Declan hadn’t been party to the party at House Ariloch, and that was probably for the best since he didn’t have the same constitution as the Taylor family. That became clear about six hours into their circus of combat, spell craft, rune sparring, trivia and pie eating mixed with throwing axes and flaming arrows.

  He hadn’t even made it back to his assigned room, but the Taylor woman he woke up beside hadn’t minded. She quickly booted him out to prepare for her morning shift. Now, he sat at a table on floor seventy, a cup of black coffee before him, a plate of bacon inside him and the last dregs of a headache still pounding.

  Then, floor by floor, he began a search, finding first his assigned room so he could bathe, and then the armory, where he chose the fastest route to solving the access issue—triggering the mana barrier repeatedly until guards responded.

  That brought a bloodline Taylor, a young man who introduced himself as Irum Taylor and politely asked that whatever Declan’s story was, it be that Irum had been waiting for him when Declan emerged.

  That was doable. Joshi Taylor wasn’t at the Rune Forging station. Declan was drawn to tinker with it but determined to do his part. And something Rohan had said stood out to him. He wouldn’t spend his hours talking about which runes were part of a set.

  Rune Sets were a theory.

  Rohan spoke of them offhand, as fact.

  Like formulas, these were probably hoarded, the knowledge of what constituted a set passed from one member to another or held by the House. Within minutes he’d retreived the set of runes from yesterday. The stupid armor rune was gone and a few new ones added.

  Declan started by studying the Frozen Storm Blade, applying the new concept. Yes, it made sense, that the ‘decorative’ pieces weren’t decorative, they were preparing the rune imprint for a specific rune that would follow. It certainly wasn’t Harold Taylor’s amplifier rune.

  The approach this morning was different, more akin to what Researchers did. Instead of powering through a single rune, he studied them one after another, searching for hints of the same kinds of modifiers, root sequences that might indicate they weren’t meant to open a spell but continue it.

  Two matched that general concept.

  One kept drawing him back to it, though it was the simplest of the entire group. It took only an hour for Declan to declare it Violent Squall, a storm and water rune that was at first glance terribly crafted, a mana hog that produced worse results for the effort than separate runes would have.

  Violent Squall: Buffet a target with wind and driving rain, amount based on tier. Mana Cost: Medium, Fixed. Tier Three Rune.

  It buffeted the target with wind and driving rain. The damage was negligible because the output wasn’t focused like Water Jet would have been. It made him wonder if perhaps it was intentional.

  He set Violent Squall with Frozen Storm Sword and began work on the other two. It took moments be sure they didn’t fit with either of the other two but three hours to work out that the two tier four runes were meant to follow each other. And strangely, the sequence seemed open. He could argue that either was meant to go first.

  Ava Taylor was one of the Seniors of House Taylor. Like most of the Taylor bloodline women, she was shorter with brown hair tending toward gold, with the same rounded face, but her hair was laced with gray. She didn’t wear arcanist leathers, just heavy cloth robes emblazoned with House Taylor yellow. She’d relieved Irum around lunch—and insisted that Declan take a break to eat with her. It wasn’t quite an interview but she definitely questioned him thoroughly over a bowl of noodles. And shared with him a view he hadn’t agreed with. “You’re thinking of the houses wrong. We are each granted a provice of industry by the Sun Queen as long as we prove we can manage it. Rohan told us you had to negotiate with House Domine. I can sense an oath-stone binding you and I’ll bet it’s to them. Not much love lost for Lady Domine, I’ll guess?”

  “A good guess. I can’t talk about what the oath is about.” He probably could come close, but even thinking about ways to bypass it made the oath constrict.

  Ava nodded. “I’ve got six. It’s a part of life. Now, don’t take this wrong, but our spies—sorry, our ‘information sources’ say you turned down a business marriage into Domine. That’s why Beren said not to offer you one, in case you’re wondering.”

  “I was expecting it at some point. Things don’t work like that in Foundrytown.”

  “You’re not in Foundrytown. You’ve spoken to the Sun Queen. Directly. Or at least been spoken too, which is more than I can say. Do you understand your Illumination yet? My first…hurt. I didn’t want to know it. I refused to know it.” She gave a slow shrug. “It’s like someone saying ‘There’s a mountain behind you’ and you never realized there was a mountain, but even if you don’t want it to be there, it remains.”

  “I have no idea what it was.” There, he’d admitted it. “I can’t forget every word and I don’t understand what ‘gift’ I received. Skinner says she only shows you truths you already know.”

  “The Warband is deeply respected but not all knowing,” Alva stated with absolute confidence. “My fifth tier experience was different. Sometimes it’s so personal it would be like stripping in the market to share. But it changed how I understood my Sunsword Storm rune. Changed how I used it in ways I still think about.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “That’s the fifth time I’ve heard that name. What the hell is a warband? I first heard it as he was the only surviving member of The Warband.” The old man was downright harsh when Declan asked questions about it. “I know he fought a Defiler.”

  “What I know are legends. Mother fought in a minor battle alongside him. He’s tier nine arcanist, possibly as powerful as the Sun Queen herself. ‘The Army Alone,’ the Huto called him.” She shook her head. “His runes were forged by the best in the country, House Harding masters. His arcsoul is painful to experience when he doesn’t restrain himself. But he doesn’t know everything.”

  Declan wanted to get back to work, and this time, he explained his process to Ava as he focused on the two odd runes. “Either would work. This is almost certainly a lightning storm. I don’t understand the interactions yet. I might not understand the interactions in the time I’ll be here. That one is a lightning bolt, but it’s got three concentrators on it. It’s the mother of all lightning bolts.”

