The next day, when everyone assembled for lessons, there were two additions on the stage with Father: a man whom we had never seen before, and what seemed to be a movable furnace. The man had blackened hands, large fingers, and several visible burns on his arms. His build was thick, as was his beard.
When everyone had taken their place, the big man’s face took on a confused expression. Seeing this, Father whispered something in his ear and understanding replaced his perplexed expression. The man walked over to the furnace, lit it, and began working the bellows.
Father then began the day’s lesson. “This is Cletus,” he introduced. “He is Sofia’s Master Smith, and he has agreed to provide a demonstration of the efficacy of amulets.”
After a few minutes, the fire was great enough for us all to feel the heat from it despite our distance in the stands. This seemed to satisfy Cletus, who ceased working the bellows and produced a necklace: a sapphire housed in silver with a heavy leather cord. Cletus put this around his neck, then stuck his hand into the fire while watching the students.
The hall erupted into chaos as everyone except Father shouted in shock and fright. Some of the bigger boys left their stands, as if prepared to help the big man. Then Cletus began to laugh, hard; he almost fell to the ground, but managed to catch himself with his other hand on the burning furnace. Father tried to remain stoic, but he was clearly barely suppressing his own laughter. After the initial scare had worn off, everyone gradually calmed down and those who had moved returned to their stands.
Cletus removed his hand from the fire and held it up for us to see that it was entirely unharmed. Then he took a copper rod and placed it in the fire.
“Who would like to give it a try?” Father asked the class.
There was a long pause before Luke said, “I would, sir.”
At a gesture from Father, Luke left his stand and joined him and Cletus on the stage. Cletus handed Luke the amulet. The lad put it on, closed his eyes briefly as if finding his courage, then opened them as he plunged his hand into the fire.
Luke exhaled and chuckled, his face relieved, saying, “I can definitely feel the heat, but it’s bearable.”
There was a shriek from behind us. Everyone turned to look for the source; it was my younger sister, Rhea.
“Please excuse my daughter,” Father apologized to the class. “She must have heard the commotion and come to investigate.” Then to Rhea, he said, “Go back to Mom, sweetie – everything is fine here.” To bring everyone back to the matter at hand, he added, “Would anyone else like to try?”
At this, Gregory and Evander raised their hands simultaneously.
“Evander,” chose Father, after some consideration.
Evander left his stand and made his way to the stage. Luke handed him the amulet and took several steps back from the furnace, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Evander placed the amulet around his neck and inched his hand towards the fire with great trepidation. When Evander’s hand finally reached the flame, he let out a huge sigh of relief.
At this, Gregory spoke up, clearly exasperated. “Why are you two being so cowardly about this?” he demanded. “Cletus’s demonstration already showed that fire can’t harm you with that amulet.”
“Oh please,” Evander shot back. “You were just as frightened when Cletus stuck his hand in.”
In response, Gregory approached the stage without asking for permission. “I never said otherwise,” he said loudly. “I said that once the information was provided, there was no need to fear.” Gregory was on the stage now. He shoved Evander, who was now covered in sweat, away from the furnace, taking the amulet from him. Placing it around his neck, he stuck his hand in the fire before Evander could react.
Gregory capped off his display with, “Grow a pair would you.”
“I never noticed how much taller Gregory is than Evander,” said Id.
“That’s what you got from that?” I asked her.
“I like tall men,” responded Id.
“Didn’t you see how mean he was to Evander?” sighed Eth, clearly exasperated.
“I saw how he took charge,” countered Id.
“All right, you three back to your places,” Father commanded. “Is there anyone else who like to try?” I raised my hand.
“Are you insane?” asked Id.
“We just witnessed the amulet’s protective power four times,” I reasoned.
“So why the need for a fifth? Something could go wrong,” Id warned.
“Luke and Evander were both sweating. Why was that?” I asked her, voicing my curiosity.
“Because they were near a fire?” answered Eth.
“But the amulet supposedly protects from fire, and therefore heat,” I pointed out. “They shouldn’t be sweating.”
I reached the stage and put on the amulet. Immediately, the heat from the nearby fire was replaced with a different kind; it felt as though I had suddenly put on several layers of clothing. I stuck my hand in the fire, to Id’s fright. Indeed, the sensation was just below burning, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know. Pulling my hand out, I ran off the stage, holding a finger up to hush Father’s questioning. I ran to a corner of the room, far away from the fire. The heat continued to build, and I broke out in a sweat.
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“Philena?” Father asked.
Walking back to the stage, I explained, “I noticed that both Luke and Evander were sweating despite the fact that the amulet is supposed to protect from fire. So, I ran over here to make sure I was right that the fire wasn’t responsible for the sweating.” I held up the amulet. “This amulet, it doesn’t protect from fire or burning. Well, it does do that. but more specifically it prevents heat from moving, right? At least, that’s the best explanation I have for both phenomena.” I handed Cletus his amulet back.
“That is precisely what it does,” answered Cletus.
“How do you stand it for any length of time?” I asked.
“I don’t use it very often,” answered Cletus. “I use tools like any other Smith, but I do have a barrel of water that I dunk my head into after I use the amulet.”
“But then, what use is it?” I questioned.
“Once I get whatever I’m working on in the general shape I want it, I put on the amulet so I can make very fine adjustments with my own hands directly,” Cletus said.
To demonstrate his point, he put on the amulet and drew the copper out of the furnace. He tore off the hot part of the rod, then molded it into a knot as one would a rope.
“I can’t do that with a hammer,” he added. He then held out the copper knot for me to take. My hand was halfway to it when Cletus yanked the rod back and raised his eyebrows at me.
