“Like buttons.” Vellum let out a deep sigh. “Goddess, this generation. Please, let it be the last that I’m blessed with teaching.” She gestured to the stick. “Hand that back to me.”
I gave her the stick, and she handed the gauntlet back to me in exchange. “The circles are far from cosmetic. They’re boundaries. They prevent excess mana from escaping, and they also help to prevent the runes from being accidentally activated by ambient mana, or through other effects. They make it so the rune only activates when you put something inside the circle itself to feed it mana.”
“...Meaning that without them, my gauntlet could have triggered any number of different ways. If I walked into a mana-rich area that had the right type of mana in the air, or the gauntlet was hit by a spell...”
“Precisely. You’re lucky to have your head on your shoulders right now. You’re doubly lucky to have that hand. I’m not sure how you managed to keep it.”
“I was wearing a shield sigil.”
“Ah. At least you did something right, in that case.” She sighed. “Let me see the glove again.”
I handed it back to her. She frowned, shaking her head.
“What gave you the idea for this contraption?”
I folded my arms. I really wasn’t enjoying being interrogated, but I didn’t exactly have any choice about answering. “It seems like there’s always something attacking me, and I’m never properly prepared. In the tower, in dueling class... Even in my bedroom.”
Professor Vellum snorted. “I heard about that. I don’t approve of Orden’s antics, but she is funny, at least. That’s better than I can say for most of our staff.”
I was less amused. “In virtually every encounter, I’ve been impossibly outclassed in combat. I considered other options — things to make me move faster, or block attacks — but this was what I had the materials for, and sometimes it’s necessary to have a strong enough weapon to deter your enemies.”
“I quite agree. But why not use a tested design? There are dozens, if not hundreds of designs for dueling canes alone. Why make your own?”
“A gauntlet is something I can always have on me. It’s also not an obvious weapon. I would have preferred a ring, but I couldn’t afford a gem with a reasonable mana capacity.”
Vellum crinkled her lips. “At least you were thinking. That’s better than I can say for the majority of my students.” She shook her head. “But I can’t let you keep making disasters like this.”
I looked down. “I’ll make sure to draw boundaries next time, professor.”
“No, no, no. It’s more than that. This isn’t your first incident; don’t think I didn’t hear about you overcharging that war cane. You’re experimenting. And experimenting is always going to have risks.”
“What do you want me to do, then?” My palms stung, and I looked down to see my fists clenched tightly, nails digging into my skin. “Stop enchanting until my second year — assuming I can survive that long?”
“Goddess, no, boy. Of course not.” She handed the gauntlet back, and I had to unclench one of my hands to take it from her. “Never stop enchanting. Never stop creating. Never stop thinking. That is your greatest asset, even if it can also be your greatest weakness. No, I don’t want you to stop.”
She stood up, her eyes sharp and gleaming. “No, I want you to listen. Because I’m going to teach you some real enchantments.”
Chapter XII — Testing Phase One
I left Professor Vellum’s office with my mind in a much better place. In spite of her gruff exterior, she provided me with the key information I needed to make my gauntlet work. Better yet, she promised to start private lessons on much more potent enchantments in the future. The kind I couldn’t find in textbooks, even the ones designed for graduates.
It put a bounce back in my step. I fixed the gauntlet almost immediately, and then found an older student to check it. He seemed “pretty sure” it would work.
It did work.
It worked beautifully.
The transference blasts were sufficient to hurl a person across a room with ease. I suspected the gray mana blasts would break ribs, or maybe kill a small monster like a slime outright.
It was about at that point that I remembered I had a team test coming up later in the week, and I still needed to recruit two people.
Getting Jin, as Sera had requested, was simple enough. He came by regularly to pick up the small items I was still working on enchanting for him. I only had a few items left that I thought I could make, and I hoped to finish those before the test if possible.
“Hey, team competitions coming up. Do you have a team yet?”
“Hmm,” Jin replied, projecting disinterest. He tossed the bracelet I’d handed him from his right hand into his left. “Do you?”
“I have Sera and Patrick so far. With you, we’d only need one more, and I have a strong candidate in mind.”
He unclasped the bracelet, and then slipped it around his left wrist and snapped it shut. “I’ll be unable to use the full capabilities of any attunement. Is that acceptable?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think they’ll be fine with it. With all the things I’ve been making you, I suspect you’re better prepared than any regular attuned would be at this point, anyway.”
His lips stretched into a thin smile. “Better even than you think.”
It was so typical of Jin to play mysterious that I couldn’t help but laugh. He looked offended for a moment and opened his mouth, but closed it a second later without saying anything. Then he smiled again himself and huffed a soft laugh. This smile was smaller than the one before it, but he was still wearing it as he left my room.
My next candidate would be a tougher sell.
I headed to the women’s dorms. It took some asking around just to find the right room.
I thought I saw Cecily Lambert in the distance while I headed toward the Tortoise’s Heart. As with every time I’d seen her on campus, I did my best to pretend I hadn’t seen her. I still wasn’t ready for the conversations we needed to have.