121: Lesson From A Stonecutter

Forty-Five Minutes Later

“It’s too big- you’re never going to make it work.”

“It’ll fit, trust me.”

“No it won’t! That is way too large for that small of a hole!”

Eris glowered at Tatum. “Excuse me, but out of the two of us, I’m the only one who’s done this before. Just relax- it’ll be fine.”

Tatum rolled her eyes with frustration. “I don’t need experience with it to know that it’s not gonna work! It’s simple physics!”

“Aren’t Artificers supposed to be all about breaking physics? I can make it fit, whether it’s meant to or not.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that everything will work a lot better if you use something appropriately sized! For Seven’s sake, at least use lubricant!”

That, of course, elicited a snicker from partway across the workshop where a poofy blonde was… occupied.

“I gotta say, this is fuckin’ hysterical to listen to.”

Eris furrowed her brow. “And why is that?”

Bailey massaged her large breasts once more and smiled. “Honestly, I’m surprised neither of you are hearing yourselves. This is gold.”

Tatum glared, took the chisel out of Eris’s hand and replaced it with a different, much smaller one.

“Well, if we’re gonna remake the Skeleton Key in a more powerful way while also reducing the risk of it becoming a bomb, then Eris needs to actually listen to me when I tell her how things need to be done.”

Eris set down the small chisel and tried to reach for the larger one, but Tatum held it up and out of the nude redhead’s reach. Tatum wasn’t a tall girl by any means, but she had a few inches on Eris which meant that even when Eris got on her tiptoes with her cock swinging, she couldn’t reach the tool she needed. She huffed, got back down on flat feet and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I made it in a cave, with a box of scraps. I probably could have been done with the new one by now if you would stop bothering me and let me work!”

Tatum rolled her eyes again and turned her dark face towards the topless blonde. “Care to help?”

Eris looked over as well just in time to see Bailey squishing her hands through large amounts of fluffy tit-flesh and even rolling her nipples between her fingers with a lazy smile.

“Not really, no,” was the busty blonde’s reply.

This time, it was Eris who rolled her eyes. “Do you really have to do that right now? We just learned that the Seven are probably still alive, I have to rescue them from the Obelisks, I need to murder people to cleanse the Hollow, and we need to rebuild the Skeleton Key so that I can hopefully bring Dzhemehal along as an interpreter to have an in-depth conversation with Vojemala without needing to fully commit to going to whatever prison she’s in. Now really isn’t the time.”

“You’re naked, too,” Bailey said, using one hand to gesture towards Eris’s bare form clad only in jewelry and goggles.

“I have to be for the enchantment!”

Bailey snickered again. “The enchantment that puts extra stat modifications on items as long as you’re naked, while you’re making an item that theoretically shouldn’t have any stat modifications whatsoever?”

Eris blinked, then let out a sigh. “For fuck’s sake. Where’s my pants?”

“Ah-ah,” Bailey tittered. “I think we’re all enjoying the show, so there’s no need to pull the curtains closed now.”

“Still doesn’t explain why immediately following the super-important meeting about the very fate of the war against the Hollow, you decided your job is to sit here and fondle your tits.”

“Hey-” Bailey pointed a finger, letting one heavy breast settle back down into place. “The potions I commissioned a few days ago were finally finished, letting me have these lovely girls again. Well, maybe a teeny bit different, but similar enough. The least you can do is let me show them how much I missed them.”

“And you have to do that here?” Eris asked with an exasperated expression. Bailey laughed.

“Uhh… duh? I know Tatum enjoys the show and I can clearly see that thirteen inches of you really enjoys it, too.”

Bailey then decided, of course, to lift one large breast to her lips and seductively lick a nipple while waggling her eyebrows from behind her comically thick glasses. Eris throbbed, then turned around to rid the topless blonde from her sight while laying both hands flat on the worktable.

“Tatum, just give me the chisel.”

“Absolutely not. If I’m gonna be here, then I’m gonna make sure you do things the right way.”

“Bailey, can you please tell her to give me the chisel?”

“Sorry Cutiepie- no can do.” Eris heard the stool squeak on the floor as Bailey stood to walk over. “If you recall, all of us were meant to be your tutors- as in, to teach you the proper ways to do things. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are or what kind of skills you have- if you get into bad habits while crafting, you’re only going to hold yourself back.”

Eris then yelped a bit from a playful smack to her backside.

“So, that means this cute little squishy butt of yours needs to quit being so stubborn and actually listen when your teacher is trying to teach you a thing or two. Now, apologize for being difficult to your teacher.”

“This is so- aaaie!”

Another squeak as her butt was given a second friendly slap. Eris bit her tongue, grimaced, then sighed.

“Sorry, Tatum, for bein- ah! What was that for?”

Eris turned around with a glare at yet another smack to her bottom to see Bailey smirking.

“Right now, as your teacher, her name is Miss Toddley.”

