The morning following Har's catching up with his acquaintance and Kori's making of a new friend came quickly, and for Har, quite unpleasantly. When she saw him at breakfast his eyes were striated with bloodshot lines and his scales had an unmistakably pale hue. He returned to his work, grumbling about the sunlight and gnomes, and left Kori mostly to her own devices for the morning, with some additional notes to work through in her language studies.

It was just as boring work as it had been the day prior. She'd mostly mastered the characters that made up the alphabet but was still working on putting them together into words and how one might pronounce them. The words themselves were easy enough, though she was still having an issue with using them to convey meaning. How was one to be clear that they were saying 'okay' aggressively or sarcastically or petulantly without the addition of a growl, rumble, or a puff of nasal exhale?

Upon asking Har that very question, she received a lesson in what the surface dwellers called 'inflection'. Apparently how something was said replaced the nuance of their own, more guttural, method. It seemed inefficient as it was up to the listener to determine if how it was heard and could easily be taken in an unintended manner.

By the end of the day, she'd finally managed to translate the bulk of the page she'd been given alongside the lessons. It turned out to be a short story of a kobold apprentice who bargained with a merchant but had mistaken the terms for silver and gold and instead of securing a lucrative deal had overpaid for an entire shipment of salt.

Along with the reminder to always have a senior check apprentices work, she also received the goal of her studies.

<<Skill Acquired, Basic Linguistics, Common, Level 1>>

Once she had the Skill, it became just a little easier to see the connections between the terms and mistakes that she had made in her original translation. None that changed the meaning, but many that simply made the reading a little easier to follow.

She quickly returned to Har's office to inform him of her success, but found that he was with a pair of visitors. One was a tall human and wore colourful clothing and shining jewelry on their hands and wrists, while the other was a gnome. Like those she had encountered the day prior, he was garbed in distinctly un-matching colours of bright yellows and blues, which contrasted against his coppery red hair, both on the top of his head and in a lengthy beard extending from his chin. The only saving grace of his outfit was a thick leather apron covered in scorch marks that was draped over his front.

Seeing her entry, Har turned his attention towards her, "Ah, Kori. I'll be a few more minutes with my negotiations. These are Merchant Albott and Glassblower Ulteran, we're just going over the costs and timeline for the rest of your equipment." He gestured to the human and gnome respectively as he gave their names.

There was a bit of apprehension showing on his face as he watched Kori turn to the pair and greet them, in somewhat passable Vorisian, "An enjoyment to meet you, Merchant Albott, Glassmaker Ulteran. I am apprentice Kori." Giving each a nod as she addressed them. She'd managed well for the most part, but had not learned the word for apprentice yet and gave the title in Creation, which was just a little jarring alongside the rest.

Har immediately offered a correction and explanation as the pair looked to him quizzically at her misstep. They each offered her a greeting with the appropriate title of apprentice before dismissing her presence as she sat off to the side awaiting the conclusion of their discussion. She caught a few words here and there, as well as her own name mentioned several times as they looked towards her. From the few points she could gather, it seemed that they were surprised that such a wide array of complicated equipment was being prepared for the youngling, with Merchant Albott giving her several appraising looks.

The meeting eventually wound down, with Albott inviting the pair to join him for dinner and Ulteran indicating that he would be returning to his own workshop to see to their request. Of the two, Kori would have much rather go with the gnome, his work seemed much more interesting and useful. When she asked Har just that, he was thankfully able to secure her a tour of his glassworks. Though unfortunately, it was for after dinner.

Unlike the previous evening, dinner was a much more awkward affair. The restaurant that he took them to was of course, one sized for a human customer and without a friendly gnome who could speak to her in her own language to make things a little more comfortable. The food was good, though again much different than what she was used to. It consisted of meat that had been ground and packed into an odd casing referred to as sausage alongside baked root vegetables and a few things she had had difficulty identifying. The worst part was the beverage that had been served alongside it, when she'd heard that it was the juice of a berry-like fruit, she had been excited. Between the clearly alcoholic nature and the sharp and sour taste, similar to the vinegar that she'd been tricked into trying, she never wanted to try these 'grapes' that such a thing came from.

The only highlight of the evening was that they had let her keep a menu that she spent much of their time there attempting to translate. It didn't give her any help in her Skill, but it was still good practice. Har and Albott spent the entire time drinking their foul 'wine' and discussing matters of trade. Kori eventually figured out that the human had asked them along to gauge her own value as a trading partner, with many of his questions being directed to her, through Har, in an attempt to gather information about what she would be producing once the new workroom had been established.

