---

"What do you mean, runes?!" Jen asked into the silence, sliding closer to Avan as he sat. "You can even recognize the runes that weave and hold the incantation together?!"

A mixture of excitement, awe, and curiosity raced across the young healer's face as her eyes glittered. "Even my teachers didn't know much to say about it when I asked them holes in their bellies! And as far as I know, even the leaders at Haipu's mage academy are researching and puzzling over exactly how magic is woven!"

More to herself, with a quick sideways glance into the flames of the soothing campfire, she murmured; "But it would make so much sense... Above all, this knowledge MUST be commonplace on the other continents... right?"

Turning the piercing gaze back to Avan's face, she continued louder. "The general theory is that magic follows the will of the mage, and the system just makes it happen. Poof, out of nowhere, so to speak! But runes? That makes so much more sense! Even enchantments are based on runes of any kind, and there are as many runes as there are words in all languages for everything..."

"But how the bloody hell can you see the rune? On the one hand, the spell is cast in such a short time, and on the other hand, you can't even see it with your normal eyes! So how?!"

Avan, who was visibly surprised and didn't expect to have opened Pandora's box with it, slid a little further to the left, and even earned a short chuckle and an understanding look from Patris, who nevertheless also looked at him with great interest.

Only Linob, Jen's guard, continued to look grim, as if he suspected Avan of treason, and had also overheard everything, even though he was sitting a good five meters away at the edge of the small clearing.

Raising both hands in surrender, Avan tried to placate the young woman. "Stop, stop! What do you mean? Isn't that common knowledge? I mean, runes also have various elemental effects, and all you have to do is channel mana through them, don't you? How is that not common knowledge?!" He asked the counter-question, and was relieved to see Jen's ears twitch amusingly for a moment, and her mouth quirked thoughtfully to the side, her gaze once again fixed on the flames.

A few seconds passed, and just as she was about to speak on the subject again, Dani stepped into the clearing, a rope with two slain rabbits over her left shoulder, while her enchanted bow hung over the other. "Heeeey, look what I brought us!"

Avan expelled the held breath with visible relief, even though he hadn't realized he had held it. With a wave to Dani and another grin from Patris, the topic quickly changed to food preparations, and he gingerly summoned some of the herbs from Akkalon's dungeon while pretending to pull them out of his backpack. Jen kept eyeing him thoughtfully and curiously as she talked quietly with Dani, who was working on some perfectly straight branches with a knife and making more arrows for herself, glancing over at Avan whenever the young healer gestured.

Patris herself had fished out a wooden plate and was working on the two rabbits, skinning them, removing the innards and preparing everything for Avan's stew, which was already simmering quietly. A kind of tripod made of longer and sturdier branches stood over the campfire, with a hook-like branch at the top in the middle, where the group's tin pot could then be hung.

Avan's group had been visibly excited when he had tied this construction, since they themselves had apparently always placed hot stones or the pot simply directly in the embers, as could be seen more than a little on the sooty tin pot.

Also when he had pulled out the herbs and had thrown them into the boiling water, together with some salt and a spice that smelled and tasted damn like pepper, the others twitched their noses in rapture at the smell and you could see how their mouths were already watering.

When the rabbits were added to the herb broth in small bite-sized pieces, the small clearing smelled wonderful, and the rest of the conversation fell completely silent as everyone waited impatiently for the food.

Wooden bowls and something like wooden spoons stood before everyone, and when Avan, after tasting the food, gave the nod, Patris, surprisingly, snatched the bronze ladle right out of his hand and, with an apologetic look, piled some in first, which he immediately pounced on.

A "glutton" came from Dani in his direction, and he just shrugged his shoulders, while he groaned and grinned with his mouth full, giving a thumbs up in Avan's direction, much to the smirk of all involved.

Everyone was served food in turn, and even though Avan didn't quite like Jen's guard, he had also offered him something, which the man had declined and nibbled on his own rations. Apparently, not only was he not involved in fighting, but he didn't want to interfere or participate in any other way as long as Jen wasn't in danger, which was totally fine with Avan.

Halfway through emptying his own bowl with relish, Jen suddenly turned back to him and stared at him for a few seconds while she herself handled the spoon gracefully and in a very distinguished manner. Seemingly with more important things on her mind than finishing her food, she placed the bowl and spoon in it between her legs, and thoughtfully mouthed off again.

"Say, Avan..."

He looked at her with raised eyebrows, and continued eating while waiting for her.

"Sooooo..." began Jen, stopping briefly to look at her hands in her lap. "Do you think you can render the rune? Or... much more likely, the rune structure you saw?"

Now Dani and Patris were watching with interest as well, while both took second helpings once without comment and continued munching.

"Only if it doesn't cause any trouble, of course..." The young healer spoke hastily afterwards, and again kneaded her hands slightly nervously, only to look up in surprise when Avan replied.

