Darrel insisted that the Dome of the Enchanted was called by that name, to remember its history and the importance it once held. Though Jano had taken to just referring to it as the Dome in his head. It was shorter after all. It had been a few weeks since the first trip to the Dome and they had returned a number of times to train. Each time they came back, they would push Jano’s abilities just a little bit further. At first this had been a case of him taking more and more bricks out of the wall and putting them back. Then it had progressed to timed scenarios which sought to emulate a break in. Nevertheless, some of the trips were becoming quite boring, even for someone as enthusiastic about having his power back as Jano was.
He thought he might learn some new techniques or gain some interesting insight into the usage of essence. Though he certainly felt like he had much of his old control over stone, he couldn’t help being a little disappointed by the ‘training’ so far.
Regardless, Jano headed back to the Dome once more. He was concerned that he had disappointed Darrel in some way. Perhaps he wasn’t displaying sufficient mastery of the basics and that he wasn’t able to head out on the jobs he had actually been hired for. Jano had been paid his fullcoins and though they had saved much of it, he had bought, and eaten, more food than they’d previously had for as long as he could remember. A pit grew in his stomach at the idea of having to give the money back. And what the Mage would do when he wasn’t able to give him the full amount. He shuddered every time he found the thoughts swirling in his mind. Still, he wanted to impress the Mage, and it wasn’t entirely because of the pay. He wanted to be useful.
The solid stone entrance greeted Jano once more and as he passed through; he realised Darrel was already sitting in the stands. He often sat in many different places while observing Jano. Though he looked more introspective than usual. Jano gave him an anxious wave as he walked into the centre of the Dome. The Mage seemed to snap out of his thoughts. He walked to the edge of the upper stand and he suddenly appeared in front of Jano. He still wasn’t used to that unconventional method of travel, which he called a Jump Glide or just a Jump for short. It seemed like an insult to what usual people would think of as jumping.
“How are you today?” He asked.
“Fine, thank you.” Darrel often started with small talk in their sessions. Jano wasn’t sure whether he actually wanted to talk or whether he just thought it was polite.
He began to walk to the wall they had been practicing on previously.
“Step away from that poor wall! You’ve been making excellent progress. Just excellent. But I thought we’d try and work on something else.”
He walked a couple of paces away. The Mage conjured a small ball of fire. Tossing it back and forward between his hands. It left traces of fire behind it, forming a small arch of flame. “You’re sharing my power. So I wanted to start branching out a little bit. Before, all you were able to control was stone. But let’s figure out what else we’re working with.”
As he said that, a giant fire erupted behind them. Darrel walked towards it and waved for Jano to find him.
“Draw on the essence of the fire.” He fed more flame into the fire. Jano was intimidated. He had never seen such power from one person. And Darrel had conjured it without any effort whatsoever.
“But.. how?” He asked, “ I thought our spirits couldn’t control more than one essence?”
Darrel smirked. “Well right now you can’t. But with a bit of my power you might be able to. Also, this place amplifies power, remember? So here we are. See if you can draw on the essence of the fire and control it. Just like you do with stone.” He said.
“Essence is simply part of the building blocks of life. It is released by all things, whether stone, fire, water, air, beasts and even conceptual arts like dreams” The Mage let his words drift away. “Why wouldn’t we be able to draw on more than one kind?”
Jano looked on into the fire and he had no good answer. It was simply something he had always been told. He tried to reach out and feel the essence. But nothing happened. He scrunched up his face and tried again. Light flickered a little and then… nothing. Anger filled him. “Bugger!” He shouted. He glanced at Darrel, who was still smiling.
“Try again. Channel the flames into your spirit.”
Jano looked into the flames. He couldn’t feel the essence in his spirit. As a Class Ten, when his spirit was restricted, he touched the stone to strengthen his connection. He couldn’t touch the fire. Could he? He shrugged and then with a brief hesitation, he thrust his hand into the flames. It burnt. Badly. Heat seared through his fingers even as he quickly blew on them and rubbed them against his clothes. He stopped down to the dusty ground and sought the cool touch of dust. Darrel burst into laughter. Jano watched as the Mage was rolling on the floor right next to the fire.
