Chapter 118: Ten Copies
Lessa Vorn placed ten empty spaces on the test record before the first copper plate touched the bench.
She had done the same thing on four previous mornings.
The first attempt ended with the sixth plate. One line near the corner curved enough for the runesmith trainer to reject it. The second reached eight before the projected pattern shifted during resizing. The third produced ten shapes that looked identical until Quin measured the heat and found that two warmed more slowly than the others.
The fourth attempt failed on the second plate.
Nobody mentioned that one.
The repaired pattern archive rested inside the shielded room at Gibble-Hammer. Twelve narrow plates of black stone sat in its bronze frame. Copper keys lined the lower edge. The small crystal in the upper corner remained dark while Hammer adjusted the removable bridge across the damaged control line.
Lessa checked the position herself.
"If anyone touches that after we begin, I will count it as a failed sequence."
Hammer raised both hands. "It may need adjustment."
"Then adjust it now."
Gibble carried a tray of copper squares into the room. Every piece came from the same sheet, cut to the same size and polished by the same process. He had rejected three that morning because their surfaces contained scratches too shallow for anyone else to notice.
"Ten plates," he said. "No excuses about material quality."
The advanced runesmith trainer inspected the tray and marked each copper square. Quin stood beside a collection of measuring tools. Anna held the signed trial agreement and the previous test records. Max remained outside the shield until Hammer finished checking the tablet.
The experiment did not require the Dungeon Master’s presence.
He attended because the device could change how enchanted goods were produced throughout his dungeon.
If it worked.
Hammer pressed the copper key assigned to the minor warming pattern.
Blue lines appeared above the tablet. They unfolded into a complete rune instead of the snarled knot produced when Lessa first arrived. The projection moved over the first copper square and settled against its surface.
An automatic arm lowered a steel point.
It traced the guide slowly. The point did not decide where the rune belonged or how one line connected to another. It followed the pattern supplied by the tablet. When the last stroke closed, the projection returned to its beginning, compared the result, and stopped.
The first plate passed visual inspection.
That was only the beginning.
The trainer measured every angle and line depth. Gibble supplied a controlled thread of mana. Quin recorded how quickly the copper warmed, the highest temperature it reached, and how evenly the heat spread across the square.
Lessa filled the first space.
PASS.
The plate moved to a numbered rack where nobody could confuse it with an untested piece.
Hammer reached for the control bridge.
Lessa slapped his hand with the record board.
"I was checking it."
"Check it with your eyes."
The second projection descended.
The process took eleven minutes.
Tracing the rune required less than one. Inspection consumed the rest. A factory could eventually test plates in groups, but the trial agreement required a qualified runesmith to inspect every result. Nobody would declare the tablet reliable because it produced ten pieces faster than they could determine whether the pieces worked.
The second plate passed.
So did the third.
On the fourth, the automatic arm made a faint sound near the final curve.
Everyone stopped breathing.
The trainer examined the line through three lenses. Quin compared the projected guide to the finished mark. Gibble activated the rune and moved five temperature beads across the copper.
The heat spread evenly.
PASS.
Hammer sat down before Lessa could order him away from the bridge.
The fifth plate passed.
The sixth passed.
The seventh warmed a fraction of a second later than the others.
Quin repeated the test after the copper returned to room temperature. The delay remained. Gibble inspected the activation groove and found a shaving of metal near one line. He removed it without changing the mark.
The third test matched the earlier plates.
"Does it pass?" Lessa asked.
The trainer did not answer immediately. He compared the shaving to the steel point and examined the arm’s pressure setting.
"The engraved pattern was correct," he said. "Loose material delayed the initial flow. Record the event and pass the result."
Lessa wrote more beneath the seventh space than she had beneath the first six combined.
The eighth plate passed.
The ninth passed.
Nobody spoke while the tenth pattern appeared.
Blue lines settled over copper. The automatic point entered the first groove and followed the warming rune through every turn. Hammer watched the control bridge. Gibble watched the arm. Lessa watched all of them.
The projection closed and vanished.
The trainer inspected the result.
Quin measured it.
Gibble activated it.
The tenth plate warmed to the same temperature as the first nine.
Lessa wrote PASS in the final space.
[Pattern archive trial milestone completed.]
[One simple runic pattern reproduced ten consecutive times without variation.]
Hammer cheered.
Gibble shook his hand. Lessa closed her eyes and leaned against the record table. Even the runesmith trainer allowed himself a satisfied nod.
Max examined the ten copper plates in their numbered rack.
They were not magical weapons, self-building fortifications, or the beginning of an unlimited enchanted factory. They were minor warming runes capable of keeping a cup of tea from cooling too quickly.
They were also ten examples of the same magical work created through one stored pattern.
"The first condition is complete." Lessa said.
Anna opened the contract. "The repeatability condition is complete for this pattern on copper."
Hammer’s celebration ended.
Four test materials had been listed in the agreement.
Copper was only the first.
