“Your mentors will call you, one by one. They shall grant you targets to show your rune's powers upon. And you will demonstrate them for us.” The old man said, his voice somehow louder than the unending wail of the wind. “Balangor. Who do you claim?”

The blue-robed man stepped forward, and Rusty half-expected him to say that his chosen one was dead.

But he was surprised. “I claim her,” Balangor said, and Alice Jackson stepped forward, beaming.

“Wait,” Roz whispered in his ear. “He picked two?”

Rusty opened his mouth to answer, and shut it again. I guess that's okay? I don't know their rules, he tried thinking back at Roz.

“Are there any rules at all?” Roz asked.

Rusty didn't reply. Balangar was gesturing and pointing, mouthing a word that was lost in the wind, and near one edge of the disk, a pair of tusks grew up from the ground, twisting together to create a statue that looked like a cross between a crocodile and an elephant. It was made of bone, or teeth, or what was that stuff— ivory, his memory supplied.

Alice said something, and the ancient wizard bellowed, “LOUDER, GIRL!”

Alice flinched, shouting over the wind. “I am Alice Jackson, and my rune is gravel!”

Then she shut her eyes and pointed.

Seconds went by, and Rusty shivered in the wind.

“You know how to use this?” Balangor asked. “You DID get your familiar, right?”

“I'm... give me a moment, please! It's hard to focus.”

“Your enemies will NOT, girl!” The ancient wizard roared. “DO IT!”

Alice screamed, holding her head. And Rusty felt something from her direction, a pressure in the air that made his sinuses loosen up. It was almost as if the wind had shifted in his direction, but he felt no more chilled than he had before.

KRACK.

KRUNCH!

And a blast of shrapnel ripped up from the disk next to the statue, slammed into it, blasting chunks of horn away, and knocking the remnants of the statue off the edge.

Alice sagged a little, and Balangor moved forward, taking her shoulder and pulling her back.

The old man nodded, pitching his voice to be heard above the wind. “Useful. Strong enough, perhaps. Let us see what the others have to bring to bear. Reevian. Who have you claimed?”

The wizard with the fiery gloves stepped forward, smiling. “I, er, I claim Gunther. Him.” He pointed at the blonde youth, who stepped forward, and folded his arms, pushing his chin up. “Ah! You'll need a target. Right.” Reevian said, pulling off a glove, and reaching into a satchel at his waist. “Just like we practiced! Do it!”

The wizard hurled something small and glittering, and where it struck the disk, a puff of black smoke swirled out.

It should have been instantly blown away by the wind.

It wasn't.

Something started to take form in the smoke, something with a long, thin face and claws, pulling itself out of the darkness of the vapor.

It didn't get far.

“Zerr Heizen!” Gunther screamed, pointing at it.

And it was as if a thousand unseen hands gripped the smoke-creature and pulled. It screamed, high and thin and wailing, as it was torn to shreds and vanished into the wind.

“His rune is 'Tear!'” Reevian said, proudly.

“Ah!” The ancient wizard smiled, showing yellowed teeth. “Now we are speaking! Yes. This is powerful. This is definitely strong enough.”

But as they bantered, Rusty was watching Gunther. The big youth was breathing hard, holding his ribs.

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“His chakra went way down from that,” Roz whispered in his ear. “I think if he tried to do that again right now, it wouldn't go too well for him.”

Gunther caught him staring, and scowled. Rusty looked away, back to the old wizard as he turned his attention back to the line of his subordinates.

“Jadar!” The ancient one continued. “Who do you claim?”

“I claim her,” the woman in black stepped forward, and pointed at Janice. “But I have concerns about her rune. It must be judged. It would be better, I think, if she were last.”

Janice looked surprised, but the other wizards looked to each other. Their leader spat out a few words in a harsh language Rusty had never heard before, and Jadar replied back. Terathon shook his head, and pointed at Rusty and Ken, and the ancient one nodded, made a 'get on with it gesture.'

“You,” Terathon said, pointing at Ken. “You are the first I claimed. Do you wish a living or unliving target?”

“I... wow, okay,” Ken said, stepping forward, his torn pants leg fluttering in the wind. “I don't actually need a target, I'll use myself if that's okay.”

The wizards looked to each other with interest, and the ancient one nodded. “Your confidence does you credit, boy. Show us.”

“Great! Wonderful,” Ken said. “That's the bees knees.”

