by Clayton Wood
“I think I get it,” Kyle said. Master Banar beamed.
“Good,” he replied. “The reason I'm teaching you this is because vacuity becomes extraordinarily important when making runics,” he added. “Imagine creating an incredibly powerful item, one with a massive amount of stored magic. Then imagine someone found a crystal with greater magic vacuity, emptied it of its magic, and placed it near your amazing invention. Guess what would happen?”
“It would get drained,” Kyle answered.
“Exactly,” Banar agreed. Kyle frowned.
“But wait,” he asked. “Kalibar said most storage crystals had a 'password' on them, so people couldn't just take the magic out of anyone's stuff.”
“True,” Master Banar replied. “There are ways to protect storage crystals from being drained. One is to keep them only partially saturated...that way they'll still have a high vacuity, resisting the pull of other crystals. In fact, the vast majority of storage crystals are purposefully kept at about 20% capacity, for this very reason.”
“And the passwords?” Kyle pressed.
“Well, that's complicated,” his teacher admitted. “The 'passwords' Grand Weaver Kalibar described are sensory runes. These runes don't do anything...they're just randomly created by the maker of the storage crystal. But weaving the password pattern activates the sensory runes, which in turn activate effector runes on the crystals...runes that break up the crystalline structure.”
“I don't get it,” Kyle replied. “How does that make it possible to pull magic from the crystal?”
“You can always pull magic from crystals,” Master Banar corrected. “Even a diamond with an impossibly complex password is vulnerable. It's just that the diamond's vacuity is so high that it takes a great deal of time and effort to extract any magic from it. But if you make lots of tiny fractures within the diamond – by a magically reversible process – its magic vacuity will decrease. Then you can pull almost all of the magic out with ease. And when they're done, all they have to do is re-lock the gem, and the process reverses.”
“Wow,” Kyle replied, shaking his head slowly. “How did anyone come up with this stuff?”
“Well, I'll give you a hint.” Master Banar replied with a wink. “It sure wasn't a Weaver that figured it all out.” Kyle couldn't help but smile. Still, he felt a bit overwhelmed by it all.
“Yeah, I don't think I'll be coming up with anything so creative,” he muttered. “I'll be lucky just to carve a rune,” he added glumly. Master Banar laughed, clapping Kyle on the shoulder with one hand.
“Oh, don't you worry,” he replied with his characteristic grin. “Have a little faith in yourself, Kyle...you'll be doing far more than that, and sooner than you think!”
* * *
Kyle and Master Banar zipped forward over the treetops, the Tower behind them growing ever smaller in the distance. The Gate Shield glimmered in the distance, rising up in a massive dome over the three-story tall black fence surrounding the Secula Magna, now only a quarter mile away. Kyle glanced down, spotting two figures dressed in black walking on the grass far below. It was Ariana and Master Owens, already preparing for their morning lesson. Master Banar called out after the two, descending smoothly toward them.
“Master Owens!” Banar greeted, landing gently on the grass beside the Weaver. Master Owens grinned, embracing the younger Runic and clapping him on the back.
“Master Banar,” Owens replied. Then he glanced at Kyle, who had halted in mid-air above them. “Kyle,” he added with a nod. Ariana stared up at Kyle, a huge smile on her face.
“You're flying!” she blurted out, rather enviously. “How are you doing that?” Kyle shrugged, unable to hold back a smile of his own. He descended through the air gracefully, landing beside Ariana.
“Oh, just tinkering,” he replied casually. But he beamed at her, and even gave her a wink. Ariana shook her head, her jealousy plain to see.
“Are those Gravity boots?” she pressed. Master Banar nodded.
“A miracle of runic technology,” he answered, extending a hand for Ariana to shake. “Master Banar,” he stated, introducing himself. “I'm Kyle's Runic instructor. And you must be Ariana, Master Owens' prized student.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ariana replied, shaking Banar's hand. She stepped back then, admiring Kyle's boots once more. “Can I try them?” she asked. Master Owens frowned.
