Vimna calmed down rather quickly, though I will attribute that to the half-full bag of beetles I foisted into her lap and let her devour. I did toy with the thought of telling her that I was one of those kobolds who suffered from the dragon’s magic, but right now didn’t feel like the best time for that. She needed some space so she could process her thoughts on the matter, and the confines of my lab were a rather ideal place for that in some ways. Besides, Tim had her covered in the emotional support department right now. He was busily skittering around at her feet in search of a game, and Vimna was more than willing to play their odd activity of Tim bowling. I don’t know why he likes to be rolled around while curled up, but if it keeps Vimna happy then I think that he’s doing a swell job.

Now that the lab was back under control, I had a few improvements to make before any testing could begin. First was securing the area, and that meant going around the fence-like half of the wall and ensuring that there were no openings to be found and that any gaps in the bars or panels was covered up with some sort of visual blocking material. Really there were only two places that needed to be covered, but I had four sheets of blue cloth, so why not hang them in a mirrored way across the place? Ah symmetry, such a simple pleasure to behold. There was still the problem that someone could possibly look down from the scaffolding above to see what was going on, though I doubted that anyone would get much of a view from the angle.

With a sense of privacy now set up I could begin placing as many safety systems as I could think of. The odds of having a supply of plexiglass and concrete appear out of thin air was low, so until I figured out the rune needed for actual wish granting it was copper panels and tubes. Raiding the scrap pile for every shape of metal I could ever need was a blessing in its own right, but Dobo's contribution of a full set of fence posts and ground anchors was the biggest asset in this effort. Once everything was drawn on the floor with chalk, construction of the makeshift Faraday cage was done in a few short hours. Testing chamber complete, now on to other safety devices.

The next thing I wanted was a legitimate blast shield for anyone viewing my experiments. I silently cursed myself for letting Vynrashu take my saw before using it now, but it was probably for the best that I went for a pinhole viewing screen instead of a cutout hole. The finished product was a heavy slab a thick as my fist and wide enough for three people to cower behind facing the testing cage. We tested the structural integrity by having Vimna hit it with a sledgehammer a few times, then I hit it some more, afterwards we both used a loose chunk of support beam metal as a battering ram. It was as solid as a wall, but how did it fare against sand? Vimna and I had a sand fight from either side of the slab, and as I had hoped the viewport would, it had stopped a vast majority of the coarse grit.

Okay, no more goofing off, it's time for spells! I directed Vimna to stay behind the blast shield and be my research assistant by taking detailed notes on what she experienced with any of her senses. Sorry Tim, but you have to stay in this box for your own safety. I put myself within the electrically conductive safety chamber and faced the red and orange wall of the mountain where I had driven a thick copper bar into place. Alright Kayrux, let's push the limits.

Before preparing anything else I had to set a new purpose for my sensor runes: detect mana efficiency. Improving my thunder runes required the ability to track just how much power was being wasted per shot and how much was required for a truly efficient attack. More sensors were added to track the flow of mana in the runes themselves to see how they were operating and determine if maybe there was an underlying factor to this unique method of spellcasting I may have overlooked. Alright, with everything ready to collect data I was ready to fire.

Let's start small with just 5%. As I had figured out already, the thunder runes reacted to mana in an exponential way, so a low power blast like this ought to be a great first test. The rune charged up as many electrons as the meager flow of mana it held could, then it dumped the power forward along the path resulting in a thin arc jumping from my fingertip to the cage. Nothing exploded or vaporized, and from what I could tell the copper was intact. Okay sensors, what did you pick up from that?

Nothing. Actually, not nothing, but more of something that was too fast for them to scan. Hmm, maybe I need to evolve my sensors if I want to get better ones. I reached out with one assigned to my left hand and dialed the mana up to 30% for the one sensor rune alone, but unlike any other rune there was no feeling that this rune was going to change. That is peculiar, and it makes me wonder if there is something inherently different about this particular rune.

Let's look at how sensors are different. They respond to my intent much better than any other rune, they are able to interpret the information drawn in, and they are not flat like all the others. What else was there about them that was different? I never thought about this before, but every other magical glyph or symbol I had used originated from a device or machine I had physically seen and operated while the sensor rune was one of my own design and shaped organically Was it possible that runes made in such a way were wholly unique and could not improve?

