Ratface had thought an experiment was a turn of phrase, but she’d forgotten that Abigail was both a rune knight and an enchanter. She pulled a bunch of equipment out of her bag including her helmet and several pairs of goggles for them all to wear.

  “These are partly to protect your eyes, but you’ll also see they have a way to see mana,” she said.

  Ratface could only imagine what this cost. Given how frugal the knight could be it was hard to remember that between her own adventuring and her relationship with Claudette, Abigail was rich.

  She pulled out several lamps, including a few she hadn’t engraved. She gestured at the engraved one.

  “These ones are all engraved with different levels of efficiency. While we can’t do a perfect test, we can at least do one that is repeatable. Obviously, we’ll be unable to completely make it a controlled test, essence is historically difficult to tie down even at the best of times, but we can at least get an idea of the difference.” She looked over at Ratface. “I don’t know enough goblin to make a coherent spell, so I’ll need you to take me through how to make it. In that same token, I’ll need to walk you through the different runes.” Ratface smiled to herself, it was funny how quickly the knight switched to an academic when runes came up. She could see how Claudette and Abigail filled their time. No wonder they'd been smart enough to make an entire new set of prosthetics.

  The group of them moved closer to look at the lamps as Abigail took Ratface through the different lamps wording. They put on their goggles to see better and all made surprised noises. Ratface was less impressed. The view these goggles gave on mana was actually worse than her just focusing. At least the engraving was interesting.

  Ratface would have thought more words would make the lamps less efficient, but it was actually the opposite. The first lamp’s runes essentially just told the light to glow while the last one went through the process of how to make it light up, with the middle falling somewhere in-between. It was like the runes were explaining the process of how to work to the magic.

  Ratface wondered how effective the goblin writing would be in comparison. A lot of goblin was in nuance. Not an exact language like this one. Ratface did her best to separate the different engravings into different explanations but by the third lamp it was less like speaking goblin and more like translating common into goblin. She got Abigail to slant some of the words to add to the context. It wasn’t like anyone had taught Ratface to do that, but she’d read plenty of goblin over the years and a goblin would just know what she meant.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Abigail dutifully started engraving them.

  “Enchantment is fairly simple,” she explained, “it does require some connection to the ether, but the main requirement is a steady hand. You should all learn a few runes where you can. Innate magic is powerful, but it lacks the flexibility of runes.” She finished the first one and tapped the light on.

  The effect was immediate. The light was brighter than all of the lamps had been before. It was the way the magic worked that was the true difference though.

  If rune magic was like a translation to the ether, then the goblin was like talking to another goblin. It jumped at the lamp, immediately following the order they’d given it and interpreting the nuance in the lamp. It practically rushed to complete it, and the ensuing light made Ratface’s eyes sting even through the goggles.

  “That shouldn’t be possible, runes are the words of our Lady, does that mean goblin really is the first language?” said Abigail.

  She hurried to the next lamp and engraved it. This one was wordier than the first lamp and when they turned it on it didn’t work as well. Ratface knew it wouldn’t, or at least she’d hoped. The first lamp had been engraved how a goblin would talk while this one was like a translation of instructions. It was awkward and the magic treated it awkwardly. It was like it didn’t get why someone would talk that way. She was practically vibrating when Abigail brought out the next lamp. She snatched the graver out of Abigail’s hand. The knight yelled at her but Ratface was already using it on the lamp. She bet she could write it in a way only another goblin would get, she wondered how the magic would work then.

  She knew something was wrong the moment she started. When Abigail had used the graver the ether had trailed after her, like it was feeling the trace that Abigail was using. Ratface used it and the magic remained inert, like it couldn’t see her, couldn’t feel her.

  The group went quiet as she finished the engraving. She’d asked it to give them a light, but she’d phrased it like morning light, a gentle glow to take them all in. She pressed the lamp.

  Nothing happened. The magic didn’t even notice her. It was like it couldn’t see her. It knew she was there, she could see through the currents, but it treated her more like a rock or a tree.

  “Ratface,” Abigail began but Ratface shook her head.

  She’d known it wouldn’t work, magic never worked for goblins, that spell of hers had been an exception not the rule. She thought she was used to it.

  But the magic had understood goblin, had moved like a goblin when they talked to it. To watch something so goblin-like and know it could interact with everyone but her?

  It hurt. It hurt like the first time she saw an elf do a spell and she knew it would never see her.

  She got up and walked away. Someone tried to follow her, and she hissed at them.

  It wasn’t fair of her. They were her friends; they didn’t deserve to be pushed away. Yet right at this moment she was less aware of them being friends and more aware that everyone in her camp could do magic except her. They could all use her words to make their magic better.

  She was a goblin, and the world didn’t acknowledge goblins.