It didn’t take long for the golems to finish off the last of the cats. With the last of their foes defeated, the golems trudged back to the gate. Lenard let out a weary sigh as the living statues settled back into place. He touched the deactivation runes before turning back towards us.

“Even if I have the class for it, controlling those things is a real headache. You three should probably help that lot over to the medic. I can’t leave my post here.”

“They look like they can mostly get there on their own,” Catherine began. “But we were done here anyway. Let's go.”

Once at the bottom of the wall, we made our way to the injured party. Up close, it was easy to see how close the group had come to disaster. Most of them bore deep gashes from the beasts’ claws. One man who was being supported by his companion had a large bite wound on his hip.

Norbert didn’t look much better. None of his injuries looked as severe as the other man’s bite wound, but his lacerations were far more numerous. His broad arms were crisscrossed with dozens of slender cuts.

He let out a long string of expletives as two of his less injured companions helped him back to his feet. I was quite impressed by the sheer volume of different insults the wounded giant cast upon the fallen felines. It was a feat of improvisation worthy of even some of the best wordsmiths of Sanctuary Valley.

I helped the man with the injured hip hobble along behind the group as we headed towards one of the buildings I had yet to visit. Inside were several beds that looked less comfortable than those in the bunks. An older man was pulling some jars and rolls of bandages from a cupboard in the back of the room.

As I helped the injured man into one of the beds, the healer started working on Norbert’s eviscerated arms. Interested though I was in seeing what sort of medicine these people used, I didn’t want to get in the way. I didn't tarry for long before leaving the building.

“Remind me to check the disinfectant runes tomorrow.” Catherine instructed Liam as we left the building. “The doc always gets a bit rough on his equipment when he’s in a hurry.”

“Disinfectant?” I asked her, finding the word to be rather interesting. My translation boon told me that it meant something like ‘disease killing’.

“Yeah, not quite sure how those ones work either. I follow the system's directions for making ‘em and they seem to work. Enough on that for now. You have some teaching to do.”

“M-may I join too?” Liam asked hesitantly. “I am very interested in learning about sigils too.”

“Yes.” I replied, expecting that teaching two people wouldn’t be much harder than teaching one.

At Catherine’s suggestion, we moved to the dining hall. On the walk over, I tried to figure out the best place to start.

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“Sigils are like runes.” I started. “They let magic stay on objects.”

“I could see that much, but they work differently don’t they?” The confident rune carver interjected.

“Runes put mana in things. Sigils hold mana on the thing.” I less than eloquently explained.

“Okay, I’m a bit lost.”

“I-I think she means the sigils hold the enchantment inside themselves rather than pushing it into the object… I-is that right?” Liam guessed.

“Yes. Mana stays in sigils. Needs good paint to last.”

“That makes sense. An enchantment set in something that holds mana better lasts longer too. Pushing mana into good metal may be a pain, but it takes forever to leak out if you do it right.”

At Catherine's mention of mana infused metal, I wondered if I should try telling them about gold weaving too. After a moment’s thought I figured that it should wait till later. Explaining one new branch of magic was probably going to be hard enough. At least I wasn’t going to need to explain most of the details of how to transcribe a multidimensional object into only two dimensions.

“Sigils and runes use pictures. Runes are just…” I struggled with my translation boon to find the right term for inverting the magical formations of an image. “Inside out.”

Catherine looked a bit lost at this point. Fortunately, Liam was evidently following along with my instructions.

“I see. By reversing everything that would normally push the mana out into the surrounding structure, you can contain the mana forms within just the area painted.”

I was a little surprised by how steady Liam’s voice was as he said this. Normally the bashful man stumbled and stuttered through his words. It was nice to see that he could at least speak confidently when it came to magic.

“I think I’ll need to see an example of this. Think you could draw another sigil so I can try to figure out what you’re doing.” Catherine requested.

“Yes.” I replied, pulling out my last jar of sigil paint. I was almost out, but I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to make some more. These people probably had some pretty good materials I could use.

With a few quick strokes, I traced out a simple light sigil on the table. Both of the rune carvers stared at it intently as it lit up.

“Is it supposed to look that wobbly? It kind of looks like you tried drawing it without any help from the system.” Catherine asked with an odd look on her face.

“No. Drew fast and bad. Still works, just not as good. Clean lines better.”

“I don’t think she actually uses the system to draw these, Cathy. Do you Kyo?”

“No. Don’t have a boon for drawing.”

“By the sun, that is very well drawn then. There is no way I could get a light rune working that quickly without the system. Unless sigils are just a lot easier than runes, you did that ridiculously quickly.”

“Thank you?” I wasn’t sure why Catherine was reacting like this. A light sigil like this was about the simplest thing I knew how to make. “Runes not much harder than sigils.”

“You can carve runes too?”

“Yes, I’ve seen her do so. She can cast spells quite proficiently as well.” Liam confirmed for me.

“What…? Just how spread out are your classes…?” She paused before a look of revelation crossed her face. “By the burning sun, are you actually a true caster?”

“Yes.” I was rather surprised that she was able to figure out the class I had just picked up earlier that day. My first boon from it hadn’t even finished integrating.

“There's no way…” Catherine looked at me like I had just said that the sky was purple. After a moment, her dumbfounded expression shifted to a much more serious one. “Kyo, you must not let Lady Halrand or any of the other nobles know about this.”