Mark of the Fool

Chapter 62: Glyphs and Quicksilver

So. Professor ValRok looked over the entire class of MANA-1900.

Dun dun dun! he said for effect. Its time to show off your progress with your glyph boxes. This assignment likely wont be your favourite this semester, and rest assured, you wont be unique in feeling that way. You see, glyph box practice enjoys a long tradition of being hated here at Generasi but, sadly- he grinned, looking pleased with himself. -it still has to be done. The good news is that todays little go over isnt for marks, were just doing a brief check-in to see how things are coming along.

He clapped his scaly hands together and rubbed them excitedly. His tongue flicked out and licked one of his eyes. Several studentsincluding Alexrecoiled slightly.

So, lets have a show of hands. Who here was unable to light up any glyphs on their boxes? His tongue flicked out again.

There was a reticent silence.

Oh dont be shy, theres no shame here, and were all going to be taking turns revealing our results anyway.

The silence continued.

Oh come on, youre not being marked on this. Here, Ill show you someone who wasnt able to light a single glyph in their first two weeks with that damned box. ValRok raised his scaly hand. Took me three weeks to light half of one, so dont be shy. Lets go. Show of hands.

Reluctantly, slightly more than half the class raised their hands. A few students were looking at their boxes with such hatred that Alex was sure if they had hammers, their boxes would be flat disks.

There, thats the way. No need to worry, ValRok said. Now, of the students who couldnt activate the glyph, who among you was able to send your mana in and feel the first applicator in the box?

Every student kept their hand raised, though some looked shifty as they did. Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wondered if that look was an: I didnt actually try the homework but am pretending that I had trouble with it look. He remembered it well from the church school.

That surprised him. It was one thing to sit there and not do any work when school was local, free andeven a bookworm like him had to admitthe lessons varied with how practical they were. But Generasi cost a fortune, and the dangers of magicLucia, her massive scar, and leaving Generasi came to mindmeant that there was a lot more risk for not doing the assigned work. The danger was real.

Then again, looking around the class, he began to wonder how many students actually wanted to be here. Derek was a noble, and so was Isolde and quite a few others. Wizardry was prestigious and provided a path to reputation, riches and power, but that didnt mean it was a path for everyone. He remembered students from the church school whod gone into apprenticeships or professions because thats what their families expected of them.

Some hated it, but diligently stuck through the training anyway.

Others also hated it and simply coasted through, doing the minimum. Still others got thrown out for doing unbelievably stupid things; a potters apprentice whod nearly burned his hand off came to mind. He had tried to show off for a girl by trying to impress her with how long he could tolerate the heat inside a kiln. The skin on his hand ended up looking like old leather.

The girl wasnt impressed.

All types went into all sorts of studies for various reasons. He supposed Generasi was no different.

Either way, if Professor ValRok noticed the shifty looks, the cheerful lizard wizard gave no sign. See, thats the ticket, right there. By finding the applicator, youve learned both how to move your mana without the aid of a magic circuit, and how to sense and touch things with it. Youve taken the first steps, and now all you need to do is put in the practice.

He licked his eye again in something that looked like a hideous parody of a wink. Now for all those that did manage to light a glyph, show us what youve done. Who wants to go first?

Alex did not raise his hand.

He wanted to watch the others first and see just how far they had gotten. If he went first, he could proudly show the class his accomplishment, but maybe others had done even better: maybe someone had lit up twoboxes. Also, if he did go first and was the only one to light up every glyph, that might discourage others who hadnt done as well as him.

He wanted to stand out, not embarrass others for no reason.

Unless they deserved it, of course. He smiled as McHarris came to mind.

Besides, people who went last tended to stand out more: there was a reason why Robbing Cloakthe legendary archeralways went last at tournaments in all the popular stories about him.

Alex watched, impressed with some of the students: three of them had managed to light up three glyphs at the same time, though they told Professor ValRok that they had previous experience with mana manipulation by having assisted in shops that dealt in magic items in Generasi.

That was encouraging: if students who had less skill in mana manipulation than he did were helping out in magic item shops, then that gave him hope for getting the assistants job in the golem workshop.

Finally, the Professors eyes fell on him. Looks like youre the last one, Alex. Come on, no need to be shy.

Looks like I am, Alex said, lifting the box. He concentrated, letting his mana flow through the maze as hed practiced so many times. With The Marks assistance, it was so easy now that he could have done it while half-asleep.