“Perhaps later,” he stated. “We have a lot of ground to cover today.”
“Yes Master Owens,” Ariana murmured. But she turned to give Kyle a peculiar look, and he knew what that meant...he was going to teach her how to use the boots later that night, whether he wanted to or not. He certainly didn't mind; any excuse to spend time with her was more than welcome. She had a peculiar power over him, such that any time he was around her, he felt a marvelous giddiness come over him.
He sighed then, suddenly gripped with an anxious desire to be alone with her. If only there was a magical pattern for speeding up time, so he could fast-forward to tonight! Unfortunately, no new patterns had been discovered since Ancient times, so Kyle would have to wait.
“Hey Master Banar,” he asked suddenly. “Why hasn't anyone discovered any new patterns?” The fact that people had been using the same patterns for centuries, never daring to experiment to find new patterns, baffled Kyle.
“Well, it's dangerous to try new patterns,” Master Banar began. “More than a few Weavers and Runics have died...or suffered terrible injuries...attempting it. There's no way to predict what a particular pattern will do until it's woven. A few brave scholars have tried it, and none have lived long enough to produce more than a pattern or two.” He smiled ruefully. “It's a pretty messy way to get into the history books.”
“What about magical animals and plants?” Kyle pressed. “They must weave patterns to make their magic, right?”
“True,” his instructor conceded. “Nature employs a remarkable variety of patterns,” he added. “The Ancients knew of some of them, but unfortunately, most magical patterns have been lost to history.” Kyle frowned.
“How did they figure out all these patterns?” he pressed. Master Banar glanced at Master Owens, who shrugged.
“No one knows, Kyle,” he answered. “We may never know.”
Kyle lowered his gaze to the grass below, continuing to frown. Then an idea struck him.
“Wait,” he exclaimed. “Couldn't you figure out what animals and plants were doing by making sensory runes?”
“What do you mean?” Banar asked.
“Well,” Kyle explained, “...Kalibar had glasses that lit up whenever a particular pattern was woven. What if you made a bunch of random patterns – as sensory runes – and made a plant weave a pattern...if you had hundreds of random sensory runes, maybe one particular rune would be triggered, and light up. That way, you could figure out what pattern the plant was weaving.”
“You mean, have a runic that had hundreds of random sensory runes, and expose the runic to multitudes of animals and plants, and see if any of the sensory runes are triggered?” Banar asked. Kyle nodded.
“That way, you would know what pattern they were using,” Kyle replied. “You could do that for hundreds of animals and plants, and learn tons of new patterns.”
“Interesting,” Master Banar murmured. But Master Owens frowned.
“I don't know,” he interjected. “There are so many different possible patterns, it could take millions of guesses to find one that matched.”
“True,” Master Banar admitted.
“Well what if you use parts of sensory runes?” Kyle pressed. “Wouldn't they still light up if something wove part of a pattern? Then you could put them together afterward.”
Banar frowned, glancing at Master Owens.
“I don't understand,” he replied. “What do you mean?” But Master Owens cleared his throat.
“We really should get back to our lesson,” he stated. Master Banar nodded.
“Right,” he agreed. He turned t
o Kyle. “Good thinking, Kyle,” he stated. “You might be on to something.”
“It is a novel idea,” Master Owens admitted. “Well done, Kyle,” he added, gazing approvingly at his former student. Kyle felt his cheeks flush.
“Well, I don't know,” Kyle replied sheepishly, glancing at Ariana. She was staring at him, a strange smile on her lips. Kyle felt a swell of pride, a giddy sensation he'd never quite experienced before. He knew immediately that the idea would work. Why it hadn't occurred to someone else, Kyle couldn't fathom. It was so obvious, now that he thought about it!
“Let's go back to the Tower,” Banar stated, turning to Kyle. “I think I know what you meant by using parts of runes,” he added rather excitedly. “We need to tell Grand Runic Erasmus about your idea!”
