"You're using the Roads to translate the system?" Vex asked. Derivan couldn't blame him for sounding stunned; he felt much the same way.

And maybe a little offended. Patch hadn't been the easiest stat to understand nor get used to, and the little ways it pinged at him to fix things bothered him even now. It hadn't proven to be a problem yet, thankfully, and with the system on the verge of falling apart Derivan was hopeful that it never would, but...

He would have to be careful, either way.

It was probably for the best that the Roads worked the way they did, now that he thought on it further. He wouldn't wish for others to have to deal with the same problems he'd had to deal with when it came to Patch.

"The best part is that it's a two-way translation," Novice said, beaming. "Meaning it doesn't just help us understand what the system is doing, it helps us change the system, too. We can translate what we're doing into something the system can understand. It's how we built the Fountain."

"How do you even use... Translation-aspect mana, as you called it?" Vex asked. He flicked his fingers toward the Roads, and Derivan sensed the familiar activation of a skill — [Advanced Mana Manipulation]. He frowned and shook his head a second later. "Standard mana manipulation doesn't seem to cut it, and I know it doesn't respond to glyphs. I've tried casting glyphs near the Roads before."

"There's a special glyph you have to use for it," Novice explained. "We actually couldn't get it to work for the longest time. Something about new glyphs being impossible to make. But we kept trying, and it eventually just... worked."

Derivan exchanged glances with Vex. This had something to do with either Vex's semerit or the Grand Anchor that had been integrated with his system; they hadn't had the opportunity or the means to explore either of those things further, but Clyde had said something about new glyphs being impossible. Vex and Derivan had both altered the fundamental fabric of things over in the bonus room, allowing new glyphs to once again be created, and that was a working of magic that was contained within Vex's semerit — what the Librarian Isolis called a representation of future change.

Seeds of your potential. Derivan remembered the words Vex had told him Isolis had said. It was the same night they'd discovered what the semerit could actually do. In their exploration of its inner workings, they found that it contained all possible futures linked to the kingdom Vex had seen contained within the semerit.

If Elyra was the kingdom of magic and Anderstahl was the kingdom of technology — planeshifted technology, to be precise — then this third, unnamed kingdom had been the one representing divinity. The realm of the gods, yes, but not only that. It was the realm of all creatures touched by divinity, ones that had long since been erased from the world.

Dragons were among them, and by far it was the easiest transformation for Vex to tap into, for it was a realm of divinity he was closely aligned with. As far as Derivan understood it, dragons had been curious creatures. The very basis of their magic was driven by curiosity, a form of power drawn from the gap between what they knew and what they didn't.

It did mean that older, wiser dragons became less powerful over time, but that was only power in the literal sense; there was a lot of power to be had in the knowledge they gained over their lifetimes, and the ways in which they expressed them. Dragons whose innate magic were weakest made up for it with the ability to do incredible things with that limited magic: they knew their magic so well that they could do with a single unit of mana what took others millions.

"Can I see the glyph?" Vex asked. Derivan blinked, realizing he'd allowed himself to become distracted; it was strange how much easier it was to distract him these days. He was changing. Not because of his stats, though those certainly changed him in a different way — he was growing in a way he'd never been able to before.

He wondered if that was in part due to the Remembrances he now held. Mementos of other lives, other cultures, other lifetimes; in some ways, he embodied those things now. He was a suit of armor, a protector, and as what he needed to protect grew...

So too did he.

An interesting thought.

Novice produced Vex's magelight and began to draw the glyph into the air; he paused halfway through his demonstration and spoke, sounding a little embarrassed. "Uh, I kind of forgot to ask... do you want this back?"

"I made one of my own," Vex said with a laugh. "You can keep it. You've been using it longer than I have, at this point."

Derivan glanced at Vex, slightly amused but choosing to say nothing. Vex's magelight was a makeshift thing he'd built out of supplies he managed to salvage from the at-the-time corrupted Elyran Adventurer's Guild; he'd complained more than once about having to rebuild the mana channels carved into the thing.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But it was in Vex's nature to be giving, and the way Novice's face brightened made it worth it, he was sure. Derivan would make sure to take Vex back to Anyati's shop after this, though. Giving his first magelight to Novice didn't mean that Vex couldn't get a new one of his own.

"Thank you," Novice said. Derivan could see that he meant it, too; he clutched at the magelight as though it meant something deeply personal to him, and Physical Empathy told Derivan that it did. "It... I never got the chance to thank you for leaving me with your magelight. It helped me find myself again."

