Chương 32: The Loom Pt. 2

2 With the magic of this world, intention is nine-tenths of invention. If you do not guide yourself, it will surely guide you. —The Artificer's Guide to the Apocalypse I turned a length of bone-white spirit wood over in my hands, admiring the smooth bark. The rough cut at the base of the branch where it had been removed from the tree revealed a curiosity. Smooth exterior bark transitioned nearly seamlessly into the inner heartwood, and I wasn't sure that the two could be separated.

I wasn't sure that I wanted to—it just felt natural to use as it was. > Spirit Tree Wood > Wood from a spirit tree. A rare and exotic wood, renowned for its astounding affinity to magic. > Quality: Rare > Material With my mind made up, I made a soft cut to mark an eight-inch section for the shuttle, and pared it down with my blade. I took my time, using an abundance of caution lest I ruin the valuable material. It slowly took form, each end narrowing to a rounded point with a cavity in the middle.

The opening would hold a bobbin on a spindle for the weft, the thread that would pass back and forth with each cycle of the framed heddles. Going more with a feeling than logic, I fished out the Concept of Order from my pocket. Holding it against the precious wood, I removed the excess material and sensed a connection form between the two shortly after making contact. The spirit wood felt greedy in my hands, like it was starved for mana, and it fought to drink from the lesser concept.

I activated [Mana Manipulation] and guided the concept as it flowed into the wood. It struggled against me, but I exerted my will through the connection and forced it to work with the concept, rather than consume it. The concept dispersed into the shuttle, flowing along the grain like a convoy on a highway. Following the instruction of the small white orb of concentrated order, disorderly mana leylines flared to life, then reformed. A mass of tendrils untangled themselves, lengthening the highway by several times.

Inefficient pathways became long stretches of road, leaving an abundance of neatly coiled mana paths. I halted the process, forcing the concept to wait before it completed its union with the spirit wood. I felt my mana draining from the strain of holding the process in limbo. Hands shaking, I quickly cut two short sections of the branch on either side of where I had removed the shuttle. Two continuations of the same piece that made up the shuttle. A hunch had formed, and I trusted my gut feeling.

I held each of the discs against the ends of the shuttle and allowed the process to continue. The end of the coiled mana sprang outward, lashing itself to the two endcaps. I held my breath and reinforced the connection, slowly pulling them apart, unwinding the long coil. The connection held. Each of the small discs felt starved, and I used that to my advantage. Using [Arcane Imbuement], I pushed mana into the disc on my right until it was full, and kept filling it.

The excess mana spilled out, following the connection between the two, and into the shuttle. I kept pushing more mana into the disc until the shuttle was full. I pushed in even more mana, and that's when I felt it. The shuttle moved. Ever-so-slightly, it twitched in my lap. I raised my arms, holding out the endcaps at arm's length, and the shuttle followed. It hung in the air, suspended by the invisible mana lines that lived inside.

I pushed just a small amount of mana into the right cap, and it was enough to move the shuttle all the way to the left cap. As soon as the two made contact, the right drained into the left through the shuttle. I reversed the action, pushing a small amount of mana into the left cap. It pushed the shuttle back to the right cap. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Wide-eyed in amazement, I waved a hand between the cap and the shuttle.

It passed through without issue, and the connection held. > Mana Manipulation Leveled Up! > Arcane Imbuement Leveled Up! Giddy with excitement, I carved two small rings into the inside of the frame to hold the shuttle, then inserted each of the discs. The shuttle remained perfectly suspended between them, not sagging in the slightest. Eager to try again, I cut three more discs, this time adjacent to each other.

Knowing what to look for now, I could sense the severed connections between them and softly tried to pull at the mana threads. Immediately, the tangled mass began to tighten, and I quickly stopped. I could tell that I would need to untangle them before they would be of any use. And so I did. Reminiscent of untangling my pocket earbuds—this time on steroids—I spent the next hour working at the mess. Eventually, I was left with several extra inches to work with.

It was nowhere near the sheer efficiency of utilizing the Concept of Order, but even with a semi-tangled mass of leylines remaining in the wood, it was good enough for my purposes. [Mana Manipulation] pulled at the threads, and with the two caps held together, I was able to reconnect the lines. I held one in my hand and let the others fall. They dangled six inches below the one in my hand.

Repeating the earlier process with [Arcane Imbuement], the small disc in the middle rose and lowered itself as expected, though this time it took longer with the still-tangled weave in each disc. I placed each on one side of the hinged frame, with the middle disc sandwiched between, and filled the first with mana. Once full, the center disc rose, bringing the frame with it. For several moments I experimented with the build. I alternated the two, and each time the mana was hungrily taken from me.

I lifted the frame, slid the shuttle, released the frame, slid the shuttle back. Lift, slide, drop, slide, lift. The alternating motion took very little mana, though by this point I was beginning to run dangerously low. The shock of holding the process from completing was compounded by the initial mana investment to fill each component. With one final test, I connected with [Mana Manipulation] and allowed the hungry parts to take hold. As I had suspected, it was able to still pull mana from me.

Anyone with [Mana Manipulation] would be able to operate the loom, and only one final step remained. Attaching three hundred twenty strings to each of the notches, and threading three hundred twenty strings through them for the warp. I had a solemn moment of silence for myself and got to work.

It turns out, when doing a monotonous task for hours at a time, you tend to daydream. And daydream I did. During my four hundredth—or maybe five-to-six hundredth—tying off of a heddle, a thought came to me. Staring at the fireleaf, I had become intimately acquainted with the fine grain, and upon experimenting, found the same leylines within. These were much fainter, had less room, but nevertheless, they were there, and they could be used.

The revelation changed everything, not only for the loom, but for our prospects, literally everything. I suspected far more than just wood had the capacity to hold and manipulate mana. I began with the frame of the loom itself. I bundled several threads together to form a single connection that connected to four sequenced discs of spirit wood. [Mana Manipulation] leveled two more times while untangling the natural ley patterns, each time making the next much easier.

After a lengthy process of manipulating existing leylines, I finally found success. When mana pushed into the first of the four discs, it would then move to the shuttle. When the shuttle ended, it fed to the second, which fed to the frame. The frame moved and fed the third, which then returned the shuttle, hit the fourth, which returned the frame and moved back to the first. The only downside was that once started, it would continue until it ran out of mana.

The only fix I had come up with was to create an emergency break that would require a mana-ual repair once used. And it was all fed by a massive source: The frame itself. Well, it would be a massive source the next day, once I'd had enough of a rest to fill it. I wasn't about to make that mistake tonight. The final touch was a small disk at the corner. A mana-sucking leech that once [Mana Manipulation] was used on it would drain the user, fill the frame, and the Loom would clatter to life.

I inserted it, made the ley connections, and was met with a notification. > Arcane Artisan Leveled Up! > Automatic Loom > A mana-fed loom created from fireleaf and spirit tree wood. While infused with mana, the machine will continue to operate. > Quality: Rare > Grade: High I grinned widely at the completed project, already picturing the looks it would get when it began working on its own. Surely this will net me a few votes tomorrow when— I froze at the thought.

Elections were in the morning, and the deadline to put my name up for the council was tonight.