During his lunch break the next day, Jarrod told Harold he was going to get more study in, and made his way to the library. He figured that if he was caught, he would be kicked out of the academy, but that would happen anyway if he didn't find a way to get a rune in two days. Unless he wanted to become a research student, which he was still undecided about.
Jarrod began walking around the library. As it was lunchtime, there were many students hanging around the library, trying to finish homework, or get started on exam revision. He saw no way of getting to the biblioteca room without passing by the librarian, as his office was in the hall leading to the room. He walked around, trying to see if there was a different entrance, but there seemed to be no other doors leading into that room, and he didn't remember there being any other doors. His only hope, was waiting for the librarian to eat.
He went and found Harold at the cafeteria, and told him that he wasn't feeling well, so he wasn't planning to go to the earth and life classes. Then he returned to the library, picked a desk with view of the hall leading to the biblioteca room, and waited. While waiting, he managed to get through all of the things he missed in his classes for the day. He missed dinner. He was beginning to think the librarian wasn't even in his office, so he decided to risk it. He grabbed his things and ran for the biblioteca room and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed nobody had followed him in.
Jarrod brought up the index again, and scanned for the article he had missed. His heart was pounding so fast while he waited for it to appear, and he flipped through the pages getting to the part he had stopped at last time. He was so nervous that he began having trouble focusing. He had to force himself to calm down before he could start reading. Cromwell had done a series of experiments with children at the academy trying to find common elements in the children that managed to acquire runes.
He found evidence supporting his initial theories, but he also found a common link between children of various runic types. It seemed that there were certain character traits that seemed to lead to children getting runes of an element. Children who were passionate gained fire runes, children who were peaceful gained water runes. Cromwell had compiled a long list of personality traits and sorted them into the elements he believed they were associated with. He suggested that perhaps children who possessed those traits were better able to understand the element they were able to control. He then proposed a new theory, that rather than runes being genetically linked, they were linked to a person's personality. As people tended to end up being like their parents, it would lead to a lot of children gaining the same runes as their parents.
Cromwell went on to say that from his studies, he found that when children had parents of different runic elements, the disposition of the child was what determined the type of rune they would acquire. Although it wasn't part of his initial research, he gained approval from the magic board, and parental consent, in order to do further research into rune acquisition and personality types. His experiments showed that he was able to manipulate children into getting different runes, by slowly changing their personalities at an early age. He found that using a particular technique caused them to enter what he called a "runic development state" where they would enter a deep sleep, and awaken when they were ready for a rune.
Jarrod was partially horrified that such experiments were being performed on children, but at the same time, he wanted to know how to enter the "runic development state". It sounded like a risk, as Cromwell didn't describe what happened if someone entered the state and didn't manage to get a rune. Still, he needed a rune and time was running out, this might be his only hope. Jarrod knew that if he continued reading, there was no doubt he was going to attempt to replicate the state, so he had to decide now, was that what he really wanted to do?
He thought back to the day he found out he was going to go to the academy.
-----
He had just turned 7, and a man in a long robe came to collect him from his maths class, telling him that he wanted to have a talk. They sat in a small room with no windows for a very long time, and the man didn't say anything. Jarrod was unsure what he was meant to do. There were toys on the table in front of him, but he knew they weren't his, and it was bad to play with someone else's toys without permission so he didn't touch them. Plus, he was a big boy now, and big boys didn't play with toys, they did grown up things.
After while, the man took a rabbit out of his pocket and placed it on the table and held his hands above it. Jarrod was unsure whether it was a toy rabbit or a real one. It looked and moved like a toy rabbit, but when he looked closely, he could see the man holding four strings that connected to the rabbit. The strings made the rabbit look like a puppet, but it seemed to have a mind of its own, the strings weren't controlling it at all.
He noticed the rabbit looking intently at the other toys on the table, and momentarily forgetting his resolve not to play with the toys, he decided to bring them closer so that the rabbit could play with them. They played together for a while, but Jarrod noticed the rabbit kept trying to pull away from the man. It was constantly straining itself against the strings, but the man wouldn't let go.
