Kelvan Annavar - Quartzi Inventor

Kelvan didn't mind not seeing the suns. The sprawling city-cave network of Quarzisi was all he needed.

Most of the time, Kelvan didn't even leave his workshop, a greasy, ramshackle building on the southern edge of the mountainous territory.

Kelvan himself was repairing a large glass tube with a metal base. The tube would usually be filled with liquefied quartz. He laid on his back under the raised device.

"Double-reverse wrench!" he called out to his assistant.

They put the tool in his outstretched hand.

"Is the Quartz tank really so important that you can't put it down until you're done?" she asked, frowning at the engineer that she could only see half of.

"Yes, Haili. I'd love to be working on something else too, but let me put it this way: no Quartz tank, no power for the entire town. No power, no light."

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at the magitech lights that were strung across the ceiling. They were going strong.

"We're glad we caught it early. Otherwise I'd have to do this in the dark. That said, Magitech lantern!"

Haili reached for the Magitech lantern, but paused. "It's not in the tool rack, Mr. Annavar."

A grumble could be heard under the large tube. "Did you take it to your room after lightfall?"

"Right," Haili remembered, "I'll go get it."

She made her way past about half of the mechanical junk scattered around the room when the lights died. Apparently Kelvan was right. Shouts and screams began to echo in the cave-city outside. Apparently not everyone can keep their cool in sudden darkness.

"Haili," Kelvan called out, "hurry up."

Haili took her next steps carefully, tracing a mental map of the shop. After bumping into a table and a couple shelves, she found the stairs to the second floor.

She took several more steps, these ones up the stairway to the living area of the shop. She turned right, to her room, and slammed into a wall. Startled, she felt at the wall until she could feel her open doorway. She felt her way to the nightstand, and found the lantern she was looking for. She turned a dial at the base, and it began to glow. The farther she turned it, the brighter.

With the lantern at half, she followed its light back down to the workshop and the empty Quartz tank.

"Lantern" she said.

"Thanks Haili. Just roll it under, please."

She crouched down, set the lantern on its side, and rolled it under the device.

"That's what the problem was this whole time?" Kelvan asked himself.

"What was it?"

"The export pipe is pinched. It just needs a little of this," Haili could hear the strain in his voice as he did something with the tools, "and boom. It's fixed. I give the lights five gow to come back."