A shocked silence enveloped the caravan. A silence that Rustrur quickly broke.

“You can write the runes?” he asked incredulously “Gladys! Grab some arrows, will you? David, do you mind testing it out?”

“No problem, I’ve got some small engraving tools in my tool bag.”

David started muttering to himself as he scrolled through the runic alphabet on his phone.

“Hmm, what rune to use, what rune to use? Ah! Yes, this will do, hopefully Rustrur I’ll be able to make the arrows fly faster.”

After receiving the arrows David got to work. Time flew by as the caravan trundled across the Badlands, stopping every now and then so the slimes that pulled the caravan could hunt down any predators in their way.

David didn’t notice any of this as he worked, a pile of arrows with failed runic engravings steadily grew beside him. Morning turned to blistering afternoon which faded to dusty twilight as the walls of the city grew ever larger. Yet David still had not managed to make a functional Runic arrow.

David threw down his latest failed attempt in frustration his patience finally going past the breaking point.

“Sorry Rustrur, it doesn’t look like I can get it to work. I don’t know why.” He apologised with a defeated look on his face.

“Don’t worry Laddie, I can still sell those arrows, the only thing we have lost is a bit of time and effort.” Rustrur said consolingly.

A new voice piped up in the dim confines of the caravan.

“Dad, I think I might know why it’s not working.”

At that proclamation David slowly raised his head from where it was resting on his knees.

“Go on son, what do you think?”

“Well, uh, he’s not using any Mana when he is fiddling with the arrows.”

“Wait, Wait, sorry for interrupting Tommlein, I have Mana?”

The boy in question, standing in the doorway to the room, looks questioningly at his dad, who nods to give him permission.

“Yeah, everyone has Mana, even you. I can see it in your Aura.”

“Tommlein was born with an incredibly rare magical mutation. He and the very few others like him can see a persons Aura which tells them a little about the person.” Explained Rustrur. “Obviously, we would greatly appreciate that you keep that information to yourself.”

“Of course, thank you for trusting me with the information.”

“Well, perhaps unknowingly, you did tell us some information that could cause you harm, so I guess this is a way of repaying that trust.”

“Anyway, yeah you have Mana. Its weird with you, you look like you are submerged in a massive ocean of it. Most people are only paddling, even mum is only wading in it.”

“So, you are saying that I can use spells and stuff? Hell, I could fly if I wanted to?!”

“Not so fast Laddie, flying takes years of study, I could perhaps pick up a few spellscrolls for you in a few months, they wouldn’t be cheap, nor would they be flying spells, but they’ll be something.”

Momentarily deflated, David heaved a sigh.

“Thanks, Rustrur, so, if I can’t use awesome spells, what can I actually do with my Mana right now, and more importantly, how?”

“Mana can be used for loads of things.” Tommlein answered in an excited voice.

“You can use it even without spells to do things like light candles or increase endurance or enhance your eyes for example. The physical changes only last while you are concentrating on them though.” Tommlein continued quickly, obviously happy to be talking about something he was passionate about.

“How you want to use it while engraving is to push the mana into the arrow while you engrave it.”

“Ok, how do I do that?”

Tommlein stood there stumped for a second, while Rustrur looked on proudly.

“Ah! I know, this is how mum taught us.”

“Close your eyes and send your mind around your body and you should notice something new.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that? It feels like a hard sphere in my chest.”

“That’s your Mana core, send your mind inside it.”

Taking Tommlein’s advice in mind, David sent his mind towards this hardened sphere and tried to force his way inside and see what was there. But try as he might he could not break through.

“I can’t it’s too tough, I can’t get through.”

“Why are you trying to break through? I don’t even wanna know what would happen if you broke your core with the amount of Mana you have. Just relax, your core is a piece of you right? You didn’t have any problems sending your mind around the rest of your body. Just accept it’s a piece of you and slip inside it. “

David took and deep breath, released it and closed his eyes, looking a lot more relaxed than before. Unbeknownst to David, Tommlein and Rustrur shared a relieved look. All of a sudden, a cry split the air.

“Damn! This is awesome, its like an ocean of light, how do I use it?”

“Ok, you are doing well. All you need to do now is to pull your mind out and grab the tiniest sliver of that power to take with you.”

“It keeps slipping away, slipping out of my grasp.”

“David, you aren’t actually holding anything, the power obeys you, just like the rest of your body.”

Sinking his mind deep into the bottomless wellspring of power he had found in his chest; David imagined a hand that was dipping in and out of this pool of power. Focusing on the hand he pinched the thumb and index finger together to try and hold onto the tiniest bit of power. As he started dragging both the hand and his mind out of the shell, he found resistance as if this pool of power didn’t want to lose any part of itself.

Feeling silly, David tried to console it and instead of trying to take a separated sliver of power, he let the pool reach out to the piece he held. Seeming to act as a tether, the resistance then faded. Faintly hearing a voice David’s mind started resurfacing.

