35 Rune stones

Mandy stayed up late that night, reading and making August coffees from time to time, only heading to sleep when he finished up for the day. So she woke up late and when she did, she saw a mostly empty room, only Veri was sitting nearby, sorting out small colorful stones that seemed like amber if not for the colors. Each had an organic carving on them in smooth lines and a small glimmering flame within.

Listening to the sounds around the apartment revealed that no one else was there, they had probably gone to the house by the lake. August had sent Lily, the new familiar there as soon as one haste potion wore off, so Mandy wasn't expecting to see her, but others missing did fill her with a complicated feeling. Well, at least Veri was here.

Veri treated each stone in a careful and loving manner, placing them in the moss in four different places.

Noticing Mandy's extended look, Veri looked over.

"You have an aptitude for these," she said pointing at one of the piles. That one had mostly red and grayscale stones in it.

Mandy got up and crawled closer.

"If you pour a little aether in them you can see a small sample of the ability hidden within," Veri said, picking up a stone from another pile. A blue one in her case. In her fingers, the little flame within burned up brighter and an ice flower appeared in mid-air, letting off some falling smoke only to tell how cold it would be to touch.

"This one has ice heaven in it," she said. "Leum can already use it, so I'll see if Albus wants it." Veri put the stone back in the pile.

Mandy's eyes were glimmering as she watched the flower. The ice flower soon disappeared and her eyes moved over to other stones.

"If you pour in a lot of aether, the rune will shatter and you will gain the aether circuits to use the ability in its full might right away," Veri continued.

That sounded like one heck of a cheat-- Very good! Mandy eyed the pile she had an aptitude for with some greed. She did need to become strong and frightening fast to better protect August, so the worse this pile was, the better.

"Although if the ability within is too strong for the user, they might be knocked out for a day or two till their vessel adjusts," Veri added.

"Like hibernating?" Mandy asked, wondering if it was like with August. The intro for the book she had studied for astral shapeshifting had mentioned the act itself being safe. That it "was a relief if a new student hibernates", although it was in the context of the other option being death. Learning new skills could be risky, although since Mandy was already dead, she didn't know if she even could die.

Veri shook her head. "Hibernation is silent. If a rune knocks you out you snore really loud and annoy the heck out of everyone."

Ah. Okay. Well, Mandy was sure August would just carry her to the other house or something if it really was that bad.

Veri looked up. "August is calling me, I'll be back soon. Feel free to pick out the ones you like and learn them."

"I--"

And Veri was gone, before Mandy could tell that she had no idea just how much aether counted as little.

Ah, well, seeing how many of these stones there were in total, it wouldn't be too much even if she learned a few too many from the pile she had an aptitude for, right? Mandy's eyes showed a greedy glint as she caught on to the first stone. Blood red in color and a bit bigger than the rest.

Mandy wrapped her fingers around and focused just like she had when trying to shapeshift something in her body.

The flame flared up so brightly it put Mandy's hand on fire causing a fright. But there was no pain, just surprise. Starting from the palm, the fire separated into many smaller ones and all of them blazed past her body, drawing a shining web over her skin and as the trails reached her eyes, she 'saw' how to use the skill hidden in the rune.

The trails faded and there was no sign of the runestone ever being there only an amazed smile on Mandy's face.

The ability she had just learned was called 'Blood prison'. If she activated it right now it would be useless, but if she had a room full of living beings then eh-- it would be horrible. Her aether would spread out like a web and a blood-red mist would form. That mist would then drain the life and aether out of every living cell and restore her own aether and vitality. Mandy didn't know how useful the vitality part would be, though.

The example of ability use she had seen was in the shape of a visual memory from someone bleeding and wounded, likely a woman, judging from the bit of a dress Mandy saw. She was inside something like a royal reception room, surrounded by knights, some had just fired arrows, one was in the middle of stabbing a sword into her.

The ability activated in an instant, red mist covering the room faster than the woman blinked and then the knights let out ungodly wails as their skin disintegrated. Every single weapon and arrow fell out of the woman's body and by the time the now empty armor hit the ground, she was fully healthy and stood up straight. There was also no trace of blood on either the weapons or on her dress.

