Alistair kept up his constant practice with the runes he had learned from Darius as Parsival kept an eye on their surroundings, ensuring nothing came near enough to threaten them. Bit by bit, he slowly mastered the secrets and techniques to the proper aether control he needed to use the runes properly. With every failure, he took the time to go over every mistake he made and adjust where he needed to. This became his sole focus, until finally, roughly an hour before they made camp for the night, Alistair successfully activated the rune.

  The success came so abruptly it took him a long moment of staring at the hovering orb of flame before he realized it had worked this time. His eyes were wide as his open mouth transformed into a stupid yet excited grin. He couldn't help but marvel at the fact he had just used magic, actual fucking magic. The perfectionist in him had his hand drawing out a few more of the same rune just to be sure, and each one coalesced into a hovering ball of flame.

  He nearly burst into an excited dance at the confirmation but maintained enough self control and awareness to recognize it would only result in him falling over. Caught up in the rush of victory he attempted to draw out the other runes he saw Darius use, but didn't have nearly as much luck with those. Part of him could feel he was close to getting them right, but figured it would be best to rewatch the lesson to ensure he had them copied down correctly.

  Still, he was satisfied with his progress and figured he could move onto the next topic of rituals, once he had those runes memorized properly. So that night as Parsival was searing chunks of meat from a creature that based on description sounded like some kind of weird beaver alligator hybrid, Alistair had continued the lessons.

  “As you can see from my demonstration,” Darius explained while pointing out different sections of the spiraling pattern of runes that hovered above his desk in a sort of modified double helix. “Some runes need to be repeatedly inserted in specific sections and patterns in order to maintain a balanced and regulated flow of aether. For something like that, that is where you will most commonly see runes such as balance, rhythm, or even control come into play. Other repeating patterns could also be added if the intention of your ritual has a layered, or repeating effect throughout its duration.”

  Alistair eyed every detail of what he was being told by Darius could and would be complex rituals, yet part of him could feel what it should do already. The one above the desk right now, he seemed to instinctively understand it was a ritual designed to act as a stabilizing purifier for dangerous materials such as liquids or chemicals. This time however, it wasn’t just that odd extra sense he seemed to have for runes that told him its functions, but also how Darius had constructed it.

  From the moment the man had created the first stream of runes to well before he placed the last, Alistair could swear the overall pattern reminded him of sheet music. He was confident that if he were to take this ritual, lay it down flat and replace all the runes with notes, it would look exactly like a piece of sheet music. Maybe exact was a bit of a stretch, but it would be close enough that Alistair could read it easily and understand its rhythm. The way it spirals into the air was part of the ritual pattern and how the aether flowed into it, but Alistair was still confident in his assumption.

  For the numerous months he had spent in both the hospital and general recovery, learning how to play the piano had become a favorite hobby of his. That hobby had even transformed into a second source of income in the form of either playing in small venues, or composing his own music to sell to producers or other independent artists. So the realization of how similar these rituals were to what had essentially become an obsession for him made him feel even more confident in his ability to learn.

  He did learn that the unfortunate downside to rituals was also the same as writing music, it took time to complete it. Every rune within the body of the ritual needed to be added one by one and in their exact order so any mistakes would usually cause the ritualist to need to start over. Thankfully Darius included a sort of workaround to this particular issue for anyone who wanted to utilize the power rituals can produce in combat situations.

  “As I have mentioned before, the flaw that is the time it takes to prepare a proper ritual is often the reason why so many promising rune mages choose to follow the path of a battlemage instead.” Darius scoffed while shaking his head in a way only a disappointed teacher could, “They give up so much versatility for single minded power, absolutely shameful. What most fail to realize is that all you need is a proper energy storage capable of containing stabilized aether.” He explained before holding up Quilectus in its full sized staff form and tapping the crystal at the top.

  “With a proper storage, one could prepare their runes ahead of time, then have them absorbed into the storage,” He demonstrated this by quickly drawing out that same flame rune, then holding the crystal up next to it he made a short gesture and the rune promptly was sucked into the crystal. A moment later Darius held his hand above the crystal and the same rune streamed back out to appear fully formed and ready to use.

