CHAPTER 28: COUNCIL MEETING (End)
"What do you mean by prime glyphs?"
The whole room plunges into silence.
Sharlene leans forward in astonishment. She surveys the room, her lips pursed as she tries to hold back her laughter.
But her trembling shoulders give her away.
Kaelin locks eyes with her, asking in exasperation.
"What's so funny, ma'am?"
The whole room shifts toward her.
Sharlene shrinks back slightly, the tension altering her posture.
"Nothing, Warden. You can go on."
Kaelin furrows her brows slightly.
"Good. Now I can answer three questions before going on."
Her gaze sweeps across the room, her fingers tapping impatiently on the stand.
"Ahem…"
One of the wardens stands up.
A man of short stature with a long beard hanging down his chin.
"What do you mean by prime glyphs, young lady?" he asks calmly.
The entire hall nods in clear support.
"Good. Now, for that, I have to explain it the same way it was explained to me," Kaelin answers.
The room immediately latches onto the words explained to me.
By whom?
They all wonder but fail to bring it up, lest they ruin their chance for more important questions.
Kaelin closes the projection and lowers her glasses slightly, surveying the room for a moment.
Her eyes move toward the head of the table, clearly noticing a certain woman enjoying herself, as evidenced by her wandering, shining gaze.
"Ahem," Kaelin coughs, dispelling the silence that threatens to take over.
"First, ladies and gentlemen, if I may ask—what is, or rather, what are spells?" she asks no one in particular.
"Pffft…"
A barely held laugh leaks from Sharlene, grabbing the wardens' attention.
Kaelin turns fully toward her, irritation written clearly across her face.
"One more laugh from you, young lady, and you can say bye-bye to your book collection."
The threat lands cleanly.
Sharlene visibly trembles, shocking the wardens, as none of them are aware of her true background.
"Now, back to you, ladies and gentlemen. "
"Any answer will suffice," Kaelin says, shifting her focus back to the wardens.
The wardens stiffen slightly under her tone.
One of them raises her hand.
Her posture was nervous in her seat.
"Yes, Marlene," Kaelin says, pointing toward her, her face softening slightly.
The warden stands, eyes shifting nervously before settling on the head of the table.
She bows respectfully before focusing on Kaelin.
"Uhm… Madam. According to what we were taught… spells are the physical expressions of abstract magical concepts," she begins.
The whole room nods in acknowledgement.
"Yes, go on," Kaelin encourages her.
Gaining confidence, the warden puffs her chest out slightly.
"For example," she continues, raising her palm for everyone to see.
WHOOOSH
A flame forms above her palm.
"A fire spell is the abstract concept of combustion imposed on reality."
She moves the flame in slow circles.
Kaelin nods, clearly satisfied.
Marlene lets out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
She bows her head before taking her seat.
The mages murmur, clearly not understanding the point of Kaelin's question.
Meanwhile, Kaelin looks at them calmly.
Inside, however—
She is gloating immensely.
Now is the time to dazzle them.
"Ahem… your deduction is true, Marlene, but it's incomplete," Kaelin says, cutting through the murmurs.
"Incomplete… how?" Marlene asks incredulously.
Her question causes every single warden to lean forward, hands on the table. Their curiosity is clearly piqued.
"Tell me something…" Kaelin begins.
"If spells are simply the manifestation of abstract concepts… then what structure forces those concepts into reality?"
Silence.
The wardens exchange glances.
One speaks up.
"The spell formula."
Another adds,
"Ancient runic structures."
A third says confidently,
"The casting sequences recorded in spell codices."
Kaelin nods slowly.
"All correct answers… according to the teachings of the Spires."
She pauses.
"But let me ask you another question."
Her gaze sweeps across the entire council.
"Have any of you… Ever wondered why those formulas work?"
No one answers.
Not because they don't know.
But because the question itself feels wrong.
Sharlene watches quietly, a strange grin forming on her face.
But no one notices. They are too focused on the young presenter.
Kaelin pushes her glasses up slightly.
"For centuries," she continues, "we have been treating spells like sacred recipes."
She raises one finger.
"Memorize the sequence."
Another finger.
"Recite the incantation."
A third finger.
"Channel mana into the prepared structure."
Her hand closes.
"And hope it works."
A few wardens shift uncomfortably.
"Those spell formulas we rely on…" Kaelin continues, "are relics."
Her voice grows colder.
"Fragments left behind by a civilization that actually understood magic. That is to say, pre-collapse society."
