Chapter 26: Unbridled

Alex was surprised to hear the function of the rune that the others were studying.

"Why would I want to use a rune that would sap my qi?" Alex continued to study the rune.

"How should I know?" Eluril daintily ate the last bite of her steak and finally turned to face Alex again. "Wouldn't the proper question be, how can you make use of it?"

Alex thought about it for a moment.

He had always thought of runes in the context of their place in enchantments. He had never considered the runes properties on its own. He now began to consider how he might make use of those properties, rather than the rune.

Taking out the book that the smith had given him, he began to look it over once again. Alex had read this book multiple times. He had been trying to commit it to memory, just in case he lost it. Only now did he notice how the runes were presented in the diagrams of enchantments.

Along with a plethora of detailed information about rune placement, materials, and dimensions, there were drawings of the runes annotated with their properties. The paragraphs that explain the enchantment earlier in the book, went into detail of why each rune was used as well.

"I have been thinking about this wrong the entire time." Alex said.

The other stopped talking for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Eveline asked.

"This entire time I have been thinking about runes in terms of how they are used in enchantments. That will only take me so far. I need to understand their properties."

"Isn't that why we study runes?" Red asked, confused.

"Yes, and no. Think about a lesser fire rune." Alex said drawing it on the page. "How can you make use of this?"

"Doesn't it just make flames?" Tom had a look of doubt on his face.

"What if I use it without a transfiguration rune?" Alex continued.

Everyone had a strange look on their faces for a moment, as they thought about the concept. They had never even considered the question before. Tom and Red even began to doubt that it could even be done. Eveline, on the other hand, was quickly catching on to Alex's point.

"Can it even be used without a transfiguration rune?" It was Red this time that was unsteadily asking the question.

"Look here." Alex pointed to a passage in the book.

'The lesser fire rune excites mana of any type and forces it through a conduit material in the direction chosen. Upon leaving the material, it will vigorously mix with the surrounding air. When paired with a transfiguration rune adjusted to fire element mana, this produces a heated surface and flames.'

"So, I don't get it?" Tom said sheepishly. Afraid of looking dumb.

"It says 'when paired', meaning that it could be paired with other runes." Eveline said slowly as she thought it through. "But still, when else would you use this?"

"What if I had a rune that presented a poison, or corrosive substance?" Alex, had a grave tone as he leaned in and whispered to the others.

The other three reeled back and sucked in a deep breath.

"Do such runes exist?" Red asked. Apprehension evident in his tone.

"Does it matter if they do?" Alex said with a grin. "What matters is that, the lesser fire rune has almost nothing to do with fire, other than when it can be used to produce it. The properties are what is important."

They continued to talk about runes and their uses for a short while.

Alex couldn't afford to continue talking with the others. He had weapons to enchant.

After saying his goodbyes and promising to meet back up for dinner, he headed back to the forge.

As soon as he sat down at the work bench he began pouring over the descriptions of all five enchantments that the smith had given him so far. He began to understand how the runes were producing their effects.

The ice enchantment was the only enchantment that did not include a description of its resulting effect. But he now thought he knew what it would do.

He decided to continue with the original plan and make the wind enchanted weapon first.

This enchantment seemed more like two enchantments to Alex. In fact he had to progress through the process of making the first half connected to one trigger rune, leaving space for the future runes. Then, starting from the second trigger rune, place the second half of the runes attached to this trigger rune.

Each of the sets were very similar to the fire enchantment, one of the differences being the addition of a area of effect rune between the transfiguring rune and the wind rune. The other difference was the a new rune called an extrusion rune. It was placed between the area of effect rune and the wind rune. The wind runes had to be directionally aligned with this new rune, and in opposing directions for each trigger.

The wind enchantment would send a blast of wind out from the blade of the weapon. The wind was not powerful enough to damage an enemy, but what it would do was even more sinister.

In a sword fight timing was everything. This enchantment would effectively allow you to instantly speed up, or slow down, your swing. Allowing you to bypass your enemies defenses. More than once has a superior swordsman been felled by and enemy who had such a sword.

