Spell Weaver-Chapter 95. Lessons in Runes

Alex led Evan into his office and gestured for him to set the books down on the large wooden desk. Recently, an extra table that would eventually be moved to the new workshop was added to the office, but the office room was spacious, giving both of them plenty of space to work and stand.

Evan looked with interest at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining both the left and right walls. The early afternoon light flooded into the space from the large window overlooking the estate grounds.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Alex said as he perched himself on one of the stools around the large table.

Evan nodded and placed the books on the table, accidentally dropping one and apologizing. He stood again and fidgeted with the clasp on his bag as he laid out several materials for them to begin working.

“S- so, um, we should start with the basic principles.” He pulled out a folder of notes and a few basic rune-drawing tools.

“Before we start, could you tell me more about how you got interested in runes? I’ve been looking through a manual or two, but I’d love to hear about your experience.”

Evan paused, caught a bit off guard by the more personal question. He pushed his glasses up his nose before answering. “Oh, well, I… I’ve always been fascinated by art. And when the Rifts started appearing, and I found out magic was real, I started doing everything I could to get my hands on rune material. I was able to sign a contract with the Hunters Association to begin learning runes and work for them.”

As Evan spoke, his posture became increasingly relaxed and Alex noted how his voice stopped shaking. “I started with basic manuals, like everyone else. But there’s something about runes that just… clicked for me. The way they channel mana, how different combinations can create entirely new effects- it’s like a language and a science rolled into one.”

Alex nodded and was genuinely interested. “That’s great. You seem really passionate about it. I read that enchanting anything can actually take decades to learn to do… Have you had a chance to create any working runes yet?”

Evan’s eyes lit up, clearly proud. “Complex arrays can definitely take years to learn, especially when you think about how they all change depending on the material you’re enchanting. But a simple trinket or charm is quite easy.” Noticing the lack of comprehension on Alex’s face, Evan clarified. “Oh, sorry. A trinket is an item with one rune in it, and a charm has a two-rune combination. Nothing too complex, but I managed to create a basic heating, two-rune combination on my coffee mug.” He chuckled, more of his nervousness fading away. “It’s not much, but it was incredibly satisfying to see it actually work.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. I was close to giving up on runes before because I thought there wouldn’t be results for a few years.”

“Oh no, you can definitely see results earlier than that. Just not as complex and powerful as some of the layered arrays and enchantments. It’s why the Hunters Association is hiring and sponsoring so many people to join up as enchanters- they believe it’s the key to moving the world forward. Magitech, they keep calling it.”

“That’s impressive, “ Alex said. “Yeah, now that you mention it, I’ve seen something about their push for magitech in the news, but I haven’t seen any results from it yet. It’s pretty cool to know that you were able to actually enchant something, though. I’ve read some basics of theory, so I get a bit of it. But would love if you take it from the start, I don’t mind relearning anything and it’ll be great to be able to ask you questions.”

Evan nodded, and his demeanor became more serious as he slipped into teaching mode. “Of course. Let’s start with the fundamentals, then.”

Alex grabbed one of his leather-bound notebooks from the main desk and prepared to take notes.

Evan pulled out a three-ring binder and opened it to a page filled with neatly drawn diagrams. “Runes are, at their core, symbols that channel and shape magical energy- or mana, as we call it. Each rune represents a specific concept or effect. The original manual that I read worded it as ‘a crystallized form of magical intent.’”

Scribbling notes furiously, Alex took notes and nodded along. It wasn’t until his pen and mind caught up to the words Evan had said that he interrupted the man’s next sentence.

“There are three different classifications of runes, but we can get into that shortly. For now, you should know that there are several thousand runes, but even masters only learn a few dozen over the cour-”

“Oh holy shit,” Alex said while standing suddenly. He didn’t even register Evan’s reaction as he stared at the paper and reread the last sentences of the notes twice more.

Crystallized form of magical intent.

