by Andrew Rowe
I nodded. “I imagine they’ll be expensive when and if they’re eventually available to the public.”
“All of our products are priced competitively for the benefits that they offer.”
That was exactly the kind of marketing speech I expected, but I couldn’t blame Kahi for speaking in that fashion. It was a natural part of this style of work. “What are the other branches here?”
“We’re about to pass the Shielded Space Division. You won’t be able to see inside there right now, unfortunately. There are no windows, as that would compromise the purpose of the rooms.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Shielded Space...I take it that means the division is for building safe rooms for magical tests and experiments?”
“Yes, as well as general safety and privacy. Many of the rooms are designed for our own experiments, but we construct buildings for influential individuals that need defenses against scrying, or for powerful attuned that need areas where they can train safely without needing to worry about demolishing the area. For example, your own university’s Professor Meltlake owns a training facility of our creation.”
I blinked. “She does?”
Kahi nodded. “Your professor is one of the most powerful offensive magic users known. In order to test her spells properly, she trains in an extra dimensional space. The facility that transfers her to and from that space, as well as the interior of that space, were designed here at Farren Labs.”
That made a lot of sense. I’d seen the level of power of some of Meltlake’s spells, and she clearly had to practice them somehow. An extra dimensional training facility sounded like a good way for her to be able to train without annihilating city blocks. “...How expensive would something like that be?”
That question seemed to catch Kahi off-guard. “I don’t believe there’s a set price for a facility of that style. There are only a handful of them, and they’re generally built to order for the military or royal families. In Meltlake’s case, I believe she was given that facility in exchange for assistance with a certain advanced magic theory problem, rather than money. The cost to build a facility of that type would range from hundreds of thousands to millions of silver.”
I paused in my step. “Millions?”
“Many of our projects operate on that scale.” Kahi kept walking. “If you choose to work here, you may be able to participate in projects that would beggar the families of kings. And, perhaps, even use them to your own advantage if time and resources permit.”
I shook my head, struggling with the idea of how any company could have projects with that kind of cost. I understood that things like artificial attunements would have tremendous value — after all, they offered power that ordinarily required risking a life — but anything selling for millions of silver was beyond what I could have estimated.
This is a fairly transparent attempt to tempt me with the perks to working for them…but it’s working. It’s definitely working.
“Ah, here we are.” Kahi stopped at a door, waving a hand toward it. “The place you’ve been waiting to see. The Artificial Attunements Division. We have several facilities for this, but this is the central location for attunement research and development. It is also very likely where you would be working if you choose to accept Miss Farren’s offer.” She turned the handle and opened the door. “Come. See what the future holds.”
***
When I’d imagined the Artificial Attunements Division, I’d expected it to look like the facilities where we tested Enchantments — basically a series of small rooms designed to contain unwelcome explosions and set off alarms if anyone was badly injured.
In fairness, this facility did have those, but that wasn’t what I walked into.
No, the Artificial Attunement Division looked more like a penny opera depiction of a mad wizard’s laboratory. There were dozens of tables covered in bottles holding many-hued concoctions, tools both common and unfamiliar strewn across every available surface, and a handful of people wearing rune-etched goggles and thick (often colorfully splattered) aprons.
My eyes widened as I saw someone hop over some kind of tool that was vibrating on the floor without even bothering to look down at it.
What in the goddess’ name…?
“Welcome to our research center,” Kahi waved an open hand to indicate the room.
My mouth opened and closed wordlessly. I simply had no idea how to react to this. The golem-making facility had seemed organized, but this…
“I can see the surprise on your face. Don’t be intimidated. You’ll learn to navigate the place quickly enough. To get you started, let me introduce you to one of our recent hires. He’ll explain how things work in this part of the facility and take care of you for the rest of the day.”
Kahi walked forward, deftly dodging as someone else ran past in an apron that was on fire, and headed toward a corner of the room. I stared at the flaming worker, only realizing after a moment that he wasn’t actually being burned and the fire wasn’t spreading further. I watched as he tossed his burning apron down on a table, gave a cheer, and began to write feverishly on a notepad.
I paused my gawking only when Kahi turned and snapped her fingers at me, drawing my attention. “Come along, Corin. You’ll have plenty of time to look at specific designs later.”
Designs? Was that some kind of strange fire Enchantment, then? How is that even related to attunements?
I frowned, considering as I finally moved to follow Kahi through the room. Fortunately, there were no further blazing individuals to dodge around. I saw a couple people mixing potion ingredients that I didn’t recognize, a few people discussing a series of runes on a chalk board, and just a couple working on what looked like more conventional Enchantments.
And then there was one last person, a skinny black-skinned man about my age with thick glasses and a strange crown-like device that covered both of his ears entirely. He stood in front of a table, staring at a featureless sheet of metal that was propped up against the wall behind it. At first, it looked like he was simply admiring a seemingly blank surface, until I noticed that he was tapping his fingers on the table’s edge in a strange rhythm.
