"Chase." Jane said softly as she tapped me on my shoulder. I looked up from my large stack of notes and groaned. Jane was standing over my shoulder smiling sweetly at me. Iris was at the opposite end of the table passed out on a stack of books.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"We should really head back to the dorm. We all have class tomorrow, plus whatever Lady Baset has planned for Astrid and yours duel."
"It's not that late yet." I said.
"Chase it's almost eight pm." Jane rebutted.
"Already?" I looked over at the clock that Jane hung up on the vault's eastern wall a few days ago and frowned. She was right. Because there were no windows or form of natural light inside the vault it was impossible to gauge what time it was or how long you'd spent inside.
"Yes. And I'm not leaving without you after you spent the entire night here two days ago." Jane replied folding her arms across her chest.
"Okay!" I groaned and stretched. "Just give me five more minutes. I think I figured something out with these runes."
Jane looked intrigued and looked over my shoulder at Deilopho's book.
"What did you find out?" She asked. I pointed at a certain passage in the book and read it aloud.
"The ancient Runic language cannot be broken down into simple adjectives, verbs, and nouns, using such restricting and flawed categories to try and define the words within. Instead think of them as personifications of the actions they represent."
"What does all that mean?" Jane asked.
"I think it means that runes aren't words but rather actions and effects." I said. I flipped to the next page. It displayed two spell sigils side by side. "Can you spot the difference?"
Jane examined both sigils closely for several minutes then finally shook her head.
"No I can't, they're both identical." She replied.
"But they're two different spell." I said.
"What?" she exclaimed then looked at both sigils again. "No they're both the same!"
"According to Deilopho the one on the right is a fireball spell and the one on the left is a hail spell."
"But the runes in the sigil are exactly the same. How could they be different spells?"
"Because they're actions and effects. As far as I can make put there are only four runes in these sigils. Shape, sphere, shoot, and target."
"Wait?! You can actually read those?" Jane exclaimed. Her eyes got wide and she took a step back from me.
"A little. I'm not exactly sure about the translation. I'm not that great with ancient greek…" I muttered.
"Ancient Greek?"
"Yeah I tried translating the runes into English but that was a shitshow. So then I tried latin and again didn't work. So I tried Swahili and Gaelic, both were worse than English. Finally I tried Ancient Greek and I'm slowly starting to understand." I explained. Jane stared at me with a dumbfounded expression on her face. "What? Got something on my face?"
"How many languages do you speak?" She asked.
"Well let's see there's English, universal standard, Swahili, Gaelic, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Torapos. So seven languages." I replied.
"S-s-seven?!"
"Yeah. I've always had a ear for languages, written or spoken. But I've never had a language like this Runic shit. Some of the rules I've been able to figure out don't make sense." I said then pointed at the diagrams again. "I mean look at these spell sigils. They are two different spells but written exactly the same. It makes no sense! I mean if there was a change in the font I could possibly understand them being different but theres no difference!"
Jane stared at both sigils for a moment then gasped loudly.
"Chase there is a difference!" she exclaimed then walked around to the other side of the table. "Chase I know both of those spells. Try to read the spell sigil and guess which one I'm casting."
Jane held her hands out and started casting an offensive sigil. I focused on the runes in the sigil and frowned as I read them.
"Shape fire into sphere to shoot at target and burn them…what? Are you casting fireball?" I asked. Jane closed her hands and nodded.
"Yeah! You could understand more of the runes." Jane said.
"Yeah I could…weird…" I muttered.
"Now try this one!" Jane started casting another offensive sigil and I could understand the runes a lot easier.
"Shape ice into sphere to shoot at target and hurt them." I said. "It's hail."
"The difference between the two spells is mana!" Jane exclaimed. She canceled the spell and walked back around to my side of the table and pointed at the diagrams. "The reason you could only make out four runes earlier was they were the overall instructions for the spell. The runes you can't make out are instructions for your mana! Which element or attribute your mana needs to take on in order for the spell to work. It makes sense that since the runes are related to mana that you wouldn't be able to understand them unless mana was somehow introduced."
"Of course!" I groaned then slapped my forehead. "Now that I know that…"
I flipped the book back several pages and reread a paragraph that had been giving me a head ache for a few days now. Everything started to click. Ideas and aspects that I had been struggling with suddenly made sense under the guise of Jane's hypothesis. I grabbed a blank piece of paper and started drawing a sigil. It was crude and the circle was nowhere near perfect but for visual purposes it was perfect.
"Here! Look at this." I said as I thrust the paper into Jane's hands. "If I'm translating this correctly and I'm pretty sure I am. If you cast this sigil it should say shape shadow into blade solidify in hand."
Jane looked at the spell and frowned.
"I wish I could cast it to find out." Jane said.
"What do you mean? Can't you memorize it off the paper?" I asked. Jane shook her head.
"The paper can't show me how to shape my mana. Even if I managed to shape it on my own it would take months of work. That's why splicers use spell sigil cards." Jane said.
"Hmmmm…" I said as I took the paper back from Jane and studied it.
"Chase. Why don't you try pouring mana into the paper?" Jane offered. I cocked my head to the side and looked at her.
"The paper?"
"Yes! Flow mana into it like you do when you wake up the books." Jane explained.
"Okay…"
I closed my eyes and cycled mana into my hand preparing to try and force it onto the paper I was holding but as the mana started to gather it was suddenly sucked out of my body and into the paper. I opened my eyes and saw the sigil on the paper start to glow a deep purple color. The sigil levitated off the paper and the rest of the page spontaneously combusted.
"Shape shadow into dagger and solidify in hand…" I said as I read the sigil. It suddenly shattered into a million orbs of darkness then coalesced into a small into a small curved dagger. The dagger floated in mid-air for a moment before flying into my hand. The moment my fingers curled around the handle I could feel how much mana was put into the dagger and how long it would last.
'About three percent for one minute.' I thought. I examined the blade, it wasn't very solid and had a bunch of warps and imperfections. It looked like it would break the second it came into contact with something. Mostly like the result of my spell sigil being so warped.
I looked back at Jane. She had a broad smile on her face and was clasping her hands and looked like she was fighting back tears.
"I think I just cast a spell…" I gasped in disbelief.
"OH MY GODS!" She cried and pulled me into a hug. The both of us squealed and junp up and down though I was careful not to accidently stab Jane.
"I'M AWAKE!" Iris screamed as she jumped to her feet from her dreams. Her head jerked left and right trying to find the thing that made Jane scream until her eyes landed on Jane giving me a hug. Her expression turned vicious as she picked up a book and flung it at me.
"Hands off her Star Child!" Iris snapped.
I instinctively slashed at the book with the dagger. It cut through the book look a hot knife through butter, luckily it wasn't one of Deilopho Salagor's books.
"Whoa…." I said then looked down at the dagger. A small chip appeared on the blade then a crack and a second later the whole dagger shattered and the shadows dissipated. Iris looked at my hand then at the pieces of the book I slashed in half on the floor and slapped her forehead.
"Oh. I'm having that nightmare again."