The Runic Artist

Nate walked into the lecture hall and sat down near the front. The room was barely filled, which he supposed he had been warned about. There weren’t that many people who attended the University with the intention of going down an Enchanting path. The lower grades might have had a few more merchants, who were learning enough to tell the difference between good work and shoddy work, but the Advanced grade was basically for those who were serious about their Enchanting.

He was clearly one of those people, as he had been waiting for this subject to start for over two weeks. By now he’d had at least two lectures or practises for every other subject. In the case of Art it had just been exposure to the available facilities and a lecture showing off existing artwork that had been completed and donated to the University to illustrate various styles. He’d never had any formal training so it was hard to comment on the styles, but they were definitely less out there than he had expected. The paintings had been mostly landscapes and portraits, much like he’d seen at the induction tests. He had wondered if that was just a function of aesthetic choice by the Nobility. Excluding some rare merchants, they were the wealthy of Etrua and therefore their tastes and opinions influenced art and fashion. Or maybe they just weren’t focused enough on art to experiment. It made him wonder if he should get a bit weird with one of his pieces. Maybe his graffiti?

He glanced up as the door opened. The man who strode in, which he was guessing was the Professor, looked to be in his late fifties, with black hair going grey, a sharp and angular face and the darkest eyes of anyone he’d seen so far. The black and grey robe the man wore made him look like some dark mage who just needed a witches hat on to complete the ensemble. Maybe with an accompanying sneer? The mental image made him smile and gave him an idea for later.

“Good morning. I am Professor Jourdie and I serve as assistant to the Head of the Crafting Department at the University. In case that wasn’t clear enough, it means I have an extensive range of Crafting skills, so I can tell when someone knows what they’re doing, and when they’re skating through by cobbling together junk that gives off the appearance of enchanting. That brings me to my first question, which one of you is Nate?”

What the fuck, thought Nate as he raised his hand. This Professor clearly had an axe to grind. Was it because of his ‘Enchanting’ creation for the induction exam? He thought it had been a close enough approximation for how Enchanters created their enchantments. Apparently not for Professor Jourdie, as the man approached his desk and placed a gem on the table in front of him.

“Imbue this gem with a water sigil. I don’t care about the quality. I just want you to prove to me you do in fact have the Skill of an Enchanter. The Skill, people,” he continued, raising his voice for the rest of the classroom.

Nate looked down at the gem for a couple of seconds. He could engrave the sigil into the gem, but that wasn’t what the Professor was asking. He was asking to imbue the gem. He could probably also achieve the same outcome with Conceptual Material. That one was a bit more questionable. The Enchanter’s intent is what lingered when they used their Imbue Sigil skill. It kept that intent even when it was ground down into gem dust. He wasn’t certain he could do the same with Conceptual Material. He’d never tested how well a material retained its affinity when destroyed. A future experiment perhaps. So he could maybe pass the Professor’s test, but it would mean using Conceptual Material. If anyone in the classroom figured out what he was doing with some sort of sensory Skill or Spell, that could be the end for him. He would probably end up kidnapped, stuffed in a box and used as a workhorse to produce materials with affinities. That made his choice easy.

“I can’t,” he said, keeping his voice firm.

“As I thought,” sneered Professor Jourdie. “Get out of my classroom. Go have your subject changed to something else. Or don’t. Just get out of my sight.”

Scooping up his notepad he walked out of the room, trying to contain his anger and not give the Professor the rise he so desperately wanted. Walking into the corridor he saw there was another student waiting there. The man was casually leaning up against the wall, pale skin framed by bright red hair and a black, white and red suit-like outfit.

“Kicked out of the Enchanting subject? What a shame, don’t you think?” asked the red-headed man, a smug smile on his lips.

Nate narrowed his eyes, “Do I know you?”

The smug smile transformed into a thin angry line as the man's blue eyes flashed in irritation.

“Fabien Lussier,” the noble stated confidently.

Nate just stared at him blankly, “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“My Father is the Earl of Dralogne,” answered Fabien, the man's eyes searching Nate’s for a reaction.

“Okay. And I should care…why?” Nate asked, intentionally trying to get a rise out of the noble.