On a hunch, I mentally activated my Detect Aura spell.
In an instant, my senses were flooded with new sources of magic, but this was nothing strange to me. I’d been in magic saturated areas before, and I acclimated fast, processing an incredible variety of mana sources flowing from items and people in the area.
The man in front of me had a standard Carnelian aura, but that wasn’t what got my attention. With Detect Aura active, I could see dozens of runes appearing on the surface of that metal sheet for just an instant, then vanishing to be replaced with new ones.
The runes themselves looked similar to the ones I was familiar with, but more compact, and flowing into each other more like a script. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was fascinating.
Is…that some sort of runic language? And if it is, what does it mean?
I tried to watch, but after a moment, the flickering of the runes bothered me so much that I had to turn my spell off. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the afterimages from my eyes.
Kahi walked up right behind him. “Ashon, we have a visitor.”
The strange man continued focusing on the metal surface, seemingly unaware he was being talked to.
“Ashon. Ashon!” Kahi grabbed the crown on his head and pulled it up.
“Aah!” Ashon spun in surprise, hitting his elbow on the table behind him and knocking an etching rod on the ground. Then, as he flailed in momentary panic, he managed to trip on the fallen etching rod.
I surged forward as he fell backward, catching him by the front of his apron and pulling him back upright, purely out of instinct. For a moment, we were face-to-face, and he blinked at me through rune-etched spectacles.
“…Hi?” Ashon said.
Startled, I released his apron and stepped backward as he steadied himself. “Uh, hi.”
Kahi groaned, shaking her head. “Ashon, you need to be more careful around here, or you’re going to end up in the hospital again.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve been working on my shroud’s defensive output, and…” He blinked. “Wait. Who are you again?”
“I’m Kahi, one of Miss Farren’s personal assistants. We’ve met…several times now. This,” she gestured at me, “Is Corin Cadence. He’s…”
“The new Arbiter! I’ve heard all about you.” Ashon reached to offer me a hand, then shook my hand rapidly and with great enthusiasm when I accepted. I pulled my hand back quickly, but as politely as possible.
Ashon brightened. “I have been so excited to open you up and get a look at—”
Kahi cleared her throat. “Please don’t scare him, Ashon.” She turned to me. “What Ashon means is that he’s a researcher for individual attunement function components, and that he’s interested in looking at the details of how your Arbiter attunement works.”
My eyes widened as my mind swam with the implications. “Function components…? Wait, hold on, back up.” I waved at the metallic surface. “Is that what you were doing with that thing? Looking at the component parts of an attunement?”
“Oh, no, no! That was some of my work on making a new supplementary component, which is…”
“…Not exactly your job.” Kahi interrupted. “Ashon, Miss Farren tolerates a good deal of your tendency to…wander, but I need you to focus today. Corin is a guest here, and he has limited time to see what our facility has to offer as a place of long-term employment. He is both an Enchanter and an Arbiter, but he’s only just finished his first year at Lorian Heights, so his education in attunement design is minimal. You’re going to need to explain some things to him from the beginning.”
Ashon looked at her, then frowned. “I kind of hate that. I’m busy. Can you bring him back when he’s ready for me to look at?”
“No.”
They stared at each other for a moment. Ashon eventually shrugged, ripped off his crown the rest of the way and tossed it on the table. “Fine, but you have to approve my next idea, no matter what it is.”
“That is…not how anything works, Ashon.” Kahi turned away from him, giving me a tense smile. “I’m sorry for this. Ashon is the best source of information on artificial attunement fundamentals we have available right now.”
I gave Kahi a nod. I understood her trepidation about leaving me with Ashon, given his unusual behavior and enthusiasm, but…honestly, I didn’t really mind it. High energy people often drained me very quickly, but I was so interested in this subject that I was happy to deal with someone who was enthusiastic about it, at least for a little while. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for showing me around.”
“I’ll be back to pick you up for the end of the day. Did you see the cafeteria?”
I shook my head. She gave me some brief directions, explained the hours of operation of the cafeteria, and then left me alone with Ashon.
I turned back to find him staring at my glove-covered hand.
“What are you…? Oh. The attunement.”
“If you could just take that glove off for a moment, and maybe give me a minute to take just a small sample…”
I briefly wondered if this was how I came across to people when I was in one of my own bouts of fixation. “Not right now, Ashon. I need to understand some of the basics of how this stuff works before I can show you anything.”
He deflated at that. “…Fine. I suppose we’ll start from the beginning.”
“Which is?”
“Well…” He frowned. “Words are hard. It’s easier to show you.” He pushed himself away from the table, very nearly tripping over the still-fallen etching rod again. “Follow me.”
***
Ashon led me to a small side-room with a couch, some chairs, and several bookshelves on the walls. One corner of the room had a chalk board on it. He walked over to the board, then picked up a piece of chalk. “Attunements. How do they work?”
