Rune mage

Chapter 10: Mentorship

Lu and his brother were in the tavern when I arrived for work the one day a week I didn't have classes.

"Steph, this is Lu, my future replacement." After they exchanged greeting I continued, "I was thinking.... Can we use your back courtyard to work on a thing for the blacksmith?"

Steph looked at the tavern's near empty tables and shrugged. "Sure thing."

Lu and Noav both followed me out.

"What are you doing for the blacksmith?" Lu asked.

"I have a big project and extra hands will help." I set my heavy bag down and began pulling supplies out. The wire was still shiny, the runes still fresh. I took the time to lay it all out- there was a lot of it. Then I pulled out my tools and laid them out too. Finally I took out my working journal. I flipped open the the page I had written down the designs.

"First, you'll want a notebook like this for yourself. Never write down the entire rune though. Why would that be important?"

Lu looked at me, then my book. "If... if you write down the rune all the way, you could accidentally activate it." Then he held up a notebook and I realized he already had a book of his own.

I nodded. "Yes." I looked at the other book Lu was carrying and smiled. "Did you memorize that yet?"

"Almost," he replied. "And I was able to power all of the designs."

A good bit of pride went through on the last bit, as it should. I had found following the book's directions frustrating.

"I have never done this mentorship thing before. I could be doing it all wrong. But... I am about to tell you about a project that no one can know about." I met their eyes. "It would go badly for me if it was well known."

I was trusting them and they knew it. Noav rubbed his face. "I don't have to stay."

"Worried you might slip and tell someone?" I asked.

"I would never intentionally tell someone," Noav said.

"He gives under pressure," Lu said with a smile. "He would never need to be tortured because the fear of torture would break him."

I tilted my head. Then looked at the book Lu was holding. "Do you have some etching tools?"

He nodded.

I pulled one of my blank beads from my pocket. "The first thing you need to understand is that rune magic is like any other magic: it follows intent. You want your brother to have less fear. You want him to have some fear, just not as much. There is a rune in that book that can be adapted for this purpose. While I work on this project, you can see if you can create something to help your brother." That was probably a better project than helping me with my net. Maybe I was going to be good at this mentorship thing.

"Does that mean I can stay?" Noav asked.

"It does. I won't talk about what I am doing until later."

I watched Lu out of the corner of my eye while he worked. He first looked in the book, then began sketching runes in the dirt. Then moved to a stone nearby. I was connecting a grouping of braids when I heard him swear.

It took several tries to get something he was happy with, and then he had to etch on the bead.

"Do I have to put the rune on the inside like you do, or can it be on the outside?" Lu asked.

"The outside it fine. I put it on the inside because there are times when we are not allowed to have any magic help and for a rune mage, openly wearing a rune can make some believe we are cheating." Wearing then not openly had been fine, however. The professors knew I could alter my clothing, and that would only be possible if the fabric was runed, but they didn't tell me to stop. Rules were weird like that.