Mythran's Master Of All

Ren led Dorcot out into the courtyard and to the stack of lumber there.

“Do you want me to carry some of that?” Dorcot asked.

“No, this is for something else.” Ren said, then used a couple of planks and made a good sized crate, with a small section inside. “Be right back.” He said and went into the old bedroom and put in the cut diamonds into the small section, and then filled the crate with several slots of odd-sized diamond crystals. Ren stored the crate in an empty slot and was tempted to make a bunch more crates, but that would have to wait. He went back outside and then stored the crate of nails.

“So, you're an Adventurer.” Dorcot said.

“I've definitely had some adventures, that's for sure.” Ren smiled.

“You can tell me some while we work.”

“If it'll help pass the time.” Ren said and Dorcot followed Ren out to the road and then to the end of it. Ren laid out the size of the building he wanted and Dorcot scratched his bald head.

“You're covering nearly 50 feet of road, you know.”

Ren smiled. “I need the paving stones for the floor, and rather than tear them up and dig another spot for them, it's just easier to build over the road.”

“That makes sense.” Dorcot said and started moving the boards they'd need for the walls, all along the planks Ren had used to show what he wanted. Ren did the same on the other side and then added in the 4x4s as supports for the corners and the roof.

“Are you doing a pitched roof?” Dorcot asked and Ren nodded. They added extra lumber for the roof in seperate stacks, along the sides. “I assume you have some woodworking tools?”

Ren grinned and took out his large woodworking toolbox and opened it.

Dorcot whistled. “Yeah, I think that might be enough.” He said and laughed.

They made all the walls first, in 8 foot sections, for the entire building. With the 2 of them working at it, it only took an hour and they were finished of the walls. They were stood up and nailed together, leaving room for a door and a large entryway where the silt was continuously being dumped. The 4x4 supports for the roof and cross braces, were next. If Ren hadn't had a second pair of hands, he wasn't sure if he could have held them in place and still nailed both ends without dropping something.

Knowing they needed three 8 foot length boards to cross the distance, they make triangle trusses to support the roof. 3 planks across, half a plank high, and 2 planks down on an angle on each side, made the shape that they needed. They nailed planks between each other plank to add extra support, and cross members to hold the triangle shape. It ended up using 12 planks for each truss, and they made 31 of them, spaced a foot and a half apart. They were positioned all along the center support as trusses, and once they were secured, it was a simple matter to run planks all along the roof and nail them in place. Once they were done 2 hours later, Ren made a door and hung it in the spot they'd left for it. He stepped back and smiled.

“Now there's a nice piece of workmanship.” Ren said and held a hand out to Dorcot. “Thank you for your help, Dorcot.”

Dorcot took his outstretched hand and shook it. “It was nice to get my hands dirty again.” He said. “I don't remember the last time I got to do something like this.”

Ren let the handshake go and turned to him. “Why is that?”

Dorcot shrugged. “I was in high demand for a while, found a good wife and married into her House. I had clients like you wouldn't believe.”

Ren smiled. “The King and Queen.”

Dorcot snorted. “Not hard to guess, huh?” He smiled. “The thing is, once you cut up everything that they had, there's wasn't anything left to cut anymore.” Dorcot sighed. “I had a few Gemcutting jobs afterwards, but that was years ago. I've just been sitting around most of the time and doing odd jobs. The wife's been working as a secretary for House Longore ever since.”

Ren's eyes widened as he remembered the tiny little dwarf with the squeaky voice. “She's your wife?”

Dorcot nodded. “Cutest little thing I ever saw.”

“I won't argue with you there.” Ren smiled. I could, but I won't. “Is House Longore your House?”

Dorcot shook his head. “No, we're commoners in House Lodur. They own the mines, and a good portion of the countryside down that way. My wife's brother was really fortunate to get the foreman's job at the mine.” He said. “It's not very often that commoners like us get high ranked positions in Houses like that.”

“That's for sure.” Teepo said. “It's really hard for the lower class to get good jobs, with most of them taken by main family members.”

Ren nodded slightly, then put a hand on Dorcot's shoulder. “Well, my friend. I made you a promise, didn't I?”

