Throne of Time - Chapter 73: The Broken Wheel (Patreon)

"Alright, spells down, listen up. While you all recover, we need to talk a little about runic capacity." There was no desk or raised area, so the scarred woman stood on a hovering obelisk when she wanted to lecture. "We're not going to get into the theory of all that, not here. If you really want to know, there's a class called Exploration of Runic Capacity you can take."

They had been sparring up to that point, but most of them needed a break, so Maut-mai and Suria found comfortable seats to listen. She had come to understand, after many sparring sessions in this term, how mana reserves were often less important than casting efficiency. She really wanted to get her hands on the thaumeters, but they hadn't been introduced in Foundations yet.

"Now, I've been dismissive of runic capacity pissing contests before," the professor continued. "I promise you, if you just slap together the largest glyph you can, you're going to lose. But you do have to increase your runic capacity enough to handle the tools of the trade, and if you want to be a battlemage, you'll need to go far beyond the usual potions and rituals.

"Runic capacity can actually be a major obstacle, in some cases. There are a lot of soldiers out there who will never be real combat mages because they can't cast spells with a meaningful number of augments. Same applies to a lot of other fields, but this is Glyphic Combat. Let's talk about all the different ways you can try to increase your runic capacity."

Many of the methods matched what Suria already knew: crossed runes, pentagons, and even the clay orbs from Professor Eortrax. What they all had in common was stressing a mage's ability to make runes, thus stretching their limits. There was nothing about the Akrashic method of resisting materials, but Suria understood how it followed the same rules.

Unfortunately, the lecture didn't get into the details of advancement that Suria might have needed because her situation was unique. For everyone else in the world, once you increased your runic capacity in a certain way, it was done and there was no way to backslide... time loops were the unfortunate exception.

Still, it helped to have everything put together in a coherent list, and there were a few new tricks, even if they were similar. The professor even went on to talk about advanced training methods: matching hexagons that required eleven runes to even contemplate, or an obscene double-star formation that required thirty minimum. Suria felt as though she was gaining mastery over the shallow end of the pool while the deep end churned in the distance.

While the students focused on their exercises, some having much more trouble than others, the professor roamed among them. When she came to Suria, she crouched down beside her and spoke in a lower voice.

"You wanted the fastest exercise I know, right? Well, watch closely."

The professor started by placing a runic triangle alone, but then she left behind all glyph logic. Her fourth rune was off one vertex, as if it was going to form an augment... then instead of closing that augment, she repeated the pattern twice more, resulting in three runes spiking off the central triangle, none of them completing a shape.

"It's called the broken wheel," the professor explained. "You probably never realized just how the tension builds up before you complete a shape, but this maximizes it, with just six runes. It isn't commonly used for a number of reasons, notably that six runes isn't actually that few for many amateurs."

"What on earth..." Maut-mai stared at the result and then began copying it on a slate of her own. But on the second errant rune, the mana went haywire - Maut-mai yelped and covered her eyes as the slate broke apart, sending fragments scattering everywhere.

"Oh, that's another reason. Can be dangerous to practice. But there you go."

Suria thanked her professor and happily set out trying her new exercise. She didn't really feel the difference until the fifth rune, which immediately made her realize how wrong it felt to leave the first triangle unfinished. When she instead continued to three unfinished formations, she had to struggle to keep the glyph from falling apart.

Could the completed version of that formation be used for effective spells? It would be four triangles merged together with only nine runes, which seemed like it might be enough to accomplish something. The problem was that most inscriptions for runic triangles were augments, and she doubted they could augment one another very well.

Even though Suria had already built up her capacity considerably, and had never tried the broken wheel exercise before, she felt her capacity increase by one before the end of class. She had to wonder just how fast it would work at the start of a cycle, since it used so many of the abilities used by the other exercises she'd learned. Definitely something to experiment with.

"I can't believe how fast you picked that up," Maut-mai said as she rubbed her sore fingers. "You started the term with a lower capacity than me, yet your hands are so steady..."

"I may not have a high capacity," Suria said, "but I've had a lot of practice as a healer."

"I guess so. Can you take care of my hands, by the way?"

Suria cast a simple healing spell to ease her roommate's pain as they headed out of class. Most students crowded together to use the floating discs, so they'd realized after a few classes that they could actually make better time just going down the stairs. Thankfully Maut-mai had stopped complaining and started viewing this as the smart option, so they always walked together.

"I wonder how much good this is really doing," Maut-mai mused on their way down.

"What does that mean?" Suria asked.

"I've learned how to cast so many spells, but would they actually be any good in combat? I worry it's like only using a sword against a practice dummy, never for real."

"Well..." As she thought through the timeline, Suria realized that they might still have an opportunity. "I know of a way you can check, if you want."

Soon they were headed across campus to enter the supply tunnels. Maut-mai found the idea of the weevils disgusting and was only slightly mollified by the fact that it was an extermination mission, but she appeared to be game to try. Suria maintained a simple light spell around them and kept her shield ready, just in case anything unexpected happened.

"Aaah!" Maut-mai let out a strange sound the first time she saw one of the weevils, which didn't seem to care about their presence. "Absolutely disgusting..."

"This is your chance," Suria told her.

