Work from Home

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

"What can I say? Nothing of substance can endure when left to the hands of the less competent. Frankly, I'm amazed the Forge is in as good a condition as it is."

The bar took on a decent glow in due course. Barehanded, Ajira withdrew it from the forge and began hammering. Sparks and microscopic pieces of superheated metal struck a body-hugging Force-shield and dropped away. Flatten, fold; flatten, fold; reheat as necessary. With each fold, she drew a small knife, pierced her own shield, and bled a few drops in the channel.

"For your curiosity, I've never made a shield talisman, girl. I am a shield. No, I have no use for the standard-" BANG. "-cliche-" BANG. "-frippery. Speaking of which, those gloves are gorgeously tailored."

She adjusted the dampening chain that wrapped around the anvil's base. Too much reverberation was coming back up the hammer's haft.

"That said...I'm told Akure does more than just haute couture and sacrilegious trinkets. Years excavating my old capital, artifact containment, Sithspawn eradication. Even contracting Seydon of Arda on occasion, and others like him." She placed the reddish metal back in the Forge's flow -- barehanded as ever -- and wiped her brow. Sweat turned to steam. "I know of a site that could use some professional containment and nullification."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Ajira Cardei"]

"Build to last, Varanin, build to last."

Didn't hurt it was soaked with an ocean of innocent blood. Oh, Cerita had a lot of respect for the maker of the Forge, yet, sometimes she wondered if it hadn't been a bit too... too. A little bit less metal would probably have resulted in the same good old quality, but then again, she wasn't the Worm Queen.

So what did she know.

"Thank you." It came out, as her hands slipped into the gloves and picked up a piece of iron. Good iron, fine iron, of course she had first planned on using wood and a knife, yet... this would be more interesting. The bar was placed carefully in the forge, it heated up, but it was evenly distributed under the influence of the gloves.

They weren't ordinary ones, one of her little experiments. What they did- she took it out and placed it gently on the anvil, her hands started to move and mold the bar. No hammer, just the remnant heat of the Forge and the temperature shifts of the gauntlets themselves working.

"Very creative application of shielding." She mentioned over the sound of the metal giving shape, it was a slow process, but a steady one in the wake of alchemy. "A bit showy, but what works works, no?"

Cerita smiled, it was always fun to work on something new. Plus the banter brought out the creative flows.

"Rave was right, you are audacious."

The molten bar was growing, if not in material than in spirit. The blob was prodded back into the forge, the heat rose and shadows immersed themselves in the lattice of the metal, soon after Ceri pulled it out once again. There was an image inside her head of what she was making and the gauntlets felt it. They almost did not need any ushering anymore, her hands worked and underneath the dragon-skin the blob of metal was taking the rough shape of something.

Difficult to say what it was yet.

"Business's business though, what's the site?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

"Nothing lasts. Anyone over thirty-five could tell you that."

A real, quality blade could be rushed in a week. She didn't have a week. On a physical level, as a sword, this blade would underperform. Substandard cutting power, no question about it: not the kind of blade that would let her cut a man in half.

She could, however, make it strong. Her alchemical swords and armor had always prioritized strength, durability. Other alchemists could play with derivative toys or flamboyant special features. In her day, Ajira/Ashin had made a thing or two that fit the bill, proof-of-concept tests for the most part, but never frippery for its own sake. Harmonious simplicity was the name of the game: constructing a thing whose elements fit together into a coherent whole.

An enchantment came to mind, a derivation of an ancient Force-machine. Now that the basic form of the thing had taken shape, she donned old gloves, apron, and eye protection from a recessed bin. She let her shielding lapse to put her full focus on strengthening the blade. The heat of the forge and her all-encompassing clothes, she shunted away with tutaminis, to keep the metal warm.

"The Order of the Grey had an enclave on Naboo, outside Theed. The King, Marcello Matteo, ordered it razed to the ground, but there are concerns that something has survived. Secret vaults, Force taint, something along those lines. I doubt there are any Force-imbued objects, since the Grays stripped the place to the wall studs last time they were expelled from a site. Still, a brief investigation and containment operation should resolve things nicely."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Ajira Cardei"]

It was no wonder few people actually liked Varanin, quite the snippy and grumpy individual.

