Fable - Ask Do You Wanna Build A Runesaber?

[Samantha Black]

Dreadlord Academy
Southern Training Grounds
Forge Hall

Late afternoon, the sun hung in a dreary haze of humid ambiance along the western horizon. A heady mist settled along the perimeter of the academy grounds, clinging to dewey grasses and lingering along the edges of the surrounding dark forest. It had been another hot one - the sort of day that saw the initiates stripping layers and sweating like pigs in a routine that remained mercilessly unbroken. No rest for the weary.

Ralene, for her part, had been away on mission for several weeks and only just returned the night prior. Special compensation doled out for successful tours meant she had nothing to fill her hours today but some rest and working on her own personal projects. The rest was appreciated and not something easily come across, but she spent the afternoon poring over her notes in the library before making her way down to the forge.

Now in the heat of her work, Ralene stood before the forge, hammer in hand and molten metal in the clutches of her pincer as strike after rhythmic strike it began to mold and form into a new link for her updated gauntlets. Sweat dripped down her bare back, across inked tattoos and raised scarification of various runic symbols, pulling soot into black rivlets that soaked into the bandaging wound around her chest.

CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

The fires within the belly of the beast roared in her ear and licked at her exposed flesh, sizzling against a ward of magical energy that glowed bright red every time a spark flew at her.

CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

Broad shoulders rolled in time, the flare alighting across cut edges of muscle honed at the tip of a blade and the blunt battering of fists. She bore as many battle scars as she did runic markings, but soon enough there would be more to account for. Graduation loomed on the horizon, the strongest subject at the forefront of most Initiates' minds of her class. Bending thoughts on the future of where their skills and power would best suit Vel Anir ... or themselves. There was talk of certain Initiates leaving this life behind - not something Ralene could abide by herself. She meant to enlist and she meant to make waves, and a new name.

But for now...

CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

she had armor to make.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

A loud clang was heard near the entrance of the Forge Hall as a wild-eyed Alistair stumbled into the room. In his arms, he was holding three different books. It looks like he was about to burst at the seems to talk about something, but he stopped when he saw Ralene.

It always made him pause when he saw a fellow rune mage and the runes that decorated their skin. At the Academy, where they were forged into living weapons, it was almost a given that someone would end up transcribing runes onto your skin. The practice was extremely damaged, but almost every rune made in the school had at least some markings. It was a dark, but unifying mark for those dreadlords that practiced the runic arts.

His momentarily pause only lasted a minute before he yelled into the forge. "Ral, I need your help!" He was obviously worked up about something. He had deep bags underneath his eyes, a clear sign of lack of sleep. Alistair wasn't even awkward from Ral's bare exposed figure which was almost always a sure way to make him blush a little.

"I figured it out, Ral. It took forever, but I finally cracked it."

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

CLANG

CLANG

CHNK!

The repetitive beat of the hammer came to an abrupt halt, leaving the smith in not but the roar of the forge's flames spitting heinously from its open mouth. She'd heard the muffled yell of her name through the din and turned expecting to find a Proctor at her back beckoning for some new assignment. Instead she found Alistair Krixus looking as though Edric had shoved hot coals down his gullet.

She frowned, brows furrowing behind her forging mask. So much for a peaceful evening of progress. Ral lifted her hammer once more and pressed it against the hatch release of the forge. The heavy metal plating slid into place with a THUNK that threw the workshop into an immediate state of darkness and quiet.

Alistair ended up bellowing his last words into the silence.

Ralene had no idea what he was yammering on about, but perhaps she'd use this time to take a short break. Setting her project and hammer aside, she turned to a bucket of water and dunked a wooden mug inside.

"What are you on about now, Al..." asked before she drained the first mug to sate her thirst and then dunked it again to splash water over her shoulders. It hissed against the heat of her skin and fizzled into steam. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"This is better. Trust me." He smiled as he dismissed whatever she was doing.

He moved over to a table and spread out his books and a blueprint on him, largely ignoring anything else on the surface. The books, in question, had several notes and marks all over them. Some of the marks had been scratched out and replaced or circled to emphasize their importance.

It had to be Ral to help him. He would not trust anyone else with this. She was smart enough to be on the same page as him, and no one could forge the perfect vessel for his runes but her.

"I've been experimenting with improving my blade. Started with simple heat runes to help my sword cut like a hot knife, but the solid nature of the sword always limits it. So, what if I removed it altogether. A sword that was made of pure energy. I was thinking maybe arcane energy or light. Thought about fire, but that isn't material enough to really cut."

