Chương 109: THE LANGUAGE OF ARTIFICING

Jamie's eyes lit up.

"Awesome." SK snorted.

"Don't get excited yet. You haven't cocked it up properly." He picked up a flat wooden disc and held it between two fingers. His other hand hovered above it. Flow seeped out of his skin like heat haze, thin at first, then steady.

"First thing you learn," he said, voice rough, "is that Arrays aren't drawings. If you treat them like drawings, you're already bloody wrong." He touched the wood.

"I trust you brats can use Flow Perception, yes?" The duo answered by activating the technique, their eyes glowing subtly as they percieved the world of energy. The Flow did not splash onto the disc. It threaded into it. Elias watched closely. The energy did not sit on the surface. It sank, following invisible channels in the grain, spreading along the natural structure of the wood like veins filling with light.

SK's fingers moved, altering the path of energy by tracing circular patterns that did not leave visible marks but left pressure in the air. The wood faintly hummed.

"This," SK muttered, "is a Containment Array." He set the disc on the table. Nothing happened. Jamie blinked.

"Did you forget to turn it on?" SK shot her a look.

"You don't 'turn on' an Array, you impatient gremlin. You satisfy its conditions." He reached into his coat and dropped a small pebble onto the disc. The pebble stopped. Not fell. Not rolled. Stopped, hovering an inch above the wood as if trapped in invisible glass. Jamie's mouth fell open.

"No way." SK tapped the table. The pebble did not move." Containment," he said.

"Cages. Barriers. Traps. Same principle. Pattern's circular. Interlocking. Flow keeps trying to return to the center, so anything in that field gets stuck there with it. Its force can be directed inward, outward or omidirectionally depending on ones purposes." Elias leaned closer, eyes narrowing. He could ee it—the Flow cycling, folding inward on itself like a whirlpool with no water. He filed the pattern away in his mind. SK picked up a long thin wooden rod next." Enhancement Array," he said.

This time, when he wove his Flow in, the wood gave a low, resonant tone. He handed the rod to Jamie.

"Try snapping it." She grinned and bent it over her knee. It did not budge. She tried harder. Nothing. She made a blade of ice and tried slashing it but it broke against its surface not even leaving a mark. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Crap," she muttered, impressed.

"This was soft wood."

"Was," SK corrected." This Array uses Flow to build outward from the object's natural strength. It is simply an amplification of the objects strenght, not creation. It can't create what already isn't there." Elias noted the difference in Flow pattern. Layered. Hexagonal. SK then grabbed a cube." Sensory." He traced faster this time. The Flow wove in delicate, overlapping waves. When he was done, he set the cube down.

"Jamie," he said.

"Close your eyes." She did.

"Elias, tap the cube." Elias did. Jamie gasped.

"I can hear it—like it's right in my ear!" Her eyes snapped open.

"That's awesome!" SK nodded.

"These Arrays are used to alter perception. In the case of what i just wrote, it borrows the object's ability to transmit vibration and turns it into a loudspeaker for your senses." Elias' thoughts raced. SK wasn't finished. He took two discs this time.

"Now pay attention," he said.

"This is where people start blowing their hands off." He inscribed a Containment Array into one disc. A Sensory Array into the other. Then he placed them side by side, Flow spilling between them as he wove a third pattern linking both. A Binding Array. The air between the discs shimmered.

"Tap this one," SK told Elias, pointing at the first. Elias tapped. Jamie yelped.

"I felt that on my hand!" SK grinned faintly.

"You combine Arrays, you get effects books don't talk about. Individually they are like words and on thier own words have no contextual meaning. But throw a bunch of those bastards together and you have a sentence. Specifically..."

"An instruction." Elias answered.

'Arrays weren't static. They were programmable logic embedded into matter. So it makes sense that there are laws that it should follow. Asidefrom not manifesting what doesn't already exist, they shouldn't contradict or the structure collapses. This is very similar to grammar that spells out the rules of a language.' Jamie was practically vibrating.

"Can you make one that punches people?"

"Shut up," SK said, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. Elias spoke instead.

"What limits the Array?" SK didn't look at him.

"Three things. Skill. Energy. Material." He held up the wooden disc.

"You can draw the most beautiful bloody pattern in the world. If you don't have the control to weave your Flow into the material properly, it fails." He tapped his chest.

"If you don't have enough energy to sustain the weaving, it collapses." He tapped the wood.

"And if the material's essence is weak, the Array's weak. Simple as shit." He paused.

"I'm teaching you the normal way," he added.

"The way normal artisans do it."

"I am not normal."

"Yeah, your appearnace gave it away." Jamie said.

"I didn't mean it like that." SK said, pulling her cheeck.

"Ow, Ow, ow. Ok so if this is the normla way, whats the abnormal way." Jamie asked rubbing her cheek as SK let go of her. SK went quiet for a moment. Then he said flatly, "I break off a piece of my soul and use that as a catalyst." Both children froze. Elias' eyes sharpened.

"How?" SK waved a hand dismissively.

"Would go right over your head even if I explained it. Just know that in artificing, a catalyst is neseccary. Most would use a portion of the resedual essence or pour in a little extra energy or use a substitute. I use the best thing available and thats why my creations are the most sought after things in the entire world."

"Yeah, yeah." SK glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him. He pushed the remaining wooden objects toward them.

"Your turn. Write a Containment Array." Jamie didn't hesitate. She grabbed a flat plate, placed both hands on it, and shut her eyes. Her Flow came out wild at first—unstructured, energetic—but then it settled. It found rhythm. Pattern. SK watched carefully. The Flow sank into the wood. The air shifted. She opened her eyes.

"Did I do it?" SK dropped a pebble onto the plate. It hovered. Jamie threw both hands up.

"Awesome!" SK grunted, clearly impressed despite himself. Elias, meanwhile, had picked up a cube. He tried. His Flow touched the wood. And slid off. Again. And again. After a while SK sighed.

"Give up. Not everyone's built for this." Jamie frowned.

"Hey! If I can do it, he can do it!" Elias ignored both of them. He stared at the cube, absorbing its parameters. Weight. Density. Grain direction. Internal structure. He closed his eyes. He stopped trying to force the Flow in. Instead, he traced the object in his mind first. Measured it. Understood it. Then he let his Flow follow those imagined paths. This time— It went in. The cube hummed softly. SK blinked. Jamie grinned like she'd won something.

"See!" SK clapped once, sharply.

"Alright." There was genuine satisfaction in his face for a split second.

'They're skilled. Just like their parents—' He stopped himself and straightened. His expression hardened again.

"Now that you've proven you've got potential," he said, voice rough again, "things are going to get real." He leaned back in his chair, knife already in hand, carving another piece of wood as if this entire moment hadn't just shifted something important.

"You two are going to practice writing the words. Then we move on to forming sentences." Elias looked down at the cube in his hands. Arrays weren't magic. They were language. And he was already thinking of all the ways he could rewrite it to suit him.