Tree and I examined the first item I brought with me into the Soul Chamber. A rather small steel sewing needle.

  “Let’s see, she wants a needle that is stronger for working with tougher material.”

  “Shouldn’t be too difficult, though I am going to posit that you have not had any training and just brute forced your way through.”

  I put a hand to my chest in mock shock. “And why would you think that?”

  “Because you have just bulled through everything so far that I have seen.”

  “That’s fair. Yes, I tend to just roll with what feels right and adjust on the fly.”

  “We will not be enchanting this way while I am with you. You will learn and implement the five P’s of enchanting.” I waited for Tree to continue. “Prepare, Pattern, Project, Proliferate, and Protect.”

  “During Preparation, you meditate, as you are now. Having full access to your energies is paramount to good enchanting. Additionally, during the preparation stage, we will focus on which forms to use during the rest of the process.”

  I pulled a table and chair out of my amulet and set them up in the center of the chamber, placing the needle on the table and sitting. “My energy will be topped off soon as all I’ve done recently was the Void Step to get to the platform. Form decision time. The spiral mana form to make it easier to guide the needle through the fabric?”

  “Why the spiral?”

  “I was thinking of the equipment I used to repair. Screws are spirals, and can easily pierce through material you wouldn’t normally be able to easily pierce,” I said.

  “Acceptable. Remember that with enchanting, intent matters. Next?”

  “Pulse stamina form for bursts of speed, allowing for quick, more intricate stitches.”

  “Good. And the bond?”

  “For this, I was thinking of the Echoes vitality form to allow the enchantment to shift slightly to better fit the style of the user over time.”

  “Now for the next step. For Pattern, you will shape the energy within yourself to create the forms.”

  “Ooh. I’m currently within myself, so I think I can do it in the chamber!”

  Tree flashed in what I was beginning to learn was curiosity, so I just decided to show him.

  Over the table, three strands of red, green, and blue appeared. I started with the blue, forming the spiral shape. The green then swirled together into a pulsing sphere. The red became a gentle wave that gently began to shift and leave behind translucent echoes of its form.

  “You truly have a monstrous control over your energy,” Tree said.

  “Thanks! Next step is Project, right?”

  Tree walked me through projecting the mana and stamina forms into the needle, mana for the scaffold and stamina for the fuel.

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  “For Proliferate, pull in the ambient energy from the world around you to infuse and empower the enchantment.”

  I felt my second mouth open as ambient magic was pulled into my Soul Chamber, causing the needle to glow brighter and brighter.

  “When you feel it is empowered enough, Protect the enchantment by sealing it with a final circulation of vitality, your echo form in this case.”

  I pushed the final form into the needle, feeling my health dip as I locked down the enchantment. With a satisfying internal click, I felt the drain on me stop.

  The Seamstress's Needle. Inferior. The needle is enchanted for brief, sharp boosts of speed, allowing for quick, intricate stitches, and strengthening it for easier guiding of the thread through fabric. This needle will subtly learn the seamstress's hands and methods, making it feel perfectly weighted for their technique over time.

  With my stats as they were now, I’d barely lost a tenth of my health, and even less of stamina and mana. I picked up the needle and admired our work. “Be right back.”

  The needle materialized in my hand as I ended my meditation. People milled about the square as I knelt to grab the paperclip and pen that was left on the platform. Stan had arrived at some point and stood watch at the edge of the platform.

  “Hey Stan, you know most of the people here, right?”

  “Uh, yeah, mostly.”

  “Bring this needle to-” I checked my list, “-Mara.” I put a little checkmark next to the line item, then handed off the needle.

  “You got it!” he scampered off, much quieter than his crystalline armor would indicate.

  Next up was a quill. The Scribe's Ever-Ink Quill was imbued with the Spiral Mana form and Rhythm Stamina fuel, causing a perpetual flow of invisible ink that only appears on command. The Threaded Vitality bond links the quill to its owner, allowing them to activate the illusionary ink by simply thinking about it or setting specific triggers such as being read by a specific person. Bethany was particularly interested in this, and I ended up making several of these for her to disperse throughout our groups.

  In between enchantments, and at the request of Tree, I started to go through and learn as much as I could about the control spheres and what they did. Tree was truly a wealth of knowledge, and I was able to adjust a few of the settings after the eighth or ninth session of tinkering.

  The next four days drifted by, with a wide variety of objects and the desired magical effects. A hammer that magically applied more force when shaping metals, a whetstone that increased the cutting damage of blades upon which it is used, and a series of mugs that keep the substance within it at the perfect temperature were just a few of them.

  I really liked enchanting for a number of reasons. It had elements of an assembly line that I was comfortable with, as the process was mostly repeatable, yet each enchantment was subtly different, which kept the feeling of monotony at bay.

  When I took periodic breaks to rest and share a meal or two with Bethany and whoever of my friends were around, it always felt like nearly no time had passed as I was engrossed in my enchanting. I would have them let Stan know when the meal was and he would tap my shoulder if I was within the Soul Chamber, which was far more common than not. As I was working with inferior enchantments, I only gained one level in my profession after four days of work.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 27 to Level 28.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 30 to Level 31.

  “So, you mean to tell me that you have a sentient rune creature living within your core?” Jenny asked as she ripped the meat off the leg of a bird that must have been the size of a horse.

  “I sure do!” I grabbed my fifth enormous drumstick off the platter and stuck it, bone and all, into my second mouth. “I gotta say, having a second mouth to eat makes talking much easier. You should all get one!”

  “I’m good,” said Bethany, who was the only one at the table using actual utensils to eat, which looked a bit funny considering the normal scale of the fork.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s just a you thing,” Jenny said, scratching behind her ear with a slight purr.

  “If we can get back on topic, Dan, we have received several more groups seeking refuge.” Bethany said, her glare stopping any deviations from the main discussion.

  “Yeah, did you ask them the three questions?”

  “We aren’t in a zombie infested land, so no, as we don’t care how many people they’ve killed, at least until we get them in here, and they know the consequences.”

  Jenny raised her hand. Bethany sighed, but motioned her to speak.