"Hilda what has Fafnir been up to?"
A simple question.
"He's been meeting with several lower members of his family in the morning. There was a period of time where we didn't have any sight on him but that was in his own house."
A simple answer
"Find out what those conversations with those family members were about subtly. Nothing can trace back to us. Also whatever he was doing in his house find out. If anything incriminates him, get proof. Then place it on my father's desk and the Dwarf king's desk. I need it done within the next two hours, I don't want to keep master Nordri."
"Yes my Prince, it will be done." Then she vanished from in front of my eyes.
A simple efficient response.
I love it how when you live by deadlines everything becomes efficient. All my actions are efficient now a days. I think the tranquility rune is very useful in this regard.
[You haven't realized it until now, but that rune is making you more cold and calculated]
Oh really? Well it's certainly useful now
[And slightly ruthless, you do know espionage is illegal and entering a foreign king's office is especially illegal]
With what proof? I'll be here at Nordri's the whole time.
If anyone comes here they would have to question the voracity of Master Nordri's alibi which is impossible. The man is practically the leader of the Dwarven race.
[You seem pretty dead set on Fafnir]
Something about hun rubs me the wrong way.
But just to leave no stone unturned, I'm having Muninn substantiate the source of the rumors from above ground. All I need is one dwarf coming out of the blacksmith guild pointing Hilda in the right direction.
[Very thorough. How's the cereal mixed with the tears of a soon to be sad dwarf]
"Although this cereal was self made, it was pretty filling. Wow look at the time, It's been five minutes so back to work!"
[With only a few sentences the whole city is about to know the meaning of your nick name]
Which one?
Devious Hand
_____
As I was forging with Nordri I can tell he was becoming increasingly nervous about something.
I stopped and turned to him, "Master Nordri is something bothering you?"
Before he can respond a bunch of knocks came from the front door.
Nordri got up and took me to the front door. There we see several dwarf soldiers and the King of the Dwarves.
"Hello your majesty is something the matter", said Nordri.
I was a lot less formal, "Hello Hreidmar, has something happened?"
The dwarf king looked at me and Nordri with a weird expression.
"Ah yes Loki I was confirming something. You haven't left Nordri's place the whole day correct?"
I looked at him and nodded, "yes, every Tyr's day I'm always here with master Nordri, he's been a great help to my studies."
The king looked at Nordri who confirmed this with a nod.
The king awkwardly smiled. "I just came here to check on you Loki and see if your training is going well. Did you bring any friends to over look to your needs? If you haven't, can arrange someone to be here?"
And let a spy in?
"There's no need to bother you, my needs are taken care if. I'm actually very self sufficient. My normal maid is not here today though. I opened up a shop today and she's helping coordinate things from my castles study to ensure nothing goes wrong. She should be working currently."
Now people might think I have given myself away but my Valkyries are very deceptive. They are always hidden in plane sight in the castle but almost no one know their true identity. Not only that, there's a reason Hilda always catches me.
She has the affinities of darkness allowing her to go invisible should she choose to. Her warrior training gives her a plethora of other abilities dedicated to this including body doubles.
Ever since Hilda disclosed to me the true purpose of the Valkyries I decided to have her head a little ring of spies.
I gave her some useful ideas to spy and now it looks like she cultivated some little birds.
If there's one thing I know about battle, it's that the key to everything is having more information than your opponent.
And now I'll let the world know my pain of being found by Hilda.
[How can you be so childish yet brilliant at the same time]
I saw the Dwarf King nodding as if he's going to go ahead and confirm this information.
"Oh Loki, before I leave I need to inform you that your shop was the victim of a vicious smear today. The perpetrator has been removed of his station and exiled into the forest," he said strictly.
I responded with obvious schadenfreude, "Oh thank you Hreidmar, I'm glad your justice department works fast. Can I ask, What was this rumor?"
"The perpetrator was spreading rumors on the efficiency and source of your medicines. He took the fact that they only worked on humans and would most certainly kill dwarves as reason to slander you," he said strictly.
I then responded shocked, "Wait, I specifically ordered my staff not to administer medicine to dwarves for that reason. I haven't studied the dwarves structure enough to see if it would be harmful or not. Not to mention that the dosage for a human would be much more than a dwarf can handle."
"This dwarf also took it upon himself to hire a human to buy medicine for a headache he had. Apparently the Aspirin that was distributed to him was given to a test subject of the perpetrator. That dwarf almost died from severe blood loss after he got a cut accidentally," said the dwarf king.
I then bowed to the king, "I apologize for the pain this has caused. I had no idea someone wanted medicine for the dwarves that badly. I originally intended to build rapport with the Aesir but seeing as your kind would like to have some benefits I can speed up my studies of the dwarf body."
