Ah, what a beautiful find. A library full of tomes and scrolls, decorated in the scribe of many tongues and styles from different cultures. From the most refined, polished, and well researched to the crude, yet effective styles, there was everything any potential caster at their fingertips. From destructive to healing to summoning in all forms of styles of casting methods. There was hardly a doubt in her heart if anything new came up, the walls would be updated with the new information. To a studious caster, this place would be where one would call heaven.

With her wings fluttering to life, the two-foot tall fairy, armed with a modified crossbow in hand that nearly matched her size, took to the skies, gleaming over the shelves to see what information slept away for her. "Oh, there must be something here that talks about focuses," she told herself as she scanned the walls. After all, if she had such information at her fingertips, she could work on modifying the weapon in hand to work as a better magical medium, asking less from her to focus her mana and more focusing her shot down to a solid point, making sure her spells fired more true on where she wished to hit. Her bindings, while good, were not up to peak to her standard. It took too much concentration and mana to ensure she did not have to worry about any kind of deviation. Something that is only good if the first strike is the last. When being perused, it was hardly reliable for her standards.

"Ah, is this what I need?" she thought out loud, fluttering to the floor for a moment to rest her medium before heading back to the upward shelves, pulling a tome out. Unfortunately, due to the weight of the collective pages, it was easy for it to pull her down closer to the earth with a quick heave.

The Keeper was doing some cataloguing when he heard the tome hit the ground with a thud that seemed to echo through the nearby shelves, and he set the work he had been doing aside to go and investigate the noise. He found the source a couple rows away from where he had been working, and the culprit, it seemed to be a diminutive woman with wings struggling with a tome that probably easily weighed as much as she did. Despite his Ignius bulk, the Keeper was quiet on his feet like the celestial cat that often walked among the shelves as he came up to the fairy. 

"Might I be of some assistance?" he asked the fairy as he knelt and lifted the tome for her off of the floor and carried it to a nearby table. With a wave of his hand, the surrounding dim atmosphere was made a bit brighter to read by and he looked down his long slim nose at the title of the book. 

"Wands, Staves, and Magical Foci," he read. "Pardon the pun, but that isn't exactly meant for light reading. Doing a little bit of research are you?"

Vinca was able to hover herself off the floor a few inches as she tried to adjust her grip on the tome before a human came into view and offered a helping hand, taking the massive weight out of her hands and into his own, watching him take it over to a nearby table and aiding in illuminating the area, With a smile, the fae quickly fluttered over to her crossbow and cradled it into her arms before hovering down to the table that was set up for her.

"You have my thanks, good sir," she complimented, being sure to bow to him before resting the weapon on the table next to the tome. Comparatively, the weapon she had would have been compared to a light crossbow, easy to handle and not too much force to reload and wield, but to the fae, the item was a juggernaut of a weapon that had been clearly adjusted, removing its original purpose with the giant gem that decorated the tip of the firing line.

"The arte of magic is never an easy topic, now is it?" she chuckled when replying to his comment and question. "This here has been a project I have been working on, and I have been trying to see what can be done to improve its quality. I have thought about replacing the wooden frame with staff wood, but they are rarely big enough to really support the structure this has. Therefore, I need to see if there is anything I can do to help channel my mana into the focus gem I have placed in its tip."

Turning it over, she revealed spots of crystal seemed to have been embedded before smoothed to the wood itself. "I have tried a path of smaller focus gems, but jumping between the crystals loses mana, making it harder to really get the amount I need into the main focus here, which makes it an issue when it comes down quick casts in a panicked state." It was only then she realized her ramblings went on for so long that she may have lost her assistant there.

"I am sorry. Please forgive my ramblings. Sometimes, I get so caught up in my work, I lose track of what is going on around me. Forgive me if my theories seem strange."

"No, not quite easy my fey friend," Drae replied as he sat down on the edge of the desk. He raised an eyebrow as the fairy explained what it was exactly that she was researching. He followed closely her detailing of what she had done with her crossbow and the problems she was having. He narrowed his eyes as he thought of a possible solution, and smiled at her when she apologized for rambling.  
"Oh don't apologize. There is nothing wrong about being passionate about one's work," he said with a chuckle, but turned his attention back to the weapon. "May I?" he asked as he reached to pick up her crossbow and looked it over thoroughly.  "Well, I know magic, I know magic very well… and I can make suggestions on what might help," he said. "If it is materials you are looking for, I think we may be able to figure something out," he said. He offered the fairy a hand.   "I'm Adraejen Porthyrius, happy to make your acquaintance," he said with a smile. 