Mandy didn't get any other information other than what she saw and the feeling of casting the spell right. The sensation felt so ingrained and practiced like Mandy had done so herself a thousand of times and Mandy had no doubt she could use the skill if she needed, but boy-- she hoped she would never need it.

Yes, it was frightening. Yes, it was a horrid spell, but rather than frightening someone, wouldn't that just annihilate? And what if August was next to her, that spell didn't seem to have any ability to pick and choose. Hnn-- wasn't it actually useless then?

Mandy let out a sigh and picked up the next stone. Like that Mandy burned through the whole pile, not noticing that her own eyes had lost their pupils and while the color was still the same stormy blue, her eyes now actually looked like they had a storm brewing within them - swirling and shifting.

She had gained a whole pile of frightening and also useless skills - useless because they all pretty much annihilated everyone and everything around - there were skills like the blood prison that physically killed in various ways, then there were skills that induced suicidal tendencies, skills that made people turn on each other, even a skill that had the surrounding people offer up their own hearts and souls--

Hah. Just what sort of thing had Veri aimed for Mandy to become?

There were only about three useful skills -

1) one that turned surrounding people into mindless puppets. That Mandy could use. If someone targeted August, she could take those people hostage and then hand them over to police or Grisham or Tiamat or whoever. That ability included a way to release the puppets from their role, after all.

2) one that turned surrounding people into a... harem? Cough. Basically made everyone fall in love with her and follow her wishes. That seemed like an useful skill for interrogating hostile people, if needed. That one too had a way of releasing people from the spell. It wasn't like Mandy aimed to abuse the ability to gain an actual harem.

3) one that applied a curious form of hypnosis or brainwashing. For example. "When you meet person x, you drop a potion on them' or 'when you hear the bell hit 12, you destroy the chandelier', or when 'x kisses you, you stab them'. The person neither had the memory of the user applying the spell nor any idea that they would at the said trigger do the said thing. The stone containing this skill was small in size, but contained more examples and visual memory scenes than any other. And made sense it would, it was by far the most complicated one, even if it required very little aether to use. Mandy saw it as a good skill for spying or passing on a message or a threat to someone hostile.

Veri returned then, but as she did her complexion paled. She looked down at where the pile used to be.

Eh? "...Sorry I didn't think I couldn't use them--" <all> was lost in Mandy's throat as Veri cought on her face.

"What is my name?" Veri asked in fright.

"Veri--"

"What is the name of the one you love?"

Eh-- What was this about. Mandy started to turn red. "August?" But Veri looked too frightened for Mandy to reject cooperation.

"What is your father's name?"

"Hugh." But - "Do you even know my father?"

"No," Veri said, but she did seem a bit less frightened.

Leum appeared then and just like Veri he instantly paled upon spotting her.

Eh? What was going on even? Mandy started to feel scared as well. Veri let go of Mandy's face and looked towards Leum with a helpless expression.

Lem pulled Veri towards him and....

Mandy squinted. Okay. Why were they starting to kiss? In front of her. Hm.. maybe it was wrong to feel scared. It seemed really heated at that...

Well, it was nice to look at beautiful people doing that, but hmm. Why didn't they start undressing each other, they just exchanged heated kisses a lot like-- conversing? Their expressions too, on a proper look, looked like those of people engaging in a debate not...

Veri pulled away from the kiss and reached out towards Mandy. Catching her under her chin. "Don't panic," she said and started moving closer.

Eh!? Mandy turned red-- she didn't want to be unfaithful towards August, but, but, but-- Veri was beautiful and she was a girl, so this could be like... yeah... friendship kiss...?

Just a centimeter before Veri's lips reached her own, a chop came from above and Mandy looked up to see a really done looking August.

Mandy couldn't tell if she should feel regretful about missing out on kissing the most beautiful girl that had ever gotten this close or should she feel happy to see August being jealous? Hm-- but was he jealous?

Veri didn't complain about the chop, rather she looked like a child caught stealing cookies. Leum too showed a similar expression.

"Let me tell you something interesting," August said squinting at the two. "Masters also inherit language comprehension from their familiars."

The two paled even more than when they spotted Mandy. Eh-- Just what had these two done? Language comprehension? Hm? Eh-- so that kissing really was a discussion? Was Veri trying to tell her something by that kiss?