"Sure. Why not."

And even more surprised when he too set down his now empty bowl further to the left and picked up the sooty stick Patris had been poking at the fire with earlier.

With his other hand, he took one of the remaining stones from the campfire and wiped a small 30-centimeter area free of grass, leaving only earth underneath.

There he concentrated on drawing the rune structure, which was still floating in front of his inner mind, but the first few times he had to smooth everything out again, because his hand could not exactly imitate what he saw so clearly and distinctly in front of him.

Doesn't this have anything to do with Dexterity?! But I already have 130 points in it... Oh, speaking of points, I have 470 points to give out, damn it, Avan you idiot!

100 points sank directly with a mental command from his freely available pool and disappeared into his Dexterity score, which was now 230.

A shudder ran through him, his muscles loosened noticeably, but tightened at the same time, and a new kind of sensitivity and flexibility turned to his fingertips, which just made another attempt to draw the rune structure.

A brief expelled curse later, and an earth once again smoothed out, Avan tried again. This time it went much more securely by the hand and he was able to record the rune much more clearly and without major errors, but still something gnawed at the back of his head.

Something else was missing, even if it felt more like a little nudge to get him over the threshold. With a hint of a hunch, Avan took another look at his stats and the meaning behind them, following an intuition to put 50 points each into wisdom and intelligence, which still left him with a whopping 270 free stat points.

As soon as these 100 stat points were equally distributed in wisdom and intelligence, something clicked in his subconscious, and he continued drawing without having to start all over again.

When the rune got the last stroke, and he just lifted the sooty stick, suddenly something crashed into him mentally with full force, and he toppled over backwards, almost as if someone had torn all the air out of his lungs, and as if he had been physically hit by a car, only without flying through the air for meters.

Avan's eyes rolled into white, and he crashed with full force into a kind of unconsciousness, but still strangely aware of his surroundings thanks to his sphere of influence.

 

DIVINE ???

 

E̸̙̅̆̄r̴̠̬̎̀͝r̶̢̦̻̖̄ǫ̸͕̦̥̿̇ͅr̴͉͗̀̉͊!̵̢̡͙̺̝͗̒͐̕

̵̹̮̜̓͒̎̒͘ͅM̷͕̼͇̳̒͠ę̵̬̰̒ṁ̶̪͚͝o̸͕͓̮̳͂̀̍̏ṛ̶̡͖̟̇y̸̼̱̫̜̿̆̅ ̸̡̻͙̯̘͗̑̚f̸̢̲͕͗̒̂͘r̶̳̿ḁ̸̧̰̤͓̌g̸͇̯̠̭͇̈̅̍͌m̶̧͈̒̒̑̋̕e̶͈͔͙̋͋̂ͅn̷͉͛t̴̛̰̫̫̳͙ ̸̨̝͕̦̼͠i̸̤̣͇͂̏͆͒̋ń̴͈̏͋̎͛s̵̨̼̗̔̕u̵̢̩̽̐̏f̴͓͕͑f̵̛̮̩̻̌̃̃͝i̸̩̰̖͕̰͝c̴̢̛̉̈́̽͂ǐ̶̜̲͚̟e̶̯̭̽̋n̶̢͚͂̑t̷̮͓̦̓̈́͑͠! ̸̨̹͍͛͐̄

̸̖͚̪̥̉F̵͓̹̘͑̽͝r̵̬̼̳̙͗́̆̂ͅȧ̴̮̰̆͠ģ̸̜̥̲̋͗͑m̵̧̬͎̈́̏̄ę̴̥̙́n̷̘̿̀͌̽̋ṭ̵̨̢̝̓á̴̠̳̾̽̑̂ṭ̴͙̑ḭ̸͈̞̋̄͊̌͜ͅo̴͇̥̳̠̿n̸̳͗͜ ̵͕̑t̸͕̝̞̱̊͊͘͜͝o̷̜̣̓̈́o̶̢̺̍̄ ̵̘̈͌͐̀̉h̵̹͍̾ữ̶̞̏g̶͓͕͕͔̈̉̕e̵̢̝̼̾́̓͜͝!̷̡͚͙͍̣́

̶̧̥̫̼͋͊͐̆M̷̥̝͑́̓̂ͅo̶̞͇͂̊̅̌ȑ̴̝̐́̅̍ȇ̴͚̼͚̝̝͒̍ ̸̰͋f̷̧̳͉̦̣͊̋̃̋̕r̸̈̆̀̾͑͜ạ̸́g̶̤̥̻̼̾͌̏͝ḿ̸̦̀͜ȩ̷̂̋͜n̴̖̆t̸̹̾̿̍͝s̶̢͍̻̔͋̂͌ ̷̻̪͌͑͐n̸̟̮̿͑͒̿̚e̸̫͛͑̚ẹ̴̿̒d̵̨̹̳̟̮͘͝e̶̙̠̰͚͆ͅd̴͙͎͚̩̂!̵̛̱̝͓̒̎̊

 

[Origin of Runes] unlocked!