Rusty could almost feel the nervousness he was hiding underneath the bluster. Finally, Ken pointed at his hips. “Watch carefully!” Then he shut his eyes, and a green light flared on his lower thigh, where the pants were torn.

And Ken's body changed, expanding outward at the hips, bulging at least a foot in either direction.

Rusty stifled a giggle. Gunther didn't bother, and his belly laugh rang out in the wind. Ken flushed, and his body quivered, then returned to normal. “My uh, so yeah, my word, or rune, or whatever is 'waist.' That's... yeah.”

“Pathetic.” was the ancient one's judgement.

Rusty's amusement died, as Ken flinched, looked down, and shuffled back.

But Rusty had little time to feel bad for him, because Terathon was looking his way.

“We're up,” Roz said. “So what are we doing?”

Yeah, we've got two runes to show off, Rusty said. But then he hesitated. He remembered what the satyr girl had said, about mind magic being seen as bad.

“Oooh, that's a good point. And come to think of it, we'd also have to explain where we got the second rune from,” Roz said. “I don't know the rules about that. That could be a wizard crime or something. So...”

Yeah, Rusty thought. We'll pretend that Hole is the only rune we have, until we figure out the rules.

Rusty stepped forward, just as Terathon asked. “Will you want a living or unliving target?”

“Unliving, please,” Rusty said.

“Mmm.” Terathon stroked his beard, then looked to the blue-robed wizard. “Balangor, could we have another ivory statue?”

“Easily,” Balangor said, gesturing. A second crocodile-elephant materialized, this one standing and roaring... and wobbling in the wind.

Rusty closed his eyes, and concentrated.

“Make a big hole in that statue's skull,” he drew in dark gray runes against an imagined white background.

Create large hole in inanimate ivory!

Committed chakra: 15/44

Cost: 5 chakra.

Remaining free chakra: 24/44

He opened his eyes as the CRACK echoed through the air, and saw the skull crumble into fragments. “That was the Hole rune,” Rusty said, into the silence. “It makes holes in things.”

“Strong! Two good runes,” the ancient one said, rubbing his hands together. “Good!”

Rusty felt a crawling sensation on his back, and he turned to see Terathon studying him, with careful calculation. The wizard's eyes had a suspicious glint to them, and Rusty stared back, unable to think of anything he could have done to deserve it.

But then the ancient one spoke again. “Jadar. You are the last. Show us your pupil's power.”

“This one will require a sacrifice,” the black-robed woman said. “Reevian, give us a grach.”

“Wait, did he say grach—” Roz began, but the gloved wizard had thrown another glittering orb out.

There was no smoke this time. One second there was nothing, the next second, a turtle-man was standing there, bracing itself against the sudden wind, raising hands up to shield its eyestalks.

“Now, child!” Jadar snapped.

Janice stepped forward, and pointed, and her cheek flared a brilliant purple.

The grach shook. The grach looked at her, lowering its hands, its eyestalks retracting as it stared in amazement.

And Rusty almost shouted and ran at her, as Janice walked straight up to it and gave it a big hug.

The grach hugged her back.

“My rune is um...” Janice said, tilting her head, red hair whipping in the wind. “Ideology! This is a friendly grach now! I can make them all friendly, I'm sure of it—”

“Arvack!” Commanded the ancient one.

Janice stopped moving. Stopped talking.

The grach let her go, looked around wildly.

“Hnosh!” shouted Terathon.

Rusty closed his eyes as the Grach screamed, and wet sounds filled the air. He knew that spell.

He opened them again, to see the wizards grimly moving forward. All but Jadar who bowed her head. A few yards away, the corpse of the grach shuddered and went still.

“Wait, what the hell?” Ken asked.

“What are you doing?” Alice screamed.

They both froze, as the ancient one turned his gaze upon them, sweeping it over all of them.

“Her rune is corrupted,” he said simply. “Left unchecked, the dark lord would have her. Terathon, take her below. Perhaps we can save her, given time.”

Terathon bowed his head, moved to Janice and set his hand on her shoulder. “Zoraph,” he said, and they were gone, twin snapping cracks echoing as the air rushed in to where they had disappeared.

There were more words after that, but Rusty felt numb, let them roll over him. He'd review them in time, look at them in his memories, later.

But right now, he was trying to keep it together, knowing in his guts, feeling with certainty that if he'd shown off his memory rune, he would have probably been taken away with Janice.