One of Martel's worst habits - in the opinion of the poor sod who gets to take care of it when his lordship can't reach the burns to clean them up on his own - is probably the fact that he appears to firmly believe few enchantments could fail to be improved by the involvement of fire. This one, though, this one needs it.

The glass is the hard part, he decides; a hollow eternity symbol in crystal clear glass, fashioned 'honestly' and completed with sorcery, it's not his usual sort of occupation and there are broken shards of his previous attempts littering the workroom as a silent testament to how long it took him to master it. (Not as long as you'd think, but he did cheat and without a hint of shame, too.) From there the water - half full, clean spring water that he blessed as an afterthought - and then, then the fire.

All right. Maybe this is the hard part.

Inside the glass an enchanted fire burns merrily, and endlessly, unbothered by the water that it shares its space with and flows against, and Martel makes a mental note to wrap his raw hands when he's finished. Not before he's finished, though, it'd make him clumsy and really - it doesn't hurt that much. The last thing is a stand for it, and a bit of metal sculpture is much easier for him than the glass proved to be.

He takes a step back to admire his handiwork, when it's done, and then swears when he realizes he stepped directly onto a piece of broken glass.

(This is one of those occasions Ewar doesn't mind being reduced to a messenger boy, carrying the package and short note - Congratulations. - M. - to Ithaca personally.)