Hi There!
Why is this called the runesmith chronicles? You're about to find out!
As always, your feedback is very appreciated!
Enjoy!
Blu
*****
Almost six months had passed since Perra had come to live with Kal and his mother. True to his word Kal visited Ikuno's cave as often as possible with Perra tagging along whenever she could get her chores caught up, and true to her word Ikuno began teaching Kal the basics of magic.
Kal could tell that something was bothering Ikuno in the way she acted these last few weeks and more often than not he would end up going home immediately after these practice sessions with Ikuno getting upset for some reason he didn't understand, then stomping off to her cave in a huff. Near as he could tell, the better he did the more annoyed she became with him, and for the life of him Kal couldn't figure out why. Today as he approached the oni's cave he intended to find out.
Kal adjusted the piece of leather strapped to his forearm, scrawled across the top were runes that looked very similar to the ones tattooed on the arm of the knight, Sir Balthus. It had been about two months of constant study, interrupted by much more pleasurable distractions with Ikuno, before the oni had let him try his hand at some actual magic. In the beginning Ikuno had tried to teach him how to summon the magic circles like she did, as it was the type of casting she was most familiar, but with little success. Ikuno's charged crystals provided enough power, but he just couldn't keep the image of the circle with its various runes and sigils as sharp in his mind as it needed to be. After a second mishap that required her to heal a couple of his broken fingers they decided to move on and come back once he had studied for another year or so.
Next, he had tried his hand at drawing the runes in the air, this proved to be easier as the runes were far less complex. He even managed to create a ball of flame that danced about in his hand and heal up some small scrapes and cuts he had gotten while working the farm on the previous day. But each success seemed to only make Ikuno grow colder towards him and unfortunately for him only runes in the most basic spells were simple enough for him to both draw accurately and mentally hold the image before he ran into the same problem as with the magic circles. Luckily, he and Ikuno realized this before any more fingers were broken.
Two visits ago he had asked about the runes on the arm of Sir Balthus.
---
"Do you know what a runesmith is Kal?" Ikuno asked joining him in the library as he read by the light of the magical lantern, the book was for novice mages since he hadn't built up the knowledge or vocabulary to tackle anything more difficult yet. Despite his attempts to brush up on his reading skills the magical tomes had thrown a large number of new words and concepts at him, at times it felt like he was learning to read all over again.
"Not really, it hasn't been in any of the books you've had me read. It sounds like some sort of blacksmith," he replied.
"The huge majority of them are," Ikuno pulled over a nearby chair and sat down. Since he was spending so much time studying, Kal had crafted a second chair so they could both sit and talk in the library comfortably. "Dwarven and elven runesmiths go out and find extremely rare and powerfully magical components that they take and forge into weapons or tools to imbue them with strong magical powers."
"Are there no human runesmiths?" he asked.
Ikuno shook her head, "Not that I know of. I've heard that some extremely powerful runed weapons take decades to make, occasionally taking the life of the crafter in the process. To my understanding humans do not live long enough to develop the expertise or have the magical affinity to forge a runed item before they become too frail with age."
Kal was thoughtful, "That sounds amazing, and a bit scary, but I'm no blacksmith. I can't even fix my own tools when they break."
She gave him a half smile before continuing, "There is another much rarer type of runesmith, one that does much the same thing, but instead of crafting a weapon they go out and find the most pure and powerful components to create magical inks then 'forge' the runes into their own skin," she explained.
Kal's face lit up with understanding, "That's what's on Balthus's arm! He's a runesmith!" Kal thought for a moment before his elation drained away, "Wait, that doesn't make any sense..."
Ikuno smiled, "You are correct, before they left I asked him about his arm. He said that it was a foolish mistake from when he was younger thinking a magical shield he could summon at any time would be useful if he became a knight. He paid a small fortune for the runes but the crystal they gave him was the same one I shattered, that pathetic crystal made those runic tattoos almost useless. He told me it took days to charge the crystal and as you saw the shield only lasted a few seconds at best. Unable to prove the worth of his magical arm he spent a few more years as a squire than necessary. However, my point is that it was a runesmith that put the marks on his arm, not Balthus himself."
