While the conversation with the Sage was largely information free, it did mark a change in his daily life. As now Sam and the Sage insisted he study a number of other subjects in addition to reading. From math (which was primitive to the point he needed no study, shocking them), to other languages, cultures and history. He learned about the geography of this world and even the flora and fauna. He even learned that much like he already suspected that this research facility was actually underground without an exit to the surface. What they were doing was technically illegal, and if the Fairy controlled nation above their heads of Sha’hera learned of it, they would all be put to death.

He even received basic instruction in magic. Though it amounted to little more than breathing exercises to get his “mind and body” in tune with the “pulse” of the world. It sounded all vaguely Buddhist to him.

The visualization and breathing exercises were strange. He was to breath with the cadence of the world, while visualizing a strange 3-dimensional glyph. The glyph was shown to him as a wire model. It was 3 dimensional and very complex. Something about its shape made him feel almost a vertigo as if the object itself existed in defiance of reality. His first job was to completely memorize the construction of the glyph, then to study it for enlightenment in his mind. He was warned NOT to search for enlightenment with the physical model. Apparently that did not work. So he worked hard to memorize the structure, until he could draw it from multiple different angles perfectly. Then he returned the object to the sage and proceeded to meditate on its heaven defying shape.

His first epiphany came when he realized the 3-dimensional Glyph was constructed out of 8 words. The Glyph was constructed out of the glyphs for sky-spirit-earth-death-fire-life-water-mind. Those 8 glyphs represented the 8 MAIN types of magic or world energy. It took him almost 3 weeks to notice the 3-dimensional glyph contained all the glyphs of the main types of energy. Once he realized this he started to study the way the separate glyphs crossed and interacted with each other. For some reason he felt there was something profound in the design. It wasn’t until he started envisioning the shape from separate angles he realized that depending on the angle you looked at it, other glyphs became visible in the interlacing lines. Glyphs for Ice, Light, Darkness, Fear, Dreams, Future, Past, Body, Male, Female, Birth all were contained inside the main glyph, depending on the angle you looked at it. More so he noticed that within the glyph the lines making up these new glyphs seemed to be related to the them.

For example, the lines creating the glyph for Ice were made up entirely of fire and water. Now this might not make sense for the locals of this world, but to him, he knew that heat was energy, and its absence created “cold”, cold plus water would equal Ice. Since he knew this was the process he studied the glyph for ice in detail and noticed the interaction of DEATH with the glyph of FIRE. While Death was not in the glyph for ice it did intersect with every single line of fire which was inside the glyph of ICE. Life was nowhere visible and not at all in contact with any of the lines of fire making the glyph.

He knew this was something very important. He just wasn’t sure in what way since he still hadn’t learned the basics of magic yet, just some breathing and visualization trick. He studied the other glyphs and found similar structures in their creation. Male was made up of Earth and Spirit, Female was made up of Life and Sky. Both had supporting glyphs that further accentuated their types, male had marks of fire intersecting with the spirit, while female had marks of water intersecting with life. It almost felt like the Ying-Yang of eastern philosophy. It became even more profound when he noticed the CONSTRUCTED glyph of darkness symbolically intersecting with Male, while the glyph for light did the same for female. When he realized the CONSTRUCTED glyphs he discovered also were part of other glyphs his mind started to hurt. He had a sinking feeling that you could spend your whole life learning this Glyph construct.

He also realized it probably wasn’t a mistake that the writing system of this world was standardized. It was probably all due to how this magic was supposed to work. Which raised another question. Why weren’t there more magicians?

He asked Sam that. She could read, in theory the secrets of magic should be accessible to her. She shook her head no to the question. Apparently the old Grey King, killed or took away all human mages. It was the only negative he ever heard of the old silver dragon that once ruled. It was believed that perhaps once humans all were born with the potential for magic. But due to this action, the trait for magic was bred out of the population over the 10,000-year reign of the grey dragon. Little was known about the world prior to the grey king’s reign so this was mostly theories. But legends did imply magic was much more prevalent.

Either way his urgency to learn as much of the written language as possible reached a new level once he started to sink into the mysteries of the glyph form he was shown.