Me and my brother finally managed to swim through the currents that recently made their appearance near the capital to where we were instructed to go.
Our master was excited while he showed us the new and shiny blades. It was a whole pile of them. I could count maybe around 50 of them.
Since our last meeting one week had passed, the results were absolutely astounding. We could at most make 1 per crew per 2 days.
Using our latest invention we were able to make thirteen times as much.
“You didnt manage to see it doing the work did you? Come, take a look at it.”
When we arrived the noises could be barely audible, a faint vibration in the water.
THUMP
As we moved closer, the tall white pylon got louder and louder as it rose and smashed the ground.
It sounded like heart beating, however a vastly more powerfull and less active one. Me and Egir were looking at eachother in excitement.
THUMP
The giant wooden wheel moved by slaves looked like it could break any moment trying to lift such a massive piece of stone.
After the stone pylon was done crushing, the crew would take the blade from the stone cast and inspect it.
If the quality was good enough, a new clump of copper would be placed on the stone cast.
If not, they would put it back and wait for another strike by the giant pylon.
It was all so simple… Hefe said that using multiple strikes was a waste of time and energy.
One big strike should be enough, small frequent strikes should be equivalent to a big one he said. No one thought of this before…but him. We felt stupid when he told us of this idea.
So we petitioned the king for money, promising him a much better productivity rate than plain old manual nailrod striking.
Hefe tasked us with small adjustments so the design would be easier to handle and more precise.
THUMP
A small current of water rushed past us as the pylon fell. We were about four lengths away from the source.
The Pylai. I was absolutely captivated by the machinery and the way it worked. Never have i seen such force produced by any contraption. Until now.
“How was the expedition, did you two bring me what i told you?”
“Yes, two bags of crystals, it was a chore bringing them here to Mora’s outskirts. I hope we find them some use,
their appearance alone could make them more valuable than silver, maybe even gold. The fact that you can somehow see through them is mesmerizing*”
“I think i asked of three bags.”
“Excuse us master, something…strange happened. We were inside the cave mining just above the water and i left the bag in the water above our water, on some stone.
Some strange orange lights started to fly from my pickaxe, a stray one hit the bag and stuck to it, the light furiously consumed it very quickly. "
We got scared so me and my brother Egil got away from it until the light disappeared. All that remained was a pile of black sand. where the bag stood before.
It looked like a very beautiful and dangerous phenomenon, you should have been there to see it, master.”
“Ha, anyway, Hefe said, you two take some of my slaves and take those blades to the king
Those results will surely please him. The gates of our opportunity have been opened”
THUMP
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Who…Who would’ve thought. Everything is changing so fast. First we get a wagons worth of coins then we get the special title of Masters of Science and Making.
Our king is clearly pleased by the success our invention brought to him in both war and wealth. All in 7 years worth of time. Our Pylai were making all kinds of metal pieces, not just armor and swords. It was a revolution in its own right. Rivets, nails, plates, new structures and tools were made possible by such an invention. The Moran kingdom entered its golden age.
Hefe said that we might be able to imitate the conditions of the caves where we first saw the consuming light,
to try to bring it closer to our workshop near Mora.
We call it The Spilai.
We tried some wooden design but the wood would react with the consuming light so we had to come up with something better. There also seemed to be a limit to the number of
those experiments one could do. Especially in the smaller caves we made ourselves. I told master we should try to plate it with some thin copper sheets on the inside.
The slaves had a harder time bringing it to the surface, turning it around to be filled with the less dense water above and turning it around again.
However the added weight made it easier to bring it back down. After it was down we had to tie it down with some kind of rope since it had a tendency to
rise up or turn and have the strange water escape in a sphere. I told Hefe that most likely the water above was somehow consumed and changed by this strange consuming light,
so it may have had to be recycled. Mater looked at me like a he saw a ghost.
“This is IT!”
The first one we made was almost a disaster, once the Spilai connected to the surface water all the water underneath it was rushing inside until it filled up.
One of our slaves got stuck in it head first and died stuck and suffocated.
We had to completely separate the water inside from the water outside, where we were. We joined the plates using a method called “riveting” easily enough it also relied on applying pressure to join the said plates.
However after years of trial and error we succeded. We first made one where the surface was close to the ground and now we were building one sixty lengths tall. It was in our workshop in Mora.
Seeing inside the machine was impossible , nonetheless, the crystals we found a long time ago that we called them now “quartz” proved to be useful. You could see right through them. However
they had to be handled more precisely and needed very carefull riveting when attaching them to the Spilai and between themselves because of their brittleness."
Me and my brother Egir thought of ways to remove the water inside and let the outer water inside. How could such a thing be achieved?
After hotly debating for months we came up with a small metal contraption that had to be pressed up and down with a lever. We could see how it moved the outer water from the Spilai and made small bubbles.
Testing it at the surface on a platform held by the slaves made it clear it could move water.
Since the first Spilai usage we improved it in numerous ways and made it easier to be worked by our slaves.
And so all those efforts of 15 years, are crowned today.
The new and massive Spilai is now called Bulcanal. Master Hefe wanted to name it that way, says the story of the god named this way resonates with him.
“Do you think this will work master?”
“Do you?”
“The last plate has been riveted. We only need the pump working and then the metal light-starter to get the light we want.”
“I think the name is a fitting one for this new Spilai. Its said Bulcanal could use light to make things of any kind. If we tame such light we might gain his power.”
“Ridiculous. Sounds like something that would make our gods laugh.”
“Well, lets pray to them this works then.”