Present Day - Reyneese’s Workshop#
Reyneese sits cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by gears, springs, and what appears to be a disassembled goblin rocket boot. Oil stains her white robes. A stack of goblin engineering manuals—covers garish, titles explosive—leans against her wooden staff.
Vyrneese enters, stops, stares.
Vyrneese: “Rey? What are you doing?”
Reyneese (doesn’t look up, adjusting a gear assembly): “Building a portable healing dispenser. Goblin engineering principles, but refined. Less exploding.”
Vyrneese (confused): “You’re a priest. You have healing magic. Why do you need—”
Reyneese (still focused on work): “Magic requires me to be present. Focused. Strong. Engineering works whether I’m tired or not.”
Vyrneese (sits down across from her): “This is because of Brass, isn’t it?”
Reyneese (finally looks up, small smile): “Brass talks. I listened. For once.”
Flashback: Six Months Ago - Late Night Conversation#
Reyneese and Brasskeese sit in the common room. Brass reviews ledgers, Rey stares at nothing with cold tea.
Brasskeese (without looking up): “You’re doing it again.”
Reyneese: “Doing what?”
Brasskeese: “Sitting there carrying the weight of the world like it’s your job. It’s not.”
Reyneese: “I’ve been doing this for two thousand years, Brass. It IS my job.”
Brasskeese (closes ledger, looks at her directly): “And how’s that working out? You look exhausted.”
Reyneese: “I’m fine—”
Brasskeese (sharp): “No. You’re not. You’re running on empty and pretending the tank refills by willpower.”
Reyneese (defensive): “What would you have me do? Stop caring? Stop helping?”
Brasskeese (leans forward): “I’d have you be smarter. You’re 2,000 years old and you’re STILL trying to do everything with raw effort. Know what I learned in 58 years?”
Reyneese (quiet): “What?”
Brasskeese: “Build systems. Tools. Redundancies. You can’t be everywhere. But your WORK can be.”
Reyneese: “I don’t understand.”
Brasskeese (pulls out small explosive from pocket): “See this? Goblin engineering. It’s not elegant. It’s not pure. Half the time it explodes wrong. But you know what? It WORKS. Whether I’m there or not. Whether I’m tired or not. Whether I’m ALIVE or not.”
Reyneese (uncertain): “You want me to build explosives?”
Brasskeese (laughs): “No, you elf disaster. I want you to think like an engineer. Build things that work without you. Potions that heal when you’re not there. Tools that save lives when you’re too exhausted to cast. Stop being the hero. Start being the SYSTEM.”
Reyneese (long pause): “Goblin engineering.”
Brasskeese: “Best engineering. Practical. Efficient. Ugly as sin but WORKS.”
Reyneese (thoughtful): “I’ve spent two thousand years perfecting magic. Light. Shadow. Balancing forces. Trying to BE the solution.”
Brasskeese: “And you’re burning out. Because you can’t be everywhere. But a good potion? A well-designed tool? Those can be.”
Reyneese (quiet realization): “You’re saying I should stop trying to be enough.”
Brasskeese: “I’m saying you should be SMART enough to know you’ll never be enough alone. So build the systems that fill the gaps.”
Reyneese (picks up empty teacup, examines it): “Goblin engineering. The philosophy is… practical. Survival-focused. Results over elegance.”
Brasskeese (grins): “Now you’re getting it. Welcome to being smart instead of just powerful.”
Present Day - Workshop (Continued)#
Vyrneese: “So Brass convinced you to learn engineering?”
Reyneese: “Brass reminded me that power without method is just… exhaustion. I’ve been powerful for two millennia. It hasn’t been enough.”
Vyrneese (hesitant): “Rey, do you remember when we talked about alchemy? About transmutation?”
Reyneese (looks up sharply): “Thunderfury.”
Vyrneese (nods): “You helped me. With the materials. The Arcanite.”
Reyneese (sets down tools, memory surfacing): “I did. That was… that was the beginning, wasn’t it?”
Flashback: One Year Ago - The Thunderfury Quest#
Vyrneese spreads materials on a table. Elementium ore. Essence of fire. A recipe that requires Arcanite bars.
Vyrneese (frustrated): “I need Arcanite. The blacksmith says it requires transmutation. I don’t know how—”
Reyneese (appears beside her): “Alchemy. Transmutation specifically.”
Vyrneese: “You know alchemy?”
Reyneese (quiet): “No. But I can learn.”
Vyrneese: “Rey, you don’t have to—”
Reyneese (firm but gentle): “You’re trying to reclaim a piece of your past. A legendary weapon from your era. If alchemy can help, I’ll learn it.”
