Crossroads was stunned. The human before him had apparently been running a sort of parallel mind since childhood. Even more impressively, the secondary mind was functioning at such an automatic level that it was hidden from both the feed to the viewing chamber as well as his own attempts. It was akin to attempting to read the part of the mind that controlled the heartbeat. It was definitely there, just lost in all the background activity of the brain controlling literally everything in the body.

After another short period of reflection, Crossroads shivered. The man had locked away the two things that should have dictated the way his life and personality were formed. He no longer had the ability to become who he could have been. The life of a scholar, scientist, or mathematician was now something that he could never have. He could do the work, but it was all on an instinctual level. Attempting to explain instinct was impossible. And to do it for something like calculus was even more ridiculous. Part of being a scientist or mathematician was explaining how you got an answer to your peers so that they too can understand. Dix was incapable of doing that.

Dix spoke again, interrupting Crossroads ruminations on self mutilation through non physical lobotomy. “Someone once told me that a good and healthy life came about through a balance of the three most important things to a person. The body, the mind, and the soul. Well, for me, my mind is my subconscious, my body is just me, and I’m fairly certain my soul is in my dick. It’s honestly the only explanation for the things it gets up to.” He paused to chuckle at his own stupid joke. “Actually, I’m not sure what the deal is with my soul. The way they explained it to me, the soul is supposed to be the source of emotions, but I never really had a lot of those, even before I locked them away.

“Now I just pretty much just live. Sometimes my subconscious takes over a little, but I always figure it’s for a good reason. I let it drive too. I mean that literally. The less attention I pay to what I am doing, the more my subconscious takes over. So I do my best driving when I’m not paying any attention to it. I still need to at least keep the road in my peripheral vision, but other than that, I can do whatever I want to. Same thing goes with a lot of other activities. The part of me that is present in the here and now gets to do whatever it wants to, and the other parts keep me upright and aware of what’s going on.

“I know it’s weird as hell, but it’s how I have been for a long time. Kinda nice to actually explain it to someone after all these years though, I normally just told people that I was the bastard love child of Kirk and Spock. Most people would just think I am crazy. Even my best friend thought it was weird. Awesome, but weird.”

There was a brief period of quiet. Crossroads was trying to process the entire idea, and Dix was back to drinking. He was a little annoyed that he couldn’t seem to get past the point of a mild buzz no matter how much he drank. There had been some rough discussions and a truck load of pain before that. Tying on a good drunk seemed like a good way to get past it all, but it didn’t seem to be working. He suspected it was a combination of being dead, and some god interfering with his booze. Although he was a bit on the fence about whether or not he should be pissed about the booze tampering; it was high quality stuff that tasted great no matter what had been done to it.

Eventually Crossroads knocked back his drink and stood up with a sigh. “Well, that answers a lot of questions about you. It also explains why I can’t read your thoughts like a normal person. It’s not a normal solution to any of the problems you will face in your life, but it certainly has worked out so far.” He flicked one hand while waving with another. The valves that had been in Chance’s hand floated over towards Crossroads, while the set he had brought appeared in their place. Another hand wave vanished the glasses, and his sitting area. “Alright, back to where you were standing when I came in. And remember, at the moment the only spells you can cast are the normal ones, not the Runeborn stuff. You can only do that after your race changes.”

After a bit of pushing, pulling, and arguing the two managed to get Dix back into the same position he had been in before Crossroads froze all of existence in time, or at least isolated just the two of them from the timestream. However he had done it, Dix did see how he undid it, sort of. Or at least he saw him walk behind Chance, but the instant he was completely hidden from Dix’s vision everything was back to full motion, Chance’s interrupted speech immediately starting up.

“These are the valves you need to be able to use magic. There will be a little pinch, but it doesn’t hurt as much as you might think.” Her smooth voice with its cheerful undertones helped to calm him after the emotional back and forth discussion with Crossroads. She was rambling on about how the valves worked and what they specifically did, but it was mostly information he had already heard, so instead he just listened to her voice and watched her move.

She was a very expressive person, quite the opposite of himself. His thoughts from watching her earlier came back to him. The rush of blood to his groin was actually a nice change of pace form the intermittent fear of dealing with Crossroads. He was reminded again of how surprising it had been to find out she was the goddess of Chance. The movement of her body, and her flirtatious attitude with him would normally have led him in a different direction if he had had to make a guess as to her domain. Either way, she was a calming presence for him. The only downside being that she once again brought to mind Beauty, and the tangle of thoughts that came with her.

