The [Contact Absorbtion I] rune came next, his finger growing more steady with each practice attempt outside of the workspace.

“If Junil had made an activation system and then left it on a table unattended,” August asked. “What would you have done?”

“I would have reminded Junil of its presence and stayed far away from it—unless she specifically requested me to move it,” Melon said. “If I had attempted to move it, it would have been logged on the PDI, and I would have had to provide a verbal explanation for the suspicious activity.”

If everything was tracked, and they couldn’t even pick up something like that without getting caught out, then maybe it wasn’t such a thin line after all. August caught movement in the corner of his eye, somewhere past and underneath Melon’s arm—the others were awake.

“The ambient mana that this thing is going to absorb,” August said, doing a quick practice run of the next rune in turn. “What happens when that runs out?”

“Ambient mana doesn’t—run out—it’s present in the very space that all of creation exists within,” Melon said with a curious expression. “It simply shifts, with more coming in to fill the space that is being evacuated or depleted by whatever process is being undertaken within it.”

“Oh,” August said, finger hovering above the next square. “So it’s just endless?”

“Of course,” Melon said.

August wondered at what that would actually mean for everything else that existed. Even the Sun wasn’t endless—although it did exist on a scale of time that he couldn’t really conceptualise or experience outside of a long string of zeros—eventually, it would burn itself out. Mana was just—not like that?

“Where does it come from—Mana, I mean,” August asked. “Is Gaia generating it or something?”

“The planet? No. I’m afraid the Children of Gaia haven’t managed to discover the source of it, and there is no observable underlying process by which it is created—it is simply there,” Melon admitted, “There is speculation that there may be something manufacturing it, far away and outside of our ability to observe, but it may also be the case that it was already present, as the runic language exists, as a fundamental force of the universe itself.”

“They can mess with souls,” August asked, “But they can’t figure out where Mana comes from?”

“A soul is located right here, within the body, so the general location to search for it is well within reach, and it was discovered by searching inwards,” Melon said, touching a hand to her leafy vest. “The source of mana—if such a thing were to exist—could be anywhere within creation, and that is quite a large area to search, from what I understand.”

“Anywhere, huh?” August said as he finished the [Energy Connector I]. “Five down, two to go—does this thing need to be off when I finish the last rune?”

Melon rocked back on her heels, apparently startled up into a straight-backed posture as the words washed over her.

“Yes—unless there are specific allowances made to handle it, it’s more than unsafe to add to a rune system while it is already active,” Melon said, sucking in a breath. “I apologise for failing to warn you—I should have—it never even crossed my mind—”

Whatever the danger involved, August couldn’t really feel it the way she seemed to—his overall ignorance of the consequences led to a kind of distant and detached feeling for it all.

“It’s not like it’s active now or anything,” August said. “I’m sure you would have said something if I’d tried to actually carve something while it was still on.”

“I would have,” Melon managed.

August just nodded and moved on to the sixth rune in the chain—[Energy Storage I].

“I’m guessing—by the names of these—that there are different tiers for the same rune,” August prompted. “What’s that about?”

“There is a rune for just about every feature, process or form of matter within the living world, although the Children of Gaia have not managed to discover all of them,” Melon said, fingertips tracing an invisible pattern just above the surface of the bench. “The embellishments that enhance them are far less mapped out, as some are unique to a specific rune, while some others carry over to many types.”

“So these ones are like the basic version?” August asked.

August drew his finger back again, cancelling the skill and looking at the final blank space at the bottom.

“For the most part,” Melon admitted, “The embellishments are many and can have varying effects, some of which are not expected—the vast majority of systems use the simplified set.”

The [Break] rune was perhaps the simplest of them all, just a few short lines intersecting at the middle—August looked up as Rittan came to join them.

“Morning, Rittan,” August said, straightening up. “Did you sleep alright?”

“The ground grows more comfortable every night—or perhaps the grass is just getting longer,” Rittan smiled, “Good morning to you both; I see you are both hard at work—is this, perhaps, a lesson of some kind?”

Melon set to wringing her wrists, looking as if she’d been caught red-handed in some nefarious act—which was probably the case if what they were doing had taken place anywhere else.

“Melon is showing me how to make a mana storage system,” August said, “A couple of minutes, and we should have this working—unless I mess it up, which is always a possibility.”

“Remarkable,” Rittan said with interest. “Melon, you know how to make something like this?”

“I’ve seen Junil make many of these for her different projects,” Melon said, “Not by hand, of course; anyone with my assignment would have known this much.”

“Perhaps, but we aren’t here with anyone; we are here with you,” Rittan said, smiling. “August, we are in the process of dividing up the tasks for the day.”

“Who’s doing what?” August asked.

“Haiko and I will be returning to work on the last three pieces of ceiling, while Boko and Kalter will be finishing off the walls,” Rittan said, “I do not believe it will take us long to finish these tasks, and I believe we will be moving to complete the expansion once that is the case.”

“Well, that’s a lot—I’m not sure how effective this whole mana storage system thing is going to be, so I’m not sure what I’ll do yet,” August said, still working on the ache in his neck. “It will either be making a bunch of bone tools or maybe working on some bedframes so we can get up off that grass you were talking about.”

August turned to lean back against the [Workbench].

“What should I do?” Melon asked, glancing between them. “You didn’t say.”

“You could try thinking about that—uh, thing—the one that finds active rune systems that we were talking about?” August offered, “If you can’t actually do it, it’s totally fine, but it’s an option to consider.”