Kingdom Hearts: Heart of Heaven
Chapter Twenty-Four: Glyph Combinations
Day 6- Afternoon
'So, guard duty today was pretty boring.' I thought to myself as I tuned out the excited chatter of the other students in Luz's classroom
It was not much of a surprise to be fair, given the fact that I spent most of last night performing pest control on the dark monsters, but I honestly expected at least one or two of them to try their luck.
If I were to guess based on what I've seen of them so far, they prefer to use swarm tactics whenever possible. I have never seen a single heartless without a group and it's possible that with me 'culling the herd' so to speak, they are staying in the shadows until they can regain those numbers.
I might need to do more nightly patrols if that's the case. Keeping their numbers low could decrease the number of attacks on the rest of the residents and would be a small income of credits for myself as well…
Maybe just for an hour a night, but I cannot let myself get distracted by the credits I could earn when it was entirely possible that the world could disappear from below my feet at any moment. I only had one more day before the Festival and I had to train to get ready for whatever bullshit Facilier had planned.
I watched the floating motes of mana hover around the room, everyone else none the wiser of the tiny balls of energy they used whenever they activated a glyph. I wish I knew just a little bit more about them. I knew that they were the key to using this setting's magic system in some way, but without a magic teacher, I was just stumbling around in the dark.
I let out a breath as I looked up at Luz's empty chalkboard. Tonight's lesson was about Glyph Combo's and if the whispered rumors I was hearing from the rest of the classroom were true then this class was when the real magic started.
One girl talked about how her friend cast a wind spell with one combo in an earlier class, while another said he heard about someone making a glyph that could make fire dance compared to how were just burning things earlier this week.
Honestly, I couldn't help but get a little excited at the prospect. If we were finally learning how Luz was able to pull off her impressive feats of magic then maybe I was going to be more prepared for the Festival than I thought I would be.
"Hey, Ethan." A familiar voice says behind me and as I turn to look, I see Kim's warm smile as she walks up to her desk next to mine, placing her notebooks on top of it. "How was work today?" she asks as she sits down, her expression positively beaming as she turns to me.
"It was kind of boring, to be honest," I say as I halfheartedly let out a breath. "No attacks, no ambushes, just standing out there, keeping an eye out for danger that never came."
Kim nods "Yeah, I've had a couple of missions like that. Standard bodyguard requests where nothing came from it." She commiserates before shrugging. "But it's better for us to be there and nothing happens, than for something to happen and we aren't there."
"I guess," I say as I lean back against the back of my chair. "How about you? You seemed to have had a good day."
"I did," She says with a smile as one of her hands reaches down into her pocket. "I had a few requests to complete but after that I stopped by Jumba's place and-" Then she pulled out a small blue device as she holds it up for me to see. "It's done."
"It's my communicator. I've used it in almost every mission and Jumba was able to make another one for me. He also managed to remake my grappling hook and mission boots." She says as she sticks one of her legs out to show me the black leather boots that she was currently wearing.
"It'll take a bit longer before Jumba can fully gear me out, but I am starting to feel like… like I'm getting back into the game after being sidelined for so long if that makes sense." She says as she looks into my eyes for a few moments before she looks back down at the phone-like device in her hand.
"Thank you, Ethan," she says as she pushes aside a lock of hair. "Thank you for the money, for paying for this. I don't think I could've afforded this if you hadn't helped."
I just smiled. "It's no problem, Kim, It's literally the least I can do. After all, we are about to go and try to stop a tide of literal dark monsters from taking over anything. You need to be in top shape if we want to succeed."
Then Kim turns around again and looks at me for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I guess so." She says before another moment passes before she looks down at the ground, suddenly looking nervous. "Umm. Would you like to have my number? J-just, in case something happens or we get separated?"
I blink, taking a few seconds to process that. "Oh. Um, sure Kim," I said as I summoned my phone into my pocket and pulled it out. "I would love to," I say as I open my phone and click open my contact list before handing it over to her.
