I wake up on Sunday morning feeling positively refreshed. The lingering brain fog from the previous night is rapidly burning away, leaving my mind sharp and the previous day’s dread crystallizing into a fervent resolve. Yes, I am at a severe disadvantage and with an Everest-sized mountain to climb if I’m to fight against Renault and the other Seraphina on an even playing field. But I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge, and I’m sure as hell not about to start now.
Chloe wakes up a mont after I do. No ti for fooling around with so couple fun after our day to relax and recharge our bodies and spirits. Today is a day for training, and with Chloe laser-focused on building her own strength ever since the battle with Forneith and her subsequent second ascension, she’s just as eager to get started with the day’s training as I am.
Just as we finish getting dressed and suited up into our armor, a knocking from the door signals that the day’s work is about to begin. Chloe takes the lead, greeting her father with a smile. I offer him a handshake, which is declined as shadows wrap around us both and drag us into a family hug.
“How are you?” I ask Hank. “And how are things with you and Mom?”
“Personally, I’m well, all things considered. As for and Leece, well, I’m hopeful. I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot of discussions in the future, and…” He smiles. “I appreciate your concern, but it’s not the kids’ responsibility to patch the nd between the parents.”
“Maybe,” Chloe says. “But that doesn’t an we aren’t going to be worried about our parents, just like how you two worry about us. We are adults now.” She gives The Look. “Even if we don’t always act like it.”
I shrug in resignation. “That aside, do you have any particular plans for how we can best utilize the limited ti between now and the fall equinox?”
“Well, I have a couple of gifts for you, Sera.” Hank hands a small piece of tal. “Much of the data Madison installed in that transport pod was encoded onto these hologram discs. Just thread a bit of [Ether] into it and it should activate in short order.”
I do so. The technology is so advanced; I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it’s far beyond such banal technology as transistors and physical storage.
“Wait… Is all of their data stored on self-contained glyph arrays?”
“Your intuition serves you well, Sera. That is, indeed, consistent with our findings.”
“I wish I knew how they did it,” I say. “I’ve been playing around with the idea of trying to decipher glyphs from the desired effects, and the problem seems entirely intractable.”
“One of the great mysteries we still have to unravel. Perhaps, in ti, our Skills, combined with new computer technology and more powerful theories on the nature of glyphs and Ethertech, will help to bridge our lack of understanding.”
He harrumphs. “In any case, this one contains the glyph that I have dubbed [Multiplicity]. When applied to a spell, it allows you to much more easily multi-cast that spell, and at a far lower overall [Ether] cost.”
“I’m not at all convinced that this is as easy as you make it out to be. So, let guess, this is an extrely complicated glyph that will dramatically increase both the complexity, [Ether] cost, and casting difficulty.”
Hank gives no verbal answer, but the way he looks at tells all I need to know.
Opening up the encoded data, I’m imdiately hit with a sight that wasn’t ant to be processed by re mortal minds. It’s thankfully nowhere near the complexity of ⸢The Anomaly⸥— how such a thing was developed, I wish I knew. But it is another glyph which exists in the fourth dinsion. I should have suspected as much; [Multiplicity] naturally invokes the ti dinsion, which cannot be expressed in only three spatial dinsions without additional paraterization.
It does have a certain beautiful symtry to it, as I watch how the glyph unfolds. It reminds of studying sine and cosine waves back in pre-calculus class. I furrow my brows. Up and down and in and out— no, Sera, not in that way.
A flash of insight hits as my eyes trace out the bobbing and weaving of the glyph as its projection cycles in our three-dinsional space. Sothing I once read offhandedly during a dive through Wikipedia. That every function— be it continuous or otherwise, can be expressed as an infinite sum of sines and cosines. And that, when the function is reconstructed in this manner, the result also carries the sa inherent periodicity. Hence, a way to naturally repeat a predetermined effect.
If only the glyph gave the knowledge of how to do that… Ah well, that’s why we have to practice.
“Nope,” Hank says as I start Manifesting glyphs in my mind. “Not here in the lab; the last thing I need is for Leece to see either of us testing out new magic in the lab and causing an explosion because we were certain we knew what we were doing, but actually had no idea.”
Chloe again gives The Look. “You know, I hadn’t realized just how much the two of you have in common. Though maybe that’s on for not paying attention.”
“Very well. Do you have a range in mind where we can practice?”
“After breakfast, I was planning to take the two of you down to the dungeon to get so Experience.”
“And… before we do, I trust that Mom is going to be okay with it?” Chloe asks. This ti, The Look is directed squarely at her father.
“‘Okay with’ is a bit too strong; of course she wants you two to stay safe, and dungeons never are. But she knows and accepts that she can’t expect you to stay behind the vanguard while she protects you. Especially you, Sera.”
I blush slightly. Guilty as charged.
Chloe, Hank, and I find ourselves on an island in the middle of a crystal clear lake high in the middle of the mountains. Despite it being sumr, at fifteen thousand feet above sea level, the temperature remains far cooler than any I’ve experienced in the past several months. In fact, as a morning breeze blows through and I break out into goosebumps, it’s actually surprisingly chilly, especially in the shade of the dungeon entrance.
“This is a dungeon called Ancient Lake,” Hank says. I notice that nearly his entire body remains cloaked in a black aura being projected from his cloak. I can hazard a guess as to why, but don’t inquire further. “As you can probably intuit from its na, it’s a dungeon specializing in prehistoric monsters. Dinosaurs, of course, but also expect to see giant crocodilians, insects the size of–”
“Oh please don’t say any more,” Chloe says. “Also, what’s with the shadow cloak you’re wearing?”