Alistair was talking so fast and his eyes looked beady. Ral might be one of the few people that could understand him when he was like this.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

Better?

Ralene narrowed her eyes at the boy, lips drawing thin on words begging to be snarled in response. She drowned them with another deep drink of water, instead, and stood watching him with grumpy curiosity as he made himself at home in her workspace.

Sometimes. Sometimes she wished the rules hadn't changed. Wrapping her hands around his scrawny little neck would have felt very good and very right. But rules were rules and graduation was ... so close she could almost taste it. Ral decided to let her curiosity take hold. If nothing else, Al was never short on hairbrained ideas and runic knowledge. She leaned her back against the table and loosely folded her arms at her front, head canted to the side while his mouth ran away with him.

"You been eating Chasmine's mushrooms again, Al? I keep telling everyone they're going to addle your minds." Really, look at the source.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"Mushrooms? No, I haven't eaten anything in two days. I've been too busy."

He looked at her confused like that was obvious. It was the first time he had really looked at her since he had come in. Alistair was not the best at the whole empathy thing, but he wasn't a brick wall. He looked at her sheepishly before doubling back.

"Sorry, Ral. I guess I am a little excited. Just let me throw out my idea and I'll get out of your hair. You're the only one I would trust to help me with this." He explained and waited for a few moments of silence before just as quickly jumping back into his idea.

"I was thinking too much on how to balance multiple runes, but we don't really need to. If we just use a rune that molds the energy into the blade, then the actual energy can just come from the wielder. This way, even those without offensive magic could use this as long as they had the energy."

"The real issue is that I need a strong enough hilt to handle the rune and the energy that will constantly be fed into through it...Thoughts?"

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

Hadn't eaten in two days? Ralene blinked at him. Considering their upbringing here at the Academy, they'd all been forcefully starved at one point or another, perhaps even multiple times depending on the Proctor. But to willingly forgo sustenance when it was readily available...

She was letting her mind go off on a tangent that didn't matter. If Al wanted to starve himself so be it, she wasn't his mother and she sure as shit wasn't going to tell him how to live his life.

Skeptical brow lofted, she pushed off from the table and crossed the workshop to view his laid out notes. A single rune to form a blade seemed ... unlikely but not completely out of the question. Her eyes read over the scribbles and drawings in silence.

"The hilt doesn't need to be strong, it's not containing the energy," she said at length, "it needs to be a conductor and direct the flow of energy. With the right materials ... it could work. In theory."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"What materials are you thinking of?"

Alistair asked curiously, several running through his mind. He had originally thought of some very rare materials, but those would be difficult for him to even get his hands on. This new sword wasn't meant to bankrupt him or his family.
He quickly scribbled down the word 'conductor' and struck out the words 'strong metal' near the sketch of the hilt.

"In theory, but I am pretty sure we can make it happen. Their are runes used by craftsmen with the specific purpose of molding the arcane energy they use. It would work just like that, but we restrict the rune to allow for only one arcane shape, this would mean that the wielder doesn't have to worry about anything but feeding the rune power. That essentially how rune mages fight, already."

He explained gleefully. Once he succeeded with this design then he could try to create variants. An energy greatsword would be cool, or a smaller knife. The possibilities would be endless...but he had to make this work first.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

"Huh uh," Ralene abandoned the table with another drink from her mug, "if I'm going to be sacrificing the time I could be spending on my own projects to make yours, then you need to make it worth my while."

Truth be told, the idea intrigued her enough to agree to do it, but Ralene didn't do favors from the goodness of her heart.

"You're going to get access to the library's restricted section and ...acquire something for me."

Her own last project had ended so explosively from using restricted Rune magic that she'd put an Academy smith and a Proctor in intensive care. Not on purpose, mind you, but the results had been destructive enough that she'd had her own privileges revoked.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair frowned at the request. He was one of the few dreadlord initiates that could easily get into the restricted section of the library. He had built up a lot of goodwill with the librarians, and he rarely stepped out of line. This would be threatening all of that work...

It had to be done. If Ralene did mess something up, then he was sure the creation of the runesaber would outweigh any punishments he could receive.

"Alright, deal...within reason." There were certain books in the restricted section that they would not even let out of the building. He wasn't a good enough thief to sneak it out.

"So, do you have any ideas for the material? It needed to be something they could actually get their hands on."