"Kressh's pedicure set and Revan's boxer briefs beg to differ." But her attention shifted away from the banter now, because now there were more important things happening. See, there was a thing, a pretty thing, an interesting thing, a concept that was established by a certain helmet- oh, most of it were just snippets here and there scattered through ancient tomes and barely functional databases, but the gist of it was clear.

A helmet which could manipulate the weather patterns around it for quite some miles.

As always the Sith made it nonsensical; destructive and a ton of woah-factors without actually having it serve a purpose. Well, other than general shock and awe, but that wasn't of interest to her. What was of interest to her was the general concept. To mold an idol of sorts, with the basic idea behind it, but instead of causing havoc and chaos in the atmosphere... it would work on a far smaller area. Its effects would be dulled in quantity, yet, its quality would be the better for it.

"Akure could help with this, yes." Sarova acknowledged as she released a little trickle of blood into the miasma of molten metal, before sealing it off in its core. You always needed blood- didn't have to be innocent virgin's blood or anything like that these days, but blood was the easiest seal.

"I assume there's a catch?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

"No catch," said Ajira absently, sighting down the blade. "It's to my benefit for the king to be more at ease about the risks posed by Force-strong locations: I recently located a small Force nexus on Naboo, and I'd prefer for it to stay undiscovered. Publicly, Akure would be contracted by a citizen's association in Theed, a survivors' rights group with mild anti-Force leanings. Survivors of the Obsidian Order attack, you see."

She heated the sword on the channel again, which now resembled liquid crystal more than magma. Among the Forge's accoutrements was a pedal-driven angle grinder, nothing so prosaic as electronics. Once she'd quenched the blade in a bucket of melted snow, she set about grinding an edge.

"Your company, while known for Force-related products and services, would be acceptable to this group as a temporary presence. The association doesn't mind the Force in general, but has a strong 'not-in-my-backyard' policy. Akure would be considered a necessary evil." Ajira smiled faintly and kept working the blade-edge against the Svolten rhyolite grindstone. "I'm fairly sure they think the same of the King, which may not turn to their benefit in the long run."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

She inclined her head slightly, but did not comment on the political situation of Naboo.

In truth it did not concern her and never would. The planet was too large, too much in the public eye and while hiding in plain sight was an interesting proposal, Ceri preferred to be relatively left alone. Simply the way she was comfortable after being tutored by three quite paranoid and secretive individuals in her early days within the Galaxy.

"Payment?" She brought up -- her presence in the Force shrunk to a needlepoint, while most of her attention shifted towards the matrix of the not-quite-yet-statue, there were irregularities here and there. Little starlight shards that weren't properly aligned, but just as [member="Ajira Cardei"] had little time to make a perfect sword, so did she not have the time to make a masterpiece.

It would be durable, but if thrown in a volcano... it would probably be a bit busted up regardless.

It rested quite easily on the anvil and Cerita started to brush the gauntlets off on each other, little bristles of metal and shards flying to the sides.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

"All respectable, all aboveboard. For a two-day contract, the association will cover your transportation costs, plus your standard daily containment rate. It's vital, of course, that no actual Darksiders be present on Naboo at any time. Neither the King nor the local Force-sensitive sensitives would stand for that."

She'd stripped off her outer layers, retaining the scarf band across her lower face. Now she slapped a handful of snow to the base of her neck and examined the blade where it rested on the anvil.

She'd hoped to come up with something transcendent, but in the end, her talents lay elsewhere. Too many decades of shields and protection, years that alchemists had spent on alchemy. A handful of solid creations, this included, proved she was no beginner, but the part of her that hated to lose was ill at ease.

Still. Quite a good sword, all told, and it could be better yet. She poured in a reckless amount of power, the one relevant advantage she certainly held.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

"Of course." There was a reason Akure Executive was growing in its activity with the Alliance. They were able to see tendencies and trends with quite some ease, as a result AEI had expanded its more... neutral activities. It wouldn't be a big issue to assemble individuals who would pass through extensive scrutiny; marginally clean force signatures, no corruption inward or outward, just men and women who viewed the Force as a tool.

Or a sensor, depending on the sentient.

But while she looked over the form the idol was taking -- strangely enough it was starting to look like a bantha -- at the back of her head analytics were starting to work.

It wasn't done on purpose, but her brain just needed to work on things she saw.

