Soulburned : The School of Souls
Chapter 22 : The Wolf
Adler followed behind the young Guardian through the corridors. His arms were fastened to his waist with heavy chains Glyphs and runes dotted it's surface, courtesy of the Artificer. She claimed that the chains wouldn't prevent him from accessing his Logos, but that they would merely make it difficult for him to use large quantities at once.
"Like drinking water from a sieve," she'd said.
Not that that mattered, Adler didn't know what to do with the Logos regardless.
Thale was taking him to see Professor Torquent, the Soul Shaping professor.
Their progress was slow. Thale's gait was slow and belabored. His prosthetic clunked on the ground, followed shortly by the clink of his Shirve Blade. Adler didn't know who was in charge of keeping the hallways orderly, but whoever it was wasn't going to be happy with the slices being cut into the carpet.
Amusement.
This emotion was Adler's. In the week since his 'Trial', he'd managed to refine his newfound ability, if only somewhat.
He still wasn't able to look at someone and tell what they were feeling or thinking, but if someone near him was having a strong emotional response to something, Adler was able to pick it up.
Thale for example, was feeling embarrassed.
"New leg?" Adler asked.
"Obvoiusly," Thale replied.
"It's nice,"
Annoyance, from Thale.
Amusement, Adler.
The emotion, like all others, was consumed by the Thymos raging in Adler's chest.
Disappointment, and Longing, also Adler's.
They were headed to one of the Iris's many Teleportation Nodes. With Thale's leg being in the shape that it was, the Archmage had decided to wave the typical requirement that First Tier Wizards be required to walk the stairs. Adler believed that the areas reason the Archmage made that decision, was to keep Adler from wandering the halls. The student body wasn't aware that there was a Sorceror mixing into thier classes, and the Archmage would prefer to keep it that way.
"You're a mage," Adler said.
Thale looked at him questioningly.
Apprehension.
"Yes..." Thale said, "I am. All Guardians are mages.
"Why?" Adler asked.
"Eros is required to wield a Shrive Blades."
"Why?"
"They need Eros to function." Thale shrugged.
"Yes... but why?"
The young Guardian frowned.
"This would be a better question for the Artificer."
"She doesn't answer my questions," Adler said matter of factly.
"Probably because you asked so many."
"Probably... but here's another.... you're not just a Guardian, are you?" Adler asked.
He hadn't been sure at first, he hadn't exactly been around many Wizards besides the Archmage since he'd been given the Wizard's Mark, but now that he'd spent more than just a few minutes with Thale, Adler was sure. The young man was generating an unusual amount of Logos, at least in comparison to the other Guardians.
Surprise. Alarm. Confusion.
I'm right! Adler thought, he's hiding somthing.
"I wear only a Mage Mark," Thale said.
"Of course!" Adler said, "I can see that."
Adler tapped a finger against his own Wizard Mark.
"We can't all be so lucky as to be compounded Soulmancers. I meant, what were you before you were a Guardian? What are your hobbies? Who is Thale when he's not lugging around a Shrive Blade? You've got to put the thing down at some point, right?
Anger. Suspicion.
Adler frowned. Suspicion he understood. Adler had done nothing to earn Thale's trust, but why anger?
"I was a soldier." Thale finally said, "I'm sure that's hard to believe." he deadpanned. "But when I'm not on duty, I read."
"And what does the Guardian read?"
"Currently? Mostly scripture." Thale said.
Surprise. Adler's.
"Just currently?"
"Research," Thale said. "This thing didn't exactly come with an instruction manual."
"Hmm." Adler said, "And when it's not scripture?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Plays... Poetry... The occasional adventure."
Alder felt Thale relax.
"Have you ever been to a play?" Adler asked.
"No. The Theatre was in the First District."
Adler felt Thale tense.
"You were from the first district?" Adler asked.
"Yes," Thale said flatly.
"So was I." Adler said. "But I didn't have the privilege to see it burned. I was...enrolled, just a few days before the 1st wall fell."
Sorrow.
Adler couldn't tell whose.
"We're here."
The Teleportation Nodes were all identical, they had to be. Located towards the southern edge of the Iris, there was a node on each floor. Each had a nearly identical glyph burned into the floorboards, the only difference was a rune designating the floor you were currently on which lay at the center of each glyph. Along the rune's outer edge, were another 110 runes, one for each of the other floors.
"How does this work?" Adler asked.
"Well, for Mages, we're given a ring. We use it to activate the rune that corresponds to the floor we want to teleport to. See the colors?"
All of the runes glowed, some were red, and the majority were green.
"Yes," Adler said.
"The red runes mean someone's inside that node. You won't be able to Teleport to a node that's occupied."
"Why."
Thale sighed.