Fabien instead glared at him and started walking off, before calling over his shoulder, “Enjoy not getting to study Enchanting, and a shame about your room. I guess there are just some people you really shouldn’t offend.”

Nate stood outside the classroom, watching the redheaded noble walk away and keeping his seething off of his face. It was nice to finally put a face to the person who torched his room, or had someone do it. It seemed they weren’t done fucking with him though. They were about to learn why that was a truly terrible idea. Revenge might feel good, but that wasn’t going to solve his immediate problem. A lack of Enchanting lectures and the sigils that came with them. Professor Jourdie had mentioned they were an assistant to the Head of the Crafting Department. Perhaps he could appeal to him. Pulling out his unigem it took him a minute to get the directions he needed. Marching off towards the Head of Department’s office in the main building, he noticed he was stomping his feet as he walked. Thinking through his plans he calmed himself down slowly. He’d get his revenge and it would be so sweet to watch. Childish, but sweet.

Walking into the reception area for the office he was after he saw what looked like a Professor muttering as they left. The fact that they were a Professor wasn’t what drew his attention though. It was the boots and coat he wore. Divine Translation instantly let him recognise the Sigils involved in both as they were runecrafted into them.

Clean Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Gentle Sigil (Quality: Novice)

The receptionist, a young woman, looked up at him, “Do you have an appointment?”

Nate glanced at her, then at the retreating form of what he suspected was a Professor. He made a snap decision.

“Sorry, think I got lost,” he called back to the receptionist as he turned on his heel and followed the rogue Professor out of the office.

At first he used his regular sphere of awareness to follow the Professor, but when he didn’t react to it he dropped back further and used his farsight sphere of awareness, maintaining it near the Professor. The man walked across the University grounds, back into the four storey building that had housed his Enchanting lecture. That had been on the second floor of the building but the Professor continued up to the fourth floor before vanishing into a room that was clearly heavily veiled. Nate followed up the stairs, heading for the door the man had vanished into. He raised his hand to knock when the door was yanked open. The Professor stood on the other side, holding what looked like a wand pointed at him.

“Why are you following me?” the man growled.

While Nate considered his response he got his first chance to take the man in. Where Professor Jourdie had been thin, all sharp angles, and only just starting to show his age, however old that was, this man was clearly younger. Early forties was Nate’s guess. Or at least that was how old he looked. Who knew how old he actually was. The man had plain features, brown eyes, blond hair, and was maybe a little overweight under his dark green robes.

“I wanted to ask you about your runecrafted items,” Nate asked, deciding the best method to get what he wanted here was by being forthright.

The Professors glared at him, “Come to make fun of me for giving away my knowledge for free have you? Which noble’s brat are you?”

Nate shook his head, “Not a noble. I’m a member of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

That comment seemed to jolt the Professor out of whatever issue he seemed to have and he finally lowered the wand. Nate however didn’t drop his barrier. If he was going to get attacked, he intended to be prepared for it. Casting his sphere over the wand told him it was using a Sigil he hadn’t considered before.

Flame Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

“How is Flame different to Fire?” he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

“What?” asked the Professor, confusion writ on his face. “What are you talking about?”

“Your wand,” he explained. “It’s using a Flame Sigil. How does it differ from a Fire Sigil?”

The Professor shook his head, “No, no. It’s a Sigil for Fire I have embedded in this wand. Wait a moment, how are you checking my sigil usage? I concealed it inside the metal core of the wand!”

Nate just looked at the Professor in confusion. Carefully taking out his notepad so as not to startle the Professor, he drew the Sigil he could sense in the rune within the wand. The rune didn’t look very complicated to him, and contained only the one Sigil, which made him suspect the Professor must have some way of controlling the direction or shape of the powered rune. It made him want to use his sphere of awareness to pierce the Professor’s veil and see his Classes, but he suspected such an action was unlikely to endear him to the man. Finishing the Sigil he turned the notepad to face the Professor.

“This is an Apprentice quality Sigil for Flame. It’s also what you’re using in your rune inside of the wand. A simplistic rune, if I am being honest,” he added.

The Professor snatched his notebook off him and looked at the Sigil he’d drawn. He appreciated that the man didn’t try and flip to other pages, before handing the notepad back to Nate.

