The other week off intends to be as busy as the first. Isn’t there supposed to be time to relax on these breaks? Regardless, Shannai readies for her day, which motivates me enough to move. My thoughts wander to the information as I wash and dress. The funny thing is that the transference rune acting as the trigger in a glow gem is also a closed inductor rune— something I hadn't noticed until I knew an inductor rune could be closed.
My walk halts at all the information floating in front of me. I don’t remember which volumes were processed, leading me to fear that I will find pools of irrelevant topics. My fears crumble as I gaze upon the blue light bobbing in my athenary. Having something so unrecognizable, illicit conformation is strange, but it does. The bobbing nods allure you to the knowledge inside.
I open myself to my experience and try to absorb the bubble. Yet, there is a problem. The process is slow, as tendrils of light leak away from the ball and wrap around me. Shouldn’t I be able to absorb it faster? I am moving through information, but the ball doesn’t shrink; how many books? I must have unconsciously slowed time to increase my processing speed, increasing the total amount of information. Now, to see what, if any of it, is helpful.
The hurdle I face in trying to discern the usefulness of information lies in my ignorance of what the wall will hold. I can assume that runes secure the border. But saying I can decipher them with any particular information is comparable to solving any equation because you found some numbers and equations. At the core, I must prioritize understanding how runes function and their capabilities.
With this light guiding my path, studying can begin in detail, starting with a book on infusing opposing materials and a range of ratios to create different effects. One such product is a permeance gate, which locks mana in a section of the formation with material affinity. Another barrier acts as a swivel joint with opposing forces, creating a frictionless axle.
I catalog this information for larger constructs, but there is a piece that helps me solve a problem in the wireless relays. The mana fields could be a way to bypass the need for runes connecting the relay. A deeper delve into mana fields reveals an oscillating field. The oscillation of this field extends the range, and with the power rune, I can finally start making progress, which brings me to the next book to find the limitations.
The book is titled The Waste. The author's main problem is the effect of The Waste on any construct and the people who inhabit the empires. The Waste absorbs all the ambient mana in the air and any rune formation unless you secure it with a destruction affinity border rune. This complication adds complexity to any rune formation we intend to use by necessitating a redesign and precluding anything incorporating a mana field.
At least it doesn't affect the rest of my ideas for tools, and I’ll still need the wireless relay to contact Jer at the wall. After affirming the limitation in my mind, I switch to the next pile concerning the effects of transference runes. The exciting thing in that section discusses securing transference runes, as they are the vulnerable section of a rune formation. Most securities revolve around creating redundant systems to back up the main supply. There are also diagrams on isolated backups of redundant systems. Making a redundant formation in a material with a lower affinity than the base structure produces the isolating effect. The mana will fill the less aligned system when the first is full. I append this under wall preparations.
The final section about cleansing shakes my fundamental understanding of amalgamating. The first piece of gold shines from a casual reference that implies cleansed mana is usable. A death mage can place this cleansed mana into a mana gem, diagrammed in the book as a glow gem with closed inductor runes. If you can utilize this mana further than pushing it into the water, can it be pulled into me?
A book for destructive death mages, whatever that was, soon answered my question with a passage on ambient absorption. Only some mages of this category hold the affinities to absorb mana as they cleanse it. Absorbing mana and turning it into magic is something that mages do passively, but to actively replenish your stores?
The revelations are plentiful and leave me exiting the workshop after a full day with a fair bit of optimism about my capabilities and a tinge of dread. All these hidden things mean something more significant, something I can only guess at. Possibly, the ruling classes realized that unchecked progress leads to inevitable doom. Or there are secrets in there that can destroy a continent that has lived in peace for millions of years, at least this state of quasi-peace.
Yet thousands must be complicit in this scheme. There must be people who know what will happen and are letting it go unvoiced. Could the foundations of the empire be controlled by a covert group with power and access to that unbelievable Athenry? Someone who has decided this is the only way to continue as we have for so long, a being capable of locking away the light of creation.
“You look mopey,” Shannai notes as I slump into bed.
“Things are up and down lately. I feel like my head is loose,” I mumble.
“I know what you mean. Being around the speaker is difficult.”
“Oh yeah. How is that? Has she said anything?”
“Things between us have been tense since she took the speaker position. My mother and I have never agreed on much of anything, but particularly on politics. She is obsessed sometimes—she has meetings I used to be privy to. They argued that it was a game as if the Senate was meaningless.”
“You worked with her for a time?”
“Yes, early on. My mother hoped to sweep me up in the grandeur of it all. It could have worked and even did for a time.”
“Until your sister?”
“No, actually, until I met Odin. He sponsored me in my gap year. I stayed at his residence in Faris.”
“Gap year?”
“In the south, we don't get seasonal breaks in primary school. At least the private institutions don’t. At sixteen, we have a gap year to visit other kingdoms, usually sponsored by the kingdom's nobles.”
