Ran looked at the book atop his desk and held back a grimace. According to Mukoku he might have a few days before he'd lose the purity that allowed him to touch the Holy Book of Light without facing the consequence.
This was why he'd decided to solve the issue before it became a problem.
"Are you sure about this?"
He raised his head and looked across the desk, taking in the worried frown on his friend's face as he gestured at the open book.
Ran nodded, then he placed his hand on a particular passage. "Alright, I'll read it again to ease your mind. The ether rune cluster is a powerful rune cluster that governs the entire kin practice of motion. A master of this cluster will find his capabilities varied: from flight and the power to move matter with just the mind, to light speed movement and control over the flow of time. It is a hard cluster to master yet the easiest amongst the Fey Rune Clusters. The first and the main base rune of the Ether Cluster is the Ether Aey rune followed by the Ether B'ei rune. The Ether Aey rune of the Ether Cluster is where Fey younglings begin their journey to mastering the Ether Cluster. It is a rune that grants the fundamental force of the mind over matter principle of universal motion that is the existential concept of the Ether Cluster. It provides the user with the simple power of levitation. They would be capable of levitating anything depending on the capacity and strength of their kin. With the Ether Aey rune one could do anything from lift without the use of hands to command every material around them…"
"Alright, alright," Haru said, sighing and raising his hands in surrender. "I understand, you don't have to read the whole damn book. Get on with it already."
Ran smiled at his friend's indulging dramatics then focused on the other things on the desk aside the book.
The desk was cluttered with iron-tipped brushes, inkpots of crushed opal and nightroot, and a single shard of rune-glass humming faintly beneath his palm.
Ran moved slowly. He needed to—rituals demanded precision, and tonight, his hand couldn't afford to shake.
He couldn't afford to make a mistake or to misspeak once he started the chant in Fey tongue.
"A word missaid, a life unmade," he muttered under his breath.
He dipped the hooked stylus into the ink, the mixture hissing softly as it kissed the metal. The rune he needed was simple in shape, but volatile in meaning, a hook—representing the Ether Aey.
He exhaled. The memory of the book's warning from other passages echoed through his head.
"The Hook doesn't pull things. It bends will. Yours. Theirs. Gravity's. You aren't meant to control. It simply stops resistance."
He pressed the tip against his knuckle—first joint of the index finger—and began the stroke.
As he drew, he whispered chants he'd had to memorize in a language that made his throat itch.
A curve. Then a spiral. Then the sharp flick outward, like a barb catching unseen threads in the air.
The rune glowed faintly, a ghost of blue simmering into his skin. He winced, but didn't stop. Pain meant it was working.
He leaned back, studying his work. The symbol wasn't beautiful, but it was right. His skin pulsed beneath it, the mark now part of him, humming with unspent command.
He raised his hand slightly, fingers trembling with anticipation. The feather quill on the desk stirred, just enough to defy stillness. Not flight. Not yet.
But it had noticed him.
He smirked. Levitation, they called it. Well, this was just the first step.
"Now you just have to try it on something else and see if it really works," Haru said, staring intently at the rune.
Ran nodded in agreement. He stood slowly, hand still glowing faintly with the Hook rune of the Ether Aey.
The energy pulsed with thought, showing that intent alone mattered here. He pointed at the small wooden stool in the corner. It wobbled. Then rose, awkwardly, as if forgetting how to obey gravity.
He grinned.
A chair followed, lifted an inch, then two, its legs dangling like broken limbs.
The table strained when he directed his attention towards it. It groaned, then dragged itself half an inch above the floor before slamming back down.
His breath caught.
More control. Less force.
He swept his hand in a gentle arc. The stool floated to the side like a leaf in slow wind.
Promising.
His eyes found the book on the table and he grinned. Slowly, he channeled his intent into the rune, and then he let it go.
"You are turning out to be a fountain of mysteries, my friend?"
Ran smiled, his eyes fixed on the tome of gold and white floating above his widened palm.
The rune on his left hand—the knuckle of his index finger—glowed gold as he used his growing kin to levitate the Holy Book of Light.
The book was the source of the hook shaped rune and now it was being affected by it.
Unlike monks and mages who had to use meditation and experimental research respectively to learn the acts of the kin, the Feys had a much simpler method which they used to teach their youngs the act of the kin.
They etched runes upon them.
"It took me years to get to this stage using meditation to develop my kin," Haru said, sounding amazed.
"And as a result you have better control and can lift heavier things," Ran said, familiar with his friend's abilities.
"But you can affect things normal kin would only just brush against like air," the acolyte said and stretched his hands toward the book.
Ran let it go and the book did not even wobble as Haru's hand began to glow in glorious white, zen light.
It did not wobble—it fell directly back to the table with a heavy thud.
Groaning, Haru released an explosive breath. "See. Normal kin wouldn't. Your kin was awakened with Ichor. I've done further research on that. On a less pure mortal it would have mutated them into some monstrous creature and on a demon, of any kind, it would have killed them."
"Ah, so that's why it's so rare," Ran said in realization, causing his friend to nod along. "A blade coated with the thing would be magnificent."
Haru nodded. "You might need to steal it or win it from a god." He shook his head. "Anyway, what's next? Any other rune you're interested in. Remember, seven days must pass before the next one. Good luck with figuring out what counts as days here."
Ran chuckled. He was not impatient. He could wait for the next blaze. But he'd do another, he wanted another.
For Ran this was the first.
But it certainly was not going to be the last.