 

If Avan could have raised his eyebrows now, he would have. But as it was, he simply sank into a deep sleep, while the others around him looked at him in panic and tried to talk to him in gibberish, to no avail, until these noises also faded away with the sleep.

 

---

Avan stood in a void, surrounded by countless and infinite luminous celestial bodies shining from an incomprehensible distance.

Actually, he should have been afraid to float in a black void, or to stand, or to sit? He just didn't know at the moment, and pushed the unimportant thought aside. Fragments of memory crawled through his brain, but everything was so blurry and unclear that he simply could not recognize anything except light and dark. He knew whatever he was seeing was incredibly important, but it slipped through the imaginary hands of himself every time.

Celestial bodies on the horizon, or in the infinite expanse that surrounded him like a cloak, disappeared, imploded, exploded, and in another place new ones appeared again. Poof, as if from nowhere, from afar not to see why or why not.

His head hurt, even if he didn't know why. Or how it could be, to feel a headache in a dream, especially of this strength and kind.

Shooting stars passed in the distance, colliding here and there.

The nothingness, the darkness, was heavy, as if he could not breathe. Nevertheless, Avan had no problem breathing. Or was he breathing at all?

It was difficult to get his thoughts, sensations, and senses into an orderly measure, and every attempt simply failed.

Avan was, simply. There was no body when he looked at himself like that, just a vast expanse, like a cloud of infinite energy. Power hung by a thread, always at hand, always ready to obey his every thought.

Not simply obey. The energy begged for it, wishing Avan would give it direction. A determination to do something, to be something. To create something.

Suddenly, runes flashed before his inner eye. Although Avan had no eyes here.

 

Odd.

 

The runes danced before him, and he suddenly knew, without straining, that they would obey him as well. In this form.

In his human form? Perhaps. Partially. Minimally.

But it would be enough. Something gnawed at his consciousness, something wanted to tell him something important, but couldn't get through.

He had forgotten, he knew that now.

But what had he forgotten? And why?

How could he recover these memories?

 

Questions upon questions flashed through his mind, faster than light, faster and clearer than anyone had ever thought possible, or would ever think possible.

And suddenly another feeling arose, something that had nothing to do with the here and now. Nothing to do with the blackness. With the void.

Something approached, and as if emerging from a viscous dream, his human brain cleared and he knew red wolves were approaching the clearing.

His sphere of influence showed and felt it to the smallest detail, clearer than ever before, and clearer than he could ever SEE in his mortal body.

If he had felt this clarity while awake, he would have screamed in pain and writhed on the ground. But in the void? As normal as breathing, even though he was not breathing here.

 

And with a mental header into the molasses of nothingness, Avan startled again and abruptly sat upright.

 

---

 

"Red wolves are coming!" Was the first thing Avan spouted, jolting a wild-eyed Dani, who was sitting with her back to the fire to probably better peer into the darkness.

"HOLY SHIT, AVAN!" She cried out as she jolted up and turned to face him, stiff as a board, bow ready in hand, arrow already nocked.

"No time for that! I have a sense for this, and right now ten of the red wolves are sneaking up on our camp from the north!" Was all Avan said, and Dani closed her mouth again, which had just opened to another curse.

The others were also startled and rubbed their eyes as they heard the last sentence clearly, as opposed to the first cry that had merely woken them up.

Quickly and without questioning Avan, Dani cursing because she had only just discovered the blood of the two rabbits dripping into the grass, they all gathered their things and Patris took out one of the blood bags.

Dani, without comment and still cursing quietly to herself about some foolishness, took the blood bag and ran west into the forest, while splashes of animal blood were already dripping on the ground by her side, far enough away from her, leading a trail away from the camp.

The others, meanwhile, quickly headed south, disappearing behind some trees. Patris also explained a few seconds later, whispering, that the wind was blowing from the west, and so Dani laid a false blood trail in that direction, so that the group could then fall into the wolves' backs without them smelling them in the wind.

Avan had, as soon as his things were stowed in the backpack, also armed himself without comment and the others saw for the first time his billowing midnight-black spheres, which hovered in fives over his heads.

I must not overdo it, and five of these spheres should already raise too many questions, let alone if I would conjure up even more...

And so the three of them, Linob as the fourth quietly watching even further behind them, waited for the creeping wolves to pick up the new trail, which they did almost immediately, to Avan's observation in his sphere of influence.

 

---

 

Fun fact:
I needed to ask Rhaegar about the special FONT you can find inside this chapter! (And in future chapters, too!)
Just remembered it was used in Azarinth Healer, too...

 

So, if you never read Azarinth Healer, SHAME! Go, do it, now! ^_^