Chapter 13
#14 of Tales of Woe
Chapter 13 of Tales of Woe
Seth Cranilus, September 29th, 11:02 AM
I was sitting on the couch thumbing through the blank pages of the Arconomicon, looking for anything, any kind of mark that would let me read it. I felt the cushion behind me move a little, and glanced back to see Ciph had sat down and was looking at the book in my hands.
"Why are you even trying? You know you can't read it."
"I know... I just... I just want more information on this rune stuff. My dad only showed me six runes, apparently that's all he remembered."
"Seth, runes aren't specific symbols, it's the power and focus you put into them. For most people, thinking of it as another language with arcane powers makes it easier. Same goes for words and speech."
"Wait, so all these systems and stuff- all the crippilation and crap... it's all just... to focus?"
"Yup. Some focuses work better than others for some people. It's just a matter of what system of magic makes the most sense and is the easiest to use. To be honest, the only reason crippilation is so damn common is because magic is portrayed with hand motions and such now a days. Where I came from it used to be more industrial and about how the power rested in the person. Which it does. Think of it like this, every person has a strength in magic, but not only are these strengths conceptual, they can be completely undetectable. No way to know for sure what it is. However, everyone thinks differently, so different focuses and different methods of thinking of magic work better for different people with different methods of thinking."
"So, how does magic really work then?"
Ciph slid down and sat next to me and took the paper and pencil from me. He began by drawing a circle, "Think of this as us. Our physical forms." He drew three more circles half-way through the circumference of the first, "And these are the different parts of who we are. One of them is for the mind, and it's called the neurosphere." He wrote an 'n' in one of the circles, "And another is for our life force. The thing that keeps us alive." He wrote an 'l' in another circle, and an 'a' in the last, "And the last is for out arcane abilities. I could get really technical and explain how each is intertwined, bound, and locked together, but it's weird, and some of the words aren't pronounceable."
"Oh... So, who I am, and what I can do, is because of this?"
"Yup. And you don't necessarily belong to runes. Just because your dad did doesn't you have to."
"Right."
"What's your favorite subject in school?"
"I don't know, science? Art?"
"Hmm... Okay, follow me, I think I know what your strength is." He got up and wandered down the hall, and I followed him into a room stuffed full of strange devices, objects, medallions, amulets, and charms. He patted the bed as I walked in and started looking through a drawer. I sat down on the bed and started looking around at all the things in the room.
He pulled out seven objects and set them down next to me on the bed, "Make something."
I picked up one of the objects, almost like a gear in shape, but the teeth were smooth and rounded instead of sharp and heavily protruding from it. I noticed small holes in each tooth, and found another object had several detachable pins from it. I pulled them out and stuck them through the gear, then saw every single other piece had holes in it for the pins. I randomly attached the pins and pieces together, and came out with something that looked useless. I took it apart and kept putting it back together again and again until I ended up with something that at least looked cool, however useless it was. I looked up and saw that Ciph had gone, and I took the thing out of the room with me.
I walked out into the main room and found him showing Titus what the weird sphere thing was. When Ciph saw the thing in my hand, his eyes widened, "So that's what you built?"
"Along with innumerable other things. It's useless, there's too many ways to arrange it- how does this do anything?"
"Simple. Other people would've stopped at their third try. You kept going until you found something you like."
Titus took the thing from my hands and looked it over, "Okay, but what's it do?"
"This." Ciph took it and held it in such a way it looked almost like a gun. And then it moved. Parts opened and changed, became anew, and arcs of electricity ran over the top of it. He got up and went over to the door, opened it, pointed the device at the sky, and without even moving, that arc of electricity shot from the object into the sky, a loud thunder crack released from the sudden motion of energy and heat. He came back in and the object settled itself down, shifting back to how it looked beforehand. "See? It's not useless."
My jaw was still open as he handed the thing to me, "I built that?"
"No you built the thing that became it. You're an engineer, Seth, not a fucking enchanter."
Titus smirked and looked at me, and in a silly voice said, "You're an engineer, Seth!"
Ciph smacked him upside the head, "Stupid movies ruined everything. Why can't we go back to the good ol' days when magic was portrayed as pure evil and satanic power? At least then people were afraid of it."
"Why should anyone be afraid of magic? It's awesome, and useful."
"Really? And if you lose your temper?"
"I'm a calm person, Ciph, you know that-"
"Titus, let's say something bad happens to Tanner, something caused by someone else."
"So what? I'm not gonna... Okay, I'd kill them, but it's not like anyone's gonna do anything about it! Hell, I have magic, I can take over the world if I-... Oh. Hence the apocalypse, right?"
"No, actually the scarier thing that's going to happen is the earthquake."
"Huh?"
"Yup. Monday's the day everyone finds out, the ideas get seeded into everyone's heads, and Friday's the day it ends. On Friday, there'll be an earthquake so powerful, so intense, that it slows the Earth's spin and topples cities. Panic will ensue, the world will feel different, and a lot of people will use magic to make things right. But they won't succeed, they'll only hurt others, and those others will get pissed off, and soon enough, the only people who'll be left, are the people who knew what to do, and those that avoided danger. Those people, elders with great wisdom, and youngsters with no knowledge of the world around them, will build a world we can't properly imagine."
"So... society's going to crumble, not because we can't handle this much power, but because we can't handle fear and power... Huh. You'd think we'd have destroyed ourselves by now."
"Xenophobia and the means to justify it are what caused massacres in the past, change and power are no different."