Finding out that she was, as of yet, classless, had come as quite a surprise to him. He couldn't seem to decide if he was shocked at the folly of throwing such expense at an unproven youth, or if he was excited to earn some favour with a new resource before she was able to establish herself. He threw meaningless platitudes her way and spoke of their future relationship hopefully, but never seemed to promise anything specific or meaningful. Or at least that's how Har explained it when he relayed his words to her.

When they departed and went their separate ways, Har explained a little further what the whole thing had been about.

"Merchants can be like that Kori; he's hoping that you'll bring a new and valuable product for him to trade for." He explained, "But he's also not willing to commit any resources yet, since he has no idea what you'll eventually bring to the table."

"Couldn't you just tell him about the flame flasks or the ointment?" She asked, confused as to why they'd go about things in such a roundabout manner.

"Of course, but then we've committed to selling those things. What if we find something that's more valuable or easier for you to make in large quantities?" He said with a rueful grin. "Then we'll need to waste time on things you don't want to make, at least for a time, when we could be more profitable with the newer product."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense?" She said, somewhat questioningly. The idea of doing something for profit rather than crafting what she wanted or what helped the clan didn't really sit right with her. She supposed that bringing coin to the clan would help as well, but it still felt like it was doing things for the wrong reason.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Har took her response with a sigh, clearly it was going to be a long road if he were to make anything even resembling a merchant from the youngling. "Well, regardless, Albott is a good ally to have up here. He's got influence in just about every market in Whatzakt. Aside from the elves, but they're a difficult bunch."

"What makes the elves so difficult?" She asked, clearly not interested in talking about the human any more than she had to.

"They're very… methodical." He responded, pausing to think of the correct word briefly. "When they make a contract, they expect it to be in place for many, many years." He tried to emphasize just how long-term things tended to be with them. "Unlike us, an elf may live for several hundred years, so signing a contract for goods to be delivered over the span of fifty or more years isn't seen as a big deal for them. It's not just the terms that are so long either, simple negotiations can take months, or even years, just to arrange a sit down to discuss what they want, and then months again to get anything in place." He explained, punctuating his response with an anecdote. "I still have a standing contract for any mithril we uncover. It was negotiated nearly eighty years ago by my predecessor's, predecessor's, predecessor. The terms are quite favourable to us though."

Continuing his explanation, he moved on to why the human merchant didn't have any proper connections with them. "With how they tend to look at the long term of things, they don't find human merchants to be particularly reliable. Not because they're not trustworthy, some aren't, but that's the same across most races, but because by the time they're established, they tend to only be around a few decades more and seldom have businesses that survive their originators." He made the latter part sound like it was the real problem, since the elves dealt with kobolds who lived even shorter lives than the humans.

All the while they discussed the matters of humans and elves, they made their way back towards the café they had dined at the previous night. When Kori noticed that where they seemed to be heading and had her questions about the elves satisfactorily answered, she asked the next obvious question.

"Didn't we just eat? Why are we heading back towards the café?" She said as they walked, quirking a brow.

"The café? We're not." Har responded, "The glassworks are in the same district. Most of the gnomish businesses are." After a few moments he continued with a grin, "Though I suppose we could stop in there for a nightcap before we head back to the enclave."

She quickly realized that she'd probably walked right into that, and that it may have been his intention the entire time. Or even the reason for Har agreeing to the little tour after dinner in the first place.

As they neared where she believed the café was, she was still getting her bearings in the town but her navigation Skill was helping, she saw that the area was indeed a bit different from the rest. The homes they passed were sized mostly for the shorter gnomes and against all expectations were rather drab in colouring comparatively to their occupants. It seemed like each home or business was built in two sections, a front area that was tall to accommodate human sized guests with several shorter stories in the back that were clearly not. It was almost as though there were balconies and terraces built within the homes to make use of the taller space which was frequently framed with tall windows and even more glass set into the roofs.

Everywhere she looked there were inclusions of glass into the architecture of the area and it was only after they had passed by two other glassworks billowing smoke and giving clear views of the workers within pulling globs of brightly glowing molten glass from their ovens that they arrived at their destination. Glorious Glass wasn't the largest of the glassworks she saw, but it certainly stood out. While the others looked to be making large panes of glass and serviceable pieces, here most of the work seemed to be much more technical in nature. Large scoops hung from chains gathered the viscous glowing liquid before being maneuvered towards molds that were being taken from another oven before filling them one by one.

