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[sythyry]

Festina Lente [4 Thory 4385]

I called it Festina Lente: "Make Haste Slowly." Which isn't precisely what is intended by the original aphorism, but it will do well enough for a name. It is not my best work, but it is tolerably good, nonetheless.

I had Kantele call in a few Eigrach notables for the formal presentation: Aiziju as a matter of professional courtesy, and Lord Bwipin to represent the busy Mayor Mmixamk, Muekar the duelist, and, of course, Rehit, the dour and rather elongated gentleRassy for whom the rapier was made and who will use it in duel-wars. We served light Mrasteain refreshments in one of our many parlors -- we carefully picked one that had a good deal of pirate damage, to remind them that work was to begin on Strayway as soon as the first of the magic weapons was delivered.

Me:"Rehit, once you are finished with the spicy mouse, if you will be so good as to open the long shallow ebony case on yonder cabinet..."

Rehit nodded, and strode over to the cabinet, flipped the two ornamental shell latches up, and threw open the casket. "Oh, shine thee Mircannis! It's beautiful!" I had expended artistry upon it, in my three-day afternoons. Technically I am a jeweller, and technically Festina Lente is a very large and very useful item of jewelry. The quillons and lower blade are set with fine golden and silver wires in fierce arabesques, and the brilliant dots of back-lit rubies to punctuate them, and the pommel is a drum-in-crown in ivory and iron.

I nodded, just a touch grimly. "I do not work by halves, Rehit. Take it up." He lifted it. It was perfectly suited to his hand -- unsurprising; it had been his second-best rapier before I started on it, and I had tuned it to him two parts more. "The secret commands: let me teach them to you." And then, a few minutes later, "Try a few passes at arms against Muekar."

They fought there, a whirling pointy whisperwind of quick weapons. Rehit was rash by design, and traded a slash on his knee for a little pinprick in Muekar's thigh. After which the tempo of the battle changed. Muekar lagged: not exhausted, but becalmed in the usual wind of time. Rehit sped up: not pressing the attack, even fighting a bit relaxedly, but far quicker.

"Point the first," I said. "Festina Lente can steal somewhat of your opponent's time. Just a second or two out of every six or eight: but enough to give you the time for several extra blows. Not necessarily even just on her; you are truly made swift; she is truly made slow. Indeed, you need not do this to your foe: you can steal from a friend as easily, or your foe's horse, and you will have speed though your foe does not have slowness."

Rehit stepped back, then charged at Muekar in a fleche that left a long wound in her arm. Muekar, still becalmed, parried as best she could; but by the time she got to riposte, Rehit was on her far side, and had his guard well up. "I know how to use that to considerable advantage, O wizard." Which he clearly did.

"Point the second, and lesser than the first:", I said, "Festina Lente can catch fire. She is not so fearsome as burning swords go, but she will not grow so hot as to hurt your hand as you wield her. Use this against foes too resistant to magic for the first power to work, or, if you are pressed, to take better advantage of the extra seconds you have from the time transfer.

Rehit nodded, and set Festina Lente ablaze, with a swirl of thready blue-white flames. "How about not burning me, Rehit?" asked Muekar, her voice a touch deep from lost time.

"Point the third and last and least:", I said, "Festina Lente can heal you a significant amount. It is only temporary healing, and, like many another temporary healing, the second use is lesser than the first, the third than the second, and the fifth nearly useless. Nonetheless, you may find that it lets you duel for some moments longer, and that may turn a loss to a victory. You carry the same spell bound on a bead on that cord about your waist; Festina Lente's spell is perhaps a half again as good as yours." (Dissecting someone else's bound spells at a glance across the room is definitely showing off, but this presentation was as much an act of dramaturgy as thaumaturgy.)

"I had not expected that," said Rehit. "We had discussed no such feature. I cannot complain; it is a bound spell I always carry, and often wind up using."

"At times the labor of enchantment goes better, at times it goes worse. When it goes better, you shall get laignappe," I said. "I am honest and generous." (Which is true, except when I'm not.) "Festina Lente has a single main limitation: Twelve uses of its powers each day. Total, not per power."

Aiziju, who knows more than most people about great enchantment, nodded. "I have heard a little of sharing charges."

"It seemed appropriate. Sometimes he will want one thing, other times another, other times a third. He can spend the rapier's force on whatever is most useful that day. As a dueling weapon, in particular, he is unlikely to encounter more than one or two battles in a day," I said. "More power is available, of course, but the cost would be higher, and it would be more than a single week's work, even for me."

Aiziju tugged her shorts down and scratched a brick-red buttock, which is very rude, but she can get away with it I suppose. "Which leads me to another point. You did this in a single week?"

"You listened to part of the discussions; you advised Rehit about the details of the flaming sword. I made it to your specifications, plus the laignappe. It has been only a bit more than a week since then."

"How did you do it in a week though? You weren't Orren-crafting it -- that would take you all day and all night, and I know for a fact you've been at the city at noontime and at the fortress in the early afternoon!"

I shrugged, flickering my wings so that the feathers gleamed in the light of the burning sword. "My grandparent Glikkonen could do more in a week, I'm sure. I am not the wizard zie is."

"Well, yes, you are not Glikkonen," she said, mollified enough to let me avoid the question. She is not Glikkonen either; but she worked as zir assistant for some long time. And did not learn many of his secrets of enchantment: as I understand, she assisted in matters of spell-invention, not enchantment.

Rehit turned to salute me with the sword's last flames. "O Zi Ri, I pronounce myself well-satisfied. You have worked wonders of enchantment and beauty; you have made miracles of speed and elegance. And you have been generous and forgiving beyond anything I could possibly expect."

