Standing deep in the bowels of the governor’s manor, Kaius locked eyes with the grey-bearded runewrights. While he could have taken the outburst as rude, he wasn’t enough of a fool to do so — no matter how much the chamberlain, Fyfen, looked like he wanted to keel over in embarrassment.

  Tradesmen — even ones as specialised and knowledgeable as runewrights — weren’t exactly known for their highly polished etiquette. Besides, he’d probably react the same in their shoes. It wasn’t often some too-strong youngster turned up with runes carved into their bloody face, let alone ones that were so clearly completely foreign and complex.

  “The system calls it a glyph — they’re specialised body formations,” Kaius said with an easy grin.

  The runewright named Garth snorted. “Body formations my bloody arse — things are so bloody titchy that there’s only four documented methods of keeping them reliably stable. That has none of them. By the dead ground beneath my feet, it doesn’t even have any Simenoan to keep it stable!”

  One of the other runewrights nodded. “Aye. It’s interfacing with your mana all wrong too. Too static, too dense — not flowing right, and I can’t see any evidence of passive effects. There’s always a tell. Always.”

  The runewrights seemed to have almost forgotten he was there, focused entirely on the mysteries of the inscription visible on his face. Kaius was having the time of his life, grinning wildly at just how stumped the old men were.

  The second runewright who had spoken paused for a moment, giving him a sheepish smile. He tugged at one of the braided lengths of his beard. “Runewright Manthea — though most call me Manthe. You’ve already got Garth’s name, and the quiet one is Lorne.”

  Kaius politely inclined his head. “A pleasure to meet you, Runewright Manthe. Fyfen’s already introduced me, but I suppose you could call me Glyphbinder Kaius.”

  His words had the desired effect. The runewright, Garth, scowled again. “What does that even mean? Come on, man. This is cruel. Don’t give it to yourself.”

  Kaius laughed. As much as he wanted to keep teasing them, they were here to do an important job — though he did intend to savour every moment of his telling.

  “Like I said, the system calls them glyphs. Glyphbinding is the art of inscribing and using them, much like a runewright inscribes through normal formations.”

  He tapped the central part of the glyph on his temple, the permanent formation where just under a dozen spells coiled off its edges. “It’s for spellcasting — the central array and controller that is permanent and bound to me, with additional formations, one for each cast of a spell.”

  All three of the runewrights frowned. They’d made an assumption — one Kaius had thought was likely, and one that was utterly incorrect. He grinned.

  “But… why?” the runewright — Lorne — said. “It must be astonishingly inefficient. Why go through all that effort when you could just learn to cast like a normal mage? You’re more flexible. Stronger. Easier. Hells, the channelling time would be much faster too. I get that — probably means you can focus more of your skills on fighting armoured as you are — but what’s the point? It’s not like you could channel up close anyway.”

  There it was. That fundamental reason he had pursued this in the first place — and something that Kaius very much enjoyed explaining, their misconceptions.

  Even Fyfen, standing politely to the side while they got acquainted, was looking at him with curiosity.

  Seeing his wide grin, the runewrights narrowed their eyes.

  “Because,” Kaius paused, drawing the moment out, “I don’t need to channel.”

  All of the effort went into their inscription. “And when I wish to cast, I simply will it so. Hence why they have so much mana tied up in them. They sequester a portion of my pool.”

  “Impossible!” Garth spluttered, nearly stamping his foot. “Your tugging on our beards — trying to make fools of us! You can’t simply violate one of the most basic rules of spellcasting, no matter how complex those runes look!”

  Ah. Vindication was a sweet thing. It wasn’t often that somebody was told by a seasoned professional of their craft that they’d managed to do the impossible — especially not with so much vehemence.

  He’d witnessed disbelief before, of course. Ianmus most of all. But Ianmus was a mage, not a runewright. There were certain subtleties to the art they just couldn’t appreciate in the way that they deserved.

  “Not impossible. Just ruinously complex. I can show you, if you would like. Most of my spells have a more combat-centred focus, but Eirnith is visible, and its spells are harmless, in a sense.”

  “You are serious, then? This is no bluff?” Manthe said, incredulous, the formation at their feet forgotten as he circled round the edge of the room to approach Kaius, his eyes drilling into Eirnith the entire time.

