After searching through the woods for a bit, Anael found where she had dropped her bow in her rush to get back to town. She had initially planned on perhaps cooking part of the stag she had killed before all of this, but it had already been assaulted by scavengers and there wasn’t enough left in edible condition for her to bother with. Instead of trying to hunt some small animal for dinner, she instead visited a small clearing she was familiar with which was filled with lorberry bushes. After eating her fill and collecting some more in a pouch to eat later, Anael slowly made her way back to the ruined town.
Anael sat down on the large steel anvil which sat near the middle of the largely intact forge, and considered what to do and how to accomplish her goals. How am I supposed to kill the ruler of Ghorm’nTos? He’s not called the God-Emperor for nothing. He became a god by pulling himself back from beyond death by sheer force of will, even if I manage to kill him won’t he just do that again? I should probably set my sights lower to start with, I can’t even fight a single trained soldier. I might be able to get one with my bow, but that’s not the same. I need to be able to fight a group of trained warriors and win. I probably need to be able to handle mages too. The only way I have any chance is with magic, which reminds me, what exactly am I feeling in the healing sigil? At first I thought it was just the general presence of flowing mana, but I think I can actually feel the runes and how the mana of different types is flowing through and around each one… Focusing on the feeling in her chest, Anael realized she could actually tell which parts of the sigil had mana in them, and how much was in each. I can actually feel the small amount of ambient mana flowing into the collection array and then transiting the outer circle toward the junction leading to the magic crystal. This is amazing! All those times a sigil malfunctioned and I couldn’t tell what was wrong, where the mana was leaking, or what rune was malformed, if I could have felt this I would have known immediately, or maybe even before activating it. I can even feel the lines where mana isn’t but could be!
The more she focused on it, the more Anael was filled with disbelief. The feeling of mana flowing through all of the lines, circles and runes of the sigil was almost indescribable, the way that the mana moved reminded Anael of a line from near the beginning of the First Book of Kenu. “No, The Darkness waxed and waned, slithered and slid, twisted and spun, swirling in great eddies through itself” perhaps as Ard’We formed himself from the primordial darkness, I can use this to form myself into a weapon capable of killing a god. It’s like having an extra sense, perhaps this is what mages feel when they cast spells with their own mana. No, it can’t be. I know Zilfa talked about messing up sigils in the same way I do, she could sense the general presence of mana, but I know she couldn’t sense this level of detail. It’s a wonder no one has discovered this before. Well I suppose mages have no reason to risk their life since they probably have no idea about this benefit, they can already use their inner mana for spells, writing (or carving) them on their skin would just force them to. Non-mages generally never learn to make sigils since they would never be able to use many of them without absurdly expensive crystals. I only have the tiny one I do because Zilfa sold it to me for a pittance. It’s not as if I can use any other sigils this way, even with a mana bypass, they would pull in too much of my life force and in the best case I’d pass out every time I activated it. The only reason the healing sigil doesn’t is because it’s used to heal me, putting it back into my body.
Anael’s eyes widened as she had a realization. But if I modified the healing sigil with extra connections that took excess mana from the crystal and added other sigils, I could power them through that. Of course I’d need to add some more collection arrays and I’d need to focus on efficiency but… Damn it to the abyss! The crystal’s too small to power any spells worth more than a distraction. A flame sigil might kill someone if it was on my hand and I pressed it to their face, but I’d only be able to use it once, and I’m definitely not going to be throwing lightning around without a bigger crystal or something else capable of holding a lot of mana… Actually, Kelara mentioned that some of the potions she made required a large input of mana from a crystal, she must have had one! Hopefully I can find it, and hopefully it’s bigger than this one. I suppose first I should see if this will work.
Anael walked over to the only corner of the two-walled forge and crawled under a workbench. Finding what she was looking for, she pulled the loose face of a brick out from the wall and reached in. At least this is undamaged. Glad I didn’t keep it in the house. Anael pulled out the book of sigilry from which, with Zilfa’s help, she had learned all she knew of magic and mana. Alongside it was her spare bottle of sigiler’s ink and a metal quill that had been a gift from Zilfa after she learned the basic healing sigil. Saving me twice now, Zilfa. I’ll have to get you a gift in return. Glad the ink is here too, I’d rather not use blood for this, I’m wounded enough as it is. While the healing sigil had continued in its work, it was slow enough that it would likely be several more days before Anael was back in top shape. Ok, let’s try this. I’d best use the flame sigil, and the water one uses quite a lot of mana for anything significant. Let’s see. As she paged through the book, finding the list of sigils and the section on basic ones, she noticed a remarkably simple yet efficient sigil for forming light. It just glows a little, but that’s all I need since this is just a test. Better yet it doesn’t take too much mana, so I should be able to power it alongside the healing sigil without any problems, at least for a moment.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Opening the jar of ink and dipping the quill in, Anael concentrated on what she was going to do. She first drew six mana collection arrays around the central healing sigil, connecting them inwards before drawing a circle around the central sigil. And once again, I’m glad not to be more well endowed. Even what I have makes using a bow more difficult and anything larger would making drawing these accurately nearly impossible. Anael could feel the elemental mana flowing into the sigils and pooling in the circle before slowly dispersing back into air since it had nowhere to go. Ok, let’s see how this affects the existing runes. Anael very carefully connected the outer ring to the junction leading to the mana crystal. Immediately she could feel the blocked mana start to flow quite quickly towards the center. Her Lips! That feels good! The healing sigil quickly began to work noticeably quicker and Anael would have sworn she could feel her wounds closing up. At this rate, I might be fully healed by tomorrow. It should be a fourfold increase or so, if I’m not mistaken. It certainly feels like it’s working significantly faster. It hurts a lot less than it did before, too. Now let’s try connecting the light sigil.
