Josh had the unique pleasure of standing right next to Ruth when she finished etching the last rune into the citystone, upgrading it to Improved-tier.

The moment she finished the last rune and breathed her mana into it, the stone stopped its slow spin. A glow built up and retreated inside it, like the beating of a heart but too slow to be noticed. At least at first. The glow started beating faster and faster, until it was flashing like a strobe light, and Josh was sure that everyone within ten miles could see it.

It built to a crescendo, the warning flash of a bomb about to explode. Josh grabbed Ruth by the collar and yanked her back, hoping against hope that both of their shrouds combined might actually save her from the explosion.

Instead, the flashing light stopped. A heartbeat later, chunks of red crystal fell from the citystone, crashing to the ground with a sound like shattering glass. The shattered pieces dissipated into white mist that soon evaporated.

What was left behind was a slightly smaller, slightly more regular floating red crystal. It looked... polished. Like how you would cut a ruby to show off its best luster. This ruby might be the size of an elephant and had been cut by an amateur, but it did show clear signs of workmanship.

A breeze blew out from the citystone, a wave of gentle power that felt like a perfect warm summer day. He breathed in deeply, and swore he could smell flowers and moist dirt after a light rain. In short, the citystone felt just a little more like home than it had moments ago.

Ruth got up with a grunt of effort, then a grin of victory. “Glad that worked! It would have been super embarrassing if we had shattered the citystone after all that!”

Josh chuckled. They had gotten Mayor Vashti's permission for this first, of course. Everyone knew the risks. Still, Josh hadn't thought it likely things would go too bad. Citystones were tough little buggers. It was more likely to backfire on Ruth than to shatter the stone.

“Did you level?” he asked. “This was a big 'un, should've given you a boost and a half.”

Her eyes went distant, and she grinned. “Yep! I am now a level 31 Enchanter!” She pouted. “I still wish it was officially Enchantress. Seems like a waste.”

Ruth had been lagging behind the rest of their group. Now they were all at level 31, coming up on another advancement. Josh didn't think anyone would get anything all that interesting next level, but who could say for sure?

He looked over the altered citystone again. More people were wandering over, drawn by the flare of light and power. While the mayor still hadn't made any official announcement, people had started to figure out where all the enchanted items were coming from. While Josh and Ruth still went out in their masks, everyone knew she was an Enchanter.

“How many addition slots did you grok?” he asked. He knew the answer, unless something very strange had happened. He was mostly speaking for the benefit of the crowd.

Ruth put her hand on the stone, then nodded. “Just one.” She grinned. “Ready for something fun?”

Josh blinked in surprise. “Wot? I thought we were—”

The stone glowed red briefly before settling down.

Josh glared. “Oi. What was that about?”

“Oh, nothing...” she said in a sing-song voice. “Just wanted to see if that rune you found could be put to better use.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Don't think you can use a citystone to put runes on a citystone.” At best, it would be like any other crafting blueprint, letting her put the rune on items in the radius. He didn't think that would work, though. “C'mon, up up, let's swap it with something useful.”

She grinned wider. “Oh no, I've got something better than that.”

The stone glowed again. Then a massive rune traced itself in the air above the stone, red light shining like neon lamps above their heads. The rune covered most of the main village, and Josh suspected the effect extended much farther.

It was the rune he had discovered inside the citystone. A Power and Capacity rune that he had used for his runestone talisman.

Except this wasn't a rune anymore.

“You learned sigils?” he asked, incredulous. “When did you learn sigils? How? That's not something that you can just pick up—” He groaned and smacked his hand against his face. “Your level 24 advancement. Bloody hell. You never told us what it was.”

She bounced on her feet. “Yep! I can draw sigils now!” She tossed the description over to him.

Spell gained from Enchanter advancement: Sigils. Draw a temporary rune in the air, creating a single effect. This effect varies based on rune drawn. Sigils cannot be chained together using the Rune-Chain skill. Strength of effect is influenced by Power, speed of drawing is influenced by Flexibility, number of sigils at once is influenced by Capacity, and range is influenced by Sensitivity.

“I haven't been able to practice with them much, and they don't count as blueprints,” she continued. “They're spells, so I don't get experience as a Crafter for casting them.”

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Josh nodded. The rules for what worked to earn each class role their extra experience had some weird details and quirks. Just like he didn't earn extra experience for his [Instant Crafting] spell, she wouldn't earn anything for this.

“Is it all one spell?” he asked. “Can the stone cast any sigil?”