After a moment, Eris rolled her eyes and turned towards the darker girl with the floppy mohawk.

“I’m sorry, Miss Toddley, for being difficult. Please teach me the proper way to craft this incredibly important object that you’ve never made before and have no idea how it even functioned the first time.”

Tatum grinned. “You know, something tells me there might have been the slightest hint of sarcasm in that, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Can we just get this done, already?” Eris sighed. “Ideally, the Syndicate wants a working version by the end of today so that we can hopefully bring a bunch of people to talk with Vojemala tomorrow. We’re on a time crunch.”

“Fine, fine,” Tatum clicked her tongue, then turned to the chunk of marble in front of them. “The first thing to note is that we want to see if we can make the Key work without having to condense magic into that volatile state. Anything like that makes any item dangerous and unstable, so ideally, that’s the last resort that should be taken.”

“But that’s the only way the Key worked previously-” Eris began, but was cut off by Tatum tapping Eris’s lips with the large chisel to shut her up.

“No- that’s the only way you tried. When taking into account the fact of overcoming an enchantment specifically designed to keep people from getting out of a prison, sure. Condensing magic might be the only option. However, that isn’t even what we’re trying to do right now. All we need this Key to do is allow you to project yourself and others to a different location- not actually open a pathway there. It won’t be interfering with any enchantments to keep things locked inside, so theoretically, you should be able to achieve the effect without making a literal bomb. Then, you can have your conversation with Vojemala, no problems and no risk involved.”

“And if it turns out that we do actually need to go into the Fate of Eternity?” Eris asked.

“Then we can worry about making a version of the Key that actually permits travel like that,” Tatum said. “For now, old Artificer lady just wants to talk, so you’re going to make something that lets you talk. That’s it. Now-”

Tatum used a gloved hand to gently lift the glass jar with a chunk of flesh floating in some preserving solution. “Because you disintegrated the previous Skeleton Key to get the enchantments, we don’t have the Band of Second Presence that you used as the focal point to make it work in the first place. Therefore, you’re gonna be using actual Neutricore parts to hopefully get the same result, which also means the entire design of the Key needs to change.”

Tatum then handed the preservation jar over to Eris while using her other hand to drag over a sheet of paper with plans drawn all over it.

“First thing- that marble is still going to be very good for what we’re aiming for. We aren’t trying to condense the magic, but we are still trying to focus it, which means we need to funnel it somewhere. The high resistance of the marble will force it to all go in one direction. However, one of the major flaws of your previous design is that you had it as a straight-edged pyramid.”

Tatum tapped a finger on the curved display from the page. “Sharp edges and corners make weak points in a structure that are liable to rupture under enough pressure. Just like how you don’t make square water pipes, you don’t want to make amplifying gems or anything that’s going to be channeling a lot of magic have those weakpoints. Therefore, you want curves and smooth edges. That way, when the magic inside hits those corners, it’s more likely to bounce off and reflect in the direction you want instead of breaking through.”

“The Obelisk is nothing but sharp edges…”

“Yeah, and?” Tatum raised an eyebrow. “Just because it’s the most powerful artifact we’ve ever seen and made by a team of Artificers doesn’t mean that their methods aren’t primitive. It’s called the progression of science. Look at their plumbing- their wells were a bucket, a winch, and a big fucking hole. They had no idea how air pressure could be used to make a siphon for a pitcher pump- something that definitely doesn’t need magic.”

“Okay, fair,” Eris relented. “So, a ball?”

“Not exactly,” Tatum shook her head. “We cut with the grain of the marble to help avoid making weakpoints, and make an oblong shape similar to a pyramid for the same funnelling effect but without the harsh edges. The neutricore antenna will be sealed within a silver capsule and inserted at the bottom here-”

Tatum pointed on the page.

“Where the magic will be evenly pulled via the silver into the marble, then forced upwards towards the tip where our amplifier will be.”

“I thought you said we weren’t condensing the magic,” Eris narrowed her eyes. Tatum glared, slightly annoyed.

“We aren’t. There’s a difference between condensing and focusing. Instead of pulling all the magic into a single, extremely tiny point in the marble where it has nowhere to go and is put in a volatile and dangerous state, we’re going to be placing a gold sphere into the tip where the magic will be collected. It can handle the collected magic far easier, and because it’s a perfect sphere, will have no easy weak points making it far, far more stable. The nature of the gold itself also amplifies the collected magic in a way that should be similar to before but in a manner that’s both much more controlled as well as more reliable to replicate.”

“It kinda looks like a dildo,” Bailey chuckled, looking over Eris’s shoulder at the paper. That, of course, also meant that bare breasts were nuzzled into Eris’s back. Tatum sighed.

“I knew you were going to say that. As for the chisel, the reason you need to use a small one is because we need to be incredibly precise with these measurements. More than normal, because of the way that you are going to be joining the silver neutricore capsule with the marble.”

