You spend hours upon hours toiling away with the runes Himoto gave you in an attempt to make something tangible, but nothing sticks. All the magic that your tome is able to manifest does not compare to what he was able to do with his spear. Perhaps, you consider, this is due to the properties of the spear itself? You also have no idea how much value the rock he gave you, Carby, holds-- is it an integral component of spellcasting with what he was yielding? How is it different from arcanistry? Is it called spear-istry?

Erden interrupts you from the magical-research equivalent of a coma with a few books he hand selected from the thaumaturge’s guild. ‘Borrowed,’ he tells you, with no deadline of return, since Mizu picked them out. You let out a concerned sigh, and thank him for his contribution, but to be honest you have more than enough ‘source’ material, you just can’t make anything really click.

All of these types of spells have one problem: They require some greater external source that a grimoire simply isn’t able to provide. Thaumaturgy requires the self to be manipulated, and Spearistry probably requires a spear, or something to that effect, since you don’t know what the spear itself is made from. When taking all this into account, you start to wonder if the paladin spell, Holy Spirit, which you’ve put into your book only works because you are using it.

The least magical part of arcanistry is definitely the pages themselves. The ink used is often enchanted by the alchemist’s guild, and the leather used for the book can be made from a manner of excellent material, sometimes even reinforced with metals to lend itself for greater aetheric conversion. You begin to theorize that the greatest problem at play is what the runes are drawn on.

“There’s a little magic in everything” was always one of your mother’s favorite phrases, though you believe she was mostly trying to get you to stop being such a moody teenager when she was rattling that off to you. Maybe there was more wisdom to her words than she knew.

There’s not much else to do. Looking outside, it’s clearly a few hours into the night now, so it’d be ghoulishly irresponsible to ask Himoto for more details now. A terrible thought crawls into your mind though-- you have no guarantee that Himoto intends to stay even a few hours into the morning, so if you don’t go ask now, there’s a very real chance he will not be there tomorrow for further questioning.

By the time you decide to visit, Erden has already been asleep for quite some time, but now you’re just even in terms of sneaking out at night. The innkeep looks at you like you’re crazy, but you explain it as needing to distribute earnings from the foray that the adventurer’s guild approved of, and since you still have the paperwork, she lets you through.

You spend over a minute knocking on Himoto’s door quietly and waiting. You periodically look around to make sure that nobody else is watching or being disturbed by this, and eventually he opens the door. You regret your choices immediately as this poor man looks impossibly tired, and he can’t stop rubbing his eyes for more than a few seconds. To your benefit, he is not mad, just confused.

You cast Rejuvenate on him to help with the exhaustion, and after a moment of its effects taking hold he seems to be able to steady himself. You apologize for waking him and explain your situation to the best of your abilities, but he still just seems entirely lost by why you are here. You pull out the rock and present it to him, and also pull out the drawings of the sigils you copied down, and ultimately request to see his spear.

He lets out a heavy sigh and retrieves his spear from his bedside, inviting you in. He begins to brew himself a mug of coffee while you try to feel it to identify its material composition. Regretfully, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly memorable about the spear itself. If you had to guess, you’d say it’s somewhere in the iron family, though treated somehow. Its dark color makes it seem more akin to Steel, but you’re mostly talking out of your ass on this one.

You ask if he’s planning on staying tomorrow, and he shakes his head no. He pulls out a crayon sketch and hands it to you-- it shows an Au Ra woman holding a beautiful gem, with a lot of arrows pointing to the gem itself. You sigh and say you understand-- that your knowledge of spearistry will have to wait until a more convenient time.

When he hears you say that, he laughs to himself before leaning in a bit closer. He pushes the spear away and points to the rock he gave you, and then down to the ground below. You...have no idea what to make of that, but you do keep it in mind whenever you look at these runes again. Perhaps another visit to the conjurer’s guild is in order? You are quite certain they have rock magic there.

You give him enough gil to pay for food the next day, and leave as he tries to give it back to you. The entire affair is something of a frustrating dead-end, but it won’t deter you from continuing to try with the resources that you have acquired. First thing’s first-- you need to ascertain the validity of Holy Spirit with others. You decide the best candidate for trying it is K'yoko, since she already has so much experience with using a grimoire-- even if only against target dummies.

