Book 5. Chapter 34: The gauntlet
Warlocks had three levels of skill, each with names and a whole slew of politics behind them, thankfully Hexis skipped the politics parts.
Apprentices and other novices who’d studied their numbers and equations like good little peons for a few years would be inducted into the coveted Sigilmancy - being told which equations were actually occult fractals, and how to inscribe them into plates, weapons, and everything that made warlocks warlocks.
They’d be the crickets and lentils of the warlock guild, the beating heart that kept the bills paid and the good food flowing. The ones who actually forged up occult weapons, shields, and other trinkets that were sold to fund everything.
Only the ones who’d shown real talent and promise would be inducted into the next ranks of a high warlock and taught the arts of Psycomancy.
It wasn’t a high kept secret, as Hexis said, just the name alone would give initiates a good idea of what the whole thing was about. And there really wasn’t some trick to it either, just visualize the equations.
Hexis warned me to start with the color fractal for my first few attempts - imagine trying the fractal of heat, right inside the brain. Easy way to cook oneself off the map. A shield fractal would also slice right through the skull. Lot that could go wrong if the wrong fractal was given life.
He didn’t give me strong odds of getting it. "Apprentice, if you come back next month knowing how to mind weave the Occult, I will eat some of those insects you surface dwellers so fond of." He said, frowning at the thought, stirring the tea in his cup. "It is an open secret among the initiates for a reason. Time and practice will be the gates that bar your passage. There are no shortcuts. Hard work, and daily practice with mathematics is the only path forward. What we can do is guide you on the fastest possible path, given your skills."
He frowned further when he found his tea cold. "The final level of spellcasting is called Aethermancy." A flick of his hand and heat flared around his hands, rapidly warming the cup. "No doubt you can already guess what that is. All centered around the forbidden fractal."
As he explained further, it was forbidden not just because it had some powerful cheats that came with it and the top brass wanted to hog power. But also because that’s what the machines were sniffing around for.