Inner Runewright Omosefe Izekor sat at her desk, wearing her ceremonial robe covered in softly glowing runes. She had gray-blond hair and a severe expression. She was about six feet tall but looked small in relation to her huge desk made of gray crystal. The office was spotless and minimalistic, only a few shelves of knickknacks on the back wall to give it character.

  She looked up from her fruit pastry and scowled at Luke. “You are early.”

  Luke checked the Kalibutan time app on his phone. “You said the hour of the crow, and that’s right now.”

  She glanced over to a small cylinder behind her desk. It had different animal silhouettes slowly rotating around an ornate frame. Right now, a bird silhouette was in the center of that frame. “Fine. Let’s get this over with. Kneel down on that pad and recite the oath.”

  There was a padded mat on the rightmost floor of her office. It was next to a floor to ceiling window. Luke walked over to look at the view. It really was a nice view, her office was in the outer ‘leaves’ of the estate’s skyscraper tree. If only it wasn’t so small, Luke would think she held an honored position in the court.

  The runewright’s office was sized appropriately for an elf, but that meant it was too small for orc-sized visitors. Luke had to leave his mech suit outside, which was particularly annoying because it meant he lost his buff from his class. He had tried to use Machine Bond on his prosthetic leg after the conversation with Lord Edobar, but he couldn’t get it to work yet.

  Luke knelt on the mat and looked at the small piece of parchment in front of it. Predictably, it was in Elvish so he used his phone camera to read it. It seemed like a standardized oath people took when learning runes. The people on Kalibutan treated knowledge of runes as a currency and the oath would prevent him from spreading the information wide and devaluing the rune. All of that made sense. But the end said that he was to tell his ‘master’ everything about his class so she could best help him. He bit his lip.

  He couldn’t do that even if he wanted to. The oath to SPEAR wouldn’t let him. Somehow he knew that talking about himself in third person wouldn’t work. The organization really didn’t want Kalibutan natives to know the true power of the human chosen.

  “I apologize, but I cannot swear this oath. It conflicts with another one I have sworn.”

  She huffed and stood up from her desk. “What part offends your human sensibilities?”

  “Not sensibilities, magic bindings. I cannot tell you why this won’t work, only that my oath prevents it,” Luke said. If push came to shove, he would would have to give up on the opportunity to learn more runes.

  Izekor put a hand to her forehead. “Do you want to learn? You must swear the oath. A human like you may not understand the full implication, but I cannot teach you without an oath.”

  “You can’t or you won’t? Because I have a hard time believing an inner runewright like yourself is bound by the same chains that bind the children with fresh classes,” Luke said calmly.

  The provocation seemed to work. Izekor slashed her hands down. “No, I am no longer bound by journeyman oaths. I may gift my knowledge to whoever I choose. I simply choose not to teach you runes without an oath.”

  “Now that we established you can fulfill the request of our Lord Edobar, let us discuss next steps,” Luke said. He ignored her sudden frown and continued. “I would like to learn three runes and I promise it won’t take you long. What kind of favor can I do for you that would make obeying your lord easier?”

  She glared at him. Luke didn’t say anything, just let the question hang in the air. After a full minute she said, “You are far too devious. Humans must negotiate with their mothers for breastmilk. I worry if I asked you for a true favor, you would somehow turn it against me. On your next visit, bring me a variety of Earth seeds. Fruits and vegetables, preferably ones that grow quickly. Promise to do this, and I will teach you one rune today.”

  “I can do that, no problem.”

  “Of course you can, that’s why I asked for it. Be forewarned, knowing these runes without an oath will cause Lord Edobar problems if you are found out. As his servant, you are oath and honor bound to keep that a secret. Now, what rune do you want for today’s session?”

  Luke had already decided on this one. “I would like to learn the Adept Fire rune you used on the Fire Sword you gave to Kruro.”

  “Adept Scintillating Fire. It’s a hotter fire than its twin, suitable for penetration instead of spreading fire. I will attempt to teach you this. I make no promises about your ability to learn. And in case it needs to be said, don’t tell the snakeman about this. The outer runewright is forbidden from fire for a reason.”

  “I won’t tell her, I promise to act as if I had sworn the oath. What was that about runes having twins?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You want to attempt an adept rune and you don’t even know the basics? Perhaps you should have negotiated a primer on runes instead of three runes you have no hope in learning. But it’s too late for regrets. We walk the path you chose.”

  Izekor sat back on her desk and started writing something out on a piece of parchment. The stylus had more in common with a chisel than a pen, but she scratched out the rune with flowing grace. She clearly had more dexterity than he did.

  ???

  ??????

  ?ζ?? ??

  ??ζ

  Luke recognized the fire rune he had been trying to learn over the last several days. He already had every character memorized, it was just the intents he was missing.

