CHAPTER 7 - RUNES

After general Harlow sent someone it informed us that he would not be able to teach us about battle tactics tonight as well as for the foreseeable future as Claude had sent him to be an observer in the war between our neighbour the Dukedom of Zenith and the intelligent monsters that had banded together in the tens of thousands under a vampire lord and intend to wipe out all life in Zenith.

I hope that the situation is resolved quickly as vampire lords are different from the normal vampires that have many weaknesses, vampire lords don’t. Normal vampires are also unable to have children or multiply hence they are easy to handle, but vampire lords can procreate with both normal vampires and vampire lords creating more vampire lords that are extremely loyal to the original vampire lord.

My friend decided to go home and inform their families about their future plains said their fair well. Seeing as it was only a few weeks until the new school year started for the academy and there wouldn’t be any more training sessions, we agreed to meet at the academy in the new school year.

Feeling that there was no use continuing to think about the complex issues I had no control over I looked at the pile of presents that I had received yesterday. Thinking that I should start seeing sporting them and seeing what was inside just in case there were any perishable items.

I decide to open the ones given to me by Claude and Ingrid first as it was the one placed on top of the pile and the one with the smallest box. Opening it I found a pair of silver bracelets with intricate motifs of flowers and a small note. The note explained that they were magic accessories that could change into a spear and a shield on command. The one with the Lilium longiflorum could form the spear and the one with anthurium could form a shield. Putting them on I started admiring them by the magic lamp. The gift showed the personalities of both Claude and Ingrid, the practicality of the gift probably came from Claude and the unobtrusive and simple but intricate design and nature of the bracelet made it a perfect gift for me. Looking at the back of the note it told of the maintenance needed by the magical accessory was minimal all I had to do was pour mana into them. Even if the sword or shield completely broke I just needed to pour magic into the bracelets until repair itself after a few days.

Moving on to the next gift, I decided to go with the one from my friends. Which came in a much larger box compared to Claude and Ingrid’s gift. Opening the box, I found a flowering pot plant inside. Reading the note that came with it I found out that it was a serenity flower plant. Having it placed by your bedside would help you sleep better at night and wake up refreshed. Having one of the maids place it by my nightstand I continued to look through the gifts.

I don’t remember when but as I was sorting the gifts, I eventually fell asleep. All I remember was that Erika carrying me to my bed. Unsurprisingly, with the serenity flower beside my bed, I had a great night's rest and even woke up early without Erika waking me up.

Being free and unsure about what to do after my unusual training routine I decided to check on Skoll and Hati. Like always these two playful puppies covered in leaves looked nothing like the proud mother sky wolfs. Talking with the young maid that looked after them, I learnt that recently they liked to run into the piles of leaves that the gardeners kept for compost.

Seeing them about to do it again I scolded them causing their ears to flop down and make whimpering sounds. They tried to suck up to me by rubbing against my leg.

The maid commented on how it was unusual for beasts to be so obedient to their uncontracted owner. She asked me why I hadn’t contracted them yet. I told her that I would but just hadn’t had the opportunity to. She told me that I should do it soon because as soon as they develop their ability to fly nothing was stopping them from leaving.

Not having realised that they would soon develop their ability to fly I decide that I would contract them today. I had originally wanted to contract them immediately when they were young but had put it off for a few years because I felt like it wasn’t right to do it without their consent. Thus, I had put it off for years. Now that they could understand words to an extent, I decided that it was finally time to ask them. Knelling down on the ground I scratched Skoll and Hati chins.

“Skoll, Hati can you listen to me seriously. I know you two are smart and can understand me. I want to contract you so that I can summon you both wherever I am. Nothing will change only that we would be able to communicate more easily. I won’t force you into the contract and you can continue to live here even if you decline. So will you agree to the contract?”

With a nod and a small woof, they agreed to me.

“Great I’ll do the contract now.”

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Standing up I brushed off my skirt and asked the maid to help clean the leaves off their fur wanting to complete the contract while they were clean. Once they were clean, I decided to start the process.

I was a bit nervous as I had never been able to succeed in contracting any beasts, but I was sure today was different. I was sure of it. Different from my six-year-old self that was both immature and possessed little mana. While I wasn’t the best at using different elemental magic, I had great control over my mana that had greatly increase over the years. While magic and mana have been around for far longer than humans could remember we still had little knowledge regarding it.