“Ah, so you two stayed together for a year?”
“Not at all; he was there for the first week and left it to me for the rest of the year. I found the city to be world's different from the southern cities I had grown up in. That, more than anything, made me inclined towards Odin.”
“Had you been more in line with your mother's views up to that point?”
“Not exactly. I would have called myself ignorantly compliant.”
“And now?”
“Dubiously complicit…”
“I can understand that feeling. We will likely have to lower our standards before this ends.”
“Wow,” Shannai laughs.
“What?”
“Jer is right, and I hate to say it, but he was. You are frighteningly pragmatic sometimes.”
“Hoping for plausible deniability?”
“Some moral superiority from a lack of premeditation would be nice.”
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“What do you do when the law is wrong?”
“It isn’t bad to steal from thieves,” Shannai agrees.
“Do you have the stuff?”
“Yeah, it is in the closet. Cost three gold all together.”
“Three?” I gawk.
“Anonymous shopping isn't cheap in the capital, and you’d have been lucky only to be extorted for the information.”
“It will have to do, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me; make something useful from all that junk.”
“The assortment may be odd, but the results will hopefully be stupendous.” I proclaim, examining each item in detail.
“I had an audience with the speaker.”
“Oh?”
“She seems to be expecting me to gain some leverage on you.”
“Hmm… How?”
“Planting something and then reporting you will probably be the easiest.”
“What is she hoping to gain?”
“I am not sure.”
“What do you think?”
“I stall for a time; when that becomes too obvious, we can schedule something for after our departure date.”
“That is clever. Do you need anything from me?”
“Yes. You will need to learn some protective rune formations.”
“For?”
“We will need them for our escape. Without them, they can track us.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it is a branch of soul magic.”
“Interesting.”
“Try to keep an ear out next bimester, and maybe you can pull something out of Crucus.”
“I will get it done.”
“Good.”
“Which combat-oriented elective will be a good fit?”
“Let’s see. Tactical Maneuver is a good course but specializes in defending the wall. Probably something more in the dueling focus? The dueling club is full of prospects hoping to face off in the arena. That might be too advanced, maybe a survival course?”
“The dueling club is also a class?”
“Of course, you are going to stick to that. Dueling is a class taught on the formal dueling done for the tournament. It will probably be the best at preparing you to deal with a mage.”
“Are you taking it?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, but if you decide to take it, I might change my mind.”
“That excited to see me get my ass kicked?”
“Correct.”
“Alright, I’ll think about it.”
“Goodnight, Vesh,” Shanni replies, lying down.
I continue the debate into my mind palace in front of my mass of pilfered undulating knowledge. While the information has yet to degrade, I fail to absorb all of it or lessen the size. I’ll have time to spend here learning about magic, if nothing else. I can't complain about having abundance. I begin by finishing a book on mana affinities relating to flow rates and pressure capacity. Ambient capacity is the minimal mana needed to keep the rune active, which implies ambient mana levels can alter a rune. So, if a rune runs out of mana, its functionality can change until the capacity thresholds. It's an exciting tidbit but doesn't relate much to my current situation.
The first infusing primer has information I already know, but that information bookends massive discoveries. One of these pertains to something called weak infusion. It is a technique of intentionally reducing the durability of the rune so that it will fail at a given time or under a set of circumstances, such as a shift in the rune's mana. Another technique meshed well with my macro runeing styles. Micro-runes limit the mana supplied to functions in rune formations. Their size also diminishes the possibility of a rune in that function overcharging.
The next book expounds on a concept called Mana crystallization. The only problem is the technique. This book only references external manifestations. Using a catalyst, a mage of any affinity can create mana gems of varying qualities. The quality refers to the mana's density and the crystal's dimensions, which the catalyst sets. The rune diagram for the catalyst is beneficial enough to validate the reading.
The subsequent smattering of books all surrounding a topic called rune variances. The work studies different effects of runes and their interactions with outside factors. One referenced the centrifugal force generated by an inductor rune under the right conditions, with which I can make a wheel spin if I place an inductor rune on it and attach it to an axle. Of course, this won't be enough to move a carriage alone, but in conjunction with other effects? Maybe. I place these tomes with my growing knowledge of constructs and reach for the next on mana variance.
The journal's hypothesis is the first I have encountered that offers an idea based on educated inferences. What I have read thus far examines thousands of years of established principles. It nears heresy, the scholar mage who wrote the Trieste on mana variances in the foundation stone. The stonework covers Grev’haim, composing key buildings, the roads, and the Wall.
It has lasted untarnished since the Founding approximately five million years ago. The Scholar proposes that runes maintain the integrity of these structures from the inside, citing findings from a study of the ambient mana field around each stone. They hypothesize that these fields interact with each other to create a network of redundancies.