There was one way to know for certain: I needed to use a sensor on an overcharged sensor. I set up the necessary system on two parallel lines in my left arm and began the test by observing an inactive sensor. As expected, without any mana running through it there was no data to extract. Switching it on fed me information about the mana content of the air in my open palm while the rune watching that sensor reported that everything was operating as intended. Everything was working just as it was supposed to on normal power, so let's see what happens when I push it further.

I pushed the power up to 25%, and in an instant I saw a blip of new information appear for a split second from the outward facing sensor. The one watching it reported that it was still running just fine, but it had begun to bleed mana from one of the inner segments. I pushed it to 30% to see if there would be any change, but that only made the sensor jitter as though it were going to break apart. This could mean one of two things: either my sensor runes are wholly incapable of improving, or there was a piece missing from the equation. I thought back to the wind rune and decided that it had to be the latter, since the only reason that I had made the wind rune was because the air runes of intake and output were close together before they fused and morphed.

The question now wasn't one of what wasn't working, but what was the missing piece. The issue was that I needed a sensor capable of taking in a sample of information that was moving at relatively impossible speeds for any organic eye to track and then processing the captured information. The sensor runes were like eyes in both function and shape, but I needed a camera instead. Cameras aren't just the image capturing system, they also have parts like screens and lenses that can telescope to view things. Lenses…captured information…wait, how would a collector rune operate as a focal lens?

I remembered how I was able to shape my will into a bubble to speak with Charles, and using that same principle he was able to design a collector rune to make a stabilized bubble of slow-flowing mana. Copying his idea, I could potentially work the collector rune into the sensor to grab a sample of mana as it passes by, then study the information held in front of it. Looking at it now, the collector rune did seem like the odd one out in my known sigil, since it was the only circular one and didn't actually move mana as opposed to just holding it. I tested this theory by taking the shape of a collector and overlaying it over the front of the sensor rune, and wouldn't you know it the tune fit!

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I fired the system up again at low power, and the effect was immediately noticeable. I could point my hand in one direction and grab the information on the mana there, then put my hand on something like the copper cage and sample the energy there after the processing was done on the previous sample. I went ahead and turned the power higher again to see how it would fare, and to my surprise it seemed as if giving the rune more power allowed me to take samples at range, since even from where I stood I could sample the magical content of the wall ten feet away. The rune was still bleeding off mana from the center, which meant that there was more still missing from the system.

Regardless, this was a huge leap in my understanding of runes. If my theory about runes was correct, then that meant that the runes I had gained from these machines were only the basic configuration and once supplied with a higher current of mana would adapt to become their second tier of functionality. How many more tiers of runes were there, and what kind of combination of seemingly unrelated runes could cause them to adapt? I took out my own sheet of parchment and charcoal to write that down for later testing, right now I had to get on with my original test.

As expected, a snapshot of the 5% thunder arc revealed that almost all of the energy released was pure electrical energy with very little mana, but the power behind it would barely be enough to tickle somebody. I set up a second sensor adjacent to the first one and fired off the 10% energy bolt, this one actually hot enough to cause some smoke to rise from the copper, and compared the differences. True to theory there was now a noticeable percentage of mana being fired alongside the electrical arc, which meant that I was not focusing the spell so much as just firing the mana out to guide the path of the bolt. A third test at 15% output confirmed that the mana had reached a saturation point and was now at equal levels to the lightning. I don't need to go any higher to know that the attack I fired at Juaki was more than likely all mana and very little electricity.

Now I had to figure out why it was doing this. I set up additional sensors to watch the thunder rune and limiter to see what was going wrong, and the data they provided me was unusually clear: my intent put upon the runes was interfering with their intended use. My plan to charge up a single attack wasn't what they were made for, these runes were designed to make a constant flow of electricity that would power something. Okay, so what if I ran them as intended?

Removing my intent for the thunder rune was actually quite easy, as it just meant pulling up the old one and placing a new one with my desire for it to function normally. I held my hand outstretched before me and slowly turned the variable limit rune up, and a brief notion of nostalgia hit me as the first sparking arc connected with the cage. This was just like the first time I had used the spell, but I knew that my control over it had grown. The electrical ribbons began to jump every which way in a web of glowing energy around the copper frame surrounding me, their harmonious tune ringing above the bustle of the workshop around me.