She shook her head. “I have to slot in each one by itself.” She grinned. “But this is a good one! The sigil gives everyone in the town's area plus one to Power and Capacity. It will recast it every time it's about to run out, too.”

Josh blinked at that, then checked his stats. Sure enough, he had an extra point in both scores. This was on top of the bonus he already received from using the same rune for his talisman. That was nice.

“Not a bad haul,” he agreed. They started to walk away from the stone. The mayor and the others were back at their own fort. “Y'know, Mary and Darius might be able to learn some of these sigils.” It was hard to figure out which spells were transferable and which weren't.

Ruth looked at him sideways. “Not you?”

“I'll try,” he promised. “I just thought I'd mention them. Not as obvious.” He frowned. “I think I remember something about people learning all sorts of sigils, but only ones that match their class. I'd bet copper to gold Mary can learn an Attack sigil, just not so sure of anything past that.”

Ruth nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Don't forget you need to teach Mary that last rune,” he added. “She needs another spell to make Mage Gunner next level.”

Ruth wrinkled her nose. “Do you really want her to learn something else after that blood bullet spell? That one is so gross. And creepy.”

“It's a Gunner spell, and that's what's important,” Josh said. “Pretty sure teaching her sigils doesn't count.” Abilities didn't come with labels, clearly pointing them out as belonging to one class or role. It was usually obvious, but not always, and in cases like this it could get frustrating. “You do have another rune for her, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ruth said. She sighed, before brightening. “I know she's been pausing her advancement, so this might push her over the edge all on her own!”

“Could be,” Josh admitted. “Maybe—”

“Ruth?” someone called. “Honey, is that you?”

Ruth stopped dead in her tracks.

“It is you!” A bright, cheerful woman walked over. She had been standing at one of the shop stalls. She had short-cropped black hair, glittering black eyes like gemstones, and skin so pale that Josh thought she had never stepped outside a day in her life. She wore a light white sundress that looked pretty, comfortable, and completely useless outside the walls. “Oh, dear, we've been so worried!”

“H-hey, auntie,” Ruth said, accepting a hug from the strange woman. “I didn't expect to see you out here.” She pushed away and swallowed a very obvious lump in her throat. “I... really, really didn't expect to see you out here.”

The woman—Ruth's aunt, apparently—laughed. “Well, I'll admit I've spent the past couple of weeks in the City, looking for you.” She booped Ruth's nose, which earned her a small grin. “Turns out you weren't even there!”

Ruth's brief smile faded again. “Ah, yeah. We had some trouble.”

Josh's missing fingers throbbed. He resisted the urge to grab his hand. He had gotten pretty good at ignoring them, but every once in a while...

He smiled instead. “Hello, there. I'm Josh Hundredborn.” He held out a hand to shake.

Ruth's aunt smiled and took it, not even blinking at his missing fingers. “Of course, of course, and you would be Ruth's...” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

Josh expected Ruth to laugh the joke off. When she didn't, he looked at her, wondering if she would be blushing and embarrassed by the implication.

Instead, she looked... tired. Resigned. Not at all her usual chipper self. He wasn't sure that she had even heard the joke.

This... was Ruth's aunt, right? She wasn't acting like a long-lost family member had found her. Then again, she wasn't acting like this was some random stranger pretending to be a long-lost family member, either.

The woman didn't seem to notice anything odd about Ruth's behavior. She looked past her, peering at the citystone. “What happened here, anyway? Did you see that? The stone flashed and did something weird.”

“...yeah,” Ruth said. “Yeah, it's something all right.”

“Why don't we go for a walk?” The woman looked around. “There are a lot of people here.” She chuckled. “You know I get claustrophobic in towns.” They were already off the main walkway, out of direct sight. Josh suspected there were too many people in shouting distance.

“Sure,” Josh said, deliberately casual. “We've got a place nearby, you know.” He didn't mention that their friends, including Lydia and Judith, would be there waiting for them. Judith had practiced her Trapmaster class by covering the area in non-lethal traps.

She smiled. “Sounds good to me! Lead the way.”

“No,” Ruth said quietly.

Her aunt cocked her head. “Oh? You want to stay here?”

“We're not going anywhere with you, Aunt Jael.”

Josh froze. He slowly turned to look at Ruth. He knew that he had a look of complete, absolute horror on his face.

He stared at Ruth, praying that she would explain this was a mistake, that this was an entirely different Jael. Not the one she had told them about. Not the one she had warned them about. It was a common name, right? Ruth just had to shake her head, and it would be fine!

Instead, she nodded, once.

His blood was ice in his veins. Oh, God.