“Well, I—”
“Rhetorical question,” he shook his head. “You’re new, you have no idea.”
I frowned, but didn’t interject further.
He turned back to the board, beginning to draw. The first figure was a familiar symbol — an Enchanter attunement.
“This,” he pointed to the center, “is a rune. All enchantments have runes. But this particular rune is a lie.”
“A lie?”
“Don’t interrupt. But yes. Total lie.” He drew an “x” over the rune. “When people look at this rune, they think they see an attunement. They don’t. This is just a pretty picture. It’s utterly functionless. Meaningless.”
I blinked.
Ashon continued. “Where does this symbol come from, then, you ask?”
I didn’t ask.
“This comes from one of the many, many function runes inside your attunement. In specific, the ‘display current attunement level’ function.”
My mind swam at the implications of that. “Wait, hold on. I can obviously see how an enchantment could make an image, but if runes are meaningless, why do they change with levels, specializations, and generations?”
Ashon rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, maybe it means something in some kind of weird visage language. Or maybe Selys made them work this way because she wanted attunements to be identifiable at a glance. The important part is that the power isn’t in the symbol. The symbol results from the power, not the other way around.”
I frowned at that. “I saw Katashi draw an extra line on someone’s attunement to make it stronger. You’re implying that was just…what, a theatrical flourish?”
“Sure, or intentional misdirection. Visages don’t like giving away information on how attunements work for free.”
“Okay, wait. I can see all that, but if the rune isn’t the focal point for the attunement, then—”
He turned away with a bored expression and ignored my latest question, drawing more runes. And more runes. And more runes.
“These,” he explained, “Are some of the other basic functions for an attunement. This,” he waved at one, “provides you with access to mental mana. This next one determines how quickly you draw it in from the environment. This one…”
Something clicked. “Sets your capacity for that mana type?” I guessed.
“Correct.” Ashon blinked. “Faster than I expected.”
I waved at the board. “So, you’re saying attunements are…what, a sort of meta-enchantment that contains other enchantments?”
“That’s…exactly right. Have you studied this before?”
I shook my head. “Not in any detail, but it makes sense to me. I knew Enchanters and Biomancers or Arbiters were involved with making attunements. I’d been puzzling over how attunements work, but if they basically have ‘hidden’ runes for various different functions, that actually makes things pretty simple. Sort of like compound runes.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call this simple before.”
I shrugged. “There might be a lot of components, but it sounds like the foundation is basically the same as standard enchanting. I’ve heard about compound runes before, but we’re not supposed to study them until next year. If there’s a function rune for giving access to mental mana, I assume there’s one for each type?”
Ashon nodded slowly. “Well, they’re not exactly function runes, but you’re essentially right.”
“Makes sense…things for anything the attunement does. So, shroud generation, detecting power for other shrouds, unique functions…”
“Huh. Seems like you might not need the super basic version. Okay. Can I see your hand?”
I sighed. “No. Not right now. You mentioned that there’s a function for displaying current attunement level. That means your attunement ‘knows’ your level somehow. Does that mean there’s a rune that’s constantly detecting your safe mana capacity, or is it accomplished through some other means?”
“It’s
basically that, but thinking of it in rune form isn’t exactly right. Maybe I shouldn’t have drawn rune pictures.” He paused. “Definitely shouldn’t have. Oh well, we’ll clarify later. There’s something that measures the mana in your body, then another function that governs what qualifies as safe. Then, there’s another function that sets the thresholds for what determines each attunement level. Oh, and that’s modified if there’s a mana-specialization function in place… Then, there are other functions to activate at specific level thresholds…”
“Wait. If they’re not runes, what’s controlling all this?”
He shook his head. “They’re sort of runes. We’ll get to that. One thing at a time.”
“Ah. Got it.” A grin crossed my face. “How easy are these to change?”
“Ch…change?” He stared at me. “Oh, no. You do not want to change these things. That is very, very unsafe.”
“But you were looking into adding more? That’s what you were doing earlier, right?”
He hesitated for a moment, then answered. “Yes, but…that’s for new attunement designs, not existing ones.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Once someone has an attunement, the body gradually acclimates to it. Modifying it after it’s already in the body is…risky. It’s possible, but the side effects…” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t try it.”
I definitely planned to try it.
But I wasn’t going to say that. Not right away, at least.
“Okay, never mind that. You wanted to look at my attunement. Presumably, that’s to figure out how exactly the unique functions of the Arbiter attunement work, so you can duplicate it somehow?”
“Right, right. We have spells for visualizing the component enchantments within an attunement.”
“And they look like that script you were looking at earlier? Ah, is that what you mean by ‘not exactly runes’?”
“That’s a little ahead of where I was planning to discuss today, but yes, that script is what I was talking about. And if you’d just let me see—”