Dorcot's eyes widened and then his smile matched it. Ren grabbed some of the lumber planks and a 4x4. He cut the 4x4 into 2 foot pieces to make the legs of a workbench, then added several drawers on one side and a large one across the center, just like the sitting table he'd made for Lucy back at his apartment. When Ren thought of Lucy, he paused working for a minute, sighed, and kept going. He added a back section for tools and things to be hung, and then several shelves. When the workbench was finished, he made a chair for Dorcot to sit on, and then stored them.

“Damn, boy... did you just make a workbench from memory?”

“Kind of.” Ren said. “I added in extra drawers and the back for tools. I wasn't sure what you'd need, so I gave you several options.”

Dorcot shook his head. “People would pay a good amount of money for a custom made workbench.”

Ren smiled. “I've got way too much on my plate to take a bite of something else right now.”

Dorcot chuckled. “I saw.” He said and waved a hand at everything going on.

“Come inside, and I can get you set up.” Ren said and opened the door to his new workshop. It was 45 feet long, 24 feet wide, and easily expandable as everything was made in sections. Ren walked over to the far corner, well away from where he would be building his forges. He took the desk and chair out of inventory and placed them near the wall.

“How do you want this set up?” Ren asked. “You're the expert.”

“Against the wall in the corner is fine.” Dorcot said. “I don't know why you're going through all this trouble, just to let me cut up one diamond crystal.”

Ren chuckled. “Dorcot, I've told you some of the trouble I've been in. This is no trouble at all.”

“Alright.” Dorgot chuckled, sat in the chair, and waggled his fingers in a 'gimmie' gesture. “Hand it over.”

Ren took out the fist-sized diamond crystal and handed it over. Dorcot examined it and whistled.

“By the gods. Where did you get this?” He asked. “It's perfect!”

Ren shook his head. “I can't tell you yet.”

Dorcot looked at him.

“It is from land that I own, but I'm keeping it a secret for now.”

Dorcot nodded slightly. “I'll stop prying, then.”

“Take your time, Dorcot.” Ren said. “Show me what you've got.”

Dorcot grinned. “I might not have used my skills in years, but it's something that you never forget.”

Ren nodded slightly and went outside to the pile of stone bricks that he'd ordered from Barnar, and stored them. Ren ran to the work area Barnar had set up to see how the progress on the exterior wall was coming along.

“Wow.” Ren said as he saw half the crew making mortar and the other half were cleaning the old mortar from the wall. Several stones slid out when this happened and they were replaced with others that were freshly cut and covered in mortar. “You guys are great!” Ren exclaimed and several workers laughed. “I wish I had the time to help.” He said to Barnar, who was standing at his customary workbench and looked at Ren's latest idea.

“I haven't doubted any of your ideas so far...” Barnar said to Ren. “...but this...” He said and waved a hand at the extra large cake icing bag. “I don't know what to think of it.”

“This is the only idea I've had that you're going to question?” Ren laughed and Barnar joined him. “I'll get Narhilda out here, and she can show you what to do.” Ren said. “She's the one who taught her daughter, and her daughter taught me.”

“Okay, but I'll only believe it when I see it.” Barnar said, sceptically. Ren went inside the house and asked Narhilda to come out and show the stonemason how to use the cake icing bag. Narhilda agreed, smiled, and held her hand out for Ren to take. Her daughter sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Just humor her, Ren.” Nathalia said. “She's in a playful mood today.”

“Of course.” Ren smiled and took Narhilda's hand. “My Lady. This way, please.”

She giggled as Ren led her out of the kitchen. He concentrated on his Aura, and Narhilda caught her breath. They walked out through the gate and over to the stonemason's work area, and several workers turned their heads to watch as they passed.

“Barnar, I'd like to introduce you to the Lady of the House.” Ren said. “Lady Neram, this is Barnar Slatebreaker.”

Barnar turned to look at her, and he inhaled a deep breath. Ren let Narhilda's hand go and stepped aside. Barnar stepped close, gently took her hand and bent over it.