"You are welcome, Rehit. Just don't ram this one through my ribcage, please. Once was enough."

I admit to being satisfied by the resulting wince.

Comments

[rowyn]

It was awfully good of you to make him a nice sword even after he tried to kill you. And it doesn't even bite him or cause him excruiating pain after each duel, or someother effect that would render it unpleasant to use but still technically just as useful. >:)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd started it beforehand, and there's no sufficiently-good way to change an enchantment in mid-working. I did go a bit overboard on the decorations afterwards. At the time I was thinking that was entirely a bit of revenge: every time he looks at his beautiful, powerful new weapon, he should think, "I stabbed the enchanter, and then this is what he did for me."

Two can play at this psychosocial warfare stuff!

[rowyn]

I hope Rehit is suitably susceptible to guilt!

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

Me, I wouldn't feel much guilt.

However, I might wonder about what surprises an enchanter I just lightly killed may or may not have left me in a weapon I'm supposed to be using in precipitous circumstances like a duel-war...

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well, even as a supreme Enchanter like Sythry has to admit that it was his own fault that he almost got killed that time. The poor ... umm... I forgot what Rehit is... I think Ramssiel? was only really doing it's job, even though it didn't realize there was no real danger.

It's like that police officer that shots that man waving around that replica assault rifle in the bad Halo Costume. Sure, afterwards you feel really bad and stupid, but at the time, there is this wacko waving a gun around!

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

The healing of several arrow-wounds is not the mighty threat. If the Rassimel wants to be brave, perhaps next time it attacks the nendrai who makes his cohorts disappear, not the Zi Ri who only wishes to not hurt so much.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

It makes perfect sense to attack the wizard that controls the demon, then attacking the demon itself. At least, under normal circumstances...

[rowyn]

Given that the steps Sythyry could have taken to prevent being stabbed were on the order of "refuse the mayor's invitation" and "persuade Vae to refuse the mayor's invitation", I don't really agree that this was all zir fault. I'll grant it's the mayor's fault and not Rehit's, since the mayor is the one who invited a nendrai but did not, in fact, want a nendrai to come or adequately brief his people about what this invitation entailed.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

I never said it was Zir fault. I just am saying that what the Bodyguard did was perfectly acceptable, and I would expect no less from a Civic Defender. If I saw a monster rampaging making sculptures out of people's kidneys, I dare say I would attack the demon and the wizard who controlled it, too.

I don't think it's right or fair to want revenge on someone who was actually, you know, doing their honest civic duty. Unlike some other Primes that this town has what come-up-tances. Rehit's just not one of them on the list.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, at least he's gracious enough to admit to his own fault in that... escapade.

As clients go, I imagine you could have worse, no?

So long as the proper payment is promptly forthcoming...

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Oh! You used the enchantment design idea! Most excellent. I thought it was a rather elegant solution and befitting of your personal style.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

1) That sounds like a fine weapon indeed!

2) *chuckle* I've gotten similar speed-related remarks about my poetry. "You wrote this in a DAY?" "Well, it was yesterday when you said you wanted a piece like that, so yes."

Re: Thoughts

[rowyn]

Though Sythyry's days are rather longer than most people's days, even if zie doesn't want to spread the knowledge of that tidbit. >:)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Orren-crafting?

From what you've said it sounds like you kind of are doing a sort of enchantment that takes all day and night, and just messing with time to give yourself some time off.

But mysterious is good. Especially in front of a rival!

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's the enchantment work per se that Sythyry is saving time on(I seem to remember some mention somewhere that that sort of thing doesn't work... but maybe it's only to suggest that you can only do so much in a day, and messing with Tempador will never give you an extra "day" in that sense, even if your day is 60+ hours long; a conversation zie had with Lithia kind of suggests this interpretation). But zie is quite likely able to do the physical portions of the job - crafting and decorating the weapon - in that accelerated time.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I am being evasive about the details! Some of them are standard bits of advanced enchantment; some are not so standard.

But, so far as I know -- which is very far indeed -- Tempador cannot give an extra "day" in the sense that enchantment requires.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

I do recall reading about an obscenely complex Tempador spell that, the one time it was cast, caused an extra dawn. Depending on the way Tempador works, a personal version of this might be less or even more difficult to cast. I suspect the enchantments themselves would be far less challenging undertakings. I certainly doubt you'll get the extra component enchantment requires any other way. And most certainly not in any way that makes economic sense.

Or am I totally misunderstanding?

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Orren-crafting is a school of enchantment which does very big enchantments fast... and often at huge risk of coming out with unintended consequences. Sythyry wrote about a notable magical catastrophe involving the process a number of years back.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That's something else ... several somethings else. Orren-crafting is safe. There's nothing that's actually Orren about it, other than it's somewhat faster than regular working.

[mharreff.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you speak of Llezcaryg's Disaster? But there are many ways to do a bit more work in the enchanting. Probably not all of them are the safe ways.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

It is a pretty sword! It is a useful sword! These are two things that go very well together. And hopefully its impressiveness will not tempt them to further escapades in an attempt to retain Sythyry's services.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

It only just occurred to me as I reread the attack: did anyone ever fetch Harulse and the guards out of the pocket universe?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yes; I believe Aiziju did it.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

IIRC, pocket universes normally evaporate in a few hours anyways, dumping the contents back into the real world.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

With the usual Cr Lo 10 or 15 spells! Another quantum of complexity makes that a few days; then months. Vae has quanta of complexity coming out her ears tail, especially about Locador. It could have been perpetual. I should ask her...

... and she says that it would have lasted until it started to smell unpleasant. With a few sweaty guards in there, that wouldn't have been all too long.