"I don't have any coffee, unfortunately," Vivi said. "I was about to brew tea, but I've been told my tea is undrinkable. I can call for Senith to bring something better if you'd like. She bragged about new leaves from the eighth level if you'd like to try them out."

The two gave each other a quick glance, as if uncertain whether the offer was a threat to avoid or an honor to accept. Patryn was the first to speak. "I'd love a taste in that case, if it doesn't bother you. It's been a while since I had some good, proper tea."

"Likewise," Freyven said with a small bow.

"Vivi, why are we offering tea to these idiots," Lucius asked, frowning at the two from her core.

They're guests, Vivi thought.

"They're not even acquaintances," Lucius said. "They look incompetent to me."

Vivi rolled her eyes at him as she moved to the door. Requesting tea really wasn't an issue. She peeked her head out at the door butler and asked him to bring her Anne's new tea, if possible. She decided to request one cup for herself as well. The butler nodded, and the door was closed. In under ten seconds, that was that.

They're guests, Lucius, and we will treat them nicely, Vivi thought sternly. I don't care if they're here only to craft missiles. This is my home, and in my home, guests are treated nicely, so long as they know how to behave.

Lucius didn't seem to understand her thinking, but he gave no more complaints. Vivi moved to her circular table and picked two chairs for the ballista makers and one for herself. "Then, our goal today is to improve the firepower of the ballistas," she said. "I saw that your missiles are outside-carved. I plan to design an inside-carved missile today. I just need to make sure that the missile I craft can actually be fired with your ballistas."

"You'll need the specifications, then," Freyven said. The two sat across from her. "How much do you know about ballistics?"

"Not much," Vivi admitted. "I saw that the missiles were shot with giant bow strings."

"The bow strings do shoot the missile, correct, but the actual tension, and energy, is generated with a torsion spring." Freyven laid out a stack of papers. He searched, until he found a design blueprint of the ballistas. The same design Vivi had seen used today. He pointed his finger at the winch wheel at the very back of the ballista. "Turning the winch pulls back this rope, made of moonweaver's silk and filled with ether. Regular rope works as well, but the energy generated with non-ethereal materials is hardly stronger than a good throw from a hunter, which makes moonweaver silk essential."

His finger moved to a lever, which Vivi guessed was the release trigger. He spoke calmly now, his earlier wariness gone. "The stored energy is then released into the missile. The ballista can shoot rocks, so long as the rocks fit in the trough."

"Trough?" Vivi asked.

"The trough where the missiles sit," Freyven said, pointing. "This grooved channel that guides the projectiles during release."

Vivi studied the picture. It was an interesting design, and very simple when explained. The launch mechanism seemed proficient to her. She couldn't come up with any immediate ideas on how inside-carving could have improved it. Her job would be to improve the missiles themselves.

"So," she said, "for an optimal launch, the missile needs to be slightly incrementally smaller than the trough. The fit needs to be tight, but not exact to avoid excessive friction. Correct?"

"Yes, I suppose that's one way of putting it," Freyven said.

Vivi thought for a moment. The missile was essentially a giant arrow. She had made a few arrows for practice back in Fellwater. She was far from an expert, but she should have known the basics. "The missile needs to be heavy enough to retain momentum, but not so heavy that the weight saps it down, and the weight should be distributed slightly forward for flight stability. I think. Do you have exact numbers for the optimal weight?"

Patryn smiled, looking impressed. Freyven had a curious look in his eyes now. "Did you just… figure that out on the spot?"

"I guessed, but I think that would make sense."

"You're correct," Freyven said. "Spot on, I'd say. And we do have the exact numbers that mathematicians calculated to be optimal. The dimensions and weight-distribution are most important."

He shifted through more papers, finding one filled with numbers. "Some leniency is, of course, allowed, but we strive to get as close to these numbers as possible."

He then laid out a design blueprint of the missile itself, dimensions measured alongside the drawing. Vivi studied it. The tip of the ballistas seemed to be steel, strengthened by runes and outside-carved veins. The shaft was hardened wood. Another design used black aspen for the shaft and red mithril for the tip. All light materials.

"Wouldn't a metal shaft carry more force?" Vivi asked.

"Too heavy," Freyven said. "Flight stability is prioritized."

"You aren't using mass and swiftness runes to manipulate weight?" Vivi asked. "If swiftness and mass runes are combined together, it's possible to change the weight of an object to pretty much anything by altering the amount of ether that's flowed into each rune."

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"Designs have been theorized," Freyven said, though seemed surprised to hear Vivi's question. "We've deemed that idea far too impractical, expensive, and tiresome for the runesmiths. Using swiftness runes takes away the possibility of adding more powerful runes. There's only so many veins that will fit on a missile. A strength rune on lighter materials is more powerful, and far cheaper, than a swiftness rune on a heavier metal."

"I see," Vivi said. The theory of Freyven's words was correct. The ballista makers definitely weren't stupid.

They were just using outside-carving. It's no wonder these ballistas are weak. They're using steel and wood.

"Can we make something better?" Lucius asked. He'd been watching the explanation, though Vivi knew he didn't understand a single thing.

I should be able to, Vivi thought. To her, weight manipulation with runes seemed like such an obvious solution.

She faced Freyven. "With inside-carving, we could definitely use tougher materials, like an asmite shaft, while manipulating its weight with swiftness and mass runes. Swiftness runes don't take any of the destructive power away either, while mass runes increase power with the weight it adds."

