Chapter 58: Devoted Witch Part II
The musky smell of the workshop wafts through my nose. The metal of the steps reverberates, silently, beneath my boots as I spiral down.
Father's grin, old and wrinkled, stitches one onto my face as he looks up at me. *Sorry I took so long.*
"All's well. Grab a seat and let's get started," Father's posh voice weaves from his workbench. The organised cubbies of wand materials, resting between the wall and the desk, shake as he moves from the desk to the sofa.
Hoping on the sofa across from him, wrinkles form between my eyebrows at the reminder of my shortness. During the wellness check-ups Zach has been taking me to, I found out I'm growing! Albeit slowly, but still! At least something has come out of Zach's worrying.
"Catlyn," Father says, swatting the clouds away from my head, "let's start with the basics. Wand crafting has two major components: Vessel Moulding and Core Refinement. Vessel Moulding is the main portion of the wand. It is the shaping of the wood to hold the core and contain the magic so it flows out of the tip.
"The Wandmaker uses a metal charmed carving knife to mould the wood into its proper shape and flexibility. While moulding, you must draw your magic, and a little bit of the core's magic, into the knife," he explains, taking out his wand and a small Damascus steel blade to mime the action, "The carving of the wand must be compatible with the core. This is why a wand with a unicorn hair core often has a softer design than a phoenix feather wand. Sanding and polishing might also be involved in moulding the vessel.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a small glass bead. "Core refinement, although difficult, is extremely simple. What the Wandmaker needs to do is draw out the magic within the core and layer it around the material in tandem with your magic. If done properly, this should envelop the material in a glass-looking sphere." Extending my arm out, I wait for a nod of confirmation to pick it up. My examination of it leads to a ping in the back of my memory.
Mana beads are just modified Wand Cores! That's quite genius. *You've mentioned the underlying fact of the Supreme Cores. Would there ever be a reason why a different core would be better? My friend has a Horned Serpent horn core in her wand and it works just fine.*
"Non-Supreme Cores are interesting. They're harder to craft with and make the wand more difficult to use. The only reason a non-Supreme Core will listen to the owner is if the core has a special condition, is accepted by the owner, or is passed down through generations. Does any of that qualify?"
*I don't know. I'll ask next time I see her.*
"If none of that applies, tell me. It's not every day that you get to add to Wand Lore. As I was saying, Wandmakers often keep their techniques close to their chest, only revealing them to pass them down to their descendants or apprentices. With how deep wandmaking is within our family tree, we have a lot of secrets. This is one of them; The refinement of the core and the moulding of the vessel should be done at the same time."
Father's pause causes the weight of the words to reverberate within me. How many spells is that? Carving the wood, refining the core, and exchanging Mana between the core, me, and the vessel. Simultaneous casting is difficult enough but at the same time juggling two spells with one wand and keeping a steady spell with the knife?
*How could that be better than doing them separately?*
"There are a few reasons. One, the merging of vessel and core can only be done with a freshly refined core. Two, you can find out how to mould the vessel while refining the core. While refining the core, you're exchanging magic with the core. This exchange gives the Wandmaker more information on the core and will react to how you're moulding the vessel.
"If you performed the two separately, the delicate task of Vessel Moulding would be time sensitive and the core might reject the vessel because the picture you gained from the core might cloud. Although it's more difficult, it increases the quality of the wand, makes the core bond with the vessel almost always, and makes it so you don't have to rely on luck or core stereotypes. Wandmaking is a craft, but this reduces the margin of error. Have you understood everything?"
His question falls on deaf ears as my brain racks to understand and improve the method. Using Mana siphoning, I could bring the spell count down to one; refining the core. Then again, that's assuming the spells needed are the ones I'm thinking of. It could be possible to… Wait, slow down Catlyn. You haven't even seen Father craft a wand with this all in mind, let alone do it yourself. Observe now, practice later, and dream of improvement in the future.
*Would it be possible for,* the chime of the doorbell cuts me off. Grumbling, I dig into my pocket to drag a white mask onto my face as Father goes to answer the door.
"Morning Ollivanders," Dr. Ballester greets, voice always on the drudges of sleep.
"Is it that time already?" he asks me. Checking my pocket watch, I give a nod as I pull the mask off. "I suppose that's all the time we have for today. Care for a cuppa?"
"Oh, I would love one. Why thank you," Dr. Ballester responds, setting down his briefcase.
*I'm good,* knowing Mana Potion doesn't go well with tea, I politely decline. The dip in my mood swings back around to excitement as I follow him down the briefcase.
"We'll stay with practising Occlumency for now. Up until now, you've done a decent job at protecting a word from my mind so we'll move on to a phrase or sentence," Dr. Ballester explains as I come down into the warm office. I could just jump down but I don't like to do that in front of others. Tugging a Mana Potion free, I down it and face Dr. Ballester, his wand drawn. "Legilimens!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Clueless59
Clueless59 I'm back! Devoted Witch will have one more part. Wand lore! It took me a bit to decide how to do wandcrafting but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Like how I did with the name of books 1.5 and 2, I'll release the synopsis for book 2 early! 2k collections doesn't seem that high of a goal, we're already at 1.8k!
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