Chapter 21: Settling and Clattering

Even though Suria wasn’t perfectly happy after that, she kept herself under control and enjoyed what she could. She was managing in her classes, she had a scholarship for years of study, and Maut-mai was a decent roommate. This was far better than Suria had imagined she could ever attain even last year.

She could always have it worse, as her conversation with Kiznua had proved. It took Suria a while to pry the information out of the other woman, but apparently Kiznua had been struggling for years. Somehow she had built up her runic capacity and her mana reserves, yet struggled to maintain or cast larger glyphs. Instead of running into hard limits of the soul, she was limited by either willpower or focus, leading to inconsistent spellcasting.

There was nothing Suria could really do about that, and she didn’t feel like just talking had done that much. She hadn’t done half as good a job as Orinyan, yet it still seemed to make a difference. Whenever she saw Kiznua around campus, the other woman would give her a shy little wave.

As the days continued, Suria became more and more familiar with Darkmoon University and its quirks. Back at home, farming had required consistent work, so the days were divided into a week with one normalized saintsday at the end. In the Taedric Colonies, and apparently a lot of places across the northern continents, they used a less consistent schedule.

The result was eleven days of uninterrupted classes followed by a three day saintsday vacation, which many students were looking forward to. Despite the challenges, Suria was still hungry to learn more, and was actually a little disappointed that the break was coming up. She could stay on campus and do more reading, however, so it shouldn’t be unpleasant.

She’d come to know the campus much better, recognizing all the buildings even if she hadn’t entered all of them. There was a moor behind the Hall of Thrones that she had yet to touch, and she hadn’t ventured further into the woods than Skypiercer Tower. With so many buildings, she tried to stick with those that mattered to her daily life so that she could focus on learning. Even the strange staircase that spiraled above the campus became just another landmark.

And yet, despite her growing familiarity, the school could still surprise her. One day when she was walking through the fragmented arches in the north, she stepped around one and discovered a living statue built into the wall. It spoke to her quite politely, though it didn’t seem to have much to say. When Suria asked other students, they swore it had been there all along, just tucked away into an alcove. The rumors of secrets and hidden passages across campus were apparently true, at least some of them.

Sometimes the surprises were a bit darker. One night while returning from the supply store, she got lost within the maze of dormitories and suddenly found herself facing what looked like a cavern. A massive hole simply opened up in the wall, leading to a tunnel that seemed to pierce into the bowels of the earth. As if a den of monsters opened directly into the heart of campus.

Suria didn’t consider exploring for a second; she simply retreated backwards and left.

The next day she considered asking someone about it, but then her next talismans class proved surprisingly important. After a long time learning simple practical skills and discussing the market for different kinds of artifacts, the professor announced that it was time to make commercial talismans.

“Generally speaking,” the lecturer said, “mages can only use glyphs that they themselves have created. By far the most common exception is a runic structure that we call an adapter. It provides a channel for other mana to enter a glyph, and generally it only takes one to make a glyph usable. We don’t teach it to most students because it makes the rest of the glyph far more unstable, so it’s a risk unless your work is impeccable.”

They went on to discuss the risks and costs, but Suria understood instinctively. Adding an adapter to a glyph cost more runes, hence the adapted version of a spell would always be weaker than an original could be. Even before considering the stability cost, it used up more runes and occupied a space that could otherwise be taken by an enhancement.

The adapter structure proved to be a simple trapezoid, attaching to one side of a runic square and then narrowing away from the glyph. Suria thought it would be effortless until she actually tried it and the runes immediately broke apart.

She was accustomed to forming her runes with the end of her stylus, making each one pristine and identical. But to form a trapezoid, the outer mark couldn’t be a full rune, it needed to be an abbreviated line cut by one tip of the stylus. When she tried, the mana skewed her line, or it ended up too short and leaked, or the whole structure fell apart.

Up to that point, Suria had been challenged at times, whether with new ideas or new inscriptions. This was the first time that she dedicated herself intensely to a magical art and couldn’t crack it, despite all her effort. She even asked if the problem was that she was making the trapezoid alone, since she didn’t have the capacity to attach it to a real glyph, but apparently the skill was just hard to master.

As she stared at her failed adapters in frustration, Suria realized that she had been neglecting one of her objectives. Maybe she was avoiding a difficult task, but she decided that now was a good time to seek out an inscription she likely needed. In a sense she had been avoiding that objective because of what pursuing it would mean for her future.

“Professor, I’m having problems with locked doors,” she said when she approached the head of the room. “Everyone tells me unlocking inscriptions are disreputable, but surely maintenance staff need a way to open them, for malfunctioning locks if nothing else.”

“They’re not illegal or anything,” the old man told her carefully. “But I think you can see why we don’t want students running around unlocking anything they please.”

“Surely anything important is behind stronger security?”

“Heh, I was thinking about students playing pranks with one another. Yes, of course real security won’t be taken down by a single unlocking inscription. Direct locks are more common in wards than you might think, however. It’s an old and well-tested spell, compatible with almost any other effects a client might want…”

As soon as he started talking about the practical elements, Suria knew she had him. When he pulled out a simple lock, she helped her case by casting her locking inscription on it. She stayed patient and asked the appropriate questions until at last he offered to teach her an unlocking inscription.

It wasn’t the easiest inscription she’d ever learned, but it wasn’t any great secret, either. By the end of class Suria had the core of the technique committed to memory, and she was confident that she could fully master it within a few days. That was one of her objectives finally down, which made her feel a little better about all the recent obstacles.

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On the last day of classes, the campus began to empty out. Most students weren’t going far, since there were only a few saintsdays in a row, but many seemed to view this as an opportunity to explore Darmkael and all of its pleasures. For her part, Suria was just glad to have more and more of the campus to herself.

There might not be many people to spend it with, especially if Maut-mai left to some high society gathering. Suria had tried to spend more time with Orinyan, but the way their schedules worked out, they were only friendly at a distance. Kiznua would sometimes come to eat with her, but the other woman never said anything and looked terrified whenever someone tried to engage her in conversation. The only time Suria had drawn her out of her shell was when she’d asked for information about school buildings, which Kiznua could rattle off smoothly.

So as the first official saintsday began, Suria contentedly went to the library and enjoyed the ease of acquiring some more books. Discussions in class had given her dozens of book titles that, if they weren’t as good as her specific recommendations, would leave her better able to handle future classes.

Since it wasn’t considered too inappropriate, Suria checked out a book on warding magic, took it back to her room, and read through it while she fiddled with one of her talismans. Making an adapter trapezoid was still difficult, but she was getting better at the unlocking inscription. Just when she was settling in for reading in peace, the door opened.

“Are you going anywhere?” Maut-mai asked.