The silence grows heavier.
Kaelin taps the pedestal again.
"Those formulas aren't magic itself."
She pauses.
"They are instructions."
Several brows furrow.
"And like all instructions," she continues, "they are written using a language."
The wardens lean forward, listening attentively.
"That language, as we all know… is glyphs."
She raises two fingers.
"But among those glyphs…"
Her voice drops.
"…there exists a much smaller set."
"A set so fundamental that every spell ever discovered is secretly built from them."
"A language beneath the language."
"A foundation."
The wardens stare.
"Those are what he refers to as prime glyphs."
A ripple spreads through the chamber.
Sharlene speaks first, barely containing her excitement.
"And how did he come to this conclusion?"
The whole group turns toward Kaelin, awaiting her answer.
"From the book you gifted him, ma'am."
The wardens nod, committing that to memory.
"Oh… that's strange," Sharlene adds, stroking her chin thoughtfully.
"The book I provided is too shallow for such a discovery unless…"
She stops, eyes turning toward Kaelin.
"Have you found him in any strange situations lately?" she asks seriously.
Gulp.
Someone swallows loudly, breaking the tension.
Kaelin frowns in thought.
"Yes. When I met him a while ago, he seemed strange… like he was in a world of his own."
She answers honestly.
Sharlene nods in acknowledgement before returning to her stoic, bored expression.
The wardens shift uneasily.
So Madam is the one responsible for his recruitment.
"Any more questions?" Kaelin asks.
"Yes…" Marlene raises her hand again.
At this, Kaelin smiles as if she had been waiting.
FWOOOSH
With a swipe of her hand, five pieces of paper land on the projector.
Five different spell circles appear mid-air.
This immediately captures the wardens' attention.
"Did you get these from a book or something?" one of the wardens asks in disbelief.
Kaelin lets the silence linger before clearing her throat.
"It is as you've guessed," she begins.
"These are the results of my Aspects` practice…"
The whole room becomes tense.
"Can any of you identify these spells?" Sharlene asks.
The wardens furrow their brows in an attempt to identify the spells, with zero success.
Marlene, the group's scholar, raises her hand shyly.
Sharlene nods toward her.
Seeing this, Marlene walks toward the center.
She arrives near a spell circle with confident steps.
She pulls out her glasses and examines the parchments.
"As I suspected…" she whispers, her eyes moving between the spell diagrams.
She exhales slowly, her doubts fading.
"Ahem… uhm… everyone… these are all BIND spells," she says firmly, waiting for objections.
Murmurs begin but are cut short by Sharlene.
"Interesting…" she says, moving toward the parchments.
"Of course, they are bind spells, since he's only proficient in them."
Her hand rises slightly, eyes fixed on the spells.
"Interesting indeed… it seems I've found myself a goldmine."
Her eyes close.
Her breathing steadies.
Mana begins shifting around her, forming a faint physical representation of one of the spell circles.
"How?!"
The wardens leap from their seats.
Eyes wide with astonishment.
Kaelin looks at Sharlene, a smile gracing her lips.
"Seems like you haven't lost your edge," she murmurs to herself.
"Fulmen Bind…"
Sharlene's ethereal voice echoes through the chamber.
Crackling chains of lightning erupt into existence, wrapping around the chandeliers she points toward.
SILENCE.
The entire room plunges into stunned quiet.
Then—
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"
Sharlene's laughter echoes through the hall.
"Finally found our edge, boys and girls… I can see it."
Her eyes shine into crimson slits.
"This is what we`ve been waiting for ."
She turns toward the wardens.
"Can you see it, wardens?"
"Just imagine it… being able to create our own repertoire of spells."
Her ambition radiates through the room.
"But can he really do it, ma'am?" one of the wardens asks.
The atmosphere shifts abruptly.
"It's not a matter of whether he can do it or not," Kaelin answers.
"It seems you didn't hear me right."
She lowers her glasses.
"This is the result of a few hours of reading a mid-tier book on glyph theory…"
The entire room clings to those words.
"Then it's final," Sharlene says.
"From today onward, your mission is to make sure your aspects come into contact with him."
She turns to Kaelin.
"Give him everything he asks for…"
Sharlene turns away.
"Meeting dismissed."
Meanwhile Eylin finds himself in a pretty difficult situation.
"Why did I think leaving my room for beather was a good idea?"
He asks himself, sitting across two peculiar people.