They had to wait for Ulteran for several minutes while he blew and shaped a large bubble of glass, only to bring that to another mold that he closed around it. When he opened the mold, it revealed a perfectly shaped bottle that he quickly snapped off of the pole he had been using and handed both off to an assistant.

He mopped his sweaty brow with a cloth that hung from his waist before addressing his guests. "Welcome to Glorious Glass." He exclaimed, the words simple enough that Kori even understood most of them, guessing the third by context from the name of the shop that Har had translated for her. "I'm glad you made it, I figured Albott would talk your ear off all evening." He laughed. Kori wasn't sure exactly what he said, but from his tone and catching Albott's name, she thought there was a bit of derision behind his words.

I hope that's right, it's so hard to tell without a snort or huff to punctuate.

Har quickly began translating for her, even affirming her suspicions as to his feelings about the merchant.

"Thank you for inviting us" Har replied, with Kori repeating his words with a few stutters and pauses as she stumbled in their formation.

"You've been here before, Har, but your young aide seems to be fascinated in the process." Remarking on Kori's wide eyes as she tried to see every aspect of the work. Turning to her, he spoke slowly and waved his hands beckoningly, "Follow me."

The tour that followed included a wealth of knowledge on the formation of glass, beginning with the storerooms full of quartz sand, which was ground from crystals that the kobolds themselves often found within their mines and quarries. As well as additives that would change the properties of the glass produced.

"This quartz sand is made by a producer here in town that buys raw quartz from us before crushing it and removing impurities." Har explained, knowing everyone involved. Going on to translate Ulteran's explanation of the soda lime and other materials and how they were used and why they used one for some products and others for others. Choosing based on things like durability, resistance to temperatures, clarity, and many other factors.

They proceeded to wander throughout the entire workshop, from the furnaces melting the sand into molten glass that used runic inlays to achieve the perfect temperature, unlike those the kobolds employed these were made from durable metals that could withstand the heat they created and would last for several months each, to the cooling kilns that let the formed glass slowly cool over several hours to prevent fracturing and breaking. He gave brief descriptions of the multiple processes that glass was worked in, from mold blowing, which was what they did the most of, to casting to mass produce a specific piece, to free blowing, where they would shape the piece by hand to produce something more artistic or unique.

By the end of their little tour the day was getting late and it was nearly time for the shop to close for the evening. Given that most of his workers had already gone home and the workstations stood empty, Ulteran offered something special to Kori. It seemed he had the mind of a merchant just as much as Albott did and wanted to solidify their relationship just the same, hoping that she'd be a frequent customer for years to come.

"Would she like to try her hand at making a piece? Let her appreciate the work that goes into good glass?" He asked Har.

Har didn't even have to ask the youngling what she thought, he knew full well that as much as she'd enjoyed learning the process through the tour, she'd never pass up the chance at first hand experience. That and she'd understood enough of what he'd said to be grinning like a fool and nodding her head vigorously already.

"Of course she would." He replied with a laugh. Waving her to follow the glassblower. Ulteran did most of the preparation, getting the mold ready, gathering glass on the blowpipe, and starting the most basic of bubble shapes, before handing off control to the youngling. As he watched her slowly begin to spin and shape the end with the cupped wooden paddle he handed her, he looked surprised that she remembered the earlier instructions and examples as well as she did, making only a few mistakes that his own apprentices routinely made themselves.

While she worked, she heard Har comment to the glassblower, only paying half a mind to what he said but believing it was something along the lines of, "She's just like that, you never really get used to it…"

She quickly began to blow and spin the bubble of glass until it had formed an elongated bubble, a bit uneven to some sides, but passable nonetheless. She maneuvered it well, a bit slow and nearly dropping it when she tried to bring the pipe vertical for the mold, but got it there before disaster struck, the sudden appearance of a blinking light just beyond her sight startling enough she very nearly shattered her work as she pressed it into the waiting mold. Before long there was a glass bottle ready to be cracked off and placed in a kiln to cool and she had a moment to verify with her characteristic mental 'why?' what had caused the notification. Just as she had expected, the fruits of her labour had included another new Skill, her second in a single day.

<<Skill Acquired, Basic Glassmaking, Common, Level 1>>

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