  “With a proper storage, one could prepare the necessary runes for dozens, if not more, of runic rituals that could be deployed at a moment's notice.” Darius said, his gaze lingering on his staff for a long moment, going silent for the duration before speaking again, although with a much softer tone, “Or, if my prediction is correct and this memory core is to be found on my corpse, whoever is observing my teachings shall also be graced with the ownership of this marvel of a creation. My Grandstaff Quilectus is an artifact many are envious of; the resources poured into its construction enough to make even the most selfless of merchant's blanch at the cost.” He eyed the staff for another long moment, gently twisting it here and there as if to burn its image into his brain.

  “Quilectus was designed with three key functions in mind,” He picked back up, his tone filled with professionality as if he never went off script. “The first function was utility as it has the capability of changing between three separate forms,” With rapid succession, the staff in Darius’s hand shrunk down into the form of a cane, then a wand before regrowing back into a staff. “I personally find that having options for size is often beneficial when you need to work on runes or rituals in various situations. The second function is efficiency as Quilectus was designed to channel aether to the degree that for roughly every one percent of your maximum aether capacity, it will be the equivalent of if you channeled roughly ten percent.”

  Alistair may just now be stepping onto the path of magic, but even he could appreciate how damn good that was. It would also explain how little often he needed to take a break practicing the runes. Every time he drew out those glowing lines in the air he could feel as if some internal energy was being drawn upon, but it took hours of practice before he felt it running empty. Part of him was also curious if holding onto Quilectus would help increase his recovery rate, something he remembered reading about in some of those books.

  He was pulled back into the lesson when Darius kept speaking, “The third function designed into Quilectus is storage, the same sort of storage I had just demonstrated a few moments ago. Not only that, but a storage bound to the very astral itself giving a near limitless space to store one's energy, or runes.” Darius looked proud as he proclaimed that part, only for his face to take on a bit of a grim smile, "Unfortunately, something I have discovered as a side effect of this method of storage is any aether left within for a long period of time will see if fade away, to be absorbed back into the astral itself. Do not fret however, as it will take nearly a century of any aether going unused before this were to occur.”

  Darius gave a dark chuckle as he looked over to where the disc sat, as if he could look directly at whoever currently watched him, “I am afraid that more than likely by the time anyone finds my body, Quilectus will unfortunately be completely drained of all aether or runes.” His tone grew somber as he mentioned that, going silent once more, his head drooping and for the first time Alistair could clearly see the stress carried on himself.

  His eyes carried dark bags around them, his usually immaculate braided beard showing signs of only the bare minimum of care. His hair was shown just as much attention as his beard and if Alistair wasn’t mistaken, Darius appeared a bit more pale than usual. He even suspected that if it wasn’t for the high level enchantments on his clothes meant for cleaning, they too would be in disarray. Whatever this war was

  that Parsival had mentioned before, it must have been intense, something Alistair could relate too.

  The lessons continued from there, and Alistair soon found himself learning quite a number of rituals he believed would prove to be useful. One that he kept in the forefront of his mind was a ritual that would create a magical dome normally used as a safety measure for researchers and experiments as it keeps out harmful energy, gasses or even chemical spills. He figured out he could use it to safely camp as it stayed at a comfortable temperature as well as keep out both the weather and all but the most persistent of critters. It wasn’t a perfect defense to keep everything out so Parsival maintained a watch throughout the night.

  Having gotten accustomed to rituals, Alistair moved onto the final topic that was summons. He figured that since he went through all that effort of getting the summoner's helix, he might as well use it to its full potential. Even using that storage method Darius had spoken of, it would still take some time to put together any meaningful combat ritual. Not only that but despite his power, Parsival was still only one person and couldn’t keep everything off Alistair long enough for him to complete a proper ritual. The perfect solution to this problem was to have more creatures he could summon out to buy him all the time he needed.

