The Runic Artist Chapter 42: Chapter 361 - To Those Who Wait

Read chapter 42 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Nate fiddled with the Nascent Artifact held in his hands. It looked at first glance like a simple piece of silver thread only slightly longer than Nate’s hands. That was, until he pulled it. Then it would extend as though it had no limit, and he had tested it. If there was a limit, he was yet to find it. The True Thread. That was what the Empire of Seven Domains had called the artifact. A simple name and wholly inaccurate. Nate could sense the Concept within the Artifact and it should’ve been called The Infinity Thread. Continuing to toy with the thread, he wondered what use Arikanvil had for it. The other two nascent artifacts the True Divine had been after were very clearly spatially aligned. Infinity could be connected to space or a myriad of other things. In Nate’s limited experience so far, space had not been infinite. Sure, it was so large that the very idea didn’t matter and it might approach infinity, but the two Concepts weren’t so closely aligned that Nate could draw them together with certainty. Nate let the True Thread go as he turned and watched it float back to its place in his Nascent Conceptual Web. He had less than ten nascent artifacts in total decorating the room with thousands of other placeholders for where he thought other Concepts would fit. Just seeing the amount of empty space made him wonder if he was reaching too far with this plan. It would probably take decades, and the results weren’t guaranteed. Before his recriminations and worries could start to erode his will, Camilla swept into the room. She wore a shell and pearl dress that left little to the imagination, her blue skin on clear display. Nate tried not to smile and failed. The choice in clothing was something she only did when she had every intention of distracting him from his work in some form. He’d never once seen her wear something so risque outside of their home. “ Shifting Tides ?” he asked. “Mmhmm,” she agreed, admitting that she had been using her Skill which seemed to have the ability to tell when his emotions were shifting. He was convinced it was based on his sweat somehow but had never bothered to prove it. “What are you worrying about, lover?” she asked as she came to sit on his lap. “The usual. Wondering if I am doing too much, or not enough. This particular experiment is beyond expensive and perhaps my time is better invested elsewhere,” he admitted, hand around sliding around her waist. “When you explained it to me it sounded like it would answer the questions you have about whether our Reality is different from the one mana is coming from. That is still something you want to know, right?” Nate looked at the web of concepts. His entire experiment hinged on how the Concepts related to each other. The plan was to create one for Divine artifacts that had been created in the presence of mana and another for the Nascent artifacts that hadn’t. What he was hoping to answer was, by how much did the two differ. He didn’t know if the result would help him deal with the problem of mana or not, but he had a suspicion that it would, which was why he was investing so much into it. “It is. You’re right. I was just feeling…overwhelmed by it all.” She kissed his cheek and smiled. “Well, then it is time for a break and I have just the thing for you. Some more members of The Risen Sun Sect have returned.” Nate perked up instantly. “Frick?” Camilla nodded, already removing herself from his lap. Nate stood, eager to see everyone, but especially his once-Familiar. Kiri, Luci, and Gwen had returned months ago. Luci had been taken by Ankh’aris for some training and Nate had no idea where they were. Kiri and Gwen had been living on Galle. Kiri had thankfully assumed control of The Artist’s Emporium and, to an extent, Etrua itself. Nate had long since finished placing all the mana fonts in the cities across the surface of Galle and was almost finished placing the latest ones in the wilderness. After that, he would start carving the teleportation runes