“Is there any change to the number of semi-permanent enchantments of the Mouth?” Lith examined the Master Mouth, finding it no different from the piece of the Apprentice Set except for the number of crystal teeth.
“No quantitative change, sorry. There’s a qualitative one, though.” Menadion tapped the white crystals that started to cycle through the seven elemental colors. “Now, while enchanting the Mouth, you can use the crystals as a source of elemental power.
“They can replace most elemental-based ingredients and increase the variety of spells you can imbue in the Mouth. Beware, though. Every crystal assigned to fuel an enchantment can’t be used for anything else.
“The Mouth will still retain its other powers and enchantments, but will recharge more slowly and consume its energy reserves faster.”
“It’s still amazing for a relatively poor Forgemaster like me.” Tista moved her eyes from the artifact to its maker, looking at them with awe and admiration. “It’s like having a lesser Workshop and Factory of my own.
“I can now try out many of my experimental blueprints without having to waste a single copper coin in ingredients.”
“Silly question.” Faluel envied Tista for a moment, then she felt the Hands wrapping around her arms and inwardly called herself an idiot. “Do different pieces of the Set gain new abilities when used together?”
“Of course not.” Menadion chuckled at the idea. “But they can synergize and support each other. For example, by combining your Hands with Tista’s Mouth, you get the ability to weave Tower Spells directly into the power core.
“The Mouth alone would lack the raw power to do it while the Hands can’t help you sustain such burden on your focus during the Forgemastering process.”
“If the Hands and Mouth are for the Forgemastering phase and the Ears is for the preparatory phase, what’s the role of the Eyes?” Solus asked.
“It serves to collect data before and during an experiment and to review the results after.” Menadion said. “The Eyes are meant to be the Forgemaster’s learning tool. To help us understand our mistakes and where we can still improve.
“Also, it allows us to learn from our enemies and allies both, whether they like it or not. I know what you are thinking: ‘It’s not fair’. Yet hang around Dragons long enough and you’ll see how fair their eyes are. I’m just leveling the playing field.”
“Bottom line, every piece of the Set by itself allows a Forgemaster to master their craft much quicker than their peers and reach excellence. When put together, they give a Forgemaster the best tools I could think of to strive for perfection.”
“Is that why you split the Apprentice Set and kept the Master Set to yourself?” Faluel didn’t even bother hiding her envy.
“Kid, I worked my ass off to come up with the enchantments that make every piece of the Sets possible.” Menadion grunted. “No one helped me or did me any favor while I toiled like a madwoman. The Apprentice Set is my gift to Mogar while the Master Set is my legacy.
“I deserve to have the best tools because I made them myself. If you want to look the gifted horse in the mouth and don’t like what you see, feel free to give it to someone else.”
“I’m sorry, Master Menadion, I didn’t mean to be rude.” Faluel gave her an apologetic bow. “My competitiveness and pride as a Forgemaster went to my head for a second.”
“Apologies accepted, child.” Menadion replied. “You wouldn’t be a first-rate Forgemaster if the realization of what you are lacking didn’t upset you. Now you can either try to be like me and channel that anger to better yourself and craft your own tools or be like Bytra and let it consume you. Your choice.”
“Can you please lend me the Master Mouth, Lith? I would like to receive Master Menadion’s guidance together with Tista.” Faluel asked, receiving the stone mask from him.
“Again, just call me Ripha, please.” Menadion said.
“I’d rather not. At least as long as I study magic under you.” Faluel shook her head. “Were I to call you Ripha, Master, I’d consider you my peer and my envy would keep me from fully understanding your teachings.
“By calling you master, I recognize you as my better and respect you for it. Otherwise I won’t listen to learn from you but to nitpick and find faults in your methods just to feel better about myself.”
“Those are wise words. Your mother must be proud of you.” Menadion nodded. “Now, let’s get back to work.”
While Tista and Faluel practiced, Lith and Solus studied everything with the Eyes and used their newfound knowledge to improve their creations stored inside the Library with each new insight they gained.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to continue this conversation later?’ Solus asked once she and Lith got to the nitty-gritty details of which runes to choose based on where they would be positioned. ‘Things have gotten quite complicated and we could use Mom’s advice.’
‘I’d rather not.’ Lith replied. ‘Learning from Ripha is one thing but I don’t want to be influenced by the way she does things. We got this far by developing our techniques and I want to improve them, not change them.
‘If we start copying your mother instead of making her techniques our own, we’ll be doomed to be her poor imitation. No one can surpass another mage by following the rules of their game.
‘The old Bytra learned this the hard way. She should have stepped away from the board and carved her own path instead of chasing after Ripha’s.’
‘You are right.’ Solus telepathically nodded. ‘We’ll do like when we learned Awakened magic from Faluel and Light Mastery from Nalrond. We’ll work hard on our own and ask for help only if we get stumped and can’t find a solution even after giving our all.’
After Tista and Faluel were done, Lith passed the Eyes to them and took his turn practicing using the Mouth and Hands with Solus.
‘Son of a bitch!’ Faluel cursed, realizing that not only was Lith “coincidentally” avoiding all the mistakes she had made earlier, but he was also exploiting her seven heads to keep a record of his own mistakes that he would review later.
‘After knowing my brother for so long did you really believe that he let us go first out of the goodness of his heart?’ Tista had a hard time believing the Hydra could still be so naive.
‘Yes, I mean, no. I guess I was so happy about meeting the legendary Ripha Menadion and having the Hands unlocked that my seven brains stopped working.’ Faluel replied.
‘Look at the bright side. We are learning too and it’s not like Lith is going to refuse to show you the footage later.’ Tista said.
‘True that.’ They kept studying in silence for a while until Tista reactivated the mind link.
‘Can I ask you a question?’ She said after Lith managed to weave a particularly complex power core on the first attempt.
‘Sure.’
‘What do you think is the main difference between my brother and me?’ Tista asked. ‘Why even though I’ve worked so hard and had all the resources I needed do I lag so much behind him?’