"Oh," Vex said. He didn't say anything more for a moment, and Derivan reached over to place a hand on his shoulder; Vex relaxed slightly under his touch, and gave Novice a small smile. "I just... hoped it would do something."

"It did," Novice confirmed. "Even your notebook did. I like your art, by the way."

Vex immediately stiffened, more out of embarrassment than anything else. "...The notebook I would like back, if you don't mind."

"Right!" Novice seemed oblivious to Vex's obvious consternation, and dug in his backpack to hand it back to the other lizardkin. Derivan noted with amusement that Novice had left several bookmarks in it, which Novice refused when Vex tried to return them to him.

"You have never allowed me to look at your art," Derivan said, his voice slightly teasing.

Vex huffed. "I'll let you look at it later," he muttered, then immediately changed the subject. "You gave me something when the system took you — do you remember it? I'm not sure if you want it back. I haven't been able to figure out what to do with it."

"The Spelldisk?" Novice shook his head. "That's not actually mine. Or, uh, I guess it is... but it kinda never worked. I remember something about it that seemed different when I gave it to you, so I'm guessing whatever it is now, you're supposed to have it."

"Are you sure?" Vex pressed. "Because the system said it was important to you."

"It was, but what you gave me is way more important." Novice grinned. "Look at me! I'm doing magic! Proper magic!"

Vex couldn't help but grin at that, and Derivan laughed at the face the lizardkin made as he tried and failed to suppress his smile. "Proper magic," Vex agreed. "Still—"

"Nope," Novice said. He held up a hand. "I don't wanna hear it. Look, the system did something to that Spelldisk for you. I never got it to work, and between the two of us, you're more suited to finding out."

"If only I knew where to start," Vex said. He rummaged through his tailbag, pulling out the Spelldisk and examining it critically again. Derivan eyed it curiously — he'd never gotten a close look at the thing. Vex hadn't had that much time to examine it in their time in the bonus room. There had been so many other things going on, and so many things about an entirely new system of magic they had to learn...

Novice was right — the system had altered the Spelldisk in some way. He could feel it through Patch, the way the system had attached itself to the runes inscribed along the sides. He frowned a little, stepping forward. "May I?" he asked.

Vex blinked. "Be my guest," he said, offering it up to Derivan.

Derivan reached out and took the Spelldisk, analyzing it with his senses. The system's text for the item popped up in front of him:

A sentimental item that belonged to a young would-be adventurer. He crafted this in the dead of the night, where his parents would not be able to see, each day pressing a new rune into the circuit along the edges.

On the surface, it casts a simple Light spell. But Light exists to cast away Shadow, and in the same way, the Spelldisk may bring a secret to light.

"Light exists to cast away Shadow..." Derivan said out loud, reading the text. "It cannot mean the shadow elementals in Mundane, surely?"

"I don't think so." Vex hesitated. "We wouldn't have wanted to cast them away anyway."

"It is connected to the system," Derivan said. "I can sense the connections through Patch."

"Oh!" Novice bounced on his feet slightly. The glyph he'd started drawing was still in front of him, half-finished, glowing in the air. "Then you should try out the translation glyph! Perfect opportunity, right?"

"Well..." Vex gestured to the half-finished glyph. Novice blinked at it and laughed, embarrassed.

"Right, right," he said, bringing up his magelight once more.

—

Vex stared at the glyph Novice produced. It was a thing of chaos — where most glyphs were formed of beautiful, sweeping lines, an abstracted form of some artistic product, this one was... not. It was still beautiful, but it was a mix of the swooping curves of glyphs and the straight, jagged circuitry of the system's runes, mashed haphazardly together like they were a bad collage.

"This is the glyph?" he asked, unable to keep the uncertainty out of his voice. Raltis laughed.

"Yes. It surprised us, too," the otter said. "Novice discovered it while trying to find magic that could work on the system. Strange, isn't it? Perhaps he's the one that should be named after the ancient archmage."

"I'm still a novice," Novice muttered, embarrassed.

"If you say that in front of me again I'm going to throw my book at you," Raltis fired back instantly — but he was grinning. Vex smiled, enjoying the banter.

"How do you use it?" he asked.

"Oh, you just kind of... do." Raltis waved a hand vaguely toward the glyph. "You'll understand when you try it out. It sort of connects with you and lets you see things."

Well, that was interesting. Vex blinked, cocked his head, and nodded; he pulled his improvised magelight out from his belt.

And then, eyes trained on the glyph in front of him, he began to draw.