Chương 59: Chapter 54: Then what would it contribute? It’s cute!

It's cute!

Liene's advice about moderation lasted until she looked at the Embermoth Crystals again.

"One is boring." She put another beside it. Fabrisse was about to ask whether two might already be pushing things when a third came out of the box.

"Liene."

"Hmm?"

"You're using all three?" She looked down at them.

"Maybe." That was apparently different from probably. By then she had already moved on to the Argent Thread. She stretched a length across the largest crystal, shook her head for some reason, then pulled more from the spool.

"What are you doing?"

"It's too skinny." She doubled it over and started twisting. Fabrisse watched for a moment.

"The manual only uses one strand."

"Fabri! I have also seen the manual."

"Yes, but now you've doubled the conductor."

"And improved it." She held the braid against the crystal.

"See?" It did look better. That wasn't the problem.

"You might get more resonance bleed," he pointed out.

"Then we'll find out."

"How?"

"I'll make another one with the thin strand." Fabrisse stopped complaining. That could work, actually. He could time both spells. No, that wouldn't be enough. If one was losing more aether through the thread, he'd need to keep them running for a while and see whether the difference grew. Assuming Liene could cast them consistently enough. He should probably record how much aether she used at the start as well—"Come help me with this. You're not just going to stare, are you?"

He heard Liene's voice again and looked up. She was already winding silver around the second frame, reaching for the remaining Embermoth Crystals, and held the largest against the center of the pendant.

"Now… three Embermoths." The other two went beside it.

"Hmmmm. Too crowded." She moved them farther apart until the smaller crystals sat to either side of the centerpiece.

"There we go."

"What do you need?" He asked. She pushed the spool of Argent Thread toward him.

"Can you pretty please cut me another length, same as the first one?"

"How same? The exact same length?"

"Yes, please." That at least was a useful job. He laid the remaining strand beside the first and carefully matched the ends. If they were supposed to compare the finished pendants later, having different conductor lengths would make the results useless. He measured again before cutting.

"You know it doesn't need to be perfect, right?" Liene peered over his shoulder.

"It does if you want me to measure anything afterward."

"Fine then, Mr. Perfect." By the time he handed the strand back, Liene had arranged the remaining Embermoth Crystals around the second frame. She held the largest against the center of the pendant.

"Now… three Embermoths." Fabrisse frowned.

"Can your binding spell actually sustain three resonance anchors?"

"Why wouldn't it?"

"That'll require a lot more stabilization." The crystals weren't physically attached to the frame, after all. They couldn't be, not without putting glue or resin between them and the Argent Thread, which would interfere with the flow of aether. The binding spell had to keep everything in place instead. One crystal was easy enough. Three at once was where things got difficult. Suddenly, Liene's floating ribbons made considerably more sense. Liene stuck out her tongue.

"That's the fun part. You don't know until you try." She hooked a finger beneath the pendant frame and lifted it into the air.

"Hold still…" She pinched the air. A flame appeared between her fingertips, no larger than a candle's. As Liene traced a slow circle over the pendant, embers appeared in the wake of her fingers and remained there. The three Embermoth Crystals began to rise from the workbench, first the largest, then the other two, until all three hovered just above the silver frame. She was applying Fire Bending.

Fabrisse had read about several elemental approaches to resonance binding, but fire was probably the easiest to work with on short notice. It didn't take much aether to establish the binding, and once everything was in place, keeping it there was relatively cheap. Metal would last longer, of course, but Liene clearly wasn't planning that far ahead. The embers made another circuit around the pendant. It was beginning to look like a necklace. A crooked one, admittedly.

The center crystal hung lower than it should have, and the two smaller Embermoths refused to stay level with one another. She whispered, "Oooo… maybe a garnet."

"Liene—" She was already reaching for it. The Volcanic Garnet rose from her palm and joined the other crystals.

"Ooo... I like where this is going." Liene turned the whole thing.

"Just a few little adjustments…" Another spark joined the binding. She worked it between the crystals, trying to make room for the garnet without ruining what little symmetry she'd managed. It made the whole thing even more crooked. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Fabrisse winced. By the second attempt, Liene should have had the binding under control. She very much did not. She raised one of the smaller crystals until it sat level with the other.

The center crystal immediately sagged.

"Come on…" Liene brought the center back up. Now the other two weren't level anymore.

"Rude." She sighed.

"Fine. Maybe one less crystal." With a turn of her wrist, the embers shepherded the arrangement back onto the table and dismissed the binding. One stray spark escaped toward an open sheet of parchment, and she pinched it out before it landed. Greg would have called that a fire hazard. Fabrisse looked around the room full of wax and dried flowers. He still didn't understand why Liene's first preparatory step had never involved removing everything that could potentially catch fire.