"Good timing," August said, "Tiamat just stepped by, you won't need to sneak around."

That line made Veri and Leum despair. They now had eyes of death row inmates.

"Um-- is something wrong with me?" Mandy asked.

"You became more beautiful," August said, a soft smile forming on his lips as he reached out his hand to move a loose strand of hair behind Mandy's ear.

Mandy flushed red, a bit happy but mostly still confused.

Veri and Leum showed shock at what August had said.

"But your shape will change if you leave my domain," he said, now showing regret.

Mandy let out a breath. That told her that things were pretty crappy and that they were exactly as bad as Veri's and Leum's expressions indicated. Mandy had never thought those two would show actual fear, now that she thought of it. Being dragons and all...

"You won't be any less beautiful and it won't change the way I feel, but it could be hard on you," August added with a sincere expression.

Figures. Mandy made a wry smile. He was the guy who had dated a spider monster, a siren, and a dragon.

So it was bad to use that many rune stones huh?

No one told her about the possibility of changing shape though. She didn't think Veri was fully at fault there either, Mandy was being greedy when she used up them all without trying to lessen her aether output on the second one. Had Mandy done that, she could have narrowed down the useful ones and only learned them, not fifty useless ones on top.

"Will I grow tentacles?" Mandy asked. Better be prepared for the worst.

August let out a breath. "You won't grow anything, those two will clean it up, Right?" He cast a cold look towards the two as he said that.

The two made frightened nods, still looking like scared kids in their gestures.

"Okay," August said and took Mandy by hand, then took a hold of Leum's wrist. Veri grabbed on to August's arm as well.

In just a single step they came out next to the lake. The charged fog had now thinly spread into a section of the lake itself and formed a wide backyard sort of zone around the house. The kids had come out and some were playing in the water. Neo, Kiri and Bruce, if Mandy's memory was right.

Mandy also spotted an unfamiliar girl with green hair who was snuggly hugged from behind by Lily. It was faint, but Mandy could still feel a similar sort of presence on the girl to the one Leum and Veri had when she first met them, so she was likely a dragon. Hm.. could it be Tiamat? And could it be that August's familiars also could block presences by touch to some level?? Or was it Lily's ability?

Before going to sleep Veri had said that Lily was a special sort of familiar with a different contract, so it wouldn't be odd if she had different abilities, probably. The only things Mandy had learned about Lily were that she was the one who used to maintain this house (and that alone made a good impression) and that she had removed the dead zone in the library. Otherwise, she seemed kind of spacey and when Mandy asked her questions, she seemed to think on them indefinitely and forgot to respond altogether after a while, so Mandy gave up and then August sent her away anyhow.

"This is my lover, Mandy," August said to the girl. "Mandy, that's Tiamat, Leum's mother."

Tiamat looked at Mandy with curiosity at first, but then her brows furrowed. "What the--" she started.

August looked over at Veri and Leum then.

"She used to be a ghost," Veri said, "but then she consumed 54 epic grade runestones Leum stole from you."

Eh-- stole? Leum, what? Why did you rob your mom? Mandy started to feel embarrassed. She hadn't known they were stolen, but still - she had used them up, now they couldn't give them back.

Tiamat sighed. "Well, that is one way to force a low tier god to ascend, but why?" She looked at Leum with confusion.

"It was my mistake," Leum said. "I didn't tell Veri about it."

Veri looked down. "It was my mistake as well. I didn't watch over her."

"No. It's my fault," Mandy spoke up. "Veri told me to check them out and pick ones I liked, but I got greedy and used them all up, even if I liked only three of them."

Tiamat tilted her head slighly, then looked up at August. "I can tell you want my help, but you are blocking her presence, I can't even tell what I'm dealing with."

August made a complicated expression, then let go of Mandy's hand.

Mandy couldn't tell what was going on, but many voices spoke the same word then.

"Titan."

Tiamat's was one of amazement, every other one was one of fear. August took Mandy's hand again, but it was too late. The whimsical air was gone replaced with dead silence and all the time travelers looked in this direction.

More of them left the house to come closer.

One of the kids had come the closest. Neo. He looked hurt, afraid, yet most of all - resolved. "The titan who destroyed the world in the future had the same air and eyes as Mandy has now," he said.