My mother and Miles managed to convince me that running tests on a water source would be worth it. There were no guarantees we would ever be able to use Omega on anything but water sources, but even then, there was a chance they could be improved. To make them more convenient, more powerful, or more versatile.

I was a little concerned about how exactly we would approach making our discoveries public, however. We didn’t know how the authorities would react. The Temple would be adamant that the scripts must never be touched, because of religious reasons. And the authorities might be worried about their bottom line, as the sole suppliers of blue stones.

Over the past couple of days, Miles had analyzed the water source script over and over. Omega was not a simple language, and how it operated was apparently dependent on the environment it was executed in, but he had identified several potential improvements. One of them was reducing the size and amount of blue stones necessary. Another could possibly increase a water sources’ output. Both of these could hurt sales. Not everybody would be happy if citizens suddenly only needed half as many stones as before. After all, less stones meant less money. It was a funny thought that I would be directly involved in this with my new job.

However, we didn’t yet know whether any of this would work, because we had to wait until tomorrow morning for our experiments. Even with the chained water source not being very popular, there would be too much foot traffic during the day and the evening.

Miles had been more forthcoming with ideas and theories than he had ever been, now that we were one step closer to actually using Omega.

‘If we could control mana somehow...’ he said during the day.

“MNA?” I asked. It was one of the things in the Omega script that I didn’t fully understand yet. Every day my understanding of the language deepened, but I was still missing a lot of context. Just being able to read something doesn’t necessarily mean you understand it. Some of the concepts that were apparently used in the script were entirely foreign to me.

‘Yes. The script takes MNA, presumably from inside the object, and converts it. I’m assuming it stands for “mana,” which would typically be a kind of energy.’

He was thinking about transferring mana to other objects, at which point they could hopefully be scripted on too. That would be our greatest goal. If this were possible, we might be able to create water sources as we saw fit.

We spent a good portion of the day writing out modified scripts, so I would be able to write them quickly tomorrow morning. Miles came up with dozens of things he wanted to test, but one in particular caught my eye.

“On this one you only changed a single number. What does FRC do?”

‘That’s a random test to figure out just that. Some of these variables you can guess by context, but that one could be anything,’ he said before mumbling ‘Could be a fun one though.’

Miles and I continued until the evening, when my mother got back from work. Over a nice dinner we discussed the next morning and how excited I was to try Miles’ theories. Then I went to bed a little earlier than usual. I could hardly wait for tomorrow.

***

The south-west of Alarna was mostly populated by the ruling class. Instead of the simple houses you would see in the south-east, the aristocats lived in extravagant mansions. The largest one lay in the center of the district and housed the current ruler of Alarna, King Hertar.

“Your majesty, we have received a report from the Registration Agency about a failed ritual,” a young man said.

“Oh?” the king said with curiosity. He didn’t look up or stop going through another file he had in hand, however. “What happened?”

“Apparently there hadn’t been a divine sign during the ritual,” the man said. “The priest that administered the ritual concluded the candidate had been too young. That same day, Determiner Maila corrected the assessment however.”

“Result?” the king asked.

“The boy was determined to be a Researcher.”

At this, the king abruptly stopped and looked at the man. “A Researcher? The priest missed the divine sign for a Researcher?”

Most signs were impressive displays of light and smoke flying through the room and entering the candidates’ bodies. There were even some that looked like human shapes merging with people, as was the case for Rulers, the only Calling that came with extensive knowledge about the town and the world in general.

The sign for Researchers was on another level, however. The Calling itself wasn’t seen as anything particularly special, mostly producing bureaucrats and office workers, but the spectacle during the ritual was said to be the most impressive. You wouldn’t miss it, not unless you were asleep on the job.

“This came from the Registration Agency?” the king asked.

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Nothing from the temple?”

“I’m afraid not,” the man said apologetically.

The king acted as the ruler of the town, and was in control of the town’s military, but there were other powers at play as well. One was the authorities that handled most of the day-to-day business. They were composed of the town’s agencies and would act on behalf of the king. However, as an integral part of every aspect of their citizens' lives, they could be a danger to the ruling class, should there ever be any dissatisfaction.

The other major player was the temple, with the acting High Priest at its top. While not directly involved in any parts of the government, they had a large amount of sway over the religious population. As the administers of the Calling rituals and providers of educational classes, the temple also fulfilled important services and was seen as one of the most crucial institutions in town.

A careful balance had been established between the three most prominent powers, but every one of them was looking for advantages over the others.

“Did the High Priest try to keep this from us?” the king asked.

