Melody of Mana

"The basics of runecraft. Who can tell me what runes are?" After waiting for a few seconds Professor Rooke pointed randomly at a boy near the front.

The lad looked nervous, but began. "The runes are magical symbols which..."

He didn't get the whole answer out before Professor Rooke harshly answered "No. You." A finger went towards the next nearby student who paled.

"They're the symbols on magical items Professor. I don't know much but there's something to do with them controlling the item I think."

"Better. Who can tell me where and when they originated?" After a brief wait he indicated another of the students near the front.

"I... am not sure sir."

The professor patted the boy on the shoulder, rather than giving a stern rebuke. Then he turned to me and locked eyes. "What do you know?"

"Very little. They serve as indicators on magical items of their power level, and are somehow related to the Atali language."

The professor returned to the front of the class and began looking at all of us. His gaze swept over each and every one. That done he returned to his lecture, the chalk flying up behind him and beginning to write on the board. The symbols it wrote were noticeably runes.

"This runic script, if it were inherently magical, would turn my chalkboard yellow. It is not. The runes are themselves no more magical than any other writing system, and are in fact a language of sorts. This language was constructed by the elves some five thousand years ago..."

He launched into the story, or what was known of it at least. Five millennia ago a great king came to power amongst the elves. He was a genius the likes of which the world has never seen since. His greatest invention was something called a core. The creation of which allowed the creation of magical items. Before mana had been only able to be used on site. The storage and ability for even those not gifted in magic to use the power was a game changer.

The Elven king took over the continent he was on and expanded around the world, forming an empire the likes of which the world had never seen before or since. Eventually though he passed, and over time his dynasty weakened. None of his children were blessed with his mind, and the low birth rates of the elves finally allowed every other people to kick them back to their own homeland. A few had tried to invade the Elven continent, but there were still items from their great king, and those could turn fleets and armies to ash.

A core was a magical construct, and a very small one at that, barely visible to the naked eye. They came in three types or levels, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. Each was composed of a number of parts, one which understood the runes, one which held what they were currently doing, and finally one for storage. The last stored both the information of what rune was what and the blueprint for passing on the core.

"Each of you will learn to make a core. You will do this by constructing it inside of your own brain. It is not an ideal location, but it is the one that the spells used to pass it on puts it in. You are heavily advised to not try and make any alterations to it, or it will not function properly."

That seemed insane to me, to actually build something in my own brain. He then went on to explain how there were a number of commands and control sequences which we would either have to memorize or keep a record of. The core itself did not tell you those up front, at least not in any way that anyone knew of. Much was poorly understood about it, and while there was much innovation on how to get them to do things, this was accomplished by learning what commands did and then kludging it together.

"For now, begin memorization of the runes themselves, and these three command sequences." He wrote the listed bits on the board. Each was very similar, indicating a color change with the first bit, and what color with the second.

Before I knew it the class was done, and we were off to the practical. It was held in the library and laboratory wing and we walked there as a group. Apparently it was tradition for every class to go straight to the practical side after finishing up with the theory for the day. My guess was that they wanted us to jump in while everything was still fresh in our minds.

"Greetings everyone," Professor Hern said as we all filed in.

The room where our practical was was huge. All around it there were small workstations which I was eager to get a look at. In the middle was a large demonstration table. I didn't see supplies out, but there were drawers and closets abounding throughout the room.

"First thing first. Everyone find your assigned workstation and familiarize yourself with what is where. You don't need to know what all of it does, or what any of it does. We'll handle those questions later. For now I'd like you to just see where it is, everything is labeled. I feel like I must say this, because I really must. Do not attempt to use tools before you've received instruction in them, and always follow your safety protocols. You'll be learning those too."

I made my way around, guessing correctly that i would be near the back. As I looked over the various parts of the workstation I noticed some rather interesting things. First of all, everything, and I mean everything had a label on it, and said label was easily visible. On the desktop were circles of runes labeled things like 'Metal Manipulation Array' and 'Wood Manipulation Array'. Each was on a separate slab of wood embedded into the desk and I suspected they were magical items of some form.

The drawers were also labeled by what manner of tool they had, and I had a whole tool-shop worth here, drills, files, hammers, and more. Two of the drawers had small locks on them. One was labeled 'Materials' and the other 'Projects'. I knew the combination to neither, but suspected that I would find out more soon.

