CHAPTER 69: RUNOLOGY

Much to his annoyance, it took the pair a few minutes to cease their chuckles. Even so, their faces remained annoyingly smug as they stared at him, barely holding back more laughter.

“Mesmerism, huh?” Myrin spoke as if he was trying to be serious again. “That sounds very rare. I’ve read countless encyclopedias on what is possible when it comes to affinities, and yet I’ve never heard of this one.”

“I’ve heard of similar ones, like the Deception or Camouflage affinities.” Tina added. “But yes, Mesmerism seems to be entirely new. You’ll most likely find no leads to go off on, which means you’ll need to research it all on your own… I know Cassia said it should be easier with the abilities your Soul Weapon grants you, but easier by how much… I am not sure.”

Myrin nodded. “Magi Scholars take a long time to even finalize one Spellform when they first start out. This is because you’ll need to first uncover the material runes you’ll need to use in conjecture with that affinity.”

“And how would I be able to do that?” Soren asked.

Myrin frowned before answering, “Runology.”

“Runology?” From what he remembered, Runology had a lot to do with divination techniques. The items he had seen in that store during their visit to Yadria were all listed under the Runology section of his Soul Weapon’s database.

“Yes, Runology,” Myrin affirmed. “Your initial introduction to it was with me using a Flower Divination technique, correct?”

Soren nodded.

“You see,” he followed, “Runolog, in its infancy, was far from the structured discipline we know it as today. Its beginnings were much more humble—rudimentary, even. As you know, material runes, the foundational elements of magecraft, weren’t things that could simply be discovered through logical approaches. The symbols we now accept as standard in the Scripted Runic system were far more archaic back then. Early magi scholars would either compile random symbols, hoping for a breakthrough, or meticulously study existing material runes to infer what others may look like.

“Obviously, with such a chaotic approach, the consequences would be very dire—lethal, even. The magecraft these early scholars dabbled in was almost always volatile and prone to failure. During experiments, you’d consider yourself fortunate if your spellform merely failed without at least taking an arm or a life with it.”

Tina nodded in agreement, “I believe I heard somewhere that every material rune they discovered would take around ten thousand experiments—many of them were deadly.”

The more he heard, the more terrifying it sounded. The fact that magi had to simply try different combinations and use what works and discard what didn’t when the effects it could have were this horrible made him realize just how blessed he really was.

All that knowledge I read about yesterday… How many lives were spent gathering it? Before he could ponder it further, Myrin spoke again.

“Soren, do you know where Material Runes come from?”

“Yes,” he replied. “From the Beyond. Material Runes—and Scripted Runic in general—are simply the language we use to interpret how the Beyond represents the natural world. If for example we wanted to know how this table was made, the Beyond would have its representation of that table constructed from Material Runes…

“However,” he continued, “we, as mortals, cannot perceive this knowledge directly or instantly. It's just too inconceivable or incomprehensible to us.”

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Not for me, however, Soren wanted to add.

When he read this information yesterday, it finally made sense to him how [Eyes of the Fairy] worked. It was simply reading what these representations were fundamentally—the Material Runes that make up the unseen he focuses on the most. His ability allows him to process these Material Runes in a way for his mind to understand them. Essentially, it was nothing more than an advanced translator.

Myrin nodded at his explanation. “Indeed. Material Runes are simply our way of understanding how the Beyond ‘represents’ the world. Scripted Runic, in essence, is the language of the Beyond itself. And as you know, these Material Runes—aside from the Material Runes of Reason—lack a common structure. For instance, one Material Rune could represent this entire room, or it could be a combination of several runes representing the furniture, walls, and other elements. There is no discernible pattern to it, no logic that we can recognize.

“Sadly, the ancient magi scholars didn’t understand this. They believed nature adhered to a pattern, that order existed. But in truth, the Beyond, by its very essence, is chaos.”

He took a sip from his coffee before continuing. “Everything changed, however, at the end of the First Age of Fantasia. Scholars today debate whether this revelation was discovered or created, but deep within the Beyond—in the uppermost reaches of the so-called ‘Towers of Heaven’—there exists a stone tablet. And when I say large, I mean large enough to eclipse the sun.

“This tablet is something we scholars call, The Records of Enigma and it houses a list of every conceivable material rune that has ever been discovered by humanity and the other races.”

The more he heard, the more inconceivable it sounded… “So this tablet… How does it have to do with Runology?”

Myrin smiled knowingly and gave a small nod, “Good question. This tablet is absolutely essential to magi scholars like yourself. You’ll need it not only to document new discoveries regarding Material Runes and their various axioms but also as a tool for discovering new ones. The knowledge it holds spans back to the very first Age of Fantasia and is widely available to all magi with a Soul Realm—provided you can visit the tablet and request its wisdom.

“But that’s not all. This tablet also plays a crucial role in Runology’s evolution. You see, Runology requires a conduit—a kind of beacon to attach to when seeking answers during the divination process. My Flower Divination, for instance, relies on my connection to the Flower Maiden, Praise the Blossoms. As you’re aware, the Beyond is not a very structured place—it is very archaic by its nature and tends to change on its own as time passes by. But it also seems to hold information about both the present, the past, and the future all at the same moment. It is very paradoxical by its very nature. Without a conduit, finding the answer to what you are seeking would be akin to sifting through sand dunes to find a follicle of hair.”

Soren rubbed his chin as he thought about what Myrin was trying to say. “Are you basically implying that this tablet acts as a conduit or medium?”

“Exactly! Each conduit has its own methods of divination. The Flower Maiden, for example, offers several methods, with Flower Divination being just one. When Runology first began, however, the tablet was the only known conduit for magi. The gods were yet to awaken during that age.

“There’s another important detail,” he followed. “Conduits have strict requirements for their use. You cannot perform divination on a conduit about something unrelated to it. For the tablet—known to scholars as The Records of Enigma—the requirement was simple: the divination had to be related to runes. And thus, the study of Runology was born.”

Soren frowned as he began to process what Myrin was telling him. “So basically, if I want to compile my own grimoire and discover the material runes associated with my affinity, I will need to commune with this tablet? There’s no easier way?”

“Yes.” Myrin nodded while Tina who had stayed silent for the explanation scoffed, “This is why us Sentinels are better. We don’t need to do any of this. The moment you discover your affinity, all you really need to do is manipulate the raw anima associated with it.”

Myrin shrugged, “Our last scuffle says otherwise.” He said smugly and Tina snorted in response. “Don’t mention that time, ugh! I got distracted and you took advantage of it!”

As they bickered, Soren began pondering what to do next. Obviously, he still needed to do his reading, but now he also had to figure out how to commune with this tablet to obtain some material runes and create his first Spellform. There was a lot of work to do, but he felt very excited.

“I wouldn’t advise you to do that,” Myrin said while reading his thoughts.

Soren frowned, “What do you mean? What’s the point of me going through all of this if you won’t allow me to begin compiling my grimoire?”

“Myrin is right,” Tina added. “Your Soul Realm is still too unstable to commune with the tablet through divination.”