Vyrneese: “Why? Why go through all that effort for—”
Reyneese (meets her eyes): “Because you matter. And because maybe… maybe it’s time I learned something NEW. Instead of just relying on what I’ve always known.”
Montage of Learning#
Reyneese studying alchemy texts.
- Night elf herbalism knowledge (foundation)
- Combining reagents methodically
- First failed transmutation (ore turns to slag)
Her frustration:
Reyneese (to herself): “Magic is intuition. Feeling. This is… formulas. Precision. Repeatability.”
The shift:
Reyneese (realization): “That’s the POINT. A formula works whether I’m grieving or not. Whether I’m confident or broken. It just… works.”
Successful Arcanite transmutation:
Reyneese (holding glowing bar, amazed): “It worked. Exactly as the formula said. No divine inspiration. No inner peace. Just… method.”
Delivering to Vyrneese:
Reyneese: “Your Arcanite. Twelve bars.”
Vyrneese (shocked): “You actually learned transmutation for this?”
Reyneese (thoughtful): “I learned that sometimes the answer isn’t more power. It’s more precision.”
The Discovery#
Reyneese alone in alchemy lab, weeks later.
She’s moved beyond transmutation. Healing potions now. Minor, major, superior.
Reyneese (watching a potion brew, precise timing): “Alchemy saves lives. Not as dramatically as my healing magic. But more… reliably.”
She thinks back to Brass’s words: “Build systems that work without you.”
Reyneese (soft revelation): “If I make enough of these… distribute them… they’ll save people even when I’m not there. Even when I’m too tired to cast. Even when I’m—”
(She stops herself.)
Reyneese (whispers): “Even when I’m gone.”
The weight of that hits her.
Reyneese (whispers): “I can’t be everywhere. But these can be. My magic dies with me. But potions? Tools? Engineering? Those outlive me. Those help people I’ll never meet.”
She looks at her hands—one glowing with Light, one with Shadow.
Reyneese: “Two thousand years of being the answer. Maybe it’s time I built answers that don’t require me.”
Present Day - Workshop (Final Scene)#
Vyrneese: “So that’s why you’re doing all this? Engineering, alchemy, building tools?”
Reyneese (nods, assembles the healing dispenser): “Brass showed me the philosophy. You showed me the method. Thunderfury taught me that formulas work when feelings don’t.”
Vyrneese: “And now?”
Reyneese (tests the device, it hums to life): “Now I’m building redundancy into myself. Failsafes. Because I’ve learned something in two thousand years.”
Vyrneese: “What’s that?”
Reyneese (looks at her directly): “I will fail. I will be too slow, too tired, too far away. I can’t save everyone with my hands. But maybe… maybe I can save them with my WORK.”
Vyrneese (quiet): “That’s very goblin of you.”
Reyneese (laughs softly): “Brass would be proud. Practical. Efficient. Ugly, but it works.”
Vyrneese: “It’s not ugly.”
Reyneese (gestures at oil-stained robes, gear-covered floor): “Have you SEEN this workshop?”
Vyrneese (smiles): “I meant the philosophy. It’s not ugly. It’s… smart. Sustainable.”
Reyneese (thoughtful): “Smart. Yes. I’ve been powerful for so long, I forgot to be smart.”
She picks up a completed healing potion, holds it to the light.
Reyneese: “This little bottle might save someone’s life. Long after I’m too exhausted to cast. Long after I’ve forgotten their face. It doesn’t require my presence, my focus, my peace.”
(Pause.)
Reyneese: “It just requires that I cared enough to make it. And I did. So it will.”
Vyrneese (emotional): “Rey, that’s—”
Reyneese (interrupts gently): “Goblin engineering. Alchemy. Method over magic. Not because magic failed. But because I needed something that works even when I do.”
She places the potion carefully in a rack with dozens of others.
Reyneese: “Brass was right. Build systems. Stop trying to be the hero. Be the support structure instead.”
Vyrneese (looks around workshop): “You’re building an empire of little solutions.”
Reyneese (quiet smile): “I’m building what survives when I can’t.”
Closing Thought#
Reyneese (internal monologue):
Two thousand years of Light and Shadow. Intuition and power. Being present, being strong, being ENOUGH.
But Brass showed me another way. Goblin way. Practical. Methodical. Build what works.
And you, Vyrneese, showed me that formulas don’t judge. Arcanite doesn’t care if I’m grieving. Potions don’t require me to be at peace.
They just work.
So I’ll keep making them. Potions. Tools. Devices. Systems.
Not because I’m giving up on magic.
But because I’m finally learning to be smart enough to know I’ll never be powerful enough alone.
The goblin engineering manuals have terrible grammar and half the diagrams are explosions.
But they’re right about one thing:
Build it to work without you.
Because you won’t always be there.
But your work can be.