  “I’m serious,” Kaius replied. “One of my Eirnith spells is Compel Obsession. It forces a target’s attention to something of my choosing. I largely use it for distractions in battle to create openings. But if you would like, I can use it on you and set your attention to the glyph — though, at this point, I’m not sure if you would notice much difference.” He gave the man a teasing grin.

  “Please. You’re a Silver of repute with the guild. You say it is not harmful, then it is not harmful. Besides, I must experience this for myself.”

  Before Kaius could respond, he heard a polite cough behind him — the chamberlain, Fyfen.

  “I beg your pardon, but is this most appropriate? I understand that this is novel, but the city formation needs inspection.”

  Garth waved the man off immediately. “Bah. If he’s managed that, then we will have this tuned in no time. Even if he’s a bumbling fool and knows nothing of the formation itself, we’ve already derived its function while you were fetching him. We need a bit more magical oomph to find the flaws where the runes have degraded. If he’s telling the truth, then I have no doubt he’ll have the stats and skills to do that. We’ll have this thing fixed in a few hours.”

  The chamberlain shot Kaius a questioning look, to which he gave the man a nod. If that’s all they needed him for, it was something he was more than confident in. His mental stats were outsized, and he had a good mana manipulation skill that was far more suited for internal work, for obvious reasons. He’d had experience teasing out formations that were far more complex and finely wrought than this one — albeit perhaps not quite so large.

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  Fyfen sighed in relief. “In which case, I’ll leave you to your work and your demonstration. I have far more matters to attend to.” The man nodded at the other runewrights. “I’ve already left you with an artefact to notify me once you are done. I’ll come to lead you out of these chambers and secure them behind you.”

  “Go with the gods, chamberlain,” Garth said as the man abruptly left, hurrying down the halls and out of sight.

  As soon as he rounded the corner, all three of the old men snapped back to Kaius, drilling him with their eyes.

  “This Compel Obsession. Show us. I need to see it with my own eyes,” Garth hissed.

  “All of you?” Kaius questioned.

  Their only responses were a simultaneous nod.

  “Well, all right then,” Kaius said.

  Taking a breath, he reached for the bound mana in his glyph. Targeting each of the elderly runewrights, he drove his will into Compel Obsession, urging the men to focus on the glyphs on his temples and the individual inscriptions of the spells he had cast as they burned away.

  Bound mana exploded forth, ripping through the conduits of his glyph. His excess energy was vented into a shower of harmless sparks that were visible to manasight. Kaius felt his spells take hold. He was careful, monitoring them closely. Compelled Obsession was a heady thing, and he had no intention of keeping it active for long. After a few breaths of time, he released the effect.

  Though, much as he had anticipated, it was impossible to tell, given the absolute fervour with which the runewrights stared at the mana that erupted from his glyphs.

  “That…” Garth said, awestruck. “You weren’t bloody lying.”

  His companion, Lorne, slumped, leaning on the wall of the room to steady himself. “Did you see it? The way the mana moved? It flowed into his skin.”

  Manthe just stared at Kaius with a slack jaw.

  It would have been very, very hard to hide the glee that boiled over within him — but finally getting to share his achievements with people who would truly appreciate their magnitude… he, of course, did not try to.

  After a few moments, the runewright Garth blinked, his eyes focusing. “This script is too divergent, too strange. You did not invent this, did you?”

  Kaius shook his head. “I wish I was that good. No. My father derived this art from fundamentals. He passed before I was able to glean more of his knowledge, but he was a grand master inscriptionist — if not of an even higher pedigree than that, I am sure. Most of my unclassed period was focused on ensuring that I could inscribe the glyph he had devised. Of course, I was focused on blending glyphbinding with a martial discipline, so I’ve received a hybrid class.”

  All three of the runewrights nodded. “System-derived, then. A shame. But perhaps true mastery would be too much to ask for in this circumstance.”

  Kaius held back the urge to roll his eyes. He was pleased with his achievements , but he should’ve expected a little crafter elitism surrounding the practical nature of his class. Most runewrights who practised using only system-granted abilities were considered something of hacks, after all.

  “How does it function?” Lorne asked.

  “Three-dimensional runes. And I’m still piecing together the structure of the script, but it is inordinately complex — even compared to something like Exarnage, which I do have some mastery of.”