  “That’s fantastic information. I don’t see the problem.” Ava had taken her own notes as he spoke. “We can test and figure out the rest if they’re safe to activate.”

  That was what brought his frustration to the fore. “You could but you’ll be doing it wrong, probably. It’s like Harry’s rune. I don’t doubt it works with whatever comes after it. But it was meant for something specific. These are different. It’s the difference between making a flat, compact piece of ground to support setting down anything and digging a square hole for a post. Sort of. Different but similar.”

  Ava seemed lost in thought. “Say I needed an estimate. One to ten, how sure are you about what they do?”

  “These two? Absolute. And they are meant to be used together, they’ve got the exact same feel. The squall rune is just too expensive to be an opener by itself, and the sword rune is absolutely meant to follow up but both of them feel like prep for something else.” Delan pointed to the others. “They go together. That’s all I can be sure of. Probably safe to activate but it’s eating at me because there’s an answer and I can’t give it. Insight collects the facts I already know and fills in the blanks.”

  Another five runes sat in the tray. Ava glanced to them. “What about these?”

  “You’ve got two tier sixes. I have them turned over so they don’t blind me. Give me months or maybe years and I can start on them.” He just couldn’t be sure. “When I try to take them in, they push me back. It’s not like the Radiant Dawn rune the Sun Queen used. It was so terrifyingly clear I can see every stroke and every interlock from nine tier eight runes. Trying to disassemble them is impossible right now.”

  “It’s my opinion that as your soul grows stronger, so will your ability to tackle these higher level runes.” Ava called for a servant and had them store the runes he’d catalogued. “You’ve more than done your duty here.”

  “There are still runes,” Declan said. “I’m not done.”

  Ava made a few more notes. “I didn’t say we done for the day, I said you’re done analyzing runes. Joshi is a competent Rune Forger; I’ll just say there’s a reason he’s not in here today. You might be right about the outcome but your tact can certainly grow.”

  She was right and it had been eating at Declan off and on. “I’m sorry. I really am. Ever since I saw the Sun Queen, there’s certain things I’m confident about. Before, it was mostly logic, knowledge combined with intuition that obviously also has a long way to go.”

  “We all get to grow. Joshy said you were entranced by the Rune Forging. Have you had training?”

  That would have made him laugh, if she wasn’t so kind. “They have them in the Armory at Ariloch. I haven’t learned to use them but they’re used to dispose of corrupted runes. You forge runes?”

  That killed the conversation for a moment. Ava wouldn’t look at him—or the station. “I did. My duty was rescinded after an accident. Now I mostly advise my little brother.”

  “Well, thank you for the explanation. Working on my tact.” He offered her a smile.

  When she spoke, her voice was louder, her focus on the machine. “A rune station is a far more versatile tool than you’ve seen. What you see here is not like what Inscriptionists use. The base is the same, the arms, the gearing, the motion mechanics, the force levers, but the instruments are wildly different.” She stood and headed to the station, motioning for Declan to follow. With each word, she grew more animated. “See, engraving marble slab has enchantments to allow rune work, and the base holder is identical. But their stations have attachments for awls, where Rune Forgers need the dexterity of the remote graspers. Anything less is taking the long route to failure. It won’t hurt you to touch them. Sit.”

  Declan did, then Ava spent an hour showing how to manipulate the station’s arms. “Why do I need these arms when I have my own?”

  “Because when forging goes wrong, you’ll still have hands,” Ava answered. “Also machinery allows a precision you can’t match by hand and it’s critical for high tier rune forging.” With skill that had been developed over decades, she showed how the mechanical arms could be agile, passing a rune from one to the other, deftly spinning it in the base holder or adjusting angles. “I’d forgotten how this feels. I wanted to forget. You try.”

  Ava had him practice moving up and down, adjusting the sensitivity of the arm motions and developing a feel for the grip, because the claws could—and did—crush low quality ore rune-stones. That was beyond frustrating. Ava ordered raw eggs from the kitchen and set him to practicing moving eggs into the rune-holder and out, over and over, until he only broke two out of twelve every time.

  Then she drilled him on how to read the different meters, which thankfully worked almost exactly as Declan expected.

  Ava had him repeat the functions back and then tested his control. “Now you understand there’s a lot more to this than an observer would see.”

  “No kidding.” The bright lights on the workstation made looking away a requirement. “Were you the head Rune Forger?”

  “Ash, no. I served, but anything higher than tier five, I handed off to Gustav. It was not worth the risk.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Stay here, this will take a moment.”

  She returned a moment later with a tray of rune-stones. “All of these are Gather. It’s the simplest to forge and how everyone starts. Try it, take two of them and do it by hand. They’re tier zero, there’s almost no chance of a failure.”

  Every last one was more rin than Declan had. But he recognized the value to the Taylor family as almost nothing and the opportunity offered. One by one, he sorted, pushing mana into them and then setting them aside.

  “Can I ask what you’re doing? Just take two and push them together.”

  “I’m searching for the right two. The two with the fewest flaws. The two that want to merge. I don’t know that runes really want but that’s the best way to describe the feeling.” He stopped as Ava took his hands and placed two stones in them.

  “If you want me to teach, learn my way. Learn the standard way. Learn the way every other Rune Forger ever has learned and when you know it, you can adapt and extend. Even if it doesn’t feel right, it gives us a common foundation.” She closed his hands over the stones. “Go on. If you want to be a Rune Forger, you have to take the first steps as every one else. Do you want it?”

  He did.