Shoutout to Bruh_Vista and Equinoxes for beta-reading and providing extensive feedback for this chapter!
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During the entire process, Sect Leader Larks would move aside and exaggerate his shaping movements to deconstruct the process for the benefit of the audience.
"Note how I am shaping the branch into a uniform shape. Remember, it is best to strip out the bark and leave as much of the inner wood intact. Working the wood unnecessarily will make it weaker and cause it to break easily."
After Sect Leader Larks finished turning the branch, he asked to pass it around so that everyone could observe the result. Shuri held it in her palm and compared the result against her work using the lathe. She'd earned a few copper coins by creating door knobs and other small wooden features for the houses being constructed for the many new families in the village. Her earlier work lacked proper finishing for obvious reasons, but nowadays, she'd hit her stride and could maintain a degree of consistency in her work.
'This looks simple enough,' Shuri thought to herself while inspecting the turned branch from a closer perspective.
"We will be using two tools here. One is for a rough cut to scrape off the bark, and another is for a finer cut at a higher speed to smoothen the shape. First I want everyone to achieve a rough cut," Sect Leader Larks declared and moved out of the way.
"Jean here will remain on standby to treat any injuries that may arise. But this doesn't mean that you people should go wild. The lathe, just like any tool, can be extremely dangerous AND fatal if it isn't respected and used improperly. So please follow the training to the letter, and do not try anything stupid that you will come to regret later."
With the warning, her peers who had been trained in the safety and instructional course for the late formed a line and started to strip the barks off the branch. They affixed the branch to the chuck, pushed the tail stock in so that the branch wouldn't flail when spinning, positioned the roughing gouge chisel and started the lathe at the slowest speed. Then, they moved the chisel inwards at a roughly fixed speed causing the stripped bark to bounce away. With eye protection, apron, and gloves, they were protected from any rogue wood pieces hitting them.
Soon it was Shuri's turn, and she approached her assigned lathe machine. Her hands moved mechanically, and within ten minutes, three smooth sticks were prepared.
"Now, we will move to the finishing operation. This has to be done at a higher speed using a fixed tool head," Sect Leader Larks instructed. He then demonstrated the process with the same flair and exaggerated motion so that everyone could observe clearly.
The process moved similarly, with everyone cleaning up their already smoothened pieces to achieve a finished result. Since the fixed tool moved on a predefined guide rail, there was less deviance and greater uniformity in the result compared to the manually moved gouging chisel.
After all the sticks were finished, Sect Leader Larks stepped forward and said, "Now for the final step, I want those with the sticks to hand over one to those that don't have one. After that, measure out a length that spans the tip of the middle finger to a location midway between your wrist and elbow. Saw off the wood piece to that length."
With that said, everyone burst into movement and began distributing the wood in their hands. Shuri gave out one before realising that almost everyone already had a piece in their hands. Her eyes scanned around for the next recipient until they landed on a lone figure standing at the back of the group with his eyes closed. She approached him and extended the stick forward. The boy did not respond.
"Umm, here's the stick for your wand," Shuri repeated with a cough. At that moment, the boy flinched and turned his head in her direction.
"Oh, umm... I-"
"Yohn won't be able to use a wand, unfortunately," a dismayed voice spoke out from behind Shuri. Turning around, she was shocked to see that it came from Sect Leader Larks.
The man approached Yohn and placed his hands on the boy's shoulder with a sigh.
"Why?" Shuri blurted out, and then immediately bit her tongue at the impulsive question. She should have just moved away!
An answer wasn't returned in verbal form, but the boy slowly opened his eyes to reveal two hollowed-out sockets. Shuri didn't display shock at first, as she had seen worse afflictions in the Palace, but she quickly caught herself and let out a believably frightened gasp.
"To use a wand, we need to be able to visually observe the spell circle first. It is hard to will it into existence if you cannot see it - feel just isn't enough," Sect Leader Larks elaborated. "We are still researching new strategies to get Yohn up to speed with everyone else."
"Oh..." Shuri muttered while alternating her gaze between her wand and the blind boy. "Then...?"
eαglesnovel`c,om Sect Leader Larks swivelled his head and nudged his head behind Shuri, "Kevan over there still hasn't received a wand."
