Sorcerer
The thin shavings clung, in no small quantity, to her apron as she worked. As she brushed them away, they drifted to join the accumulation on the mat below the chair. She was long since done with the shaft, excepting the one raw end that she ignored. Instead, she focused on the etchings, straining her eyes so as to see what she had done.
The darkened room didn't make for the best of working conditions, but she had a houseguest.
"How long are you going to be doing... that?"
An impatient houseguest, as it were, who happened to be bedridden. Galathea was shirking on the courtesy as it was, working instead of entertaining. Although, until now, Elazul hadn't said one word.
"Until it's finished," she replied, wiping the awl on her apron and replacing it in its case. Resting the shaft between her knee and the table, she reached for the nearest of a myriad of open, waiting containers. Once content that it was the one she wanted, she dipped her fingers into it and lifted the proto-focus again so as to smear the mixture of dragon's blood and volcanic ash into the carved and waiting patterns.
"When's that gonna be?"
"When it's finished." She added offhand, "It's something I should have done this before I left Geo; I keep putting it off."
Behind her back, Elazul scoffed. "It's been two weeks."
Not seeing the need to stress the distinction between I and we, Galathea corrected him simply, "Four years."
As the wood absorbed the reagents, she rinsed her hands with the contents of a second vial. No sooner had it evaporated than was she hard at work, weaving feathers and twine together near the rough end of the stick.
Elazul watched while she joined two black feathers and one white to make one charm, and two golden feathers to make second. "How's it different from your other one?"
"It's different in that it's mine," she said sincerely, "and not bought off some street vendor."
The hours bled together as the woman shaped the wood with care, carving, binding, and casting all the while. When at long last she had what she was pleased with, she stood and, testing the balance, found that she was greatly pleased with it indeed.
It was lighter than the metal staff she had been burdened with until now; she could, Goddess forfend, wield it in one hand, if absolutely necessary. She twisted it outward towards the shaded window, away from herself, her cactus, and her bed, for the sake of the supine Jumi therein. Earthen fire burned from the sigils and glyphs, lancing through the whorls that ran along the length of the staff, then faded away.
"Not bad..." she poked at where the four boughs twisted together at one end, forming a gap between them, "Could use a jewel, maybe..."
Galathea didn't look to see whatever expression of sheer dismay the innocent statement had caused, but in response to the frantic rustling behind her, she clarified, "I didn't mean it that way."
Elazul hardly relaxed. "Have you found Pearl yet?"
"I need to find its name," the woman mused, studying her creation with due interest. "Erebus, I think."
"Have you even looked?"
"No."
The simplicity of her admission stunned him. Fractured or no, he knew well enough that she hadn't been here the whole time. "You're no help at all, are you?"
"Yes, because keeping you alive isn't a help to either of you."
"Hmph." Elazul forcibly nudged an embroidered pillow out from under his arm.
He could wait, so long as she didn't take too long. Galathea was far too enamored with her new toy to argue reason; beyond that, she had to sleep eventually.
the end
Working Title: Crown
Inspiration: The staff wanted its own story.
Noteworthy: Galathea/Erebus: the new (platonic) OTP of Fa'Diel.
Disambiguation: Takes place between Cosmo and Two Pearls, obviously, but also between The Ghost of Nemesis and The Dragon Princess, which is not so obvious.
Derivative work of material © Squaresoft, Square-Enix.