by Clayton Wood
“So the question is...how do we get magic to move in a particular pattern? And the answer lies in minerals,” Banar continued. “Some minerals store magic, that everyone knows. But other types of minerals are better at conducting magic.”
“What do you mean?” Kyle asked.
“Well, if you take certain minerals, and form them into a long wire of sorts, magic will flow from one end of it to the other,” Banar explained. “And if you make that wire into a certain shape – a pattern – it's just like weaving magic in your mind.”
“So runes are made of crystal wires?” Kyle asked. Master Banar hesitated.
“Sometimes,” he replied. “It's complicated,” he added ruefully. “In any case, there really isn't much difference between patterns in the mind and patterns drawn outside of it...except that with runes, a pattern can be used over and over again, nearly effortlessly. All you have to do is supply the magic, and the rune does all the rest.”
“Kalibar showed me how to make runes once,” Kyle offered. Master Banar's eyebrows rose.
“Really?” he replied. “I can't say I'm too surprised,” he admitted. “Grand Weaver Kalibar is an exceptional academic...few Weavers ever deign to learn how the other side operates. So you know how it works?”
“Well...not really,” Kyle admitted. “I just remember him carving stuff into some metal,” he added. Master Banar smirked.
“Not quite,” he corrected. “Here, let me show you how we do it,” he added, pulling something from his pocket. It was a small brown cube.
“What's that?”
“A storage crystal,” Banar answered. “We're going to create a rune on it,” he added, handing it over to Kyle. The cube felt warm in his hand.
“How?” Kyle asked.
“Well, as hard as it may be to believe, that cube is made up of many smaller cubes,” Banar replied. “In fact, it's made up of cubes so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see them.”
Kyle smiled; being from Earth, he knew that everything was made up of tiny atoms. Crystals were just clumps of particular atoms that formed a certain shape. There was no way that Master Banar could know that, of course.
“This cube is good at holding onto magic,” Banar continued, “...but terrible at making magic move.” He gestured for Kyle to hand the cube back, and Kyle did so. “In order to make a rune, we have to make a wire, remember?”
“How do we do that?” Kyle asked.
“By using magic to change parts of the cube,” Banar replied. “There's a magic pattern that will change the nature of the crystals that make up that cube,” he added. “That will make them better at conducting magic.” He paused then. “It's actually a lot more complicated than that,” he admitted. “But let's keep it simple for now.”
“Sounds good,” Kyle agreed. His head was already starting to hurt with all of the information Banar had taught him.
“There's a pattern that'll change the structure of this storage crystal,” Banar continued. “You just weave the pattern in your mind, then throw it out to the area on the crystal you want to alter.” He demonstrated then, leaning over the cube, his forehead nearly touching the surface of it. A faint blue dot appeared on the face of the crystal, then faded. Banar handed the cube to Kyle, who glanced at it. Where the blue dot had been, the cube had changed color, turning bright orange. Kyle frowned at the orange dot.
“That's not a rune,” he observed.
“True,” Banar agreed, taking the cube back from Kyle. “But if you took a powerful enough magnifying glass, you would see that the orange part of the cube had a different structure than the rest.”
“Making it better at conducting magic,” Kyle guessed.
“Correct,” Banar confirmed. “And can you imagine what would happen if, instead of making a simple dot, I were to create a magical pattern on the surface of the cube?”
“It would make a wire that would conduct the magic,” Kyle replied. “A rune,” he added, suddenly getting it. He felt a sudden giddiness. “Wait, so it's that simple?”
“Well, in theory, yes,” Banar answered. “In practice, it can get a lot more complicated. But yes, that's how the simplest runes are made.”
“Cool,” Kyle breathed. He stared at the orange dot on the cube, suddenly eager to try his hand at making a rune of his own. But Master Banar put the cube away.
“Let's take another break,” he stated, stretching his arms up and outward. His bony shoulders popped with the motion.
“Already?” Kyle asked. He wanted to continue, now that he finally understood how runes were made. Master Banar smiled.
