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After giving yourself a bit to think it over, you decide to use the Glyphery, because it is not as valuable to you as the Life Loom, and you are more familiar with it than the Fetish Foundry. Using the clean portions of the clothes you stole off of the dead Comptroller, you dry yourself off the best you can, pull your spare dress over your head, then grab a fistful of the steel balls you pinched, the ones from the prototype … whatever it was. Anyway, with a bit of white luck, you hope to be able to get this done on the first try, or at least, the first ball. Engraving or Scrivening, with or without the benefit of magic is a time-consuming process. You would hate to sink an hour into etching out a decoy, only to have it ruined and have to start over. On your way out of your room, you grab the actual graven ball for reference, winching as some of it flakes off as you pick it up. You start to head upstairs, only to realize that even if you are not going to be Engraving with the Glyphery, you are still going to need to run the damned thing. Keeping the real graven ball cradled safely in your hand, you stuff the others into your pockets, and swing into the main room of the Belfry to grab the remaining purse of sea salt, for the catalyst, and the half-gallon of olive oil for fuel.
You drop the salt and oil off at the Glyphery, but instead of sitting down there, you head over to father’s mundane workbench instead. The tooling for the Glyphery is rather delicate, and you have never actually tried using it while the Glyphery was in operation. You cannot recall father ever telling you not to use it when it wasn’t … but by the same token, he never said that you could, either. And he always did his mock-ups using mundane tools, so you figure that you should do the same. Now, once you pop one of the fresh balls into the vice and find the drawer that has all of the files, then you will be ready to go.
Well … actually, maybe not. This is the first chance that you have had to actually attempt to read the engravings, and they do not make a lot of sense. That is not to say that it is completely inscrutable. On the contrary, you actually recognize the Language. It is just … the Syntax is odd, and the Glyph looks incomplete. There are all these states referenced in the main Loop here, but barely any of them have been defined. And on top of that, it is not clear what the function of the Glyph actually is. But it is not like you could be missing a portion of the Glyph, you know you have the entire ball. And of course, whoever made fraying thing did not leave a single solitary comment. Talk about discourteous.
Ah, to Hell with it. You do not have the time to really study it right now, and what’s more, you do not need to. You just need to copy it, as best as you can. Make something that looks like the original and is as Strange as the original. No need to even think about it. In fact, it would be better if you didn’t. Just get it done.