He turned and grabbed his phone from the desk. Quickly trying to scroll back through the notes that he’d been listening to with his skill through the night. It took a few minutes, and Evan waited a bit nervously, watching Alex mutter to himself and flip through his phone.

“HA!” Alex shouted. He read the notes over again and then walked back to the table. He wanted to slam his phone down from excitement. “Holy shit, how did I not think of that.”

“Um, Mr. Moore? What are you talking about?”

The use of his last name brought Alex back to the moment. “Oh, uh, sorry. A few weeks ago, someone who was helping me with rituals was trying to explain something to me and I wasn’t understanding it. But now… I think it might be possible to use some runes with rituals? If I can learn how to make them work together…” He let the thought taper off as he thought through the possibilities of putting runes in the Catalyst node slots in some of his rituals. If he could do that, rather than enchanting an item, he could create an all-new kind of ritual magic.

Or something even better than ritual magic.

Evan looked at him skeptically, “I don’t think…”

Alex shrugged. “No way to know until I try, but the phrasing of how you said the manual you read talked about runes, is almost identical to how the ritual manual referred to catalysts. It might be a long shot, and I might have to tinker with the ritual schematic some to make it work, but there’s a chance.”

“You can’t just put a rune in a ritual though. By themselves, the runes don’t do much. It’s how they’re engraved into an item and put in certain combinations that cause the effect to work. The actual mana movement and effects are a combination of the runes in the right position as an array.”

“Well, what if the ritual does the actual management for mana flow and directing the magic? The runes would really just be used individually for that intent you mentioned. I’m using a shortcut now by just sacrificing stuff into the ritual to make them work.”

“You’re sacrificing stuff?” Evan’s eyes went wide, and he took a half step back.

“Just items,” Alex answered off-handedly, clearly not seeing the horror followed by relief on the younger man's face. “Hmm, it just needs the magical intent and the concept of a catalyst to influence the ritual, then it could work. Right?” Alex said distractedly, talking more to himself than Evan.

“What?”

“It totally can. I just need to figure out how to make it.” Alex nodded and slapped the bottom of his fist into his other palm. “Oh, wow. Sorry, Evan. I got a bit carried away there, but seriously- if this works, our lesson is already well worth it. This could be a big breakthrough for me.”

The last sentence seemed to put Evan at ease, and he smiled nervously at Alex’s somewhat manic behavior.

“Uh, okay? It’s only been like… 10 minutes?”

“Right, ha… Please, continue.” Alex picked his pen back up but didn’t feel like he could sit down with the excitement running through him.

"Well," Evan began, after organizing his thoughts. "There are thousands of runes, but they're all organized into three main categories." He held up a finger. "First, there are Control Runes, which manage things like flow control, storage, and regulation of mana."

He raised a second finger. "Then there are Primary Runes, which create the actual magical effect you want—like heat, spark or light. Most of these runes are specific in their function, and more broad Primary Runes like the elements themselves are much harder to learn."

A third finger joined the others. "Finally, there are Modifier Runes. These alter how the Primary Runes work. They can amplify effects, speed up effects, extend duration, or control the area of effect."

Alex jotted this down, then looked up. "So you need all three?"

"For a proper enchantment, yes. You need at least one from each category working together for it to be considered an enchantment. Though," Evan added, seeing Alex's expression, "you can create simpler effects with just one or two runes. They're just not considered true enchantments."

Alex nodded along, feeling more motivated to learn about runes now than ever before. “Right, you said you made a two-rune combination?” Alex asked.

Evan nodded. “Yes. In practical application, there are some effects you can get on the material itself that will happen if you just use a Primary Rune or a Primary and Control Rune. Those are called trinkets and charms. However, in an ideal setup, there should also be something from the Modifier category as well, even if it’s only there to be more specific in the enchantment’s effect.”

Pleased with the answer, Alex kept his head down and kept taking notes while glancing over at Evan’s notes.