A collective gasp went through the room as every glyph lit up at once.

A stunned silence followed.

Well! Well, well, well, well! ValRok chatterred. My goodness, would you look at that! The lizardfolk floated toward Alex on one of the schools flying stone disks. Wellwell, well done! Most dont light up the whole box until at least halfway through the second year course.

He said excitedly. Do you work at a magic item forge?

No, but Im hoping to, Alex said quickly.

Interestingvery interesting. Would you mind staying a few minutes after class?

Um, sure, Alex smiled.

Murmurs were spreading through the class.

Good. People were beginning to talk.

So, what kind of job are you looking for? ValRok asked.

Im looking to get a job at Shales Workshop, Alex said, concentrating on casting his forceball and then hanging his basket of textbooks beneath it. If ValRok noticed that it took him longer to cast it than most other students, then he didnt say anything.

Ah, a good choice, but a hard one, I know Toraka Shale and shes a particular taskmaster. And golem work is no easy task among the magical disciplines, ValRok looked at him with one of his reptilian eyes. Hmmm, she also doesnt have any openings at the moment that Im aware of. But, she always posts her openings at Generasi since we have such a good pool of potential candidates to choose from.

Well, I want to be ready if one does come up, Alex said quickly.

Rightright.

The Professor looked at one of the boxes sitting on his own desk. But you certainly have an excellent talent for iteither that or a lot of practiceso I wouldnt exactly say that you dont have a chance. Have you built magic items before?

No, Alex said. But Ive been doing well in POTI-1000 so far, and Ive been a bakersassistant.

ValRok paused. A baker?

Well. He shrugged. I know how to follow a recipe.

The lizardfolk burst into his high pitched laugh. I guess there is a correlation there! Well, then. He tapped the box on his desk then slid it toward Alex before digging into the desk and pulling out another two. Here, I want you to try what you did using these three boxes.

Right. Alex took them up, one after the other.

The first one he struggled with a little: the maze and applicators were completely different from his own practice box. Soon, however, he was able to light up every single glyph on each side.

By using The Mark to point out his previous successful movements, he grew faster and faster with solving each one. Then, feeling more confident, he picked up two at the same time. Falling into a meditative mindset, he took deep, paced breaths while he split his concentration into two boxes at once.

That proved a little over ambitious.

Controlling his spell while solving one box was one thing, but engaging in something as complex as activating all the glyphs on two boxes at once proved to be beyond him. Still, he was proud to be able to activate twoglyphs on each one at the same time.

Well, by my scales! ValRok cried. Would you look at that!

Ugh, thats a little embarrassing. Alex smiled ruefully.

Please, thats something very advanced you just tried and you did better than most. Tell you what, write your report on how the training exercise with the box went, and then Ill give you the next assignment right away: the first of the mana regeneration techniques. Review it and write the report on the theory of it, so that youre ready for when I teach it in class. If you do as well with that technique, then Id suggest Challenging the Exam for Credit.

Whats that mean? Alex asked.

Its a practice that makes it so Generasi doesnt waste young wizards time and potential, ValRok said. People come from all sorts of backgrounds andfor somethe first year courses can teach them nothing new. With a professors permission, a student may challenge the course through a special exam, be given the credit, and then move onto the next course if its early enough in the semester. If its too late, theres a supervised self-study program that will allow the student more self-directed learning with the subject. Think of it as a minor thesis.

Oh thats awesome! Alex said.

Yeah it is pretty awesome, isnt it? ValRok snickered, tapping a clawed finger to the bottom of his jaw. Andyou said you were in POTI-1000 too.

Yep, Professor Jules was the first person I showed that I could actually light up the whole box, aside from my friends, that is.

And she didnt tell me? ValRok looked mildly offended. Ah well, and how is it so far?

Were going to have our first quiz soon, Alex said. And Im really learning some interesting stuff in the labs.

Hmmm good, Ill tell you what, if you successfully challenge this course for credit, I will personally write a letter of reference for you to Shales: without some kind of letter of recommendation, youll struggle.

What? Really!

Yep. ValRok bobbed his head in a nod. You seem to have a true talent for mana manipulation. An exceptional talent: and that should be supported. Do well, and Ill certainly do well by you.

Thanks, Alex grinned. Thanks a lot.

Well, dont thank me yet, all I potentially have to do is write a letter. You, on the other hand, have to be the one to prove yourself to me.

Alex looked at the glyph boxes. Oh, Im working on it. Im working on it.

