I had planned to immediately start reading more but my flux overcharge prevented me from using [Owl’s Shadow] to turn the pages. I would have to rest until my body expelled the excess mana. This would take a day or two and there was nothing I could really do about it. The node was broken so even getting distance would not help. I had to just sit tight.

The ork was doing his research again. He had a lot of notes written down and was going through them making notes here and there. This would probably take a while. I could read along and try to figure things out as well. Before that, there was one thing I should have probably done a little earlier.

[Identify]

Species: Ork (adult)

Age: 36

Name: Ignas

Gender: male

I had thought about trying to hide my use of the Skill but as soon as I started considering it I got a monstrous headache. The ork, Ignas, obviously reacted. As soon as my [Identify] triggered, he jumped back, forgetting he sat on a chair, and tumbled all over it. Groaning, he sat up.

“Fuck. Don’t scare me like that. Next time I might blast you.”

I tilted my head. He was the first to [Identify] without asking. Of course, I would do it back. I let out another metallic hoot. This sound was fun. Maybe I should stay like this?

Ignas had gotten up and put the chair back. He stood leaning on its backrest and fixed my eyes with his.

“Don’t interrupt my research. I will retaliate. And I will not complain about having some metal feathers. I can already think of some uses for them.”

Fine. Stuck up idiot. I nodded my head and jumped off the table. There was no need to stay near him when he was this grumpy. The ork went back to his parchment head shaking and grumbling to himself. I studiously ignored him and found myself something else to do. Only there was nothing I could really do without my shadows. At least [Sneak] kept my steps silent.

I circled the room and inspected everything in more detail. My eyes worked just fine and straining my senses for magic did not cause a headache. The oven on the left-hand wall was my first interest. It had an opening near the ground, burned leftovers from whatever magical fuel it used clung to the insides. It was not coal or wood, there was no soot. Instead, silver-grey dust thinly layered the stone. Above, another opening sat. This one had a hatch locked with a bolt. It was slightly below my head so I could easily open it with my beak. Inside, a brass bowl sat. I spotted a few holes around it, maybe for heat to move more easily. Above, an opening led into the alembic, again through a brass pipe. It was split in two. Looking above I spotted a pipe lead straight into the alembic above and another one going around into the one on top. I wondered how exactly anything could be split reliably with such a system. Then I turned on my magic sense.

The alembics and pipes had magic in them. It seemed to be there for containment. More interesting were the insides of the oven. The bowl was giving off a strong magical feel of alchemy. There were some invisible traces connecting it to the pipes above and in between, I spotted remnants of heat. Not actual warmth, just the aspect of fire. Some of it flowed through the insides of the furnace as if waiting to be ignited. Looking even further below, the dust had aspects of heat, destruction and energy. Whatever was used to fire this thing had to be created magically. Only a node might be able to create such a concentration of energy naturally.

This was clearly not a baking oven. It probably had some magical purpose. Maybe it could combine aspects? Or infuse energy into something? Or maybe it was for distilling magic from objects? I had a little more to look at with this contraption. After all, the alembics were connected to a whole network of pipes and valves. In between and on the ground a number of jars stood, all of them about 25 centimetres tall. They held differing amounts of colourful liquids, each corresponding to the mana I felt. Silver liquid for metal, green for plants, brown for trees, yellow for air, black for destruction and so forth.

The whole thing was a complete mess. I had trouble figuring out the paths anything was supposed to take through this network. It almost looked like that old screensaver only without any of the pipes ever disappearing. Any junction had valves to regulate the flow into one or the other direction. It was too complicated to figure out. I planned to read up on this, at least a bit. This kind of contraption had always fascinated me. I was confident in my interest waning once I had a better idea of the basics though.

For now, there was nothing to learn from here without starting to turn the valves which was looking impossible without my shadows. Again. I had come to rely on that Skill way too much. But what else could I do? I had no opposable thumbs after all.

There was more interesting stuff in this room. The pedestals and the central pillars drew my attention next. I went around slowly, studying the whole arrangement. It looked almost too symmetrical to be built by a human, more so an ork. The square pedestals formed a perfect circle always pointing a flat side to the centre. In between floating flames blistered about. Even their flickering held a steady rhythm as if the light knew not to disrupt this order. Lines of metal were worked in the ground as well, though I only spotted them now. They were worked to look exactly like the stone around them and formed a fancy pattern of squares and triangles in between pedestals and pillars.

The pillars themselves also had square bases. From there they looked like spines of stacked stones, thinning towards the top and bent inwards as if defying gravity. They pointed at the floating cube which was made of eight smaller cubes. They floated in the air, one point each of the whole straight down and up with the other four slowly rotating around. Every side of the smaller cubes had runes carved into them and lined with crystal. It looked to me someone had taken mana crystals and ground them down to fit the runes. The whole structure had a powerful feeling of magic to it.

Right beneath the floating cube, a final pedestal sat. This was where all the magic accumulated. The point of this structure. Strands of power connected the outer pedestals to the central. This was what let the mage I spied on before combine other items into something new. The jars instead of being carried around by golems were filled up using the piping system. That meant the oven had to be for breaking down objects into their magical aspects. Their essence so to speak.

I felt really smart to have learned all that just from observation. The only bummer was I had no idea how to actually use this thing. I could only go for trial and error, but that could likely lead to creating loads of flux. I hoped the magic book would give me some ideas about it.

This was really fun. Maybe magic should be my hobby. Instead of randomly killing people to grow stronger, I could create devices of destruction yet unseen! Well, the resources needed for something like this were likely difficult to acquire for an owl. I needed some sort of supply network. Which meant interacting with people. At least I could make myself understood using writing. That should let me get what I needed, most of the time. Although, considering the technological level I had seen up to this point the literacy rate might not be very high…

Now I had gone through all the things I could easily reach. I was still exhausted and sore from the flux in my body but it was less intense than last time. Even though this was a major node. Maybe what I had done to my soul was helping?

I focused inwards and felt for the flux. It was spread out all throughout myself, just like before. It was not still and stuck, though. The energy moved within my body, parts flowing outwards through my feathers while most turned around my inner gate in a spiralling motion. It formed a shape very similar to what I had built in myself while unconscious. There was no energy actually going inside but it did seem to diminish faster than last time. Maybe the movement pushed it out of my body more quickly?

It would be great if there was a way to accelerate the process further, but as soon as I focused my will a headache brought me down. Rest it was.

I had found myself a place where the node sat before. The stabilizing device was interesting but it looked like I had broken it. The cuboids I had removed from the sides were now cracked and weakened as if magic was leaking from them. I had brought them over to the ork who placed them on his desk mumbling something about revising the whole thing. Maybe it was not supposed to break?

I had spent two nights in this place now, getting fed every once in a while. My flux overcharge was still active but it felt much weaker. I should be able to use my Skills again in a few hours at worst. Similarly, my mind was less sluggish. I finally found the time to try and understand my body more thoroughly. This metallized and crystallized Status did not look to be changing at all. My feathers were still metal and glass. A pattern had formed, with the metal framing mosaic-like glass panes as if instead of feathers I had old church windows all over my body. Only there were no depictions of saints or religion but rather a colourful mix of fractal patterns.

On my body itself, the feathers were formed differently. Fine metal wire stood on crystal shafts to form a shiny but still somewhat soft down. I decided to start [Preening] with my metal beak. Carefully I went through my plumage making sure to avoid breaking any of the glass. I was somewhat worried about my ability to fly with a body this heavy. Though there should be a way to get back to my original form. I even had an idea of how to go about it. I only needed to wait out this last bit of flux overcharge.