"I don't know why, specifically. I just know it would be bad for everyone involved."
Adler filed that information away.
"And how does it work for Wizards? Or Sorceror's for that matter."
Thale flinched when Adler said 'Sorceror', but there was no real spike of emotion tied to it.
Interesting. Adler thought.
"I'm not sure how it works for... Sorcerors, probably the same Amulet they give to Mages. Wizards would pour Logos into the rune of the floor the wanted to travel too."
"And which floor are we headed to?"
"Thirty-Eight."
"This one?" Adler asked, tapping a green rune with his foot.
"Yes." Thale responded, pulling an amulet out from his tunic, and pulling it off his head.
"Do you mind if I attempt to use my Logos?" Adler asked, "Unless you'd prefer to use yours?"
Alarm.
"No. I'll just use the amulet, stand aside."
Adler bowed his head and moved to the side.
Thale stooped, careful to keep an eye on Adler as he pressed the amulet hard against the burnt rune.
Reality shifted around them. Adler's ears popped at the sudden change of pressure, causing him to grimace.
"Ouch."
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Professor Torquent beckoned them to sit.
They were alone in the large classroom. The Archmage didn't want Alder mingling with the school's population at large before he knew Adler could be trusted, or at least controlled.
"What do you know?" Torquent asked.
"Virtually nothing," Adler said. "I have been relegated to self-study for my entire tenure here in the Iris, and until now, Logos Shaping wasn't a topic I found appealing."
"I...see." Said Torquent. "We best start with the basics then."
He pulled an empty bowl out of one of his drawers and placed it on the desk. He drew a blue glyph in the air, and then bowl began to fill with water."
"Water Conjuration?" Thale asked, "That's 'basic?"
Toquent looked at the Guardian, surprised that he had even spoken.
"No." Torquent said, "It's not, and also not my subject to teach. The water is merely a target for-"
Adler extended a liquid thread of Logos into the bowl and flicked the surface, sending ripples across its surface.
Surprise, from Torquent
Alarm, from Thale.
He can see it. Adler realized. He had no way of knowing that wasn't Torquent.
"I may have studied the topic a bit," Adler admitted. "It has been twelve years..."
Torqent sighed.
"And, what have you gleaned from this study."
"That Logos, Eros, and presumably Thymos," Torquent flinched at the mention of Sorcerory "Are all fundamentally the same when it comes to Soul Shaping. The ability to move something from one place to another is the same, whether that item is a block of stone or a block of ice, it doesn't matter. The muscles are the same."
"You've read Cambell!" Torquent said, "A bit of a heretic, but not so much so to be worth banning from the Library... Let's move on to something a little harder."
"Of course," Adler said.
Adler slid the bowl of water to the side, deliberately placing it in front of Thale.
Apprehension.
Adler was pleased, if only intellectually, that Thale's alarm had fallen to mere wariness.
Torquent wrote the names of several books onto a scrap of paper and slid it across to table to Adler.
"Not ones I've read," Alder said.
"Good. Come back to me once you have. Start with Glamforial's Shaping Studies, pages forty-two to ninety-eight.
Torqent stood and left the room.
"Well..." Adler said, "Seems like we're going book hunting."
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I've never been to this Library." Adler said. "The Archmage would only allow me to study in the Main."
"Anything up here would be down in the Main as well. You haven't missed much."
"So why are we here?" Adler asked.
"Because it's quiet. No one comes here but me."
"I see... but why are we here?"
Thale sighed.
"I've been bedridden for days," Thale said, thumping his prosthetic with the tip of his Shrive Blade. "I haven't been able to make it here to read. I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy."
"So we're just here to read?"
"Yes, Alder. We came to the Library to read."
"And what will we be reading today? Poetry? Plays? Scripture?"
Annoyance.
"I'll be continuing, The Book of Contradictions. "
"Hmm.. difficult to learn Logos shaping from that, I imagine."
Alarm.
"What do you mean?" Thale asked.
"Professor Torquent did give me a list..." Adler said.
Thale relaxed.
"So read them. There's copies in here somewhere, I'm sure."
Adler raised his bound hands, at least, he tried to. The magically imbued chain's soft glow was more pronounced in the Library's dim lighting.
"It's going to be quite difficult to study like this," Adler said. "If you're not willing ot take them off, I'll need you to turn the pages... and who knows, maybe you'll learn something."
The annoyance Adler was sensing from Thale blossomed into irritation, but the Guardian stood and stomped over to a nearby shelf. After a few minutes, he selected a tome, the same book that Torquent had suggested, pulled it off the shelf, and stomped back to the table he and Adler had sat at.
"What page?" Thale asked testily, throwing the book onto the table.
"You know what page."
They read.