[The bait is cast]
The dwarf king then smiled, "Loki, no need to stress yourself out, it should be me who apologizes. The perpetrator was my only son. I should have raised him better. I exiled him personally with only the family ring I carry on me for him to keep. If he can survive 10 years in the wilderness and come back with that ring intact, I will consider welcoming him back. I hope this form of justice satisfies you."
[Reeling in ]
"That is more than enough. I thank you for protecting me. I see your plight and know this has hurt you deeply so I won't say anymore on this subject. I can promise you though the Dwarves will get my products soon." I thanked the Dwarf King again and looked to Nordri.
[You caught a whole bunch of customers!]
Nordri then took the cue and said, "My king, we have some work to get back to, thank you for stopping by."
The king nodded and walked away with his guards.
Nordri then closed the door and looked at me intently. "Why didn't you exact vengeance yourself?"
I looked to Nordri with a calm smile, "Why should I? I'm not a Giant or Ymir. I have no place choosing the fate of my enemy. If it comes between him and me I'll choose me every time but this was not a life or death situation. This was just a small rumor. All I did was report him is all. The king knew I didn't take it too far and I even gave him benefits."
Nordri looked at me with a smile, "You have a really good and wise head on your shoulders."
"Thank you Master", I said loving the praise.
"But be aware that sometimes leniency isn't the answer."
I looked at him confused.
Maybe it's because of my ideas on justice but being excessive seems like the straight path to evil.
"I'll try to be wiser then so no one can get the jumó on me."
He then had the evil glint in his eyes. "How about we test that wise head of yours on your Runic Knowledge?"
!!!
[to quote a famous admiral, "It's a trap!"]
_________
Okay I complain about it but Rune Smithing is a fascinating subject that is basically magic fused with logic programing. Its slightly complicated, but ill try and explain it well.
Rune Smithing has only two components. super simple..
A rune and a power source. These power sources can be gems, or some form of mana. Apparently the carbon content of crystal lattices in gems are a great way to store Mana. Rubies hold fire mana, while Sapphires hold water mana. Emeralds hold earth mana, while Peridot hold Wind mana. There are other gems that can hold compound elements but the most important one is diamonds who hold pure mana.
These gems are implanted near or around runes and the runes will automatically draw mana from them. the best part is that some gems are rechargeable if you set it up the correct way.
Which brings us to runes and how to set them up correctly.
Firstly the runic language is long. Hundreds of runes all meaning one word. Learning the first hundred only makes you an Apprentice.
The way I understand them is as a type of coding language. I have separated runes into two categories, Command Runes and Logic Runes.
The Command Rune can cause all kinds of effects like Levitation, Fireball, Refigeration, etc.
The Logic Rune have no effects except controlling when the action of the Command Rune will happen.
This works because Rune Smithing revolves around where the energy from a gem goes.
The steps to Rune Smithing are simple in that a forgemaster would first carve a Command Rune somewhere. It could be a wall or a block of wood. The second step would be getting his power source near the wood. The gem would not automatically provide power to the rune so he has to link the gem and the rune. He would then carve a Logic Rune into the gem telling it to provide power to the Command rune it is near.
Its very simple until we start dealing with multiple runes and multiple gems.
An example would be a Diamond Gem next to two command runes. One that says Col (Cold) and another Bruni (Hot).
How does the diamond know where to send its energy? Simple you carve logic into it. You can state which one using the logic rune word En, which means "if" and the logic rune word Pa, which means "then".
So in essence I can carve "En Col Pa Bruni" which means If Cold, then Hot. It is a command line that states if temperature gets cold use the Bruni rune. This only works because the command runes interact with the environment. A spike in temperature will cause the Bruni rune to start to charge up which can be sensed by the gem it is carved on. This specific rune set would be perfect for an air conditioner.
There are two other logic runes, Enda and Eda, in which the first means and while the other means or. Using these Logic Runes, all kinds of effects can be achieved.
And that's not even the crazy part. The amount of command runes are incomplete in the encyclopedia as any word can become a word of power. Some smart people are known to make up their own runes. Its a complicated process, but possible.
The original runes I am learning were the same words used by the giants to describe things. The Dwarves honored them by granting the words their power.
In any case, the rune commands are split into five branches with four signifying an element. What's even cooler is just like the elements, I can combine runes from two different branches to signify a compound element.
The fifth branch signifies attribute-less commands. Basically commanding mana itself to do something. These were used to set up shapes with mana or when used in conjunction with runes, to add adjectives to the commands of the elements. Making a fireball spin in the air would be an application of this.
An astounding part of this is that this is basically a small scale computer.
Currently, I have to first learn hundreds of runes before I can even think about carving them which is why Nordri has this as my homework as I study the basics of Blacksmithing.
Honestly, due to the stress of forging so much, I have barely been able to read the damn runic book by the time I leave Nordri's.
My little body is being ground to mush again.
On the brightside, I was able to forge a sword the other day.
[It broke when Nordri tested it]
Progress nonetheless.