Chapter 9 Part 2: Runes

His footsteps felt heavy as he walked to combat studies. Mei had gone ahead with Arvad, still mad at him. He could understand her but thought her reaction was a bit strong. She hadn’t seemed that attached to Ellen, but maybe he had been too busy with work to know.

Loosing track of his surroundings, he didn’t notice till he bumped into a young woman. She cried out in alarm as her staff and supplies clattered to the ground.

“Oh no…” she grumbled. Jun blinked, feeling a bit of deja-vu. Then he leaned down and helped her gather her scattered things. The girl’s black hair and dark robes stood out. Embroidered white flowers and flames clashed against the red strings and ties. “Ah, thanks.” She grabbed her staff before Jun could look it over.

“A first year?” she asked. Jun took a moment to process this.

“Yes.”

“I’m Solara Silver, a second-“

“Solara!” another female voice cried. Her lips flattened before she bowed.

“Well, Silver Flames permitting, perhaps another time.” With a flurry she rushed off towards the others.

Jun watched her go—his deja-vu processing.

The wind blew, stirring the umbrella. Jasper grasped at it and stumbled over another person who shrieked. As he lay there sprawled, he gathered his wits.

“Um… get off?” Ellen had said.

“Sorry. Oh. Is this yours?” In his hand was a paper smudged with the dirt.

“Yes. Thank you.” She snatched it from his hand and stuffed it into her backpack. “I could have-“

She had been interrupted by the sound of a classmate calling.

Jun closed his eyes. Yet another trip down memory lane, and his heart was breaking, barely beating in his chest. He forced himself to class, and shrugged off what he could before dragging to the mercenary association for work.

After that encounter, Jun found himself running into Solara often. It was like fate wanted to toy with his heart. The more he saw her, the more his face scowled. She remained oblivious to it, and greeted him. The few things he learned of her were that she was a priestess of the silver flame, but not part of Nauthire… just some small church that had received financial support from the heads of the religion, but had remained independent. Her staff was an artifact. The only reason he knew it was that she summoned it one time and he spotted the apparition around it. Seeing the apparition had ruled out the idea that she might be Ellen.

“Hey Jun. Heading to combat studies again?” Her hand made a small wave and he looked away. Even things like this reminded him of Ellen. How his wife had greeted him when he came back home, or when he had dealt with his mother-in-law. When he didn’t answer, she continued on, undeterred. “Well, I’m transferring to combat class, so I hope we can get along.”

This startled Jun more than her movements. Now he would be subjected to these emotional torments in his favorite class. Had she said she was considering joining, he would have dissuaded her, but she sounded as if it was a done deal. He rubbed at his eyes, ending in a pinch of the bridge of his nose.

“Am I bothering you?” she asked, concerned. Jun stiffened as her face drew new.

“No. It’s not that…” he evaded. She definitely was.

“Oh. Do you think I’m not fit for combat then?”

“It’s not that either!” he hated when he was thrown into these word traps.

“Oh. That’s good. I thought you were angry at me or something. I’m glad I was wrong.”

Jun clamped his mouth shut. He moved toward class and she fell into step nearby. Unlike Ellen, she was the one who was sticking to him. Back on earth it was the other way around.

As he entered with Solara by his side, Mei gave him a firm stare. He wearily sat next to her while Solara sat behind him.

“Say old man, what’s up with her?”

“Don’t even…” his head flopped onto the desk and Mei stiffened. He didn’t want to have the Jinshari in their class pay her any attention. That would only make it more problematic for him and Mei. With effort he focused on class. The lecture was about battle tactics used in warfare. While fascinating, it also didn’t help him sort through his emotions. He preferred swinging his sword to this. Mei, however, was engrossed.

Frankly, the tactics were old school. Battle lines and all that. However, his grandfather had been in the marines and his father before. Even one of his brothers. Their stories of what battlefields were like had dissuaded him from ever joining. It also made him ponder on how simple it would be to take out the forces using more modern warfare.

Lost in thought, he didn’t realize he was being called on till Mei elbowed him.

“Huh?”

“Jun, what would be the appropriate action in this situation?” the instructor reiterated. Jun shrugged.

“What would be the objective? Mutual destruction or preventing loss of life?” he commented.

“Winning,” the instructor said. Jun sighed.

“If we wanted to win—with the least casualties, we would need to know what the land is like, but let’s just say that this is the open plains for simplicity. The problem is the layout and preparation. Assuming we did not use a small team ahead of time to stall or ruin their supply lines, then we would be an even match. What would matter is the moral of our people and if we could find a favorable advantage.”

“Alright, you can stop now,” the instructor laughed, however Jun noted the gleam in his eyes and he asked the class what sort of details they had for the scenario on the chalk board. Jun half listened. There were too many variables that they couldn’t address, and these top down strategies were not the same as in person. You couldn’t see the battle like that.

Although he understood it from listening to his family, he did not want to lead any army in this life and refused to answer any questions after that. A one time analysis was one thing, but voicing more complaints or asking for details might put him in charge of a team. And he only roughly understood human tactics. Adding monsters and he would be hard pressed to lead. Besides, his blessing from the silver flame was geared toward healing. It would be better to stay back from any main fight.

As they headed to their next class, Mei stayed close and asked him about the strategy. Jun could see her eagerness and promised to explain back at their home. At those words, Solara appeared.