This ones done, Alex said lightly as his potion gave off a strong glow, and then settled into a deep, murky grey colour.

The controlled flame beneath the flask snuffed out as he capped it, took out the mana conductor, shut down the mana vacuum, and used his tongs to place the hot flask onto a waiting ceramic plate.

What, already? Carey blinked, staring at the potion from the work station beside him. We just started.

Well, its kind of simple once you have the procedure memorized, he said, moving the glass titration apparatus to the front of his station and starting to disassemble it. He used The Mark; it pointed out the proper movements for taking apart the delicate device and placing it down properly. He placed it with the rest of the apparati he had finished usingthey would need to be washed after the lab. And Im pretty good at mana manipulation, so that helps speed things up.

Pretty good was a bit of an understatement at this point.

Alex had borrowed two mana manipulation boxes from Professor ValRok to practice with at the same time after his meditations. Operating two at once was much harder than one, but in a short space of time hed already managed to raise the number of glyphs he could light on both from two to three. At this point, controlling forceball and even forcedisk through mana manipulation was as easy as breathing.

Hed already started to work hard on learning wizards handdocumenting his failures as usualand couldnt wait to see how well he could control it once hed figured out how to cast it.

The letter of reference was a potential prize waiting for him and had lit a fire under his feet. Hed definitely be trying to Challenge the Exam for Credit for mana manipulation if things worked out.

Now all that was needed was to make sure he actually had the skills to perform the job. Also, if he managed to get the job, then that might help convince Professor Jules to let him do more in POTI-1000. He glanced to the far side of the room where various analytical apparatuses were stored.

Once the potion had cooled enough, he lifted it with the tongs and carried it over for analysis. First, he dropped a bit of it into a mana spectrometer, which broke up a substances composition by its mana essences. He remembered the textbooks instructions as to what dyeing agents he should add to the sample, and dropped those on it.

Then he ran the spectrometer for exactly twenty-one seconds, which was the recommended length of time for first tier potions. What came out was a sheet of absorbent paper with bands of colour running along its length. Alex identified what each colour meant in terms of its magical constitution and wrote them down in his lab-book. The pattern present matched what the pattern should have been for this potion, as listed in Dexters textbook.

He then took out another testing device. It was a potion-sensitive bed of blue moss that had been planted on a surface the size of a large coin. Carefully, he filled a dropper with another sample and dropped it onto the moss, watching for any sign of colour changes.

His eyes narrowed behind his mask.

Nothing.

Smiling, he raised his hand and called Professor Jules over, his voice was muffled. All done!

Heads swivelled toward him from all over the cell as other students paused in disbelief. Derek eyed Alex evenly through his mask. A student cursed as the distraction interfered with the mana running down his conductor.

He scrambled and quickly activated the mana vacuum which poured the mana away from the reaction, and up into the mana waste container. A couple of students snickered, and then one leaned toward the other and mimed the motion of drinking. The other laughed and gave his lab partner a light push.

Careful there, Professor Jules warned them as she eyed Alexs potion. Hmmmm. Alright, what can you tell me about it?

Its mana has combined to produce the correct potion, according to the spectrometer. He pointed to the moss. Kamookaks Moss didnt change colour or wilt, so that means all the toxin from the quicksilvers gone.

Hmmm, she squinted at the notes in his lab book. I see. And what did the manohmeter say about its magical conductivity?

He paused for a moment, and then chuckled behind his mask. Are you trying to trick me, prof? Since the mana spectrometer showed that it has the correct composition, and since we only used ingredients listed in the procedure, its not necessary to run it through the manohmeter. Wed only run it, if the spectrometers readout showed that its composition had deviated from standard. Plus, uh, we werent supposed to do that for todays procedure, and were always supposed to follow procedure.

She snorted. Well, dont we think were cleverbut, youre right. Well done, it appears that this is a fine example of a Potion of Running Enhancement. You may keep it.

Thanks, he said. Got anything else for me to do?

Hmmm, Professor Jules said. No. Just focus on cleaning up and then finishing your notes. Keeping fresh notes makes writing the lab reports easi-

Oh my gods! someone cried across the room.

Crash.

Glass shattered.

Someone sounded like they were choking.

One of the studentsthe one that had mimed drinking the potionfell back against his work station, clawing at his throat. His mask was partially raised.

Dammit! Professor Jules swore. Alex! Quick! Safety kit!"

She rushed toward the fallen student.

Alex ran for the kit.