By the end of class, Jack had finished carving and infusing both sides of the puck. What he didn’t tell the professor was that on the backside, he had replaced the Fire mana with Heat mana instead. It felt like it would match the design better, and he was right. The Heat runes were keeping the puck more evenly heated and lasted much longer. At this rate, the enchantment might last as long as a week. Magic is so cool.

After the bell, Virtus gathered up the enchanting tools but did a double-take when his hand landed on the carving knife that Jack had been practicing his

‘Mana abstinence’ technique on. No, that name sucks too. He reached back into his pouch and pulled out a second knife and a small ingot of a bright, green metal. He carved two lines into the ingot, one with each knife. Jack was concerned that he had broken the knife after all. Virtus gave him a radiant smile as he beamed from ear to ear.

“This knife is somehow sharper than when I gave it to you. I have no idea how that came about, but I suspect it has something to do with those flares of mana that keep coming out of your core.” He sheathed both knives and handed the used one back to Jack. “I would like you to hold onto this for a bit to see if continued proximity has a further effect upon the blade. Is that acceptable?”

Jack was curious too. He had noticed it was easier to carve towards the end but had attributed it to learning a new skill, guess not. He nodded and strapped the blade to his belt. Now that school was over, it was time to do some reading.

…

They arrived at the library ten minutes later. Jack had insisted that they walk there using the public route instead of yesterday’s crazy dash. He was underwhelmed when the library entrance popped up right in the middle of the main courtyard. I should have guessed it would be here because, of course it was.

Jack decided to check out a book on novice enchanting for reference material. Making that puck was satisfying in a way he couldn’t put his finger on. It was the very first piece of physical craftsmanship he had ever created, therefore it was precious.

When he sat down to start his rune homework, Virtus sat down next to him with his own pile of books. This caught Jack completely by surprise. He glanced at the spines and could not understand what they were. One of them said ‘Advanced Principles of runic etching’ and another read ‘In with the new? A comparison on runic infusion’.

“I thought you would want to spend more time with your friends.” Jack probed.

Virtus waved away the comment. “They helped me find these, so I have already spoken to them. I would be remiss in my familial obligations if I did not investigate this conundrum punctually.”

“Are you talking about your carving knife?”

“Yes, the Ferrum family has created the best crafting tools in the Empire for generations, and our personal toolsets are even better. For over a decade we have had difficulty increasing the efficiency of our wares. Then you did in two hours what we could not in fifty years. Make a major breakthrough. These books examine ancient enchanting traditions that have been mostly forgotten. Maybe I will find something useful.”

By this point, Jack had fully been suffused with the crafting bug. He was very interested in these ancient techniques since they might be much more useful to him than modern mana machines. “Let me know what you find. After I finish my rune homework, I am going to read up on Fire or enchanting. Not sure which one to look at first.” He scratched his head in frustration.

“Start with the Fire primer, it is more widely useful. You have already made use of the knowledge in both spellcasting and enchantment.” Virtus recommended.

“Hmm, I think I will.” Then they got to work.

…

Two hours later, Jack looked up with annoyance. He had just gotten to the good part. The rune homework had only taken an hour, now that he was getting more familiar with the underlying principles instead of relying on rote memorization. That was when things got interesting. The Fire primer had a total of twenty sigils in it. Some of them were ones he already knew but others were unexpected. Jack thought it would be interesting to try Cinder on the next person that annoyed him.

The next few chapters detailed how a Magi went about binding the sigils to Fire because the author assumed that everyone used Fire as their foundation. While not directly useful, it outlined how a Magi advanced. With that out of the way, he turned the page to find the mother of all jackpots, ‘Chapter 5: enchanting with Fire’.

After a page of explanation on the nature of runic enchantment, Jack found instructions to create the Fire hand warmer. It broke down the runes and explained what they did and why. The first rune converted the Fire mana in the rune into pure thermal energy. Then the second rune spread that heat over the surface of the item to keep the heat from concentrating on a single point. That kept the enchantment from melting the metal to slag within five minutes of infusion.

The following pages outlined a half dozen other basic enchantments and how they worked. It was mesmerizing.

“How did your search go?” He asked his armed companion.

“I have learned much, but I will need time to fully absorb and utilize it. There was an entire enchanting culture as vast as the current one, just lying under the surface. Mana machines are convenient tools that have replaced quite a bit of drudgery. Unfortunately, it appears that several useful practices were lost along the way as well.”

They packed up and headed out for their meeting with professor Fabian. Little did they know that their days of carefree learning and exploration were coming to an end.

On their way over to the novice hall, they started to pass through the main courtyard. This was halted as the object of their destination, professor Fabian, galloped straight past them without even a glance to show he saw them. Virtus’ even had to jump back or risk bowling over the lanky man.

“Wonder why he’s in such a hurry. Should we follow him?” Jack inquired of his companion.

“No, if a professor is running that fast after academy hours, then it means that civil unrest is the most likely reason. Most students may be unable to cast spells on the green, but anyone with a diploma, like myself, can easily cause problems that I would rather avoid.” Virtus insisted vehemently. That was when everything began to go wrong.