Shuri bowed graciously and jogged back into the safety of the crowd. As she did so, she glanced behind her and noticed Sect Leader Larks rubbing the hair of the dejected boy and speaking with an encouraging smile. Her brows dropped as a serious expression formed in her mien before it quickly dissipated.
'Not my problem,' she told herself. 'Not my problem.'
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The next step in creating the wand was more elaborate and harkened back to the wicker assignment from before. The Illuminescent Banyan vines had to be turned, twisted and folded around the wood piece. They had to start from the tip and work to the other side. This took much longer, and the sun had set by the time everyone had finished.
"Before we tie everything together, we need to affix the most important piece of the puzzle," Sect Leader Larks said as he walked in with a large box in his hand.
"I want everyone to form a line in front of me."
Everyone complied within seconds.
"What I will be handing you is an inscribed mana gem. The inscription inside is one that I have developed, and you can learn more about it and how it works in the Library under the Patents section," he explained.
"Everyone will receive one of these for free from me today. If you lose this or break it, you will have to purchase the subsequent ones from Verum Trading Company albeit at a discounted price. In fact, you can purchase the resources to craft a spare wand from the Company right away."
And then, he pulled out uniformly large unattuned mana gems from the box and handed them to every person in the line. Shuri inspected hers and tried to appraise it using her rudimentary knowledge. She could not make out the inscription inside; it looked cloudy with a closer look.
The group was shown how the gem was to be embedded into the wand, which everyone followed step by step. As the final stretch of the vine was turned and tucked, and the wand was completed, Shuri could feel a faint hum and vibration in her palms as the mana gem gained a faint sheen.
"Congratulations, everyone! You have now officially taken your first practical dip into magic. The wand in your hands will be your companion for a large portion of your early magical career. You will grow out of it eventually, but you may keep it and upgrade it later on as you advance, but that will be at your own discretion."
Shuri twirled the stick in her hands with a faint sense of excitement. She remembered the feeling when she first held Markus' wand and released a |Fireball|. She waited with an itch on her feet for the gathering to disperse and immediately beelined towards a secluded corner at the training field. After ensuring that no one was around, Shuri quickly envisioned the spell circle for the |Fireball| and released it towards the dummy.
As the mana inside her moved towards her hand and a ball of fire formed at the centre of the spinning, ethereal, purple circle, Shuri felt giddiness and excitement she had never experienced before.
Drowning in that ecstatic sensation, Shuri repeated it again, and again, and again. Until the giddiness became too much for her to handle, and her leg gave way. Shuri collapsed onto her back in exhaustion. She looked up into the starry night sky as a faint smile cracked on her face. Her shoulders vibrated as a chuckle started to escape her lips.
"Mana exhaustion isn't something you should be so callous about," a stern voice reprimanded her from her side. Shuri immediately jolted to her feet, only to stumble as the aforementioned exhaustion took over. She felt herself getting caught by her shoulders.
"Careful!" The voice scolded. "Didn't you hear the warning that Sect Leader Larks gave out about using magic without supervision? For someone with eidetic memory, you really are careless."
Shuri turned her head, and as her sight cleared up, she was greeted by the face of someone she hadn't talked to before.
"Senior Jean!" Shuri exclaimed. "H-How do you know about that?"
"Everyone knows," Jean responded with a shake of her head. "How stupid would it be to not know who your neighbour and peers are going to be for the rest of your life?"
'Shit!' That wasn't optimal.
"What were you-"
"Doing here?" Jean finished. "I wasn't following you if that was what you were thinking. I knew that there would be some irresponsible folk who would take the warnings lightly and get carried away in the excitement of finally owning a wand," she added with a sarcastic and accusatory tinge in her voice.
"Anyways, it's good that you know when to stop. Otherwise, I would have had to personally intervene," Jean mumbled. "Do not do this again. If this is what Big Sis Marie is teaching you, then I will personally request your transfer!"
That was tempting. Shuri's eyes sparkled at that thought. But she quickly realised that throwing Marie under the bus (that too for a false charge) would only come to bite her back later down the line.
Shuri swallowed her words and instead apologies, "No. It was my fault. I got... carried away..."
There was no shame in accepting faults, nor was there a shame in apologising for a fault that wasn't your own. Apologies are just words, after all. They don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. But they do tend to assuage the recipient.
Case in point, the stern expression on Jean melted and the journey towards the Clinic was far more pleasant as a result.