  “This is the rune you are attempting to learn. Adept Scintillating Fire. Adept because it has three intents. Scintillating because it burns hot, not big.”

  “And what are those three intents?”

  “You should practice the rune a dozen times or more first. You need to get the form down before you attempt the intents,” Izekor said and handed over the parchment.

  “I’ve already done that. It’s the intents I am missing. I haven’t been able to discover the correct ones yet.”

  She sliced her hands down. “That’s because you can’t discover something so precise.”

  He nodded but didn’t say anything.

  She sighed and said, “The three intents are as follows. The first flame of a hearth fire on a cold day. The deep orange center of a blacksmith’s fire while making a cauldron. The bright sparks of the dawn dragon’s breath as it cuts a shield in twain. Those are your intents. You need to understand them completely and then hold them in your head simultaneously while you carve the rune perfectly without a single misstep.”

  Luke was starting to understand why people thought runes were so difficult. They made everything over complicated because it was difficult to convey precise concepts in a pre-technological society. The first intent was clearly the base concept of fire. Simple. The second intent would have been difficult if he hadn’t watched so many seasons of Forged in Fire. The TV show taught him that deep orange fire was 1100 degrees. The dragon one was a little more difficult to interpret, but the mention of sparks reminded him of the sparks that flew off an angle grinder cutting metal. He decided to go with that.

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  It took him longer to get used to the elf’s stylus than it did to interpret the intents she gave him. Dexterity helped, but he still had to figure out its quirks before he could trace out a rune on the parchment she provided. It didn’t help that she expected him to work on the floor. At least he could kneel on the padded mat. A few minutes later he had the first version of the fire rune ready for testing.

  He flipped up the parchment and showed her the completed rune.

  Izekor looked up from the letter she was writing. “You are a competent runist at least. Crisp lines, no errors. Intents are the hard part though. You should have access to mana from your class. Push a tiny bit into the rune and test it out. When it fails, spend at least an hour meditating on the three intents I gave you before you try it again.”

  Luke pinched the edge of the parchment and held it away from himself. He was confident in his work even if she wasn’t. He pulled a tiny tendril of mana from his core, the smallest amount he could control, and sent it into the paper.

  It immediately went up in a conflagration of bright fire. The fire consumed the paper in its entirety, singeing his fingers. He sucked on them for a moment, but then forced himself to put his hand down on his lap. His health points would heal it soon enough. He wanted to focus on giving the inner runewright a smug look.

  Izekor’s mouth hung open and she placed her hands on the desk to steady herself. “By Kolerego’s balls. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone without the runewright class learn a rune that fast, let alone an adept rune.”

  Luke shrugged, less impressed with himself that she was of him. “I do have a class, with the extra stats that come with it. You could say I’m cheating.”

  She sliced her hands down. “No, you are talented. Do not drop counterfeit coins.” She walked around her desk to stare at the small bit of ash on her office floor.

  “Does this mean we can move on to the next rune? I had a few ideas, but I wanted to get your advice on what would be the most useful,” Luke said and stood up from where he had been kneeling in the corner.

  She absentmindedly waved the question away. “I can’t complete the exchange today, it would be seen as rude. It must take a minimum of three days or it will be seen as me attempting to insult Lord Edobar by rushing your training.”

  Luke nodded. “Yeah, can’t offend the lord.”

  “Not when I don’t want to, anyway,” Izekor said flippantly. She seemed to have recovered from her earlier shock. “Now, what rune were you thinking of learning for your next session?”

  “I figured out how to make a flying construct, but it’s fairly mana inefficient. I was hoping you could help me redesign the propulsion. The runes work fine for my drone, but I want to make my mech fly.”

  She sliced her hands down. “I saw that blocky monstrosity. You can’t lift that thing off the ground without a dozen new runes. Even then, you would go through an entire tier two core every hour. It wouldn’t be worth it. If you wish to fly, purchase a set of angel wings and leave Lord Edobar’s territory. That way when a dragon comes to snatch you up, you don’t disturb our afternoon.”

  Luke held off on a sigh. Her respect for his skills hadn’t lasted long. “Alright, if flight is off the table, can you offer me any advice for improvements to my mech?”

  She smoothed out her sparkly runewright robes and pointed to the door. “Show me.”

  Luke slid the round door to the side and gestured at the empty mech that knelt there. “I decided to have an internal rune system so it could take a few hits and keep going. The central power core is here.” He continued on to explain how everything worked.

  She tapped her chin. “Reversing the runes for integrity was a good idea. However, you didn’t align the power flow correctly. It needs to be connected to the third nodule, not the first. Switch it and your efficiency will double. Speaking of efficiency, your lodestone spell rifle is a novel weapon, but very inefficient. I assume that lodestone is inexpensive on Earth?”

