Illuvia watched patiently as the construction workers outside her window worked on creating a building. It was quite large, much bigger than she would have expected it to be. It would probably feel rather restrictive to a family of five but it wasn’t like it would be done anytime soon. It was, perhaps, the first time Illuvia had been able to see just what a dedicated construction crew could do with a budget that allowed for expedience. The workers were impressive – certainly more efficient than she would be able to accomplish with her hone rune and unlimited ether.
She closed her eyes and tried to drown out the sounds of the construction. She had other things to do, namely working on meditation. She had done all she could to learn another rune but it had been a tenuous thing. Though she had done it several times now, pulling information from the deep recesses of wherever this magical knowledge was stored… it wasn’t easy.
In her mind, her body would hover just off the ground as steps were created leading to a large dome. It was simply a representation of a kind of safe she had to crack into to get the knowledge she required. She had no intention of using the steps, rather she wanted to fly. This was all in her head, so she could basically do whatever she wanted in here.
She listened to the sounds of the construction work that faded away. She heard her parents in the back of her mind encouraging her. She found herself nodding along, thinking, “I will certainly try. It might just be possible this time.”
In her mind, she lifted higher into the air and floated around the perimeter, casually observing the dome which she envisioned to have the information she sought. She was getting a feel for just how tall and thick the boundary was. After several minutes she’d land at the base of the stairs.
“Alright, here I go,” she’d think as she knelt down and extended her arms to each side. They were angled slightly downwards, such that her palms touched the ground. They felt the cool, impossible to describe texture that only one’s imagination could construct.
Luvi had found that painting these mental pictures helped her focus. She was so concentrated on what was happening in her mind that she couldn’t hear the noise outside at all. In fact, at times, she wasn’t even aware of her real life surroundings at all. The only things that even reminded her that she was in a trance was her steady breathing and the occasional unexpected breeze. The problem was, she couldn’t maintain this kind of focus forever, and she desperately needed to hold it for long periods of time to make any progress.
Once she pressed herself against the mental barrier that separated her from the knowledge she desired, she felt it much more easier to press into it. There would be a crackling sound that came from below as Illuvia seeped more of her mental power into the barrier. There hadn’t been anything to really see so far. To anyone watching her physical body, it might have appeared that she was simply in deep thought or prayer. In reality, she had already made a lot of progress.
Illuvia had no way of knowing how long it took for her to accomplish this task. Something like this warped her perception of time – all she could really do was focus on pushing herself further and further. Minutes passed, hours, and still she remained focused. Eventually, however, she’d broken inside and started piecing together some bits of knowledge. It was slow at first, but a twisting flurry of runes quickly started to spew from the mental barrier. It was more chaotic than pretty but this was the best idea she could come up with. The gaps would allow her to ignore the knowledge she didn’t want and also, hopefully, making it possible to actually learn a rune.
Illuvia felt herself start to falter for a moment. The wave of runes rose quickly then slowed rapidly as Illuvia felt herself start to weaken mentally. She was sweating now, she could tell that much at least. That meant she was close. She quickly realized that there was no way that she could possibly learn more than one rune today, despite all her hard work.
Still, she managed to reach out her hand and grasp at a rune that stood out from the rest. She held it in her hand, feeling a certain understanding upon touching it. It was… otherworldly. She knew it was what she was looking for within moments as the feeling she experienced was much like her other moments of epiphany.
She opened her eyes with a start. “Eureka!” She felt relief wash over her, something she hadn’t felt in quite some time now.
“Now, what does this rune do,” she wondered. She had an idea, of course. Something to do with darkness, or was it vision? She knew instinctively at least that this was the sort of thing to be applied to the head. There was only one real way to find out, so she drew the rune on her head and focused on only using a little bit of ether.
The effect was immediate. As soon as the rune was completed, her vision started to blur. She blinked and looked around as best she could, wondering if this kind of thing could be counteracted with glasses, but before she could do proper experimentation the effects faded. She had made it weak, after all.
She tried again, this time finding that it only took her a few strokes to draw the rune. She didn’t even think about how easy it had become over the past seasons to draw runes. The exact shape of the symbol was more willed in to existence than painted nowadays. It was certainly more convenient than spending ten minutes painstakingly ensuring that the shape was correct.
In any case, this attempt bore more ether than the last. She used a moderate amount, finding that she could hardly see at all. Her vision was so blurred that many areas were simply black. The effects persisted for several minutes, and getting impatient the mage absorbed the ether back into her body, effectively cancelling the rune so she could try again.
In her final attempt, she put a good amount of ether into the rune and basically blinded herself completely. She couldn’t see a single thing, couldn’t even register what she thought was direct sunlight as she positioned her face in front of a warm beam of light for a few moments. She didn’t want to try staring directly into the sun, fearing that she might damage herself.
The woman let out a deep sigh and absorbed the ether back again. Yet another umbral rune and still she felt so… useless. She felt cursed with powers that she couldn’t possibly put to good use. “When am I ever going to want to blind someone? I’ve gotten good enough to draw runes quickly, but if I’m close enough to smear this rune across someone’s face I could have just stabbed them in the eye instead.”
It certainly was a conundrum. She was still woefully unaware that runic traps were a thing, and even if she knew about them, it wasn’t like she was the type to actually make them. She was no hunter, rather she was a duelist type. The type to go out and look for a fight, not lie in wait and hope someone stumbled across her trap. Another sigh.
“With any luck, one day I’ll be able to cast runes without touching at all,” she murmured to herself. It was, perhaps, the only way she might ever make good use of an umbral rune, though it was very wishful thinking. Just based on her progression, she still felt like she would need to at least make contact with someone before putting a rune on them. Though, perhaps there was some sort of magical item that could be fashioned to extend her range – she’d have to ask around about that sort of thing.
She was in a rather sour mood after that, thinking that she ought to stop trying to learn more umbral runes altogether, but it wasn’t like she was trying to. She was happy to learn any rune because something was better than nothing. By the time she finally stopped thinking about runes, she noticed that it was much later in the day than she’d expected. She’d been at it for many, many hours it seemed.
A growl punctuated the silence. She was hungry and a quick look around told her there wasn’t any food. The thought of making something came to mind but… she was in no mood to do anything mentally strenuous. Even the simplest meals took up way too much mental bandwidth even when she wasn’t exhausted. She groaned and got to her feet. It was time to reward herself.
