Ghost and the Writer

Rune stones

Mandy stayed up late that night, reading and making August coffees from time to time, only heading to sleep when he finished up for the day. So she woke up late and when she did, she saw a mostly empty room, only Veri was sitting nearby, sorting out small colorful stones that seemed like amber if not for the colors. Each had an organic carving on them in smooth lines and a small glimmering flame within.

Listening to the sounds around the apartment revealed that no one else was there, they had probably gone to the house by the lake. August had sent Lily, the new familiar there as soon as one haste potion wore off, so Mandy wasn't expecting to see her, but others missing did fill her with a complicated feeling. Well, at least Veri was here.

Veri treated each stone in a careful and loving manner, placing them in the moss in four different places.

Noticing Mandy's extended look, Veri looked over.

"You have an aptitude for these," she said pointing at one of the piles. That one had mostly red and grayscale stones in it.

Mandy got up and crawled closer.

"If you pour a little aether in them you can see a small sample of the ability hidden within," Veri said, picking up a stone from another pile. A blue one in her case. In her fingers, the little flame within burned up brighter and an ice flower appeared in mid-air, letting off some falling smoke only to tell how cold it would be to touch.

"This one has ice heaven in it," she said. "Leum can already use it, so I'll see if Albus wants it." Veri put the stone back in the pile.

Mandy's eyes were glimmering as she watched the flower. The ice flower soon disappeared and her eyes moved over to other stones.

"If you pour in a lot of aether, the rune will shatter and you will gain the aether circuits to use the ability in its full might right away," Veri continued.

That sounded like one heck of a cheat-- Very good! Mandy eyed the pile she had an aptitude for with some greed. She did need to become strong and frightening fast to better protect August, so the worse this pile was, the better.

"Although if the ability within is too strong for the user, they might be knocked out for a day or two till their vessel adjusts," Veri added.

"Like hibernating?" Mandy asked, wondering if it was like with August. The intro for the book she had studied for astral shapeshifting had mentioned the act itself being safe. That it "was a relief if a new student hibernates", although it was in the context of the other option being death. Learning new skills could be risky, although since Mandy was already dead, she didn't know if she even could die.

Veri shook her head. "Hibernation is silent. If a rune knocks you out you snore really loud and annoy the heck out of everyone."

Ah. Okay. Well, Mandy was sure August would just carry her to the other house or something if it really was that bad.

Veri looked up. "August is calling me, I'll be back soon. Feel free to pick out the ones you like and learn them."

"I--"

And Veri was gone, before Mandy could tell that she had no idea just how much aether counted as little.

Ah, well, seeing how many of these stones there were in total, it wouldn't be too much even if she learned a few too many from the pile she had an aptitude for, right? Mandy's eyes showed a greedy glint as she caught on to the first stone. Blood red in color and a bit bigger than the rest.

Mandy wrapped her fingers around and focused just like she had when trying to shapeshift something in her body.

The flame flared up so brightly it put Mandy's hand on fire causing a fright. But there was no pain, just surprise. Starting from the palm, the fire separated into many smaller ones and all of them blazed past her body, drawing a shining web over her skin and as the trails reached her eyes, she 'saw' how to use the skill hidden in the rune.