Anael first drew the entire sigil, making sure that it felt correct. She rubbed away a few areas that seemed wrong to her and inspected the book of sigilry closely, correcting her mistakes. It’s amazing to be able to simply tell that the sigil won’t work by feel. I still need to think to tell what it will do, but at least I can be certain there won’t be mana leakage, or any blocks that might cause it to overload. Once the sigil was completed, Anael prepared to connect it to the mana crystal. Not one to take unnecessary risk, she changed her mind, and connected it to the outer circle so that it would only take mana from the six outer collection arrays. Even if it takes far more mana than I think it will, this way it won’t cause any problems. It’ll just slow the healing back down to what it was before. Anael could feel that only a small portion of the mana was redirected as the central rune of the light sigil began to glow. It was actually quite bright, especially considering that it was daytime. In fact, it was probably enough light to read by if she wanted to. Huh. I was just using this as a test, but it might be a good sigil to have. I could read at night without lighting a candle and, if it isn’t already, with a bit of modification it would be more than bright enough to let me travel at night. Although I suppose I’d then be visible for leagues in any direction. I suppose I might was well leave it on since I’m going to be searching for Kelara’s mana crystal soon.
Flipping the pages of the book, Anael searched for the section on the various energies that could be used by sigilry. Ah, here we are: “Elemental Energies, Mana, Will, and the Subdivisions Thereof”. Ok, So there’s the six primary elemental mana types, higher order varieties which aren’t normally found ambiently… Ok and here’s the section on will:
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Will is both the purest form of magical energy and the most difficult to use. Acolytes of most of the older religions will agree that, regardless of how they think our world was created and what deity they hold responsible, all phenomena observable in our world is the result of some external force of will. Whether this is the result of a demiurge imposing their desires on the entirety of existence, or simply some type of ambient energy that cannot be directly harnessed, is unknown, at least to the authors of this volume. Regardless, all living beings cultivate an amount of this energy, which is what allows them to perform the actions that they do. Those with truly massive amounts of Will, referred to by many as “Will-mages” can shape the world around them with a thought. The most powerful of these beings can alter the very fundamental nature of themselves and the world around them, making them gods in their own right.
What is perhaps more fascinating is that Will, like mana, forms complex fluid lattices that can attune it. While most mages will find that a majority of their mana is attuned to the structure of a certain element, not only is Will capable of attuning itself to more abstract notions, but the vast majority of individuals with any useable Will may find that it is attuned in its entirety to a specific concept. I say concept as the known categories of Will do not restrict themselves to elements. An example of elemental Will, although admittedly high order elements, is the rare incidence of so called “wrights”. Fleshwrights have enough will to classify as Will-mages, but rather than being pure, it is attuned entirely to third order flesh element, allowing them to change much of their own body at will, but being unable to affect their bone structure, or anything around them. Bonewrights and Bloodwrights are likewise attuned.
In regards to the non-elemental attunements that Will may take, the most common fall into three categories - Emotion, Belief, and Knowledge. Moreover, small amounts of Will aligned with these attunements are present in all people, however amounts large enough to be used are just as rare as other attunements. Followers of the Hierarchy of Kenu will note that the attunements which fall under these three categories align nearly precisely with the domains of the Aspects they revere. While some of course claim that this lends them credence over other religions, scholars have long noted that it is equally likely, or perhaps even moreso, that this part of the religion was modelled after observations rather than the reverse, leaving these Aspects with no more credibility than any of the other deities that have garnered consistent worship for the past several millenia.
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After finishing that section, Anael was feeling quite indignant. Hey! I get a bit annoyed at one of them and there’s thunder in clear skies and this guy can be as disrespectful as he wants? He should have been struck by lightning at least! Actually I suppose he might have been for all I know… I’m gonna choose to believe he was. It’s only fair to distribute divine judgement equally to everyone… or something like that…