Of Clouds and Bells

XIII. Tempest

XII. Tempest-

Thing pounced. That was what Poppen had taken to calling the kitten John had given him. He’d experimented with many names: Creature, Beast, Fang, Kitten--he couldn’t call it Cat. Cat was a lazy, thoughtful being. Thing was spotaneus and playful. And now, he pounced upon a leaf twitching in the wind. Poppen watched Thing intently, studying his movements as he battered the leaf with a white-splattered paw. He’d grown quickly under Poppen’s scrutiny.

“I’m not quite sure I understand,” John murmured beside him. Poppen sighed, forced to bring his attention away from his new playmate and listen to his honorary apprentice.

The earl continued, “You speak the same language you use to cast runes?” For once Poppen was glad his parents had forced him to learn the Civil tongue, in addition to his own language and the one of magic.

“No,” Poppen answered. “They are separate.” John groaned, obviously frustrated with the small boy who refused to give him more than three word answers.

“How about we try something else,” the earl suggested. “Can you show me how you start a spell?”

Poppen nodded, and fished around for a small stick. He drew in the dust four runes and pointed. “Air, earth, fire, water. Every spell starts with one.”

“So if I wanted to heat a rock, I would draw Fire and Earth?” John asked. Poppen frowned.

“No, Earth wouldn’t be used there,” Poppen replied. “There’s a different rune for rocks.” He scribbled it loosely in the ground.

“They aren’t the same?” John asked, looking down at the dust uncertainly.

“You have a strange habit of pointing out the obvious--I just said they weren’t,” Poppen said. “Earth is earth.” He jumped on the ground, throwing up a cloud of dirt. He then picked up a rock. “Rocks are rocks.” John sighed, shaking his head at the logic as his mind refused to accept the simple truth.

“Fine,” the earl threw his arms up in defeat. “What if I wanted to heat water? Would that be fire and water?”

For once, Poppen nodded and tried to remember his early schooling--had he been so diffcult? If so, he felt terribly sorry for his governess. “With a composition binding rune.”

John blinked, utterly confused. “What?”

Poppen drew a line, separating Fire and Air from Earth and Water. “These are the internal elements: air and fire. And these are the external elements: water and earth.” He then drew another line perpendicular to the first, giving each rune a quadrant. He gestured to each. “These are opposing elements: fire and water. These are composing elements: air and earth. To bind together to opposing elements, you need a composition  binding. To bind together two composing elements, you need a opposition binding. You need neither to bind a opposition and a composition rune.”

“Does every rune fall under one of the categories, besides the four main ones?”

“Yes,” Poppen replied.

“And you memorize them?” John asked, fear creeping into his voice.

Poppen blinked. What an odd question. “You sorta just feel them.”

John threw up his hands. “That’s just great! I have to learn a whole new language, and now I need to feel them too?”

“But it makes sense!” Poppen protested, taking a now slumbering Thing into his lap. “Fire eats, water erodes, air feeds, and earth builds. Fire is intangible and you can’t hold air; but you can keep water and earth in our hand.”

The earl paused. “That... makes sense.” Poppen nodded proudly. John sat down again next to his slave, feeling a sort of awe that someone was able to make sense with logic he could not himself achieve.

“Can you demonstrate?” he asked softly. Poppen grinned and began scribbling feriously.

“Sir,” his servant piped up for the first time. “Shouldn’t we start traveling for the day? We are wasting daylight.” He looked to the sun, which had risen an hour or so ago. John waved him away.