"Alright everyone, you lot look settled. Now, first off, there will be no playing around in my class. What we are doing here may be fun, but it is also deadly serious, and deadly if done carelessly. Two, you are forbidden from using any tool that I have not signed off on personally. Once you've demonstrated that you can safely use them, then we can get to the practice portion. Any questions?" He waited a few moments as he scanned the crowd. "No? Good."

He then began to go over the tools one by one. This was a laborious process that involved all of us pulling out the tool as he explained how, and importantly when, to use it. There were like nine different types of hammers and all of them were for different stuff. Some were obviously bigger than others, and made of differing materials, but I had no clue what was for what.

He demonstrated each and then had us mimic his movements, assuring us that in time we'd all get it down perfectly, that he'd see to it. That sounded more like a threat than anything to me, but at least I was assured that he took his job with no amount of humor.

This whole chore went on for the period. By the end of it we were exhausted, and all looking forward to lunch. As we returned to our dorms and fell into our seats the talking began.

"Well... what did you think?" one girl down the table asked her neighbor.

"That I'm more qualified to be a carpenter than when I woke up. We haven't even done any magic yet!" her partner replied.

"Sounds like you lot just got back from Hern." an older girl said as she plopped down next to them.

"Is he always like that?" I ventured to ask as I leaned a bit nearer.

"Yeah, when you're working with new stuff, but not for no reason yeah? I made a dagger last year that was amazing. It has an enchantment that will clean it for almost no mana. It also involved me working with liquid iron. Do you know how hot that is?"

"Very?" One of the others ventured.

"Yes, very. Long story short, some of the stuff you use in that class is dangerous, very dangerous. So sit through the boring bits."

"I think we have another helping of it tonight." Kala peeped up as she looked over her schedule. I was sure we did, but was so not looking forward to it that I hadn't dared to check yet.

There was a collective groan from our group. Each year was broken into two main study groups, with an alternation of core classes. Well, some alternation, for the bards and priests we were all in the same group, our groups were just too small for us to break up for core classes. That meant that things like Item Creation and General Spellcasting were always going to be our little group of twenty-five.

My next two classes were Flute and Harp. Those both went rather swimmingly. The instructors were both experts of a level that I couldn't really follow, but they understood the methods and techniques far better than I did. Mostly I went over different pieces that I knew and started working on reading this world's musical notation. While I could play a bit, that last part was one I really would have problems with.

It occurred to me that an astounding amount of what I was learning was going to be different languages. That was odd and I wondered for a minute if there was some linguistic aspect to magic. Then I thought about it more. It didn't matter what I was playing when I cast, just that I performed. The intent, and performance were the important part, the method was secondary. The runes were also apparently not magical at all, but rather some weird kind of input to the interface that was the core. So the magic relation to linguistics didn't seem too likely, shame.

I mulled this over as I found my spot in the practical room. We were all in a bit of a sour mood as the professor came in and moved to his spot.

"Good, you're all here. Now I know that what we've been doing so far isn't too fun." That was an understatement. "So I've got a surprise for all of you. Something you can do on your own where you literally can't hurt yourselves. I wager that you'll even find it interesting... for awhile at least."

That statement got us all perked up as he led us out and down the hall to another room. This one was unlocked, and apparently open to our group at all times. That was a bit of a relief, since this seemed to be our current project.

My breath left me as I came in. Now this, this was a magical classroom. The walls were all black, as were the floor and ceiling, some kind of obsidian if I had to guess, or something that looked like it. On the floor were twenty-five rune circles all around a central pedestal. There, in the very center was floating a small light, pulsing out along lines into the floor.

"This everyone, is where you will be building your core. Pick a circle and stand in it. Once you're all ready you can kneel. The spell will take you inside yourself and show you where and how to build, just follow it's directions and all will be well. I will be checking to make sure you have correctly, but if you screw it up, you'll know. The spell will kick you back after an hour, or if you are disturbed."

I wasn't too sure about that last part, but joined my classmates none the less. I stood inside the circle of runes, looking down at the pulsing lines of power below me. I was nervous as I knelt down, my stomach all in knots.

Instantly my physical form fell away. I found myself seemingly inside myself. The sensation was truly difficult to explain but I could see a faint outline making some form of lattice in front of me. It formed a complex web of interconnecting parts with little balls and lines.

This was obviously what I was here to do, and one of the little balls was lit up. These seemed to be some kind of node point, with the lines moving around each other in three dimensions connecting them. I tried focusing on the little ball and found that it pulled a bit at my mana. I fed a bit in, only a tiny, minuscule particle, hardly enough for me to notice. The ball became physical rather than outlined and around it crystal formed. So this was the beginning of making a core, interesting.