  He dove into the lesson with an excited gleam to his eyes, thoughts of calling forth battle mechs or even giant dinosaurs dancing around his imagination. Alistair was not disappointed during the first sections of the lesson as Darius listed off a fraction of the numerous creatures one could summon. Darius even went on to explain as to how someone's affinity could influence their capability when summoning specific creatures.

  “Lets take an individual similar to myself for example, an individual who possesses a higher affinity towards flame than anything else” He spoke as he once more was seen pacing in front of his desk, much the same way a college professor would. “Due to my higher affinity towards flame, I enjoy the benefits of finding an easier time in calling upon creatures who share my affinity, or something close to it, such as the Sun hawk or even the Desert Scorpion. However, such a boon also carries its downside in the form of having more difficulties in calling upon those with an opposing affinity to mine such as the Tundra crawler or a sea serpent.”

  He went on to further explain the idea of affinities and how for most individuals there was a simple test one could perform to determine it with extreme accuracy. Unfortunately that test wouldn’t help Alistair as it required specific tools that he had no access to unless he wanted to go all the way back to the facility, something he was not keen on the idea of.

  “If I may offer a suggestion Mr. Grant,” Parsival spoke, pulling Alistair’s attention from the holographic lesson.

  “Shoot,” Alistair said, giving his companion a nod of affirmation.

  “When it comes to one's affinity, many factors are often in play in its form. In many situations, the affinity one gains is usually based on one's long term environment or even lifestyle,” Parsival explained then gesturing towards the image of Darius where Alistair had paused it. “Take section lead Rykker as an example, he has an affinity towards fire and heat. What he doesn’t mention is he grew up among a family of pyromancers, so while he may not have been born with the affinity, the countless years of constantly being exposed to flame to heat adjusted his body and spirit to be more in tune with it.”

  Alistair tapped his remaining non-metal fingers on the log he had chosen as a seat as he thought about Parsival’s words. He was originally under the impression that things like affinity were something one had to be born with, at least the books he read that discussed such things seemed to think so. But as he listened to Parsival explain it, he supposed it made a bit more sense that way. It made it sound like affinity was based on adaptation, similar to someone getting a vaccine or that one crazy guy who slowly made himself immune to snake venom through constant exposure.

  With that in mind, now all he had to do was think about what kind of exposures he had in life that could help determine his affinity. His family had lived just outside the city in the woods, so maybe he had something to do with nature or wood, but then he remembered they had to move before he reached high-school. Perhaps he had one related to sound or vibration considering even before he got into playing the piano he was big into music, but that actually didn’t make sense. His fingers continued to drum along the log as he contemplated what his affinity could be. He mentally grimaced as he heard the difference in sound of his metal fingers hitting the log compared to his flesh one, then he froze.

  Alistair’s gaze shifted down to stare at his half metal hand, his eyes locked onto the metal. There was no way it could be that simple, could it? Mentally he dug deep into his memories to see how likely it was his exposure to metal was greater than most other things. While they may have lived in the woods for a time, Alistair’s father was a mechanic and was constantly working on something in the shop he had built, and he was usually helping him. Hell, the whole reason they moved later was because his father had grown his business enough that he needed a larger shop and it ended up being easier to just move into the city and rent out their old property.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Alistair also had to consider he had joined the army straight out of high-school, and was even originally supposed to just be a mechanic. That changed when things out in the east escalated to such a degree people were constantly whispering about world war three. He still did his mechanic duties, however it was usually in the field trying to get an armored truck to start after a firefight. Then he succeeded in becoming airborne and switched from working on trucks to planes, until his accident which forced an early end to his military career. While he had recovered, mostly at least, he had so many screws, rods and pins throughout his body he couldn’t get within a hundred feet of a metal detector without it freaking out.

  He had lived like that for a few years, and at first he had tried to do some mechanic work on the side just so he wasn’t bored, but his body refused to let him work more than a few hours a day, so he became a 911 dispatcher. Not the most glamorous job out there, but it gave him a sense of purpose and a way to help people. Then he came here through that space rip or whatever Parsival had called it, and while it had somehow rebuilt his body without all the old damage, he was now sitting here as an actual fucking cyborg.