“The next part is a bit complicated,” he warned. “And I don't know about you, but I could use a breather.”
“Okay.”
They both sat down on the grass, as they had during their previous break. Kyle gazed up at the clouds, now only barely tinged with a purplish hue as the sun rose above the trees in the distance. Then he sighed, dropping his gaze to his lap.
“What's wrong?” Master Banar asked. Kyle shrugged.
“I'm still upset about failing as a Weaver,” he admitted. “Not that I don't like the idea of being a Runic,” he added hastily. He hardly wanted to offend his new teacher, especially since they were getting along so well. But Banar didn't seem offended.
“It's hard to take criticism,” he replied. “Especially when it comes from people you admire,” he added. “But you have to understand that Master Owens thought you'd make a good Weaver...he just thought you'd make a better Runic.”
“Yeah, well it seems like everyone's good at something except for me,” Kyle muttered. And it was true; Ariana had not only proven herself a better Weaver, she'd also been more responsible, showing up to class on time every time, except for yesterday, of course. And she'd saved his life on more than one occasion, leaping into action while he froze.
“You are good at something,” Banar countered. Kyle frowned, not understanding what Banar was getting at. “Let me show you,” Banar added. He stood up then, reaching into one of his many pockets and pulling out a small, transparent sphere. It almost immediately turned yellow.
“What's that?” Kyle asked. It looked familiar.
“A Finder stone,” Banar answered. Kyle nearly slapped his forehead, recognizing the crystal ball.
“That's how Kalibar showed me I could make magic,” Kyle recalled. And it was true; the stone had turned green when Kyle had touched it, indicating that he could make nearly as much magic as Erasmus...unheard of for a young boy.
“Do you remember what color you made it turn?” Banar asked.
“Green,” Kyle replied. Banar gave a low whistle.
“Impressive,” he murmured. “Well, as you know, the Finder stone changes color based on how much magic whoever is touching it makes. The colors go from least to most magic: gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Each color change indicates an exponential increase in magic production.”
“Right,” Kyle replied. “Kalibar turned it violet,” he added. Kalibar was not only the most acclaimed Battle-Weaver in the Empire, but also the man able to produce more magic than anyone else.
“He's quite powerful,” Banar agreed. “Here, why don't you hold on to this for a second,” he added, tossing the Finder stone to Kyle. It turned clear almost immediately after it left Banar's hands, then shifted to gray after Kyle caught it, cycling rapidly through red, yellow, green, and then a dark blue, slowing as it went. Kyle looked up at Banar, a grin on his face.
“Hey, it's blue now!” he exclaimed.
“People make more magic as they go through puberty,” Banar explained. “And by using lots of magic – and forcing your body to make more to replace it – you can drastically increase the rate at which you produce magic,” he added. Then he gave Kyle a strange smile. “Look down,” he ordered. Kyle did so, glancing at the Finder stone cradled in his palms.
It was black.
Kyle blinked, staring at it. The crystal was utterly black, and no longer trans
lucent. It may as well have been a cannon ball. He glanced up at Master Banar questioningly.
“That's what I thought,” Banar murmured, staring at the Finder stone for a moment, then taking it from Kyle's hands. It gradually reverted back to a pale yellow hue.
“What?” Kyle asked.
“I've never seen that before,” Banar admitted, “...but I've read about the possibility.”
“What?”
“The designers of the Finder stone included another color after violet, even though they never believed that anyone would be able to produce that much magic,” Banar explained. “But you just did.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means that you make more magic than Grand Weaver Kalibar,” Banar explained.
“What?”
“You are good at something, Kyle,” Banar stated, placing the crystal ball back in his pocket. “In fact, you might just be the best in the world at it...at producing magic.”
* * *
Kyle stared at Master Banar, his mouth agape. Master Banar chuckled at Kyle's shocked expression, patting him on the shoulder.
“You alright?” he asked with a grin.