“Lady Neram, it is both an Honor and a pleasure to meet you.”

Narhilda's eyes widened and she blushed slightly. “It's a pleasure to meet you as well.”

Barnar reluctantly let her hand go and motioned to the extra large icing bag. “Ren says this will fill cracks in the mortar, without having to remove the whole stone.” He said. “Can you show me how it works, Lady Neram?”

“Of course I can.” She said and stepped to the workbench to show Barnar how to properly fill and squeeze the bag, to get the most use out of the contents.

“I'll leave you to it.” Ren said and Barnar quickly shooed him away behind Narhilda's back. Ren smiled as he went back to his workshop to make the forge that he needed.

That was unexpected.

“Tell me about it!” Teepo exclaimed. “He just met her, and he's already sweet on her!”

*

“Lady Neram... you're an expert cook, aren't you?” Barnar said, and she nodded slightly.

“I learned from the best teacher I could have had when I was young.” She said. “My mother.”

“Then your House is truly blessed.” Barnar said, then continued boldly. “Both with talent and with beauty.”

Narhilda took a quick inhale of breath, and then sighed. “Mr. Slatebreaker...”

“Barnar, please.”

Her eyes widened at him giving her permission to use his given name. “Barnar.” She said and smiled. “As you can see, I'm still in mourning. I've got another 3 years before...”

“Lady Neram.” Barnar said. “Having to wait 3 years is nothing, compared to meeting a woman like you.”

Narhilda blushed and kept smiling.

*

Ren built a normal-sized forge at the far end of the workshop, using about 20 bricks, and enchanted it with the same glyphs as before. He could have used the double glyphs that he had access to, but he didn't know if that would change how the forge itself worked, so it was safer to go with what he knew. He attached the smelting apparatus he'd bought in Aurora. He'd had it stored since he'd had to make a larger one for the bigger forge back at his business.

Ren activated the forge and ran outside to grab several pieces of ore and ran back to add them to the smelter. He took out the 2 molds that he had, one square blank and one long and thin blank, and put them aside. He took out several stone bricks and put them on the floor in front of the forge, to make a 1 foot long trench, an inch wide. He checked if the ore was melted and skimmed off some of the impurities. He ran outside and grabbed several more pieces of iron ore and put them in the smelter, until it was nearly full. He waited until it melted and skimmed of the rest of the impurities and poured out some into the trench he had on the floor. He took out a wind brick and cooled it off, used his tongs to take the 1 foot long, 1 inch wide iron bar and put it aside, then poured another. Ren repeated this process, grabbing more and more ore, smelting it into small iron bars, until he ran out of ore and had several hundred, 1 foot long and 1 inch wide iron bars.

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“Well, that went faster than I thought.” Ren said when he poured the last of the smelted iron into the improvised mold and deactivated the forge. “This should be enough to start, though.”

Dorcot turned around and looked at Ren. “To start what?”

“Repairing the Keep.”

“You could just get the Stonemason and his crew to do that.” Dorcot said.

Ren shook his head. “It's too dangerous to have a bunch of people down there, tearing up the walls.”

“But it's not too dangerous for just you?” Dorcot said and chuckled.

“I know what I can do, and what I can risk, without hurting anyone else.” Ren said. “I won't have a mistake that I might make, potentially hurt or kill someone else.”

“That's an honorable outlook to have.” Dorcot said. “You're going to increase the time needed to repair it like that, though.”

“That depends on if my idea works or not.”

Dorcot nodded. “Then I hope it does.” He said, then waved Ren to come over. “I'm just about done.” Ren walked over and looked at the gleaming diamond gemstone that sat in the middle of the workbench.

“Wow.”

“It came out well.” Dorcot chuckled and gave it one last polish with his diamond dust encrusted cloth. “Even I have to admit that.”

“You said, 'It came out well'?” Ren repeated, surprised. “You barely lost any of it's weight!”

Dorcot laughed. “I thought it would be a shame to cut the thing up into smaller pieces.” He said. “Once I started adding the facets, it just came to me to make it a diamond oval instead of any other cut.”

Ren picked it up and examined it.