Runes.

The vast majority of citizens of the Empire thought of these mystical symbols as something that only Enchanters, exclusively and extensively, use to make objects that have special functions.

A cup that fills itself with water.

A sword that will take much longer to dull.

A cloak that can hide someone in plain view.

Examples are many.

Tercius learned at the Academy that Runes were not only used by Enchanters but by all Pyramid mages, and not only for Enchanting purposes. Runes were only the written part of a language, carefully designed by generations of mages. Every Rune had a Rurd—a spoken counterpart; a Ruge— a gesticulation performed exclusively using arms, hands, wrists, and particularly fingers; and finally Ruce— a gesticulation performed by the whole body, arms included.

For example, the word 'tree' had its Rune, Rurd, Ruge, and Ruce. So did any other concept of any kind of nature.

Visually, each Rune ranged from a simple dot or line to extremely complex pictograms.

Audibly, a Rurd could go from something as simple as a single sound up to monstrosities of epic proportions that sounded like a complete sentence.

Ruce and Ruge were used for casting spells, but the mages who used them exclusively were a minority, whereas mages who exclusively used Runes and Rurds abounded. Tercius guessed that the reason for this was because Ruces and Ruges were in a way ephemeral— and while Rurds were much the same in their ephemeral nature, what attracted people to Rurds was that they were relatively easy to learn.

Runes on the other hand were made to be long-lasting, to not be bound by the ephemeral lives of mages. The Pyramid itself was covered by Runes of giant proportions—sometimes referred to as Glyphs— an enormous book for all to study from. Runes were made to outlive civilizations, a way to immortality of knowledge.

Ruces, or body gestures, were taught through extensive use of dances, martial arts, and games— physical activities to which the vast majority of bookish mages, as a rule of thumb, were not particularly warmed up to.

Ruges, or hand gestures, were commonly used for what was known as a quick and dirty spell, such as telekinesis spells of attraction and repulsion, a fire starter, a light orb, and more— the kind of spells that required small amounts of mana and little cast time.

Both Ruces and Ruges required good balance, precise control over the muscles, a good sense for timing, and so on, which led to mages only using a few easy ones, and leaving the other be.

Considering the recent events, one example of a Rurd was 'Ruul', a word whose meaning in Common language was 'peace'. The Head Archivist had used this Rurd to cast an illusion spell on the mind mage, to calm her down. The Rurd had a simple Rune for its written counterpart, but Tercis was not able to find any clue on its Ruge and Ruce.

This alone showed why Runes dominated, with Rurds following after them.

In her stunt for the Tribunal, Mistress Helfira had used the Common language for spellcasting, which seemed odd to Tercius.

This had prompted Tercius to dig deeper into the actual language, and its Runes, Rurds, Ruces, and Ruges. In his week-long excavation involving both books and teachers, he had found clues, here and there, as to the true purposes of this language.

The true name of this artificial language was long lost to ravages of time, but mages of the Pyramid called it simply— Magik. A language that existed for centuries— by some accounts he found millennia past— it was primarily devised as a way for the ancestors to teach their descendants without any fear that time would warp the meaning of written words.

If something like a three millennia old mage existed, this mage could talk to a modern mage with no problems simply by using Magik.

Yet there was another reason Tercius saw as to why mages used Magik, especially for the training of new mages. The clue to his deduction Tercius found in the fairy tales and stories that had a message woven into them, written for children and teens who were just starting on their path of magic.

While mages learned and practiced their craft, they slowly adopted mana into their daily lives. The body learned to use mana on a subconscious level— mana memory— which could lead to many nonintentional accidents.

The warning stories Tercius and his classmates read were grisly and usually, they involved strong emotions clouding the mind of a novice.

Mostly kids killing other kids, as a result of a tantrum or some small disagreement. A lot of regrets followed. All these incidents happened when these kids didn't use Magik to cast their spells, and instead bypassed it completely.