  His gaze shifted over to look at Parsival, his eyes roaming across the gleaming metal armor that made up his friend's body and chuckled to himself. He supposed it should have been more obvious as Darius had quite literally stated that a summoner calling upon a being that matched their affinity would find it easier and more efficient on aether. The first time Alistair had summoned Parsival, he had barely been half conscious and still the large knight had practically fallen right out of him. Not only that, but after listening to Darius for the past week about runes and rituals, Alistair had been able to examine the runic diagram that made up Parsival in the summoners helix and he knew it should be taking all of his aether to call him in or out, yet it barely put a dent in his reserves.

  Alistair couldn’t help but let out a chuckle as he shook his head at his own idiocy now that he realized his affinity was metal.

  “Am I correct to assume you have figured out what concept you have an affinity for Mr. Grant?” Parsival asked as Alistair continued to laugh at himself, almost hysterically.

  “Yeah, yeah I did” He answered after a few more moments before knocking his knuckles against his leg, the thud off metal sounding out. “Considering I’m more than half of what it is, it should have been more simple.”

  Parsival tilted his raven shaped helmet down so that the glowing orbs that were his eyes could focus onto Alistair’s hands, then he started the chuckle.

  “I suppose that does make sense Mr. Grant” he chuckled before standing up, “I shall go and fetch more water, the bowl is looking low.”

  Alistair waved him off as he turned back to the disc and started navigating the lesson until he reached the part where Darius listed off the different kinds of summons one could call upon based on affinities. Turns out there was a bit more depth in that as it wasn’t as narrow as have a flame affinity, summon flame stuff better. According to Darius, many affinities were often connected to other ones, usually as a grouping. Using his flame affinity as another example, he described how while calling upon creatures of flame provides him the best efficiency and ease, he still gains part of that when calling upon creatures that have a connection to flame such as heat, light or even lava.

  When it comes to Alistair however, while it won’t be quite as easy or efficient, he will still have an easier time calling upon creatures of earth, or gems and such. He found the idea interesting as it could help broaden his range of power not being stuck on having to rely mostly on metal. He still planned on taking full advantage of it however, those same ideas of being able to conjure up an entire platoon of armed soldiers swimming around in his mind.

  He found the section where Darius went over the various creatures that were connected to metal to some degree and began to watch intently. There were a lot of creatures, unfortunately quite a few were simply a variation of another one. Most of those could easily be described as simple war golems that were little more than mindless suits of armor inferior to Parsival. Despite that, there were still a lot of options for him to choose from and he was already mentally salivating at the thought of calling them out. That eagerness was dulled when he found out quite a few of them were far beyond his capability in terms of the complexity and aether requirements for their rituals, but he knew he would get there eventually.

  It took Alistair nearly four days, a lot of swearing and some thrown items before he was able to finish the first ritual to summon something. He had figured that with him already learning a few rituals and getting them down, it would be rather easy to figure out the one for one of the most simple summons Darius demonstrated. He had been so very wrong and in fact he had learned that summoning rituals were among the more complicated ones, especially for a beginner. Still, he had simply grit his teeth, swore enough to make a mechanic blush and kept trying. His efforts were rewarded when he stared at the spiral of glowing runes that reached a few feet into the air, and this time stayed stable.

  He had reached this point many times, but apparently somewhere the flow or stability was off causing the entire thing to collapse in on itself and dissipate. He eyed it wearily, his gaze going over every square inch of the thing before giving it a nod of satisfaction and sitting down. His body was feeling weaker with every day that passed and a persistent headache had decided to join the party, but he still pushed on.

  “Impressive Mr. Grant” Parsival said as he too examined the ritual. “I have seen promising young summoners take months on this same ritual. You have a gift for understanding runes.”