“Wait, you really think it'll work?” Kyle asked, suddenly doubting himself. What if Master Owens was right, and his idea ended up not being all that useful? Or worse, what if it didn't work at all? Kyle was flattered by Master Banar's confidence in him, but he didn't want to have to suffer the shame of discovering that he wasn't as great as everyone thought he was. Again.
“There's only one way to find out,” Banar answered. “Let's go back to the Tower.”
“Don't forget the Aegis,” Ariana reminded, pointing to Kyle's chest. He glanced down, seeing his white shirt, and realized he'd forgotten to put on his silver armor – the Aegis of Athanasia – this morning. If Kalibar ever found out, he'd be furious. Kyle nodded, giving Ariana a grateful smile.
“Thanks, I will,” he replied. Then he felt Master Banar tugging on his arm. Banar was already levitating a foot above the ground. Kyle activated his own gravity boots, quickly rising through the air – to Ariana's obvious delight – and flying after his instructor. Kyle waved as he flew upward, turning and catching up with his new teacher, who'd sped a few dozen feet ahead, his white cloak rippling in the wind. Kyle accelerated to catch up with his instructor, the wind blowing through his hair, sending a chill through him. The morning was early still, the sun having yet to bake the earth with its warming rays. He ignored the cold, concentrating on following behind Master Banar. Within minutes, they'd left Ariana and Master Owens far behind, the Tower only a mile or so ahead.
Suddenly, Kyle heard a deafening boom, and felt something slam into him, making him lurch to the side. The world spun crazily around him, and he cried out, flailing his arms. The awful sensation of free-fall gripped his gut, and screamed as he saw the ground rising up toward him at breakneck speed. He closed his eyes at the last minute, feeling a terrible pain as his shoulder slammed into something hard, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Then he was rolling madly through something cold and wet, until at last he came to a stop, lying on his back.
He lay where he was, gasping for air.
A shrill wailing noise assaulted his ears, a sound that was instantly recognizable. It was the same sound Kyle had heard when Rivin and Bartholos had been murdered. And when Kalibar had been nearly assassinated.
Kyle rolled onto his side, realizing that he was lying on cool, wet grass. He tried to roll onto his left side, but a sharp pain lanced through his shoulder, and he cried out, flopping onto his back. He laid there for a moment, struggling to catch his breath. After a few seconds, he tried to roll again, this time onto his right side. He saw a figure in white roll into his field of field.
It was Master Banar!
The Runic tumbled across through the grass, coming to a stop a dozen feet from Kyle. Banar groaned, then rolled onto his stomach, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. His eyes focused on Kyle, and Banar reached out toward him. Then something slammed into the Runic's back, shoving the man's belly violently onto the ground.
It was a boot. A black boot.
Master Banar yelled out in pain, a shimmering gravity shield erupting around him. Then it vanished as quickly as it had appeared; the boot on his back hadn't even budged.
“Hello, Kyle,” a deep, resonant voice murmured.
Master Banar struggled to push himself up against the weight on his back, the veins on his forehead bulging with the effort. Then something slammed into the back of his head, burying his face into the grass.
Blood welled up around a long, metallic shaft embedded through the back of the Runic's skull.
Master Banar's arms jerked once, then again, and then he lay perfectly still in the dew-tipped grass. The boot on his back lifted up, then stayed in the air, hovering an inch above the ground. Another boot came into view, also floating above the grass. A corner of black fabric rippled sinuously in the still morning air, ornate gray symbols woven into it.
Kyle felt terror grip him, choking the air from his lungs. His gaze went upward, despite every fiber of his being screaming for him to look away. Goosebumps rose over every inch of his body, a cold sweat pouring down his arms and dripping down his flanks. Still, his gaze went upward. Two black boots, and then black pants. A black shirt, with an endlessly rippling cloak wrapped around it.
Master Banar's head jerked upward as the long, metal pole impaling it was pulled free, the sharpened end crimson with blood. Kyle followed the length of the pole, seeing the pale hand that gripped it. He saw a pale face, black eyes sunken deep within its skull, a thick, knotted scar on its left temple. Short black hair. And in the center of the forehead, a lone, shimmering, diamond-shaped green crystal.