She doesn't say anything as we exchange devices and taking a moment to find her own contact list, (The only other number on it was Jumba's home phone apparently) I entered my phone's number before handing it back over to her, Kim returning mine as well a few seconds later…
'Huh, her number is 1-800-Pos-Ible, that is a surprisingly clever number.' I thought to myself before my phone vibrated as I received a message. Pressing the icon, I opened up the text that I received from my newest contact.
Hello? Is this Ethan's phone number?
I paused for a moment, looking over to Kim and locking eyes with her for a second as she gave me a sheepish smile. I gave her a grin back as I typed my response.
Hello! Thank you for returning our message about your car's extended warranty! To review your options please text the word OPTIONS to this number.
Kim looked at the phone, baffled for a moment before turning to see my smirk. "Ethan" she groans but I could see the small smirk on her lips.
"Sorry, the dumb joke was dumb, but I'm guessing you had scammers in your world too?" I asked, honestly curious about the differences between the show I've seen and the real world that Kim lived in. The show made her home seem idyllic, but I knew that framing tended to keep the darker aspects of a world just out of view.
"I never even bought a car, I was given a rusty hand-me-down and had my brothers re-tune it. I still got calls asking me about my car's warranty later that day. I swear they have better spy systems than Wade." She sighs, taking a few seconds to stare at her communicator. "…How did Burt and his friends like the sandwiches we made?"
I gave her a thumbs up "Yeah, they loved them, apparently it's been a long time since they've been able to have any meat, even if it was simple slices of ham and salami… though I wish you told me that meats were scarce in this district. I had to deflect a lot of questions on how I got them."
Kim winces, "Oh, sorry, I kind of forgot about that." She says sheepishly as she runs her hand through her hair. "But yeah, when the entire world is made up of just houses and streets? It makes it a bit difficult to build any kind of farm. We are just lucky we have the garden building to grow all the crops we need."
I nodded, "Yeah, luckily Burt was kind enough to not push too hard," I said as I looked up at the clock, seeing that we only had a few more minutes before class started. "So, what else did you commission Dr. Jumba to make?"
"Oh, just a few more gadgets. Laser lipstick, Analyzer Sunglasses, a Parachute, Capture Foam Hair Gel, you know the works" She says as she lifts a finger to count off each item on her list. "Oh, and a new mission outfit, but… Jumba's been getting frustrated with the material. He needs something lightweight and mobile while strong enough to withstand hits from the Heartless"
I raised an eyebrow and gestured to my own outfit. But Kim just shakes her head in negation, "Yeah, Eda's threads are good, but they don't last very long. You're fine because your shroud regenerates it but I don't really have that luxury."
"Yeah, that's true" I say, remembering how my outfit got torn in the last couple of battles. Don't get me wrong, the threads were effective at lessening the blows, even better than steel, but it was only because of my Shroud that I haven't had to repair it or worse completely replace it.
"Well, in District One there is a synthesis shop that works with magical materials, we might be able to find a good material for him to use there." I suggested, Kim perking up a bit before letting out a long sigh.
"And freakin Facilier has been keeping us from them this entire time. Ugh, I wish he never came to Traverse Town." Kim lamented and, well, Same.
Then the room goes quiet as Luz walks into the room, her usual lighthearted expression is noticeably absent as she walks in front of the chalkboard. For a moment she says nothing before she spots me, and giving her a small smile and a wave, her shoulders lower a bit as she gives me a smile back before taking a breath and looked toward the entire class.
"Today begins everyone's first steps into the advanced portion of Glyph magic." She says as she holds up not a tag, but an entire sheet of paper with glyphs drawn on it in a complex design. "This is where you will learn how to mix and match Glyphs into various combinations that can reproduce almost any effect you can dream of."