Shaking his head, he refocused on what Chance was saying just in time to catch the end of the speech. “... for anything you need to cast. So, for starters, just hold your hands out, palms up, and we’ll get this part wrapped up.”

He followed her direction and she simply dropped the valves into his palms. One ended up upside down, but somehow flipped itself over. Both valves vibrated around on his hand for a while as they searched for the center of his palms. When they were satisfied with their positioning, they started to spin, hovering above his hands. Chance reached out and held his hands from beneath, keeping them steady. She smiled reassuringly at his inquisitive look. A bright flash from his hands drew his gaze back down, just in time to see the valves spear themselves into his palms. There was only a slight pinch, just like a shot. Also like a shot there was the feeling of pressure, as though there was too much of something under his skin and it wanted to burst out like an overfilled water balloon.

The pressure moved around under his skin, spreading up into his forearms, before retreating towards the valves. The valves themselves rotated a couple of times, then a small piece popped upwards, like a built in turkey timer, and released a small mist of mana. Dix wondered briefly if Crossroads had screwed up the valve replacements, but it was too late to worry about it.

Chance clapped and laughed, looking like a cheerleader. He silently raised an eyebrow at her exuberance. Seeing the eyebrow, Chance laughed and said, “You can’t blame me for being happy about this. Not after the disaster with the drink. I was legitimately worried that we would have some sort of problem with the valve implants as well.” Dix just smiled.

Flexing his hands to get a feel for his new accessories, Dix was surprised at how little they impacted his movement. Their presence was definitely noticeable, but they seemed to mostly flex with his hand, and were shockingly thin. They felt more like calluses than metallic valves. A little stiffer than normal skin, but still something that wouldn’t impede use of either hand. Not something he wanted, but he could definitely deal with their presence. Without looking up from his hand, he asked, “So, what’s next?” He stroked a thumb over the valve in the opposite hand, trying to get a sense of how much they stuck out, but they still only felt like a callus. Weird little things, but a well adapted device.

Eventually he noticed that Chance hadn’t said anything to his question, so he looked up. She was pouting at him. Dix figured she was just playing, but it is almost always better to humor a woman when she’s feeling playful. That goes triple for when that woman is a goddess. He smiled sheepishly and said, “I’m sorry, darling. You know how us men are when we get a new toy. I’m paying attention now.”

She laughed again, then swatted his arm, before walking away towards the shelves. Dix was confused as to how and when he had gotten a wife, or at least a new girlfriend. Shaking off that bizarre and terrifying thought, he followed her to the shelves. When she got there, she stroked a finger along a staff of gold with a large purple crystal at the top orbited by four smaller pink gems. “You will need to pick out a few weapons amongst these aisles, just like you did with Roanoak. I recommend that you get a few of each type to try and find what you like best.”

Dix didn’t even bother to sigh this time. The things that these gods did and did not do, without even thinking about it, were a constant source of frustrated amusement. “That’s about what I expected, but I have no idea what any of these are other than sticks to bash someone's brains in. If they do more than that, you’ll need to explain what that is, as well as how it works. And maybe a bit on why I should choose one over another.”

Embarrassment turned Chance’s face red, which she ducked her head to hide unsuccessfully. Shortly after that though, her head whipped back up, a look of confusion having replaced the embarrassment. “Wait, the imbuement of knowledge should have covered all of that. Didn’t it?”

“Sure, but not well. It names each type of mage weapon, but doesn’t explain what the differences are. Also, it just says to test cast a few of my favorite spells through each implement until I find the one I like the best. None of that is very informational. Thankfully it seems to be at least somewhat useful when describing the spells themselves.”

Chance cursed quietly. She wasn’t the one who made the imbuement, but she had never bothered to actually figure out what was included in it, something it was now obvious she should have done. She wondered why no one else had ever called her out on this particular issue before attributing it to human laziness. The thought that the magical display she always performed at the beginning of this section of the tests might terrify people into not asking her anything never even crossed her mind. Ignoring her previous failings to teach, she dove right into trying to educate Dix.

“Right. Mage weapons are weapons that have part or all of a runic spell formula inside of them to ease the casting of certain spells or types of spells. Tools are the same thing, but designed to be used for non combat purposes. These weapons and tools can be used to boost any type of spell in a multitude of ways. For instance, with certain formula pieces inside, you can reduce the casting costs of things like bolt spells to such a degree that you can use them with the same frequency as a ranger does arrows. The only requirement is that you must actually cast the spell through the weapon. This will change how you aim, where the spell will be launched from, as well as how you cast it. For aiming and launching, both are done through whatever the focusing device of the weapon is. Usually this is the large crystal or orb at the top end of the weapon.

