Sebastian spent the next few weeks buried in the books he had found. It was as if the knowledge the Ancients had left called to him on a visceral level. It didn’t help that he didn’t feel like trying to resist the pull. He eagerly devoured everything he could understand, and the things he couldn’t figure out he set aside for further study. It had become clear to him that the majority of books written now were closer to autobiographies, mages recording their knowledge and spells in their later years so that the next generations could follow in their footsteps. Sebastian’s favorite books, those written in the too perfect writing of the Ancients, had a different cadence to them. They felt as though they were written solely to educate, there was no personal anecdotes or stories of the author’s life, no forays into flights of ego.

He was growing more irritated with Sarah and Owdel with every passing day though. Owdel practically doted on her, guiding her in working magic, answering her every question, and in general doing more to teach her every day than he had done for Sebastian the entire time he had lived in the tower. Naturally all the attention had gone to her head, and Sarah was developing a bit of a superiority complex. She had started to tease him for taking so long when he cast spells, since it took her no time at all to perform the same small cantrips that took him several minutes.

Time to work some real magic I think, well, real magic for me anyways. Sebastian hadn’t forgotten about his desire to understand the strange runic patterns on his light stone, he had just been focused on his reading. It was long past time to get himself another sample. He stood and left the library, stopping by his room to collect one of the steel rings he had gotten from the blacksmith before heading up to the workshop.

Owdel and Sarah were working on something when he walked in, Owdel ignored him and Sarah looked briefly surprised before following Owdel’s example and turning her attention back to her lesson. Sebastian sat in his usual tattered chair in the corner, then he slipped the ring onto his finger and focused on it. As he started to organize the enchantment in his mind he noticed Sarah looking at him in confusion, she started to say something but Owdel stopped her, quietly ordering her to never interrupt a mage mid-cast.

Sebastian paid them no more attention after that, the spellform filled his thoughts and once it was satisfactory, he focused every ounce of willpower he had on forcing it to enter the ring on his finger. For a second he worried that he had failed, but then he felt the warm flow of mana flare into a white-hot fire like before, then it seemed to twist and bend as it flowed down his arm, flooding his mind with unbearable agony for what felt like an eternity. He didn’t pass out this time though, his every muscle was rigid as he fought to stay conscious and watch the magic actually change the ring.

It was somewhat disturbing to see that the patterns started on his hand and then flowed onto the ring which tightened and shifted slightly, going from oversized and not really meant to be worn on a finger to fitting snugly and comfortably. As the pain finally started to fade, he gasped in relief, then bent closer to the ring. Not only had it shrunk to fit his finger, it was covered in the same faint intricate filigree as the disk. It was surprisingly beautiful on the ring.

Owdel interrupted his inspection, “Well boy, what does it do?”

“Slows down a fall.” Sebastian answered distractedly, still trying to figure out what the swirls were for. He realized that he should probably test it, and clambered up onto the chair, jumped off, and grinned when he felt the magic of the ring engage over the last foot or so. Realizing from their looks of confusion that they didn’t actually notice that it had worked, Sebastian decided to show them a somewhat more dramatic test.

With a manic grin, he pulled open the trapdoor to the roof and clambered up, gesturing them to follow him. As soon as they got up there with him, he waved at them and leapt off the top of the tower. Sarah’s surprised shriek was the most satisfying thing he had heard in a while. Owdel was just laughing though. As the ring activated and slowed his fall down with a combination of reducing gravity’s hold on him and an updraft of air that kept him at a comfortable falling speed.

He laughed as he touched the ground, already having forgotten about the pain in his excitement. He hadn’t been totally convinced that gravity was something he could manipulate with magic, but the short hop off the chair had confirmed it, and the leap off the tower had not only further proved it, but came with the bonus of shocking Sarah. He charged back into the tower and up to the library, there were other things he wanted to test now that he knew the Ancient’s knowledge was still valid.

Owdel and Sarah met him there, Owdel wanted to see the ring, and Sarah just wanted to scowl at him for pulling that stunt as best he could tell. He didn’t care though, he was still on cloud nine after his recent success. He answered Owdel’s questions about the ring rather absentmindedly, while thumbing through his notes. Once Owdel had satisfied his curiosity for the most part, he went back upstairs, dragging Sarah with him. Sebastian felt a strong urge to enchant more right away, but he could feel that he didn’t have the mana for another enchantment just yet. Instead he sank back into his little world of reading for now.

He spent the rest of the day studying and amending his notes. He had a few ideas for offensive and defensive enchantments that he wanted to make. After all, a mage should be able to defend themselves! He thought cheerily as he finally went to bed.

The next day, right after breakfast, he tried his first take on something that had looked useful, enchanting one of the iron rods Sam had given him to completely ignore gravity and kinetic energy, allowing it to lock into position once activated until it ran out of mana. This one didn’t come with quite such a euphoric rush though, and he felt the pain of the enchantment longer than he had for the ring.