She then taps her palm to the paper as I activate my Arcane Sight and watch the motes of mana float into the paper. The lines interconnect the glyphs glow white as mana flows through them, each glyph lighting up with their respective elemental color as the mana spreads to each one. Then the paper tears apart as the wind begins to twist above Luz's palm, spinning faster and faster as the air begins to glow with magic and reshapes itself into a rabbit-like form curling up above Luz to show off its majesty.
Then the wind elemental leaps down, hopping off of nothing as it runs around Luz for a few seconds before vanishing, taking the whipping winds with it.
"However, that is the advanced stuff. For now, we will be focusing on the simpler combos." Luz says as she flips the chalkboard over, revealing the lesson plan for the day.
"As you can see-" She says as she takes out a pointer and taps the tip against the drawing of four interlocked Ice Glyphs. "The simplest of Combos is combining multiple of the same glyphs together, and some of you might think that this would produce much more powerful effects than we have made up to now."
A few people start murmuring in agreement before Luz smirks. "But oh, my dear students," she says as she collapses the pointer in a dramatic gesture. "That is where you are wrong. Glyph combos don't make spells more powerful but they instead define what the glyphs will do."
"Think Glyphs as a language that lets you talk to magic. Now imagine you were a shop owner and someone ordered 'Ice." She pulls out an ice glyph and activates it, an ill-formed Icicle growing out of it. "You technically got what you want but if you wanted something specific then that would be your fault for not explaining further."
"Tell that to Karen!" someone from the back shouted causing a few others to snicker. Luz looked confused at the remark before visibly forcing herself back on track. "Yeaaah, anyway. So, if one glyph is similar to asking for something simple like Ice. Then a combo of two glyphs is like asking for an Ice Sculpture" She says as she pulls out a sheet twice as big as the last and taps it, growing it out into a ice statue of a generic woman.
"And combining Four is like asking for an Eda Ice Sculpture" she says as she brings out an entire sheet and taps it, the Ice grows again, this time turning into an icy depiction of Eda standing atop a hill and lifting her staff into the air.
"The more glyphs you add, the more control you have over the result but remember, the bigger the glyph, the more powerful the result, and since you have to fit all these glyphs on one surface, if you try to fit more than one on something as small as a tag, you are going to get a smaller result."
She says as she pulls out a tag with a very small combo drawn inside and tapping it, it glows for a second before turning into a much tinier copy of the Eda statue.
"The bigger the combo, the bigger the surface you need to match the same amount of power a single glyph tag will get you. So!" Luz reaches into her bag and pulls out an entire stack of printer paper. "We will be practicing Ice combos with these! Let's have a small Ice sculpture contest before trying out different glyph combos" She says with a big grin, her excitement spreading across the classroom like the flu.
I could even see the excitement in Kim's eyes as Luz passed a few sheets of paper to her and with Kim's Falna updated earlier today, I couldn't help but wonder how much her higher Magic stat would work in conjunction with the newfound control the combo would grant.
Then Luz placed the paper in front of me, giving me a big smile as I held open my hand and let the Everlight shift into a compass and let it settle within my grip. And setting the tip against the paper, I got started, feeling excited about the sheer possibilities of what could be accomplished at this next step of glyph magic.
Tapping the paper, the left and right glyphs glowed blue while the top glowed yellow and the bottom glowed red. The paper flaked apart as the new combo activated turning the paper into millions of tiny snowflakes that swirled in the air before gathering together and created a tiny snowman in front of me, complete with a pair of icy eyes and a tiny snowball nose.
Looking over to Kim I saw her deep in concentration as she her pencil glided across her paper, sketching out the snow glyph combo Luz showed the class earlier.
It was one of the simplest and, well, the second least dangerous combo Luz had in her arsenal. The least dangerous was the Mist combo but she decided for us not to practice that one in class after her morning class produced so much that they couldn't see the paper in front of their faces anymore.
Kim taps the paper, the glyph glowing multiple colors before bursting into snow, flying up and hovering all around her like crystals as they reflect the light and illuminates Kim who sat in the middle of it all.