Jano huffed. He reached out for the flame and pictured a ball of fire in his hand. A tiny pebble of fire appeared. He threw it straight at Darrel, which only made him laugh louder. Jano started storming off. “Fucking fire. Channel the flames. Channel the flames.” He said in a mocking voice.
“Stop being a child. You did it! A little bit.” Darrel called after him. “I’m sorry, I wanted to see if you’d figure out how to channel a new kind of essence on your own. Which basically, only the most talented trainee Mages with an instinctive ability to draw essence into themselves can do. To actually use a new type of magic properly, you would have to spend a great deal of time teaching your spirit to process the new kind of essence while being careful to not forget all else you know.” He said. “Using runes can help with the control over it too.”
“Runes? Can you teach me runes?” Jano stopped. Suddenly interested. He remembered hearing of Mages using almost another language to control magic. He’d even heard that the small runic symbols carved around the city were part of it. Almost like a little club.
“Runes are the way we Mages control the essence for
More complex tasks. Throughout the Empire, the higher Classes can use them to gain control of something, like you can with stone but much better. Sometimes it’s a natural talent, sometimes it’s through practice”.
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“So how have I been using magic so far then?” Jano was quite confused. The Mage simply smiled, he obviously expected the question.
“Currently, you don’t have enough power for your magic to get out of hand. But you have a natural affinity for manipulating materials with essence. So you have never had to learn runes. That and the Emperor forbids anyone other than true Mages to learn them.” Darrel rolled his eyes and continued with a weak chuckle. “Currently, everyone in the city below a certain level instinctively uses magic. Usually figuring things out as they go in their assigned jobs. Which is fine, but runes allow us a little more control. Though as Mages begin to master their specific skills, they end up using it all instinctively once more. Sort of like one large bizarre cycle. But that takes decades of dedicated practice. Perhaps we could all be more productive if this was taught to the wider public...”
Darrel paused as though expecting a comment from Jano. When nothing came, he went on.
“Anyway, when you have enough skill and aptitude for magic, runes allow you to gather the essence and shape it into forms. For more complicated forms, you need to know the correct runes and picture them in your mind in the correct sequence. These are sometimes known as spells. As this was your first time trying to use fire essence, it would have been a miracle if you had actually managed to conjure something. It’s difficult at first, but it gets easier with practice.” He said. “In fact, it isn’t too shabby that you managed to throw that teeny tiny fire pebble. Considering you know nothing of fire essence.”
“So when you’re a Mage, you can learn anything?” Jano asked.
“Sort of. Mages have their natural talents, just like you, just with a more powerful spirit to draw from. But most dedicate their time to mastering two or three types of essence. Really old and wise Mages can master a few more, but they are about as powerful as it gets.” Darrel was pacing now, as though giving a lecture.
“It would take too long to master all kinds of essence, there are hundreds. Maybe even more. Mages pick what they’re most interested in and follow that to whatever end they can. As far as the Emperor allows of course. The further a Mage gets down one path, the harder it becomes to learn others. But they can do basic things with most types of essence.”
Jano nodded his head. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful. But why are you trying to teach me this?” Jano regretted the words immediately. “Apologies. That was rude of me.” He followed up immediately. He was a Class Ten nobody until a few days ago and he still hadn’t done anything of note for the Mage. He should be grateful for anything he was being taught.
“Don’t apologise. It’s a valid question. Unfortunately I can’t answer it fully yet. Suffice to say that you will need some, how shall I put it? Extra skills, for the job I have lined up for you.” He responded. “You will know what it is soon enough. But first, let me try and show you some runes for channeling stone essence for something other than moving bricks.”
