Chapter 19: Fine!

Hecate handed Percy a stack of paper, "write down all the formulas you know along with the first three sets of basic rune structure."

Percy took the paper and sighed as he readied his quill and ink, "you know had I known magic involved this much work I would have just stayed hidden in the mortal world instead."

"That must be the fifth time you told me that this day Jackson, stop complaining, it's not an attractive quality," Hecate summoned a glass of wine for herself as she sat down in front of Percy. "Begin."

Percy nodded as he quickly looked over the question sheets and began to answer them as best as he could. He didn't wear the blood band, which he did every time Hecate tested him. The goddess wanted him answering these questions without any outside help.

Percy hummed as he tackled the arithmancy problems first. Like Hecate said when he first started they were similar to his number tables. He didn't have much choice but to mug them up, they were the basic concepts of arithmancy, he needed to learn.

'Let's see, formula for a twist motion? (M x 4) +number of inches in wand length. Flick, (M x 2) +number of inches in wand length. Stab, hm...well I suppose that's a tricky one...'

And like that Percy went on for the better half of the morning. At around noon he sighed and put down his quill handing the goddess the completed exam paper.

The goddess cast her grading spell on it and smiled as the number '87%' came up.

Percy grinned, "am I good, or am I good?"

"Don't get cocky kid."

"Did you just quote star wars?"

"Yup!" Hecate grinned triumphantly, "and Iris said I wasn't in with the younger kids."

"Right," Percy said unsure with what to say. He cleared his throat, "anyway, I'm done with runes and arithmancy right? Does that mean I can get a wand now?"

"Not so fast kid, you're not nearly close to being done. This was just the theory part, you still need cover the practical area."

"Cool! Will it be like potions?"

"Yes, it will. I think you are going to enjoy it quite a bit actually," Hecate smiled, "now, shall we begin?" She snapped her fingers and vanished the question paper and quickly sent the books Percy's was studying away.

"But wait, how am I going to practise all of this practically?"

"Well you can't really do arithmancy practically just yet, you need to be a lot more experienced to even think about creating new spells. And that means you need a wand, which you aren't going to get just yet. So for now we'll skip that bit. But, we are going to do a rune carving session, which I think you will enjoy."

Hecate snapped her fingers summoning a giant black bag about 2 feet tall and a wooden bow that was decorated with runes. Percy recognized a few of them, there were runes for protection, for safety, for comfort but there were also many that he had no clue about. Percy groaned, "Hecate, why don't I recognize some of these runes?"

"Hm? Oh, well you aren't that advanced yet Percy. Essentially you just learn your ABC's, these runes are practically a whole new language, but don't worry, I'll teach them soon enough. Now, go ahead, open the box."

Percy nodded as he carefully opened the latched and gently lifted the cover. Inside were tools Percy recognized from his rune books. These tools were used to carve runes. One was a tine blade with teeth along it's edges. It had a wooden handle with gold near the blade with rune for 'sharpness', probably to keep it's edge. This was called an imber and was used to carve runes.

Then there was a small quill with a golden tip with an ink bottle to it's side. This was a line grapher, it was used to create a sketch of a rune before one carved it. The ink had a tracing property in it which attracted the imber's metal tip insuring that the carving didn't start form the ink path.

And then came a magic saturator, a magical nail polish if you will. The user pour's one's magic into the bottle and then take the pain brush out and paints over the carved rune. This wasn't really necessary, but ensured that the rune carved was more stable and stronger than normal.

And then finally came the air brush. It was just that, a giant fluffy brush. People just used it to seem fancy, it didn't really have a purpose.

"This is amazing Hecate, thank you," Percy said as he held an imber in awe, he admired it's edged teeth, he could carve wood with this.

"You are welcome Percy, think of it as a gift for doing so well in your studies. You will find the set much better than any other set out there. Most people have an all in one tool kit, imber, line grapher and a magical saturated in one big pen. But I find that it's much more effective by having each tool desperately and made of better quality. Called me old fashioned, but it's better this way."

"I see," Percy smiled, "alright then, what's in the bag?"

"Glad you asked," Hecate grinned as she opened the bag showing that it was full of pebbles. She took one out and laid it before Percy, "make me a protection rune."

Percy nodded and eagerly went to work. He worked diligently, he drew the rune first with the line graph and then cut into the stone with an inber. Finally he coated the rune with his magic and presented the rune to Hecate.

The goddess looked over and nodded, "not bad. At least for a first attempt. The lines are a little off, you might get a 50% chance of this actually working. Oh, and you took forever you make it, ten minutes is too long for a single rune Percy."

"Fine, let's see you do it then." Percy grumbled as he passed the tool kit to the goddess.