I hadn't accomplished much in the last few weeks, but not much either. A few full hours from the Boisseliers, a long-term contract with the hospital, mandatory tax payments, a resolution of the land issue, a new shipment of crystal staffs and seals, and custom rituals. Not enough?
I would have paid a third of the price for a house by the sea if it hadn't been for the agreement that it would only be paid out of the income from the government contracts. Also, Paul, Angelica, and I have a complete design for my artifact, but to complete it, I'll either need the help of a Master of Transfiguration, or I'll have to spend a hell of a lot of time calculating the "multi-step" ritual.
Paul promises to become a Master of Transfiguration in the future, as he's studying it, and his teacher will help us when we need it. Michelle Lully is a master of transfiguration, she is a close friend of Sophie Erran and she was the one who made the brushes, paints and other things that evening. The woman became interested in our work after talking to Paul, and responded by agreeing to the student's request. Surprisingly, without any conditions or requirements, explaining it as a professional interest.
The idea behind the artifact is this. There is a kind of anchor, a base, which will house the core of the system — a storage, analysis and execution system. "Drones" — small parts with a rigid energy bond to the "core", are an active defense system. That is, the "core" is working all the time: scanning the environment, assessing threats. In fact, there is not even a primitive "mind", just a ready-made rune construct taken from a well-known group of artifacts.
This construct has been developed over a long period of time, which means it has been recognized for its versatility and effectiveness. In a standard artifact, when a threat is detected, the construct deploys a standard Protego shield, which is not that difficult to hack, especially since in standard artifacts it is not powered by a storage device, but by the mage himself. In my idea, a "drone" detaches from the main body of the artifact and deploys a shield in the path of the threat.
But not "Protego" at all, but a transfigured steel plate, five millimeters thick, floating in the air. As I worked on the artifact, the idea "mutated", so my original idea of a simple flat shield changed quite a bit. Angelica did the math, and we all worked together to create some rune chains for different conditions, so now the shield itself isn't necessarily flat.
Different threat conditions suggest different sizes and shapes: flat, convex oval, pyramidal, there's even the possibility of creating a shield with spikes that you can take control of and ram into the enemy. I also added a safety feature that protects the owner of the artifact from being bombarded by shards of the destroyed shield; in the event of destruction, the shards are simply transformed back into their original form, the "drone" gets a new dose of energy, and goes back into action.
Although the Drone can be destroyed by being melted or atomized. But the very act of taking such a hit justifies the artifact's existence. Especially since we chose the appearance of a rosary with a larger stone — the core. Three dozen small bead "drones" are three dozen chances to survive.
The need for outside help is necessary to create the "core" — the most intricate piece. A spherically facetted diamond-shaped reservoir, surrounded by a golden jacket, carrying the primary runic structures of analysis and authorization for action. Then there is the jade, a ductile material that is difficult to crack, in which all the other rune structures are embedded from the finest hairs of gold.
The estimated size of the "core" was about four centimeters in diameter. Such delicate and complex work, none of us can do so far ... without VERY extensive training. Even though I've started the calculations, I have no idea how long it will take. And don't talk about computers, because for proper calculations you still need to write programs, enter variables, create various models.... all in all, the preparation alone would take a lot of time. Although I've written down this thought for the future.
As for the current situation, I'm getting letters, I'm being stalked at every social event, I'm being chased, followed, and I won't let go if I'm caught. And it's all the work of one redheaded witch. I didn't mind going out at first, but now I shudder at the thought of spending another few hours in that witch's company. In every sense of the word.
It's Fleur who comes to the rescue, but rarely. She can be so aggressive that people around her get a real kick out of just looking at her. She likes to snort, and she can and does whip her hair around her face, either playfully or vindictively.
Other than that, she has a very complex personality, and you need to spend a lot of time with her to understand her at all. Sometimes Fleur behaves like a normal nice girl, sometimes like an arrogant bitch, and you can never guess which behavior model she will choose. For example, she and I went out twice, not alone, but with Gabrielle.
The first time we went to a Quidditch qualifying match, and while Gabby was laughing a lot and cosplaying fireworks in every possible way, Fleur was walking around with a sour face and playing hard to get. She didn't like the seats, she didn't like the warm lemonade, in general she was fraying her nerves, or rather she was trying to, because she never managed to break Gabby's positivity.
Of course, I blame her bad mood on the girls we met, whose places were not far from ours, but who knows? Our second trip was on horseback through a protected forest (not the Druid's forest), and here the girl "blossomed".
Then I learned that the Delacours have a family that loves to ride, so they have their own stables with excellent horses on the grounds of their mansion. I would like to say that the real Fleur is much prettier than the actress in the movie "Harry Potter", and when she smiles openly, it begins to seem that the girl, like the sun, illuminates the world around her.