Chapter 8: Chapter seven – My own forms

The best thing besides magic that I got for coming here is, by a long shot, shapeshifting. I was hardly ever limited by size, the only limitations are the amount of food and Makt you have. Making use of this, I looked to be about 20, even if my body was much younger. This is hardly ever done, as most parents don’t tell their kids that you can change size, and the kids that do know don’t see the point. Another thing - though the mechanics of it are still lost on me - is that every Av Utsiden has a form of core, a super condensed mass of body material. The only way I can think of this working is with all of us having at least a bit of space affinity, and naturally using it to form said core. 

I have a theory that pertains to why, if everyone has space affinity, can’t everyone use space magic? I believe that affinities act like channels, you have a set amount that can go through at once, up to a certain point, then those channels become obsolete. It’s like comparing an old dial-up connection - a barely there affinity - to a four channel fiber-optics connection - a near-perfect affinity. That perfect affinity is so rare though, that only a few people, in the history of the world, have ever had it. Therefore, all of the magic that can go through that tiny, nearly useless connection in many people, goes into compressing their core.

Tangent now over, I begin making my forms. The first, a masculine form, I make rather tall, nearly two meters. The shoulders are somewhat broad, leading to a rather narrow waist and hips, and long legs. I decided to keep the human appearance that most of my peers held, and shaped the facial features to be quite handsome, but not particularly so. I added hair as well - I had seen some people while walking that had some - but kept it short. I also changed the main color there to blue, going as light as I could, though that wasn’t saying much.

 The feminine form that I made was about the same height, just barely shorter. I made the shoulders more narrow, continuing with slender arms and hands, and rather small breasts; I had never been a fan of how people looked with massive breasts. I made the hips larger, and thighs on the way to thick, leading down to nice and toned legs. The features that I made were very beautiful, cute one moment, but I could get them to be harsh the next. I lengthened the hair to about the midpoint of back and shoulders, and kept the color the same, but with waviness.

I figured that I would make a gradient as I felt like it, but a middle ground would be nice to have from the start, so I continued. This form was about two meters, and had shoulders that were almost broad, no breasts, and slight hips and thighs. I again made the facial features, this time going with a sharp, slightly closer to feminine than masculine, look. In keeping with my vanity, I made the face beautiful too, but with sharper features than the others. For the hair this time, I made it about shoulder length, and tried to get it to naturally spike out messily near the end. 

Finally done, I go out to find a maid to get the family tailor that we have on retain. I don’t usually have much say, but I do ask for some more feminine styles for both my androgynous and female forms, and masculine for the androgynous and male. I figured that I would wear skirts or something when feeling almost feminine, along with a shirt of some sort, and trousers and a shirt when I was feeling almost masculine. Or any combination of the styles, who knows?

About 30 minutes later, the measurements of all my body types were done, and I was finally free to go out into the city. I figured that if I was getting clothes done, I needed armor too. I also wanted to get an opinion on the steel that I used, so I quickly made a bar pattern in my design rune, and got it memorized.

 My style was more of a lighter armor, not heavy and mildly restricting plate, so with that in mind, I went into the first armorer that I found. The weapons on display were all of seemingly high quality, well shaped and with fine edges. I still think that my blade is better though, if only because of its tailoring, enchantments, and edge. There wasn’t much armor on display, so I went over to the counter to ask. There was a little bell on the table, so I rang it, and after waiting a few seconds, a Gruvefolket came hurrying over. As I stared, taking in the short stature, light gray skin, and glassy obsidian-like hair, he cleared his throat and gruffly said “First time seeing one of my kind?”

Taking a moment to respond, I bluntly replied with “Yes.”

He blinked, before chuckling and saying “Well, I’m Drosk, you?”

“Drosk. Nice to meet you, I’m Ikke.” I said, smiling a bit.

“Well, pleasantries now done, what do you need?”

“Armor, and a few weapons, though I have ones I would like you to copy.” I said, taking my sword and dagger out of their sheaths.

“Well, that’s some fine blades you got there, but why would you want them remade?” he said, eying the weapons for a bit, before looking at me again.

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I sighed, saying “Two reasons. One, they aren’t actually forged, but created, and two, I want a professional opinion on the material used.” 

He looked at me in shock, saying “Creation magic that detailed? Do you have the Rune? Just for curiosity’s sake. And, yeah, I’d love to work on a blade like that, it seems complex and fun.”

“Yeah, I do. Four layers in total. I’ll pay either way, but I definitely need armor more.” I said, before nearly casting the rune, and using one of my enchantment perks, put it onto a piece of paper. He stared at it, lost for a minute, then grabbed a large bar of what looked to be steel, and placed the talisman on top. It sank in like it was going into water, and the metal dissolved into motes of light, forming into the shape of the dahong palay that I use. He watched the whole process with amazement, then looked at me, excitement shining in his eyes. He quickly shook it off though, and got back to business. 

“I’m going to ask you to move around in the way you usually would during a fight, so that I can get a good idea of your needs. Is that good with you?” he asks, already heading out to a back courtyard.

I follow him, and at his gesture, go into the center to demonstrate some basic moves and slashes, before miming a close quarters fight. He is nodding along to most of it, though seems curious at my demonstration of taking weapons and moving limbs out of the way. 

“Yeah, I got a pretty good idea of what you need. Follow me, we can get you something as a mock-up.” He said, and walked to the other side of the courtyard, to a small warehouse.

Getting out a brigandine tasset, similar in style to the bottom of formal coats here, which happen to be very similar to tailcoats, he tells me to try it on. Going back to the racks and stands, he also gets a brigandine vest, and a pair of vambraces with three sections, and metal plates on each. Putting those on too, with a decent amount of help, I tested my movement, finding hardly any restrictions. Seeing no complaints from me, he went back in, and came out holding a pile of pauldrons, grieves, and separate poleyns. They were all in the same style, multiple overlapping plates of leather with metal on top, and once on, did little to inhibit movement. This came as a bit of a shock, until I saw space enchantments on them that changed their size to fit the wearer.

“Yeah, something along these lines would be great. Maybe with this same size enchantment, though I can probably do it myself eventually.” I said. I’m really glad I don’t have to get three different armors and have them feel weird in between the gradients, that would be such a pain, though I might have to get two chest pieces, for masculine and feminine forms. 

He looked at me sideways for a second, then shrugged and got on with the questions about style. I mostly said that I wanted something practical, not shiny, lightweight but protective, and with really good forearm protection, as I use them to move blades out of the way frequently. Other than that, nothing mattered much to me, so I casted the pre-prepared runes for some steel bars, and handed them off to the smith. “If these are good, tell me when I come to pick stuff up, and we can talk business about them. If not, recommendations would be much appreciated. And the heat treating for this metal is all over the place, you need to stay at 900 for about an hour, then cool from there going down to 65 C over two hours, a two hour cool cycle at -75 C, and a five hour aging cycle at 500 C.” His eyes widened at my talk, and he pulled out a small notebook to begin scribbling down everything I said.

“I’ve never even heard of a metal needing something like that!” he exclaimed, then fell into thought, muttering about experimentations.

“Am I good to leave?” I asked, and upon being met with more muttering, I sighed, and left a note about my address and family name, Ogólny. Apparently that was a big deal, as anytime I said that before, people freaked out, and scrambled to be polite. I kind of hated that, so I didn’t mention it often. In this case though, I didn’t want to have to go through the struggles of greedy business partners, even though Drosk didn’t seem the sort.

Getting back home, I talked with Hanna until dinner, then with my family, then slept.

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