Kyle tried to scream, but nothing came out.
“I warned you about defying me,” the Dead Man said, his low, smooth voice sending chills down Kyle's spine. Then his pale lips twisted into a smile. “But I forgive you.”
Kyle felt something wet and sticky press against the back of his neck, and then darkness took him.
Chapter 10
Kalibar stared out of the glass windows of his suite, at the ant-sized people swarming through the streets around the site of the attack. Where the bank had once stood, regal and imposing, there was only rubble now. The response to the disaster had been nothing short of amazing. It had been less than a half-hour, and already his Weavers had removed the majority of the debris, using large gravity spheres to suck in tons of stone at a time, then sending the debris-laden spheres beyond the city limits. Runics had already placed wards around the site, preventing passers-by from looting, and from interfering with the cleanup process.
Kalibar lowered his gaze to his feet. Combined with the prison break earlier that morning, he'd thought that the attack on the bank would've caused a near-panic within the city. In fact, the exact opposite had happened; people from all over the city had responded to the blast. Doctors had immediately set up tents to treat victims, sending the sickest to the surrounding hospitals. Others had organized crews to help find victims stuck in the rubble. Surrounding grocers had offered to bring food and water to help the relief crews stay nourished. The governor himself had just returned from giving a speech a few blocks from the site, praising the efforts of the people. It had been enormously gratifying to know that, far from resulting in terror, the strike against Stridon had brought its people closer together.
Still, Kalibar knew that his citizens would demand answers as to who had done this...and whether or not their government would protect them from another attack. He'd wanted to travel to the site to give a speech addressing these concerns, but his elite guard had cautioned against it out of concern for his safety. Speculation abounded on whether some of the escaped prisoners from the jailbreak earlier – many of them powerful Weavers themselves – were responsible for destroying the bank. Kalibar didn't particularly care; he assumed that Xanos was behind both events, regardless of the specifics. It was a classic strategy when laying siege to an enemy; promote chaos, induce panic, reduce morale. Make the populace question the effectiveness of their elected officials. Make them feel unsafe. It hadn't worked this time, but after enough attacks, the will of the people would break.
Terror, Kalibar knew all too well, was a very effective weapon.
A knock came at his door. Kalibar pushed aside his annoya
nce at the interruption, walking up to the magical door guarding the entrance, seeing one of his Battle-Weavers standing on the other side. Kalibar activated the door, making it translucent for the Weaver.
“Your excellency,” the Weaver greeted, bowing stiffly. “Grand Runic Erasmus requests an audience with you in the Runic Archives.”
Kalibar nodded, opening the door and allowing himself to be led down the hallway to the riser. This brought them swiftly to the 32nd floor. where the Runic Archives was located. It represented the largest repository of magical artifacts in the Empire. Surprisingly, many of these artifacts had been found on one small island hundreds of miles west of Stridon...an island that was responsible for the recent renaissance in runic technology, and the international dominance of the Empire.
No one knew the Archives better than Erasmus, who had, until recently, been the Head Archivist for the Secula Magna. He'd stepped down after beginning his second term as Grand Runic, but everyone assumed that Erasmus would resume being Head Archivist after his term ended...if he lived that long.
In addition to the Archives, there was the Testing Chamber...a room designed for testing both Ancient runic artifacts and new runic inventions. The Testing Chamber had powerful magical shields on every surface – walls, floor, and ceiling – and an attached viewing room that allowed for remote activation of the runic item being tested. The room had been designed that way after more than one Runic had been blown to bits experimenting with Ancient runic relics.
And, quite appropriately, that was where Erasmus's most skilled Runics had attempted to decode Kyle's ring.
When the riser stopped, Kalibar and his Battle-Weaver escort walked to the front door of the Archives. Erasmus was there, standing just outside of the door. When he saw Kalibar, he rushed forward, grabbing Kalibar by the arm.