“I see you managed to get some power, ok, now take it down your arm and let it pool in your hand.”

Fully coming back to reality David did as he was told and opened his eyes to the sight of his hand glowing a bright blue light. The light from hand completely overwhelmed the magical candlelights in the caravan making the inside look like the middle of the day. David quickly sent a thought down the magical tether and asked for less power. Like a fancy dimmer switch, the glow emanating from his hand slowly lowered to the point where details could be seen again.

“That’s strange, I’ve never seen anyone that could control the levels of power that quickly, usually it takes a fair bit more control than a novice would have.” Murmured Rustrur.

“That’s amazing, this is so cool, I’ve always wanted magic and now I’ve got it!” David stared gobsmacked at his hand.

“There you go Laddie; you can use Mana now. Remind me Tommlein, what’s the next step?”

“Well the next step is fairly easy; all you have to do is push the Mana into the arrow while you try and engrave it. It will try and stay inside you, but just force it and it’ll learn.” Tommlein grinned.

“Well here goes nothing, hopefully I get a decent arrow this time.” Reaching forward David grabbed his tools and another arrow.

Ten arrows later he leant back in frustration, having yet to make a working Runic arrow.

“Damn, still not working. Hmm I wonder, forcing it didn’t work to get it to my hand.” Speaking quietly to himself, David sent his mind back down the tether of magic and without using words so much, asked the power to help him. Despite the massive pool of sparkling blue light not having a face, David got the distinct impression that it was happy.

Bring his mind back out, he reached for the next arrow and set to work.

The second the engraving tool finished the final line and lifted from the arrow; a blue box slammed into David’s mind.

Runic Arrow of Riding (ᚱ)

Summons a Phantasmal Horse behind the arrow

+5 Bludgeoning Damage

“HAH! It worked!” David shouted

Rustrur and Tommlein cheered loudly which brought the ladies and Thadrum into the room. Quickly everyone was jumping for joy, just in their hearts because they didn’t want to damage the caravan.

“There is a bit of a problem though.” David told Rustrur after they had all calmed down.

“What’s the problem, it worked didn’t it?” demanded Rustrur, unhappy that his mood had been brought down so quickly.

“Well, to put it simply, Runes are complicated. Each Rune has multiple different meanings, I was intending to make the arrow go faster, but well this one doesn’t do that.”

“Give it here lad, let me have a look.” Taking the arrow from David, Rustrur used the first bit of magic that he had ever seen the old man use.

“Merchant’s Appraisal!”

A dark red light surrounded the arrow as the information was fed to Rustrur.

“Bloody Ancestors beard lad, this arrow is amazing, I’ve never seen something like it. My Appraisal skill is showing me people will buy something like this for about 100GP, that silly money for an arrow!”

While Rustrur was deep in his appraisal, David was doing some thinking of his own. Reaching a conclusion, he reached for another arrow and lost himself in the process once again.

Realising that David was otherwise preoccupied Rustrur handed the arrow to Thadrum.

“Put that arrow with the other rare stuff Thaddy, there’s a good lad.”

Everyone turned to look at David as he gasped in slight pain.

“How do you get used to those blue boxes slamming into your brain, that stuff hurts dammit.”

“Eh, you get used to it Laddie, might take a little while though. I take it you made another Runic arrow?”

“Yeah I did, here, have a look.” As he said this David casually underhand tossed the arrow to Rustrur.

Catching the arrow like it was made of glass, Rustrur quickly cradled it to himself and murmured his skill.

“Merchant’s Appraisal!”

A Blue box then slammed into his mind detailing the arrow.

Runic Arrow of Speed (ᚱ)

This Arrow leaves the bow at twice the speed fired and gets faster every 10 metres

Speed maxes out at 30 metres

+5(10) +7(20) +9(30) Piercing Damage

Merchant’s Appraisal (200GP)

Gobsmacked, Rustrur looked at the arrow, looked back to David, then the arrow then finally resting his gaze on David.

“What? Its using the same rune, how did you get a different effect?”

“Like I said, each rune has multiple meanings, I just figured that it would make sense that if I wasn’t concentrating on which meaning I wanted it would be random so I concentrated on the meaning and feeling of speed when engraving that arrow.”

Unbeknownst to all in the caravan they had reached the gates of the city and now were waiting in the queue to get in. In the background Losuda winced as she received a magical message.

“Father, we have been warned to stop all magical activity. There was an assassination attempt and the guards are testing everyone’s Mana signature before they are allowed to enter.”

“Oh? We are there already? That time went quickly. Sorry David, looks like we will have to stop for now.”

“David, just as a word of warning, when you get tested please try and relax, trust me you really won’t want to once the test is happening.”

Seeing his face, Rustrur stopped and explained.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt, but someone probing your Mana core feels like an incredible violation, and that’s when you aren’t fighting it.”

Gladys then interrupted.

“Looks like its our turn dears, lets get it over with, shall we?”