“We are unable to say at this time, your majesty. My apologies.”

The situation had been deemed resolved. It might’ve been an honest mistake by the priest that had administered the ritual. But it seemed unlikely, and the High Priest would know that. If the king was right, there were two possible explanations for what had happened. Neither of which would be desirable.

“Have an agent look into this incident,” the king said. “We must determine the actual result of the ritual. Who is the citizen?”

“His name is ‘Tomar Remor,’” the man said. “I will launch an investigation immediately.”

***

The next morning finally came and my mother and I made our way to the chained water source. She had been adamant that she couldn’t miss this potentially historical event. We had gotten up before dawn and left the house as soon as we could, to arrive at the water source before anyone else.

A knife in hand, I was kneeling in front of the black cube. With it being the size of a bucket, it could be picked up and moved around, though it was very heavy. Even so, people had tried to take it with them in the past, which is why it now had a chain dangling from it. To keep it where it was.

My hands were shaking slightly as I put the knife to the cube, scratching away part of the paint that made up the Omega script. Mother looked on in fascination, while also keeping a look out for other people.

‘Alright,’ Miles said, ‘now replace DST with [SFC;0;1;0].’

I did as he asked, scratching away more of the script and replacing the previous sigils using chalk. After taking a deep breath, I placed a blue stone on the cube. No water came out of the hole below the script. Instead, the water appeared out of nowhere on the top of the cube.

‘Heh. I figured the hole didn’t actually do anything,’ Miles said.

My mother and I were staring blankly at the water gathering on top of the cube, flowing down its sides, and onto the floor. However, this washed away the chalk, resulting in the water stopping after a moment.

‘Success!’ Miles exclaimed. ‘Let’s continue with test number two.’

““...””

‘Tomar?’

“Huh? Sorry, I’m shocked that it’s actually working.”

We had talked about it for days, we had theorized, we had produced droplets on leaves, but this was something else. This was mind breaking. I realized I hadn’t actually been convinced that it would work. Based on my mother’s speechlessness, she hadn’t been either.

I dried the cube a little and moved on to the second test, replacing the same part of the script, but adjusting it slightly. The result was that the water didn’t appear on the cube, but in the air above it. Once again, I was slack jawed as I watched the water drip down onto the cube. This time I managed to recover more quickly, however, and moved on to the next test in a hurry, excited for whatever came next.

I changed the value for “FRC” from 1 to 100, while keeping the others the same. With this script, the water shot up into the sky before raining down on us. Mother and I were wet from head to toe, but we were just laughing. As far as I knew, we were the first people to have ever modified a script.

Miles was also excited, but he was far more composed than we were, having expected that his theories would play out like this.

‘The next one probably won’t be as exciting,’ he said with a chuckle.

I modified the script once more, returning it to its original version for the most part. Instead of replacing something, for this test, I mostly omitted several sigils. The result was no water appearing at all, but the small blue stone I had used still dissolved.

“You’re right, that wasn’t exciting”, I said, laughing. “What was it?”

A second after my question, I felt something. I couldn’t say what it was, but the air seemed thicker than before. I moved my arm around and felt a resistance. The closer I moved my hand to the hole, the harder it became to move it towards the cube.

‘I believe that’s mana,’ Miles said.

He had me remove the conversion part. What was flowing out of the cube now was not water, but the raw mana. As I was still waving my hand through the air in fascination, I heard my mother say my name in a whisper as she crouched down beside me. “Tomar, don’t move.”

The expression I saw on her face as I looked at her was not one I had ever seen before. One of panic and fear. I slowly followed her eyes to see some kind of animal. It looked kind of like a dog, but larger, with wild, black fur and red eyes. It was just standing there, staring at us for several seconds, until it started approaching.

My mother slowly put herself between me and the beast as she took the knife out of my hand. At this, the beast stopped and started growling.

“When I scream, you run north, to the next guard station. You understand?” Mother said, but I just kept staring. “Tomar!” she said, raising her voice slightly and snapping me out of my daze.

My eyes locked onto hers and I saw her determination. I nodded.

“I love you,” she said, before raising her voice. “BEAST!!! HELP!!!”

Struggling to my feet I started running, but after just a few meters I stumbled and fell to the ground. I looked back at my mother and saw the beast launch at her. She drove the knife into the beast’s body, but it didn’t even flinch before it dug its sharp teeth into my mother’s neck. She stopped moving immediately. As the beast let go of her, her body fell limbly to the ground and her blood dripped from the beast’s teeth.

“MOOOOM!!!”