Vinca made no motion to stop him from handling the item, stating, "I am sure my studies would do me better if I spent a bit more time with them, but the relaxed sensation from a good nap is always easy to sway my heart," stapling a small chuckle at the end. It was odd to say, really, but floating in sleep was a different feel from floating through the breezes. It was as if there was nothing to struggle against. Nothing to stop her from admiring the dream-scape around her in a stress-free state.

However, when the introductions were made, a quick flush washed over her from the embarrassment! How could she have been so common with such a man?! The name rang in her ears so loud, that she had to blink a few times to ensure there was no illusion. No, the Diety of Magic himself was standing before her, offering a hand of introductions to the fairy that stood before him. "It is such an honor, my lord," she told him, taking his hand and granting him a curtsy of a bow. "I am Vinca Jewelhart. It is such a grand honor to be within your audience."

Dealing with royal families was one thing, but the lord of magic? Butterflies were in her stomach! Still, she had to compose herself. Ensure that nothing was wrong to discomfort him, especially with him wishing to be such an aid. "Since I cannot use the wood properly as a mana conductor, I think I need another material to flow into my focus. If I can get that down, then my studies on focus shapes can proceed without much further struggles, along with making this a handy tool if I come into a complicated situation. Once again, you have my dearest thanks."

Drae let out a hearty chuckle as the fairy suddenly flushed with embarrassment at their introductions, but bowed his head to her in return for her polite curtsy. 
"The honor is mine, Miss Vinca," he said with a friendly smile and he released her hand to continue looking over her magical crossbow. He raised an eyebrow at her assertion that she would not be able to use wood as a proper mana conductor. 

"Actually, that might not be necessary. Naturally, your fairy magicks are going to favor wood. It just is going to favor different wood for different things," he said as he placed the crossbow down on the table again so that Vinca would be able to see better what he was talking about. "For example," he said indicating to the stock of the cross bow. "Lilac wood, for example, when used in magic, is really good for illusory and divination magics, and offers protection while traveling. But in the long run it wouldn't be used for combat. This particular little crossbow, while good as a normal standard crossbow, is made of yew. Yew is a strong sturdy wood, but not the best magical conductor," he said. He stood up, and offered Vinca his hand, an offer to either carry her with him, or an opportunity to ride shotgun on his shoulder if she didn't feel like flying. 

"To the workshop with us," he said. "We can examine it properly there." Down a level of stairs, and through the shelves to the Alchemy workshop on the main floor Drae went. He placed the crossbow on the work table and angled the reflecting mirrors just right to give them a wonderful amount of light, and positioned his magnifying lens over the crossbow for an up close look. 

"Now then. As I was saying, yew wood is not ideal when it comes to a magical conductor. That right there is probably your biggest problem," he said as he indicated to the wood stock of the crossbow. "So we need to find you a wood that is going to be better suited for it. Now we could pick and chose out of basic wand woods, but that simply won't do since you came to me. So, stacked over there on the shelf are lengths of purple wood with glowing blue veins. Grab one of an appropriate size," he said indicating to one of the shelves situated in the middle of the room away from the walls and anything liquid, stacked with cuts of different woods. 

"Witchwood. Hard and powerful like yew, but with the conductive magical properties any fairy could want," he explained. 

Her eyes grew wide when she heard that she absolutely could use the wood as a proper medium into the focus. But… But… Every time I tried, I had been completely walled off! Not a drop of mana would dare be accepted into it whenever I attempted to channel it! Still, she tried to hold back the thoughts to focus on the words of the deity before her, trying to take it all in. Okay, maybe it was the yew that was making it difficult to use? No, if that was the case, then it would just mean I would have been spending a ton of mana to get a spell off. This was blocking me off completely. Hmm, those smiths probably tampered with it somehow. To what end, she could not even surmise.

Though when he offered his hand to her to act as an aid to the workshop, Vinca turned red once more. "T-that would be alright. My wings have taken me to many lengths. I am sure this would be any more of a chore." Besides, the image in her head of him carrying her just felt too embarrassing and she felt a bit too big to rest upon his shoulder for the trip. Besides, I should not let such thoughts cloud my mind. After all, he is married…

Taking the flight over and behind his shoulder, she followed him to his workshop, where he began to get things set up before instructing her on what to do next: Gather some witchwood that resided nearby. Giving him a nod, she flew over to the shelves to see what was available. If Drae took the time to disassemble what she had already, he would find that the wooden base was clearly tampered with, being roughly cut in half before refitted together with smaller focus gems lined through the center before ejecting out to the top, where it was meant to link with the main focus that decorated the tip of the crossbow.

