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[Dealthagar]

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She had said she was coming to bed later, but by the time his restlessness roused him from the bed, she had not returned. Perhaps his offer had disturbed her. He hadn't read her aura when he went to bed, so her state of being was hard to gauge.

Sleep wasn't returning, so he rose. Better to start work rather than lay about. He dressed and went down to the laboratory. Even if he was uninspired, perhaps something in the lab would catch his fancy.

Sitting at a drafting table, he laid out a wide parchment and began sharpening a quill. Carving flesh with it had dulled the tip, and required a bit of whetting. As he sat contemplating the empty parchment, he felt a warm splash on his foot and a gurgle.

Dealthagar reached down and picked up the glob of hairless pink flesh. He cradled it in his arm and caressed it while it made burbling mewls of happiness. Psudopods tapped at his hand while the toothless maw attempted to suckle his palm. "Hungry, little Negože?" A small split opened in his palm, and he allowed a few drops of his vitae to dribble into the creature's gullet. The happy mewls turned to grunts and after a few minutes, his pet drifted off; its one eye rolling back into the amorphous blob.

Negože had been a stray cat Dealthagar had found drinking from one of the run-off pipes of his laboratory. It had managed to live, so he pushed its frame to the limits, removing unneeded parts like limbs and bones. Rearranging the innards to float in tough scar tissue-like sacks, and adapting it to entirely sustain itself on blood, it had proven to be very resilient little creature, along with being adaptive. A few weeks had passed and it was already skilled at making and using psudopods from its soft, rubbery flesh.

Dealthagar continued to absently caress the small pitiful creature as he began drafting his new idea. The mote he had offered to her last night had never returned to the Source, and simply dissolved into his vitae. The amount was infinitesimal, but it was diffused throughout his blood.

And so the idea was born. Two sheets of wire mesh, crafted from shadow iron, turned into a pair of cylinders, one half the size of the other, so they can next within each other. Golden caps, to allow each to rotate independently. Orichalum hooks to affix it. A series of small mixing paddles to fit between the two cylinders. A gear and arcane gem assembly to power the whole thing.

Once built, it would fit into his hand, no bigger than a bottle of beer. A human would feel it to be intrusive, but kindred had plenty of room where it would fit nicely. The Herald rose from his chair with a triumphant smile, and set down Negože. "Sularis, fire up the forges. The Technomancer Primus has work to be done!"
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The Three Truths of Singularity
Do something to the best of your abilty or don't do it at all
Feel to the fullest of your ability, cutting yourself off from your emotions leads to spiritual death
Control your being, your existance, your destiny.
www.adriandrake.com

[Drayek]

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Drayek walked down the dark streets of Minoc, making her way to the tavern. Glancing at her pocket watch as she walked, she smiled. Right on time for her dinner date. Entering the tavern, she looked about its dimly lit interior, past all the rowdy nameless faces surrounding her. Finally, she spotted the person she was looking for sitting in the corner of the tavern, a woman eating from a bowl of stew and attempting to avoid the evening ruckuss. Drayek walked up to her, putting a hand on her head and greeting her.
"I'm glad to see you here." Drayek said, giving a soft smile as the startled woman gave a quiet yelp and pulled away, "Quite curious, am I really that cold to the touch?"
"Don't do that!" The woman replied, looking up at Drayek annoyed.
"I'll take that as a yes. You feel quite warm, I imagine our temperatures differ quite a bit. Now, tell me, have you been practicing?" Drayek inquired, taking a seat adjacent to her.
"Yes, I've been learning the basics of tinkering, like you said. What in particular should I focus on before you begin teaching me more?" She asked, her expression quickly becoming more curious.
"Good, good! I was hoping by you calling for another meeting that you had made progress!" Drayek replied, pleased by the woman's youthful enthusiasm. It was refreshing, she wasn't old enough yet to become set in her ways. Continuing, Drayek said, "You should focus on mechanisms and clockworks. Focus on finely detailed pieces. Making clocks and sextants and small contraptions might seem meaningless, but they are the groundwork for larger projects. How could you ever hope to assemble a clockwork minion if you cannot assemble a clock?"
"I would be able to craft something that powerful?" The woman asked, wide eyed.
"Probably even more so, I know you are an alchemist. You could craft things to explode, poison, spew flame, or whatever else your heart desires." Drayek answered, leaning on the table with her right arm and gesturing her left hand in a circular motion as she spoke, "I know your primary concern is defense. The beauty of the art is it is just as malleable as magery or any other magic art once you know the principles of it. You seem to be a fast learner, keep practicing with gear works until you can flawlessly make a clock work without having to re-adjust parts inside of it. After that, I'll show you how to incorporate power crystals to move the gears instead of a wound spring."

The woman bowed her head and gave her thanks as Drayek got up to leave. It pleased her to see the young woman taking such interest in the study. She was weak, and unlike most others, she found that to be a problem. It was far easier to be weak and simply going about life, waiting for something to happen and reacting to it. But the problem with that, of course, is being entirely at the mercy of others. Perhaps curiosity killed cats, but far fewer cats died to curiosity than cattle died to slaughter. This is what led Drayek to teach her, she was creative and thirsted for knowledge, all the while wanting to be independent and not at the whim of fate. These were wonderful traits to nourish, and Drayek fully planned on expanding the art to someone who would appreciate it... But she couldn't focus all of her attention on this woman, no. As it was, she wouldn't be surprised if her other student was becoming suspicious of her disappearances. He was mature in his studies and didn't need to be coddled, her true concern was him perceiving her as ignoring him. Pulling out her runebook and casting, Drayek returned to his house to give another lesson.