The artificer’s workshop was just as I remembered. The only differences were the layer of snow on top of the roof and the piles on the sides of the road. The display room was filled with the same things I had seen the last time. As I entered, I spotted Lora sitting at the counter brooding over some kind of ledger. She looked up as the door clicked close behind me.

“Oh, Fio. It’s been so long! How are you doing?”

Her smile seemed a little strained.

“I’m good. How are you?”

“Fine, fine. Salvad is being a bit crazy but that’s nothing unusual.”

Her husband?

“Sounds tough. Hang in there!”

“Hmpf. You’re one to talk. You brought this on me.”

She smirked.

“What did I do now?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe, you brought an insanely useful item and made my husband go crazy trying to procure more of it?”

“Are you talking about the crucible?”

“No! That damn thaumium! Why is it so expensive?”

“Can’t you just buy a bunch of vis crystals? I taught him how to make more.”

She sighed.

“I wish it was that easy. We can only really get aqua and terra crystals locally. Ignis is used enough that we have a stockpile but the other aspects are just too difficult to source.”

“I might have good news, then.”

At her sudden glare, I took a half-step back.

“Shoot.”

“I made a deal with Servin. The merchant I left town with. He’s going to procure sets of vis crystals, an equal amount of every aspect. Some of those can go to Riggard.”

“Haaa. Fine.”

She deflated on her chair.

“That’s still gonna take another five months or so, at the very least.”

“He said he’s gonna try to get here before Stormbringer’s summer pass and leave to Trade Town right after.”

“Good. That’s at least something for my husband to look forward to. Sorry for being so… focused on business. What have you been up to, dear?”

Her face had softened considerably. I eased up as well and recounted my adventures since leaving Borsdown. Of course, I kept Nymph’s identity a secret, but Lora was still amazed when I told her I had met Serrington’s Guardian. When I reached the end and told of my plans to help the goblin village, she scrunched her face in thought.

“That’s a noble goal, Fio. Have you thought it through properly? Goblins aren’t the most… trustworthy, if you allow.”

“I know. They’re pretty decent, though. They were the first people I met. The village is a very nice community. Even the one that tried to go behind my back apologized after she realized just how smart I am. With a bit of help, they might even be able to integrate into dwarven society.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“I find it hard to believe that. But I won’t stop you if you think it’s the right thing to do. Now, I take it you want my husband’s help with something, right?”

“Thank you. And yes. I want to know about the paving stones stopping the quarry from growing too far. And about harvesting setups for crystals from a focused node, like the one at the lake.”

“Okay, then. Follow me, I’ll bring you to his current project. It’s a little larger so he’s working in one of the big workshop rooms.”

She led me down the hallway past the room we had used to build the vis interceptor. After a turn through a door, we were in an open-roofed corridor. It reached up to the top of the building, the two floors only used as such in the part behind us. To the left and right, walls separated workspaces. Some of them had larger constructions showing above. Hammering, clinging and sawing could be heard from all around. I had to take a moment to get used to the noise. There was a thin haze of flux near the roof lit up by light crystals fastened to it. I saw a bunch of brass pipes and artefacts fixed to the ceiling. Most of those would be to catch the harmful magic and repurpose or store it somewhere it could do no harm.

We passed by two work areas before Lora opened a door to our right. As I entered, my vision was filled with something from a steampunk movie. A huge monstrosity of brass and steel, cogs and gears clinking, pipes everywhere, stood in the middle of the working area. Most of its mass was concentrated in a complicated construction near the bottom. It would be easy to fix a plate on top and stand right above. In the middle of the two shorter sides, two pillars reached upwards. Their tips had been visible from outside and they reached at least four metres high. Maybe it was a little less.

I looked around and could not find the dwarf until I focused my ears. There was clanging from inside the contraption that was not metal on metal. After Lora called out to her husband, his head popped out the top near the other side. He spotted me and broke into a huge grin.

“Ah! Fio! Wonderful! Look at this beauty!”

He scrambled out of the place he had dug himself into and made his way over to us. I hid a snort as he nearly stumbled on the corner.

“There, there. I am here. Ha! How are you doing you magnificent bird, you!”

He moved in for a hug which I expertly dodged. Not that I disliked hugging but he was filthy with dust. Not so much oil as I would have expected. Maybe he was not greasing the machine.

