"Riven..! Wake up! It's time to go to work!" Said my father.
"Yes dad..!" I shouted back groggily, the morning light of the sun shining down on my face through my curtains. I sat up with a herculean effort and rubbed the gunk out my eyes after a late night filled with no sleep and far too much noise.
I stood up off the mattress on the wooden floor of my room and made my way to the bathroom. I washed my face and brushed my teeth before fixing my hair to look presentable. I had a pretty lean build courtesy of the blacksmithing work that my father implores me to do every day for the past few years. My brown hair was styled into a wavy middle part, with the beginnings of a beard growing on my face. I left my room and made my way downstairs into the kitchen where my dad left the coffee pot every morning. I poured myself a cup and grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on the island countertop. As I was peeling my banana my dad burst through the side door that connects the kitchen to his workshop.
The man reeked of smoke and fire, with dark circles under his eyes, evident of a late night of his own. He was dressed in a traditional blacksmithing apron with dark smudges littered all over it. He was a stubby man with a stubble beard and deep blue eyes. He had black hair, which was cut into a standard buzzcut as he found that long hair and fire don't quite mix well. My dad was the traditional type of blacksmith that still uses a forge to heat up a catalyst to repair it, instead of his magic to repair them. While there's nothing wrong with it, it's just a little odd for our clients. However, once they see the quality of their catalysts once he's done with it, they don't question his methods.
"Riven! We've got a ton of orders today for routine maintenance checks on catalysts. Most of the clients are coming in today to pick them up so I'm gonna need your help to go over the ones I missed and repair them." he said.
"Sure dad, just let me finish my breakfast and I'll be right there with you." I replied.
"Just don't take too long, even though I hate magic, it is incredibly more efficient when dealing with catalyst repair," he said.
"I always tell you to make the switch but you never want to listen to me. Things would go way smoother and you wouldn't have to stay up for the majority of the night working," I replied, unpeeling my banana and taking a bite.
In my head I thought, "You also wouldn't be keeping me up with the sounds of banging steel and metal every night."
"You know why I don't use magic, son." he replied, a sad glint in his eye that disappeared as soon as I saw it.
"Yeah I know…" We stay silent for a few seconds before he says something again.
"Ah I was gonna tell you, today after work I have a surprise gift for you at dinner."
"Really? Surprises aren't really your style…" I replied, taking a sip of my coffee.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"You're more the type to ask me what I want and then get it for me the next day." I say.
"Well you may be right, but I didn't ask you what you wanted this time. I just felt that this is something that you'll very much enjoy." he replied.
"I'll be the judge of that dad." I say before taking another bite of my banana.
"Alright enough of that, just finish your breakfast and come help me out." he says.
I nod and he walks back into his workshop, closing the door behind him. Even though I was acting indifferent in front of dad, I couldn't help but feel a little excited at the prospect of getting a surprise. A part of me thinks that he got me my first catalyst, which would be a pretty awesome gift, considering after 17 years on this earth I still haven't bonded with one. But I doubt he'd spend his minimal income on something that I might not even be able to bond to.
After I finished my breakfast I opened the door to dad's workshop and was hit with the smell of steam and sweat, and the sight of my father quenching the steel of a heated blade-looking catalyst. The room was divided into two halves, my side consisting of a small desk and chair, with a pile of catalysts in need of maintenance and repair staring at me. The other side, my dad's, consisted of a large brick forge built into the wall that extended outside to let the smoke out. He had an anvil and a shelf of mostly hammers, tongs, chisels, and several other hardy tools. He had a slightly smaller desk than I did, with a similar pile of catalysts in need of repair. Not to mention the other hundreds of broken catalysts littered around his workstation that he considers 'side projects.'
I walked over to my desk and grabbed my bootlegged Channeler's Gloves sitting in my drawer. They looked like ordinary leather gloves with a weird design on the finger tips and palms which were really just intricate mana carvings added. There were also cuffs made of arcsteel, a cheap mana conducting metal that helped with moving mana throughout the catalysts. I was pretty proud of them, considering real Channeler's Gloves would cost at least three gilded 300 vire. After countless trial and error and about fifty vire, which all things considered, was leagues cheaper than the real thing, I had successfully created my own Channeler's Gloves. Channeler's Gloves are a magic tool that helps with the conduction of mana with a catalyst to manipulate its properties in whichever way the user wishes. They're usually pretty expensive and many blacksmiths would kill to have even one glove as the process of modifying or even routine maintenance on a catalyst can be pretty grueling.
