Herald of Steel

Gajopk was a glassmaker for the last twenty-five years of his life, taking over the family business from his father, who took it over from his father.

He had lived all his life in Adhania, but when the drought hit, he saw his business rapidly dwindle, and with it his savings.

And after his wife, and two children died of starvation, the rest of the family and along with some of his other fellow glassmakers sold themselves to slavery for food.

And in this way, when Alexander asked the slave traders for high-quality, highly skilled slaves, Gajopk and his bunch were chosen.

Once they got to Zanzan, and somehow managed to avoid catching the deadly plague, Alexander had tasked them with setting up shop here, which they did about a week from today.

And because their lord had come to Zanzan with almost all the glassmaking tools pre-made, all they had to do was get used to making this new glass, which required them to learn how to control the furnace temperature, process the ingredients, and how to use the tools.

Learning the furnace temperature controls was always a hassle because every furnace, being handmade, was unique in how much heat it gained and lost in a certain period of time and so, it always took a glassmaker a bit of time to get used to a new furnace.

Next came the processing of the raw materials.

Alexander insisted on using quartz which was a type of whitish-colored sand some rocks were made of.

Wood ash or soda ash came from burning trees and leaves, dissolving the leftover ash in water and then boiling it, to get a white powder.

This was the flux.

Alexander also made the glassmakers try out two other types of flux.

One was borax, which was a naturally occurring mineral, white in color, usually found around the salt plains like the Life sea and Alexander had bought a lot of it.

The other was natron, which was also naturally occurring and white, and found around the banks of some rivers.

The type of flux used had a definitive effect on the clarity of glass, and Alexander was interested to know the effects.

And at last came limestone, which thankfully, did not need any more work other than crushing it to a fine powder.

But the wide range of unknown tools was what stumped them the most.

And although over the week, they intuitively figured out how to use some of them, they were still novices over their mastery and half the time they had no idea if they were using the tools their intended way.

And that's why Alexander was here today, to see how they were doing and show them how to use any of the tools they did not understand.

But first Alexander asked, "Gajopk, the fluxes that we used, which ones got the best result?"

He was curious to know.

"Master, it was the borax. Here, look" The short man very excitedly answered and then quickly ran towards a small corner table and showed Alexander three simple glass bowls, one with a greenish tint, one a bit muddy and translucent, and the last almost transparent.

"The green one is the wood ash, the next is natron and the best one is the borax," The glassmaker gave the introduction, his eyes sparkling in delight at the creation of this, in his opinion, this century's marvel.

And he remembered to let Alexander know of his praise as he claimed in a high-pitched, excited voice, "Master, it has been the dream of every glassmaker in the world, to be one day able to produce clear glass. But for many, this dream had turned into a fantasy, something they took inspiration from and looked and worked towards, but also understood that such a thing was likely not possible."

The man then put his right arm on his chest and slightly bowed, "I will admit that I was one of those disbelievers. But now....now my eyes have been opened."

He then turned emotional, fighting hard to hold man his tears, as he then said, "And to think that master would choose me, or us, to make the world's first clear glass, we are overwhelmed."

As he said so, the glassmaker plopped down on his knees, followed by all nineteen of the others who had lines themselves behind their Gajopk.

'The world is a big place. So, it's quite the bold claim that this the world's first glass,' Alexander self-depreciatingly said to himself.

But outwardly, he kept a calm, poker face and in a soft, heavy voice said, "Mmn, I hope you can master making it as soon as possible."

Looking at the not-too-shabby clear glass, Alexander drooled at the astronomical prices he could charge for clear glass, especially clear glass panels and it made him giddy with pleasure.

Adhania's nobilities obsession with glass was pretty evident to Alexander, as the house he lived in had glass window panels that were basically opaque and could not let light in through them, but still, Pasha Muazz had spent an obscene amount installing them anyway.

The craze for glass in the Adhanian upper class bordered on obsession.

And then Alexander started thinking about making stained glass windows, which he estimated might cost as much as a small city if were to be installed in a large building like a temple.

In fact, in the middle ages, glass-making was so highly prized and lucrative that many regions that could produce it saw it as a state secret and the leader of the European glassmaker Venice, which was the heart of European glassmaking kept its glassmakers under constant surveillance and protection to safeguard their secrets.

And when a few glassmakers had managed to slip through their fingers into France under the temptation of the French king Louis XIV, to build his Palace of Versailles, the Venetians sent hired assassins after them, fearing their trade secret might be lost to the French.

And though the assassination failed, it went to highlight just how countries and states were willing to keep glassmaking a secret.

And learning from history, Alexander already had plans to safeguard his workers and their families from enemy spies and saboteurs.

Lost in these thoughts for a moment, Alexander finally bought his attention back to the men standing expectantly in front of him.

And so he decided to address them.

"So, how are the new tools?" Alexander asked the most important question.

Naturally, Gajopk was the first to answer, "Miraculous master, miraculous. We never could have imagined such a thing a hundred years," he exaggeratedly flattered.

And this time some of the others joined too.

"Yes, yes, we are still learning, but with master's inventions, we will be able to make things we could have only dreamed of before," From the back a man claimed.

"And the techniques that master has talked about. We tried some of them and it was revolutionary!" Another chimed with glee and gusto.

"Also, the addition of limestone, too." A third voice was raised, who then said, "Before, the moment we took out our glass from the furnace it would either be too runny like honey or too hard like softwood. But now, it's got the perfect consistency like dough or putty."

"What I most liked was how different powered metals could be used to make the glass colorful and stronger. Such knowledge must reside only in the realms of the divine." A fourth flattered Alexander, the amazement and worship in his voice palpable.

This last instruction came from Alexander's knowledge that adding trace amounts of various metals gave the glass various, new properties.

For example, adding powered lead in the glassmaking process created a more brilliant finish that was also harder, and as a result of this increased hardness, it could be engraved to produce sharp images and designs, something that was not possible with ordinary glass.

Adding gold to the molten mix of glass created a beautiful but expensive ruby-colored glass, whereas small amounts of cobalt oxide produce the much sought-after cobalt glass, commonly known in Alexander's world as Bristol Blue.

Cobalt oxide, which was a commonly found metal ore mixed with rocks, did not actually add color per se, rather it altered the pattern of light as it passes through the glass and block certain colors in the spectrum.

Such a unique property was very desirable for Alexander because knew that he would be able to sell these unique products for astronomical profits.

This 'divine knowledge of adding metals to glass' also paved the way for Alexander to advance toward his desire to make stained glass, where different colored glass could be created by way of adding different metals and then joined together by using the soft metal lead and putty, all held together in an iron or bronze framework, allowing the creation of such striking pieces of glasswork that had adorned the windows of churches and cathedrals in his previous world, all having profit margins thousands of times their production costs.

Alexander drooled at the thought of such profits.