Chapter 10 : Mechanical Arcane

The evening was not over and after a detour to his room, Nikolaï went to the second floor. At the opposite of the library was a huge alchemic laboratory where Aspirants could rent tools and benches. Nikolaï did so and unpacked the part he had saved from his hunt and some other things that he had taken from his room chest.

To awaken his Ether a beginner could use certain compounds to help him. So like many others, Nikolaï had shown a big interest in alchemy when he arrived at Dzürkül. For a year he had tried to learn it until he gave up. One reason was the fact that Nikolaï didn’t believe he had the kind of patience when brewing complex potions and preparation. But the main reason was his lack of resources. Sure, Alchemy could be a good source of income but it was not immediate and you needed to invest a lot of money in the first place.

Whether it was for practice or an order, alchemy required an initial investment that Nikolaï simply didn’t have. Sometimes a compound could take weeks to be finished and until it was and ready to be sold the alchemist needed to live with the lack of money they had invested.

Nikolaï, who was handling his spending on a short-term basis, couldn’t work that way. Even if he could not become a true alchemist he hadn’t given up completely. He knew few antidotes or serums and took classes in herbology and biology even after realising that being an alchemist was not for him. They had helped him in his gathering and his knowledge in potion-making had prevented him from being ripped off by ill-intend apothecaries.

Nikolaï was boiling water in a small cauldron and added some plants and a liquid bought before. While the thing was infusing he took out the pieces of mongoose flesh that he had saved for himself. It was the fat that interested Nikolaï and he used a knife to slice it before putting it in the cauldron.

It was a recipe for a wax that didn’t require expensive material but could rapidly turn if it wasn’t monitored. Nikolaï was confident in his ability to do it and kept an eye on it while treating the eyes and heart of the beast.

The brew took all evening and part of the night but it was a success even if it was the first time for Nikolaï to try this recipe. During the process, he tried to use his Third Eye in a practical manner but it didn’t work. He was seeing things but had no idea how to interpret them or even if doing it would truly help the preparation.

***

The next morning Nikolaï woke up later than usual and still tired from yesterday's events. After a short morning session of meditation, he decided to postpone the absorption for a day. Yes, he was in a hurry to test it with a more powerful creature and an elementium more adapted to him but he didn’t want to ruin it by being too impatient.

Having treated the body parts carefully in the laboratory Nikolaï knew that the decaying was contained. That’s why he was also confident of pushing things for a day.

Now with all day in front of him, Nikolaï took out his equipment and the Forgerune press he had bought days ago. He cleaned up everything, maintained his sword and oiled the gripped part of the press. It didn’t take him long but he was happy that it had been taken care of. He envied a little the Aspirants with followers who had people to do so.

The only non-Acanist or Aspirant of the tower was the personnel hired by the Tower. It meant that no one could bring his own servants, whatever his rank or wealth was. Influential families often used low-ranking Aspirant as so and gathered what people called “Followers” around them. Not everyone could do it but it could be mutually beneficial for both parties. At least it came from a very very important bloodline, nobody under Aspirant of the 2nd Circle would have followers.

Nikolaï was from a small family so even if he rose beyond 2nd Circle he would always be part of the ones becoming followers and not the opposite. Having no distant parents or special talent, nobody tried to recruit him in the past. At that time Nikolaï had regretted it, being under the wing of an influential family would have allowed him to benefit from a private tutor and such. Now he was not sure if it would have been such a good thing. Yes, he could have studied in better conditions but probably would not have had the leisure to focus his time the way he wanted.

Nikolaï was a loner but he didn’t use to be one. He didn’t lack social skills and during his first year, his manners and good looks made him some friends. Unfortunately, after the averageness of his talent had been revealed, those friendships died quickly.

Nikolaï stopped thinking about the past and went to the library. The extra money he had won the day before would be better spent than staying in his pockets. He had a project now, he was reaching for his future rather than brewing about the past.

He walked into the Mechanical Arcane section of the library. Mechanical Arcane wasn’t an Arcane around spells or concepts and for some Arcanists it was not a real Arcane. It was not a position adopted in this Tower of course because alchemy was part of the Mechanical Arcane. Every practice that aimed at putting spells or Arcane properties into an object or a compound was considered part of the Mechanical Arcane. It was known for 2 main practices : Alchemy and Forgerune.