“How?” Kyle blurted out at last.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how can I make so much magic?” Kyle clarified. “Just a few weeks ago, I could only turn it blue,” he added. Banar shrugged.
“You're growing, Kyle,” he replied. “People gain magic the quickest during puberty,” he added. “You're maturing in more ways than one.” Kyle nodded, but he hardly felt comforted by his new-found ability.
“So what?” he muttered. “What's the point of being able to make a lot of magic if I can't use it?”
“But you can,” Banar insisted. “Magic powers everything in the Empire,” he added. “We need producers like you to keep everything running.”
“Great,” Kyle muttered. “So I'm gonna be a glorified generator.”
“Well, no,” Banar replied. “But you'll be very helpful in keeping the city's storage crystals filled with magic.”
“What crystals?”
“Stridon has massive crystals stored below ground,” Banar explained. “Giant cables conduct magic from the storage crystals to everything in the city...the street lights, the Tower, and the Gate Shield, for example.”
“So Ariana will be flying around fighting wars and saving lives while I stay home filling crystals with magic?” Kyle sighed. “Great.”
“Don't give up hope just yet,” Banar counseled. “You have a great gift, but it doesn't mean you're doomed to a fate you don't want.” He put a hand on Kyle's shoulder. “And you know, you don't have to be a warrior to be a hero...or a hero to be important.”
“I guess,” Kyle muttered.
“Come on,” Banar said, “...let's get back to your lessons.” He took his hand off of Kyle's shoulder. “Now, remember how Weavers can sense when another Weaver is weaving a particular pattern?”
“Yeah,” Kyle replied. Kalibar had said as much at Crescent Lake. “Like Kalibar's glasses,” he added. Kalibar had worn a pair of glasses that had symbols flash on the inside whenever a particular pattern was being cast by a nearby enemy. Master Banar nodded.
“Yes, but even without the glasses, Grand Weaver Kalibar could still sense these patterns, if not as easily,” Banar said. “To Runics, that meant that the brain could somehow sense when a pattern was being thrown outward. Ancient Runics discovered that runes made of a certain mineral generated a magical current when exposed to a pattern woven in the same shape. So if a rune made of this mineral was in the shape of the light pattern, and a Weaver wove the light pattern, magic – an admittedly small amount – would flow through the rune.”
“Sensory runes,” Kyle stated, suddenly understanding. Kalibar had taught Kyle about effector and sensory runes at Crescent Lake. Sensory runes sensed magic, while effector runes generated a magical pattern in response to a sensed pattern. Kalibar's staff could sense an enemy using the fire pattern, and automatically create a blast of wind to counteract it, for example.
“Exactly!” Master Banar exclaimed, clearly pleased. “Now, if you attach a sensory rune to another rune – a rune that weaves the light pattern, for example – activating the sensory rune will send magic into the light rune, and it'll glow. That's how Grand Weaver Kalibar's glasses work.”
“Got it,” Kyle replied.
“We call that rune-linking,” Banar explained. “That's when you attach a sensory rune to an effector rune...a rune that does something.”
“So if I weave a pattern, the sensory rune makes a little magic, and that flows across a crystal wire to the effector rune, which weaves another pattern,” Kyle deduced.
“Correct,” Banar confirmed. He finished his bread, taking Kyle's half-finished loaf and placing it back within the sack it came from. Then he placed the sack back in his pack. “I need a change of scenery,” he proclaimed suddenly. “How about we get back to flying?”
Banar activated his gravity boots, levitating a few inches above the ground. Kyle did the same, eager to finish learning how to fly. He couldn't help but grin like a fool...it was pretty cool, being able to levitate with a whim. Runic items were awesome, that was for sure. The idea that he would be able to build his own inventions – limited only by the power of his imagination – was starting to sound even better than being a Weaver. Imagine going back to Earth, and building magical boots for his parents! Or watching as Big Joe, the infamous bully at school, had his big meaty fists bounce off of Kyle's magical shields? Kyle could even sell his inventions, and become a millionaire! Heck, he could become a billionaire...and then he could have a massive mansion just like Kalibar, with plenty of rooms for his family and friends. He would never be able to do that as a Weaver, but as a Runic, his inventions could make him rich...and benefit mankind, of course.
