Iron Butterfly

Aizen closes her window as she looks down over the warm glow of sunrise spreading across the milky mist of the bayou. The sunlight rapidly warms her fingers through the glass as she draws a heart in condensing droplets before turning to steam. The wind is hot and cruel this morning, howling past her stairless tower, but the treated glass keeps the lithesome Ibak at bay. None of her little butterflies had made it back during the night. Turning her back to the burning light, she begins again - the whole of her world is this room, engulfed in the diffused light of fire and air.   Deeper: The room is spacious with no doors and a single window. Within, Aizen maintains a modest workbench and kiln, an enormous Clay Wash Basin that may have once been a shallow bath, and a Gossamer greenhouse canopied with shimmering cloth reflecting sunlight from all angles through the window to the stacks of potted plants beneath it.   Adorned Pots of varying shapes and sizes are finely decorated like pieces of art, filled with a surprising variety of materials are clearly marked by the beautiful reliefs and decorations that cover them.   Each evening after sunset, Aizen releases another kaleidoscope of Iron Butterflies into the night so that she can explore the world and harvest tools and materials.   ---  

Aizen

Far they fly, who knows how long
With wings of iron, heated and drawn
from an artisans kiln in an unlikely lair
where a maiden forges with fire and air.
 
  • Unknown to her, her name is corrupted from her title, die Eiserne Jungfrau, or The Iron Maiden.It remains unclear if she is mystical, divine or something else entirely, but what is known is that she is trapped within the tower
  • She has learned to craft (and love) her Iron Butterflies, imbuing each with a droplet of her blood that animates and allows her to scry and control the construct.
  • She is beauteous in a statuesque way, expressionless and effortlessly poised - flawless for all but her hands which are rough and calloused with scarred fingertips wrapped in ever-present bandages.
 

Iron Butterflies

  • The only thing that seems to be strong enough and light enough that Aizen can craft that seems to be able to make it out of the tower undamaged.
  • The iron is collected from the Iron Slime she has growing in the Clay Wash Basin

Iron Slime

  • A large amoebic chemotrophic bacteria the size of a human head that dissolves organic matter and secretes an insoluble reddish-brown gelatinous slime, giving it its name.
  • This slime can be harvested and smelted to produce modest iron pellets, which can be further refined to durable iron wire and flexible iron leaves.

Workbench and Kiln

  • The Gossamer Greenhouse has produced staves, which were glued and joined to produce boards and beams to create the workbench
  • The kiln was made from firebrick created from pumice, ash and clay harvested and delivered by Aizen's Iron Butterflies
  • An assortment of metal-working tools, chisels, and files fill tiny drawers.
  • Aizen's prized possession is the set of iron metal shears of varying sizes she uses to cut and shape the Iron Butterflies.

Clay Wash Basin

  • A pool of a kind filled with a mixture of distilled water and organic substrates leeched from the teas produced by the porcelain wormeries adorning the darkest corners of her walls.
  • Here the Iron Slimes burrow and swim, slithering for morsels and scraps left from their last meal.
  • An iron ladel and pot are always near to scoop out the residual slime that are spread onto oiled ceramic frames to evaporate and dry into something useful.

Gossamer Greenhouse

  • A canopy of Linen Netting woven with thread so fine that a strand could rest on a needle's point
  • Surrounding each corner of each eye is woven with a diminutive iridescent gossamer wing of a kind of beetle that sometimes gets carried through Aizen's window.
  • Among her stacks of pots is a hatchery where larva writhe and squirm waiting for the day the transform and are released from their dark, loamy eclosure.

This article has no secrets.

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