Nymph disappeared between the leaves only for the plants to part moments later. I did not see her. There was just enough space for me to enter the grove.

“Don’t stray!”, she sent.

I affirmed mentally and stepped into the opening. After a few steps, I was led to the right. The ground lowered into a ditch which soon turned into a cave. Or a cellar. Roots covered the walls and luminous bulbs of some kind of plant I could not place lit up the room. All kinds of things were sorted around the walls and ground. A little to my left, I spotted the mantis sitting next to a white log. It was about one metre long and about as wide around as my body. The fine black and purple spots as well as the clean aura emanating from it made it obvious. This was the silverwood I needed.

I hesitated. Did Nymph plan to just give me something this valuable?

“Come”, she beckoned.

“Is this it? It’s a little much for what I need.”

She nodded.

“I only have this one piece. It was offered to me 50 years ago. The dwarves wanted me to try and grow more from it but without a sapling or some kind of seed, I couldn’t do anything.”

“It still has a powerful aura.”

“Right. That’s why I kept it. It helps reduce the nearby flux. Do you think you can make that wand from this?”

“Yes. What do you want in return?”

She looked at me.

“I… want to travel. But I don’t want to give up my node.”

I blinked.

“You’re Serrington’s Guardian. Can you really just leave?”

“Not for long. But I want to see some places.”

“That sucks.”

We stopped talking for a moment, both considering the piece of wood.

“Will you tell the dwarves?”, I asked.

“I… should. But I don’t want to. They’ll be fine. This city is fortified well enough. It’s no longer the tiny village that needed my protection and assistance at every step.”

“At least tell your friends.”

She looked at me.

“Alright.”

Once again, we fell silent. I examined the silverwood in more detail. It had a beautiful aura emanating from its bark, almost like it shone peace and order into the world. I could imagine how a fully grown tree would clean the world of flux and taint. But I was confused about how to handle the material. I needed to cut the wood into a workable piece and then make my infusion altar. To turn it into a wand core that could actually store vis I had to infuse one of each primal shards, a lot of magic and aura essence and something called a primal core. A small artificial gem not too different from my wand focus. This one held a balanced crystal surrounded by one of each primal and held together with gold. It would take some time to get there. I also needed some salis mundus, which was ground balanced shards, to make wand caps. Those would allow for easier channelling of vis and let one affix a focus. The common material used was gold but I had access to the better version, thaumium.

“I’m not sure how to work the wood”, I sent.

“Didn’t you have that ocelot friend who loves carving?”

“Vivi! Right. She’ll help me out. But… Do you want the rest of the silverwood back?”

“Yes. That would be great.”

Then I had an idea.

“Or… I could use it to upgrade the vis interceptor. Hmm… Yes. That should work. With thaumium and silverwood in conjunction, it can probably draw in all kinds of magic. A pure silverwood version might be able to only drain flux.”

“I do not want you wasting this material. Something like probably will not convince me.”

I blinked.

“Right. Well, I’ll see if there’s something good.”

I pulled out the Thaumonomicon from my storage, Nymph eyeing my every move carefully. After a few minutes of looking through the tome, I found what I was looking for.

“Here it is! Flux scrubber! A device with the sole purpose to clean up flux and turning it into potentia essence. It needs two vis filters which are made with gold and silverwood. It doesn’t actually need all that much. I can make a dozen with this one log, I think.”

“And what am I supposed to do with the essence?”

“You can sell it to an artificer. Or I can make a void jar that pumps any excess straight into the Empty.”

She rubbed her face with a scythe.

“What do I do with you. Fine. Do as you wish. Just make sure you can let me move my node.”

I bobbed my head.

“I’ll do that.”

Nymph stepped aside and moved the roots holding the silverwood log. I walked up and had my shadows carefully hold onto it. It was a bit of a struggle but still easier to put into storage than my crucible.

The mantis guided me out of her grove and I said my goodbyes. She was not looking all that confident but I felt a hopeful tug on our telepathic connection as she disconnected.

It was late afternoon which meant I could arrive at Borsdown in the late evening. The world was still covered in snow but it was no longer getting more. In a week or two, it would start to melt.

The flight was uneventful and when I arrived, there was still light in the workshop of Vivi’s house. I entered through the front door after ringing the vis-powered doorbell. It was locked but I simply shifted inside. I did not want to sit in the cold. Safrah came out of the kitchen moments later, hands wet with water. I greeted her with a hoot.

“Oh, Fio! It’s a little late, isn’t it? Make yourself comfortable, I’m just gonna finish up the dishes.”

I nodded and walked upstairs. With my new size, the dwarven steps were only a little awkward to climb, rather than impossible.