“As for the differences between the weapons, it mostly relates to size and type of spells. We’ll start with wands. As they are much smaller, there simply isn’t enough space to imbue them with a wide variety of runic formulas, but they are much easier to aim. The typical wand is designed to cast only one or two different types of bolt or ray type spells. This makes them a bit more specialized, but they are usually the most efficient tool for that spell to be cast through. You can also find some other types of spells on wands, but the longer the runic formula is, the less help a wand will be.

“Rods and canes are the next. The different names originally had more to do with aesthetics than anything else as they were essentially the same thing. However, over time the names grew to specify not just what they looked like, but also the types of runes they had been infused with, and the purpose behind their use.

“Rods were like larger wands. Usually infused with only a single larger spell, these were often used by those who didn’t have the normal levels of mana control to be great mages to make themselves more useful during combat. With a wand and a rod, and the corresponding spells to use them, almost anyone can become a somewhat useful mage in the right circumstances. Rods are also slightly easier to make, and don’t need to be custom ordered.

“Canes are almost the exact opposite. They are designed to provide boosts to a series of spells. As they are still limited in size they can only boost a few spells, but can be quite useful if made correctly. They are usually referenced by the types of spells that they boost. For instance if one is designed to work specifically for all types of bolt spells, then it is a Bolt Cane. But if it only boosts fire and wind bolts it’s called a FireWind Bolter. Despite the Bolt Cane sounding less impressive, it can be the better item depending on the circumstances, and will always be more versatile. The defensive versions of canes are also very popular.

“Staves are the last of the traditional types. Significantly larger than the other types, staves can work with an increased number of runes. Much like the rods and canes, staves have been separated into two different groupings. Battle staves are used entirely for combat purposes, normally carrying from two to five specific spells. Utility staves are just as they are named. With so much room to work with, utility staves can be infused with runes to reduce costs and increase effectiveness of a great number of spells. The normal practice to customize them is to find the most common runes amongst a caster’s most used spells and infuse them all into a staff. If any room is left, do as many runes of their absolute favorite spells as possible. Of course anything in between is also possible.”

Chance walked to a different shelf, motioning for Dix to follow. During her brief explanation she had pointed to examples of each type of weapon on the nearby shelves. Now, however, the shelves they were approaching seemed to be greatly lacking in the weapons Dix had grown used to seeing in the area.

Gesturing at the variety of items laid out before them Chance started explaining. “These are what have been termed experimental weapons. As you can see, there are a lot of options here. Most of what makes these experimental is their shape. Some you might recognize.” There were a number of what looked to be guns scattered around. “Roanoak still considers them failures because they are just wands or rods in different shapes. They can actually be quite useful at times, as they address two of the problems that most of the rest of these failed to. Recoil and aim. These guns are quite good at allowing the wielder to control both aspects, but they do require a little more physicality than most mage types are known for. They are also one-directional which can be very limiting after using a staff or rod.

“Other notable options include the Manabow, which was very popular for a time. Hard to use, but can give a little bit of focus. You had to switch which end you were holding to use the other set of runes, and it was also mostly one directional. Many believe it’s popularity came from a combination of being something new, along with a famous duelist using one while he dominated the arena for a time.

“Something your people came up with is over there. They called it the repulsor chest. More of a last chance, or a final big blast. It’s basically a chest plate with a focusing orb in the center. They designed them to slowly store mana in a set of spell runes until all of the spells are ready, then fire them all at once from the chest piece. It can hit like a giant. Unfortunately, it takes a great deal of physical stats to survive having this thing blast away from your chest, and even more to hold steady to aim it properly while it does so. It’s also really easy to avoid if you see it coming. Because of these difficulties it’s rarely used, but a few people have formed functional groups around the use of it.

“A slightly more useful version of the same thing is that tower shield. Once again they overloaded it with spell runes for a giant blast. This time it’s not strapped to the chest of a mage, but instead to the arm of someone who can barely lift it. Suggested use is to have someone with muscles help support the thing when it is actually used to cast, otherwise the mage may lose an arm. Or his whole team when the shield turns and unleashes the blast in a sweep.”