giant icon formed in the air in front of me, projecting from my hand. It was my shield! The interlocking runes were an exact copy of the sigil on the back of my hand. Most of the icons’ lines were dull, apart from one rune: a circle bisecting a cross with a line cutting through it at the top. It blazed with magic, hovering there… waiting. I spread my fingers and twisted my hand, noting how the veins at my wrist were strangely silvered beneath my skin, and the quicksilver rune turned in the air like a key turning into a lock. It snapped into place, and a wall of energy detonated out from it,