  Once again, his words seemed to strike the runewrights like a hammer blow.

  “Three-dimensional,” Manthe whispered. “That… how would you even begin?”

  “How was it even discovered in the first place, more like?” Garth said.

  Kaius nodded. He’d wondered the same thing for a long time. Garth said it, and he had something of an answer for it. “I’ve seen two places I might suggest development along those lines.”

  “Deep in the Depths, I’ve seen a structure that has come with the new change of the phases. Some of the system runes precipitated something like crystal. They were three-dimensional but shifting — potentially of an even higher order. It was possible inspiration was drawn from there, just like the earliest examples of our traditional art were drawn from system inscriptions on artefacts and Depths gateways.”

  “Fascinating,” Garth said, “but working backwards from something even more complex than three-dimensional runes seems unlikely.”

  Kaius nodded. It was true. While the runes he had witnessed in the Crucible were not quite so terrifying and terrible as the great rune, Vos, that he had learned, they were still mind-bending and inordinately complex. While such things might prove that other geometries of runic construction were possible, that was about all they would do.

  “I’ve seen something almost similar — an Imperial artifice. They use a layered construction. Multiple formations stacked vertically. Connections between them. It’s not quite a truly three-dimensional — it is a half-step on the path.”

  “That… that could work. The demands on the script would be inordinately high,” Lorne muttered.

  “Now hang on just a minute there. You can’t just gloss over the fact that you mentioned… Imperial runes. You managed to crack that mystery too?” Garth said.

  Kaius laughed. “Crack it? Not in the slightest — damn things have so many redundant ways to destroy themselves that I about tore my hair out. But witness it? Well, that’s a different story. One benefit of being good in a fight is that it leaves you with plenty of automata to pick apart before the formations have had too much time to degrade.”

  “Codswallop,” Garth said, scowling. “This is too much excitement for my damn old heart. Yes — you’ve given us much to think about, boy, and you’re far more open than most would be. You plan on spreading… these inventions?”

  Kaius shrugged. “I only hid them in the first place because of how weak I was. Besides…” He gestured at his temples. “Gonna be a bit hard to hide them now.”

  The runewrights cracked a smile.

  “God’s damn right it’s going to be hard. You’re bloody lucky you’re in a place like Deadacre — not too many of us out here go to any real city. You’ll have a damn small army of runewrights following you around. Even if you were inclined to secrecy, I’d recommend registering these discoveries with the Collective, just to keep your own peace and quiet.”

  “The Collective?” Kaius questioned.

  Each of the runewrights looked at him like he’d sprouted a third head.

  “You can’t seriously be trying to tell us that you’ve made some of the largest headways into one of the greatest runic mysteries Vaastivar has ever seen, discovered an entire new branch of the art, and you’ve never even heard of the bloody Collective.” Manthe’s face scrunched with confusion. “Where did you grow up? Middle of the woods or something?”

  Kaius coughed and tried to move past the comment quickly. “I’ve lived an eventful life. Let’s just leave it at that. What is this Collective?”

  “It’s a union of runewrights. Has branches in most major cities. It’s not quite as large and official-like as the Delvers’ Guild — it’s mostly a way for us to collaborate and make progress in various different spheres of the art, and a way for people to share or sell their own formation designs. The Collective’s extremely strict on licensing designs, and publishes blacklists of folk who try to pilfer designs without their makers’ approval — makes ’em the best place for innovators to grow wealthy and strong on their developments.”

  That sounded interesting. It would certainly be a good place for him to spread knowledge as he wanted, or even find collaborators to help him pick apart the secrets of Vesryn runes.

  “Where can I find them?”

  “They’re in just about every city in the dukedoms. There’s one in Mystral too, of course. Grandbrook has an office, but it’s more of a place to lodge claims than a true branch.”

  Kaius nodded thankfully. “Well. I’ll have to check it out when me and my team make our way to Greenseed.”

  The runewrights nodded.

  “We best get on with our work, I suppose. We weren’t lying just to get them out of our hair when we told Fyfen that we’d already familiarised ourselves with the formation. It should only take us a few hours. Perhaps we can discuss more about this glyphbinding while we work.”

  Kaius nodded, smiling. That did sound nice.

  B4 finishes tomorrow on Patreon!

  https://discord.gg/NjsqGKHHaY