As I sat in the living room, I noticed there was a couch that looked decidedly unused. Next to it stood an armchair with a blanket hanging off one side and on the other side was a pile of pillows with some loose cat hair here and there. I also found a wooden beam held up a few centimetres above ground. It looked rather comfortable and I stood on top, gripping onto it with my talons.

I must have dozed off for a moment because I was woken up by Safrah gently pushing my shoulder.

“We got another one of those in the attic. You can come and go however you want. Vivi usually sleeps on the pillows or in my bed.”

I tried to blink the sleep from my eyes before giving up and nodding. Somehow, I made my way upstairs. Vivi was working on the owl figure, trying to fix one of my steel and glass feathers to the wood. She was so focused I did not want to disturb her so I simply found my way to the attic and got some rest.

The night was refreshing and the morning tea especially so. Vivi slept in and once she finally got up, I dragged her into the workshop.

I connected to her mind using the supersensory matrix and felt it subpar. Having experience with both matrix and telepathy made me see how much my item disturbed one’s flux. Still, it was the best way for us to communicate so I pushed those thoughts aside. Maybe I could improve it after making my wand. And the infusion altar. Yes, that sounded like a good idea.

I told Vivi of my new plans and showed her the excavation focus. Soon, we were sitting next to the silverwood log, planning how to make the most of it. I showed her the design for the flux scrubbers and what I needed for the wand core and soon she got to work. I did not understand much about working wood so I simply stood back and watched. The ocelot used water to carefully cut off the bark and then cut it along the lines. Maybe this would be something I had to do again.

Safrah brought us something to drink and some food for Vivi around lunchtime. She stayed with us for the afternoon, entranced by either the silverwood or Vivi’s skills and Skills going at it.

By evening, we had everything we needed. A set of twenty blocks to turn into vis filters and three very straight wand cores ready to be infused. That was the distribution we came up with. Nymph should get something more than just a few flux scrubbers for herself. She would get six, with Vivi and myself taking two each. Then, I would make three silverwood wands, one for everyone. Vivi and Safrah had to share theirs for whatever they wanted to do.

This was my return gift for Nymph. I would teach her the basics of thaumaturgy, or rather, vis manipulation. With that, she would be able to move her node without my help. Then, I froze. How big would that node be when it was locked in a jar? Would Nymph even be able to transport it? Well, even if not, she could figure something out. Or I could go back to making that storage item I tried back then. That would alleviate any issues the mantis had with moving things around.

The next thing to do was to make an infusion altar. I also needed a set of arcane alembics to distil essence. They needed vis filters as well, but I knew how to get around that. Unless the ork’s mansion had been reoccupied. Even then, I could surely find some unoccupied thaumaturge’s mansion in their valley. That might also be a good source for a runic matrix and everything else I needed for my infusion altar.

With the work done, we realized it was dark outside. I decided to spend another night. And then the morning as well. We got talking about nothing of importance over breakfast and simply kept at it. Then, at some point, an interesting question came up.

“So, what are you going to do now, Safrah? Did you find something you enjoy?”, I asked.

She dodged my eyes.

“Sort of… I’ve been reading some of the Thaumonomicon and cross-referencing the ideas and information with books about artificing from the library. There’s… a lot more crossover than I expected.”

“Well, yes. Thaumaturgy is the pinnacle of all magic. Artificing, brewing, infusion, alchemy and all the others are part of it. It’s not surprising you would find parallels.”

She nodded.

“That’s what I found as well. And still, thaumaturgy seems to lack… something. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it’s too… simple? I don’t know.”

“I think I know what you mean. Thaumaturgy strives for the absolute truth, the most dangerous knowledge. The simpler disciplines, taken without the context of the others, are much more practical for everyday use. A thaumaturge usually only works to further his own research or power. That’s all they care about.”

“So… thaumaturgy is an inherently selfish discipline? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Sort of? Yeah, I guess.”

I tilted my head. Where was she going with this?

“Mhm. It’s good to have confirmation. I was looking to make something in between. A sort of collaboration between the disciplines for the bettering of the community. I want to take some basic ideas and expand them for mass production and everyday use by normal dwarves. Or honorary dwarves.”

She gave me a wink.

“I think that’s what I want to do with my life.”

I hooted softly.

“That’s admirable but don’t forget to do things for yourself, okay? And be careful with how deep you dive into the subjects of magic. There’s some real danger on the other side.”

She nodded.

“Thank you for worrying. I’ll be fine. I got Vivi to hold me back.”

“That’s exactly why I’m worried”, I sent.

Mreeow!

The ocelot jumped me and playfully swiped the back of my head. We all had a good laugh at her expense. Soon after, I decided it was time to take off again. I needed a suitable place for my infusion altar.