For the first time in months, four people were eating at the Orwell households dining table. One of them was Jack's father, Gerard Orwell. A short and very muscular man. He had a clean shaven face and dark brown hair, with piercing blue eyes.
Despite his physique, it would be a stretch to call him intimidating as he gave off a strong fatherly feel. Something he picked up from raising his little sister, Noma.
Noma Jackson, Gerard took his wife's last name, stood at a whopping 6ft 7in, and towered over everyone else at the table sitting down. She had light brown hair bleached by the sun and though well into her old age hardly looked a day over thirty. She had toned muscles similar to her brother and the same deep blue eyes. Their uncanny similarities paired with stark size differences made quite the funny sight.
Sitting in between them was Martha Orwell. Jack's mother and one of the few "true" Flesh Scribes in the Feidra Kingdom. She barely reached the height of 4ft 9in. Cutting off Jack's last hope at ever being tall, unless he takes after his aunt of course. And unlike the "muscle monsters," as she calls them, she was at a much more reasonable fitness level.
She had dark brown hair similar to her husband's but unlike him, her blue eyes were of a much lighter pigmentation.
The final person at the table was Jackson Orwell. He sat there silently trying to keep a smile from forming on his face. A task made challenging by the mixture of pride he feels for finally taking his "first step" as a Flesh Scribe and the joy of being able to eat dinner with his entire family instead of just Noma.
As both, his parents are insanely busy people it feels like it's been years since they all had dinner together.
"My boy is finally a man!"
"Dad, please don't word it like that"
"Oh loosen up ya bitter pill. You only just started your life, you can't already start acting all mature and jaded. Trust me from one Flesh Scribe to another, this is both the biggest and easiest step you will ever take in your pathway. And now that I have a little time at home, I'm going to spend every spare moment teaching you. Got that?"
"Yes ma'am"
…
As the weeks passed and the day of nomination was drawing near, Jack worked with his parents and Noma to "get ready for the real world." Noma taught him cooking, cleaning, fist fighting, sewing, and a variety of other important life skills.
Gerard, his father couldn't get much time off, and had almost no time with him but still squeezed in some lessons on proper book maintenance and really drove home the importance of making friends, or at the very least connections.
Finally, his mother, Martha taught him lessons in Flesh Scribing. The do's and don'ts of the profession, a couple of important beginner languages translated from basic, and more advanced knowledge on what he's been learning.
…
"Alright kiddo, quiz time. Why can you never use just Senker when writing code for anyone other than yourself."
"It's because Senker and similar languages were designed to be used as an auxiliary. They pump pure energy into people's bodies that if not accounted for in the code could lead to serious illnesses like 'Mana poisoning,' but due to the nature of those languages, they themselves can't control the overspill of energy."
"The reason why I can use them on myself is because even amongst members of a Rune Pathways I have an unnaturally high resistance, nearly an immunity, to invasive energies, especially mana."
"Next question. What purposes do the languages Senker, Edmac, and Arket have when applied to Flesh Scribing."
"Senker Is a great language for beginners to create a sudo-generator to power their code. The only real issue is that it can only supply elemental energies and has limited to no protections against energy overflow. Edmac is an important language for any grade of Flesh Scribe. It Uses 'unfolded' runes to create stable mana channels, and is, in many cases, the go-to way to transport energy from one location to another in flesh scribing. Its biggest weakness is it can only channel mana and mana derivatives like elemental energies."
" Lastly, Arket is a sort of 'space saver.'As a low-level Fleshscribe I can only really work with the skin; so Arket is a good option for me. It's a weakened form of spell formations created using pure spell script with symbols as 'anchors.' It works by placing a symbol with suitable power and element on the skin and then creating 'domes' of spell script into the air. And since for most people, except mages, spell script is invisible it's a good way to save space on the skin for other codes.
Its biggest weakness is that altho Flesh Scribes can use spell script, it's not our expertise. Therefore the complexity of our works using this method alone are quite low."
"Very good. Last question before the written portion. Using all functional languages you know and what Noma has been teaching you about fighting, create a battle-oriented code you could put on someone with a low resistance to mana. Whether attack, defense, movement, or otherwise as long as it seems functional and doesn't cause severe side effects to the client, patron, subject, consumer, or really just whatever you want to call them."
"Uhhhhhhhh, alright. I would start off with three wind symbols, one on the chest, one on the upper back, and one on the lower back. I would create two-way Edmac channels underneath the shoulder blades across the rib cage and around the pectorals to the symbol on the chest for one set, and down the spinal column directly to the symbol for the other."
"Then I would apply a mixture of Minor Senker and Arket to turn the Symbol on the upper back into a 'super' generator for the wind element that when fed with a constant stream of energy from the other two symbols would shut off. By 'energy from the other two symbols,' I plan on applying similar concepts to the other two symbols to create external wind batteries. That's also why I specified two-way channels instead of one way."