“You…drew it perfectly. Do you have some Skill for sensing sigils?” he asked.

Nate considered his answer for a moment, “Not sigils. Mana confluences near me.”

He was a little ashamed at how easily the lie came to him and also relieved at how quickly the Professor seemed to buy the explanation.

“Rare Skill that. Still, I am very sure you’re wrong about the Sigil. It’s definitely an Apprentice tier Fire Sigil,” replied the Professor. “Anyway, what do you want from me?”

“Have you identified me?” Nate asked casually.

“Why would I? Your veiling item could tell me whatever it wanted. What’s your name then?”

“Nathaniel Weber, and yours?” he replied.

“Professor Marnier,” mumbled the man as he worked a unigem half-turned away as he continued to speak quietly. “Ah, found you. Equal first in the Guild Tournament. Not bad but crafting isn’t for brutes…hmm…advanced results in Art, Skill Development and Enchanting…not bad…not bad…ah here it is…primary class Runecaster. Wait, Runecaster!”

Professor Marnier looked up at him and his face transformed from guarded to elated, “Come in. Come in my boy. Welcome to my workshop. Those twats in the rest of the Crafting department are a bunch of fools who refuse to see the value in runes. Always so worried about others stealing their sigils as if the spread of information somehow diminishes them. Fools, fools the lot of them!”

Professor Marnier guided him inside of the room with a gentle hand almost touching his back. He still hadn’t dropped his barrier after all. Entering the workroom he felt his sphere of awareness spread out to take in the contents. He almost laughed out loud as Divine Translation came back, recognising twelve sigils in the pieces of work scattered about the room.

Time Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Sand Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

Rock Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

Stone Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

Water Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

Create Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Recall Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Dream Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Sleep Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Protect Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

The first ten were all interesting and who knew what he would be able to do with them, but they weren’t what drew his attention as he immediately walked over to a small wooden pyramid. Inside of it he could sense a single rune, and the Sigils contained within.

Sound Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Copy Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Reaching out a hand, he flowed his own mana from his reserve into the spot where he suspected a mana gem was supposed to sit. Immediately the sound of a plethora of voices singing came out. It sounded like an orchestral song, but instead of latin the words were in Etruan, or whatever the language of Etrua was called. It was beautiful and he looked over at Professor Marnier who had his eyes closed and was swaying happily to the music.

“It was the last performance at the Royal Symphony Hall. Beautiful isn’t it? I made it specifically to capture the sound. Unfortunately the quality is a little low. I was only able to keep the last three songs, rather than the entire performance. Still, better than nothing, wouldn’t you say?” asked the Professor.

“Better than nothing,” he agreed. He had some other uses for the Sigils, but the singing and music had been beautiful.

“So, what do you want from me, Nathaniel Weber of the Adventurer’s Guild?” asked Professor Marnier.

“An exchange of knowledge, it would seem,” he said, pausing to see if the Professor had anything to say. When no response was forthcoming he charged on, “If I am being honest, Professor, unless you’re hiding better work around here somewhere, I am probably better at runecrafting than you are. But I lack Sigils. I’ll help you improve your runecraft, you help me by providing me Sigils, or finding people who have the ones I desire.”

Professor Marnier glanced at him, eyes narrowed in curiosity, “Prove you are better at runecraft than I am. Do that, and I will agree to your offer.”

Nate had expected this and spun two runic arrays simultaneously, creating his Gravity Control runic array in one hand as he hid the sigils by using a Target Obfuscation runic array to blur them, his Conceptual Intent guiding the obfuscation runic array.

The reaction was priceless, as Professor Marnier gaped at the complex runic array and the absolute mass of Sigils that went into it. As he gaped Nate started floating things around the room, including himself, casually controlling gravity selectively, able to even narrow it down to single items.

“Deal. Deal. A thousand times, deal! You teach me how to do that and I will raid the other Professor’s workrooms if needed!”

Nate smiled. Finally, he was making some headway on Sigils. Now he just needed to put a noble brat in his place. That would be the task for the evening, but before he could get to that he needed to teach a Professor just what he was doing wrong; it was clear to anyone with eyes that the man didn’t know a mana distribution field from his own asshole. Nate laughed as he sat down with Professor Marnier and began drawing.