After watching Jarrod and the rabbit play for a while, the man decided to speak. "Do you like this rabbit, Jarrod?"
"Yes, he's funny."
"Don't you think there's something weird about him?"
"Why are you holding those strings connected to him?"
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Mr Rabbit can't go anywhere if you hold him back like that."
"Well, I'm not allowed to let go of the strings, but..." he took a pair of scissors out of his pocket. The blades of the scissors were sparkling like diamonds, but seemed to give off a dark aura. "If you want, Jarrod, you can set him free. If you cut the strings, it'll be OK. I'll tell my boss that the strings broke. If I let go and told him they broke, he'd know I was lying, but if you cut the strings, then technically, they did break, so I can tell my boss without lying. Would you mind, Jarrod?" The man handed over the scissors.
Jarrod picked up the scissors. They were heavier than he expected. He positioned them next to one of the strings, and cut it with a loud snipping sound. The rabbit cried out in pain. "What's wrong with him?"
"You just cut one of his life cords."
Jarrod was suddenly filled with dread. "What is that?"
"It's too complicated to explain to you now. What I would like to know is, do you want Mr Rabbit to be free? There are three more strings."
"It hurts him though!"
"It only hurts for a little while. Then he'll be free and it won't hurt anymore."
"I don't want to hurt Mr Rabbit!"
"That's OK, Jarrod, you don't have to hurt him if you don't want to."
"What will happen to him?"
"Oh, I'm just going to take him back to my office."
"Will you look after him?"
"I'm a busy mage, I don't have time to take care of rabbits."
"Can I take him home?"
"You're only allowed to take him if you set him free."
"OK, I'll do it." Jarrod cut each of the strings, wincing in sympathetic pain as the rabbit screamed. At the same time, he started to feel as though he was being filled with a sense of power. It was a strange feeling, but not entirely unwelcome. As he cut the last string, the rabbit flopped down, inanimate. Jarrod screamed out in shock, "Mr Rabbit!"
"Well, that confirms it. You are magic sensitive, Jarrod. It will be interesting to see if you follow in your father's footsteps."
"What will happen to Mr Rabbit?"
"This rabbit is just for the test, there is nothing you can do now to change what has happened to it."
"Did I kill him?"
"Yes, you did. But he is free now, from a certain point of view. If you're destined to follow in your father's footsteps, you have to understand something, Jarrod. Fire is strong, it can create a great many things, and it is because we have fire that we have life, but fire is also destructive, and you might think that you're helping something, only to realise that you're destroying it."
Jarrod burst into tears. His mother later told him that he was too hysterical to return to class for the day, so they sent him home early. In a few months, he was shipped off to the academy to study magic, leaving behind all of his friends.
-----
Jarrod was hit by a sudden feeling of nostalgia. He was not allowed to leave the academy, and his parents weren't allowed to visit, so they hadn't seen each other in almost eleven years. School rules dictated that he would be notified if something serious happened to them, and they were allowed to us the air messaging system to send letters to each other, but his mother was never all that affectionate towards him, and his father was too busy fighting in wars all over the country, so the letters were few and far between.
Perhaps that was why he wanted to become a mage so desperately. If he became a fire mage, he'd be able to fight in the wars with his father. And, if he ended up in a coma for the rest of his life, then he wouldn't have to live with the disappointment everyone would have when they realise he wouldn't live up to his father's legacy. It seemed like the attempt would be a win-win situation, if he framed it like that. He decided that he was going to do it.
Jarrod flipped the page over, and began to read Cromwell's description into the method he used for inducing the runic development state. Following from his findings in relation to personality and runic types, Cromwell found that when a child was hit with a profound thought related to his or her personality type and element, they would fall into the runic development state as their body prepared itself for the change. Cromwell began listing the profound thoughts that he had managed to collect. Jarrod read them, thinking that he could have discovered those profound thoughts on his own if he had tried.
His head started to hurt from so much reading and study, and the list of thoughts began to swirl around in his mind. Jarrod bent over, suddenly feeling unwell. He rested his head on the top of the biblioteca, his vision suddenly growing blurry. The last thing he saw before his vision blanked out, was the librarian running towards him, looking at him in horror.
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