I stared for a few seconds at the beautiful scene as Kim looked around at them, engrossed as well before they melted and vanished as the magic sustaining them ran out. Kim let out a breath before turning towards me, raising an eyebrow as she caught me staring. "What?"
"Oh. Uh Nothing." I said, trying to steer my thoughts away from just how radiant she looked in those few moments. "It was just a really cool spell, Kim"
She smirked, "Well, I sure hope so. I was trying to make snow after all." Then her eyes turned towards the little snowman sitting on my desk. "Snowman Hank there is pretty cool too. Though he's missing the hat."
I smile as I sent a few threads from my shroud to my tiny snowman, letting them change into a tiny hat and pipe to outfit him.
"Better," she says as she leans down to inspect him, "Though he doesn't really look like my childhood Snowman. I'm guessing your world's Holiday mascot was different?" she asks as I nod.
"Yeah, mine was called Frosty the Snowman. With his corncob pipe and button nose with two eyes made out of coal. It was a whole song before it was made into a cartoon." I explain as Kim nodded, a nostalgic smile gracing her lips.
"The Six Tasks of Snowman Hank was a cartoon first before they made all the songs and toys for him, he kinda became a tradition at my house." She says with a shrug… before she frowns. "I… I think I missed Christmas this year." She said sadly as she looked down at the few small flakes of snow that still lingered on her desk.
I blinked. "You think? Do you guys not have calendars here?" I asked honestly curious how the days worked here.
Kim tilted her hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. "We do, but the weather stays pretty consistent throughout the year aside from rain and everyone comes from different worlds with their own different times. It makes keeping track of any specific days difficult especially when you drop into a world with a completely different date than the one you left."
Oh. "Damn, that sucks," I say, getting a sad nod from Kim. I mentally checked my phone through my shroud to see if it had a calendar app. And it turns out it did have one, A Multiversal Date Tracker or MDT for short. However, when I opened it, the date was glitched, like it was trying to open multiple different months at once.
Well, that didn't work. I was hoping to get an exact date but it seems time was… weird here in Traverse Town. I turned to try to say something to Kim when I saw Luz walk back to the front of the class, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Great job today everyone. You all have gotten the basics down on combo glyphs." She says with a smile before it slowly fades. "And well, I am both happy and sad to say that today all of you will have graduated from my classes." She says as the whole class goes quiet, looking at her in quiet disbelief as Luz just looks sad.
"Trust me, I love this class and I would love to show all of you everything I can do but…" Luz cups her hands as she wrings them together nervously. "But the point of this class was to teach all of you enough magic to be able to defend yourselves from the Heartless. I need to open up more time in my schedule to teach others and give them the ability to defend themselves as well."
She gives all of us a weak smile. "Besides from this point on, all you need to do is, practice and experiment! Glyphs will grow stronger as you grow accustomed to them and there are many, many combo possibilities that I have barely even explored myself." Then she grabs the side of the board.
"Besides, if you really wish to dedicate more time to the art of Glyph casting, there is another way." She says as she flips the board again, revealing the message she had written on it earlier.
Join the Arcane Glyph Club! Meetings every Sunday from 5-7!
Share your discoveries with friends as we all explore magic together!
"I am starting a club!" she says beaming. "I will be sharing the combos I have discovered there alongside discussing theories and sharing everything we have learned together!" she explains as she visibly grows more excited thinking about it.
Then she calms down as she takes in the entire classroom. "But for those who don't wish to join. Always remember the basics, keep practicing, and always be careful when trying new combos. I recommend starting small when activating a combo for the first time."
Then the girl tears up a bit before quickly rubbing her eyes with her forearm. "Other than that. Class dismissed!" she says as my former classmates began to move, rising out of their seats and chatting to one another as they slowly made their way out of the room.
