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Cobalt sighed as she sank into her chair, looking at the items she had gathered together on her workbench. She had everything she needed. Now, it was just a matter of getting it to mesh together perfectly. She could almost see it come together in her mind's eye, and smiled at how good it would look. She smoothed down her ruffled sky blue feathers and got to work.

Firstly, there were the three arcane batteries: they had been nothing more than small stones, ground and cut into discs of smooth rock, before she infused them with pure arcane energy. They had to be treated carefully now, of course--breaking one could result in a dramatic release of all that energy, in the form of a small explosion. Not deadly, but not good either.

Then was the leather and aluminum weave to be laid into it, allowing that magical energy from the batteries to be carried throughout the rest of the quiver. The weave hadn't been cheap, so she was intent on not wasting it.

What it came down to wasn't the moving mechanical parts, like the mechanism that would eject dead arcane batteries and replace new ones, nor was it about the magic that went into it all. It was about these things working together flawlessly, culminating in a beautiful machine that was a mix of science and magic.

However, her first attempt was far from this. From the second she sat down, it was clear she wasn't going to get where she needed to go. A careless mistake with the placement of the batteries in their holding mechanism resulted in one of them overloading and discharging a nasty jolt of arcane energy right into her claw, followed by the thing exploding in her face. She hadn't expected a first hand look at how dangerous these batteries would get. Her arm went numb for a moment and she worried she would lose the limb before the feeling slowly returned. It didn't destroy the table or anything, but it ruined the other components it had been close to and she had to replace them and create a new battery. That, and the black soot took forever to get out of her feathers.

Her next attempt was more successful, but still not quite there. She took her time with the aluminum weave inlay and was happy with the result, but then got frustrated with the other parts, in particular the arc facilitator, but she refused to give up. She worked on into the night, heedless of the passing hours, refusing to give up. And at the stroke of midnight, her breakthrough struck. Her taloned fingers worked with dexterous ease, moving each part into place as she held on to the mental blueprint in her head, building off of what she wanted it to be, until finally she sat back with a sigh. It was complete.

Made from smooth brown leather, pulsing softly with an inner blue light, lined with shimmering aluminum inlay at the edges and emitting the unmistakable feeling of arcane energy, was her Lightbolt Quiver.

Overworked as she was, she was too thrilled now not to go and test it immediately. The archery range was all but abandoned this late in the night. Surely no one would notice or mind. She set up a brand new target, then walked to a distance of 100 feet, turning about promptly to face the target--the way she imagined the soldiers would do. She brandished her longbow, then took a breath, let it out, and reached back behind her.

Her fingers touched an arrow. A real arrow! Feathers, a shaft--She pulled it out swift and smooth, with the grace of an archer, and looked at it. The arrow was made from glowing blue magical energy, same as the arcane power that fueled the quiver. She grinned, notched it, and pulled the drawstring tight, aiming right for the target. Then she loosed it, let it fly.

It struck the target off to the right. She realized then that she had forgotten to adjust for the wind--and then realized that the arrow had been affected by the wind. She smiled wide as she watched it fade slowly into nothing, then ran up to the target. Sure enough, the arrow had left a mark in the target, dealt real damage.

She celebrated then, doing a joyous backflip, which she was surprised she actually stuck the landing for. Of course she would need to test it further. She couldn't go out adventuring with a prototype; no way she would trust her life to the thing in its current state, but it worked and she was still incredibly proud of it. She imagined the entire Kra'tir city guard using these one day. She would test it some more, then perhaps travel with it and see the world, refining her design as she went.

That, of course, was a story for another day.