He flipped to another page. “One of the biggest parts of runic magic is precision and understanding. The shape, size, and even the material you inscribed the rune on all affect its function.”

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“I’ve read a bit about material compatibility. It’s pretty interesting how different rune combinations have to be used depending on the shape and material of an object.”

“Exactly,” Evan said as he warmed up to the subject. “For instance, a fire rune etched on copper will behave differently than one on stone. It’s all about resonance.”

He pulled out a sheet with two simple runes drawn on it. “These are the ones I’m most comfortable with and can teach you. There is a basic activation rune and a spark rune.”

“That sounds great,” Alex said. “Could you walk me through how you’d typically teach someone to draw their first rune? I’d like to start with the easiest of the elemental runes if you don’t mind.”

Evan smiled, reaching into his bag for a fresh sheet of paper and a stone slate. He set the slate on the table along with a piece of chalk. “Certainly. Let’s begin with an activation rune, though. While the elements are cool, they don’t normally do anything on their own. You’ll need an activation rune for every single enchantment, and ideally, it will give you an easy way to test and see if you’ve successfully created it.”

Alex wasn’t sure that he needed an activation rune. The more he thought about the concept, the less he thought he might be actually enchanting things. Rather, he’d learn different runes for the sake of his modified ritual circles. If he was able to put the rune in a catalyst node, then it was more likely that his ritual would power the rune, which would then activate inside of the ritual.

However, at the moment, I’m pretty limited in how I can activate the ritual circles. There constantly has to be a thread connected to them for me to pulse my mana. If I have some different ways to activate it through this rune…

Alex smiled and forced his excited mind to quiet down. There wasn’t any need for him to act like an impatient child with a new toy. He still wasn’t even sure if the concept was going to work.

But there was one important factor for any of this theory to work with what he was already doing…

“Actually, before we start practicing, I do have one more question,” Alex said. “Do runes always need to be engraved into something?”

“Oh, well,” Evan adjusted his glasses. “They can actually be drawn on various other materials, as well. This includes paper or parchment. Those are called talismans, even if it’s a one or two-rune combination or even a complex six-link enchantment- if it’s a single use, then it’s considered a talisman and will burn up after activation.”

Alex leaned forward. “Single-use? But they still work?”

“Yes, but most enchanters see it as wasteful,” Evan explained. “You need the same precision, mana control, and intent as permanent enchantments. It takes just as much skill and effort to create a talisman that will only work once as it does to create something permanent. That’s why most serious enchanters focus on engraved enchantments instead. Sorry.”

Alex couldn’t help but smile as his excitement continued to grow. If runes could work on paper, then theoretically, they would work when formed purely from mana threads in his ritual circles. “That’s actually perfect,” he muttered.

“Perfect? Most people are disappointed when they hear about talismans.”

"Trust me, this helps more than you know," Alex said, then gestured to the slate. "Now, let's see that activation rune.”

“First, we’ll go over the components and strokes of the rune, then I’ll demonstrate, and finally, you can try it yourself on the slate. It should let us easily see any discrepancies, and you can do it as many times as you need without wasting the paper.”

As Evan began explaining the intricacies of the storage rune, Alex listened attentively. He thought through the strokes and lines of the rune. Both the manual he’d first read, and now Evan had both mentioned how important precision was when practicing and inscribing runes.

An idea formed in Alex’s mind while Evan continued to draw and explain each stroke, focusing on the width of the line and placement of the subsequent line. When he was done and prompted Alex to begin and do his best to replicate the process, Alex looked at the drawing.

“…don’t expect or worry about getting it perfect on your first try. Seriously. The manuals recommend hours of this repetitive drawing practice every day for months.”

Alex studied the rune that Evan had drawn, his mind racing with the possibilities. “Do you mind if I try something? It feels a bit like cheating, but I want to test it out.”

“Sure?”

