Chương 171: 168. Witchcraft

Cedoron grinned and reached into another side pocket of his apron.

"Of course. What kind of a blacksmith would I be if I reported to the baron without any of my tools on me?" Kivamus chuckled and told him to move closer to the long table. Feroy had kept the spear in a corner of the hall, and was watching them from the side, along with others. Madam Helga's family and Clarisa had also gathered there in curiosity. Exhaling once, Kivamus carefully spread the needles from that pouch on the table, in the light of the fireplace burning on one side, and a couple of braziers on the other.

The light still didn't feel sufficient. He looked towards the windows on the west where the last rays of the sunlight were still shining on it.

"Feroy, open those windows, will you?" The ex-mercenary and the others looked at him like he had gone senile. Feroy asked with a raised eyebrow, "You sure, milord? It's not snowing right now, but it's plenty cold outside. Opening the windows would let the freezing air inside."

"I know that," Kivamus said with a laugh, "but we have to make sacrifices to achieve any kind of success. And we need some more light here. Do it." Feroy nodded, and soon the windows were open with the light of the evening sun falling directly on the long dining table. Immediately, a freezing gust of air blew inside, making everyone shiver a little. But despite the chill, Kivamus nodded.

"This is better." He looked at the blacksmith.

"Take a seat, Cedoron. It seems we'll need more of your help." Once the blacksmith was seated, he told him how to fix the smaller needle in the centre of the flat piece of wooden square with the help of a small hammer. Cedoron nodded and without much difficulty, he fixed the needle where needed.

Then Kivamus picked up one of the rhombus shaped needles which were going to become the real compass needles, and slowly tried to balance it on the fixed needle, making sure to keep that bump of the rhombus needle right above the fixed needle. But as much as he tried to do it, it kept falling down on one side. He picked it up, and looked carefully at it in the fading sunlight.

"Oh, this one is a little lopsided." He snorted. Of course, these were handmade and such a thing was liable to happen. It's not like the blacksmith had modern machine tools like a metal punching machine here to make it with high precision. Cedoron immediately began to apologise, but Kivamus stopped him with a raise of his hand.

"Don't worry about it, we'll just try it with another one." Then he picked up a second rhombus shaped needle, and this time, he was able to balance it easily on the needle. Then he gave a gentle push to one end of it, and the needle began to rotate slowly on its axis.

"Good! This will work." He looked at Feroy.

"Now the difficult part. Bring that spear here. No, wait. Everyone, move a little back." Then he picked up one of those thin rods, and took it closer to the other side of the hall which had a lot more space, and beckoned Feroy to come there with the spear. He looked at the blacksmith.

"It's good you made these rods tapered on one end. That will make it easy to remember which side to hit." Kivamus continued, "Feroy, you've already tried to magnetize such a rod yesterday with the help of a hammer, but this time I want to see if it can be done with the blade of the spear as well."

"Why not just use a hammer then?" Duvas asked from where he was sitting near the fireplace.

"That's certainly the last option if this doesn't work," Kivamus replied, "but I don't want to make the hunters carry any extra weight that they don't necessarily need to." He turned towards the west, and holding the thin rod at a similar angle to what it was yesterday, he handed it over to Feroy.

"Now hold it like this, making sure to keep the tapered side on the bottom every time you are trying to hit it in the future, and strike the upper end of the rod with the thicker part of the spear's blade. You already know how it is supposed to be done, having done it yesterday, but try to do the same thing today with this spear." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Feory looked at him dubiously for a moment, but then shrugged.

"As you wish, milord." And then for a few minutes there were only the sounds of the spear blade striking the thin iron rod, while everyone watched the ex-mercenary in curiosity. Once Kivamus thought it was done, he gestured to Feroy to stop, and took the small iron rod from him. He still didn't know if striking with the spear was going to work to magnetise the rod, but the concept was the same, so hopefully it would.

