Owls & Butterflies

Chapter 11

'So runes..', sighed Luz, as she read along.

*Runes are particular items, crafted using special sets of materials, simply put, they have on them a glyph combination that a witch can activate upon thinking about the object, a witch can use only one rune at the time, even having more on your person will render all of them unusable.*

*It's common for a witch to have a rune, with a glyph or a glyph combination they use very often, or it's their signature spell, for example, librarians use light runes, so they do not have to imagine the glyph of light every-time they need it.*

This was really interesting, her signature spell was also a light glyph, but it was not very useful in a fight, or anywhere else really, she needed to think hard about that one.

'Would I even be able to make one..?', questioned Luz, flipping through the pages looking for some tips on how to make them.

'Several types of wood, amber, blood...', she read, the list of acceptable materials, she could get some of this stuff, it would not be easy but she could do it, if she had a good idea about what kind of rune she should make.., maybe a fire spell, she thought about it for a moment.

'Nooo, that was too simple.', anything she could easily do herself would not be worth it, maybe if she found an interesting enough combination..

But that was thinking into the future, for now she had one more entry to read.

*Sigils*

*The newest addition, are sigils, if we think about a body of an witch as a machine, with cogs and pipes, we can say that a sigil is an additional cog, you see not all the cogs on a body of a witch are useful, some turn in vain, and its possible to add said sigil, aka the additional cog, to those empty slots.*

*Sigils look similar to body glyphs, there are larger and much more dangerous to have, you need to understand that a body glyph is like a vent on the pipe of the machine, it does not put much pressure on the machine itself, it only lets the energy out in a different form, but a sigil aka a cog is a different story, where previously where there had been no pressure or need for power, now suddenly there is and if the machine is not strong enough, it will fail, killing the witch. *

*If they are successful however, they provide incredible permanent advantages to whoever..*

Luz did not read further.

This seemed too dangerous for her liking, she found a detailed description on how to make a sigil, but did not think that going that far was a good idea.

'I need to clear my head.', she thought, carefully putting all the books back and heading out, she needed to think about all this.

After exiting the library, Luz headed for the woods, a nice quiet place with no people to bother her, exactly what she needed right now.

For a while she just walked, head tilted to the sky, admiring the foliage of leaves over her head.

She was thinking about her options, seeing only two viable ones, the first one was to stay here, research magic and portals and try to get back on her own.

The other one was Guardians, she would hope they would have both the means to help her and that they actually would, if they could.

'Those are terrible options,' she thought bitterly.

'Trying on my own is safe,' 'But slow and possibly absolutely useless, I would be betting on the fact that something changed in the past centuries and I will find it and be able to actually do something with it,' that was a really tall order, sighed Luz.

'With the guardians..I can already fight..' she thought, 'And I have means to get better at it, train, try and make a rune, a lot of stuff actually,' but then there was the language barrier, the location, the unknown...

Thinking about it really hard she started imagining both situations and how they could play out and the more she thought about it, the more she leaned towards the second option.

Her researching this stuff was just so uncertain, she would need to learn the whole craft, understand it, from books, with no-one to guide or explain things she might not understand and that would take time, time she did not believe she had.

On the other hand, while there where tons of obstacles in her way to Paris, all of them were real, she could actually tackle them, 'I am already bilingual and I learned a little bit of French at school,' she believed that with dedication she could learn the language, it would take time, but she was not in shape to go now anyway, no matter how desperately she wanted.

'Jericho's diary said I am now better at working out..', she could do that and she could also expand her magic potential, learn new glyphs...

There was so much stuff she could do..

'But..how am I going to get there..', this question stopped her dead in her tracks.

'I already tackled this question yesterday, mom would ́t let me..' she could just run there, buy a plane ticket and go...'With what money??' asked her mind.

'Also mom is going to be looking for you, if you run away, you might get caught before getting on the plane.. and even if I do make it to Paris, what am I going to do about shelter..rent a place?? As a minor? With no money?' this was hopeless, Luz was about to cry again.

But she stopped herself at the last second, 'There needs to be something I can do,' she thought, think Luz, think.

'What about student exchange programs?' her eyes cracked open,...'That...that could work,' she thought, thinking about it, Vee was going to school in her stead, but there were no exchange programs at her school, at least not for people her age anyway, she would need to go to a much fancier school than that.

'Could I do that...?' thought Luz, questioning the possibility, she would need a private school, one that is well connected, she would need to trick whoever was accepting people there..'I bet there are more than enough glyph combinations for that..' she thought, if the Order in the past was mainly concerned in politics, courts and such, she would bet money they had glyphs to help with persuasion.

She would need a new identity as well, she would choose a school that has a program going to France and go on the first chance...

There were a lot of minor details that needed to be addressed, such as how to make herself a new identity and everything, but it was an idea worth investigating, she would still need money and to run away again.

She could almost imagine her moms broken face,'Can I really do that to her again..', she asked.

'Do you have a choice??', she...no..she didn't really have a choice in the matter, not really, if she was going to France, she needed to run away and since staying here would not get her back in reasonable time, she needed to go, so closing the circle, there was no other way for her to proceed.

Luz broke into a run, it was a few miles run, if she wanted to get back home following this track, but she did not mind, she needed to start her training anyway.

So she ran along, her feet burning in shoes not meant for running, but Luz did not care, she was just trying to outrun the guilt stemming from something she would have to do...again.