Out of the darkness came a flash of silver as a knife embedded itself in Jack’s arm. He just gawked at the piece of metal that was hanging off of him. Streams of glowing red blood sizzled on the metal before dripping to the ground. I’m not in pain! Why am I not in pain? Jack was so busy getting over his shock that he didn’t see what was happening around him.

Virtus POV

I am such a fool. Virtus castigated himself as he rushed the unseen attacker. He had barely been able to use Metal Repulsion on Jack before the knife sunk into his chest. It was barely in time. This did tell him several things. Whoever organized this attack knew about Virtus’ abilities because the knife had been enchanted to resist Metal. The other thing was that the knife had been thrown by hand, so the attacker could not be very formidable.

In only a second, he had caught sight of the attacker and bull-rushed him to the ground with the help of his signature spell, Reinforce. It used the metal on his body to augment his speed and strength, like another set of muscles. The attacker went sailing over the grass before crashing in a heap fifteen feet away.

Virtus was on him, and it was a him, before he could shake off the blow. A rope made from nimble-steel came out of his spatial bag and wrapped around the fallen foe. That done he picked up his prisoner and made a beeline for his charge.

Jack POV

With a yank, the knife came out of the wound. He peered inside to find that instead of a ragged wound, he found that inside his body was something foreign. He knew intellectually that he wasn’t a human anymore, but this drove in the point that this form was more like a fleshy mech than anything else. He was just the battery that powered and piloted it. Does this mean that I can modify my body? No dum dum, priorities first. How do I close this hole in my arm?

He had a hard time thinking of it as a wound seeing as how he had finally made the shift in his thinking to what his master had been telling him all along. It was structural damage.

Focus on your mana channels. His master's voice slithered into his fevered thoughts. Focus on mending them. Your body has been programmed to repair itself, but you need to activate the repairs manually.

He focused on his perception, pulling it out enough to cover his body. It somehow instinctively came to his aid now that he finally had a real need for it. A quick scan of his arm illuminated the mana channels in his arm that had been severed. There were three locations where liquid Fire was leaking, so he ordered his body to prioritize repairing them. IT WORKED! No sooner had he given his command than the channels were plugged up by little white bits, that he thought must be his version of platelets. The bleeding stopped abruptly around the same time that Virtus returned with his quarry.

Jack was feeling pretty weak when he gazed up to see the unconscious face of Crispin. “Was he alone?” He asked. Unable to really express any emotion. Healing had been more taxing than he expected, and he wasn’t done. His skin was still broken and he could see some frayed muscle lightly glowing inside.

“Yes, there is no one else with a weapon in a hundred-meter radius. I performed a full scan once the fight started.”

“I see. Let’s bring him to a professor for judgment. Fabian went that way, this must be related to what he is dealing with.”

Virtus gave Jack a blank stare. “No, I will be taking this fellow to a holding cell to be questioned. Once we have what he knows, he will be executed for assaulting the Adjudicator.”

Shock battled with exhaustion as Jack contemplated the fact that someone he knew was about to die. If Virtus was that insistent, then it must be in the law books. He was just that kind of fellow. “Is that your right, this academy has its own guard force. Shouldn't we turn him over?”

Virtus just shook his head. “I have the right as both your personal guard and as an imperial honor guard. My authority is international within certain circumstances. You should worry more for yourself. Your color is off and you are still wounded.” He examined the ground where Jack's blood had fallen. He took out an eyeglass covered in runes and peered at the spot.

His voice grew soft as he started to analyze the spot. “It appears that your blood is mostly concentrated Fire mana mixed with two other types of mana that I have never seen before. One is a bright orange and the other is golden-yellow. Have you tried to absorb more mana to heal yourself?”

Jack castigated himself for the oversight. Why didn’t he try to absorb more mana? The pendant on his neck began to glow softly as he drained it once again. He had gotten in the habit of doing this once an hour or so. When he tried to do it more often, it went dry. His wounds sluggish started to close once more after he finished his pull and placed several more logs on the Fire with his thoughts. The wound took about five minutes to fully close. When it stopped somewhere around the three-quarter mark, Virtus had handed him a Fire crystal with a capacity way over the dinky ones he used this afternoon. This was a lesser Fire crystal. This crystal had a one hundred spell power capacity.

That done, Virtus led Jack back to his room. Along the way, they heard yells and cries of hate from the cathedral. Several professors were casting spells into the holy building, only to be rebounded by a golden shield that formed a dome over the church. Must be that hate group rally that the signs were advertising. Wonder what they hope to accomplish?

When they reached Jack’s room, Virtus slammed the window shutter closed before jamming a bar, covered in faintly glowing runes, across the windowsill. He also pulled out a door bar and placed it by the door. How much stuff does he have in there?

“These are state-of-the-art security enchantments. Breaking through it requires the full power of a third-tier Magi. If that happened, the noise would alert every official on campus, so I doubt many would make such a foolish attempt. Stay here and bar the door behind me. I will be back to take you to your appointment with ‘Felix’.” He then picked up his captive and shut the door behind him.

Jack dutifully barred the door and sat down. The events of this afternoon had left him rattled. A man was about to be tortured and killed and he had done nothing but put up token resistance. Why? Seeking answers, he retreated into his Soulscape.