[member="Ajira Cardei"] had hubris in spades, this much was clear, and perhaps not entirely undeserved. A conqueror with a new face, in-hiding and exiled, yet... where was she hiding? Naboo, that was the most obvious suggestion; Cardei had always believed in a more local approach than most. She wouldn't have taken a keen interest in the world, if she wasn't on top of it in one way or another. Then, the role she was playing... no servant, that was for sure.

Could be a noble, could be a business owner, but something that projected power without actually being in constant limelight. Not a Queen, then, but someone prominent enough to satisfy her urge for control and to feed that same hubris. She seemed to have picked a colored body again, if Ceri recalled correctly there was a time when Ashin Varanin had been anything but that.

It was all data. And while her hands worked on the bantha, her mind was off trying to form connections.

The gloves cooled down the idol, it wasn't ready yet and it would take time for it to be anything like what she wanted, but this was a good start. Now it was time to refine it, to pour power through the right lines -- contrary to Varanin, she didn't have a practically unlimited amount of energy to draw from.

But that was the difference; she didn't need to. This wasn't brute-forcing power into the matrix and strengthening it that way, no, this was subtle, it was guiding it where it was most needed.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

For her part, Ajira had known that Cerita would poke into her identity the moment Ajira had recognized her. Sarova was a clone of Circe Savan, and Savan had never been able to resist someone else's secret. Hence the wrapped face to spark curiosity. Hence the deliberate mention of Naboo, the contract between Akure and an association whose interests could be traced, eventually, to Theed Hangar. Eventually, Sarova would discover Lady Ajira Cardei, a fairly senior official within the Engineering Corps. She would recognize that the path had been laid out for her. She would know that Ajira knew, and that in the end, Ajira didn't care.

Because she would recognize that if Ajira's cover identity was compromised in any way traceable to her or to Akure, there would be consequences of the most severe variety.

Ajira didn't see that as worth explaining. It should have been obvious. Instead, she put her whole focus on the sword. She hadn't become what she was by worrying.

The Svolten rhyolite grinder put an eversharp edge on the blade and accentuated the forged curve. All she had for quenching was melted snow, but she'd made do. Ritual demanded 'blood spilled in anger' as the quenching fluid, so she'd added some of her own, nurtured by her own constant, simmering rage. Fittings would have to wait for another day: this was a gray blade and a broad tang, nothing more. The color came from the Forge's bar stock and immersion in its liquid crystal channel. She placed it against another piece of bar stock, hammered the other side, and noted no chip or dent in either edge: the alchemy had taken and taken well. The blade had carved a deep divot in the stock, and dulled a thin stripe on the edge of the glossy anvil. That took some doing: the Forge's bar stock was comprised of the same rare elements as a classical Sith blade.

In terms of proportion, the blade didn't match the poorly balanced, crude classical forms. Virtually every ancient Sith sword, taken solely as a sword, was objectively terrible.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

There was power in the little things.

This was something Cerita knew from experience and it rang through even now. She wasn't really paying attention to what [member="Ajira Cardei"] was forging beside her, from the corner of her eye she saw a blade taking form and from peripheral sense it was clearly a quality work, yet, most of her attention was placed in front of her. On the little totem taking form within her hands and the subtle shifts in power around the metal.

The initial shaping of metal was a success, the matrices had aligned quite well and as a result it would be difficult to destroy it.

Unless there were a few Jedi Masters laying around with time to kill, they could probably wreck it with a concentrated barrage of Force Light. That was always the sad thing about indestructible force alchemy - the Lightside could always break it, if enough time and effort was put into it.

But now it was about refinement.

Where Varanin applied brute force with the... Force, Cerita honed the effects of the totem through introspection and patience. Layer upon layers were meticulously applied. Her eyes were closed, the totem was resting easily on the palms of her hands and in the distance she could hear a hammering.

Like the beating of a heart against her eardrums.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

In due course, Ajira held a functional blade, a very strong one. When she looked over at the amulet Sarova had been crafting, however, she was hard-pressed to say that either creation was objectively superior.

"I'd call that a tie," she said, voice dry. "So here's what I propose. We move the Forge to a neutral location. Each of us marks it with a blood trail -- I assume you know how to do that, being Rave Merrill's student. Each of us uses the Forge anytime we like. If we share it with anyone else, we clear it with each other first. Is that compromise acceptable to you?"