  Alistair frowned at the praise and shook his head, a part of him feeling as if he didn’t deserve it, as if he were cheating somehow.

  “I doubt I have any real talent with this sort of stuff” he refuted with a sigh, “The only reason I seem to understand it so well is because of two things. The first is the overall structure of rituals is remarkably similar to how music is written down, something I am quite familiar with, and the other is I can kind of hear the runes.” he paused as he thought about it, Parsival’s head whipping over to face him.

  “You can hear the runes Mr. Grant?” he asked, his tone carrying a mixture of worry and confusion.

  “Maybe hear isn’t the right word,” Alistair replied, not catching on to his companions tone, “It would be best described as more like I’m feeling the sound they make, like how someone can feel the vibrations from music that’s playing too loud.” He nodded to himself with that description, feeling that it was the most accurate way to describe it.

  “Mr. Grant, are you sure you were correct on how much your spirit was damaged when you first told me?” Parsival asked, his tone sounding grave.

  “What?” Alistair replied, looking over with confusion finally catching onto the seriousness his friend was projecting across their connection.

  “Your spirit damage you sustained from the procedure, are you sure you were accurate about what it stated?” Parsival repeated as he leaned in closer

  “Yeah I’m pretty sure the pod of death and pain told me spirit was damaged by around six percent.” He said, confusion playing across his face at Parsival’s demeanor, then he added, “Why? We already know I’m fucked without a spirit healer, whatever that is.”

  “Mr. Grant I am asking you this because being able to feel the runes around you is not normal. In fact, the only recorded cases of individuals who claimed to do something similar were those on the verge of becoming a soul husk.” Parsival stated, causing Alistair to frown in confusion.

  “That doesn’t make sense” he shook his head as if to refute it, “I know my condition is getting worse, but I'm not that close to the end. I’ve been feeling the runes from the first time I started these lessons and Darius showed one.”

  This time it was Parsival’s turn to say, “That doesn’t make sense Mr. Grant. We have been traveling for nearly two weeks, and if you have been feeling the runes since the start, you should have turned well before now.” He stated, his body sitting back, no longer leaning towards Alistair as if ready to lunge at him.

  All Alistair could do was shrug and say, “Hey, I have no idea how the rules for this spirit damage bullshit works, but I’ll take whatever advantage I can get here.”

  “Yes, I suppose you should Mr. Grant.” Parsival said after a moment, his head tilted thoughtfully and after a moment he spoke up again, “Perhaps it is a combination of factors that are allowing you this gift.”

  “Such as?” Alistair prompted when his friend went silent again

  “I am no researcher, but I theorize that the combination of your spirit damage, the SMH procedure you underwent and the fact that part of the core from the Guardian Will housing unit is essentially your heart now. With all of those together, I can see the possibility of you gaining this runic sense that you now possess.”

  Alistair grimaced at the reminder of how extensive the damage he took was, but shook it off and agreed with his friend.

  “Now that we have that figured out,” He started, before looking back over at the ritual, let's say we bring out our new friend.”

  With anticipation, Alistair reached over and touched the activation spot, and pushed his aether into it. Almost all at once, the entire spiraling diagram lit up with brilliant energy as his aether was sucked in. There was a hum of power that filled the area as the diagram began to move, twisting around and in itself picking up speed with each passing second. The lines of runes seemed to be constricting around an unseen form, almost as if they were revealing it to him.

  Once the final section looked to have found its new position, there was a final flash of brilliant silver and orange light, before it all dissipated, the energy fading away into motes of drifting light. Alistair’s eyes followed the drifting motes, a feeling of frustration entering his mind as it looked like he failed, until he looked back down at where the ritual had sat. Instead of a spiraling diagram of energy and lines, there instead stood a small squat form.

