The Group Project

Railyn flipped to the last page.

"The goal of this project is to study the application and usage of mathematics in sigilweaving. Unlike other applications of magic in battle, like spellcasting or primal sense, sigilweaving combines knowledge of magic and knowledge of complex equations, trigonometry, and geometry to tap into magic that otherwise would be inaccessible."

Railyn glanced up at Thane. Hopefully she was understanding this better than he was...

Thane nodded slowly, trying to process that. “Okay… so…” she faltered, trying to make sense of it. “It’s basically using the equations to further the possibilities of the magic. So if something isn’t working but you know it’s theoretically possible?”

Railyn shrugged. "Something like that? I'm not really well versed in Sigilweaving, so..."

He turned his attention back to the booklet.

Thane nodded. She definitely wasn’t either. She was supposed to be good at symbology, and she’d learned with the birds how truly awful she was at it. She had no idea how sigil-weaving worked, not even the basics. “So we’ll have to… to what? Experiment with new sigils, or old ones, or…”

"The purpose of this project is to experiment with sigilweaving and report your findings. The packet has all instructions for basic sigilweaving and all the necessary equations required for creating basic sigils. Practice in a safe environment."

Railyn gently sat the booklet down. "So... sigils, huh."

“Okay.” Thane said, frowning. “So we just… practice? How does she know we actually did it?”

"Your guess is as good as mine. I never really cared about anything other than primal sense before. That one felt the most intuitive to me."

Thane could tell he wanted her to say something about her own magic, but she moved past it. “So how should we start this?”

"I guess we gotta do some math?" Railyn grabbed a scrap piece of paper that was left on the table by some other student and moved it in between them.

Spoiler

I'm gonna be driving for the next two hours!

“Yeah…” Thane said slowly. Math definitely wasn’t her strongsuit. She wasn’t sure she knew how exactly to do most of it.

The next hour or so involved the two of them struggling their way through the step by step process of a hypothetical sigil. Neither of them knew how to craft a sigil, Railyn learned, and both of them struggled through the complex steps of the math. Railyn at least understand the basics, and he was able to grasp it enough for them to, thankfully, move on. He really wanted to just call it quits, or half ass it and move on, but apparently this was just the first part of a very long project, and while the professor said this was due at the end of the class, there were "check ins" because of course there were.

But, they finally got to the point of the sigil. It was incredibly night at that point but they had moved outside at the point because Thane has rightfully pointed out that perhaps doing magic inside is not the best idea.

“So…” Thane said, staring at the paper and squinting in the dark. There were streetlights on campus, but they weren’t super close to one, on the magical training field. “Which of us…” she stopped. One of them needed to do the first sigil. But considering neither knew much sigil-weaving, they were both hesitant.

"So," Railyn repeated with a chuckle. "You wanna go first, or shall I?"

Thane squinted at the paper in the dark, then said quietly, “You can.”

Railyn nodded. He didn't know why, but he was prepared to try first anyway. He slipped off his jacked, exposing his dragon tattoos on his arms. He cracked his knuckles and his neck, trying to get the nerves out of his system.