Convergence: Eclipse Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Shadow Blade

Read chapter 3 of Convergence: Eclipse by J.L.Hollingwell on NovelPedia.

A glyph is formed when a person has enough understanding of their affinity, and what they are trying to make it do to construct a neuronal template in their mind. Some glyphs are easier to create than others (for obvious reasons), and although some can be taught, the best, most effective glyphs are always the ones made by an individual based on their own personal understanding and intuition. So, What Are Glyphs Anyway? A Treatise on Glyphology Professor R. Shrondril Laurie stood up and stretched. He had been sitting for too long and his legs were stiff. It was time to move. He looked around for a likely direction to head in. The pool was fed by a small stream that trickled in from the opposite side. For lack of a better idea, he made his way round to the steam and began to follow it back into the forest. As he walked, Laurie turned his thoughts back to his weapons - or lack thereof. He considered trying to make something from sticks and sharpened stones, or stealing a weapon from another participant, assuming he ever found one. Laurie felt a little sick at the idea of disadvantaging another player like that, though. If they were left defenceless, they could easily be hurt or die. He didn’t know much about himself, but he knew he wasn’t the kind of person who would do that. So, bushcraft it is then. Laurie sighed and on seeing a likely stick, moved over to pick it up. He gave it a swing and slashed it against the nearest tree, upon which it immediately snapped, leaving him standing there holding a piece of wood no larger than a pencil. Useless. Might as well be waving a magic wand - oh, you idiot! Magic. He could do magic! Was he really going to wave a stick around at things when he could do magic? Laurie mentally slapped himself and dropped the stick before focusing on the mana inside him. There it was, that little crackle of energy. He willed the mana to move down his right arm and into his hand, thinking of shadows, of their opacity, and tried to picture a short blade. The mana pooled onto his hand as before, but this time formed the shape of a small, rough knife. Laurie could feel this was draining his mana much faster than the orb had, even before he had gained the glyph - the reservoir in his chest was emptying quickly, mana running down his arms and into his fingers at a rapid pace. He moved quickly to the nearest tree and tried slashing at the bark. The blade dissipated on contact without leaving any visible mark. Laurie frowned. Okay, let’s try that again. This time, he pictured the blade as before, but as it began to manifest in his hand, he imagined not just the shape of a blade, but the essence of it - its sharpness, the way meat parted under the cleave of a knife, the way its metal edge sheared off into infinity, the spark of its pointed tip. The resulting blade was a little larger and had more definition. Again, he cut at the bark of the tree. This time, the shadow blade did not dissipate, instead passing through the bark unhindered. Laurie smiled. Progress . He leaned closer and was surprised to see that the trunk was unharmed. He had felt the blade move through it, but there was no visible sign of harm. Laurie hesitated, not sure how to proceed. Was there something wrong with the blade? Or was it somehow fundamentally impossible to make a corporeal blade of shadows because shades were of course, by their own nature, not corporeal? One way to find out. Laurie braced himself, held out his left hand and, with great care, ran the edge of the blade across his palm. An intense cold seeped into his hand. It felt like frostbite, and Laurie quickly pulled the blade away, gasping with the pain. There was no mark and he hadn’t bled, but when he checked his health, it had dropped by three points. So, the blade did do damage, but it was incorporeal, rather than physical. The blade lost its definition and dissipated as his mana finally ran out. His experiment thus suspended, Laurie hummed in contemplation as he continued to f