  The creature had the appearance of what he imagined a goblin would look like, if the goblin was made of shiny metal scrap and had a perfectly round torso. The creature looked like someone was challenged to do an abstract art sculpture out of cleaned scrap metal, but that it could still be functional. The orb that was its torso wasn’t smooth as it was covered in dozens of grooves and a spot in the very center that looked to be a window to some kind of glowing orange core. The head sat directly on the orb with no neck to be seen, yet it simply slid backwards enough for it to look up at him with gem-like eyes. Its arms and legs looked to function the same way as the head, sliding around along the grooves to position itself into a low bow that lasted only a moment before looking back up at him.

  “What’s up boss?” The thing asked, in the thickest Boston accent Alistair had ever heard catching him off guard

  “Well, shit. It worked” He said looking down at the summon with wonder as it waited there patiently.

  “Congratulations Mr. Grant” Parsival said with a clap that sounded like two metal bricks slamming together.

  “First things first,” Alistair said, a grin on his face, “I have to call you Boston, as I find no other name would suit you. Second, what can you do?”

  The creature, or Boston as he was now named, slid both his arms up briefly in what Alistair assumed was a shrug and said, “I can do whatever you need me too, clean, fetch something, off someone, blow up, you name it boss.”

  “Hold on, did you just say blow up?” Alistair asked, rubbing at the grooves that were now his ears, checking if something got lodged in them.

  “Yeah, it usually comes with the hole offing someone order but if you tell me go kaboom, I got kaboom.” Boston shrugged again then tapped at the glowing orange spot on his chest.

  “But, doesn’t that kill you?” Alistair asked a little dumbfounded at how nonchalant Boston spoke of essentially being a suicide bomber.

  “Eh” Boston shrugged again as if it didn’t bother him at all. “Not in a way that matters, if I go all ka-bluey on someone I just go back to the astral until I can reform and some other Schmutz pulls me back over.”

  Alistair frowned at the description Boston had for him but shook it off and glanced over at Parsival. Seemingly knowing what he was asking, the large knight gave him an affirming nod.

  “How long does it usually take for some other Schmutz to summon you again?” He asked Boston, an idea forming in his head.

  “Eh, I’d say usually a few years at least once I’m done reforming.” Boston answered, sliding his head sideways in a mimicry of someone tilting their head in thought.

  Alistair gave him a nod and a grin as he asked his next question, “Do you like being summoned?”

  “It beats just floating in the astral with nothing to do” Boston snorted then crossing his arms.

  “Want to become one of my permanent summons then?” Alistair asked bluntly with a raised eyebrow.

  “I’m not too keen on contracts bub” Boston said shaking his head by just twisting it, “Too many ways for your mortals to sneak in annoying loopholes.”

  “Then it’s a good thing this won’t be a contract.” replied Alistair with a grin

  “Explain” Boston said after a moment

  “It's simple, I have a way to essentially store you in my spirit so I can summon you out at any time.” He explained tapping his chest, “all it requires is your consent to be pulled in, and then you become a part of it.”

  Boston eyed him for a long moment, his arms uncrossing as he asked, "What's the catch? Haven’t heard of you mortals having something like that.”

  “There is no catch and it was an experiment” Parsival spoke up, catching Boston’s attention. “Mr. Grant has the only prototype and I assure you it is fully functional”

  To demonstrate, Alistair pulled Parsival back into himself, waited a moment and called him back out.

  “To better peak your interest, While Mr. Grant has me dismissed, I see and hear through his senses. But we can only communicate through emotions and feelings while in this state.” Parsival explained to the much smaller summon.

  After a moment of deliberation, Boston gave another shrug and said, “Why not, been awhile since I’ve been summoned so it could prove interesting.”

  “Welcome to the team” Alistair said with a grin as he and Boston grasped hands. A second later, his smaller body dissolved into a stream of silver and orange light that was sucked up into his chest. Within a few heartbeats he could feel the signature of Boston's form settle in a spot inside the boundaries of the helix. His grin growing wider, he called him back out right where he originally disappeared from.

  “Got to admit, cozy in there” Boston said with a nod, “So what's my first job boss, getting bored over here.”

  Alistair failed to resist rubbing his hands together like some kind of mad scientist as ideas filled his head, “You said something about blowing up?”