Post by topaz on Feb 25, 2009 3:50:48 GMT -5
Venus had been putting her Candidate chores off as long as she feasibly could, she determined that morning. There was no apparent reason for it, besides pure laziness, and it needed to come to end. It was really the first assigned chore she had been given since she had come to the Weyr, of course, other then random tasks she had sometimes been asked to do by drudges or higher ups. Maybe that was the cause of her sudden declination to her duty? No matter. The Candidate had woken up that morning, washed, dressed, eaten, and was in an oddly cheery mood. So, the chores would be done!
Archive Duty. Not something Venus had ever been asked to do as of yet, and she wasn't too sure what to expect. She had deduced that it might involve parchment rolls and possibly some amount of ink, so she had dressed appropriately in a black sleeveless tunic and dark brown pants. At least if she made a mess, no one would know right away.
Eventually finding her way to the unfamiliar Records Room, Venus was greeted by a kind, soft-spoken older man, (apparently a ranking Harper as she discerned from his knots), who directed her to a back room. This smaller room was unusually warm, and Venus soon noticed two medium sized cauldrons over a fire at the far end of it. The smell that came from the pots was familiar, both metallic and earthy, but she couldn't quite place it.
The Harper shuffled his way over next to the fireplace and picked up a basket filled with, what looked like, some kind of nut or maybe a type of berry. What was food doing in the Records Room? Wouldn't that be strictly not allowed? Apparently seeing the confusion on the girl's face as he set the basket on the table in front of Venus, the Harper explained quickly.
The basket was filled with oak galls. They needed to be crushed before they were boiled and combined with tree resin and iron sul...something or other. Venus was slightly confused by the technical terms the man used, but her part in the process was explained quite plainly. What he needed Venus to do was to grind the galls with a mortar and pestle into a powder. Once she had crushed a basket full of galls, she was to dump the powder into the rightmost cauldron, which was filled with water, and let it boil for an hour, stirring it occasionally. On top of that, she was to heat the resin. The man pointed to a stack of cylindrical hunks of a light brown, gummy substance in the corner of the room, and she was instructed to take one of those hunks and put it in a smaller pot to the side of the fire, where the resin would be indirectly heated and melted. This pot she had to watch constantly, for if the resin burned, most of it would have to be tossed, and the Weyr could not afford that loss. Once the hour had passed on the boiling gall goo, the fire should be moved to the back of the fireplace and the two ingredients combined.
Venus must have had a stupefied look on her face has the Harper turned back to make sure she understood his instructions, because he laughed aloud. A momentary pause, and the man was pulling out a sheet of parchment and a quill from one of the drawers nearby and scribbling something down. He handed the paper to Venus with a smile and patted her shoulder reassuringly as he swiftly passed her and left the room.
Looking down, somewhat apprehensively, at the parchment Venus' eyes skimmed it's contents and sighed quietly, relieved. The Harper, displaying the quick thinking and observant skills that all of his craft must have, had jotted down a step by step procedure list for the slightly baffled Candidate. Across the top of the page in narrow, sloping characters, read Ink Making Procedure. Oh! Ink! Of course! Venus had not even realized what the outcome of all that instruction would be, as it had come like rapid fire from the Harper's mouth, elegant and clear though his speech was. Venus resisted the urge to smack her palm to her brow, and decided instead to get to work.
Sitting at one of the many stools around the circular table in the center of the room, Venus set the paper down next to her, out of the way, then leaned forward to grab a mortar and pestle set from the middle of the table. Dropping a few of the galls into the mortar, the Candidate set to work, grinding away at the strange, grape-sized growths.
Archive Duty. Not something Venus had ever been asked to do as of yet, and she wasn't too sure what to expect. She had deduced that it might involve parchment rolls and possibly some amount of ink, so she had dressed appropriately in a black sleeveless tunic and dark brown pants. At least if she made a mess, no one would know right away.
Eventually finding her way to the unfamiliar Records Room, Venus was greeted by a kind, soft-spoken older man, (apparently a ranking Harper as she discerned from his knots), who directed her to a back room. This smaller room was unusually warm, and Venus soon noticed two medium sized cauldrons over a fire at the far end of it. The smell that came from the pots was familiar, both metallic and earthy, but she couldn't quite place it.
The Harper shuffled his way over next to the fireplace and picked up a basket filled with, what looked like, some kind of nut or maybe a type of berry. What was food doing in the Records Room? Wouldn't that be strictly not allowed? Apparently seeing the confusion on the girl's face as he set the basket on the table in front of Venus, the Harper explained quickly.
The basket was filled with oak galls. They needed to be crushed before they were boiled and combined with tree resin and iron sul...something or other. Venus was slightly confused by the technical terms the man used, but her part in the process was explained quite plainly. What he needed Venus to do was to grind the galls with a mortar and pestle into a powder. Once she had crushed a basket full of galls, she was to dump the powder into the rightmost cauldron, which was filled with water, and let it boil for an hour, stirring it occasionally. On top of that, she was to heat the resin. The man pointed to a stack of cylindrical hunks of a light brown, gummy substance in the corner of the room, and she was instructed to take one of those hunks and put it in a smaller pot to the side of the fire, where the resin would be indirectly heated and melted. This pot she had to watch constantly, for if the resin burned, most of it would have to be tossed, and the Weyr could not afford that loss. Once the hour had passed on the boiling gall goo, the fire should be moved to the back of the fireplace and the two ingredients combined.
Venus must have had a stupefied look on her face has the Harper turned back to make sure she understood his instructions, because he laughed aloud. A momentary pause, and the man was pulling out a sheet of parchment and a quill from one of the drawers nearby and scribbling something down. He handed the paper to Venus with a smile and patted her shoulder reassuringly as he swiftly passed her and left the room.
Looking down, somewhat apprehensively, at the parchment Venus' eyes skimmed it's contents and sighed quietly, relieved. The Harper, displaying the quick thinking and observant skills that all of his craft must have, had jotted down a step by step procedure list for the slightly baffled Candidate. Across the top of the page in narrow, sloping characters, read Ink Making Procedure. Oh! Ink! Of course! Venus had not even realized what the outcome of all that instruction would be, as it had come like rapid fire from the Harper's mouth, elegant and clear though his speech was. Venus resisted the urge to smack her palm to her brow, and decided instead to get to work.
Sitting at one of the many stools around the circular table in the center of the room, Venus set the paper down next to her, out of the way, then leaned forward to grab a mortar and pestle set from the middle of the table. Dropping a few of the galls into the mortar, the Candidate set to work, grinding away at the strange, grape-sized growths.