“Aren’t we just sliding it in?” Eris asked. Bailey, of course, chuckled. Tatum ignored her.

“No. We’re going to be super-cooling the silver, which will cause the metal to shrink. Not by much- barely a tenth of a millimetre, but enough. Then, we will insert it, and when the metal expands back to the normal size it will be permanently affixed into the structure without any need for unnecessary fixtures that would dilute the magic or hinder the pathways like your abomination of silver wires tying the leather bracelet to the old Key.”

“Well, how would you have affixed the bracelet to the Key, oh, great teacher?”

“Simple,” Tatum huffed, crossing her arms. “Put a marble insert in the interior space to keep the bracelet expanded, then wrap it in silver foil to serve as the transmutation agent. Then, insert the entire mass into the bottom of the Key and seal it with a marble plate. The foil provides better surface-to-surface contact than wires, spreads the magic more evenly, and disperses it into the marble more effectively.”

Eris paused for many moments, unable to find an argument. Eventually, she sighed.

“Okay, fine- you win. So, what’s the best way to encase the…” Eris stared at the jar for a moment. “-the neutricore antenna? I doubt we can just drop it in a mold and fill it with molten silver. That would just burn the thing right- can you stop that?”

Eris glared over her shoulder at Bailey, who was jiggling her breasts with both hands, one side after the other like she was keeping tempo with a song only she could hear. Bailey chuckled.

“Hey, you don’t appreciate the ability to breathe through your nose until you’re sick. It may only be a half dozen potions that last thirty hours each, but gods-damnit are they clearing up my metaphorical sinuses and you better bet your asses that I’m going to breathe.”

“Bailey,” Eris turned with a glare in her eye and tension in her voice. “You’re being more than a little distracting and now is not the time for it. You aren’t helping. Either stop it, or leave. ”

The blonde narrowed her eyes, her face taking on a more serious expression- one that actually looked a little ugly. The blonde was always smiling- having that vanish was like throwing shit on a painting.

“Seven forgive me for trying to lighten the mood after the groundbreaking revelations from your new ability. I guess I’ll just go back to my workshop and use my class and skills to make all kinds of helpful potions for the war effort, because I’m not helpful here.”

Eris winced. “Bailey, I didn’t mean it like that…”

Bailey sighed.

“For all intents and purposes, I’m absolutely fucking useless right now, aside from the singular fact that because I’m tainted with sin, I can be ritually sacrificed to help cleanse the Hollow. That’s the only way that I can be of use anymore in any real extent, so please, little Miss Save-The-World, forgive me if I decide to do the only thing I can and try to lift all our spirits by shaking my fat fucking tits.”

Several seconds of silence passed.

“Bailey, I’m-” Eris began, but was cut off by Bailey holding one hand up to silence the redhead.

“Have you officially started crafting the thing yet? Like, for the purposes of skills?”

“Yeah, why-”

“Hush, Cutiepie.” Bailey smooshed her finger up against Eris’s lips, and Eris could see the faint twitch of the blonde’s signature smile return to the corner of Bailey’s mouth.

“If you can't be happy, the second best is to be horny instead. The effects of all this jewelry you have on means you need to cum at least once to give the item a nice bonus. Since you’ve already started, that means you can sit down, shut up, and be a good little girl for me while I use these sweater stretchers to give you the best gods-damned titfuck you’re ever going to get. I may not be able to craft, but I can still do my part in making sure what you make is as strong as it can be.”

She flashed a smile towards the corner of the room. “Carmine can even help me with it.”

“What?” The unarmoured Knight standing off in the corner made a noise like a cat coughing up a hairball.

Bailey smirked.

“I may have a lot of boob again, but she’s also got a lot of dick. I don’t think I can cover that much surface area on my own, so I’m calling in backup. Plus, Tatum already got to sleep with her, so it’s only fair you get a chance to have some fun with her downstairs dragon.”

“You know we didn’t actually have sex, right?” Tatum asked.

“I know, “ Bailey smiled. “And to be honest, that’s a missed opportunity from you that you need to rectify soon. But right now, it’s Carmine’s turn if she wants it.”

“Don’t I get a word in this?” Eris asked, face turning a few different shades of red. Bailey chuckled.

“Considering what I’m about to give you, I think the only word you need is ‘please’.”

Bailey then turned to face the Knight head-on, making sure to bring one hand down and gently wrap it around the base of Eris’s length before giving it a little bob.

“So, Carmine. Wanna take off your shirt and help me milk a horse? I’ll even let you get the cumshot.”

The brown-haired woman in casual clothing had a face that seemed to be trying hard to replicate a tomato.

“I- uhh- erm… I- nngh… I- umm… uhh-”

“Use your words, sweetheart,” Bailey grinned. If anything, that made Charlotte go even more red and caused the stammering to choke for a second in hesitation. After a long moment, there was a careful swallow and the tiniest, most adorable of nods.

“O-okay.”