“I’m good. I see you’re good, too. What’s that monstrosity?”

“Yes! Well, sort of. I need a lot of thaumium. This is supposed to be the upscaled version of our vis interceptor. I want to try it with brass as well but thaumium would be much better.”

“What do you need this kind of thing for? And why all the gears?”

“Ah, yes, let me run you through it!”

And so he started talking. And he did not stop. I could have predicted that but I honestly did not mind. The goblins would still have a few days of food with what I left there. It was more than enough to return tomorrow. And so I listened to the artificer explain his newest insane ideas on how he was improving and adjusting the interceptor design.

It turned out upscaling the contraption was not as simple as ‘make it bigger’. One needed to adjust for longer conductors and larger dimensions of potentially caught energy. Otherwise, the artefact might just break apart or do nothing or flood the area with flux. The possibilities of what could go wrong were as numerous as the trees in the Dwarven Hills.

Most of the flaws could be worked out with additional conductors and adjusted placement of storage crystals. The biggest issue was actually where to put all the vis the artefact might intercept. Yes, the freed flux would be reduced with closer storage points but there was not enough space for vis crystals. One might be able to catch three or four times the energy as with the small design but that was just not worth the effort of building a house-sized artefact. Luckily, Riggard specialized in this kind of construction. He told me he had considered actually putting it into a house. The dwarves would normally use the walls to stabilize the flow over longer distances for things like doorbells or water pumps. That only worked with small amounts of vis. He had to add more constructs here and there to move the energies faster. I barely understood half of his explanations until the dwarf pulled up his blueprints and showed me the details.

It was honestly amazing. The way the multitude of gears and pipes interacted to move essence powering the machine which then could move around constructs to convert and store vis, avoiding the need for huge crystals that were nearly impossible to come by. I could not get enough of it.

After a while, Riggard’s wife interrupted us.

“Ahem. Are you done for now? Fio has something she wants to know.”

I blinked. Right. The pavement.

“What is it?”, Riggard asked.

I told him a short version of the goblin village and what I wanted to do. When I reached the point of keeping the node contained, I asked my question.

“So I was wondering if that pavement at the quarry could be used for that?”

The dwarf put a hand on his chin.

“Hmm. Yes? Somewhat. It should be possible to keep it from creating problems for the village. You won’t really be able to prevent the stone from growing within a certain radius. And from what you told me, that’s what you actually want, right?”

I nodded.

“Then you’ll have to dig another tunnel.”

I blinked. Then I half-flapped one of my wings.

“Me? Dig? Is there an artefact that can dig?”

“Not really, no. There’s stuff to move things around, as I’m sure you’ve seen, so at least you could get the rubble away easily. For digging itself, your best bet is to get a pick and go at it.”

I groaned. It came out as a raspy hoot.

“Oh.”

Riggard’s eyes widened as he looked at me.

“Wait, can’t your shadow things do that?”

“Too weak. It would take a year or something ridiculous like that.”

“A year’s fine. But yeah. I get what you’re saying. Isn’t there some thaumaturgy stuff you can do?”

I perked up. There definitely was thaumaturgy for digging. There was thaumaturgy for everything. I just had to figure out if I could do it. I hoped it did not require an infusion altar. Sourcing essence and vis from myself or crystals lying around was not easy.

I spent some more time talking to Riggard until I had a proper plan ready. I would dig a tunnel to the goblin village from the ravine. It would go far enough around the node for me to finish it before stone started to expand inside. Then, I could place the blocking pavement inside to make sure the tunnel wouldn’t close off. That required making the pavement, finding a way that let me dig the tunnel and learning how to actually do the digging. I saw a visit to the library, soon, and maybe I would go to Serrington. Nymph might have another idea. Earth was part of her Affinity.

I could not forget to deliver the food, either. I would use the next day to skim Borsdown’s library for books on digging and plans for the blocking pavement. Then I could fly off to deliver the next batch of food the day after. That would mean I could be in Serrington in… six days? Five if I skipped some rest. That sounded about right. If there was nothing in the local library, that would be the plan.

I said my goodbyes to the artificer’s and returned to Vivi’s house for the afternoon. It was nice to enjoy some rest with my friends. The next days would be busy, even if my flight was uninterrupted.