"Well..." Maut-mai took a few seconds to work herself up to raising her hand and casting an ice spell. The first one misfired and only sent frost across the weevil's legs, making it twitch and begin running toward them.

Suria prepared a force spell of her own, but Maut-mai unleashed a wild series of ice spells that, by sheer volume if nothing else, managed to take out the weevil. Once it was frozen in a block of ice, she took a while catching her breath.

"That wasn't bad," Suria told her while rubbing her back. "You should probably shape the spell into more of a spike."

"I know that, I just didn't do it in the heat of the moment." Maut-mai regarded her with narrow eyes. "How are you so calm about this?"

"It helps that I have a mana shield, so I'm not in as much danger."

"My necklace should more than protect me, but these things still creep me out."

"Is that why you changed your necklace?" Suria asked. "What does this one do?"

"It should keep creatures like this at bay, but I haven't actually tested it..." Maut-mai groaned. "I suppose we're going to do that now, aren't we? No, don't argue, I should force myself to do it."

They continued forward and Maut-mai said that she would let one of the weevils try to attack her, but in practice she ended up panicking and killing them before they got close. Suria held back, curious how exactly the defensive artifact would work, then they entered a room with two weevils and she realized she would finally get a chance.

Maut-mai cast as soon as she entered, killing one with an ice spike, but was even less self-aware than Suria had been. She didn't realize there was another weevil until it dropped onto her neck and bit down.

Suria hadn't expected such an unlucky attack and instinctively started to cast... until she realized that Maut-mai was fine. The pincers were coming down on her skin repeatedly, but they failed to penetrate. When Suria cast her perception spell again, she could see the lines of mana tracing from the necklace, somehow reinforcing a shell around Maut-mai's body, thinner and more shaped than a standard mana shield.

"Aaah, get it off, get it off!" Maut-mai lost her composure and swatted ineffectually at the weevil on her back, then recoiled in disgust. It failed to penetrate her defensive barrier, but was too mindless to stop trying.

Resisting the urge to watch, Suria instead used a force spell to pluck the weevil off the other woman's back and smash it against the wall. Maut-mai immediately rushed to her, throwing her arms around her neck and shivering.

"Absolutely disgusting," Maut-mai muttered. "Such things shouldn't exist."

"You're okay," Suria said, rubbing her back. "The good news is that your necklace worked."

"But it didn't! The barrier should have been further out, so that thing couldn't crawl on me."

"How does it differentiate between an attack and just something near you?"

The magical conversation helped calm Maut-mai down and Suria followed as best she could, though it sounded like the glyph required artisanry techniques she hadn't learned. Based on what she saw, the core of the spell was actually a runic square attached to a pentagon, which was a different formation than she'd ever tried to create.

Once Maut-mai had composed herself, they went a little further, but they didn't run into any more weevils before they instead encountered one of the xenarths. Maut-mai let out a scream and raised her hand to cast, so Suria lunged out to grab her arm before she could.

"I didn't mean to startle you," the xenarth said slowly. "I heard the screaming."

"Oh." Maut-mai stared at the giant sloth in confusion. "You're... a person?"

"We carved these tunnels for moving supplies."

"So you're... a Darkmoon employee?"

For a time Suria was worried that things wouldn't work out, as Maut-mai could be shockingly arrogant toward those she viewed as servants. But either she had softened in this cycle or the weevil attacks had thrown off her usual patterns, because she accepted an invitation and soon enough they were having tea with a group of xenarths. It didn't include Bumbledun, which was a shame, but at least Maut-mai seemed to enjoy herself.

Based on Suria's observations, the school faculty was inconsistent about clearing the weevil infestation, especially if there were significant numbers of other events going on at Darkmoon. Given that she'd seen it could grow to a point where it actually harmed the xenarths, she really should do something about it more consistently.

She also noticed, a little more cynically, that Maut-mai's panic inspired more sympathy from the xenarths, so they were loaded up with plenty of pastries and encouragement. It was likely the difference between adult mages who should have done something about this earlier and students who were in over their head and just trying to help.

Though the meeting seemed to be critical for Maut-mai, Suria found herself a little distant during the entire conversation. There was no point building a relationship with xenarths she likely wouldn't see again, and it had been so hard to find time for Bumbledun...

"This was better than I thought," Maut-mai said as they walked back to their room. "They're really such dears."

"You seemed to enjoy those crumpets," Suria pointed out.

"I know, I ate too many! But we must return when we can." Maut-mai's reverie solidified into a frown. "It's intolerable that they have to deal with such pests biting at them. But I don't know if I can handle more now... will the situation last until I can do some new enchanting?"

"I'm sure it will. Xenarths are pretty large."

"But so fluffy! Would it be terribly inappropriate to ask to touch their fur, do you think?"

They headed back to their room and Suria found herself thinking less about the weevils than the system that led to them existing in the first place. Scavengers were inevitable, but surely a place as wealthy as Darkmoon University could handle them - there were never any ants in the cafeteria, for example. Were the weevils more of a threat, or had something simply fallen through the cracks?

Given how much she had to do, Suria wanted to set the matter aside... but then she'd be doing exactly the same thing as the university. She made herself a promise that she would figure something out and just hoped that she could keep it.