Rune mage

Chapter 15: Improvements

I was soaked by the time I reached the Boar's head. Inside it was nice and dry. I looked with my awareness rune and saw everything was working exactly as it should. In the past, with this down pour, we would have already had one leak.

"Logan? What are you doing here? They said you were with the healers until tomorrow." Steph came close and looked me up and down. "Also, this is possibly the cleanest I have ever seen you, albeit soaked."

I walked with her to the bar and sat. "I woke up this morning, after breakfast. Since I was excused for the day, I went and placed runes in the waste tunnel to prevent overflow. Steph, I figured out a way to work faster! It will cut much of my work time in half."

Mage blinked a few moments, then held up her hand. "You woke up and left the healing hall to go lay runes in muck? To prevent overflow."

"I stopped at a bath house before I came here. I thought about finding Isa to tell her since she helped me out with tests."

Steph shook her head. "You need to rest more. I am going to reduce how often you come."

"Don't do that. I need to pay tuition still." I panicked a little. "If I don't pay they will have grounds to expel me and you know what that means."

Steph shook her head. "Logan. Listen to me. Don't you worry about your tuition. It's been paid."

I stared at her dumbly. "You paid my tuition?"

"The blacksmith and I did part of it. Fredric's family also did some of it. I can see your panic rising, but believe me when I say all of the payments came in as donations to a student in need, you being that student. It's not unheard of for private citizens and businesses to sponsor a mage student. It's unusual, and you'll want to think of what you will tell your midterm board, since none of us would have mentioned magic. Also, why didn't you tell me you made a complete suppression design. That is phenomenal. Between what you did with the roof, the suppression design, and now the tunnel... if your plan is to make yourself indispensable, you are well on your way."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I also had to add a wellness design to the tunnel, or it would have been easily overpowered. When it rains more people get sick more, right? This should cut down on that, at least for anyone who passes by that corner."

"What if someone lives on that corner?" Steph frowned.

I shrugged. "I am rarely sick for a reason. I have a well-being rune tattooed to my foot. It's activated by instinct but also each night before I go to bed I power it up for a few moments. I don't have time to be sick."

Steph shook her head, then pointed to a spot behind the bar. "You are still technically on orders to rest, so I cannot legally ask you to work. Come sit back and tell me all of your plans. I keep finding myself caught off guard."

I obeyed and moved seats even as I shook my head. "I can't tell you all of it. Not and stay safe."

Steph sighed. "Tell me what you can, then."

The night passed quickly. I was happy to talk to Steph, and she had some ideas on how to use my new stamps. She laughed when I wondered aloud if being rested helped me think of this, maybe I should rest more.

Then she sent me on my way earlier than usual.

And I put myself to sleep sooner than usual.

In the morning I woke feeling rested and healthy. I doubted that would last.

Fredric was waiting for me in the arena. I nodded to him and picked a new spot on the arena to sit in while I meditated.

"How does this sitting... quietly help?" Fredric asked when I shook myself free.

"It allows me to find my magic quicker," I said. "To focus my thoughts easier." I stood and twisted my body, stretching in preparation of training.

Fredric waited for me to signal that I was ready, then moved. He kept his motions slower so I could follow them. After a few rounds he stepped away and offered me a smile. "You're getting better."

"I doubt that. You're still moving at a slower speed than usual."

His eyes crinkled. "Not too much slower. You are getting stronger and faster, and your form is improving. Really, someone should have been teaching you. I don't understand why they didn't."

I wiped sweat from my face and got into ready stance. "How many rune mages do you think come through this school?"

He tilted his head. "I always heard one every four or five years."

I nodded. "That's what I was told. But I was thinking. Everyone knows rune mages don't have good odds at surviving. What if families hide their rune mages? What if they are more common?"

"You can't hide your power levels from the inspectors," Fredrick said firmly. He really believed that.

I looked around. It was still before dawn and raining. No one else was around.

"Do you have the ability to see power?" I asked him.

He wiggled his hand back and forth. "If I am touching a person I can tell."

I held out my hand and let him take his time to feel me out. "Ready?"

"For what?"

I smiled. Then I let the full strength of my power free from its hold. Everything that was normally tucked away into the runes tattooed on my feet, everything that was usually dampened by the one rune tucked where no one but me would see it.

Fredric staggered back, only barely keeping his hand on mine, his face slack.

I pulled the power back, tucking it into the storage and activated the dampening rune. I waited until everything was settled into place and raised a brow. "Imagine if you were a parent who could do basic runes. If you knew your child was a rune mage, would you want them here?"

Fredric stepped away, taking his hand- shaky with surprise or freight- and running it through his hair. "That was your full power? Or was it augmented by runes?"

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter, does it? That is what I could bring to a fight if I could fight. But no one has ever talked about offensive runes. Only defense. Every history I have ever read, every journal or note or song... they all note that rune mages are weak because they can only defend. What if they're all wrong? What if they don't want rune mages to be powerful, and when they are they hobble them intentionally?"

Fredric shook his head. "That would be...it sounds like a conspiracy. A generations long conspiracy."

I shrugged. "Can you think of any other reason to kill off rune mages every time they show up? I was fortunate that no one had thought to try to train me before I reached school age, because curiosity and exploration allowed me to develop runes I might not have known were possible if someone had told me they weren't. I powered the tunnel runes with a design I made at age nine. No one told me it was impossible, so I made it and it worked and no one has had to power that rune set in ten years."

"So it was augmented?" He asked. He was clearly in some sort of shock to not have heard anything else I said.

"Fredric, your brother will have more power than you do, and his power will still be less than mine. The first tattoo I gave myself was designed to hide my power because even at the age of twelve I knew I would be killed if I was too strong. Twelve, Fredric. And all that power does me nothing because I am not being taught how to use it offensively."

Fredric held his hands up. "Logan. I agree. I was just surprised by the level of power. When you said you exploded Steph's kitchen"

"Only half," I corrected.

"I thought that was hyperbole. You need to learn how to use your powers offensively."

He sat down.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to try this meditation thing. Maybe an idea will come to me."