Demon's Virtue

649 Sigils

Eiro looked at Partax somewhat annoyed. Actually, he was more than just annoyed, he was getting sick of this. Once again, he was expected to be able to read that old man’s mind to figure out what it was he was supposed to do. But once again, Eiro couldn’t read minds. But instead of just repeatedly getting angry, he figured he might as well try something similar.

The Demon glanced at the mechanical legs that Partax was mounted on, as well as the inscriptions placed on them. They were tiny, and to most, it would probably just look like the surface had been randomly roughened up a bit. Though Eiro was able to see the tiniest scratches on the inside of the inscriptions.

He looked at the patterns covering each of the legs or the mechanical arms that were protruding from different parts of the machination. He remembered some of the other things that he had seen Partax use so far as well, and quickly noted down all the patterns in his mind. They were all interconnected in an array of symbols, branching off and connecting again at different points, but despite the complex connections that had been drawn, Eiro was able to at least figure out which symbols existed in the first place. Or at least, which symbols Partax had been making use of so far.

There were a few places where Eiro could figure out the use of some of the symbols more easily. It was like trying to figure out a language from scratch; not easy by any means, but possible if one looked at the patterns. Partax said that these systems were created by deconstructing magic circles, and Eiro knew the structure of magic circles in and out. By referencing what he knew in that regard, he could, at least in part, understand how to use some of the symbols. However, the specifics were still unbeknownst to him, of course. He could get his hands on their rough meaning and the intention behind their placements, but there were so many things that Eiro couldn’t figure out that way. Maybe if these arrays were created by anyone but Partax he could, but all of these items were created by a Master of his craft. At his level of knowledge, it was practically impossible for him to figure out such specifics by analyzing this. If he at least got a bit of knowledge from that old man, then he could connect the rest of the dots as well.

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose. He got out an empty notebook out of his treasury together with a fountain pen, and quickly wrote down some of the symbols that he had seen, and then held the book toward Partax, “So? Can you at least tell me what these mean?”

Somewhat taken aback, the halfling stared at the paper, “How did you- Armodeus, did you tell Eiro about my complex patterns already?”

The elder dwarf looked at his brother-at-heart, slowly shaking his head, “I barely understand those, Partax. I showed Eiro some of the things that I’ve picked up myself, the kind that I can use while making my items. I don’t use those patterns in the first place.”

“...So you haven’t taught him any of my sigils at all?”

“Again, I don’t use them, so I can barely remember ’em myself. I certainly don’t know them well enough to teach them to someone else,” Armodeus sighed, and before Partax’s confusion grew even more, Eiro started to explain, “I inherited Jura’s Five of Pentacles, remember? I can spot every single one of those sigils you’ve got all over your inventions. I also have the Ultimate Domain of Truth, so recognizing patterns is easier than breathing to me. I can at least figure out what the sigils are, but I need to know some key information so I can figure out the rest.”

.....

Partax sighed, “No, I assumed that you knew the basics of my methods at least. If that’s not the case then come here, I can show you what it is you need to do.”

One of the metal arms quickly grabbed the notebook that Eiro was holding, and started writing down numerous lists and explanations in the smallest print possible, not only at high speed but incredible precision, “If you could read the sigils on my creations, then I doubt the writing will be too small for you,” the halfling pointed out, “However, I wasn’t aware that these... cards, were so impressive. Rather, I assumed they were naught but ‘party tricks’.”

“Pa-” Eiro repeated, stunned, “Party tricks? Seriously?” the Demon asked somewhat annoyed, “They were created by the Arcane Dealer, how could they be party tricks?”

“Hah! The Arcane Dealer! You hear that, Armodeus? And you all say that I was the one believing into old wives’ tales!” Partax laughed, “Never in my life have I encountered anything that could be considered the ‘Arcane Dealer’! I’ll admit, I tried, but no; if something like that were real, then I would know.”

“You didn’t know for a fact that the Tower of Books existed either.”

“Wrong! I did know, dear nephew! I did! The proof I had found was simply not the kind that others were able to comprehend. I knew for a fact that the Tower is real, you simply showed me proof that even others understand!”

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose further. At this rate, he was going to have calluses right between his eyes, “Except that the proof I have for his existence is the same proof I have for the tower’s. I’ve met him, and others like him. Long story short, my guess is that they’re like you. Or at least, the energy I felt eminate from Shimour when he showed his powers to me was eerily similar to what I felt from them. They transcended. Would you call something created by such a man a ‘party trick’?”

Partax considered the question for a few moments. While he was shocked by Eiro’s revelation of having found the tower, the knowledge that the Arcane Dealer not only existed, but that Eiro had met him, didn’t particularly seem to interest him, “Well, I would call it an elaborate one, at least. I didn’t say Party Tricks were bad, everyone enjoys a fine party after all, and accompanying tricks must be similar, however... the cards are naught but tools used to grow stronger falsely. Barely anyone can even use them properly,” Partax pointed out, glancing at the Elder Dwarf on the other side of the room, “I even have my doubts about whether or not my dear brother can make use of that ‘Ultimate Dexterity’ of his to its fullest extent. That’s what I mean; how I have seen them used thus far, I doubt you yourself can deny that they resemble a mere trick.”

Eiro wasn’t sure what to say. The first user of a card he had seen was driven mad by the very card he used. On the other hand, another one used his card well enough to split his own mind in two, even changing his body in the process. It was to the extent that Eiro hadn’t been able to realize what was going on then. He even somehow used the power of the card to make the whole city forget about him. If it weren’t for Solomon’s connections to the domain of truth through Lognir, maybe that would have been the end of him. Arguably, that demi-lich, the servant of the royal ‘Death’ formerly imprisoned neraby, was able to use the Domain of Truth better than Eiro. He basically just used it as a lie-detector.

He had seen both ends of the spectrum, so he couldn’t answer Partax’s question with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Noticing that Eiro’s mind was drifting somehow because of this, the halfling sighed. He pulled the notebook away from the mechanical hand and threw it back over at Eiro. About ten pages full were now filled to the brim with a large number of lists, all of which were describing the numerous sigils that Partax had tought up so that he could make use of them. Though, about half of the filled pages described some examples or the exact applications, so there weren’t as many sigils as Eiro initially thought, even if there were far more than he had been able to figure out on his own just by glancing at Partax’s creations.

Eiro looked at the pages for a few moments and quickly engrained what was written on them in his mind. A large book dedicated to all of this could now be found in the mental library, even, and the mental duplicates quickly got to work on trying to apply this new information, and tried to translate some of the spells into this system of Artificing.