Alex held his hand over the binder that held the perfect rune diagram. He activated [Mana Thread] and let several strands fall down from his hand and used his high magical control to move the threads into the exact likeness of the rune.

“Wait, one second. I want to see,” Evan said. There was a moment’s pause as he looked at Alex’s hand seriously and focused on activating a skill. Evan’s eye flashed, signifying the activation. Gasping, he looked up at Alex. “How are you doing that?” He leaned forward.

“You can see the threads?”

“Yes, my boss said that I needed to have a skill to see mana. It’s almost necessary when learning runes, so they bought me the skill manual and had me learn [Mana Sight]. But your mana looks a bit fuzzy, maybe because it’s so fine, it’s hard to tell exactly what’s happening. What are you doing with it?”

Evan’s eyes dimmed as the skill ran out.

Alex shrugged, and when the form was finished, he moved it to his own slate. “Well, since the mana is intangible, I thought I could use it to trace and not mess up the rune.” Alex looked at it for a moment before smiling to himself. “And actually, if I’m going to cheat, I might as well go all the way, right?”

Standing, he moved to his desk and grabbed the spatial pouch that had been resting on the far corner. He reached within and retrieved a smaller pouch of mana stone dust.

Evan’s eyes went wide at the sight of the bag. “Is that… a spatial storage item?”

Alex nodded and set the pouch down on the work table before holding up the other hand and extending even more threads from his fingers. The new ones, he dipped into the mana stone dust and traced his already floating image near his piece of practice slate.

As the threads solidified around the outer edge of the image, he created a raised boundary. “Kiddy rails, like in bowling.” Alex smiled at Evan, who stood staring in amazement.

With careful strokes, Alex traced the rune, the chalk over the slate guided perfectly by the mana thread outline. When he finished, the result was flawless- an exact replica of Evan’s diagram.

“That’s… incredible. And pretty depressing, if I’m being honest.” They both laughed. “How did you do that?”

“I’ll give you a general idea of how the skill works if you tell me some about your [Mana Sight],” Alex said. He didn’t feel comfortable telling someone from the Hunters Association about such a core skill of his, but he liked Evan and felt that as long as he was vague and got something in return, it could be a small show of good faith.

Alex briefly explained that he had a high mana control skill and that he’d learned how to bind it into a more physical substance with a substance that’s ground into dust. “I thought that using it like guard rails or a stencil would help with the precision you mentioned.”

Evan nodded enthusiastically. “That’s brilliant. My skill seems to be a somewhat common one and it’s only at level five. But, I can activate it and it allows me to see some movement of mana in a short radius around me for a few seconds. While I’m learning to enchant, it can often take a while to complete something since I need to activate this multiple times over the course of a single rune to make sure I’m doing everything correctly. But your method… The applications for this in rune crafting and enchanting could be enormous. You could easily become one of the best enchanters on Earth using something like this.”

Looking at the perfect tracing, Alex shook his head. “Not really. This is a good tool to have so I can learn, but not really a substitute for me learning how to do it on my own. It’s like tracing in art- useful for learning but not something you’d rely on forever. And for that matter, you could just use a 3-D printer to create stencils of these runes if you wanted. At least for training purposes.”

"That's a good point. It's an incredible technique for learning, but you're right—mastery comes from being able to do it on your own, and there’s more to it than just the portions of drawing."

"Exactly," Alex agreed. "I'll still need to practice a lot to get to the point where I can draw these accurately without any aids. But I think this method might help me learn the shapes more quickly at first."

Evan leaned in, examining the traced rune more closely. "It's a great starting point. You'll internalize the shapes faster this way, I think. But yes, definitely keep practicing freehand too."

“Well great, so that’s it? Did I make my first rune?”

Evan laughed at that. “No, not quite. If it just came down to this, then, like you said, we could have printers coming up with perfect runes and enchantments in no time. No,” he said again, “this is actually the easiest part. Next comes the part for learning a runic pattern in order to ‘set’ the rune. Each rune has a different pattern of how mana must be flooded through the rune, and some are very complex. Mana needs to be flushed through the rune in the right pattern and then set. The term ‘set’ is crucial and has two parts to it.

