AUTHORS NOTE:

DecadentLily: Thanks so much for the follow and favourite! I hope that means you've been enjoying it ;-)

Slyksylva: I'm glad you're happy :) Don't fret, even though there will likely be more bits without Shard completely present, this is first and foremost a story about their love.

Archer1eye: Yup, so much WAFF in the last chapter, but only to keep up the rollercoaster ride ;-) Ah! Basically there are some major powers: Darkness, Earth, Sun, Moon. ALL other gods are 'aspects' of these major powers, both linked and separate from them. The Elvish God of the Moon is an aspect of Luna, acting completely independently from Luna but at the same time 'joined' to Luna. An analogy might be mitochondrial DNA, if mitochondrial DNA were some sort of 'energy' or 'power'. The Elvish Moon god is the daughter of Luna and Luna's DNA, Luna's power flows through her but she is a god in her own right. As such, Tenebrae is both the god and not the god that Sharein's mother was in contact with ;-) I'm very cautious with the physicality, in deference to Sharein's age. It's why the last scene took place in a dreamscape and I'm careful not to be too explicit. She won't be thirteen forever though!

Chapter 49

1st - 9th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

The first tenday of Middle Spring that year passed the slowest out of any tenday I could ever remember. Lessons with Malkarov focussed mostly on runes. Malkarov was eager for me to finish off the last of the runes so we concentrated on the ones that I hadn't yet learned. Once we had run through them all he tested me on them and was quite pleased with my recollection. We started on rune schemes straight afterwards. Enchanting, Malkarov explained to me, was extremely dangerous.

Malkarov explained, "there are some runes that have opposites, that you must never match up in a rune scheme next to each other. For instance Fe and Ef are the opposite of each other. Fe means wealth and Ef means loss. If you put them together in a rune scheme and then power the scheme then wild magic will be released. Anything could happen; a massive violent release of magical energy or a more specific effect. I once saw the after effects of an An and Na set off next to each other, everyone within a mile radius was struck mute. Completely unable to talk. It took the priests five whole days to cure everyone. Everyone, that is, except for the wizard who set off the scheme. Nothing anybody did could heal him."

We studied the rune scheme engraved upon my sword and scabbard. Malkarov had me cast Detect Magic and copy out the rune schemes onto parchment. The rune scheme on the scabbard was much much less complex than the one on the sword. The wizard then had me compare the scabbard's rune scheme to those written in some of his books that were more commonly used. We noticed some similarities, but could not find one exactly the same. Malkarov pondered over it for quite a while until he discovered a linking rune scheme on the scabbard and a matching one on the sword.

"Aha!" He exclaimed when he discovered it, "but why? Why would they link the enchantment on the scabbard to the enchantment on the blade?"

"Does that mean that the scabbard will only do what it does to that sword and no other?" I asked, taking a guess.

"Exactly!" Malkarov confirmed with a smile, "it's unnecessary and limits its usefulness, why not just leave it out and make the enchantments work on any sword?"

He gestured at the rune scheme that I had copied down, "you can see the similarities here to the one for sharpness, so we could safely assume that is part of its purpose. Also here is a rune scheme for cleaning and rust protection," he said, pointing to another section and then another, "but this one linked to the linking runes looks like a transformational rune scheme."

Excited, he pulled out a book from the shelf and opened it to a page before putting it down on the desk next to my copy, "do you see any similarities?"

"The way Eh and Sa are joined?" I asked, noting a part of the rune scheme that was most obviously the same.

"Yes, yes indeed," Malkarov said excitedly, "this is part of the rune scheme for a lengthening ladder. It's one of my Enchantment Master's creations, a ladder that can be shrunk or lengthened on command. One command word shrinks it so that it's small enough to fit in a pocket, another command extends it out to a maximum length of one hundred feet. The problem is," he said pointing out two sections of the lengthening ladder's rune scheme, "this section here defines the two command words. There is not such section in your scabbard's."

"Could the section be not on the sword itself? Could that be the reason that the two are linked?" I asked.

He stared blankly at me for a moment before letting out a laugh, "you've been reading Patrin's treatise on combined schemes, haven't you?"

I recalled the title as one that I had read through one night and answered in the affirmative.

"Good, good," Malkarov said to himself, as much as to me and pointed to my copy of the blade's rune scheme, "look here. If we trace the linking scheme here on the blade we see a scheme that I have never before seen. Ke, An and Eh in such a configuration is curious indeed."

We sat in silence for a while until Malkarov stood up suddenly, "Sharein, hold your scabbard and sword together."

I stood up and picked up the sword, holding the scabbard half way along in one hand and the hilt in my other hand.

"Now, forget how long the sword is," Malkarov said curiously, "put it out of your mind. It's not a sword, it's a dagger. Picture a dagger and pull the dagger out of the scabbard."

I blanked my mind and followed Malkarov's instructions, first picturing a standard kitchen knife until I resolved it to still have the same guard as my sword. I pulled out the blade and Malkarov cheered. In my hand I held a miniature version of my sword, less than a foot long but otherwise an exact replica.

"The rune scheme shrinks my sword?" I asked.

"Not just shrinks," he corrected, "put it back in and draw out a two handed sword, with a blade as long as you are tall."

I followed his instructions and marvelled at the size of the sword that I drew, one that most definitely could not have fit into the much smaller scabbard. It had the same appearance as my sword at it's normal size, but was much longer and wider.

Malkarov clapped and cheered, "astounding! So, we can safely say that the scabbard will protect that sword from getting dull, rusty or dirty but can also change the size of the blade. The reason for the complexity is obvious. It not only has to change the sword, but has to adjust the size of the scabbard's opening, allowing you to put the much wider blade of the two handed sword back into the smaller gap. Not only does it do this on command, but the command isn't said aloud! It actually picks up your desire from your mind! What marvelous work!"