Standing up Ikuno looked through the books before taking one off the shelf and placing it by the one Kal was reading. "This book has most of what I know about runesmithing, look through it and tell me what you think. Before you jump into this you should know that there is a tradeoff going this route."
Kal closed the book he had been reading and slid the new one in its place. Looking up at the oni, "What kind of tradeoff?" he asked.
"Energy," she formed a small magic circle in her hand and held it there, "This type of magic takes the least amount of energy. Since I'm doing all the work in my head maintaining its form it takes very little to initiate the spell, only a little more than what it takes to hold it like this." Dispelling the circle, she used a claw to draw a rune in the air then held the glowing sigil in her hand like before, Kal recognized it as a simple healing spell, "Casting like this takes a bit more effort to get going as I have to empower the rune as I draw it to achieve the same effect." Ikuno let the rune fade and looked at Kal, "It takes far more magical power to activate an inked rune. First, the ink must be charged with magic then the rune must be activated, because of all this energy needed to cast, even a rune drawn in the purest ink will eventually burn. Though once activated the spell doesn't take much more to maintain than the other ways.
Kal was quiet as he took in everything she had told him, understanding now why she had started him out on what seemed to be the most difficult means of spellcasting. "Why do it then? What is the point if it takes so much more effort and is such a waste of energy?"
"Being a runesmith does have its advantages," she put her hands together in front of her. "Let's say my hands are bound together, as I am now the only thing I can do is this," the magical shield she had used in the fight against Galen appeared above her forearm before quickly fading. "If I were a runesmith I could heal myself, change shape, burn away the bindings, change part of my body into slime perhaps, even activate strength or speed runes to escape. All just by pushing magic into the right runes and without the use of my hands."
"Okay, now the opposite question why don't all magic users have runes on them if they are so handy?" he asked.
Ikuno smiled, "Think back to the battle with the knight," her magical shield formed above her arm again, "look familiar?"
Kal sat there slack-jawed staring at the magic circle above Ikuno's arm, he couldn't believe he had failed to notice that Ikuno's and Balthus's shields were nearly identical. He collected himself and looked closely at Ikuno's arm, "But you don't have any runes on you..."
Ikuno released the spell and winced, "That's because they're a bit... deeper," she seemed reluctant to say more but that only roused Kal's curiosity.
"Deeper?"
She rubbed her forearm with her other hand, "I didn't want them to be visible so I had them etch the runes into my... bones."
"Owwwch!" though it didn't actually hurt him, the very thought was making his arm tingle. Kal found himself rubbing his own arm in a similar manner as Ikuno.
"That's a bit of an understatement," she shook her head a bit to rid herself of the memory, "Read up on what you can in the book, I'll make us something to eat while you study." she said and walked out of the library.
He spent the rest of the day reading and talking with Ikuno, for the first time in weeks they spent the time before he went home in bed.
---
On his next visit, after their normal beginning to one of one of his visits, Ikuno had crawled out of bed and given him a piece of leather with ties to go around his arm and runes scrawled into the top along with one of her charged crystals.
"I had some spell components I combined to make a decent quality ink. Let's go outside and see how well you do with this," she said smiling, "don't be discouraged though, it may take some time to get it to work."
Dressed and out in the clearing in front of the cave Kal strapped the piece of leather to his forearm, holding the crystal in his other hand he took a couple deep breaths in preparation. He closed his eyes in concentration then pulled magical energy from the crystal before pushing it into the runes on the leather. At first it felt like the magic crashed into a wall stopping and rebounding back on him like a wave. He gritted his teeth and kept pushing despite the resulting headache. Energy flowed towards the ink but slowly like pushing a log through a wall of clay. As pushed through the barrier and the magic touched the ink the floodgates were thrown open and energy rushed in, charging the runes then rebounding yet again as he failed to activate the shield quickly enough. As the magical energy slammed back into him he cried out falling to his knees and holding his head. The runes on the strip of leather flickered out leaving tendrils of steam floating up from the ink.
Ikuno rushed to his side, but he waved her off. Standing up, he gave her a weak smile, "Not giving up that easily."