I put them on and grabbed the first catalyst I saw on the pile. It looked like an ordinary watch that told time, but if you look closer, instead of numbers there were mana carvings behind the glass. In fact, even the straps of the watch had mana carvings that specialize in wind-type magic. You can usually tell a lot about a person just from what their catalyst looks like, even more when you know what the carvings and the runes specialize in. For example, the person who owns this catalyst may value their time, or they might just be practical, either way a watch is an interesting choice for a catalyst; most usually opt for a weapon as a catalyst—like a sword or a bow, then again a lot of the time people can't just choose a catalyst, as a catalyst can reject you if it decides you're not worthy. Wind is also a pretty underused element due to its difficulty to master, so this person either likes to be unique, or likes a challenge. Most people can utilize every single element in the mana spectrum, however most don't have the reserves to be able to use them all efficiently. So in the end it can harm more than it can help, though it's a cool concept to be able to use every single mana element at the same time, it's little more than a dream for the majority of the population. Concentration is better spent on one element to maximize its output and master its skill ceiling.
I grabbed each strap of the watch with the fingertips of each of my hands and started pushing my own mana into the catalyst. Running maintenance on a catalyst is usually as simple as slipping your mana through the runes engraved on it, though it depends on the amount of runes and the complication of each rune. After doing this for a few years, there's a small amount of runes out there that I have trouble with, wind being one of them. The runes require a lot of mana to activate, and even once it's activated, if you aren't constantly pumping mana into it, it will deactivate and you'll have to start over again.
Luckily, the amount of mana I put in was sufficient enough for me to activate every single rune to ensure the catalyst was working properly. Typically, it's difficult to activate someone else's catalyst without the proper equipment, meaning not just anyone can take another's catalyst. On top of that, it's considered taboo to even try and use someone else's catalyst outside of sending it to a blacksmith. Most people opt to do the maintenance themselves, as it's leagues easier to run maintenance on your own catalyst. However, modifications are another ball game entirely. When modifying a catalyst, old and weak runes must be filled in and replaced by different, stronger runes. This whole process can be quite tedious and prone to screw ups, so many opt to send their catalyst to a blacksmith for that whole process. I've had a lot of practice modifying catalysts to the point that I would consider myself better at it than my father. Which is really saying something, considering he doesn't even use his mana to modify catalysts. He has to hand chisel the runes and then use an Arcflux Drive to pump the catalyst full of mana. An Arcflux Drive looks a little like a steel jumbo-sized microwave with a dial that can calibrate the exact amount of mana you want it to emit into any given catalyst. It's an even more tedious way of modifying than doing it with Channeler's Gloves and your own mana.
***
Customers came in and out throughout the day, picking up their catalysts and making small talk with my father. As our final customer was leaving, I was busy tidying up—or at least attempting to tidy up our workstations. While on my father's side, I took a look at the huge pile of rejected catalysts that were collecting dust in the corner.
"Hey dad, is it cool if I look through these catalysts here in the corner?" I said.
"Go for it, it's mostly garbage so don't get your hopes up too high." he replied.
"Eh I'll take a look regardless, maybe there's an EX rank catalyst in this pig's sty." I say half-jokingly.
He snorts out a chuckle before replying, "Have fun, in the meantime I'll be getting started on dinner."
I hear my father's receding steps followed up with a closing of the door to our workshop. I rummage through the pile for a while, picking up a few damaged swords and even a spade. My dad was right, it was mostly garbage that can barely keep mana in. Towards the bottom, there was a small sphere that appeared a little like obsidian. It felt extremely smooth with no impurities, and a little orange light seemed to be lit in the middle of it. It was warm to the touch and just felt right in my hands.
It was hard to describe what happened next. My entire body felt like it was on fire, but it was an exhilarating feeling, like I could fall into a volcano and be perfectly fine. I've never felt more connected with my mana in my entire life, I could feel every little pulse flowing through my veins and my blood. The sphere completely lit up in an orange light not unlike a flame, it appeared like the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
All the light had then poured out of the sphere into the air in every perceivable direction, like tendrils of fire moving freely throughout the workshop. Then with a gratefulness, every single tendril had pointed and moved towards my chest. My chest suddenly felt tight as all the tendrils had pressed their way into my chest, all at the same time. Just like that the feeling was gone, replaced by a fullness and fondness of the obsidian sphere in my palm, the small flame lit in the middle once more.
"Congratulations son." My father suddenly chimed in from behind me, standing in the doorway of the workshop.
"Wha-" Before I could say anything he interrupted me.
"You've finally bonded with a catalyst." A small smile on his face, a faint glimmer in his eyes.
As much as I wanted to protest and say that there was no way I could have just bonded with some garbage in our workshop, I couldn't. This sphere felt different somehow, it felt important, and I was now bonded with it. Looking into the sphere once again, I saw my reflection, and I realized just how hard I was smiling.