I felt oddly at ease as the jolts of electricity struck out against the metal chamber around me, so much so that I allowed the runes in my other arm to match and cast another lattice of magical thunder. The buzzing tune in the air grew louder, but I still felt as though it wasn't enough. The muscle that controlled the spines along my back tensed instinctively, and I allowed the runes to form all on their own after placing down a limiter. I closed my eyes and watched with my other senses as the mana practically danced along the circuits.

I resisted the urge to move along with the flow of magic, instead just reveling in the feeling of being a living Tesla coil. I could hear through the drone of arcing power that Vimna was calling my name, so I decided to end this test firing of proper thunder runes to see what she had to say. I switched the power off of the runes and waited for a second or two as the mana bled from the arrays before taking them apart to be safe. I opened my eyes, and was relieved to see that nothing had been destroyed. I left the Faraday cage and went around behind the blast screen to see Vimna furiously scribbling down notes on the parchment. She leapt from the floor when she was done and began to bounce in front of my giddily.

"Kayroo, that was amazing! You made the whole lab glow and sound weird, and the air started to smell strange too! Then you grew those pointy things on you and the noise got louder and the air got hotter, it was awesome! You're incredible! Oh I wish you could do that again, but everyone's getting ready to go home now."

Now that you mention it, it is kinda quiet around here. I grabbed my slate from the table, and I just couldn't stop smiling as I wrote to her.

"Thank you for helping me out today, and for your kind words. Tomorrow there will be more magic tests, which means that I'll be needing an assistant again. I can show you other magic spells, and maybe let you see some of my secret plans."

Her eyes went wide as she bit her lower lip. She was almost shaking with excitement as she hopped around, grabbed Tim, and spun in a complete circle before leaning on my shoulder.

"You're the best big sister Roo."

I returned her gesture by reaching up and scratching just below her budding horns, an act that made her hum in delight. My appreciation of her cat-like purrs was short-lived when Dobo and Bahruk made their presence known.

"Since when were you two siblings? If that's the case, that makes me and Dobo brothers. How about it-"

"Would rather stick tail in blood ant nest than be brothers with you."

Wow guys, great job ruining the moment! Even Vimna seemed displeased by their arrival and subsequent interruption of our time.

"You are not brothers, you are rude dung lickers! Roo is my sister, even if you dislike it."

She finished this by carefully setting Tim down in my arms, then gave me a little pat on the head. She waved farewell as she jogged towards the exit, her words trailing behind her.

"I'll see you tomorrow! I'm gonna go clean the house before mama gets home!"

Dobo's eyes bulged as he realized something, then spun on his heels to chase after her. Damn dude, don't tell me you left your house a wreck before your wife comes home. Bahruk and I exchanged a knowing glance before working together to shut the gate to my lab and securing it with the strange black lock that I had been gifted. The key already had a perfect spot in my bag to go to, as Tokols had put a hidden coin compartment along the inside seam for me. Having some emergency change was good, but having a secret key to my personal zone was more of a priority.

We made it to the exit shortly after and were greeted by Mibata, who looked slightly ragged. We took the cargo lift up, and on the ride up he explained that he had been sent on a job with a senior seeker to investigate reports of a shifty individual messing around with supplies in the farms. In the end it was just a false alarm, but their search ended up with them crossing the boar pens and into the territory of a rather aggressive sow. Poor Mibata earned the prestigious role of bait as his superior officer escaped to get the rancher out there, but by my brother's account it wasn't as easily done as they had hoped.

The house was lonely without the others. The warmth of Humey, the playfulness of Tokols, and the comfort of Juaki were critical in making this place feel like home. Mibata tried to grab himself a preserved chunk of jerky for a meal, but I wouldn't let him. I may not have dragon's fire in my toolkit, but an electric stove can be just as good. It took a few tries to figure out the hand placement needed for it, but the end result was a dinner of porkchop sandwiches. There was a glint of grim satisfaction in Mibata’s eye as he dug in, and afterwards he seemed less irate.

Today had been a rollercoaster, but I was glad it had finally come to an end.