Patryn sat idly by the side, watching Freyven's reaction. His grin grew wider as Vivi spoke. Freyven himself looked vaguely impressed by the idea.

The front door opened then, and Anne stepped in. The servant saw that the conversation was paused and walked closer. She still stayed as invisible as possible, footsteps quiet, as she poured three cups of tea. She left as silently as she'd come.

Freyven took a sip of tea, then said, "It's impossible. Weight manipulation works in theory, and as mentioned, we have tried it. We carved both mass and swiftness runes to the missile, then calculated meticulously for the exact balance. Problem is, when the missile is launched, ether escapes from the veins to the air, and any calculations are disrupted, which makes the missiles unpredictable and weak by the time of contact. For the idea to work, a stable flow of ether must be provided into the runes during the flight. No device is accurate enough to keep weight stable."

Ah, right, Vivi thought, immediately understanding why the answer wasn't as obvious to Freyven as it was to her. These guys are using outside-carving. Their veins leak.

Vivi looked Freyven in the eye. "But what if ether didn't escape into the air? What if you had a leak-free solution?"

Freyven frowned, but it was a curious type of frown.

Vivi summoned her backup sword, placing it on the table and showcasing it to Freyven. She grinned. "Say, how much do you know about inside-carving?"

From there, Vivi explained the theory behind inside-carving. Namely, the theory behind vein-shaping. Lucius tried to tell her to not give too much information, but Vivi reminded him that inside-carving wasn't supposed to be some grand secret. Grandpa always wanted to make it public and to spread his name alongside the invention.

And besides, her main goal was to craft the most powerful missile she could to protect her home from storm season. If sharing details of inside-carving would help her, she'd gladly share her secrets.

Freyven and Patryn understood the theory quickly. Inside-carving wasn't complicated to understand. It was just hard to execute. And since neither of the ballista makers were runesmiths, they weren't awed to shock by Vivi's explanation. More so, they seemed interested in its possibilities.

"Veins that don't leak, huh? That's quite the invention." Freyven was leaning forward now, fully invested. "Still, is it feasible to add both mass and swiftness runes, while also including a strength rune?"

"The shaft and the tip are separate," Vivi said.

"Ah, of course," Freyven said. "Only the tip would be forged with a strength rune, with the weight-manipulation happening inside the shaft."

"The tip will have strength and crush runes, and I will be forging it," Vivi said. "A strength rune alone won't do nearly enough damage to the monsters we're fighting."

Freyven batted an eye at that, to which Patryn said, "Frey, you really need to visit the front lines for once. We're fighting fucked… sorry, utterly screwed-up golems. This storm season is not like the ones before. If not for Vivian, and Iszul…" A wince on his face. "If not for them, the golems would have probably made it to the city walls."

Freyven bit his lip. "Good timing for inside-carving to show up, I suppose."

"Do you have any fresh paper and a pen?" Vivi asked. "Let's create the design now. I'll need a lot of equipment and assistance for creating the missile. Especially the shaft. I can make the tip in my smithy, but the shaft will require special equipment from foundry workers. If we work through the night, I think we can get this done before the next storms hit."

The two glanced at each other. Freyven didn't look excited. He definitely needed coffee. Patryn nodded and said, "Let's get drawing."

He handed Vivi a piece of paper. She immediately got to work, drawing her design of the shaft. "With inside-carved runeswords, the veins are always shaped before forging the sword itself, unlike with outside-carving. For the shaft, however, we'll have to reinvent some things again. Forging and blacksmithing a full metal shaft will take way too long. We will have to use molds for mass-production."

"Molds," Freyven repeated. "As in, a mold in the shape of the missile's shaft?"

Vivi nodded, and from there, she got to work drawing the design. She had a few ideas—ones that didn't necessarily make the missiles stronger, but made them easily producible for even those that weren't experienced in inside-carving.

"Molten metal will be poured into the mold, and it will cool into the shape of the shaft. The end result won't be as powerful as forged metal; it'll be far more brittle with a chance of snapping on impact. But it's still going to be far stronger than wood, and there exist metals that hold their structure reasonably well after cooling down, even without forging."

She continued drawing on the piece of paper. "Additionally, the shaft needs to be partly hollow with two half-circles inside. That means the mold needs to have two small cylinders running through its length. This is where the ether roots will be added in. One for the mass rune, and another for the swiftness rune. Both ether roots will be added after the shaft has cooled down."

The two studied her drawing. They seemed to understand the explanation. This was probably the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to create spear-shafts, though it did come with another drawback Vivi left out. If the liquidized metal cooled down on its own, without the strengthening of ether roots to help the metal reform, much of inside-carving's effects would be lost. Adding an ether root after the fact simply didn't form as strong of a bond between the metal and the veins.

However, the goal of the two ether roots was only to manipulate the weight of the shaft. Even a subpar bond would still conduct enough ether to fulfill that goal. The actual damage the missile dealt would be caused by the sharp tip, which Vivi would be forging with her full attention. She was confident that the design would cause serious damage.

"We will need to calculate the specific dimensions of the mold, then," Patryn said. "I'll take the job, and I'll get the molds made. I work at the foundry whenever I'm not needed on the front lines."

"Work through the night if you have to," Vivi said. "I'd like to have this done quickly. Freyven, let's confirm that my idea for the tip will work. Then I'll get to shaping veins."

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