93 Gift planning

Emp couldn't sleep that night, he was too nervous about what was happening in the village. He had believed that he was on the right track to appease Mable but he was pretty sure that this would anger her again. This time though, she would have a real reason to get angry.

One day she's saying she wants to meet Calla to make up her mind on what to do and the next, he'd show up wearing an offering from her. He was wearing it right now.

He had stuffed it in the bag before getting recalled and he put it on before sending the other him back so that both would be wearing it. He felt it was only fair, he was in two places at once but he was still a single person. If the tradition said he had to wear it then he would do so in both places.

Obviously, with how out of place the silk and fur hooded shirt seemed here in the school, he would get asked about it a lot and the whole group would know in no time at all.

This would be a huge mess he just knew it. Everyone would think it was Mable and he would have to say it wasn't her who gave it to him every time. They'd all be shocked and Mable would seethe in frustration.

Just the day before, she told him that if not for the fact that she couldn't do as she pleased, she would have already given her hand to him. He would have been wearing her offering then rather than Calla's. He was certain that she wouldn't take it all that well.

At least, now that Calla was about to become his wife, just thinking the words felt incredible, it would be much easier to bring her here in Bêtéclair. He would have to bring her to Love who had asked him to meet his wife once he had one. After that, he would be able to present her to Mable and whoever else wanted to meet her. The duke might be very eager to meet her, in his head, she would be the first wife of the next great general after all. (1)

Now was not the time to loose himself in the predictions of how all these meetings would go though. For now, he had to focus. He needed to make her a confirmation gift. He wanted to give her the best gift there could possibly be. He needed to think carefully about it and come up with the best idea.

For this purpose, the two of him would stay up all night to think about this and in the morning, they would merge again to pool all the ideas together and make the final decision. After that, the real work would start.

According to what his mother explained, he had the right to buy materials but they all had to be raw. He couldn't buy, for example, a polished and cut precious stone. If he wanted one, he would have to do it all himself.

Considering this, with his training and experience as an apprentice smith, he had a great advantage over many others. It wasn't as good as being a jeweler but it was close.

He considered all his options many times, thinking of what he was able to make and what would be better, more impressive, more good looking and most of all, more fitting for Calla. After all, he could make the best object there ever was but if it didn't go well with Calla, it would be a failure.

The whole night he pondered and questioned himself. He carefully weighted each option and took the time to work every details in his head. He spread parchments and ink all over his desk to draw sketches of his ideas and plans. He lost himself in his own thoughts many times over the night but finally he had settled his mind on a bracelet.

Small jewelry was out of his reach as an apprentice, Calla didn't use too many hair ornaments as she preferred to just tie them in a loose braid, he had already given her a ring so he felt that a second one was too much and a necklace was much too simple if he didn't make a chain and too hard for him to do if he did. Really, without getting into protective gear she would never use, a bracelet or an anklet were the best ideas he could find. Since an anklet was harder to show off, he went for the bracelet.

Now that this was set in stone, he needed to choose the materials and the design. He felt it needed to be slim and light because if it was a bit heavy, it would bother Calla. It needed to be tight enough so that it wouldn't fall off and disturb her while she was cooking but not too tight that it would be uncomfortable. Ideally, it would be easy to put on and remove in case she needed to. After all, if she was about to do something dirtying, she might want to remove it to keep it safe.

On the other hand, since he was doing something for her, he wanted it to be very useful, he wanted it to keep her safe. He felt that placing an enchantment on it would be great. Heinrich had infused the magu into his armor but Marcy was usually the one doing it on more simple runes, he was surely able to do the same.

What sort of runes would help protect her in a meaningful way without taking too much space? If the enchantment was too lengthy, it would never fit on a bracelet after all.

In an ideal world, she would never be in danger, but if she was, he felt that the most natural reaction would be to raise her arms in front of her face to protect it. In that case, the bracelet would be the first thing in the line of danger, like a shield. The first thing he understood picturing that in his head was that a bracelet wouldn't help her in most cases. Monsters biting at her would not be bothered by that small thing while a smart opponent like a human would just stab in the exposed stomach.

This was tricky, he couldn't come up with anything useful. He might have been thinking too much but that gift was meant to show what he could achieve. He needed to push everything to the very limits of what he knew. An enchantment, even if it wasn't extravagant, was already very impressive for an apprentice.

He knew there was such a thing as conditional enchantments that would activate in only certain circumstances but a bracelet was too small to house that. This meant that it needed to be something that would always be active or something that would require an external input of magu like a staff. Getting inspiration from a staff could be pretty good but even if he thought her how to bring magu into an object, it wouldn't help her at all.

Calla was the sort to freeze in fear in front of danger.

Of the three possible reactions, fight, flight or freeze, Emp felt that freezing was the worse possible but people were how they were, he would not be able to change her however much he tried.

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So, it needed to be always active, somewhat meaningful despite its simplicity and take into account that it would probably almost never be the main target of an attack.

...

There was nothing good to do with that, was there?

He wanted to make her the very best thing but with all these limitation, he felt there was nothing worthwhile to do. Maybe there was a reason why no one placed enchantments on pieces so small.

With the right materials, he could make it glow or make it harder to break but there was no point. He didn't feel inspired, Marcy was right, he wasn't a creative person. He could redo everything she had shown him but he couldn't come up with his own ideas now that he needed them.

Even if he had more space to work with, would he be more inspired? He wasn't sure of that. Anyway, if it was too large, it would be too heavy for her... Unless he made it light with an enchantment. The idea seemed the most attractive he had found up to now.

Should he make it larger just for the sake of making it weight less with magic?

It would be more like a large cuff than, or even a tube-like bracer with a clamp to hold it on her forearm. Would she like that?

No, it would be too much, a wide cuff bracelet was better, if it was made right, he wouldn't even need the enchantment to make it lighter, he could place something else on it. That sent him all the way back to square one though. Making it lighter was pointless if it wasn't large but making it large just didn't fit her at all.

It was a good thing that there were no classes that day because he wasn't close to be done thinking about it.

Celtine and Harriett came many times in his room to ask what he was doing alone and why he wasn't coming to eat his breakfast but he pushed them back out every time. He started to understand why Marcy hated getting disturbed while she worked, those distractions weren't helping him at all. He was burning to tell them about what had happened and what he was doing but now wasn't the time, this project needed his full attention.

By the end of an overlong thinking process, he mostly knew what he wanted to do. He had been hit by a genius idea as he tortured his own brain for an answer. He was certain that she would be deeply touched by what he planned, if he could pull it off.

To do it, he needed a book on a type of magic he didn't have and so, he needed to go see Heinrich.

He would do the body of cuff with the purple crystal if he could melt it or bend it somehow and if not, he would do it with pale gold. If he could, he wanted to add some of her favorite color since she had done so with his shirt.

She wasn't the only one who knew the color of the other liked most, hers was pink.

He'd go see Juniper and ask her about pink gemstones and gold. She was a glass merchant but she must know were to find raw stones and she said she would owe him something.

It would be made to look like a single leafed tree for good luck and wrap warmly around her arm with the roots held on to her.

With all of this settled in his mind and feeling more confident about his idea than in the morning when he didn't know at all what he would do, he walked into the main room to face the servants.

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(1) Should I change great general for grand general? In French, grand just means tall but I understand that in English its more of a short for grandiose or just someone at the upper end of the pyramid.