"Ok, looking good so far, but I still don't see the combat application. Keep in mind that no mage would have such a low mana tolerance so if you think you can cop out with just creating some elemental batteries think again."
"Don't worry I'm not an idiot. Weren't you wondering why I specified those locations and the wind element? It's because I plan on creating a wind current shield. Altho I'm not very skilled at creating functioning spells, I sure as hell can create spell scripts capable of funneling wind energy between two specified points."
"It won't be very effective against most magics, but it should be able to divert relatively weaker physical attacks. Such as fists, daggers, swords, slingshots, and arrows. But I would like to specify only in a single burst and not against an overwhelming force. The only thing I really need to sit down and think about is how to create an effective activation method."
Martha slowly nods her head before walking over to Jack. Without any indication of what she was planning she suddenly scoops Jack up into a massive hug and starts beaming.
"Now that's what I'm talking about! You actually came up with something so quickly, and it even seems possible. Sure saying is always easier than doing, but we both know you only included into your code things we've already worked on before. Heck, even that current 'spell' was just an offshoot of our elemental burst lesson."
"Do you have any idea how impressive that is? To already have created a prototype only a couple of months into any of the Rune Pathways let alone what's considered the hardest one? It took me nearly a whole year and five more languages before I came up with a functioning prototype and I was considered a genius."
"Well, did you have a genius teacher to help along the way?" Jack replied cheekily.
"Yes I did, but good try at flattery; you're getting better at it."
…
"Arms up or next time I'll break your nose," Noma stated in a deathly serious tone.
"Oh stop talking and just hit him. He's not going to toughen up without getting a broken nose here and there." Martha shouted from the sidelines.
As the next couple lessons in the book were all about applications of Flesh Scribing in combat; Jack's mom decided to postpone them and instead buckle down on physical training. She justified it by saying, "Trust me, getting your teeth kicked in here will save you from dying out there." So, Noma and Jack started out the day with cardio, resistance training, and coordination practice."
"They then went into footwork and form. Eventually ending the day by playing a "game." All Jack had to do was funnel mana into his hands and tap her main body to win, anything but appendages. Not surprisingly it was way harder than it sounded, meaning he hadn't gotten her once. Even after a full hour of this "training."
"When he asked why he was learning such a weird fighting style he was just met with even harder training, instead of just running away Noma started fighting back. Roughly another hour of nonstop training later Noma held up her hand in Jack's path, making him fall and land square onto his back.
"Alright, I'll have to leave you here to go make dinner. Is that ok with you?"
"UUGGGHHHHHAARRR"
"Ok, I'm going to take that as a yes." As Noma walked towards the kitchen, not a single sign of exhaustion marred her face, it didn't even look like she sweated despite the blaring sun. But what can you expect when pinning a total nube of a non-combatant Pathway against one of the most renowned Physical Pathway fighters in the Kingdom.
Noma used to be considered one of the most talented swordsmen their land had ever seen, but it wasn't until she became friends with Martha that she truly started to shine.
Back before Martha was even a fully licensed Flesh scribe Noma would let her test out new codes and techniques on her. After a while, they grew to be close friends because of the gratitude Martha felt for her, and the sheer trust Noma felt in return. Over time, due to their friendship, Noma had acquired billions of gold worth of codes, graphs, and skill enhancements on her body. All completely for free.
They used to joke all the time that she was just Martha's friend for the benefits, but time has already told a different story. For example, after Noma retired she decided to stick around and take care of Jack. Funnily enough, Jack would have never been born if she hadn't introduced Martha to her brother.
Either way that doesn't really matter anymore. All that matters is right now she was desperately trying to get dinner done before Eight P.M. so Jack could go to bed at a reasonable time, refreshed and ready for the next round of beatings prepared for tomorrow.
...
Drenched in sweat, body aching like it was about to explode, and having had the air knocked out of his lungs for the twentieth time today less than a minute ago; Jack struggles to get up only to feel someone pick him up and carefully lift his arm onto their shoulder, helping him stand.
"I know I've been a bit hard on you here lately, but I want you to know that I'm endlessly impressed and proud of you. I even came over here to help you up, instead of just watching and laughing my ass off."
"Wow, gee thanks mom, love you too." Jack croaked out in a sarcastic tone.
"You know I could just drop you here, right? Buuut I think I'll reward you for your hard work today by ignoring that little comment. Come on, let's get you washed up for dinner; you reek like death."
After a quick bath that Jack insisted on doing by himself. He hobbled back down the hallway and into the dining room.
He finished eating pretty quickly and leaned his head on the table, completely ignoring his normal manners, and fell asleep. It took his parent's a while to realize since it was so out of character for him, but so was exercising so it should have been expected.
Getting Noma to carry him to bed they sat in the dining room brainstorming ideas to prep Jack for the Academy; later being joined by Noma. Long into the night, long after they stopped coming up with ideas, and long before they ever wanted to think about it, they sat there wondering what they would do if their son left but never came home.