Tunnel Rat

Cichol sat in a chair, smoking a pipe, watching Milo as he lay quivering on the floor. After a few minutes, the younger Bonecaster staggered up and collapsed into another chair. Digging through his pack, he brought out a two-pound slab of cheddar cheese and began to devour it.

Cichol said nothing. He wasn't all that worried about the affairs of the living. It was one reason his spirit had retired here after his last death. The current visitor to his library would speak if he wanted to after he quit stuffing his mouth with cheese. Currently, his cheeks were extended like a squirrel carrying too many nuts. Eventually, Milo ate enough cheese that a mild euphoria overtook him, calming his frayed nerves.

"What is Volax-Repat?"

This question broke through the old spirit’s disinterest and drew his attention. "Such an interesting question. I've often wondered that myself, and I have some guesses. I used to have a telescope out on the landing and would scan the void looking for Volax-Repat, or one of the other rumored void hunters. But I grew lazy of staring into the blackness. Twice I saw fast-moving objects far in the distance but never close enough to observe. Volax-Repat is, of course, famous for putting an end to the plans of the Golden Sorceress to explore the void using airships. Only seven out of thousands of people who accompanied her on that expedition survived that disaster. Some claim that it is a monster from ancient times. Other scholars, especially the ones who disagreed with the plans of the Golden Sorceress, call him a guardian of the void, left to prey upon intruders."

"Did you find a reference to the creature in some old book, or did you actually catch a glimpse of it just now? I thought I heard a scream from the door. The latter would be much more exciting to my mind."

"I think,” Milo said, looking at the old ghost with narrowed eyes, "That maybe you won't need the telescope so much. It came to visit and perched like a damn bird atop the doorway."

The excited old ghost insisted on the entire story and took copious notes about the size and details of the creature. "Bones with inscribed rune work? You're sure? Oh, of course you are; it did teach you an ancient rune, after all. Simply amazing."

"Amazing and terrifying. I came here for a rest and to study spells. Now I'm exhausted and quivering.”

Cichol laughed at him and rolled his eyes. “So young and jaded! One of the ancient Behemoths introduces itself and teaches you a secret, and you complain about a little stress. Do you even know what you learned?!”

Milo thought about the rune. It was hard to even think of it without pain. “No, it hurts my head to examine it, and I’m already shaking.”

Cichol made shooing motions, laughing, "Then off with you. When you can, examine the rune in your memory, we will talk more. In exchange for this lovely information on one of the void hunters, I’ll dig through my old notes to give you some knowledge on your gift."

Milo decided on mining instead of working in the habitat. He needed to fill his Ore Gathering Bags and gain experience in the skill. Revenge on the snakes was also on his mind. Each Copperhead was a possible source of enhancement points as well as a chunk of pure metal.

Stonesense was very useful for his current work. When he found evidence of a small vein of ore, he tried to follow it through the rock, seeing where the vein went and how big. This saved him time since he always mined in the direction of the vein. It also gave him a warning if there was potential for a Copperhead to emerge. The poisonous elementals, like the Vein Lurker, needed a larger vein of ore to absorb and materialize.

The baby snakes were still a pain, darting around and taking a long time to kill as he missed them repeatedly, and they bit at his ankles. But with his growing resistance to their poison, they were a minor annoyance at best, and he had a growing pile of pure copper chips in his bag. The other annoyance was the state of the mines. Too many tunnels were unstable, with broken supports and cave-ins just waiting to happen. He skulked through them as quietly as he could, charting the worst areas and adding support beams where he could. Some promising veins of ore he had to abandon because of the danger of a cave-in, but the maze of mine tunnels was huge, and he didn’t lack places to mine. Sometimes, the ancient disaster opened up new passages. Large cracks in the rock could lead to undiscovered caves. He enjoyed finding those the most and twice found mushroom varieties new to Harry. One of the new mushrooms was edible. The other was in the category of ‘edible just once.’ Milo wasn’t eager to try out anything Harry made with it, but the old Troll devoured them with happiness.

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After a day of hard work that yielded a full bag of copper ore and seven small chips donated by baby snakes, he was happy to relax with his Watch Lizard. Georgie was keeping the little cave bug free and safe. Milo had put a heavy tarp over the tunnel that led to the drop, blocking even the little light made by his tiny fire and cutting down on drafts that might move the scent of cooking up into the mines. The little smoke that came from his fire collected on the ceiling and then rose up through a small fissure in the rock. He’d spent some time trying to sniff out an opening higher up but found nothing that would lead anyone to his little camp.

He tried to follow Cichol’s suggestion to examine the rune he had been taught. Cichol had taught him the basics of carving runes. He could visualize an Explosive Rune and then carve it onto a skull to use with his spells. The rune was like an overlay, showing him how to carve or draw it. The Rune of Speed worked the same way. But not the Rune of Velocity. The new rune was more complex and felt ‘denser,’ a poor way to describe the feeling, but the best he had. There was more to it than the other runes. Carving it was done in stages, going back over earlier strokes and making them deeper, adding mana to the rune, and concentrating hard on small flourishes.

He practiced carving thigh bones to make the component needed for the new spell. Each one was a struggle, but it was becoming easier. At some point, something clicked in his head, and he started thinking of the new rune as having an extra dimension to it. Not three-dimensional in the sense of a solid object, but it held more information than the other runes he could draw.

He stared at one of his claws, trying to feel the runes that were within it, the runes from the old bone that were now flowing through his bones. It took hours of concentration to finally understand the Rune of Hard-Bones. It held even more information than Velocity but was very specific. The Rune of Sharp-Claws was equally specific and complicated. He tried to isolate the rune in his skin but couldn’t find it. Did it only appear in ‘live-water’? Water that held mana? That would take experimentation at some point. For now, he’d learned something and paid for it with an aching head.

“Let me sleep for two hours, Georgie, and then wake me up.” The lizard nodded and licked his hand and then stared intently toward the tunnel, on guard.

***

“So, you return. What have we learned about your new spell and the rune it is based on?”

Milo slumped into a chair. “I learned that trying to understand these weird runes hurts my head in a way that not much else ever has. It feels like I’m trying to understand something I’m not meant to look at.”

Cichol laughed. “Then you are actually learning something. If it didn’t hurt, I’d have my doubts. I don’t have ancient runes in my bones to study, but the time I spent studying the old bone we added to your rib cage stirred my brain in a way I am still recovering from. But on to practical matters. Is the new spell more effective?”

Milo pulled one of the carved bone darts from his pack. “Much more effective. I was able to hit a dodgy baby copperhead with one. Easier to target the spell, and it hits harder. It’s listed as Harpoon instead of Bone Spike.

“You are skipping steps in the education I was given. We started by carving the bones and learning the runes. Then we spent weeks learning to imbue the bones with our mana and energize the runes. Eventually, we could cast a weak version of the Bone Spike spell. And our heads ached from how much we studied. Be thankful that the Rune Boned Cowl aids your spell casting, and you have a kindly old mentor to instruct you.”

“Now, I have a treat for you. Absalom’s Bonepedia volumes one to seven are here in my library. These books have diagrams of many creatures and break down the skeletal structures of all of them. Essential reading for someone who wishes to understand the arcane uses of bone. I think you should be able to work your way through the first two volumes today and memorize each. I saw how fast you learned before, so I will accept no slacking from you.”

Milo looked at the large books and turned to the first page. He wasn’t sure when he would encounter Ankylosaurus Rex, but he would know which bones were useful if he did.

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