He walked to the long table, and gently brought the thin rod closer to one of the small needles which was lying on top of the table. And to everyone's surprise, it worked! The needle, which was thinner and lighter than yesterday's iron nails, easily jumped up and got stuck at one end of the iron rod, making the kids cheer loudly. He looked at everyone, and grinned. Then he began to explain while making sure that everyone could see what he was doing properly.

"Now this iron rod is already magnetised, just like yesterday. And as you saw, striking with a spear worked just as well as striking it with a hammer - which would probably be quicker than this, but for our purposes it is sufficient. Now, to make an actual compass, we just need to magnetise this rhombus shaped needle."

"But what's a rhombus?" Clarisa asked with confusion.

"That is what we called the shape of this needle," Kivamus explained while holding up that needle in one hand.

"This iron rod is too heavy to work as a compass, which is why we need to magnetise this needle using it. And for that, what we are going to do is to rub this already magnetised iron rod on this needle. We need to do it at least forty to fifty times for it to work properly, and the rubbing motion has to be in the same direction every single time. You can't rub the iron rod in the opposite direction on the needle, or it just won't work." He thought about it.

"Actually, we will need to mark one end of this needle in some way, so it will be easier to remember which direction to magnetise it in. Anyway, here it goes." And then holding the iron rod and the needle in front of him, he began to do what he had said, while making sure everyone could see him. Madam Helga's family and Cedoron were looking at him in curiosity, while Gorsazo just looked proud. Feroy had taken the spear back to a corner, and was watching him from nearby.

Before long, Kivamus was done with fifty counts, and he nodded to himself.

"Now let's check if we really have made a compass here." Then he handed over the iron rod to Feroy, and holding that rhombus needle, he carefully put it back on the smaller needle which was already fixed on the small wooden square. When it looked like it was balanced, he gently left it there, and to everyone's gasp of surprise, the needle immediately began rotating on its axis, without him doing anything to move it.

And soon, it started to slow down, and after a few to and fro motions, it settled down in one direction. The north-south direction, to be precise. Kivamus immediately began to grin in victory, while others were still staring at the compass in wonder. And in the light of the fading sunset, a new invention was born in the small village of Tiranat. Kivamus knew that it was only a small step, but it would go a long way to help them in so many ways. He pointed towards the north direction.

"You all already know that is the north, since the sun is setting on our backs. And as you can see, one end of the compass needle is pointing towards the north, with the other obviously pointing towards the south, so it matches accurately with the directions we already know here. That's how we find the directions with a compass!"

"What just happened, milord?" Duvas asked with confusion.

"I don't get it. And neither do others, I believe." Kivamus took a seat at the chair close to the compass, and pulled up an empty sheet of parchment closer to him. Then he took a quill and after dipping it in ink, he drew a circle on it, and bisected it with a straight line, which was slightly tilted to the side. That was only a guess from him, but it felt right to do that since this world did have seasons.

Then he explained while drawing a few lines connecting the north pole to the south, "Let's say this is our planet Eranityn. Now as I had told earlier, it has something called a magnetic field, which is an invisible force generated by magnets."

"Does that mean our planet is also a huge magnet?" Lucem asked with wonder.

"Then why couldn't you just use the mud as a magnet?" Kivamus chuckled.

"No, the mud isn't a magnet, but the planet is. It is a little difficult to explain, but what it means is that the whole planet works as a giant, but weak magnet. And every magnet has two poles, north and south." He picked up the thin iron rod.

"Now, what we have made here is also a magnet. But this rod is too heavy to rotate on its own. That's why I magnetised this rhombus shaped needle - which basically means that I also made it a magnet by rubbing it with the iron rod."

"Then, can I become a magnet too, if I rub that rod on my hand?" Lucem asked again in confusion. Kivamus laughed at the innocent but still genuine question.

"No, no, you are never going to become a magnet. Only iron, and a few other metals like that can become a magnet." Suddenly, Feroy took a sharp breath and pointed at the needle.

"We all can see that it is pointing in the north, but how could the needle possibly know where the north is? That's, that's... witchcraft!"