Extra skills? For a thief? “I thought you wanted me to learn fire runes!?” Jano asked.
The Mage shook his head and chuckled. “No, I just thought it might be an interesting way to start my monologue on runes and essence more generally. People tend to like fire for some reason..”
He pulled out a small book. Jano read the title, the cover was hanging off and as Darrel handed him it, dust sprang up his nose. ‘Channeling essence for Novices: offensive forms’.
Darrel looked at him, “open it then. First page if you will.” Jano did as he was told. It contained the runes for a small attack using magic, something Jano had never actually done before. The rune was a series of characters which described a basic long weapon. It was similar to a spear, but with a counter weight on the blunt end.
Jano read the runes with difficulty. They were similar to normal letters and words, but accented and their composition didn’t seem to make sense when put together. “Try and picture those runes as you gather essence and shape it.” The Mage knocked some loose stone down near to where they stood. “For most forms, the type of essence does not matter, though as they get more complex, some types of essence are more suitable than others.”
Jano followed his orders. He pictured the runes in his mind and gathered stone essence, he could feel it in his spirit, but it didn’t seem to do what he wanted. He looked at the rune once more. He closed his eyes and focussed on picturing the rune in his mind once again. He forced essence through his hand, like he would when trying to move stone from a wall. He heard a crunching noise and noticed some of the smaller stones had gathered together, somewhat resembling the shaft of a weapon. He looked at the Mage. He nodded. “Try again.”
Encouraged, Jano spent another few moments working on picturing the characters in his mind and gathering essence. He was trying to force it through his palms.
“We can do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with magic. As I said, some people specialise in one type of essence and learn all there is to learn. Those are generally called Sorcerers. Some prefer to be a sort of a jack of all trades, they’re generally not as powerful but they have much more range. Those tend to be referred to as Mages, though the term is often used colloquially.” The Mage kept pacing and Jano couldn’t help but wonder which one applied to his newfound teacher.
“It’s a bit like how the Empire assigns jobs to the lower classes based on natural strengths, such as you being a stonemason because you have a natural affinity towards stone. And probably, they needed more stonemasons at the time.” The Mage walked over to a bunch of loose rocks on the floor of the Dome. Due to it being disused, some parts were in dire states of ruin.
“Now try picturing the rune again, but focus your will on the rock and then where you want it to go.” The Mage stood, eyes fixed on Jano. “Impose your will on the essence which is stirring in your spirit. Bend it to your demands.”
He did as he was told, opening the book and staring at the rune. He closed his eyes, trying to replicate the characters exactly as he had just seen them. He commanded the essence to do what was before him. He pushed towards the rock and he felt something move. He snapped his eyes open and saw dust settling against the wall.
“It gets easier when you learn to keep your eyes open. Things generally go where you want them to…” he said as he wiped down his clothes. He must have been doing that for effect, as he didn’t have any residue on them. “Try again, eyes open. Gather the stone into the shape of the spear, hold it in the air and fire it against the wall. A bit more accurately this time. Runes give us more control, remember.”
He had never really learned to use essence to fire stone as a projectile, never mind shape it into an offensive weapon. After all, if he had, he could have been arrested for unlawful use of magic. Jano did as he was told, though picturing the runic characters was much harder with his eyes open. He reached for the essence once more. This time he watched as the loose rubble slowly gathered itself together into the form of a small spear. It wasn’t much, but it was something totally different. It hovered in the air, waiting for his instruction.
He focussed his will at the spot on the wall and instructed it to go there. It flew and he could feel his spirit guiding it as it smashed into the wall. Jano could feel the smile growing across his face as he watched the residue slowly cascade down the walls of the dome.
“See — isn’t that better?” The Mage said, matching Jano’s smile with his own.
“Now. Let’s do it over and over again until you get it absolutely right. I’d say a couple of hundred times should do it for today.”
Jano was already gathering the raw essence around him as his master spoke. His fingers trembled as he did so.