Even the spell used to contract the magic beast that has been around for thousands of years, still little is known about it. Not the parameters that may affect the spell or the amount of mana needed. As I had perfect control over my mana from a young age it wouldn’t surprise me if the reason why I had constantly failed to successfully contract a magic beast was because of my low mana. If that was the case, I wondered why mages never found out maybe they did know but didn’t want to share.

Placing my hand on both Skoll and Hati’s heads I started to channel the spell into their though my hand into their head. Unlike previous occasions, silver runes started to form around my skin all around my body indicating that the spell was working. Those runes grew denser and more started to shift around gathered on my arm than travelled to Skoll and Hati’s heads where they multiplied again appearing all over our body. With a flash, they disappeared only leaving one silver rune on Skoll and Hati’s head.

Inspecting the silver rune on their head I was amazed as I had learnt that humans could only create runes are usually red, green, blue, and black never gold or silver which signified divinity.

Shocked to find that I could produce silver runes, Erika quickly recovered order those present to never talk of this incident until further notice. They all agreed.

Taking my hand, we went to find my brother bringing along Skoll and Hati. Finding Claude and Ingrid were both in their office talking seriously about the incident in Zenith they stopped when Erika and I barged in. Seeing how serious Erika was, Ingrid had Gil and Alec close the door to the office.

Once the door was closed Erika narrated the whole incident about how I had finally decided to perform the contract with Skoll and Hati as well as the silver runes that appeared. Claude and Ingrid were amazed as they walked up to Skoll and Hati examining the runes. Ingrid who as an adventurer was highly proficient in the runic language indicated that these were not normal contract runes.

Grabbing a piece of paper and pen from Clause’s desk she drew out a rune and followed on to explain.

“This is what a normal contract rune should look like. It means contract in the magic language. But it's not the same as the rune on Skoll and Hati’s head. If my guess is correct, they look like divine runes that the gods and spirits use specifically female deities and spirits. In my travel of the tower of gods, I had the opportunity to witness a Dryad punishing some adventures for littering rubbish around her tree. The runes she cast were also silver, male deities can only produce runes. But I have no idea what they mean. No human has been ever capable of physically writing out divine runes before. You can recognise that they are divine runes but not ever write them out as person for would always forget what about the rune when they try to copy it.”

Back where we started all we could do was sit in silence. Not understanding the issue with me being able to create divine runes I look at the adults present that were deep in thought. Claude as if having thought of something rushed out of his office saying he would be going to get something and would be back soon.

We could only wait for his return as Ingrid brought me over to the couch to have a seat as she rubbed my head. It was greatly soothing, and I lend into her hands. Within a few minutes, Claude returned with a large wooden chest that was the size of Skoll and Hati. Placing it down on the table before me with a grunt I knew the chest must be heavy.

“In her dying moment, mother instructed me to give this to you on your coming-of-age ceremony. As a priestess of Karla if anyone knows why you can use divine runes she would. However, now that she has gone this may be our only clue left. I’ve tried opening this box before, but I could never open it.”

Demonstrating what he meant by being unable to open it Claude tried to undo the clasp on the chest but had little success despite using his whole strength.

“I think it may be because it not being intended for my eye so it won’t open for me, but mother left it for you so it would only make sense for you to be able to open it.”

Thinking about what Claude said made sense, but the expectation that I would be able to open the chest only increased the pressure.

Psyching myself up I placed my hand onto the clasp that Claude couldn’t undo. With a gentle pull from my finger, the clasp undid itself. Unknowingly I had been holding my breath now that I could undo the clasp, I finally let out a sigh.

I could run around the palace walls easily in heavy armour but undoing a small clasp had completely drained me.

I wonder what mother had left me that required such a mechanism that only I could open. Not even my brother could open it. I thought of countless possibilities, but I had no idea what could be inside the chest. Unlike Claude who was sixteen when our parents passed away, I was not even a year old. I had no recollection of either of my parents. Everything I knew about them was from other people.

Breaking away from my thoughts I once again brought my hands to the chest. Determined to open the chest in one go, I closed my eyes and lifted the lid. Unlike what I expected no runes were bursting out of the chest, no blinding lights nothing it seemed to be just a normal chest.

As if to deny my thought my head started to throb and pulsate like I was being stomped on by a gang of elephants. Clutching my head, the pain was increasing with every throb. Soon I couldn’t bear the pain anymore and blacked out.