Up In Flames

After leaving the runic exam building, Saiph went over to the library and wandered around. He was trying to catch a glimpse of Jack anywhere while also taking some time to inspect the literature contained there.

The library impressed Saiph beyond belief. He had certainly never seen so many books in his entire life. Mr. Mayers' collection was nothing compared to the splendor of a two-story building packed to the brim with books of all sorts.

There was a plethora of sections, ranging from Blacksmithing to Fiction: Volucris. Saiph hadn't thought much about it prior to just now, but apparently, there were more languages out there in the Tower beside what he been speaking and reading up until now. After a bit of browsing, Saiph found his own to be called 'Mortales'.

Some of the languages were really diverse, in fact. Volucris, Bestiola, Mulciber, Nativus, Coelus, Ambystoma… Saiph didn't know what any of them meant but there was enough to shock him. And, there were still quite a few more labeled sections, on top of the 'miscellaneous' section.

Were there that many different languages used by humans across the Tower? It was also possible that these were written differences but they were all spoken the same. Or… were there that many other races inside the Tower beside humans?

More races… Saiph hadn't really pondered the topic before. If there were beasts, then, in the myriad worlds, couldn't there be something like a human beast? As long as it had the intelligence of a human -- or perhaps even less -- language wouldn't be impossible.

After some time of casually browsing, Saiph eventually stumbled upon Jack, who was reading a book and occasionally taking notes inside of it.

Saiph approached the older teen's desk with a slight smile and said, "Heya. All done."

Jack took a few moments to finish reading a passage, then looked up and replied. "How'd it go?"

Saiph sighed. "Not too well. Runecraft is hard."

Jack burst out laughing. "You're telling me! I'm going for a Runecraft certificate when I graduate. It's hard stuff, man. That's what this book is, even."

Saiph took a look down at the book in the teen's hands. Its cover read "Advanced Polyrunic Techniques for Lightning Runes".

Shaking his head, Saiph laughed, "Haha, that's too much for me… Although, could you maybe verify something I tried in the exam?"

Jack shrugged, agreeing with the notion.

Saiph took a piece of blank parchment from the desk and Jack's pencil, jotting down the Rune he tried to create for the last question of the exam. He had spent enough time in its creation and it had been a short enough time since he finished it, allowing the boy to still have the image engraved into his head.

After he was done, he asked, "What do you think of this?"

Jack picked up the piece of paper and studied it for a moment.

"Two different air Symbols, complemented by a disfigured fire Symbol…" he murmured.

"While I am pretty sure what this'll do," he turned to Saiph and started, "do you wanna see it in action?"

Saiph smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, that'd be really cool."

…

The pair, now outside and in an open area, was preparing for the reveal of Saiph's Rune.

"So first," instructed Jack, "you must either make a Spell Circle or inscribe a Rune onto materials to make it work. Since you don't really know what a Spell Circle is, let's go with the latter. I have some spare low-grade Rune paper here to use. The utensil is up to the preference of the Runemaster. Sometimes the material of the utensil harmonizes with the Runes, but it shouldn't matter for this one. My preferred way of inscribing Runes is with a Circleless Spell called "Burning Finger". I concentrate Mana into my fingertip, just hot enough to mark the paper upon contact but not catch it aflame."

Jack started to rapidly draw on the paper with his bare finger, a brown line appearing behind every stroke made. After a few moments, Saiph's Rune in its entirety appeared of the parchment.

"And now," Jack continued, "we imbue Mana into the Rune and see what happens."

A faint light emitted from the Rune, causing Saiph's eyes to widen and mouth to gape in awe. Soon, the entire parchment burst into flames. Jack tossed the thing into the air and stepped back, holding his hand in either pain or shock.

The flaming parchment flew into the sky and showed no signs of stopping. On and on it flew until... it fizzled out a few tens of feet in the air and crashed back to earth as a smoldering wreck.

Dumbfounded, Saiph looked over to Jack and asked, "Is that... normal? Was the parchment itself supposed to, uh, Burn like that?"

"Hahahahah, ohhh that's hilarious!" Jack started laughing and holding his stomach upon seeing Saiph's face. "And it's technically successful. Good job."

Saiph wasn't sure if he should feel proud or depressed. A success was a success... but this… was interesting.

"What? Expecting more?" Jack probed. "C'mon, you used like, three Runic Symbols and one of them wasn't even a proper one."

"Yeah, true. Thanks for doing this for me. It's been helpful… Although, what's up next?"

"Haa, well, I'm not expecting you to do too well, but it's, uh, the physical one."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Do I have to do push-ups?"

"Think so."

"..."

…

Half an hour later, the duo was walking up to a large, open field save for only a few obstacles scattered about.

Jack patted Saiph on the back gently. "Good luck, but don't worry too much about it. You're already probably as well off as you're going to get. Even if you do above average, it probably won't matter. Just don't get a zero and make them think you lost your leg, eh? Hehe."

Saiph just smiled wryly and went over to a cluster of kids that looked like they were waiting for something. Upon his approach, a few stray glances met the empty sleeve where his arm should have been, but nothing more came of it.

After awkwardly standing around with them for a while, he found out that indeed, they were waiting for one of the examiners to finish up their group.

A few more painful minutes passed before an examiner showed up. This one was notable younger than any of the workers Saiph had seen up until now; he looked only maybe a year or two older than the examinees.

"There's one, two, three…" The examiner abruptly started silently counting for a few moments before continuing. "...47 of you. Can do. Let's go; I'll take your IDs later." He started jogging away from the group.

A few questioning looks were passed around from kid to kid, but, without fail, the entirety of them started jogging behind the alleged examiner.

Saiph maintained a similar position in this group as he had on the way here to Veritate. Although, looking back, Saiph recalled that incident not ending up the best for him.

Saiph was used to cardio and endurance feats. He had, after all, worked for 50 percent of every single day of his life as far back as he could remember. However, the missing few pounds from his armless right side threw him off. The stupid metal ID plate didn't help, either.

Soon, cramping tore at his stomach. Deep breath after deep breath, Saiph tried to alleviate the piercing agony to no avail.

'Uh-oh.'

Things weren't looking good, from Saiph's point of view. If this cramping was starting up now, this early into it, how bad would it be after an hour of running?

Saiph bit down hard, teeth aching from the force exerted. He stuck through with it for what seemed like forever- all the way until the instructor finally stopped. Saiph didn't place dead last; there was clearly a few people who might not have ever jogged in their entire lives here.

Heaving and gasping for breath, Saiph grabbed his gut and tried to unknot the cramp that was driving him insane.

"There's… probably… a potion for… this…" Saiph complained through bated breaths.

He said this but knew there was. He could think of three of them off the top of his head.

"Alrighty, c'mon up and lemme check your IDs now!" The examiner's fresh voice rang out, causing everyone to look over to him, some even in awe or envy. Saiph couldn't pick out a single bead of sweat on the kid's face.

The 47 applicants rotated through handing off their IDs to the examiner and, before long, everyone was standing around the slightly-older boy in anticipation.

"Alright," he said with a sudden arrogant smirk appearing on his face. "Shall we?"