This enchantment took Alex three hours to finish. His enchanting speed was increasing by leaps and bounds as he gained confidence. He was not rushing, each movement was just becoming more fluid with practice.

After recuperating and allowing his qi to refill, it was now nearly five in the afternoon. He would need to work hard to make it to dinner on time.

The ice enchantment used all of the runes from the previous enchantments, with the exception of their elemental runes.

There was only one set of runes this time, unlike the wind enchantment. But the layout, and interactions of the runes was much more complex then before.

Alex was barely able to get the enchantment done in time. It was now nine in the evening.

Alex spent his dinner writing in the book, in silence.

The others were worried for a bit, but when they noticed that they couldn't understand the enchantment he was working on they left him alone.

Hurrying back to the forge he was barely able to finish the fifth blade by five minutes to midnight.

When he looked up from his work, Alex noticed Gavannon checking the other four swords.

"What do you think of my enchantments?" Alex nervously asked.

"I wont know until I activate them." Gavannon said, with a solemn tone.

This confused Alex greatly. 'You are a renown Master Blacksmith. Surely you can tell just by looking if they work or not.'

While Alex was confused Gavannon grabbed the fifth sword and began looking it over.

"Hmmm." Gavannon began mumbling something to himself as he looked over the enchantment. No matter how much Alex tried, he couldn't make out what he was saying.

"You have an interesting design. Theoretically, it should work." As he said this Alex began to beam in pride. "But it wont."

Alex was still in the midst of happiness and he wasn't paying close enough attention.

"Boy!" Gavannon grumbled loudly.

Stunned by the abruptness of the change in tone, Alex could barely mana a 'huh?'

"I said it wont work." Alex's face scrunched up into a look of utter consternation.

After he calmed himself. "Smith, why wont my enchantment work?" Somehow he was able to maintain composure this time and not offend the smith.

"The mana here is not potent enough, and you do not have access to mana condensing runes. Therefore, you can not refine the mana within the mana storage rune." Gavannon sighed slightly and placed the sword back onto the work table. "Simply put, you have a novel idea, but you have a flaw in the design."

Alex began to look over the weapon and his notes. Checking for the flaw.

Gavannon let him look for a while. Once Alex was sure he could not find the flaw, he looked up at the smith.

"Please tell me the flaw." Alex's tone held the utmost respect.

"Normally when an enchantment requires more mana than you can provide, this is as a direct result of over engineering. You will see this a lot. Enchanters who use more runes than they need because they do not understand their runes well enough, often make this mistake." A drop of derision was evident in his tone as he said this.

"You, actually, did not fall into this trap." A slight sense of pride once again began to fill Alex. "You made an even bigger mistake. You allowed your creativity to outstrip your knowledge." The tone of reproach crushed that earlier sense of pride in Alex's heart.

"Over engineering will, at most, make the enchantment wasteful, or not work. There is little danger in that." Gavannon's tone was neutral once again. "You, had an idea. While that idea was feasible, you did not have enough knowledge of runes to know that. You also don't have enough knowledge to know that the materials can handle that much mana. Lastly, you have no experience to justify such complexity of design." Each statement felt like another nail in his coffin to Alex.

"If the mana in the surrounding area were potent enough to make use of your enchantment, or if you had access to the mana condensing runes, the first time you used this enchantment the sword would have been unable to bear the heavy mana load." Gavannon looked Alex directly in the eye and enunciated each word slowly. "It. Would. Have. Exploded."

Alex stared at the weapon with slight disbelief and fear now.

"The resulting storm of shrapnel and mana, would have killed you." The words were said with such finality that Alex knew it was certain.

Slowly, Alex began to step away from the sword. Seeing this, Gavannon grabbed the sword and laid it on his anvil. He then took a tool from nearby and damaged the passive and mana storage runes.

"Keep this." He said, as he handed the sword to Alex. "It will remind you what unbridled curiosity and ambition can do."

Alex took the sword. The weight that it held in his hands, was more than the materials could ever explain.