Alexandra’s blood pounded in her skull like a war drum as she stared at the new rune in her soul. A rune she hadn’t even tried to make. She blinked, staring in stunned silence for a moment.

    Runes didn’t just pop into existence. That wasn’t how they worked. Well — they supposedly could, but that theoretically happened in nature, not right inside somebody’s soul. There was no way for a human to form a rune without combining seven others.

    But her disbelieving thoughts had no ears to fall on. The Fragment of Self shimmered before her, embedded deep into her soul as if it had always been there. She could feel it within herself. Power she’d never felt before radiated throughout her soul.

    “What is this?” Alexandra whispered, taking a step toward the rune and dropping to her knees before it to let a hand rest upon its surface. Energy prickled against her fingers like blades of grass.

    Noah... he mentioned something about a Fragment of Self. That it would be the way I could replace my missing Body Runes. But I needed a way to make it! That was the whole problem. So how did this just show up?

    And no matter how hard she dug through her mind, Alexandra didn’t have the answer to that question. The rune had seemingly just popped into existence out of nowhere. Its complicated pattern wormed so deeply into her soul that it was hard for her to believe that it hadn’t always been a part of it.

    But it hadn’t. The throbbing pain assaulting her head from the severe damage her mindspace had taken in the formation of the Fragment of Self made that clear enough. Something had happened to cause it to form.

    Alexandra bit her lower lip so hard she tasted iron. She’d never fancied herself someone who truly cared about how runes functioned... but Noah was going to want an answer for this. It was something he needed for every student.

    “He’s helped me so much already. I can’t just tell him, ‘oh, I don’t know. The rune just popped up.’ The others need a way to form this as well,” Alexandra said to herself through gritted teeth. “I have to figure out how it appeared. What happened? Why are you here?”

    The rune didn’t respond to her. Alexandra was on her own. The longer she waited to find the answer, the less she’d have to work with. She hadn’t exactly been trying to memorize what she’d been doing when the rune had formed. Her recollection of what had happened was already fading in the headache caused by the soul damage.

    If I can’t figure out what happened now, I might not get a chance to at all. Then what would I tell everyone else? Sorry guys, I managed to make a Fragment of Self, which everyone here also needs to do, but I couldn’t fucking figure out how I did it?

    Alexandra clenched her teeth. She refused to let that be a possibility. Magic didn’t work like that. Noah had said it himself. Everything was a pattern. Just because she didn’t see what it was didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

    There was no random happenstance. The Fragment of Self had formed because of something she’d done.

    Noah said that creating a rune needs three things. Intent, an inciting event, and energy. So all three of those things must have somehow been present. If I figure out what they were, then I’ve figured out how the rune popped up.

    What was I thinking right before I felt something was wrong with my rune?

    A shimmer of energy behind the Fragment of Self buried within her soul’s floor. It seemed to reinforce the words ringing through her head.

    Numbly, Alexandra staggered back to her feet. Her skull pounded with a worsening headache. At this point, she couldn’t even tell if it was from the soul damage or the fragmented words taking form on their own in her mind.

    But from the pain and confusion, one more thought took form. A final thought that came from the very center of her being. Something that every single part of her new to be true as soon as it made itself known.

    The wind was just the medium I chose for that pattern. I chose it subconsciously because it felt like it fit my fighting style... but my true pattern is far more than that.

    Alexandra’s soul shuddered around her. The Fragment of Self burning within its center lit even brighter. Its power worked deep into her body, worming into every vein. But perhaps power was the wrong word. It wasn’t the strength of a normal rune so much as awareness.

    She could feel every part of her in a way that she never could have before. From her hair to her fingernails, everything suddenly felt like it had become hers for the first time that she could remember.

    My understanding of patterns was flawed. It’s not about the wind that I infused my blade with. It isn’t about the avalanche that Isabel pictures herself becoming. That’s just the way our true pattern manifests itself. In something we can understand.

    My pattern was never just the wind.

    And just like that, Alexandra knew what had killed the grass at her feet — and she knew how she’d formed the Fragment of Self.

    The energy came from my own soul. That’s why I took such severe soul damage and my Rank 3 Rune was drained to almost nothing.

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    The intent was always there. For years, I’ve always desired one thing over everything else. I’ve wanted it so much that it’s practically ingrained into my soul, so it’s no wonder that my Fragment of Self could have used it... which leaves only the inciting event.

    And that event was completing my pattern. My desires reached a point when they moved into a magical pattern. They took energy from my soul and used my intent to create a new rune.

    As for the dead grass — it wasn’t the cause of anything. It was the effect of my completed, true pattern. A pattern that draws power from my surroundings because it doesn’t recognize a difference between the world’s power and my power.

    Alexandra drew in a sharp breath — and her eyes snapped open outside of her Mindspace, where she knelt on the dirt ground of her training area.

    My pattern is freedom. Freedom, no matter what the cost.