Fortuna Verto

01-Limited Availability

Sunlight faded from the horizon as dusk brought the end of another long day. For people under another sun, this might be taken as an invitation to bring the day to a close, but most of the people under this sun simply understood this to be the peak of the day.

Lyunhtaeviyqia glanced at a nearby pane, one of the most useful windows to the world outside that showed Yhndae setting in the sky, taking note of the passage of time in one of the most natural ways. Of course, this late in the solar phase, she couldn't even see Taeqhyx in the sky at all, their other sun, it was several solar cycles too soon for that. Ruixse would also have its two moons out there somewhere too, Izheelq and Hyxeelq, but Lyun was far too busy to waste further time with the sky to spot them. Carefully picking up another ebony crystal from her dwindling stock, she carefully brought it back to her desk to set it into her latest project. It wasn't as if she was doing anything revolutionary, mechanical actuators for moving heavy equipment were almost considered ancient by modern standards, but such niche instruments still did have their own selective uses. Being so niche simply meant that there were so few places willing to have them produced at all, leaving it to people like her to fill in her own efforts. She herself was an instrumentation engineer, making complicated instruments work was simply her thing. This was no small thing either, not in the current age. Instrumentation was one of the most important fields of progress in the world, the foundation of civilization's advancement. Knowing this, she took great pride in all of her instrumentation projects, devoting herself to discovering prosperity and success.

Of course, neither prosperity nor success was something that graced the Iezhysevyeihr household, not as things stood at least. Her workshop was still rather small, very independent, and really didn't mean much in the day's society. Meanwhile, her scarce stock of Kyuemu shards were a clear indication of how prosperity retained its distance. The stock of shards she had weren't even the best of quality, the impurity of each slightly discoloring the ebony in any close inspection. Kyuemu shards were the foundation of the entire instrumentation industry, practically everything depended upon them serving as a fuel source for any instrument, a composition of elements in absolute purity. After the elemental era revolutionized everything for society about eight centuries ago, the idea of using kyuemu shards in instrumentation became the new standard. Apparently, in the past, people had to personally keep things going using their own stamina.. but burning shards was not only less demanding of people, it was also far more autonomous. This was great and all except for one slight problem, this then required having a decent stock of Kyuemu shards.

This in turn brought Lyun back to her current project, something she was honestly hoping to sell for enough Qeld to buy many more shards with. That was not to say she had secured a sale yet, even if she had a few good ideas to try in that regard. If none of her ideas worked, that certainly wouldn't be a first either, the mess of crates on the other side of the workshop filled with some of her unsold projects was a clear sign that sometimes this was only inevitable. Depression and despair were things she would set aside for now, her slumber devoted enough time in her dreams with such worries as is. It wasn't as if she had any other solution to such grief either, so there wasn't any point in dwelling on the subject, instead she felt it to be far more productive to keep trying, to keep reaching for success. Driven to such ends, she cautiously and carefully suspended the Kyuemu shard into the actuator unit, securing it in its cage within. There, once activated, it would react to the elemental capacitor in a heat reaction, the classical approach to bringing energy to any modern instrument. In the modern world, Ruixse was empowered by the intensity of the flame it could harness, and from there things could happen.

"Hells, do you ever know how to take a break?" "Ah! Oh, Yhzia.. it's just you." "Just you.. nice to see you too, by the way. It's been a while, if you haven't noticed. You probably haven't. Are you at least getting enough rest?" "I made sure to get some proper sleep both in the full light and full dark of the past day, I would have you know. I'm not stupid, you know. Anyway, I'm still busy, if you're done ranting, I would like to get back to work, please." The intensity of flames were visibly apparent in the passion Yhzia held every time she walked into Lyun's workshop, Lyun was actually surprised to have not heard the door slam. Oh right, that was because she had finished repairing the door's alternator earlier today, so the door was able to open and close itself without Yhzia's forceful intent. Having been so preoccupied by the current project, Lyun had totally forgotten about that.