The Fatebound Monarch

Yabin smiled at her as she lifted her open palm, and black flame began to cover it. Soon, a jade bow filled with night sky liquid appeared in her hand.

"Let us begin the lecture then."

The night sky liquid dripped out of the bowl on its own, and soon it painted a runic character on the ground. Yabin's eyes glowed darkly, and the runic character began to glow, and a waterball appeared at the place of the runic character.

"That was a rune to materialise water," Yabin added.

She looked at Anna and questioned.

"How do you think runes work?"

A thoughtful look appeared on Anna's face as she thought of the best answer she could give. She spoke a few moments later.

"We carve a predefined character and flow our star essence into it?" she answered doubtfully.

Her answer made sense, considering that she had used a rune herself before… but there was that word she had used to call upon the fire, so she wasn't sure of it. She looked at Yavbin and added.

"And there are words which help us call upon them?"

Yabin nodded at her and spoke in a solemn tone.

"Now, I know how much you know about the runes… and I have to say that you do not know much. However, considering the Star Council doesn't allow the flow of runic teachings to the ordinary… or extraordinary, even. Your current knowledge may even block your progress in rune scribing, so… I will teach you the intent branch of rune scribbing."

Hearing her words, Anna's expression darkened, and at the last words, she gave a puzzled look and asked.

"Intent branch?"

Yabin gave her a slight smile before nodding and speaking.

"Yes, however, you should know about the rune scribing first."

Anna's expression turned serious as she looked at her intensely and gave her a slight nod. Yabin chuckled at that and continued.

"Drawing or carving a character to do something out of the ordinary is rune scribing. Runes allow us to materialise various things, such as barriers, elements, chains and much more…

For rune scribing, one needs. A container, an infusion and at last a fuel which is the star essence.

The container contains the infusion and fuel… The infusion provides the container with its purpose, and the fuel materialises the container.

Baked on these, the rune scribing has multiple branches…

Genesis Branch, Symbol Branch, Intent Branch and Hybrid Branches…" Yabin paused to let Anna understand the words.

She passed the empty chamber and continued, with each branch, she explained the night sky like liquid dripped out and showed an example right before Anna,

She continued a few moments later.

"In the Genesis branch, we use characters as containers and True Names of elements as infusion…a True Name enhances the rune's potency… However, not everyone can speak the True Names... like"

Her lips parted as she spoke something, but her words were incomprehensible and as if something divine had graced the room for its presence. The night sky's liquid glowed brighter, and water began to fill the empty chamber. The water stopped as it reached her toes.

Anna's eyes widened as she saw that… this was similar to what she had seen and done during the battle against Malamare, but it had a finesse that she lacked.

"Trying to infuse a True Name you can not speak will cause the rune to fail, and it may even lead to backlash," she added in a heavy voice.

"In the Symbol Branch, we use predefined characters as a Container, and this does not require an infusion, but in comparison to the Genesis branch, it is less potent and requires more star essence."

As she finished speaking, the night sky liquid dripped out from the bowl and drew a runic symbol on it… Yabin circulated her star essence into the runic symbol, and the rune glowed faintly before fire came out of its place… turning nearby water into steam.

"In the Intent Branch, we use shapes and symbols as a Container, and infuse spirituality into it — Spirituality is the pure will or intent that has a single objective — this is the hardest and most potent branch."

The night sky liquid moved and drew a random scribble. Anna frowned after seeing the random scribble and opened her lips to question, but suddenly the scribble began to glow faintly. Yabin circulated her star essence into the scribble, and it glowed brighter; it was brighter than the Genesis branch rune, and soon the water within the chamber vanished. No steam, no nothing, it just vanished.

"As you can see, I willed for water within the chamber to vanish, and it simply did what I willed it to do."

Anna's eyes were wide open as she questioned with quivering lips.

"Is it not too potent… and strong?"

Yabin smiled at her and shook her head as she answered seriously.

"The Intent branch is hardest because for it to work, your will must be singular… You can not will multiple objectives at the same time… However, we mortals normally have a will and intent of multiple objectives at the same time. For our will to be singular, we need to train ourselves to enter the state of will clarity at choice — a state where our mind is focused on a single object — some even call it battle clarity."

"I see…" Anna mumbled, her words heavy as she could feel the weight behind her words… The runes were much more than she had thought of them.

She did not even know there were multiple branches within the rune scribing, and some of them may even lead to backlash… her prior act might have cost her life. She heaved a sigh before looking at Yabin, who was looking at her with a slight smile.

Anna spoke in a soft voice.

"I am fine…"

Yabin nodded at her and continued.

"Those are all the main branches within the rube scribing… and they are ranked as 1- Intent branch, 2- Genesis branch, 3- Symbol branch."