Citizen 1066 Ervio

The challenge in Master Verdegris' graduation test was not in the difficulty of the masterpiece they wanted Ervio to produce. No, it was in the size. Verdegris had taken one look at Ervio's perfectly shaped amphoras, her vibrantly coloured enamel, and her delicately spun jewelry and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile, one full of challenge and a promise to take her down a peg.

Verdegris pushed Ervio, it's why Ervio chose to pursue them as a teacher. Verdegris' accepted nothing less than perfection, and Ervio wasn't willing to create anything that wouldn't meet that standard. The fact that her master delighted in when she failed was inconsequential.

They both knew she was ready to graduate into a journeyman, this was mostly a formality, but one ripe for exploitation. A final opportunity for Verdegris to get the last laugh while Ervio grumbled about the curmudgeon. Which she definitely was doing, as she approached the edge of the dome.

"Why? Of all things. Who's even going to want it? It's gonna be too big for anyone's home." Her muttering didn't cease as she prepared her toboggan and sheet, as she dragged them through the barrier and as she pulled it through the sea water behind her floating on a string. Her destination? A sandpit, just outside the dome where she could source the best sand for the project.  The product available within the dome's barrier wasn't pure enough to get the clarity that she would need. Perfectly serviceable for a cheap pot, but for a window pane, it would not do.

A window pane. Ervio had almost laughed at Verdegris had issued his test, and immediately blanched when he followed that up with the dimensions and a smirk. She's not sure if anyone had ever made one quite so large. If they had, she doubted they had created it with the clarity expected of her. She was going to create the smoothest glass Verdegris had ever seen, without a bubble in sight.

"He is not even going to be able to fit it throught the doorway. He is going to have to either break it or live with it taking up his entire workspace. Then who will be laughing?" There was no one to hear her complaining, but it didn't stop Ervio. It was more cathartic this way, with no one around to ask if she was doing ok or to look at her as if she was losing her mind. The sandpit wasn't a particularly popular destination. It was not a destination that Ervio enjoyed, but the fact it was deserted was working for her in that moment.

Sand was not the easiest thing to transport in the ocean, and Ervio wasn't entirely sure how the scale of the transport would effect this endeavour. Regardless, it always starts with the same step: grab a shovel and get digging.

"He's going to lose out on the value of the piece if he has to break it. The whole point of asking for something elaborate is to receive something that made the training worthwhile, a commemoration of your pupil. I refuse to be remembered by shards of broken glass." She was brought up short by that realization, sand drifting off her shovel as she held it aloft. She was not going to let him break it. If she can accomplish this, she must accomplish it somewhere where the pane will be used. Or at least accessible, so it could be moved somewhere useable since she still had no clue beyond sadism for why Verdegris might desire her to create such a thing.

It was a problem that could occupy her mind while she got back to digging. The process for creating glass panes was already a tedious process, would it even be possible if she wasn't close to the kiln? Transporting any kind of molten glass outside would just cause it to cool too much. She could probably make the sub-panes within the workshop but that was the easy part. It was melding them all together into one seamless piece where the true challenge lay.

Could she create a secondary kiln in the yard? The toboggan was loaded up with sand, the cloth secured to prevent her precious load from floating away. She contemplated her conundrum while she dragged the significantly heavier burden back towards the glowing walls of the dome.

Her excitement grew the longer she contemplated the problem. Was the test meant to be tedious? Yes, but it also held wrinkles to smooth out, fascinating ones. Verdegris was a frustrating old man, but no one could say that he didn't push Ervio to become better, not even herself. "Just you watch, you won't be able to find a single flaw and I will be a journeyman before you can even blink, you old man."