Before succumbing to sleep's embrace, the last book I can get to focuses on the variances present in mana fields. There are two states these fields will inhabit. One is dynamic, meaning it will change. And the other is static, meaning it won't change. The oscillating mana field I learned about earlier is the former and thus produces another field as a function of being so. This field is known as the creation field and innately aligns with creation. The text is alluring, but even that can not stop my eyes from slipping shut.
I spend my free time between absorptions reflecting on which classes I should take going forward. Is there even a point in taking the courses? On the one hand, I have all the information already learned as a testament to the usefulness of the classes. On the other hand, more interaction with the mage equals a higher chance of them deducing my intentions. The hope to drop out is hollow because it's too late to reduce commitment. Not to mention how suspicious it would be. It could even tie to the break-ins at the Athenary.
No, I must continue. Moreover, I must decide which classes to take next bimester. The obvious first choices are advanced death magic and Rune Formations. That leaves three to choose. Shannai recommended a combat-oriented elective. I can talk to her further about that when she gets in. Other than an elective, I need two more classes on fundamental magic. I consider my options while rifling through the class offerings.
I've been certified to continue in an advanced curriculum of any affinity I choose. Aside from death magic, I hadn’t used any other magic to a significant degree. Each has a use, but only when I need them, so picking a single one to further feels limiting. Can you choose parts of yourself? To determine what I will understand and be ignorant of the rest.
I work through each affinity separately, deciding which will give me the best advantage going forward and how they complement my death magic. The first is destruction magic. Sadly, there are several benefits to choosing destruction magic. Though I hate Gallah, he does teach magic whose principles overlap with other types. Destruction magic deals with nullifying other magics and disassembling magic. It is one of the four High magics.
I brush away the annoyance and let thoughts of high magic lead me to creation magic. The synergistic effects of continuing my studies in this magic are apparent. Being able to heal myself and reform matters are already proving their worth, and it is also High magic. It is a promising choice, so I mark it in the likely column and progress to mental magic.
This proposition is the strangest part: I use mental magic almost as much as I use death magic, so it should be an obvious second choice. It isn't because of what the Sanctum teaches and how it’s taught. The revelations in the undoctored Athenary reveal the courses to be intentionally stunted, that there's a force working to keep everything stagnate. Mental magic is a prime example with its internal source, meaning you can only use your magic as fuel. I now know that a personally created mana gem, an external source, will power my mental magic. On top of that, my innate defenses aren’t as applicable against such.
A similar argument is made for soul magic, disqualifying both. Elemental is difficult. Depending on my specialization, I can learn countless valuable skills, but are they worth more than creation or destruction? Any skills I can use for rune crafting will be a facsimile of creation magics’ ability to remold matter. And I can't think of any skills better than the potential offered by absorption from destruction magic. Spatial magic is a no because Phylius is a worse Gallah, and I suck at it.
The next to absorb that night is on the magic channels in the body. It's strange to learn that the magic I possess is circulating through my body. Through these channels, formed at birth, one can find spots in their body where magic collects. The internal magic in our body produces auras, which stops my natural absorption from exploding. It takes me moments to wrap my mind around the concept.
The revelations need time and information, so I shift to the next book. This one is a Metallurgist’s Guide For Affinity. It reveals thousands of different types of metal and alloys and gives the affinity of each. There is even a chart breaking down the composition of the alloys and the forging processes. The last section mentions a “Triage,” which sounds like a tool for forging, but the references are too vague to give any certainty.
As the universe's secrets unravel, I build with only one desire: to experiment. But for now, there is a task in front of me: Creating a catalyst. All my problems in making a rune formation lie in the power. The inductor runes I used up to this point draw mana out or pull in ambient mana. But they cannot store mana efficiently. So, each rune formation I cobble together lacks enough mana to power itself. A catalyst will allow me to form a power rune to complete these rune formations.
The actual diagram for a catalyst is simple: an open inductor rune connected to a diamond-shaped border rune with a transference rune running down the middle. Power runes must be centermost in the formation unless you intend to harness the misalignment effect. The affinities are slightly more complicated. I have to make the barrier rune with three materials. The innermost has a high affinity for whichever mana you align to the catalyst; in this case, that is creation magic, so steel wood. Next, a band of neutral material will prevent interference. The outermost is redwood because of its affinity for light destruction, creating a balancing effect for the mana in the catalyst. Everything else is affinity-aligned.
Everything is in place. The flat piece of metal is innocuous in its two-dimensional flatness. I hold the inductor rune in my mouth and let some of my creation magic slip out. I can feel something. Alas, I will have to continue mouthing everything to get results. The amount of creation magic that spills into the cycling inductor rune is minuscule, yet it weakens me.
The day dwindles into one catalyst after another, one for each affinity, and with the inspiration of my unimpressed impression, I decide to make a necklace of the eight rune formations. I am not so foolish as to parade, so I tuck the band of twine under my robe as I go about the Sanctum.