The Knee of the Titan is colder than it looks.
The wind howls constantly, scraping across exposed bone and frozen stone alike. I set up a temporary research base tucked between two ridges—just enough shelter to block the worst of the gusts. A small tent, reinforced with mundane materials and a few carefully placed plant glyph constructs to anchor it in place.
I wrap myself in a heavy coat and sit cross‑legged with my journal balanced on my knees, breath fogging in the air.
This place feels important.
The Titan's presence is stronger here—closer to the surface. Not loud, not intrusive, but… attentive. Like something ancient watching with mild curiosity.
Hours pass.
Then I see them.
Snowflakes drift down, slow and deliberate, catching the faint glow of the aurora‑like sky. As one lands on my sleeve, I notice something strange—its structure is too perfect. Not just crystalline, but patterned.
I look up.
The ice cliffs gleam in the distance, their surfaces etched with familiar lines—curves and angles half‑hidden beneath frost and time.
My heart skips.
"That's it."
I rush forward, careful but eager, and study the cliff face closely. The pattern resolves as I trace it with my eyes.
The Ice Glyph.
The final foundational symbol.
I copy it into my journal immediately, hand steady despite the cold. As the last line is drawn, something settles into place in my mind—not new knowledge, but completion.
Four glyphs.
Plant.Light.Fire.Ice.
A closed system.
I don't waste time.
I clear a flat patch of stone and begin experimenting.
First Combination: Fire + Ice
I arrange the glyphs carefully, spacing them like circuit components. Fire on the left. Ice on the right. Activation mark centered between them.
I trigger it.
For half a second, nothing happens.
Then—
Water pours forth, clean and cool, splashing over the stone and freezing briefly before settling into liquid again.
I laugh softly, exhilarated.
"Thermal conversion," I murmur, scribbling notes. "Opposing energies stabilized through balance."
Second Combination: Light + Fire + Ice
This one takes longer. I adjust spacing, rotate the fire glyph slightly, mirror the ice glyph to compensate.
Activation.
A sudden gust slams into me, sharp and powerful, ripping snow from the ground and hurling it skyward. I barely manage to anchor myself before the wind dies down.
Wind.
Controlled. Directional.
I grin, hair whipping around my face.
Third Combination: Fire + Light
This one is dangerous.
I brace myself, activate—
A crack of sound splits the air, followed by a blinding flash. Lightning arcs outward, striking a nearby rock and shattering it instantly.
I stare.
Electricity. Raw, violent, precise.
I write furiously now, thoughts racing faster than my hand can keep up.
Glyphs aren't spells.
They're instructions.
Each symbol represents a fundamental operation—growth, energy, entropy, stabilization. Combining them isn't creativity in the artistic sense.
It's engineering.
I think of magic like software.
Each glyph is a function.Each combination a program.Spacing, orientation, order—syntax.
With enough understanding, the possibilities aren't just vast.
They're limitless.
I sit back, heart pounding, the cold forgotten entirely.
Belos used glyphs like blunt tools.
Luz used them like shortcuts.
I will use them like a language.
I close my journal slowly and look out across the frozen expanse of the Titan's Knee.
"With this," I whisper, "I can survive anything."
The Collector.Bill Cipher.Whatever waits beyond the horizon of fate.
And this is only the beginning.