Having had enough for one night, you simply go to sleep when you make it back to the apartment. You know telling Mizu that you have to leave is going to be an impossible chore, so you decide the best way to do it is by letter. The next morning, you begin to promptly draft one, and inform Erden that it’d be best if you returned to Limsa that day. He understands and packs his things very quickly.

Something about how Erden carries himself has changed since the previous night-- he seems...more at ease, more sure of himself. You consider commenting on it, but you’re worried it’ll make him act like a doofus as he struggles to keep his not-so-secret identity from you, so you just act like nothing is different.

When you go to drop off the letter at the thaumaturge’s guild, it seems Mizu made this a trivial task by being out of the city to “Experiment” on more private property, so you are able to get out of town unimpeded. You kiss your mother good-bye and she reiterates that you and Erden are welcome back any time, which you thank her for.

The return trip to Limsa is delightfully uneventful, though shortly after your return Erden is forced to return to the farm, so you report immediately back to your guild. Before you are able to get K'yoko’s help, she actually has something she wants to show you instead. In her spare time, she has made a sapphire carbuncle with a specialty in healing. The gem in question can be found in Lower La Noscea, which does help reduce its cost of manufacturing, and was a big reason why ruby carbuncles took off in popularity.

It seems very promising! When you pen her for details, she says that she can compile some notes together. You urge her not to share her process with just anyone, and instead she should give it over to The Maelstrom for a handsome gil reward. She seems to contemplate this-- she never thought about using her research for profit, and instead was mostly concerned with just doing it for the guild.

A noble intention, indeed, but noble intentions do not pay bills-- at least, this is your opinion on the matter. Either way, you ask her to give your spell a try and she does, but to your dread, it fails terribly. It has nowhere near the punch that it possesses when you use it, and you even compare your ruin casts to see if they’re equally disproportionate, but they match up pretty well, with yours only being slightly stronger.

You begin to wonder if the strength of your cast has anything to do with the geometries at all, or if you are simply compensating for the spell because you are used to casting it without the grimoire. A frustrating question without answer, you instead return to your dorm and toil away endlessly at more spells.

Now, I can not stress one detail enough-- I do not, and will never, condone the method which I foolishly employed to overcome this road block. Do you understand, aspiring arcanists reading this? Do not try this absolute nonsense at home. I promise, whatever results you THINK you will chance your way into will not be worth what is in all likelihood just going to be pure failure and wasted days of your life.

You brute force your way, after multiple hours of trial and failure, to a successful spell by randomly combining the runes and combinations you have seen up to this point. Combining the barrier-component you observed from Amdapor with the Fluid Aura spell creates a reinforced barrier, albeit one which is entirely stationary. It is able to withstand a tremendous number of attacks, with its primary weakness being that of time and cost. It is best applied in short bursts to block specific and precise attacks, but in an emergency can be used over a larger area.

You name this spell “Ward” for simplicity’s sake and submit it to The Maelstrom directly, where you are immediately granted an audience with The Admiral. She is very pleased that your time in Ul’dah was fruitful, and you do yourself the favor of not explaining that technically your trip to Ul’dah had nothing to do with this spell. You receive a sum of gil which is over double your initial reward. With a savings of nearly a million now, you are well on your way to being able to afford your own home in Limsa’s housing district if you were so inclined.

By the time you make it back to the guild, your guildmates all surprise you with a small celebration of your accomplishments. This makes you all kinds of nervous because of attention you feel is undeserved, but pretty much every Arcanist in the guild shares that feeling of imposter syndrome, so you let it go.

The entire time you’re celebrating, all you can think about is the dead end you’ve boxed yourself into. All this time trying to “capture” other fields of magic into arcanistry, and for what? You try your absolute damnedest to keep a positive attitude while around your peers, but it eats away at you.

Vincent seems to pick up on this, as he asks if everything is alright when you two are alone later in your dorm. You reassure him that everything is going to be fine, and insist that you’d rather try to tackle this issue yourself, since everyone in the guild already has their own personal projects anyways.

He makes it very clear that if you need help, you should ask others, or at least take a break from the ‘rut’ you’re in. A step away from a problem can make it much easier to overcome when you return to it later. You appreciate his advice and...take it to heart. With all this obsession over arcanistry, you’ve hardly spent any time at all doing anything else, and so you try your best to think about other things you can spend your time doing, if just for a while.