Tercius knew from experience how big a barrier a foreign language could be, let alone one artificially created to be a barrier of sorts between the conscious use and unconscious use of magic. Its goal, to give teenage boys and girls extra time to think things through before they acted in haste, was largely successful.

While the language had its positive sides, Tercius saw one downside immediately. Since one of the goals of every mage was to cast by mere intention, mages just had to be aware of the destruction that they could do— should they allow emotions to eclipse their minds— and balance things by themselves. It was all right to use these language training wheels while still learning and while hormones still ravaged a young body, but later it was probably an impediment in all cases but one.

If you become completely fluent in the language.

A language in equal parts loved and hated by the mages of today, as all spells and other knowledge recorded by the Repository were written in Runes, the written part of Magik.

"You will learn the complete Magik if you continue at this pace," Euria said with a sour face.

Tercius chuckled at her words. Magik had tens of thousands of Runes and that was ignoring the visual conjugations of Runes, and then there were Rurds, Ruges, and Ruces and their conjugates. Tercius had no intention of learning the conjugates of any of the four— he planned to learn all the rules that governed their making and simply use them. Even if Tercius learned every known Rune and its counterparts, new words were added constantly for whatever new concepts were made.

Magik was simply a language that no one could ever learn in its entirety, much like any other natural ever-evolving language, and not even Tercius with the extremely helpful Language Acquisition, Precision, and Visualization as his aides would be able to do it.

Yet I will still try to learn as much of it as possible, Tercius thought with glee. This is fun.

"You are just jealous because Tercius learned more Runes in two months than you did in two years," Eunim smugly added to his sister.

"Well I may not be as good as Tercius or my brother in learning new Runes, but—" Euria paused with narrowed eyes and looked at her twin. "Guess who has Mana Metamorphosis?"

Eunim's previous smugness evaporated in an instant. Tercius felt sorry for his roommate, Euria's words went for his jugular.

"Enjoy your head start while it lasts," J'ro grinned at the black-haired girl. "We will catch up to you soon."

Euria sniffed daintily as she looked at J'ro with a corner of her golden eye. She was the only one out of their group of six who had the skill. "You don't even have Mana Manipulation yet. How can you even hope to catch up to me?"

Tercius hid a smile as the conversation went to good-natured jabs and barbs, a few of which were even genuinely funny. He went back to drawing the Runes. His hand carefully made the turns and twists on the paper, the enchanted feather leaving a wide gray trail of ink, as—

"Is it possible for you to move somewhere else?" A girl's voice said from the side. Tercius glanced at the visibly annoyed Sonia as she lowered her book. "I can't read a thing."

"You should check your eyesight then," Euria jabbed. "It's important to take care of your health."

"There's nothing wrong with my eyes," the girl's brown eyes flashed with a bit of crimson. Her Magma affinity at work, Tercius guessed.

"We aren't that loud, maybe you have sensitive ears then?" Euria said.

"My ears are not… sensitive—" Sonia hissed.

Tercius started packing his drawing equipment as the two girls started hissing at each other. He saw Penelope and Lomera do the same on the nearby table and J'ro and Eunim on theirs. Like stealthy ninjas they carefully pulled out of the reading room, leaving Euria and Sonia at each other's throats.

"Should we go to another room?" Lomera asked with a yawn.

"I think not. It's late and I'm tired," Tercius replied with a similar yawn. It was a long day.

On the way to their room, the boys left Penelope and Lomera at theirs.

"So you will go with Penelope tomorrow?" Eunim asked Tercius.

"That's the plan, yes."

"How did you manage to do that?"

"Well, Penelope's mother asked for me to come and I accepted. She's an… aunt of mine."

Just when they passed by the Main Hall, Mistress Helfira spotted Tercius and waved him over.

"Can you place this on my bed please?" Tercius asked.

