Rune mage

Chapter 2: all work and no play

"What I don't understand," Steph said as she pulled another mug from the clean rack and filled it with ale, "and no one has been able to explain it to me, is why mage students must pay a tuition when the schooling is mandatory. You can't not go. But they bleed you or your family dry."

I shook my head. "No one can explain it because it's missing a compelling reason, Steph." I took the tray of full mugs and hoisted it into place over my shoulder. The tray was my own creation, with runes carved into the ornate design to keep it balanced and reduce the weight. It was a work in progress. There was some element missing that made it still a bit too heavy at times.

I made my way through the crowd, delivering the ale with practiced ease. This tavern was different from others because the servers were all men, and the ladies were behind the bar pulling the ales into mugs and taking the coins.

Steph said it cut down on fights. Since she was the owner, I figured she had a right to run her business as she pleased. I made a decent amount of coin each week, and since I had a bunk at the school as part of tuition, I didn't have to lose half my pay to rent.

"What's the reasoning you were told?" Steph asked as I returned.

"The teachers need to be paid like anyone else. Without high enough pay, the professors would abandon the school and only the desperate would be there to train and teach the next generation of mages, which would leave them defenseless. It should be an honor to pay for such a fine education. And also," I added with a sigh, "all of our receipts show a portion was paid for by the crown. We could never say the crown didn't pay into our education."

Steph waited.

I was going to let her wait. She knew me well enough after three years of working here that I had thoughts on the matter. But this was not the time or place to mention my theory that the crown didn't actually pay anything, that the receipt was a lie like so many other things at the school.

I spent the evening running drinks to increasingly drunk idiots. But one thing about employing a rune mage: boisterous behavior rarely led to anything dangerous. Every table and chair in the place had runes to prevent anger outbursts.

When I say most people underestimate rune mages, it's because it's true. I couldn't light anyone on fire from yards away, couldn't call a wind or create a magical whip. I couldn't tell emotions, couldn't properly heal others, and would never be able to use music to magic people into obeying orders. There was a list that seemed infinite of things I couldn't do- many of them strategically offensive.

There had been only one book of runes in the whole library. It had been less than a hundred pages and most of it conjecture because so few rune mages lived through training. Knowing you would likely die made for generally distrustful young folk who didn't easily share information with others.

The lack of information had indeed nearly cost me my life that first year. But I began experimenting and discovering that runes didn't have to match what was in that damn book. There were so many I could create because like many magics, rune magic followed intention.
The book hadn't mentioned that.

No. The book had offered fifty runes to memorize and their uses, along with warnings quite dire for deviation. Death or dismemberment seemed to deter most of the rune mage students.

But after the healers had to put me back together for the third time my first year, I had decided the risks of death or dismemberment weren't nearly as bad as not doing anything.

"I think the window table might need some adjustment," Steph said as she loaded up another tray.

I looked over to the window and chuckled. Three of the men there were barely awake and a fourth was already asleep. The other four at the table were talking intensely amongst each other, but their beers were nearly untouched.

I pulled up the tray, now full of mugs and delivered the next round, stopping at the window table to collect empty mugs. While picking the mugs up, I pulled the store of power from the table and chairs. Their emotions had quickly overwhelmed the simple runes I had placed down, and in doing so activated the strongest calming rune I had ever created. By pulling away the power, I stopped the runes from working all together.

The three sleepy men blinked and looked around.

"Anything to eat tonight?" I asked the table.

"Not if you're going to poison the food too!" Grumbled one of the wide awake men.

"Nothing poisoned here," I said with a shrug. "We have a solid stew and fresh bread if you're interested."

"I want to know why my men are falling asleep," demanded the leader of the group.

I cast my gaze over the men. They had the look of mercenaries. "They look awake now. I've never seen nor heard of any poison that can end so quickly. But I'm just a student. I've been working here three years though, and can tell you that if Steph doesn't like you, she doesn't poison you."

Steph had been a mercenary herself for a while, until she'd earned enough to buy the tavern. She often hired men who were mercenaries and had no hesitation at having them toss folks out.

The men at the table grumble and decided they were done for the night. They walked out still arguing amongst themselves.

I watched them only a moment before returning to my tasks.

"That was neatly done. What was the problem?"

I sighed and set my tray down. "Overcharged. They must have been very angry. I pulled the power away, reset the runes. I need to figure out an overflow system."

I had an idea for a spider web rune design...but needed some time to try it out. I looked at the ceiling. Now that I thought about it, the tavern was a good size for a test design.

"Last time you got that look, half the kitchen blew up." Steph grumbled.

"That's an exaggeration, Steph, and also I fixed the damage. Besides, I may be able to fix the leaky roof problem."

Steph eyed the roof. "That sounds suspiciously helpful. Why am I not inspired?"

I shrugged. "I have one week before classes start again. That's enough time to work out a solution." Especially since I had already started thinking about this problem.

"The week between terms is intended for students to rest or visit family."

Steph had been trying for three years to get me to talk about my family. I didn't have a tragic back story- many of her employees did. I was simply the eighth child of a farmer and his witchy wife. They did the best they could for us, but when I showed magical power beyond my mother's level, they knew they would lose me one day, to the life of a mage or to death. This was confirmed when my eldest brother returned from his schooling, a mage in his own right and on his way to war. For while my mother never had enough power to need to attend the school, two of her children did, first and last.

They did their best to prepare me to fight for everything. And when it was clear I couldn't use spoken spells or gestures, but had to rely on runes...

I will remember the fear in their faces for as long as I live and love. They turned their fear into purpose by teaching me languages from whatever books they could find and taught me to be strong physically by having my older brothers beat on me until I could defend myself or at least get away.

"My family doesn't need me to visit," I said to Steph. "And I'll need the week to read and memorize the new set of rules and work enough to pay the rest of my tuition."

"I never see you play," she said, her expression sad.

"I haven't had the luxury of play in a long time Steph. I intend to survive."