Nikolaï gathered a few books about talismans and brought them to a reading desk. Forgerune consisted widely of attaching a glyph to an object. Depending on the kind of glyphs and the use of the object it was from one category or another.

Runic mediators were talismans where the Sigil of a spell had been imprinted. Those objects could allow an Arcanist to cast the spell without the need to do the first two steps of it. The visualisation and projection of the Sigil were done by the talismans and the Arcanist only needed to power it.

Runic objects were more diverse. They focused on producing an effect more than imitating a spell so their uses were broader. Often they also possess an internal source of energy or at least a way to work without the help of an Arcanist. The torches used in all of the Tower belong to this category. They had a glyph that produced a flame by gathering and consuming the fire elementium around them.

Wands and Staffs were also products of Forgerune but they were too complex and advanced to belong in the previous category even if they were using similar properties. That was why they both had their own category.

Nikolaï was interested in the first two and that’s why he had made wax and bought the press, he had the intention of becoming a Forgerune.

***

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It was the day after and Nikolaï was sitting on the floor, ready to assimilate the lingering Ether of the mongoose. Like he had done with the fire toad he absorbed the elementium in his vessel.

The charge of energy was bigger but also more adequate to Nikolaï. The small difference in affinity was beneficial and even if it didn’t protect him from poisoning effects, they would appear slowly.

Nikolaï spent hours gathering the water elementium in his body until he could feel the backlash. His body had been weakened but his mind was still sharp. He joined his hands and cast a new spell.

While preparing for the hunt Nikolaï had found a spell from the Aqueous Arcane to use the draining effect. It was a continuous kind of spell and even if it was not the most useful one he was easy to cast for someone like Nikolaï who had predispositions in shaping ether.

The spell was called Moist Mirror and Nikolaï cast it on his first try. It created a slim surface of the water, just big enough to reflect his all head. The spell was considered a waste of time to learn for a beginner because his only use was to be a mirror. Even for a particular narcissistic person, it would make more sense to just keep a pocket mirror on them. Nikolaï had chosen the spell for his Sigil but could also enjoy its use. The mirror didn’t have special properties but it was made of water elementium and Nikolaï had realised quickly that it allowed him to see the Third Eye Sigil on his forehead more efficiently than using a bucket of water.

Nikolaï used the spell repeatedly, casting it at different distances from his chest and trying to drain as much elementium as possible. Brains and hearts were the organs that hosted ether but it spread around it following a certain logic. The eyeball inside's liquid was able to retain a bit of it, that’s why it was easier to find traces of ether in the eyes. Arcanists were not entirely sure why, they agreed on the fact that sensory organs maintained a constant connection with the brain and that ether would flow naturally through the connection. The reason that the eyes seemed to be the only ones holding part of this flow was a matter of debate. Some attributed mystical properties to them and others advanced his round shapes as the reason for it.

Nobody was entirely sure if the response was structural, mystical, biological or a bit of all of it.

As the chest area, it was viewed as the centre of the body. Geometry speaking it wasn’t but it was not what Arcanists meant by calling it that way. The stomach, heart and lungs were viewed as the source of life for the human body. The stomach and lungs were the organs that transformed the outside resources into energy for the body and that energy was coursing through the path created by the heart.

It was the vision Arcanist had for the way it worked and also the reason the chest area was the most exposed to elementium and ether. Due to that, the circulation in this area was naturally becoming smoother and even its resistance was more advanced to elementium.

Nikolaï had studied biology enough to understand that the way the body functions was not as simple as the old Arcanist believed but it was not a problem. Practising arcane had a big part of visualisation so it was not important to have a precise understanding of the way the body worked to handle the ether it produced.

Nikolaï breathed in and out. Waiting for the poisoning effect to go away. The draining effect had worked perfectly and Nikolaï had checked with his Third Eye if a lot of water elementium remained in his flesh. He saw traces of it that was too deep to be drained by a spell but he was confident to be able to expel them by manipulating his Ether. Meanwhile, he was waiting to recover to assess how much energy he had won from his session.

