Enchanting

Duw had spent a grueling month repeatedly casting heling spells, she had treated no one just repeating the same spells over and over, but finally Silvia relented, her reasoning was that Duw needed to do schoolwork and since she had actually helped the attacked man she considered this punishment enough and so cut down the training to 3 days a week instead of seven, when Duw asked when the training would be done she simply said "you'll know,"

Duw's home-life was simple, she ate, talked to her parents, and read mostly, but she wanted to learn from her mother and father, she had known that her dad was the town blacksmith but she was surprised to learn that her mother was also an enchanter, her mother's enchants were not that strong and would wear off after a while but before they would leave on an expedition the town's hunting team would come to her for some magic boosts to their weapons and armor, so Duw asked her mum to show her how it was done.

"Right," said her mum cheerfully, "ask the question, all apprentices start off with the same one, don't be shy and don't worry about asking anything,"

Duw smiled, "ok, how can you perform enchants of an element you cannot use?"

her mother smiled, "OK well as you know from school, each spell uses a spell net, a blue print for the spell, when you form a net it is actually devoid of an element, it is like a river channel and the element is the water, so all you need" she picks up a small green gem, "is a bucket that someone else filled for you, this is an elemental gem, they are formed when someone focuses elemental power without a net and compresses it forming the gem,"

Duw nodded "then how can enchants be made permanent?"

"ah, that is a little tricky, you need living metal as a weapon core, not easy to get, it comes from a rare type of beast that eat metal and is found in their bones,"

"what about potions?"

"they are liquid and easier to enchant,"

"why does a weapon need a liquid core?"

"ok slow down a bit love, liquid can hold an enchant because the net can hold together in liquid, enchanting a weapon only imprints the net on it, after a while the imprint fades, ok let's start and hopefully watching me will be more useful,"

Her mother than took out a small dagger and began drawing her fingers across it's surface as if sketching on it, she explained how the spell worked and that when the net was complete just injecting the power from the gem was enough to activate it, she explained the gem was only needed to bring the net to life and it would naturally draw from the environment the needed power to maintain itself and produce it's effect.

It was almost like her mother was playing an interment as her hands moved delicately on the weapon, she was sat down in a chair and it was like she was playing music but the magic and energy made a pretty array of colors around her in what was apparently called an 'enchanter's halo' it made her mother look like an angel, she spent several days learning from her mother before her mum gave her a set of enchanting books to read that had various nets and techniques, even so she began to love watching her mother work, but she felt it was unfair to favor her mother so much and so went to the workshop to learn from her father.