Chapter 14: Untangling the runes
Darius read the beginning fifty runes, and decided that it was a good start to begin with them. The rune for water was just an open triangle with a circle inside. He could draw this without a problem. The demon boy took the pencil and the sheet of paper that the shopkeeper had left for him, and drew the rune. Now, came the hard part.
What was the mana ratio? What was the mana sequence that he needed to keep, to fill up the rune? He had no idea. So, he flipped the pages of the notebook. There were about five pages on what different writing utensils could do for a rune. He didn't need them at this point. The shopkeeper had given him a pencil, and he didn't have a choice but to use it.
After a bit more page flipping, he found the section on mana.
Depending on the rune, the mana flow has different natures.
Darius scoffed. That didn't help him at all. More than that, it hindered him. For, if he understood it all right, then the water rune would have a different flow than the air rune. Still, he read further.
Different forces of nature have different mana flow. The best way to get the flow, is to come in contact with the force of nature. The purer the source, the better.
"May I have a glass of water, please?" Darius asked, and the shopkeeper nodded. He went to the back of the shop, and came back with a glass. Placing it down, his eyes sparkled as Darius pored some of his own mana inside, and watched it swirl.
"Did you figure it all out already?" The man asked, and Darius nodded.
"I think I did. But there must be more to it than simple mana flow," Darius said. What other reason was there for the runes to be so expensive? Figuring the mana flow was something almost everyone could do. Andiel had taught him, when they had healing lessons. Darius flipped the pages, until he reached the next section.
Runes are a bloody business. They need to sacrifice. The more painful the sacrifice for the caster, the more powerful the rune.
A cold shiver ran down Darius's spine. Sacrifice? Like, killing people, and the like? He looked up at the shopkeeper.
"With what sacrifice was the preservation rune made, sir?" Darius wanted to know if he was going to be burying one person today, or two.
"A cow. One that gave a lot of milk and for which loss the farmers were desolate. You have to understand something, my boy. Normally, sacrifices are stolen animals and people. I have to admit that most of my stock comes from necromancers," the man said with a smirk. Andiel placed a hand over Darius's arm.
"You don't need to learn such things," the elf said with a frown. "In fact, I rather you don't."
"Runes sound like something I will use anyway. By making sure that the runes, I use are the ones I make, I can be certain that the sacrifices were not stolen," Darius said, and then cut his hand over the paper. He watched, transfixed, as the paper absorbed the blood, but didn't let any drip to the table. As his blood fed the paper, he began to pour the mana in the water's pattern.
"Darius," Andiel exclaimed, but his son didn't pay him much attention. The demon boy felt a soft tugging, and knew that something was trying to break away from him. Suddenly fearful, he stopped the flow of mana, and saw the paper glow brightly for a minute, and then the glow disappeared.
"Well, let me see what your blood did?" The shopkeeper reached out, and took the rune. Then, he held it up over the now empty water glass, and poured some mana inside. The glass was soon filled with water.
"I have to say, most runesmiths don't use their own blood, despite it being the most powerful tool," the man said, and smiled at Darius. "By not wanting to go the way of the outlaw, you figured the best possible way to make a rune."
"So, you will teach me?" Darius asked. The man shook his head. Darius wilted, and was ready to argue about his good qualities as a student, when the man took out notebook stacks, and handed them over.
"You have to understand, my boy, that I am no runesmith. Had I been, I wouldn't have been buying runes with stolen sacrifices. That said, my father was a runesmith of a great caliber. These are his notes. You may keep them. When you make notes of your own, do return these, so I can give them to someone else."
"I will," Darius promised, as he took all the notebooks in his hands. "Why are there so few?"
There were only seven notebooks in total. The shopkeeper just winked.
"You have to understand that the best runesmiths invent their own runes. My father invented thousands, but he didn't share them. He had a good memory, so, after he invented something, he destroyed the research. If you want to truly be his student, then you have to be able to make your own runes," with that, the shopkeeper packaged the preservation rune, and took the gold coin that Andiel placed down. "Do come back again. If you have any of the B and up rank runes for sale, I will get them off your hands."
Darius gulped. The water rune was F ranked, and he had to bleed quite a lot for it. Just what was a B ranked rune going to cost him? Andiel seemed to have sensed his thoughts because he frowned at the other man.
"Alek, my son won't be making anything higher than F ranked runes until he is fourteen, at least," Andiel said, and the shopkeeper, who Darius now knew was named Alek, grinned at him.
"Runesmiths are sneaky. Still, let it not be said that I awoke the fire of rebellion in a small boy. You take your pace with all of this now, young Demon. The important thing is to not let the rune tug at your soul," with those words, Alek looked behind them, and Darius saw that there was another client behind them. The father and son duo left the shop, with Darius already making plans to make and sell runes to restore the gold coin they have spent.