"Okay." Liene plucked the smaller Embermoth from the arrangement.

"Let's do two, then." She dug through one of her velvet pouches and came out with a garnet scarcely larger than a grain of corn.

"We'll start tiny now." There isn't a lot of 'we' here, Fabrisse thought. So far, she had done whatever she wanted and occasionally asked him to pass her things. The embers returned. Liene started over with the two Embermoths, and without the third competing for space, she had them level within moments. The garnet took longer.

"A little more…" She brought it closer to the larger Embermoth, then changed her mind and tried it slightly lower. Fabrisse leaned in to check. Level at last. [Item Crafted: Embermoth Pendant #1] Rarity: Rare [Inventory Slots Taken: 2] Fire Spell Output: +12% FP Bleed while casting Fire spells: -7% Emotional Modulation Effect (Rage): +15% Emotional Modulation Effect (Passion): +11% Emotional Modulation Effect (Joy): +6% Emotional Modulation Effect (Conviction): +3% She'd done it.

She'd actually done it through vibes. [Sidequest Completed: Crafting Fundamentals Revisited] Reward: +150 EXP +5 Progress Points Emotional Link Unlocked: Liene Lugano (Rank III) Liene tilted her head left and right.

"That's actually really cute, don't you think?" Liene tilted the pendant toward him, then reached for the larger Embermoth again.

"What if I just used one really big crystal instead?" Before Fabrisse could answer, she pointed at the organizer.

"Actually, pass me one of those tiny brass spacers." He searched through the compartments.

"These?"

"Mhm." Liene pressed one against the pendant, then shook her head.

"No." Fabrisse put it back.

"What about a pearl?" He found those next.

"These don't have any measurable resonance properties."

"I know."

"Then what would it contribute?"

"It's cute!"

"But—" He gave up. The pearl stayed. Then she wanted a feather. Fabrisse found one. Too large, apparently. He put it back and tried another while Liene worked the pearl into place. By the time she asked him to find something gold to go beside it, he realized he had somehow become responsible for searching the organizer while she did all the actual designing.

"Another bead and feather, please." Fabrisse reached for the box. By the time he returned with the totally necessary parts, she had completed another pendant. [Item Crafted: Embermoth Pendant #2] Rarity: Rare [Inventory Slots Taken: 2] Fire Spell Output: +14% FP Bleed while casting Fire spells: -5% Emotional Modulation Effect (Rage): +12% Emotional Modulation Effect (Passion): +8% Emotional Modulation Effect (Joy): +6% Emotional Modulation Effect (Conviction): +3% Interesting.

The larger crystal had increased raw output by another two percent. It had also noticeably weakened the pendant's emotional resonance. Apparently, one large Embermoth wasn't equivalent to two smaller ones; not even close.

"The first one's better," he said. Liene looked up from the pearl bead she was unsuccessfully trying to justify.

"Hmmm? How do you know that?" He couldn't very well answer because a glowing blue rectangle told me so.

"Try casting with both," he said. Liene slipped on the first pendant and cast Cinder Thread a few times. She swapped necklaces and tried again.

"Huh. Feels the same to me. But both spells feel stronger than when I don't wear anything." Fabeisse stared at the sky blue sparks that trailed Liene's spells. She was using Joy. Both pendants enhanced Joy by exactly the same amount. He felt the urge to explain. Unfortunately, any explanation would begin with, The glowing blue rectangle says... So he just said nothing. Liene waited a few seconds.

"So… Shall we continue where we left off?"

"Left off?"

"Mm-hm." She smiled.

"The part where I keep throwing Fire spells at your face until you get better at Fire."

"Right." He really did need that. They kept at it for another hour, though calling it an hour of work was probably generous. Liene's aether reserve wasn't particularly impressive. Her FP reserve, rather, if Eidralith was going to insist on calling it that. Every few minutes, she ran low enough that the streams of flame around him had to stop, at which point Liene would announce that this was a good time for tea and wander over to the kettle. Fabrisse didn't mind.

After watching her work for a while, he was beginning to think sustained Fire Thaumaturgy looked exhausting. The breaks also gave him time to write down what had changed between attempts, though Liene seemed far more interested in whether he wanted more tea. By the time they finished, Fabrisse had lost count of how many cups she'd made.

"Cake," Liene announced.

"What?"

"We earned cake." Before he could ask what exactly he had done to earn it, she was already on her way to the student commons. Fabrisse watched the door close behind her, then stretched his shoulders. Time to see whether any of this had actually worked. As he checked the numbers from the Eidralith, his eyes widened. That couldn't be right. Last time, half an hour had moved the number by barely 10%. This time… The gain was quite absurd.