  When Luke nodded Izekor said, “Then let me offer a suggestion for mana efficiency. If you add a containment rune here, you will save half a point of mana with every shot. You will also be able to briefly charge shots to double their efficacy.”

  “I don’t know a containment rune. I assume you can teach me an Adept one?”

  “Indeed. It will also help you hide yourself from monsters that hunt with mana vision.”

  “That will work. I can learn that one tomorrow. Do you have any advice on a master rune I could learn? I know it’s a bit above my current skills, but I want to test myself, you know?”

  “I will think on it. Perhaps I will find a useful rune that will take you more than a handful of minutes to learn. Until tomorrow, Luke of Machines.”

  Luke was in a good mood as he met back up with everyone at Kruro’s place. Shepard and his crew handed over ten tier one cores and Luke asked them to survey the slimes before heading home. Kruro was in a good mood because she was already done with her work for the day. Since she hadn’t been repairing the power armor for a few days she had gotten caught up.

  Kruro slithered over to Luke and said, "Congratulations again on your successful debut yesterday. I heard from Theobaldine that you were with the inner runewright this morning. Did it burn her to have to teach a human her ways?”

  Luke chuckled, “Yes it did. She was particularly upset that I learned the rune so quickly. I can add a firebolt to my mech now, so I’m happy.”

  Jinx was rubbing up against his metal leg so Luke bent down. She hopped up, but fumbled the landing. Luke helped her steady herself. Her prosthetic legs must need adjusting again because she had grown once more. At this rate she was going to end up panther sized.

  “The Seer also hinted that he knew something about you and the Malamon,” Kruro said. She looked across the shop where Vanessa, Sandwich, and Bumblebee chatted. “I do not wish to spread unfounded rumors though. I will investigate and get back to you.”

  Luke glanced over to the rest of his squad. “If you are sure. I’d rather hear whatever people are talking about if it involves me.”

  “I’ll look into the rumors and get back to you tomorrow either way.”

  Luke agreed and they headed out for the day. It meant that his squad had a shorter day, but Luke was excited to install the new rune he just learned and wanted to get to crafting.

  When they arrived on Earth, a woman in a black suit walked up to him in the portal room. He knew now that she worked for SPEAR, but he still thought of them as the Men in Black.

  She said, “Mr. Moore, Mr. Simmons, and Mr. Jones. The three of you are required to report into room 311 in building B.”

  It took Luke a second to remember that Bumblebee and Sandwich were actually Eugene Simmons and Mike Jones. Once he realized, Luke asked her, “What’s this about?”

  She shook her head and said, “You’ll find out in person. Ms. Staggers, this has nothing to do with you, so you may go.”

  Vanessa waited until they were alone in the corridors of the portal building to say, “What was that all about?”

  “I dunno,” Bumblebee said, trying too hard to be casual.

  Luke shook his head. “We can’t tell you yet. I promise I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can.”

  Vanessa grumbled but said nothing. When they left the building, she headed straight for their warehouse and the men walked over to the neighboring building.

  It was a four story office building, the second one built for the complex. Up until now Luke had assumed it was related to taxes and record keeping, but now he knew at least the third floor was devoted to SPEAR.

  “Wouldn’t it be funny if we walked in there with our power suits? The spooks would be gagged,” Bumblebee said.

  “Tempting, it really is, but I don’t think the building is rated for suits this heavy. We might break through the floor,” Luke said. He knelt down in front of the building and climbed out of his mech.

  The other two followed suit and headed inside. Once they reached room 311, Luke knocked on the door and they heard a voice he recognized.

  “Come in, gentlemen,” Agent Brown said.

  Luke walked into a small boring office with furniture from the 90’s and actual file cabinets in the corner. There wasn’t enough seats for the three of them so they had to stand.

  “I’ll be brief. Monday our instructor will be in town. He’ll give you our newly classed training. Be ready for a full day of activity. If you don’t completely disappoint him, you will have training on Tuesday as well.”

  Luke shook his head, “That’s not good for me. We are training our new hires then. Any way we can push this off to Thursday or Friday?”

  Agent Brown gave him a flat look. “That wasn’t a request, that’s an order.”

  Luke felt his oath tighten around his heart. “Fine. I'll be there.”

  Luke realized he had made a mistake. He had sworn that oath to SPEAR to keep secrets, which was annoying but not really a problem. But now he realized that he was trapped by the oath. He had to obey this asshole as long as he wanted access to the portal.

  Agent Brown tapped a folder on his desk. “One more thing. I am adding a team member to your monster killing group. He’s a former SEAL, good guy. He can join your new hires on Wednesday.”

  Luke’s heart started hurting again. It was different this time though, and he realized things might not be as bad as they seemed. He had an idea on how to make his life much easier.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Star Trek (2009)

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