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

"I need Ira Vie da Runa," Ralene replied, turning her back to Alistair and her attention once again to her project. She picked up her hammer and the pincers, "no tome, no help."

CLANK she slid the level for the forge door back up, unleashing the blazing beast's roar back into the workshop and went back to work.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Ira Vie da Runa, he felt like he had seen that around. Before Alistair could ask any more questions, Ralene was already back to her work. Well...good talk.

Getting into the restriction section would not be hard for him. He might even get someone to help him look, but he would need to call in a few favors.

He opened his mouth to speak, before closing it again. Ralene was back in her own world and he could respect that. She had said what she wanted, so the only way he was going to talk with her as if he came back with this book.

With a determined look in his eyes, Alistair stormed off to find whatever this restricted book was. If they actually pulled off making this saber, then maybe one day he would write his own restricted book.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

Approximately one week later...

Catching up on missed classes from time away on missions always seemed like an unfair punishment. Before the revolution it hadn't been such a big deal - do some reading, write a paper, move on. Not anymore. Now extra emphasis had been placed on Initiates also fulfilling levels of customary education. Now it wasn't just books and papers, but a whole manner of tedious assignments and tasks.

Ralene was in the top of her class for a reason and she would not allow that ranking to slip for things as paltry as written assignments. She shifted from her work at the forge to the library during the week, which is exactly where Alistair found her. Seated at a large table toward the center, a few open books scattered about, reams of rolled parchment paper ... it was nothing if not entirely cliche for a student committed to their study.

Rubbing at her eyes, Ral continued transcribing words from the page. Military shorthand - she was rather proficient at reading and writing it after years of study per orders of Commander Warren, but the book she was working from was, in fact, a journal kept by an historic Anirian General.

And his handwriting sucked.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair was glad he found Ralene in the library. This was his territory, his place of peace. He marched through the isles of books with the confidence of someone who knew exactly where they were going. At this point, the librarians probably saw Alistair more than their own children, if they had any.

He had in his hands a large book that had taken Alistair using a lot of his favors and even making a promise or two. If it wasn't for his runesaber, then Alistair would have never spent so much of his time on this, but he had it now and that was all that mattered.

Alistair stopped in front of Ralene's table with a triumphant grin. He plopped the book down in front of her but made sure not to damage any of the other materials. He had to respect the work ethic. Alistair was all to accustomed to the scene set out before him.

"I got it, so it's time."

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

"You have a shit sense of time," Ralene muttered at the Initiate as she looked up from her transcriptions to spear him with a frigid blue glare, gesturing to the work set about her as though it were the most obvious thing in the world that no, in fact, it was not time at all.

Still, her glare shifted to the book presently flattening her assignments and she set her quill aside to take up the oversized tome. Yes, she recognized the cover at once. It had spent many nights with her in the library several months ago, but at the time she'd not made the connections needed to understand what, exactly to look for.

Now she knew what to look for.

Sitting up, Ral pulled the book open and began haplessly flipping through. Page after section after page after page - no, no, no, no, there.

Via Culta dol Maga Vie Warda, study 1,032. Eyeing the pages, she now took care to leaf through for a glance that everything she thought should be there, was there. Everything looked good until - her eyes flickered back up at Al, "There are pages missing."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Ralene's frigid blue glare was met with Alistair's intense and fiery determination. He had gone through a lot to get that book and he would not be cowed when his goals were so close. He had upheld his end of the bargain.

"Sorry, I don't have a clock."

Alistair responded simply as he looked over the various books and scrolls that Ralene had been reading through. If they finished his runesaber quickly enough then he might offer to help Ralene if she wanted his assistance.

"There are pages missing."

"Hmm, I got the book. I don't control who else has access to it. I'll be happy to inform the librarians if you wish."

Alistair had no idea what pages were missing, and he could not think of way to find those pages even if he knew what they were. The librarians would certainly care if someone was damaging their charges, but he could not do much if they had been the ones to remove the pages.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

Leaning in to give the book and its missing pages a closer look, Ralene's eyes narrowed in silent thought. After several moments she closed the tome and shifted it aside from her work. Procuring a loose, blank leaf of parchment from her pile, she began to scrawl down a note.

"We need Chasmine," she muttered, folding the note and handing it to him, "give her this and find out what she wants for it. We're going into town this weekend to get supplies and she always has weird shit she wants for her ... teas and tinctures."

