Isyd sat in the Atelier’s room that had been assigned to the Ravasz for their work on the Blysht. The Commission had been extended and welcomed more Arcanysta, with the couples at their lead. Officially, Isyd wasn’t part of the Commission so he wasn’t participating in the daily research but by now everyone in the Atelier knew that he was the one who came up with the [Ingracing] and [Outgracing Hex] so nobody dared say a word when they saw him hanging around. In fact, many of the Arcanysta present were interested to see him and talk to him so much so that Isyd sometimes found their attention overbearing and avoided coming to the Atelier at peak hours. Now it was a little bit after the 12th Hour so people had gone to grab a piece of to eat, leaving only the Ravasz and Isyd in the room.

Norran rolled his wheelchair closer to Isyd and looked over his shoulder, stroking his beard. Isyd had in front of him his broken palcat, the Whitewater Staff, as well as detailed notes on paper.

“So, you’ve done counting all the faults?” Norran asked.

“Yes. There are 259 of them in total. Most are in 6th, 7th and 8th Openings.”

“All above the 4th then… That’s annoying! It means that it can’t be fixed easily. You’ll need to deconstruct your [Arcane] to get to them.”

“I suspected so. I’m hesitating on continuing further without guidance and breaking things beyond repair.”

“That’s a wise choice!” Julya said from across the room. “Some should maybe consider doing the same…”

Norran cleared his throat. “Well… I have never been much of a ‘repair’ guy… When it comes to the Arcanic Arts, I am more versed in research and only fabricate stuff on the side. Those require an entirely different set of skills, you know… Anyway, have you categorized the faults?”

It was what Isyd had been doing for the past weeks since he’d begun working on his palcat more seriously. He’d learned that the [Arcanes] could break for various reasons depending on what kinds of faults were present. This was mainly due to the Law of Decay, the 2nd Law of the Arts that made the [Arcanes] unstable in the long term. The most common type of fault – the Primary type – was the physical decay of the material on which the [Arcanes] was applied. Was it paper, stone or steel, it would weather, crumble or rust all the same due to the Holy Grace flowing through it forcefully. The Secondary type was a direct consequence of the Primary types and was characterized by a deterioration of the drawn Commands, causing a gradual worsening of the Balance until the [Spell] ceased to function. The Primary and Secondary faults are the most common ones and usually the causes for an [Arcane] failure. There exist however Tertiary and Quaternary types of faults, though they are rarer and less understood. The Tertiary faults are faults within the [Arcanes] where the Grace encounters unexpected, heightened resistance to its flow, whereas the Quaternary types are points of diminished resistance. Both types are never cause for an [Arcane] breaking but they can make it act erratically. All types of faults were detected by the VonSee Diagram which, when adjusted slightly, can also be used to categorise them by running experiments and measuring the flow of the Grace within the [Arcane]. Being able to hear the Song of the Grace also happened to be quite an advantage in that endeavour, but Isyd kept that for himself.

“I found the majority to be Secondary type,” Isyd said, looking down at his notes. “There are a couple of Primary faults in the 1st and 2nd Openings, but they aren’t critical since it's Resswood and it was Tempered.”

“Well, it is a blessing in one sense, but don’t count yourself lucky because it will make the rest much more difficult,” Norran said. “Secondary faults are notoriously a pain to repair because you will have to redraw all the Commands affected by hands. It’s okay when the [Arcane] you have is composed of one or two [Hexes], but yours seems to have closer to half a thousand. This is why nobody bothers repairing [Lightspheres] and just buy new ones when they break. You don’t happen to have the Balance schematic of the staff, do you?”

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Isyd shook his head and Norran winced.

“Well, this means that you have to painstakingly decipher all the individual [Spells] that compose the [Arcanes], to fully deconstruct the Logic and the Balance so that you can better understand all the Commands and redraw them accordingly. Grace, that’s the reason why every [Arcane] should come with the Balance schematic and why we took so long to build it for the [Ingracing] and [Outgracing Hex] of the Blysht! Without it, the next Arcanyst coming along is basically going in blind!”

Norran put a consoling hand on Isyd’s shoulder. Julya had approached in the meantime and glanced at the palcat. Her expression was contrite when she spoke.

“This will probably take a while and will be quite difficult. Maybe you should consider an easier project to begin with, Isyd. This is not something someone beginning the Arcanic Arts should tackle…”

“I mean, it’s not like he is alone,” Norran said. “If there’s one place where you can hope it to be done, it’s here in the Atelier. You’ll definitely receive help. Have you ever used a [Syphon] before?”

“Isn’t it an [Arcane]? I’ve seen it around…”

“Yes, it is used when repairing other [Arcanes]. You’re familiar with sink points, right? Well, a [Syphon] allow you to introduce them while you work on the different levels of your Meshing. It is practical because you don’t need to introduce new sink points every time you reach a new Opening and it safely absorbs the Grace away. It allows you to repair the [Arcanes] as they remain in stasis and observe in real-time the effects of your modifications. Accessorily, it also prevents the [Arcanes] from blowing in your faces if something goes wrong…”

“They are expensive pieces of equipment,” Julya added. “I’ve only used one in my life, but I’ve seen a couple around here in the Atelier. You’ll definitely have to learn to use the [Syphons] if you want to repair your palcat.”

“Which is not a subject of the Arcanic Arts until the 3rd Year!” a voice railed.

The three of them turned to see Dmitri Ivanovitch Hidrss, the Master of the Arcanic Arts, standing on the doorstep of the room. As usual, he had discarded his uniform of Tutor for a more comfortable but messy attire. On his toes followed a young kid, one of those errand boys who worked for the Consultation Office.

“You are too much in a hurry, Isyd!” Hidrss said. “You should have joined the Atelier if you were this passionate about the Arcanic Arts!”

“My focus is more on repairing my palcat,” Isyd shrugged. “The Arcanic Arts are just the means to that end, to be honest.”

“Hearing you speak, it’s hard to believe you’re the one who broke through the Blysht…” Hidrss sighed. “If you wanted to learn about the [Syphons], you should have dropped by my office yesterday! I was using one while working on the lift!”

“I thought you had given up on that project…”

Since his trip to the Capital, Hidrss had been enamoured with the idea of making a floating platform.

“Giving up? Never!” Hidrss exclaimed. He pointed to the ceiling where a metal circular plate was floating. Isyd had noticed it earlier but hadn’t bothered to examine it further. “This is one of my latest experiments. It’s been up there for… 17 hours now – it’s a new record! What do you think?”

Isyd opened his mouth to answer, but the young boy who had remained at the doorstep cleared his throat.

“Er… Tutor…” he squeaked.

Hidrss turned to him surprised. Supposedly, he’d entirely forgotten about the errand boy. Case in point, he smacked his head with the palm of his hand.

“Oh, yeah! Sorry! I had forgotten… Wybrany! I am here for a reason! The boy was looking for you at the entrance of the Atelier!”

“What’s happening?” Isyd asked intrigued.

He was answered by a mysterious look from Hidrss.

“The Doyen…” he said. “The Doyen wants to meet you, Isyd!”