“You two have a home?” her stiff lips seemed to betray her.

“Ah, Solara, this is Mei.” He introduced. “My fiancé.”

“Old man,” Mei grumbled but he stopped her.

“Oh…” Solara hummed. She engaged in friendly greetings before speeding up to her next class. Jun sighed in relief.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that here. Are you trying to—“

“She was getting too interested in me,” Jun cut her off and Mei bristled.

“I am not your personal girl repellant.” Then she groaned, shoulders drooping. “Though… I can’t blame you. Still haven’t found Mom?”

He shook his head. “Fine. But if word gets out and it makes Arvad avoid me, then you’ll need to apologize.”

“So you do like him,” Jun teased and Mei’s finger came up under his chin, her scowl appearing in her eyes and brows.

“I swear old man, you just enjoy making my life miserable.”

“Only lately. Because that’s what… your father would do.”

Mei, exasperated, left him behind, heading to her political studies. Jun however found his feet heading towards the ‘Rune’ class. He didn’t have an official schedule other than attending Amalie’s combat studies and he preferred it this way. The school itself was loose. You could attend different classes as you wished though once you signed up for a class, you were locked into it until you passed. Having a free schedule like this was normal.

As he walked inside, he saw Zain and Christopher talking. The two waved at him and he joined their table.

“Curious about runes eh?” Christopher asked, sitting next to him.

“Sort of. I know they can force the prayers into different outcomes.”

“Well, archaically. But since you are coming in late, how about we study before the instructor appears? Wouldn’t want you asking questions that were answered yesterday.” Christopher had a gleeful grin. This was also one of the strange advantages of this set up. Other students would mentor visitors between classes so they could push forward in their studies. Learning could get you far, but teaching forced you to evaluate what you learned and made it stronger. Many enjoyed visiting students. Jun noticed others get snatched up by eager classmates.

Christopher did his best to explain about runes and what they had learned in the past month. However memorizing so many runes made Jun’s head hurt.

“It’s easier if you think of the path,” Zain spoke up. “This one is like a ride around the school. If each corner is a class, then you’d go to combat, then music, then politics, then-“ he continued on like that. Jun followed it fairly well in his head as soon as it became directions on a map.

“That’s quite ingenious… but then that also means the school is designed on the runes. Was that intentional?” Christopher asked, getting lost in his theories.

“Some are more like the whole island.” Zain’s insight made the two go into a fervorous discussion and Jun sat back, trying to work through things. A simple idea began to form in his head.

The instructor appeared and Jun listened to the lecture, but slightly distracted by an idea that came to mind. Finally the class neared the end and Jun asked a question.

“Is there a rune for fire?” he asked. The class looked at him confused. The instructor coughed, drawing their attention.

“There is, but most don’t bother with it as we can summon the flames at will. It looks like this.” He drew it on the board, the steps reminding him of the layout of the school like Zain had suggested, but followed the path you would take from one office to another. It had ten stops, like the ten white flames. Jun froze as he thought on that. He looked to Zain and Christopher who also had shocked faces—no doubt having seen the correlation. Jun thanked the instructor who continued with other questions.

As he left class, he headed to his home, eager to try out his budding theory.

He put some logs in the fireplace and then sat to meditate. Keeping as still as possible, he focused the prayer to circulate in a pattern. First he tried the rune pattern for healing and felt energized—tired muscles fading. He smirked. It wasn’t that far different from what he had subconsciously done in his healing routines. He then remembered Mei’s comment of rubbing the prayer against each other. The rune for fire had several lines that crossed one other.

He focused on the path the instructor had shared and had the prayer trace above the palm of his hand. A small flame appeared and he jumped, shaking his hand and putting out the fire. The shock aside, a grin formed. He tried again, but the flame didn’t reappear and he groaned. Had it been just a coincidence? Still, he could ‘sometimes’ make fire and that alone was an improvement. In the last half a year, others had made flames, but he had avoided the class when nothing came from it. Perhaps, he needed a more scientific approach to studying this new form of magic.

“Hey, Silver Flame.” He prayed to her, a bit of infuriation forming. “Why didn’t you tell me that prayer had to move in a pattern?” He then gave her his theory and heard her sigh.

‘You didn’t know the runes yet, and most learn it intuitively.’

Jun pursed his lips. Was she implying that he was just stupid for not getting it by now? A string of curses floated through his mind, though he didn’t voice them. The following reprimands from the Silver Flame were both compliments and insults as he continued the prayer.

The main thing he learned was that he had caught onto one of the foundational marks of prayer that hadn’t been recorded because it had been common knowledge before the witch hunts. Jun paused at that.

“Was it really that different back then?” he asked. The Silver Flame was silent.

‘Not all history taught at the school is accurate. But it is good enough.’

Jun mulled over the words and insights as Mei entered. He fixed her lunch while keeping his thoughts to himself. She hadn’t shown an interest in the runes and he still wanted to perfect his practice before introducing it to her.

As they ate, she asked about the combat studies and strategies and he asked how much she remembered of grandfather and her uncle. He used their names instead of their family relations and she remembered they had had been in the army and marines. At that, she asked what their stories were and Jun reminisced till she held up her hand, signaling that some of the Jinshari were nearby, able to listen in.