He handed over his stuff to Eunim and J'ro and went over to the elder Mistress. She was sitting with her daughter, Mistress Porfira, at the head of the large table. The Main Hall was dark, the lights dimmed to the lowest setting, the fire crackling in the large fireplace, as the two women drank tea.

Tercius was glad that they mended their relationship to a level where they didn't snap at each other for this thing or that. The details of their life, while giving him insight into the life of a mage family, were usually delivered in a loud manner by both mother and daughter. That kind of action swung heads their way, giving Tercius too much secondhand embarrassment— more than he could comfortably handle.

Tercius was piecing a semblance of a story together, aided by J’ro and Mistress Helfira, and from what he learned so far the whole incident seemed like some good old-fashioned smuggling. Well, not just smuggling. J’ro is still recovering from the whole ordeal.

When J'ro arrived at the Academy, his skill was spotted by someone from the smuggling network. Another man then aproached J'ro and revealed that he was a wereskill user, but what he did not reveal to J’ro was the way mages treated wereskill users. He was the one who attached the life leech to J’ro to use him as a vehicle— a last resort of sorts. The leech had formidable attention obscuring ability, extremely valuable to its parasitic nature, and combined with its shapeshifting abilities, it was able to come and go when and where commanded by its master.

The reason they used J'ro was twofold, Mistress Helfira had explained.

First was J'ro status as a student.

Citizens and the students were treated differently upon entering or exiting the Pyramid space. An ordinary citizen had to undergo a thorough inspection, which would most likely reveal the presence of the leech, while the students were exempt by law from that kind of thorough inspection. The students were considered part of the Academy, and therefore the Pyramid, but they were still not full fledged adult members.

This law gave all students a sort of a diplomatic immunity to many of the laws and regulations that other citizens had to follow to the letter.

The second reason they chose J'ro was because of his werebeast skill, whose special signature would completely mask the presence of the already formidably concealed life leech.

The investigation that Mistress Helfira was part of, under the leadership of the Head Archivist, revealed many other co-conspirators— one of whom was a teacher at the Academy. This man was the one who allowed demons to breach their way into the Academy, as a way to cover something he managed to steal.

J’ro was seemingly chipper about the whole thing. Always bragging how his material wealth was gained without lifting a finger, but Tercius knew how true J’ro’s statement truly was. He saw how the boy sometimes went quiet and just stared at objects with wide eyes— that was something that did not happen before.

Tercius cared little for the money he gained, although the Repository points that the mind mage had left him were another matter entirely.

"You called, Mistress?" He asked of the elder once he greeted them both properly.

"Any pain today?" Mistress Helfira asked her glowing eyes observing Tercius. "It's been six days already,"

"I didn't feel any, Mistress," Tercius replied honestly.

The lady hummed thoughtfully. "It's not like Lovela to make a mistake like this…"

"Mother, he's just eleven cycles old and considerably… taller than his peers. Maybe the Mistress just miscalculated." Mistress Porfira added her two grains to the pile.

"Perhaps…" Exhaled the elder. "Well, nothing to do but wait for it. Tercius, I read your name on the list for personal visits for the next two days. I can't say that I agree with your decision. If the pain starts, it would be best if you are here where someone can take you to the House immediately."

Tercius thought the same thing as the elder. He would have liked to stay, just in case, but just last night wisps came by for a visit during his Meditation session and he remade the effigy of Energy Manipulation.

Tercius only saw that Flu was still inside the Core of the skill, the chained white wisp floating around the giant hands that were suspended above a globe, and he left the next instant. Even doing that much was crossing the boundaries he placed on himself— and that left a sour sensation in him. Rules, the ones made by himself for himself, were there to be followed.

His weekend getaway to Seliana's, or Ana's as she was now known, was not just to visit the woman. It was mainly for him to solve his skill acquisition problem as far away from prying eyes as he was able to get.

Another prospect that left a sour sensation. He had planned to wait to get back to Lissea at the beginning of the twelfth month, once the Academy goes on a two-month break.