Hank just demurs, not saying anything on the topic of his outfit.
“Actually, before we get started— and I admit, I should have brought this up earlier— do you happen to have any experience with talsmithing?” I pull out the chunks of auracite out of my [Inventory]. “It’s a tal called auracite that we found while doing a dungeon crawl about a week ago. I was planning to see if anyone could forge it into so better swords for Chloe, but with the pace of everything these past few days, I never got the chance.”
“I don’t personally, no, although… Actually, I don’t think we’re too far from Denver. Maybe we can make a day trip of it once we get done here and see if there are any armorers around.”
“Have you been in this dungeon before?” Chloe asks. “Actually, I guess it was kind of a dumb question, given how much you know about it.”
“Been in, yes. Completed, no,” Hank says. “Level 70 to 75 dungeon. I’ve cleared out the first two floors myself, but the third and final floor is a massive step up in difficulty.”
“Before we do, though,” I interject, “I’d like to get so practice with this new glyph. I’m trying to do a little better myself about not using untested glyphs on the battlefield.”
“She’s even taking the ti to design spells ahead of ti so she doesn’t blast off her arm again.” Chloe is looking very proud of herself.
“Well, yeah. The first arm I got for free. The second one took two months to build, but hey, I got a teaching gig out of it. Yeah, um… I guess I need to see about remote learning.” One more piece of shit to add to the taphorical plate.
Why didn’t I have Clara deal with that? It’s the least she could do after all we did to help with their little operation. Reminder to self for the future: that right there is why I dislike working with the feds.
“That sounds like a wise idea,” Hank says. “Chloe and I will do a bit of sparring in the anwhile.”
Tuning out the sound of the father-daughter dance, I close my eyes and focus on the [Multiplicity] glyph, tracing it out in my mind and envisioning the ever-changing shape. But as soon as I try to build a matrix with it, I get hit with a challenge I’ve never faced. Because the glyph’s shape is constantly changing, it’s virtually impossible to force any previous glyph matrix to properly connect to it. One instant, it’s connected, the next, it’s broken free.
I charge up [Darkness Scythe] with four hundred points of [Ether] behind it. Then I hold it in place… Which isn’t what I need to be doing, I realize. Instead, I start moving the entire glyph sequence in the sa undulating pattern. Expand outward, fold inward upon itself, and constantly–
The glyph matrix collapses. Raw [Ether] coalesces in my palm and discharges before I can properly corral it. I’m thrown backward and end up landing flat on my ass, a couple of second-degree burns on my right hand for my trouble. Better now than later, I suppose. Still smarts.
“Sera, are you alright?” Chloe asks. She runs up to and casts a simple [Heal] spell to restore the minor wound.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Just trying to work out how to use [Multiplicity]. What about you and Hank?”
“We’re fine. He’s just teaching so sword forms to help better utilize [Mirage Sword]. I’m hoping I can get a new sword Skill out of it as well.”
“Hmm. I wonder if you could infuse healing magic into [Mirage Sword]. Turn it into so sort of healing art rather than one solely for inflicting damage upon others. From what I understand, most of your healing magic is naturally affiliated with the [Light] elent, as is [Mirage Sword], so maybe it’s possible.”
“What would that be good for?” Chloe asks. “Why would I want to stab soone with healing magic when I have [Mass Cure]?”
“There may co a ti when subterfuge may work to our advantage. Just sothing to think about.”
“Are you ready to go again?” Hank asks.
“Yep! I’ll be right there.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I still have no idea how to do what I need to do, but at least I’ve co up with one prospect to lead to failure. With my [Mind] as it is, I can cycle through plenty more options as well.
Attempt two doesn’t work. Neither does attempt three. Or four through ten. Attempt thirteen shows promise, but after failing on the iterative process with attempts fourteen through nineteen, I find myself no closer to a workable solution. Hank might have so ideas, but I decline to ask him for now.
Attempts twenty through twenty-five end no better than the first twelve. That famous quote about finding two thousand different ways to not develop an incandescent light bulb springs to mind, but I continue nonetheless. Rearrange the glyphs, rebuild the matrix, try and figure out so sort of pattern that does sothing other than break down or fail spectacularly.
But though the process is slow and I haven’t made significant headway, it hasn’t been wholly without rit or benefit.
[Your [Reconfiguration (Rank XII)] has upgraded to [Reconfiguration (Rank XIII)].]
Twenty-six to thirty are all failures. Thirty-one shows so promise, but ultimately ends in failure like the rest. By undercharging my spells to the minimum— sothing I’ve rarely done to this point— I conserve my [Ether] while limiting the blowback when invariably sothing goes concussively wrong. As attempts thirty-two and thirty-three both demonstrate.
[Your [Reconfiguration (Rank XIII)] has upgraded to [Reconfiguration (Rank XIV)].]
Attempts thirty-four through thirty-nine all fail as well, as all my ideas seem to right now, but at least I’m spared another hot date between the grass and my ass. Finally, after two hours and forty attempts, Hank calls out to , having finished his training and family bonding ti with Chloe.
“No luck?” he says.
“No luck,” I say. “But I’m not going to give up so easily, either.”
“That’s the spirit, Sera. I wasn’t able to figure it out myself. But I have every reason to believe that you will succeed where I did not.”
“Thanks, Hank.”
“Still Hank? Not ‘Dad’?”
“Still Hank,” I say. “But maybe soday.”
He looks a bit downtrodden, but doesn’t press the issue. “I’m sure we’d both love to stay and work on this problem all day, but I believe we also have a dungeon to complete.”
I smile. “Sounds like a plan. After all these failures, I could use the vent.”
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