Organizing the Contract

[all_the_worlds_have]

A door appears in space nearby Lantern. If they check, they'll find that it only exists from one side.

A glass doorknob exposes the internal mechanism of the lock, all brass pins and needless gears.

Comments

[kelardry]

Lantern sees the door appear, forward and to one side of the entrance to their house. They pause to admire the lock, then open the door and walk through.

[all_the_worlds_have]

The room beyond is a comfortable office, lit by a wheel-shaped chandelier. It sheds light in complex whorls and knots, leaving little afterimages chasing after every movement.

A woman sits beneath this chandelier, a rose-vine pen digging thorns into her hand as she writes out contracts in suspiciously-colored ink. She sits in a crystalline throne, veins of red light shifting beneath the glass in response to her slightest motion. A vine-backed chair sits across the iron desk from her, ornamental rose-blossoms carved into the dark wood.

The walls around her are covered with intricately monochrome stained-glass murals, which seem to shift from moment to moment. The single window in the western wall looks out onto a plain of shattered glass, which rolls rhythmically, like breathing or a heartbeat.

The silver-haired woman looks up from her work, and sets down her pen. She beckons with a smile.

"You must be Lantern. Come in, have a seat!"

[kelardry]

Lantern quickly glances around the room, then looks twice at the chandelier, walls, and window, trying to memorize what they look like without staring, while walking into the room.

Lantern smiles back, and carefully sits in the flower-decorated chair.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva clenches her hand momentarily, and the small puncture-marks in her hand from her pen disappear. She leans forwards over the desk.

"So, I'm told that you can do temporary conjurations to an extremely high degree of accuracy. Would you care to conjure something that requires that high degree of accuracy for me?"

[kelardry]

Lantern waves agreement. Now, what to create... An extremely spherical ball of steel, like practice, would be easier, less interesting, less informative. Better to create art.

Lantern starts to construct a shape in their mind, starting as a rough and blobby cube. They occasionally blink, and continue to breathe slowly.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva sits and watches.

Nothing much appears to happen.

After about a minute or so, she coughs politely.

"Sorry to interrupt you while you're working, but how long do you expect this to take?"

[kelardry]

Lantern manages to keep a flicker of irritation hidden as they lose concentration and the potential conjuration vanishes from their mind. She lacks knowledge of conjuration, precision, is not intentionally rude, offered apology.

"Accuracy, has requirement, time, effort, concentration." A clear sphere of glass and something that looks like plastic appears in the air, connected by twisting strings to three smaller blobs of the same substance, before disappearing.

They think for a few moments. They create a small clear blob. "Ten splinters, twenty-five splinters. Acceptance?" Two slightly larger blobs appear next to the first blob, first to the right, and then to the left of it.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Acceptance."

Eva returns to her paperwork, glancing at Lantern every now and then.

[kelardry]

They go back to concentrating on their conjuration, forming a shape in their mind, a thin rectangle of bronze, topped with and fused to a thinner sheet of steel, 0.375 micro-peilenu thick, to allow for some error, with gaps intentionally left in the steel. They carefully consider the potential conjuration, specifying exact dimensions in the places their mind wants to gloss over, forcing the edges back within where they should be, stopping the steel from tapering near the edges of the holes, bringing each shape to distinction without allowing any pieces to slip into indefinite assumption. When everything seems to be correct, Lantern pushes the conjuration into reality.


There is now a tiny rectangle on Eva's desk. It is about the size of a thumbnail, in a dark brown metal, topped by an extremely thin layer of a lighter metal. There are gaps in the lighter metal, forming a slightly abstract, swirly representation of the door's locking mechanism.

It has been about 12 splinters.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva looks up from her work as the conjuration appears.

Her lips form a little 'o' shape.

"You can conjure abstract art?"

[kelardry]

Lantern tilts their head in confusion.

"Yes?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Most conjurors can only do copies of existing things. What are your limitations?"

[kelardry]

"Conjuration limitations, mental, visualization, working memory, attention, meticulousness, composition-understanding, focus, energy, similar," A clear sphere appears in the air in front of them, connected by a straight string to a cluster of smaller spheres below it and to the right. "physical, about twice human mass, matter only, no already-glazed glass, physical possibility." Another small cluster of spheres appears, attached to the first sphere by a straight thread, this time below it and to the left.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva nods.

"I see. The mass-limitation might reduce the value of your skill somewhat, but given your high accuracy and arbitrary shaping, we can still likely use your talents."

[kelardry]

"Agreement. Interest, specific intended use is?" A slightly blue-tinted clear sphere appears, connected by two thin threads to a small clear blob, in turn connected to a flat, clear circle.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"We have conjurors who can produce objects that already exist instantaneously. With your talent for conceptual sculpture..."

She presses her fingers together.

"...Let's just say we have so many uses for it that we'll probably have to pay you in god-chron, or else be accused of blantant unfairness."