It had been hours since he had done it and Nikolaï felt his body full of ether.

“_ Whaouh ! I’m ready to reform my 1st Ether Rune !” Exclaimed Nikolaï.

The surprise was the reason he had made his dumb comment out loud. Still, the surprise was legitimate. He had taken so little time to rise to this level that it was hard to believe.

Ether was the source of an Arcanist power but the human body could only handle it to a certain extent. Forcing it could have a troubling effect, in the long run, causing illness or reducing life expectancy. Nikolaï was close to this level of human limitation and if it was a thousand years ago there was nothing he could do about it.

A long time ago, even before the word Arcanist became the one to describe people capable of wielding power, a way to go over the limitation was created. It was what Arcanists called the Ether Runes. To simplify it consisted of willing the Ether a certain way inside the chest of an Arcanist until it formed a self-sufficient pattern. Once the pattern stabilized inside the Arcanist his tolerance to elementium would rise and his symbiosis with ether would become deeper.

By forming this rune the body limitation would be extended and that was what people meant when they talked about Arcanists walking a path away from their humanity. The quote was especially true with later runes which could generate mutation.

Throughout his life, an Arcanist was destined to form a new Ether Rune every time he met his new body limitation.

The number of Ether Runes imprinted inside an Arcanist was also the way they were classified in the Empire's social ladder. When a student formed his first rune he became an Aspirant of the 1st Circle. If he continued to grow and expand his Ether he would eventually reach his limitation once again. To bypass them he would have to form a second Ether Rune above his first one and if he succeeded, become an Aspirant of the 2nd Circle. The same would go for becoming an Aspirant of the 3rd Circle but beyond that, he would not be considered an Aspirant anymore, but an Arcanist.

Every person who rose to the 4th Ether Rune and beyond was considered an Arcanist but the title, when used alone, was meant to describe an Arcanist of the 4th Circle. Amos and Julius were both in this case.

Their master on the other hand belonged to the 5th Circle. He was called an Expert and the ones above had also specific titles. For example, Master Arcanist Drahan was technically an Arcanist of the 7th Circle.

Nikolaï thought about his former Ether Rune, the one which had been shattered by Orsana's experience. There wasn’t one kind of Ether Rune but multiple ones. It was not just depending on the stage development of the Arcanist but also on what he decided to put inside his rune. To create the design of an Ether Rune the Arcanist must first choose his sub-runes. Once done he had to combine all things into a pattern that could be imprinted in the Ether and held in there.

The number of sub-rune depends on the level of the Ether Rune. For the first one, Nikolaï had to choose two of them : an arcanic sub-rune and a support sub-rune.

Arcanic sub-rune were pieces of Sigil coming from Arcane. For his former Ether Rune, Nikolaï used a sigil from the Impalpable Arcane. The point was to make the Impalpable spell structures part of his own Ether to make it easy for him to cast them. It had worked in the past but Nikolaï was not sure he was going to make the same choice. Last few weeks he had grown in his handling of his old spell by practising with his Third Eye. The benefits of the Arcanic sub-rune were compensated by an almost flawless cast and Nikolaï was not sure if the improvements from the sub-rune would stack above it or be a waste.

Support sub-rune were less diverse. There were only three kinds of them and their purpose was to enhance the properties of the Ether vessel. In the past, Nikolaï had chosen the reinforcement sub-rune, which improved tolerance to elementium. Because it was his first Ether Rune the effect had been a bit weak but it still made Nikolaï less susceptible to elementium poisoning. Once again, Nikolaï was not sure if he wanted to make the same choices.

Nikolaï didn’t regret the sub-runes he had chosen in the past but the situation was different. It was maybe not what he needed at the moment to catch up with the level it should be at. He still intended to use those sub-runes in his development but maybe they weren’t his first choice anymore.

Nikolaï cast Moist Mirror once again but this time he didn’t do it to drain elementium. He looked at his face and the Sigil which was reflecting from his forehead. He looked at its design, lost in thought.

This Sigil, the Third Eye had been and was the cornerstone of his rebirth. It had opened possibilities for him and Nikolaï knew that it was only the beginning. Right here, right now this accidental gift was his best asset for the future and Nikolaï knew he had to bet on it.