"After everything that happened, Mistress, I think that two days at my aunt's will only do me good," Tercius said.

"Well, do as you wish. Porfira, when this woman comes for him, make sure that you explain to her where the House of Chameos is– just in case. Goodnight to you, Tercius. Have a pleasant weekend."

"I wish the same to you, Mistresses." With a small incline of his neck, just like Mistress Dea taught him, he bid them goodbye and resumed his journey to his room.

***

"There you are!" Seliana beamed at them with arms wide open in greeting. Penelope threw herself in those arms and Seliana twirled her around for a few spins.

Tercius took a moment to observe the woman who just three months ago was a bed-chained cancer patient. The woman seemed… healthy. Younger even. The skin around Seliana's eyes and some along her neck had tightened, Tercius observed, making quick comparisons with Visualization.

With Mana Sight he took a quick image of the minuscule grain-of-sand-sized star inside of Seliana's heart. Visualization provided the image of the heart from two months ago in a quick fashion and Mathematics tingled that the two stars looked the same.

"Aren't you going to give me a hug?" Seliana asked, her arms open to him and a large smile on her face.

"No, thank you," Tercius said quickly as his eyes rowed over the details of two pictures only visible to him.

Her smile froze and her eyes blinked at him. If Tercius was not occupied by his examination, he would have noticed a special glint in Seliana's eyes. Seliana patted her daughter to alert her and whispered the plan of action in Penelope’s ear. Penelope moved towards Tercius with a strange smile on her face.

"Don't even think about it, you two," Tercius said as he moved back, his eyes still focused on the speck that he suspected was a physical representation of a skill or the actual effect of the skill in action. It was too interesting to let go.

"Get him!" Seliana ordered and ran towards him.

Tercius dropped his investigation and ran past them, easily evading their clumsy attempts. "People are watching us," Tercius said calmly when a standoff was reached.

"Give me a hug and I will stop," Seliana said matter of factly, as if her request was entirely reasonable.

"I can see where your daughter got a large part of her personality." Tercius calmly said as started to pull further away.

"Thank you," Seliana said with a smile as she stalked towards him. Penelope was coming to the side, her hands extended as if she had a fishing net which she planned to use to catch him.

How was that a compliment? Tercius thought with narrowed eyes. He did not know Seliana for long, but the woman gave off an air of someone who didn't give up easily. In his old world, she would be someone who might pester you to join their religion. Repeatedly and relentlessly. Oh, good gods, let's just get this over with.

"All right. I surrender." Tercius said and stopped in place, still as a statue. "Be quick about it."

As Seliana gently hugged him, something strange happened. As he was pressed to the woman's considerable bosom, Petra's smiling face floated by him. Then Rona's voice was heard in the background. He saw that Septimus and Ciron were there, holding Aurelia and Leo. The yellow-colored stone of their small house in Nurium. The green gardens surrounding it.

Tercius wanted to go back.

His arms snaked around Seliana’s sides and he pressed himself into her. She was so warm and had a smell similar to Rona’s—

“Whoa, whoa, easy there big fella. I’m your aunty, remember?” Seliana’s joking voice reached him and he jerked back, releasing her in an instant.

Tercius turned away, his face so hot it could melt metal.

"Oh don't be like that. Let me tell you a story as we walk to my house." Seliana said as she took Penelope's hand in her left and Tercius's hand in her right.

"Did you know that your uncle wanted to have me as his wife? This was when we were still young and foolish. Of course, I wasn't against it, but his family, your family, oh they were fierce about it. Your grandmother especially. The woman said to me in no uncertain terms what would happen to me if I married your uncle.

"The members of your family have only one spouse, you see, a strange custom from some ancestor of theirs. Your uncle… he was the treasure of his mother's eye and the whole family for that matter. I was just a little girl that the brother of your paternal grandfather took off the streets and gave lessons to. So your grandmother made sure I left the Capital as soon as possible.

"Not that I complain, I met my teacher on my travels…"