still hadn’t figured out what exactly she wanted to do with the windstar that she’d obtained. Lumina had made some suggestions and she’d even come up with her own ideas, but even as she sat there cleaning the well, she still didn’t have a concrete clue. She dunked the well into some water and swirled it around absent mindedly while counting to ten to make sure she had spun it around enough to shake off the debris.
She pulled it back out and sighed, seeing just how dirty it still was. It was somehow more difficult to get pig guts off of a well than it was to get dirt off. Furthermore, the well smelled terrible. It was what she got for waiting so long to properly clean the well.
“How’s it coming?” asked Lumina as she came into the inn room with an armful of supplies and groceries. The smell of fresh bread wafted to Luvi who set down the well to take a break.
“It’s slow,” Luvi said with a yawn. She stretched her hands high above her head, touching the ceiling of the cramped room despite her smallish stature. She grabbed some bread without asking and ate crammed it into her mouth. “Ish good” she said with her mouth full.
Lumina shook her head but she couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Sorry I’m late. I was doing a lot of shopping and I even scoped out the area for some good smiths we could talk to. I know Goku will probably want to do it himself, but if he’s busy then we will at least have a backup plan.”
“Smiths, so you’re still thinking about making a metal item,” Luvi said before eating some more.
“I think it’d be best. Neither of us can come up with a good idea for what the hell to do with the windstars so making a ring would be the most straight forward and simple option.”
Luvi wasn’t entirely on board, but she didn’t want to argue about it. Lumina wasn’t her servant and the woman was mostly tagging along with because it allowed her to get more hands on experience with wells. Though whatever they made would belong to Luvi, she thought that it would be nice to allow Lumina her input. Besides, a ring that could emit a jet of wind didn’t sound entirely useless. She imagined that it would at least be powerful enough to push someone back a little.
Luvi swallowed the last bit of bread that she could without feeling stuffed then took her seat back at the table. She washed her hands off in a separate bucket then went back to cleaning the well. This was hastened by Lumina’s arrival. They took turns scrubbing and rinsing so that neither of their hands got too tired.
After the well was unmistakably clean, then moved on to tapping. They worked in tandem, one calling out good spots while the other did the tapping. Cutting was the only part that they couldn’t work together on, but they still took turns getting the job done. It wasn’t that they were even in a rush - they just both wanted to build experience and they only had so many wells to work with.
“Is this how you used to work with your uncle?” Luvi asked as they neared the final stages.
“Somewhat,” Lumina said slowly. She paused, tapped a little, then continued, “whenever I worked with him I usually played an assistant role. I’m sure you can understand why they wouldn’t let me work on things on my own. Wells are so rare and hard to get ahold of, not to mention dangerous. I feel like I’m in a weird spot of knowing a lot about ensorcelling but also not knowing enough to feel confident.”
“No, I know what you mean,” Luvi said. “As a decent swordsman, all I can see are areas where I can improve. Sometimes I feel like I’m even getting worse, but then I realize that I’m just noticing things that others wouldn’t. I think it’s good to know that there’s a lot that you don’t know… if that makes sense.”
“I see,” Lumina said, yawning and setting the well down.
Luvi picked it up and continued with the deep tapping. “Imagine how I feel. I really have no idea what I’m doing. I can refine the well, but after that… I’ve got no clue.”
Lumina chuckled. “I have to say, you refine just as well as I do nowadays. And it’s simple if you’re not trying to deviate from the well’s natural power.”
Luvi took the compliment, then passed Lumina the well to check. She said, “I think you mentioned a while back that these wells can smother lightning magic. That sounds mighty useful if we’re going to spend more time in an area known for its storms.”
“That might be true, but how likely do you think it is that we will encounter lightning magic? A lightning bolt from the sky isn’t magic… I think. Unless weather is actually magic, but that’s not something I’m familiar with.” Lumina thought hard as she looked the well over. It was more or less done, unless they wanted to smother lightning magic.
“Oh,” Luvi said, scratching her head, “so I wonder when it might be useful. There must be magic out there that emits lightning. It would be nice to be protected from it if we ever encountered it.”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Unless you’re planning on going up against Illaren and her followers I don’t think you will see any practical use… but I think the bigger thing to think about is that producing more smog neuters its offensive capability. You’d have a ring that protected you from lightning magic, but it wouldn’t be able to produce a jet of wind, for example.”
“Ah, there’s always a catch,” Luvi said with a sigh. “Let’s not do that then. Plus, now that we’re getting closer, I’m getting excited to see the final product. To think that we could be testing it as early as tomorrow.”
While she finished up deep tapping, Luvi thought about whether the wind could be harnessed in other ways. Was there anything stopping her from making a ring that allowed her to fly? To allow the wind to envelop her and carry her where she wanted to go? Or did ensorcelled items not allow for that sort of control? She didn’t want to pester Lumina with these questions, lest they get in an argument again… but she couldn’t keep the thoughts from creeping in.
“I think it’s done,” Luvi said, finally setting the well down into a safe container. Her hands were tired from working with a well this powerful. It’d required a lot more effort to work with than the firestones, which she reasoned was because more powerful wells were inherently more onerous.
“Looks fine to me. We should meet up with Goku and finalize our plans,” Lumina said with a tired yawn. The bread wasn’t fresh anymore but it still tasted decent as she ate some. She had splurged on some jam which she scooped out of a jar with a finger to spread across her meal.
“Sure, but not today. Any other plans? We still have hours to kill until it’s time to get to bed.”
“We are in Rharne, we should probably go for a drink.”
“Yes, but I don’t want to be drunk when I’m messing around with wells,” Luvi added.
“True… I don’t know.”
Luvi’s eyes lit up, “we could workout a little.”
“Oh please, you obtain wells without me even being around. I hardly think I need to be trained anymore.” Lumina didn’t like training when there were other things to do.
“Alright, you stay then. As for me, I need some fresh air.” Luvi got up and grabbed her sword, not that she thought she’d need it.
She left the inn and wandered down the seedier looking streets. She told herself that she was just exploring, but she knew deep down that she was itching for a fight. Nobody tried to hassle her, however. She was able to walk around without issue and didn’t even see any crime to stop… not that she felt she had any right to enforce the law.
She ended up wandering around and finding a nice little locksmith’s shop. She bought some lockpicking tools off the man, fairly poor in quality, but enough to try her hand at picking some simple locks. She also bought some locks to practice on. She sat in a corner of the shop fiddling around with the locks and getting acquainted with the various tools as she chatted with the locksmith about his business and life. She ended up spending hours there, not noticing how late it was getting until it was closing time. She thought that she might have found a new hobby. Locks challenged a part of her brain that she wasn’t used to using!
