With proof of concept now established Nick now set out to create as many atronachs as he could. The first atronach type he focused on was the fire atronachs because he had a theory about them that he wanted to verify. The process to creating them was similar to the way the air atronach was created however Nick didn't add any metal to the forge. What he ended up with was weaker than normal constructs that looked like women without faces made out of fire and burnt metal. In truth their was no metal on the creatures at all as it was simply crystalized mana like with the air atronach.-
'In theory I can feed a fire seed to these atronachs in order to change their powers and appearance.' Nick thought as he took a deep breath before breathing out a thick plume of azure flames at the atronach. To his surprise this created a strange chiming sound from the construct and to his magical senses the atronach was undergoing a fundamental shift. Even after he stopped releasing his flames on the atronach the changes continued and he watched in interest as the body of the atronach began to change. The biggest shift was clearly that the coloration of the construct was now azure and dark blue.-
Even more interesting to Nick was how the construct had grown ever so slightly larger and had grown twisted horns on it's head that its flaming "hair" flowed around. Appearance wise there wasn't any other changes but in terms of power there was a night and day difference. Before the construct was made of normal flames but now it was comprised of mana dense dragon flames and was thus considerably more powerful than it was before.-
Nick set this new azure flame atronach on patrol as well before going to meditate to restore his mana reserves. 'It would seem that I can only make approximately four atronachs a day if I don't want to lower the ambient mana density of the island.' he thought as he cleared his mind and focused on his breathing. It wasn't a lot but considering they were permanently here after he made them that number will quickly increase as he spends more and more time creating the things. Still the next two atronachs he made were also flame atronachs that he then "fed" a fire seed from one of the types of flames he had available. -
The atronach fed the cold flames imploded during the transformation which he discovered was because the base level of the construct was too weak to handle the conflicting energies created by the transformation. Still he theorized that a better starting point for the flame atronach should fix this problem. It wasn't a total loss though as upon it's "death" the atronachs body broke down into a glowing red "salt" pile. 'Fire salts I take it. These may come in very handy soon when I start delving into alchemy.' he thought as he stored the burning hot "salts" away in a highly heat resistant glass jar.-
The final atronach was fed a seed of conjunction flame and things got weird as a result. Nick watched as the atronach violently transformed. First the legs , head and arms sank into the torso of the construct. Then the torso ballooned until Nick was looking at a perfectly round orb of glowing grey flame crystals. Even weirder was that the atronach seemed to warp space slightly just by existing. Nick set this new conjunction atronach as the center piece of the manors reception area as it was a marvel to look at but didn't seem suited for combat at all.-
Nick had to call it a day there with his creation of atronachs as the ambient mana was getting rather thin. The rest of the day he practiced his mana control in order to regain the control he lost from the sudden increase in power. His wand had already adjusted to this new level of power so it didn't have any issue with his training. Thankfully Nicks control hadn't been truly lost so much as dulled by the increase in power.-
All he needed to get back to where he was previously as a bit of sharpening. Nick had Dotty cook up a meal for him while he relaxed in the bath room. It might be rather wasteful that the bath was almost the size of a swimming pool but it was pleasant none the less. The hot mineral waters of the bath did wonders for getting rid of stubborn dirt and dead skin after a short soak. Thanks to Daphnes hair care routine my now shoulder length grey hair was smooth and shiny like silver. I tended to keep it braided behind my ears in a traditional eleven manner that Celebrimbor showed me.