is like a plan that an architect uses to build a house,” said his teacher. “Do you think an architect could draw up a building plan without using lines?”
Will wasn’t sure. He knew his uncle had built the house that his cousin Eric lived in, and he doubted the man had used a written plan to do so. He wasn’t really sure what an architect was, but he guessed it was some sort of builder or carpenter. “Umm, maybe?”
“Don’t be stupid,” chastised Arrogan before sighing. “I didn’t ask if he could build something simple. I asked if he could draw a plan without using lines. Can you draw without making lines?”
“I guess not,” admitted Will.
“Now. Try to imitate what I did,” ordered his teacher.
He tried, but succeeded only in creating a wide, blurry streak of turyn in the air that dissolved almost as soon as it had formed. Will was actually surprised that he did that much. He had never tried to do anything that precise before.
“What the hell was that?” asked his grandfather.
“It was a line,” said Will defensively.
“Drawn by a drunken toddler,” replied the old man. “And where is it now? It has to persist. Otherwise it will be gone before you manage to construct anything. Do it again.”
Will tried several more times but could never satisfy his teacher’s expectations. Frustrated, he asked, “What good is a line anyway?”
“You need it to cast almost any spell you can think of,” said Arrogan. “Such as this one.” Lifting one finger, Will’s teacher pointed at one of the journals on the table. A blur of turyn streaked from his finger, invisible to normal sight, and settled over the book, which began to float away from the table a second later.
Will frowned. “You didn’t make any lines.”
Arrogan smiled. “I’ll do it slower for you. Pay attention.” This time, an intricate three-dimensional figure appeared in the air in front of him, constructed of a multitude of tiny lines and curving shapes. It floated across the intervening space and then expanded to cover the other book before dissolving into it. The second journal began to float as well.
Will was torn between amazement and frustration. There was no way he would ever be able to produce something so complex and intricate. “I can’t do that!” he complained.
“Not yet,” said Arrogan. “Which is why you have to learn the runes first, one by one. Practice and repetition. Even a pig could learn this if it had the capability and enough time. I imagine for you it will only take twice as long.”
The weeks that followed were long and boring, so much so that Will began to look forward to the portions of each day devoted to reading and even math. He began to dread the practical portion of his training. After two weeks, he was still working on the first rune and the old man seemed to delight in finding new ways to tease him about his lack of progress.
“This is hopeless!” Will declared one afternoon, thoroughly sick of the entire thing. “I just can’t do it!”
“That’s the spirit!” said his grandfather, cheering him on. “Accept your own incompetence and you’ll never be disappointed.”
Will wanted to strangle the old man, and his eyes said as much. “Shouldn’t you be encouraging me?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” asked Arrogan, his eyes twinkling with mirth.
That’s the light of pure evil in his eyes, thought Will. “How long did it take you to learn this?” he asked.
“You shouldn’t compare yourself to others,” said his grandfather. “It’s never productive, and you’ll only discourage yourself.”
“Why?”
The old man spent a few seconds digging something out of his ear before examining his finger. When he finally answered, his tone was flat. “Because it only took me a day to learn this rune.”
Unable to take it, Will blurted out, “That’s bullshit!”
“I was something of a prodigy,” said his mentor. “Which is probably why Aislinn found me irresistible. If I had been an idiot like yourself, you probably wouldn’t be here to complain.”
“You are such an asshole,” observed Will with acid on his tongue. “Don’t you think I’d learn faster if you were just a little bit nicer?”
“I was kind to Valmon—look how that turned out,” Arrogan informed him. “I’m not doing this to make you like me. I’m doing it because I think you have potential, and whether it takes a month or ten years for you to learn this matters little in the long run. I’ve got time. Now, if you’re done wasting