Suma’s POV
It was the same woman I had seen so long ago at the naming court. “Can I help you?” She asked as she fluttered out from around the corner to meet us.
I began our introductions, “Hello Miss Sela-car, I am Suma, and this is my partner Jake.”
“Hello,” Jake said in as friendly a voice as he could muster. Him speaking caught her off guard for a moment, but she barely let it show; I am sure Jake did not notice.
“I understand you are responsible for the study and development of new magical runes within the academy.” I stated. “Am I correct in that?”
“Yes, was there something you needed, I have quite a bit of work I need to finish up.” She said.
“I am sorry Miss Sela-Car, but I have a question and a favor I need to ask of you,” Jake began, “but I think you will find it quite interesting.”
“I’m sorry, but I have too much work to do, so I’m afraid I will not be able to help.” She stated flatly and began to fly away. However, just before she could, Jake called out a question that made her freeze in place.
“How would you like to study the effects of Inversion Chaos Magic on runes?” She looked around slowly, and extremely interested. The feathers around her face and wings were raised, and her besmears, the dermal nodes responsible for our “glittery sparkle” as Jake puts it, began to shimmer ever so slightly brighter.
“How… can you repeat that?” She asked hesitantly, probably thinking she had misheard him.
“How would you like to study the effects of Inversion Chaos Magic on runes?” Jake repeated.
“And you have the ability to produce this magic?” She wondered. “I guess that means you are Asha.” I grimaced when she said that word. It was a name I had heard around the city being used; I knew it was what the people had taken to calling Jake.
“Asha?” Jake asked to my despair.
“It means… predator.” I clarified.
“A rather nice way of putting it, but yes, technically it means predator.” Sela- Car said. “But it does not matter, the insults of school children do not seem to do you justice. You are clearly no snarling beast or menacing spirit, and you bring an interesting proposal. I would like to hear your request.”
Jake seemed confused for a moment, but took it in his stride and explained, “I need someone to prepare me some specially made, and most likely complex, runes that can be placed on my weapons and armor. In return for your help with that, I am willing to participate in a few experiments and give you a few daljar of Chaos Magic mana for you to use as you see fit.” The more Jake talked; the more Sela-Car seemed interested.
“An inciting offer, but I have a few questions and potentially a few conditions.” Sela-Car said calmly.
“Okay.” Jake said.
“My first question is, why do you need these runes? What would be their purpose?”
“Suma and I are leaving for war in just a few days, I need them to protect her and myself, as well as the other soldiers.” Jake explained.
“Ah, war runes… well I suppose I can do something with that. I have made several runes for soldiers before. My next question is, how long will I have to perform the experiments and construct the runes? I know you said you will leave in a few days, I gather you will need them by then?” Sela-Car asked.
“Yes, we leave five days from now.” Jake told her.
“Will that be enough time to prepare the runes?” I asked, Sela-Car almost fluttered, seemingly forgetting I was even there after being so engrossed in her conversation with Jake.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Umm… well that would depend on the runes themselves. I will need time to design and craft them, as well as perform the experiments that you say you will allow me to perform.” Sela-Car said.
“There is a… slight caveat.” Jake said. “Any rune you make will have an inverted effect, so you will have to account for that.” Sela-Car’s head snapped back to Jake as if he had just told her the greatest, or possibly worst, news she had ever heard.
“Are you saying that your mana can actually cause the rune to produce a different effect than it was designed for?” She sounded both confused and giddy.
“Yeah. I was helping a blacksmith friend of mine named Ceil, and when I activated the rune that controlled his furnace, instead of the fire getting the metal hot, it froze it so cold it shattered at the slightest touch.” Jake said.
“So, the rune still produced flames, but instead of being hot, they removed heat instead?” She asked with wonder filled eyes.
“Exactly.” Jake confirmed.
“Amazing, so there exists some aspect of the runes that cannot be inverted even with Chaos Magic. I would need to actually see the rune that your friend uses before coming to any conclusions or forming a proper theory, but this sounds extremely exciting.” Sela-Car stated.
“You said you had some conditions?” Jake wondered, snapping Sela-Car back to the conversation rather than her own imaginations.
“Oh right,” she said regaining her composure, “My condition is that I want to do the experiments first; to make sure I have all of the information needed to do the job right.”
Jake thought for a moment, and I opened up or private connection, “Jake, what are you thinking?” I asked.
“I think I should agree. It might take longer than we want, but I don’t want to risk the runes failing when I need them.” He replied to me then spoke aloud to Sela-Car. “Okay, I agree.”
“Excellent, let’s get started.” Sela-Car said and started to fly away. “Follow me,” she said and turned a corner.
“She seems… eager.” I said hesitantly to Jake over our private channel.
“It’ll be fine.” He replied, though he did not seem sure. I flew after Sela-Car and Jake took his time walking. I landed beside her as she was moving equipment into place.
“So, what kinds of tests will you be doing?” I questioned, concerned for Jake’s wellbeing.
“First, I want to measure his life force density; that should help me predict what his upper mana limit is, as well as how quickly he can produce more.” She explained.
“And how will you do that?” I asked.
“With this,” she said and floated a large metal pylon up from a storage space below the floor. “I will have him touch one end, then I will activate a series of runes that will produce an accurate to the Dalma measurement.” Just as she finished saying that Jake finally caught up with us. Honestly, I do not know how his species became the dominate life-form on his planet if they are so slow. “Are you ready to begin?” She asked Jake.
“As I’ll ever be.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders and a nod of his head.
“Place your hand on the flat of the pylon, and keep it there. Oh, you may feel some slight… discomfort.” She instructed.
“What do you mean by discomfort?” Jake asked nervous.
“Well, this has never been done on a member of your species, so do not know how it will affect you, but some Neame who do this experience side-effects such as numbness in their extremities, tingling, drowsiness, dizziness, and on rare occasions loss of consciousness.” She explained.
“Is this safe?” Jake asked as he put his hand where he was instructed.
“No one has died.” She said flatly and started activating runes. “Now be sure you do not remove your hand, or we will have to start over.” Jake nodded. One by one Sela-Car turned runes on, off, then back on; to me, it seemed almost like she was playing with them. She showed such joy and pure interest in her work, she clearly loved what she did. The process went on for a few minutes, all the while the pylon changed from a sliver, to a green, then to a much darker navy-blue. Runes were beginning to appear above Jake’s hand. Slowly, more would appear one after the other until they had reached almost to the top of the pylon. “Okay, you are done. You can remove your hand now.” She said.
“Thank goodness, my palm has been itching for four minutes now!” He said and began furiously scratching his hand.
“Are you feeling any other side effects?” I asked.
“My teeth ache, and I feel like I have to sneeze but can’t, but other than that no.” He told me.
“Fascinating,” Sela-Car said while staring at some kind of illusion being produced by one of the runes on the back of the pylon. It was an illusion of a rectangular block with words, letters, and numbers written along it. “Your life force is five-hundred Kelma and sixty-three Dalma! I predicted it to be high, but I did not expect such a staggering figure.”
“Which means?” Jake asked confused. Admittedly, I was also lost.
“It means you are just over one-hundred times stronger than an average Neame, and at least five time stronger than a court mage.” She said. “According to this, you have a mana reservoir of nine-fifteen; twelve point two times the current record holder.”
“I guess that’s a lot…” Jake said in what sounded like disbelief.
“To put it in perspective, it is estimated that dragons would have been about twice as strong as you.” Sela-Car said. I was shocked, but more than that, I was left with a single question. How did I ever manage to summon a being so much more powerful than myself?