"These woods do look very pretty," she could not help but state as she pulled one off of the shelves, giving some give in length from what she already had. As it rested in her fingers, though, she wanted to see how potent this really was. How different it was in terms of working with what she already had. Adjusting her fingers around the structure, she channeled her mana in for a bit, and for that small moment, it felt like the wood itself had nearly vanished… No, not vanish as in gone, but more like the wood became a part of her, as if she had handled it for decades.

Snapping back to reality, she smiled before drifting back to the lord of magic's side. "Would a piece like this do just fine?"

Drae glanced over his shoulder from where he sat disassembling her crossbow at Vinca and the length of wood she had picked out. "Yes, yes, that should do just fine," he replied as he returned to what he was doing. 

"Aha…" he said, and not in an amused tone. "I have found your problem. Miss Vinca I don't know who you took this to when you first had it made… but they did NOT know what they were doing, or they were trying to cheat you our of your hard earned silver," he commented. He pried out the line of focus gems, several of which were severely cracked if not completely broken. The only one still intact was the main focus gem, and Drae could see that it was bordering failure as well. 

"Your crystals are completely cracked, and the line of silver that should have connected them has been corroded," he said, showing her the damage. "Frankly, I'm astounded this thing didn't just blow up in your hands," he told her. There was massive scorching around the main focus gem, indicating poor conduction and magical malfunction. He stood up and went over to the shelves of supplies and began sorting through the raw materials there. He returned with several crystal pieces, a solution flask, and a soft cloth. 

"Let's sort out your main focus gem," he said as he picked up the sizeable gem and began polishing it with the soft cloth and the solution. After a minute or two of polishing, the cloudy gem began shining and almost glowing with magical potential. "That's much better," he mused as he handed the gem back to Vinca. 

"Now, we come to the fun part. The actual building of your weapon… I am not a weaponsmith," he said simply. "I might be the Keeper of Magic and Knowledge, but I am not a tradesman in that way. You want to find someone who has the skills to craft magical weapon. I do know of one. She's an interesting character, skilled. Incredibly skilled. But getting to her is the tricky part."

"Uh, right… Not know what they were doing…" Vince muttered, her face red with obvious embarrassment as she darted her eyes away from the weapon. While she could possibly blame the shop she went to to gather her foci, she was certainly more sure it was someone who was doing something they had no idea what they were doing… After all, she could clearly remember trying to shove the two cut planks in half,  carving out the channel for a "tight fit to ensure the flow not to be ruined by bouncing," and being maybe a bit too forceful with getting the planks back together… I really should have given myself more room, it seems.

That, in turn, seemed to have also affected the main focus gem during her duration of use and practice, which in turn started to cause it to lose its luster and potential, making it harder to flow mana into until it got overloaded and burst in front of her… if the foci she used as the veins did not prior, which would probably even more damaging. Still, she worked her attention back to Lord Adraejen as he felt to clean up and repair the main part of her equipment with a special solution. When he was done with it, it shimmered in a bright vermilion, just as she recalled when she collected it and started to use it with the thesis. Simple times, but still enough to place a smile upon her lips.

With the gem in arms, the translucency covering a good portion of her body as she cradled the gem in her arms, she nodded to agree at the next step. He was no smith, and clearly, neither was she. While she was glad to hear he knew of such a smith, the way he spoke was worrying. "I find it hard to really understand why, my lord. I mean, if she is such a skilled smith, she would need to have a myriad of equipment to work with, with such mass and weight that not even a troll would be able to carry it about. That would mean she has a shop we can visit, right?"

He saw the flush of embarrassment and it dawned on him who the true craftsperson had been. He didn't say anything though. He did not want to compound it and make her unwilling to visit again. She did seem to perk up quite a bit when he returned the gem, now revitalized and polished and full of life again. He looked at Vinca and turned around on the bench, his back against the work table as the subject of his blacksmith friend was brought up. 

"Normally, I'd say yes. And up until a couple years ago that would have been the case. But she's moved her forge. She has a part-time place in Baltil but she hasn't been there much. Her home has become the realm of never-ending night. To find her, you'd have to go there… to Discordia Isle. Her name is Scarlett Al'Teran… the queen of Xunatar, the Kitsune King of Nightfall," Drae explained. 

"She's a first rate Alchemist, Enchanter and Blacksmith, and comes highly recommended by her guildmates in Baltil. She's done a bit of work here as well before. That's how I met her," Drae explained. "Now, I can transport you to the Vilpamolan coast, but from there you'd have to get to Discordia Isle on your own. And you'll want to be careful. The place is crawling with denizens of the night."