“Let's go,” Banar urged, rising upward and forward. Kyle followed suit, finding it easier to match his teacher's trajectory now that he'd had some practice. It wasn't long before they were both levitating slowly forward a dozen feet above the campus. Kyle marveled at how quickly he'd gotten used to being so high up; not even an hour ago, he'd been nervous about floating a foot or two above the ground.
“One more bit of theory,” Master Banar stated as they flew side-by-side. “Pure crystals can hold more magic than plain old rocks, probably because of their perfect geometry. Rocks can still hold magic, but not nearly as much as a diamond, for example. That's why crystals are so valuable – and expensive. That and the girls think they look pretty,” he added with a grin. Kyle smiled back; crystals did look pretty, as long as they were attached to a girl.
“Now,” Master Banar continued, “...if you take any old rock or crystal from the ground, you'll find that the ones nearest the surface are almost completely filled with magic. Can you think of why?”
Kyle frowned, mulling it over. If rocks on the surface had more magic, that had to mean that they were exposed to magic from another source...something that leaked magic from nearby.
“From people?” he asked.
“You're on the right track,” Banar replied. “It's actually magic-radiating plants that feed the minerals,” he added. “Animals do too, but plants make up the vast majority of magical life. Just look around you...what do you see?” Kyle did so, glancing around himself. Other than the road, and a few mountains far in the distance, the landscape was covered in nothing but grass, shrubs, and trees.
“Makes sense,” Kyle remarked.
“So in nature,” Master Banar continued, “...most minerals are filled to the brim with magic. Now, there are some plants that extract magic from crystals, just like humans can. The Ancients believed that these plants – and human brains – had tiny crystals within their flesh, crystals that had a higher magic vacuity than anything around them.”
“Magic what?” Kyle asked with a frown. Master Banar smiled.
“Magic vacuity,” he repeated. “Think of it as how much a crys
tal 'wants' magic. Crystals that store lots of magic – like diamonds – have high magic vacuity...they suck magic into themselves very strongly.”
“Okay.”
“So what would happen if you took a rock that was filled with magic, and put it next to a diamond that had no magic?”
Kyle frowned again, knitting his eyebrows together.
“You'd find magic streaming from the rock to the diamond...until the diamond had sucked almost all of the magic out of the rock.”
“Oh.”
“A mineral without much magic in it creates a vacuum of sorts, pulling any magic available into it. We call that magic vacuum 'magic vacuity.'”
“I think I get it,” Kyle stated.
“So what would happen if you did the opposite?” Banar pressed. “What if you put a magic-filled diamond next to a depleted rock?”
“Well,” Kyle replied, “...wouldn't the empty rock pull magic out of the full diamond?”
“A little bit, sure,” Master Banar admitted. “But the diamond has a much higher magic vacuity than the rock,” he explained. “The diamond wants magic more. If their vacuities were identical, like if you had two diamonds, the empty diamond would suck magic into it until they both were filled half-and-half. The reality is, magic streams to-and-fro from crystals all the time, in both directions. But crystals with extraordinarily high magic vacuities essentially stream magic away from everything else. When you begin to fill a gem, however, the vacuum lessens, until it stops completely when you've saturated it.”
“So empty crystals act like magic-suckers,” Kyle deduced.
“Exactly!” Banar exclaimed. “You're a natural, aren't you? In fact, the Ancients believed that the only reason people could suck magic out of any known crystal was because they must have crystals with extraordinarily high magic vacuity in their own minds. In fact, one of the most famous Runics of all time was the foremost researcher on that very subject.”
“Ampir?” Kyle asked. The Ancient Battle-Runic had been the best of his generation, and had been widely considered to be the most powerful Runic who'd ever lived. But Master Banar shook his head.