“The first is that you must put your intent toward the rune. You must want for it to work and succeed. The manuals say that this is often why passionate individuals are so successful in magic and that often, even those who are mad can become world-renowned enchanters, as their belief is unshakable. The second part is a little more abstract, and there’s not a great way to measure it, but it has to do with your understanding of that concept.”

“Understanding of what?”

“Well, it applies to all runes, but mostly to the Primary Runes. For this activation rune, though, it comes down to how you think of this rune as a concept. What does ‘activation’ mean to you? How well do you know the etymology or scientific meaning behind the word?”

“Uh, that sounds like it could be really personal to each case, right? My understanding of something like ‘spark’ or ‘heat’ is going to be different than your understanding.”

“You’re right! The manuals talk about how important this is, though, and that it will naturally grow as you use the rune in enchantments, but it’s also important to contemplate the concepts and combinations that you plan to use most.

“So, again- you need to write or engrave the rune, learn and practice its mana pattern, flush the rune, and set it with your intent and understanding. This is done for each rune in the enchantment, and the pattern of mana through the rune can change depending on the linked enchantment that it’s with.”

Alex’s head spun as he realized that the creation of even one rune was more complicated than he’d realized.

Well, this might make things a bit harder to use with the rituals, but the theory remains. It could actually work… it’s just going to take a lot of practice. But it reminds me a bit of the shapes Eura had me practicing with mana-shaping exercises for rituals. I need to do the same thing all over again, just using some of the basic runes.

Their session continued, with Evan explaining more about rune theory and Alex asking questions and taking notes. As their time drew to a close, both felt they had learned a great deal.

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“This has been great,” Evan said as he packed up his materials. “I never thought about runes quite this way before and didn’t think that the manual’s early words were so important.”

Alex nodded, equally enthusiastic. "Same here. Your theory work and knowledge is great. It’s so helpful to have someone to ask questions and understand something where as the manual would just keep moving along. I'd love to continue these sessions if you're willing."

Evan hesitated for a moment. "Actually, I'd be happy to come back without charge. Working with you, I feel like I'm learning as much as I'm teaching."

"I appreciate that," Alex said, "but I want to pay you, at least for now. There's still so much I can learn from you about runes. Maybe when we've covered everything you know, and we’re on more equal footing, we can become working partners instead."

Evan's face lit up. "That would be great. Thanks."

They exchanged numbers, both excited about future sessions. As Evan left, Alex could feel his excitement resurfacing. He was onto something with the use of runes; he knew it. He had a ton to learn, and safety would be key in how he moved forward, but with some extra guidance and his own abilities, he felt like he was back on the right track.

He began to walk back to his office, mind buzzing with new ideas and possibilities. His train of thought was interrupted by Mark, who stuck his head into the hallway before Alex could enter his office.

“Hey!”

Alex looked up.

“Don’t get too sucked into all this! We’re doing our loot pile party in a bit!”

“What time is it?”

“Almost six. You guys were at it for a while.”

Alex groaned, wanting to keep working on the runes. As he realized the time, though, his stomach growled. “I need food.”

“Loot party! I’m serious, dude. Eat and then meet us in the living room. In just a day or two, the last week of the event starts, and we are gonna be finished! We’ve been checking and sharing our loot as we go, but we should combine it all to take stock and make sure everyone is getting what they need. Sarah is on the way over, and Olivia said she’d be here before 7:00. Come on, get with the excitement! Loot Pile Party, woo!”

Alex nodded and waved at his large friend as he walked back down the stairs. “I hear you, dude. Loot party!” He mustered some enthusiasm and waved both hands in the air. He heard Mark laugh as he reached the bottom of the stairs and made his way to the kitchen.