The note read: Proctor Renou's wax seal.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair wanted to groan in frustration, but he held it back. The more people they added to this plan would mean the longer all of this would take...but Ralene had what he needed so he just needed to deal with it.

"What could Chasmine possibly have that would help us?"

He asked genuinely confused. The book was supposed to be the last piece of the puzzle, but more kept getting added to it. The worse part about all of this was that he was going to have to wait until the weekend. Still, Alistair did not wait for an answer. "

"Fine."

He hurried out of the library to run and find Chasmine.

Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

It was good he didn't wait for an answer because he didn't get one. Ralene had returned back to her transcriptions and gave him nary a glance as he hustled off to find Ghost Girl.

Chasmine was not particularly easy to find for various reasons, but he did find her after some searching. She was sitting alone in the mess hall, munching on her dinner well away from other students. Sitting next to her on the table was a hand woven basket filled with pinecones, acorns, small sticks, small stones and pebbles, and leaves.

Despite the fact that she always looked either lost in thought or curiously alarmed, Chas turned blinking look of surprise up at Al when he diverted his path directly at her, "Hello Alistair Krixus. Have you come to request a pinecone friend?"

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"Um...no sorry. Although I suppose one would not hurt." Alistair tried to respond politely. Chasmine was one of those people that he always struggled to interact with. She was nice enough which was always refreshing at the Academy, but Alistair could never get a read on her. His entire understanding of himself and others was based on logic, but Chas was one of those people that just did not follow logic.

"I have a message for you from Ralene. We are willing to get you anything you need when we head into town this weekend. "

There wasn't much that Alistair enjoyed about his house, but he was confident that he could find most alchemical materials that Chasmine might want for her tinctures...or teas. He handed over the piece of paper Ral had given him with a smile.

Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

"Oh," replied Chasmine at first, mildly deflated but accepting of the decline. And then Alistair changed his mind and colored her quite surprised. "Of course, they are quite gentile." Pinecone friends did not hurt one bit.

"A message..." from Ralene. Though she was quite pale and one would not think it possible for Chasmine to lose any further color from her face, Alistair witnessed first hand this very thing happening. Her smile immediately disappeared for a white-washed concern and she gave the note he held out to her a look of wariness. Gently plucking it from his grasp, Chas unfolded the parchment and read it quietly to herself.

Spooked. Four little hand-scrawled words were all it took for Chasmine to abandon her meal, pick up her things, and move to take her leave, "I am sorry Alistair, I do not think I can help you and Ralene with this."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

First, Alistair may need to have a talk with Ralene about kindness. Had she bullied Chasmine? He had originally thought the two might be friends, but it seemed he had completely got the nature of the relationship wrong. It did not really matter to Alistair until Chasmine denied them.

He was already shaking his head as he moved to sit down across from her. "Chas, please. I really need this. I'll help you in any way I can, but I am so close to completing some very important work. We just need this last bit.

He cupped his hands together, his face now looking towards her desperately. If she said no then his work to get the book, to get help from Ralene, and all of his work up to his point would mean nothing.

Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

At his pleading, Chas paused in her hasty efforts to leave. A disturbed sort of look came over her face, filtering across her features as though someone had cracked an egg on her head and the yolk was slowly running down. The last time she'd stolen something for Ralene she'd gotten caught ... and rather handily punished by Proctor Harkenov. Despite her penchant for compartmentalizing those sorts of things, Chasmine didn't make a habit of putting herself in trouble on purpose.

Still, she disliked turning down a fellow Initiate in need. Especially when the work was very important.

"Mm," she noised her discontentment with the idea and bit at her lower lip worryingly, "if it's really that important to you... but it will have to wait until nighttime."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"Ok, we can wait. Whatever is needed."

Alistair reaffirmed quickly without a moment of hesitation. There was nothing at this point that Alistair would not try to get this knowledge...maybe short of killing an innocent person. Primarily because that would bring with it its own set of problems.

He had not read the note, so he was not completely aware of what Ralene was asking Chasmine to do, but whatever it was had to be worth it to him. She was probably only asking for like some other type of book, or maybe some type of tea.

"...Until then, I guess I'll take the pinecone."

Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine nodded in return, but did not look particularly happy about the arrangement they'd come. More like Alistair had just given her a Death Note. She did, however, rather quickly perk up as he relented to a pinecone.

"Oh, I know just the one," she said, carefully sorting through the basket with pale, delicate hands to pull out a pinecone friend made in the image of an owl and handing it to him with care, "I believe you will enjoy his intellectual company."