Luz then hesitated for a moment before walking up to me with a weak smile. "Hey, Ethan. Are you doing okay? You're staying safe like you promised right?"
I nodded, feeling my lips slightly tug upwards, "As best I can. How about you, King and Eda. You guys doing okay?" I ask, still feeling that bit of worry in my gut for the three of them.
"We're okay. Eda is… not doing so hot right now though." She said as I felt my fears rise but Luz saw something in my expression and waved a hand. "No, she's fine! It's just, the attack took a lot out of her and she's just been feeling tired today. Not tired enough to stay in bed though apparently. Says she's got too much to do to let a little exhaustion stop her." Luz says with a huff as, yeah, I could see Eda doing that.
"Anyway, are you and Kim going to join the Club?" she asks as her excitement grows a bit. "The first meeting is tomorrow and I can't wait to show everyone the results of your material idea Ethan!" Oh. Right we were supposed to do that together.
As I put the last of my materials into my bag and (Subtly placing completed glyphs into my pocket space.) I turned to look at Luz, "I would love to join Luz. I might not be able to make every meeting but I should be available for tomorrows." I say with a smile as Luz returns her own excited one before she turns to Kim, giving her puppy-dog eyes only to get a soft swat of paper to the top of her noggin.
"You can quit with the water-works Luz, I was already going to join. Why wouldn't I when glyphs are just so useful." Kim explains as Luz pumps a fist in success.
"Score!" Luz exclaims as Kim and me stand out of our seats "Oh Ethan, would you like to come over for a bit? Eda wanted to talk to you and well, she wanted to make up for what happened. She always feels really guilty when the-" Luz shifts her eyes towards Kim for a moment, realizing that she was right next to us. "When the Thing happens."
"Subtle" Kim comments with a half smirk, looking a bit amused at Luz's clumsy attempt at secrecy, then she holds up a hand as Luz attempts to cover her mistake. "I won't ask if you want to keep it a secret," Kim explains as Luz relaxes "I'll just have to ask Eda about it." And Luz freezes up again before slumping over.
"Okay… Eda wanted to talk to you as well anyway." Luz says as Kim lifts an eyebrow. "She wanted to compare Falna's with you, see if there is any differences between someone with no magical background compared to her extensive magic history."
Kim nods at that as the three of us make our way to the door. "Yeah, that sounds fine. Though, if we are going to be staying for dinner there then Ethan and I are going to cook." Kim says as she looks to me to see if I am okay with it, getting a thumbs up in return.
"You won't hear me complaining about it." Luz says as I opened the door for the other two as all three of us make our way outside.
Then we froze as someone was waiting for us just outside the door. Or more specifically, Mary Poppins was waiting for me.
"Hey Mary" Luz says getting the taller woman's attention as Luz gets visibly more nervous. "H-have you changed your mind about joining the classes? I'm sure I can find you a spot for next week"
Mary gives her a smile "That is quite alright Luz. I am here just to give Ethan an update." She says as she moves her parasol to her other arm and begins to search her carpet bag.
"Facilier is playing another one of his games," Mary explains as I feel my gut drop again and Kim's eyebrows furrow. "I was planning to give you a day to rest before the Festival but the man seemed to have a different plan in mind." Then she pulls out a paper and hands it over to me.
It was a flyer for a pre-festival party at three o'clock tomorrow. It says that for a 'small' fee, anyone can enjoy the food, music, and atmosphere of the Doctor's humble home while meeting the Five contestants participating in the exhibition match the next day.
"The kind doctor decided to drop this in my lap a few hours ago and no, It is not optional if you want to participate in the contest." She gives me a small shake of her head. "I am sorry Ethan, my hands are tied."
…Shit. I wanted to go there, win the tournament, and immediately freaking leave afterward. The less time I spent in his turf the better in my mind. But it seems I didn't have a choice now, did I?
I let out a sigh as I looked down at Luz, "Sorry Luz. Looks like I'm going to miss tomorrow's meeting after all."