Gibble replaced the tray with ten iron squares. They had been prepared to the same dimensions, though the darker metal reflected the projected guide differently.
"We should use a new sequence tomorrow." Hammer said.
"We should learn what happened while every setting is still recorded." Quin replied.
Lessa looked at the empty second page of her test record.
"One iron plate."
Nobody objected.
The warming pattern appeared above the first square. Its proportions remained correct until the projection descended within a finger’s width of the metal. Then one outside line pulled slightly toward the upper edge.
The movement was small.
It was still visible.
Hammer canceled the trace before the automatic arm touched the plate.
"The tablet is interacting with the material." He said.
Gibble placed a sheet of copper beneath the iron. The projection straightened. He removed it, and the line bent again.
"Or the pattern was calibrated for copper."
The archive contained old sequences without complete instructions describing their intended materials. The warming rune’s shape appeared universal. Its projection field was not.
Quin measured the distortion. "It is repeatable."
Lessa stared at him.
"A repeatable error is still useful information." He added.
They recorded the iron result as a failed material test rather than a failed copy. The tablet needed a compensation setting before they allowed the arm to trace anything.
Wood created a different problem.
The blue guide remained straight over a polished maple square. The steel point did not. It followed the grain during two long strokes and left one groove slightly deeper than its match on the opposite side.
Hammer reduced the pressure. The point skipped over a hard section.
The tablet had projected the same pattern.
The production method had not reproduced it.
"A runesmith would adjust by hand," the trainer said. "An automatic tool needs to read the grain or cut in stages."
Lessa added it to the record.
Stone exposed the third limitation.
Gibble selected a flat slate tile. The projection settled against its highest point instead of following the tiny variations across the surface. One section appeared to sink beneath the stone while another hovered above a shallow depression.
The point could trace the visible lines, but their depth would vary enough to change the completed rune.
"Projection depth." Quin said. "The archive scales length and width. It does not map an uneven surface."
Hammer looked toward the ten copper plates.
"It worked."
"On copper," Gibble said.
"Ten times."
"That is why today is good."
The brothers managed to agree without arguing for nearly five seconds.
Lessa carried the record into the design room. She spread the material results beside the signed trial agreement. The thirty-day period had not ended, but the original terms assumed they would decide whether the device was worth further work.
It was.
That did not make it ready for sale.
"If we restrict the first products to prepared copper, the tablet can produce reliable guides." Lessa said.
"After more testing." Anna replied.
"And with inspection." Gibble added.
"And without Hammer touching the bridge halfway through a sequence." Lessa said.
Hammer objected. "It is an adjustable bridge."
"Between sequences."
Max allowed them to argue while he reviewed the larger question.
The archive had value even if it never worked on every material. A machine did not need to solve all runecraft to become useful. Repeating simple patterns on standardized copper could support travel cups, warming plates, preservation boxes, and components placed inside more complicated items.
The work still required runesmiths.
Someone had to repair and select patterns, calibrate the projection, inspect the engraving, activate the rune, and reject failures. The tablet reduced repeated drawing. It did not replace judgment.
Max approved an extension of the trial under the same ownership terms. Lessa retained the archive. Gibble-Hammer retained test access. The workshop could prepare a limited copper production study, but nothing entered the wholesale system until the inspectors approved a complete batch.
Iron required a projection correction.
Wood required a tool capable of responding to grain.
Stone required surface mapping or a stricter preparation standard.
Each problem became its own project rather than evidence that the entire experiment failed.
Lessa placed the ten copper squares in a locked display case inside the workshop. She did not price them. A small card beneath the rack described exactly what they proved.
TEN CONSECUTIVE COPIES.
MINOR WARMING PATTERN.
COPPER ONLY.
TEST MATERIAL. NOT FOR SALE.
Hammer added another card before anyone stopped him.
NOTHING CAUGHT FIRE.
Gibble left it there.
The display drew workers from the nearby assembly lines during the afternoon break. Most expected the tablet to have carved ten enchanted objects by itself. Gibble corrected them each time.
"It projected one stable guide." He said. "The arm followed it. A runesmith inspected it. Then we supplied mana. Remove any of those steps and you have a piece of copper with scratches."
One worker asked when the warming plates would replace the workshop’s ordinary products.
Hammer pointed toward the warehouse where crates of nails waited for wholesale collection.
"When people need fewer roofs than warm cups."
Gibble looked offended on behalf of nails, which was a change nobody mentioned.
Lessa remained beside the case after the others returned to work. She had brought the archive to the Sanctuary hoping someone would name a price and remove the uncertainty from her hands. They did not give her a price. They gave her evidence, limitations, and several more weeks of decisions.
She preferred that now.
Anna handed her a copy of the extension. "You can still end the trial under the ownership clause."
"And carry a device that works only when five people argue over it?" Lessa asked. "No. We continue."
She signed beneath the new material-testing conditions.
The next copper sequence would begin after the automatic arm was cleaned and the projection bridge checked. This time, the goal was not to prove the tablet could reach ten. It was to learn how often it could do so.