Learning the way of Magic. [Month 3 Day 7]

Almaien: "That's the premise of magic at its fundamentals that everyone universally considers. As you experience the magic and use it more you will find out more for yourself. But now that you know that we can move onto the artefacts."

She gets up from the rug and goes to one of the boxes in the tent. She then pulls out a few stones and a small pen. With them, in hand, she then sits down again.

Almaien: "Alright first is this core which you will have seen before. These are a few E ranks ones that I got for us to train with. This is an inscriber and it's used to engrave markings onto anything." She says this whilst first holding up the stone and then the pen.

Almaien: "Magic artefacts can be very simple this was one that I created when I was first learning when I was a child."

She takes the core in her hand, and it lights up.

Almaien: "Very simple to create. Using the mana that is stored inside the core it then feeds the symbols which are engraved onto the core with the inscriber."

Me: "Now you're going to tell me that is the easy part."

Almaien: "OH, so smart Lothran. Yes, that is the baby stuff the difficulty comes from the symbols. Typically, people have their symbols and styles just like people have different handwriting. Sometimes it can look similar to someone else but there is always a difference. We the elves use the style of Thewulen which is our native tongue, Thiluor, transformed into symbols. The symbols bring meaning to the words that are spoken. I'm not allowed to teach you Thiluor until you become a true friend and companion of the elves, but I can teach you Thewulen."

Me: "Why do you need to give life to your words?"

Almaien: "Good question. That's due to words normally have no meaning behind them. If I call someone a dickhead, they are not physical a dickhead. Mental yes but physically no. So, these words need to gain meaning in magic. The original creators of these decided to do so they would need a new language which made the symbols we write have meaning in how they form in the world. If we go back to my first core that lights up, it has the symbol for light, control, and effect. The symbol brings meaning to them once powered by magic. Sorry if this does not make sense, I'm not a teacher."

Me: "It's fine I think I get your meaning behind it. Words are just word and have no magic behind it so have no effect on the magic world so you create a language that does effect magic and can then be written to do so."

Almaien: "Exactly, but what is important to note is that there are thousands of different ways that people have done this. This is just what the dark elves use, and we like. If you can create another way, then go ahead. Generally, it is what you are most comfortable with but of course, you also need to consider how effective the language is."

Me: "Is there much difference in the languages?"

Almaien: "There can be, typically older languages are more effective as they have had years to be perfected and changed to suit the needs, but newer ones can come out that are better. But we are getting off-topic I need to teach you all the symbols."

She gets back up and heads to the chest from inside she gets a smaller box. Once she sits down again, she opens the box and brings out a bag and a rectangular board. Opening the bag, she then pours sand from the bag onto the board.

Almaien: "Alright the first symbol …"

Almaien proceeds to then go through many symbols drawing them in the sand and what they mean, and it is quite simple. You have a symbol which are small drawings or representations of the word. After showing me a basic number of them she then shows me how they can be inscribed on cores.

She showed me that all the symbols link together as they wrap around the core. She again showed me her light one and the first symbol was control. Which controls the amount of mana taken from the core and to be poured into the rest of the symbols. This amount is set by the person when they carve the symbol using their magical signature and intent for how much they want for their final product. Then was the effect which is linked to light and controls what the light does for example colour and intensity of the light. It just helps to regulate the spell and a second safety catch to the light, so it does not use all the mana in the core in an instant and then blind you if say control failed. Finally, was the light which is the output and does what it says which is shining a light.

The language is quite simple and easy to pick up it's just remembering all the symbols for each thing, but I was enthusiastic about learning it. It was a nice language to learn as, unlike normal languages, this was more about the intent of the symbols and was more personal. If I understood what I want and pushed my intent into it my magic would help me along the way and form what I want.

It's sentient and can understand what I want. Granted I still need to control it and send it in the right direction but in the end, it understands what I want.

After learning the symbols Almaien then got me to use the inscriber to do light, control, and effect on an E rank core. It was quick and only took me a few minutes after getting used to the inscriber. Which worked much the same as a normal pen except that I must feed a small amount of my mana into it. The reason being is I need to put my magical signature on it and so it gets engraved on the core.

I then tested out the stone and it worked like I intended which was a lovely ocean blue colour. The nice part was also when I activated the stone by essentially flipping the control symbol to allow mana through it all the symbols highlighted a neon blue as it passed through the symbols. I thought it look very stunning with the intricate carving and the light.

Almaien: "Well done Lothran. And with that, I have done everything I could do. The rest you will have to figure and test yourself." As she says this, she then passes me a book.

Almaien: "The rest of the symbols are in this book. Please never fricking lose the book as I will want it back in the future but for now, you can learn all the symbols in that."

Me: "I can't thank you enough for this Almaien. Look forward to the future when my project is done it will blow you away."

Almaien: "You haven't lied to me before and you don't seem the type to, so I hope to see this mysterious project work soon."

Me: "I hope so too."

The virtual economic system here I come.