As he tossed it idly, he was thinking over his options for offensive and defensive enchantments again. I’m a fair shot with a bow, and that would probably be easier to aim than something that just shoots a spell out. The only problem is can I enchant the bow to affect the arrows? Or do I have to enchant each arrowhead? Maybe I can enchant a bunch of arrowheads at once, since they’re small and the spell shouldn’t take too much extra effort to spread it across more than one. I guess either would require me to visit the bowyer.

Sebastian grimaced, the bowyer was pretty much the opposite of the smith, cranky and antisocial. He didn’t think the man hated him, more that the man didn’t want people to bother him at all, and Sebastian had the great misfortune of being a person. Still, he did excellent work and Sebastian needed a new bow anyways. No reason to enchant his old one that he had started to outgrow.

Sebastian made his way there, it wasn’t far from the blacksmith’s forge. It seemed that today was a slow day for the town, there wasn’t really many people out and about. That suited Sebastian just fine, he didn’t much care for crowds, and as one of the towns first mages in a decade or two, it was sometimes frustrating listening to people gush about how proud they were. As if it were somehow the town itself that gave him the ability to use mana.

Realizing that just having to visit the cantankerous old bowyer had put him in a foul mood, he tried to relax. Then, since he was already there, he walked into the man’s shop. “Excuse me, sir.” He said, trying to be polite. “I need a new bow for some enchantment work I’m doing.” He was hoping that by saying right up front it was for magic that the man would be more helpful.

The bowyer’s eyebrows raised, but he just said, “Fine, take whichever one you want, just one mind you, I’ll send the bill for it to the guards.” Then he turned back to his work.

Sebastian was confused, “The guards? Why would they pay for a bow for me?”

The bowyer let out an aggrieved sigh, but still turned to answer, “You are one of the new magi novices, you don’t have any money, you need a bow for your magic for some reason, and the guards have a standing account for new bows to replace those damaged or lost and to supply new guardsmen with bows. As long as it goes to someone that will be using it in defense of the town, the guard will cover the cost. Since the magi are expected to assist in the towns defense, I can claim that a bow for you falls under that bit and they will have to pay. Don’t break it, I figure they will probably close that loophole after I send them the bill.

“Now can I go back to work? Or are you going to continue to fill my day with inane chatter?” He didn’t wait for an answer though, just turned back to his workbench and pretended Sebastian no longer existed.

Sebastian was a bit nonplussed, but since he was getting a free bow he figured it was in his best interest to not annoy the man any more. He picked out a longbow that had a pull strength he found comfortable. It was a rich dark red and like most of the bows in the shop it was made out of one of those massive trees the town occasionally went out to collect from the north. They were tons of work to bring down, and a guard contingent had to go with them to protect the workers while they cut it into manageable sizes, but they could take a trip to get one, and come back with enough lumber to supply the towns needs for months, sometimes entire years.

After bidding the bowyer goodbye, and receiving an irritated grunt in response, he headed back to the tower with his new bow, stopping by his mother’s house to pick up his old arrows. His mom wasn’t there, so he was able to get them quickly, jot down a quick note saying he had stopped by, and then he went back to the tower.

Once he got back, he felt like he might have the energy to enchant the bow, so he carried it up to the workshop. Odd how quickly I accepted the pain. Am I a masochist? I don’t think so, but would normal people be so eager to jump right back into it? His mind was wandering as he went up the stairs. He sat in his usual chair again, holding the bow across his lap, he had decided to go with two-fold enchantments for the bow, one on the bow, and one on the arrows. Since he didn’t know if he could do multiple arrows at once or not, he was going to leave them for now.

The enchantment for the bow was pretty simple for the most part, all it was going to do is double the force applied to the arrow. He could probably have it increase it by much more than that, but he was worried that too much would break the arrows, and doubling the force would already put his effective range far past what a normal bow would be capable of.

Taking a deep breath, he focused his mind on his second enchantment of the day. This was new ground for him, he had never tried to do more than one in a single day, hell before today he had never done more than one in a week or two. As he pushed the spell into the bow, he was certain he had failed. The mana welled up in him like normal, quickly turning into a bonfire-like blaze in his chest, then it rippled down his arms in waves, but it didn’t hurt. The spell was cast, so all he could do now was watch as runic shapes and swirls appeared across his hands and flowed like water onto the bow.

They were deeper and thicker on the bow, and they took on a darker color than the wood of the bow, making them stand out far more than on anything else he had enchanted. As it ran its course and finished, Sebastian felt a wave of exhaustion crash over him. The enchantment had siphoned the very last dregs of mana from him, and he could see that it had been an actual enchantment, even though it hadn’t felt like one.

He tried to focus his mind on inspecting the runes. Why are they different, why did it feel so different this time? The exhaustion caused by the intense mana drain was making his mind sluggish, and before he knew it he had slipped into a deep sleep.