I hit my self in the forehead. “Right,” I agreed. “It’s still hot.”
“Alright Cletus, that’s enough joking around,” Father intervened. “Thank you for your demonstration.”
“Very well, Aristocles,” said Cletus, understanding he was being dismissed. He extinguished the forge fire and left with it as I returned to my place in the stands.
“Now that you have been shown the potential of Nomos,” Father announced, gaining the class’s attention again, “we may begin actually learning it. The first truth you must grasp is that the world is governed by laws, much like the laws us mortals make to govern ourselves. Unlike our laws though these universal laws cannot be broken. However, like our laws, these laws can be changed with an appropriate price.”
“So, you’re saying that we can bribe reality?” asked Luke. “Don’t the four Forces govern reality?”
“It does not appear so,” Father said. “Indeed, there seems to be some principle that is greater than the Forces.” He shook his head. “I suppose, in a way, we do bribe reality, but gold doesn’t seem to work very well. Instead, most effective payment for changing laws is blood. We aren’t entirely sure why, but I suspect it is due to the inherent value of life.”
“But how do we pay reality?” asked Eros.
To answer, Father put his hands together. “I believe the Laws of this world to be unjust,” he said. When he separated his hands, a scroll appeared, generating a collective intake of breath from the class. He unrolled it for us to see.
“I can’t tell what’s written on it,” said Gregory.
“I think I understand what one of them is, but I’m not sure,” Evander added.
On the scroll were lines of symbols; for the most part they were incomprehensible.
“I can read the one about gravity, but that’s it,” said Id.
“I can’t read that one, but I can the one about heat. How about you Eth – can you read any?” I asked.
“There’s one about collisions,” Eth answered.
“Really?” I said aloud. “I can read a few, clear as day.”
Father stepped off the stage to stand next to me. “Which ones can you read?” he asked, holding them out.
“Well, this one here about Gravity,” I said, pointing to the fourth line from the top.
“What does it say?” asked Father seeming eager at my revelation.
“Can you not read it?” I asked.
“No,” he admitted, “but you can?”
“It says, ‘The strength of Gravity shall be determined by the product of the two masses and an incredibly small number,’” I told him, deciphering the scroll. “‘This strength shall decay by the product of the distance and itself.’”
Father paused, studying the scroll, before saying, “Ah, I see it now.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“These are a list of the laws governing reality, but they are incoherent if you don’t truly understand them,” Father explained. “When you teach me your understanding of Gravity, it allows me to read the law governing Gravity.”
“So we can increase the strength of Gravity,” I realized.
Father paused for moment before replying, “Perhaps, but I suspect not.”
“Why not?” I asked, echoing Id and Eth in my head.
“We have discovered a trend,” Father explained, “where the higher on this list a law is, the more expensive it is to change. Most of the amulets that have been made were created by changing laws around here.” He pointed to the law governing the transfer of heat, twenty lines down from Gravity.
“How much blood did it take to make Cletus’s amulet?” I asked.
“Around an ounce and a half,” Father told the class.
“Can we see how much that will pay for gravity?” I requested.
“Very well,” said Father. “Follow me on stage so we can make this a demonstration.”
Once on stage, Father brought forward several items on a table. He laid his Nomos scroll down next to them and instructed me to hold my arm over it. Then he brought out a small, bronze knife which he used to cut a vein on the inner part of my elbow, to Id’s protest. The blood flowed into a measuring cup in Father’s hand, and he instructed me to repeatedly clench my fist to increase the blood flow. When the cup was filled to between the one and two ounce line, he placed it back on the table and brought out a bandage to wrap my arm.
After tying off my bandage, he then took the cup of blood and poured it onto the Nomos scroll, which disappeared on contact with it. Father picked up a new necklace with his left hand; it was a humble thing, just a lump of lead and string. With his right, he placed his index finger on the Gravity line and slowly moved it to the right while speaking, “Whosoever wears this amulet shall have the strength of Gravity increased.”
As his finger passed over the page, the symbols changed to reflect what he said. Father placed the newly-made amulet around his neck, and the law regarding Gravity had a new, incredibly small, number.
Father sighed. “I thought as much,” he said. “With that much blood, we were only able to increase the strength of Gravity by a ratio of five to one hundred million.”
“By the weight of Earth, Gravity is expensive,” exclaimed Luke.
“I had hoped that increasing Gravity was within the realm of possibility, but it isn’t.” said Father.
“What other laws do we know about?” asked Evander.
Father Dad answered, “There’s the law of Heat, obviously. We also know the laws governing Leverage, Friction, and Movement, but that’s about it.”
“So, Humanity collectively knows a total of four laws, or rather five with the addition of Gravity,” said a disappointed Evander.
“Like I said yesterday, Nomos was only discovered thirty-five years ago,” Father said. “So we don’t know many laws by consequence, but I believe everyone here will agree with me that Nomos has great potential to it. We’ve only scratched the surface, and already we can be made immune to fire.”
“How do we summon the scroll?” I asked.
“Only two things are required: the knowledge of at least one law and the intent to change it,” Father answered.
I focused on changing the law of Collisions, but nothing happened. Then I focused on changing the law of Heat, and the scroll appeared in my hand.
“While it may appear to be parchment, it isn’t,” Father said. “Try pulling it apart.”
I tried, but instead of tearing apart the scroll just got bigger. I then tried crushing it; the scroll shrank until it disappeared. The rest of the class was spent learning the law of Heat and the consequences of making different changes to it.