Time spent in the sunlight was a thing of the past under the nocturnal beast’s tutelage. When Tsem had struck a bargain with Valesin, he had assumed he would get some cursory knowledge of what a divine formation was. The basilisk though, had an entirely different interpretation of their deal. He was of the mind that his part wouldn’t be satisfied until Tsem could recreate the formation he’d stumbled upon with his own two hands—or perhaps more accurately, his legs.
To lay a formation, you needed at least three glyphs, focal points that defined the formation. The process of selecting the locations to place those glyphs though, was extraordinarily exacting. Tsem’s feet had quickly become a point of constant pain as Valesin led him on seemingly aimless paths through the forest, showing off various points of interest along the way. The constant, never-ending hike was made far worse by his lack of food. Between each point of interest Valesin spoke of, Tsem did his best to gather what few plants he believed to be safe to eat, stuffing them in his mouth between each question the great snake posed.
Valesin explained that an advanced cultivator could make a simple formation work with pure force of qi. By pushing enough qi into a glyph, even the most poorly constructed formation would work. That was the first rule of formations: divine qi was drawn by qi. Of course, Tsem had no qi to work with which meant he had to be an expert at the second, third, and fourth rules, each of which, unlike the first, were deceptively complex.
The second rule was that qi was drawn to thinking life. Valesin pointed out those points. Places where a demonic beast had made its home, places where creatures regularly visited. The stream was one such obvious example, but the basilisk also showed small paths cleared of vegetation from constant passage and consistently popular sources of food like the blue trees that always leaked sap. Most of all, he showed places of death. Wherever life was lost, divine qi remembered. Places where star panthers had hung their prey to bleed out, places where a bladebear had torn its helpless prey to ribbons, even the odd spot where a beast had been buried by its fellows. These were all spots where more divine qi could be found and where a placed glyph would be more effective, but Valesin took special care to make sure Tsem understood exactly how each of these would impact different kinds of glyphs, particularly when considered alongside the other rules.
The third rule was perhaps the most esoteric, and the one Tsem struggled with the most. At its most basic, it could be said that the more significant a place was in and of itself, the more divine qi it gathered around it. In practice, this provided no end of headaches. The key question was in figuring out how to measure a place’s significance. Unfortunately, there was no singular simple answer. Instead, Tsem had to learn about dozens of factors. He was taught, through his baffled mind, why some trees with a certain kind of droopy branch might attract more divine qi than those with straight branches and of course the half-dozen reasons why the reverse could be true. He was taught why stones carved into certain shapes might be more suffused than those with others, and how many of those he might choose as landmarks would be on that list. However, he was also taught why others that made him stare in wonder might not be.
Memorably, Valesin had pointed out one rock formation that looked uncannily like the face of a young boy. Tsem had been sure it would be the perfect spot for a glyph, but Valesin had told him to take another look and he’d realized that while it may seem significant to him, other demonic beasts would not draw any connection to the rock, meaning he saw it as more significant than it actually was. The basilisk also pointed out two nearby ridges that would serve to reflect the waves of divine qi, making it even worse of a location to lay a glyph.
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The fourth rule had to deal with the placement of the other glyphs in the formation. It was best to keep each glyph in a formation as equidistant as possible. It was also best for the locations of placed glyphs to be as similar as possible. Valesin constantly used trees as an example. According to him, if you chose to place your glyphs on a tree, it almost always made sense to place the other glyphs on the same species of tree.
They spent days focusing on all of these factors and days more on other, even less obvious ones. Tsem wasn’t sure that he picked up half of what the basilisk knew by instinct, but he did learn. By the second week, he was answering questions correctly and determining which spots would make for better placements than others.
Even though the nights were hard, Tsem wasn’t given the full day to rest. After all, it wasn’t just the placement of glyphs that he had to learn, it was the glyphs themselves. Fortunately, this was a simpler topic, though, only because he was learning just the one formation. He really only had to learn three of the numerous base lines in the glyph. The aiming line which allowed for adjustments based on the locations of the other glyphs in the formation, and the seeking and sample lines which both had to do with the specific kind of formation he was learning.
It was one of the most simplistic divination formations. These types of formations were meant for gathering information. They were, apparently, a specialty of Valesin’s. The formation Tsem had found was one of many the divine beast had set up to gather more information about the mountain and the mystery at its peak. It allowed for the discovery of items within the formation that were similar to a provided sample item.
Tsem studied hard to begin with, but when he realized what he could accomplish with the formation, he hung onto every word, no matter how hungry he felt or how tired he was. Among other things, it would be the perfect solution to one of his problems with the bladebear hunt. If he set up formations using bits of hair or such found around their markings, he would have no trouble tracking two beasts at once. Even if they moved, so long as they remained in his formation, he could just follow a tether of divine qi to wherever they were. Of course, he would need to make the formations big enough to cover the beast’s entire territory, something that would require a good deal of skill to do with no qi of his own to supply.
One morning while he was crouching over a glyph he’d crafted with particular diligence, Valesin pressed his snout against Tsem’s back. Tsem nearly jumped out of his skin from the contact. His teacher was so much larger and stronger than he was that Valesin rarely made contact, presumably to avoid injuring him.
“Your efforts have…redoubled.” The basilisk commented, each word as usual, carefully chosen. “Your glyphs are…viable.”
It was higher praise than Tsem was used to getting, and he fought a tear away from his eye. Not that Valesin was likely to notice, the divine beast was only slightly better at reading him than he was at reading it.
“Why?” It pondered, not really seeming to ask. “You have a use…in mind?” An actual question.
Tsem explained his plan, further elaborating that he might be able to trade some of the demonic beast parts when he went to the city and therefore get a better reception. He wasn’t entirely sure he would be welcomed for just some demonic beast materials, but Da Kanuk had been hunting the beasts, so, there must have been at least some demand.
Valesin shifted around. He had expanded the lair a little, adding a room for Tsem to practice glyphs and sleep in, but he constantly bemoaned losing out on the more comfortable feeling of metal pressed tightly around him. Tsem didn’t really understand how that was comfortable, but told himself it must be like snuggling under a warm blanket on a cold night…probably.
“This plan sounds like…the perfect test.” The basilisk shifted around again, no doubt seeking a more comfortable position. “I look forward to the results…tomorrow. For tonight…sleep.”
Tsem felt a wave of surprise run through him. If he was really being released from his study, the next day promised to be eventful. His time of relative safety was up, and just in time. He’d been subsisting on a pitiful diet of scrounged plant-life. The strength he’d gained from those few days hunting with Da Kanuk was gone now. If he didn’t succeed tomorrow, he would be forced to set out for the city and beg for his life. Assuming, of course, that he didn’t just become a meal for the bladebears he would be hunting.