Once we had made that discovery, Malkarov moved on to showing me the rune scheme for his 'blower'. If the rune scheme for the sword and scabbard combined was complicated to me, the rune scheme for the blower seemed indecipherable. Thankfully, he had the scheme broken down into its smaller component parts on other pieces of parchment. One scheme would summon the wind, another would direct it and another would heat it. Other rune schemes were linked to the 'buttons' to turn it on and off and finally he pointed out the 'power bank.'

"The magic to make an enchanted object work does not just come out of thin air," he explained, "we need to put some of our own magic into our enchanted creations. This is the reason why I am not just making bath after bath and selling them. It's the reason why the Grand-Master Wizard traded his in-houses for my baths. To make a permanently enchanted item, I must sacrifice some of my magic to power it."

"But even then, runes need to be re-written every year?" I asked, confused about his earlier lecture and my sword..

"Ah!" Malkarov said, happy that I had remembered, "it's a compromise I make. Runes that are regularly used can be powered to different levels. You can sacrifice less magic, but have to re-write the runes or you can sacrifice more magic and make a truly permanent enchantment. For the runes around my tower here, I chose to sacrifice less for the inconvenience of re-writing because they are enchantments that I am using, I should be around to re-write. For something like that sword, my rings and such… they were permanently enchanted. Now, single use runes on the other hand are completely different. Single use runes will turn to ash once used, they store the magic almost forever until expended. This makes them very useful for creating single use traps and such. Many magical traps you might find in an ancient tomb for instance, will be single use rune schemes and as such will be just as dangerous today as they would have been when first drawn out three hundred or even a thousand years earlier."

"The 'power bank'," he continued, gesturing back towards that rune scheme, "powers the enchantment. It requires a certain amount to make a rune scheme work, depending upon how complicated it is, but does not run out of magic at all. It's possible to adjust an already existing enchantment, to add on to it, but doing so will almost always require a second 'power bank' be included to add extra magic to the enchantment.

"Now then, how would you like to make and power your own simple first enchantment?" He asked with a smile and I couldn't prevent a matching one from appearing on my own face.

It took two days of work, but eventually I had written down onto a piece of parchment, a rune scheme that would make the sound of a bell when it was stepped upon. Once Malkarov had approved of the design and made one slight correction, he allowed me to write it out again using a special ink that was a requirement for enchanting a piece of parchment. It had a purplish hue and an odd smell.

Malkarov then walked me through the proper words to enchant an item, forcing my magic from inside of me out through my hand and into the 'power bank'. I didn't feel any loss of magic, any 'less' and questioned Malkarov on it.

"Enchantment only takes a fraction of the power permanently; or in the case of a single use rune scheme, until it is expended, as it does to cast a spell for a similar effect. This rune scheme is so simple that it would be the equivalent of a cantrip. You could probably make a number of these before you had sacrificed an amount of your magic equal to casting a cantrip."

Once I had finished and I had a piece of parchment sitting in front of me that would make a bell sound when stepped upon, I asked Malkarov whether I should step on it to test it.

"I have a better idea!" he said with a cheeky grin.

His better idea ended up involving us casting invisibility and putting the rune scheme down in front of Father Mattias' door, covering it with a small layer of dirt and knocking on his door. The poor old priest jumped almost a foot in the air when the loud bell (for Malkarov hadn't corrected my mistake with regards to the volume of the bell) rang out from underneath his feet. Malkarov laughed so loud that he lost his invisibility. I, on the other hand, dropped my invisibility and relied upon the age old defence of pointing my finger at the mastermind of the prank. The old priest made an extremely rude gesture at the Wizard and retreated back into the temple, slamming the door behind him.

"I'm in shock!" I admitted to Malkarov.

"That it worked so well?" He asked.

"That Father Mattias would use such a horrid gesture," I answered.

That just resulted in even more laughter.

We worked through a few more potions during lessons and began a basic introduction to rituals since I had learned all of my runes. Rituals were extremely interesting to me, they seemed to be a combination of normal spell casting and enchantment. Most rituals required a circle of protection or a circle of intent as Malkarov had already explained to me, but depending upon the ritual the circle was subtly different. Malkarov taught me the Protection ritual, a simple ritual that would grant me a very small measure of protection from harm. First I had to inscribe the circle of intent upon the ground, using a piece of red ochre. Multiple candles were lit, each one different. Each candle had herbs or oils mixed in with the wax. Malkarov named each one as he pulled them out: anise, basil, cloves, dill and blueberry. Unlike regular spellcasting, the ritual words did not echo inside me, in fact it sounded more like the prayers we used when talking to Luna, Celestine or Mithras when doing Mother's rituals at home. In fact, the whole process reminded me greatly of Mother's rituals. When the ritual was complete however, I felt the magic settle down around me. It almost felt like, rather than summoning the magic from inside of me and using that to influence the outside world that the ritual was condensing magic from outside.

I raised this with Malkarov and he agreed with me, "Interestingly, and this is something that is fairly closely guarded, mind; almost anybody can cast a ritual. Even people with no talent for magic can cast rituals successfully, so long as they follow the prescribed formula."

My dreams were occasionally disturbed, wavering between pleasurable dreams of Shard and not so nice dreams about the kobolds. On at least one occasion I awoke in a cold sweat and was then being unable to get back to sleep. It made me a bit anxious at night time, wondering whether I would be graced with pleasant dreams or cursed with nightmares.

When I woke up on the ninth day of Middle Spring, I felt like all anxiety had been washed away from me.

'Today, I shall see Shard,' I thought with excitement, 'today, I will become the Chosen of Tenebrae.'