"I guess there are worse things to be a cult of."

"Mmm."

Presently the armor is finished being taken apart. Under it all, she has a magical girl costume like Bella's, in the 'uniform' style. Like a military parade uniform- Stiff black coat and pants, gold and silver cord everywhere, silver belt buckle and polished boots, bright gemstones and ribbons and medals that look vaguely military, but clearly far too gilded and fanciful for an actual army to use.

She pulls out a phone. "Calling Gravity Maven."

...

"-Yeah hi, I- No, I took care of it. No- Yes. Isabella Swan is here, so come ba-" She pauses and looks annoyed. "I literally told you as soon as we were safe, you know I can't use phones in the armor, just come back, okay? Yeah. Mmhm. Got it."

"She'll be here in twenty minutes."

"Can't use phones in the armor because it's too bulky?"

"Yeah. Only took two eight hundred dollar pieces of scrap before I stopped trying. Flip-phones are hardly any better, I could probably get something custom but why bother, Puchuu will tell me anything urgent I need to know while I'm in armor!"

She picks up the big green one and hugs it. It nuzzles her, purring.

"My civvie name is Rachel, if it matters, by the way. Gravity Maven will be so mad if I don't let her show you the obstacle course, so do you want to come sit and have a snack 'till she gets here?"

"Sure, running headlong through the woods is hungry work. It's so cool to be able to run, I had a balance disorder before!"

"I can manhandle a damn truck now! And keep it from just snapping into pieces with metal powers, if I want! I used to be scrawny! It's much more superheroic than fantasy, unlike some other girls- Though the runes are plenty fantasy, I gotta admit. I sorta leaned into it as my best option given what my predispositions were. Cover myself in hideously heavy armor and be a walking tank."

"What's your favorite thing you can do with runes?"

"Ooh, so, the thing is, runes are pretty - persistent? They stick around, so not so much good for active things, passive effects are the rule. It's insane how complicated it can get, I can tell there's layers and layers I'm just completely missing but my power and the Puchuu don't say anything about them- Uhhhh, I'm a big fan of the rune of stacking. It's hard to explain, it can do space-bendy but also conceptual, well, stacking. I can stack two weapons into one, for example, and they're still just as big and heavy but - one gets anchored to the other? Because they're a stack, a single entity, not two separate ones."

"Whoa, like in a video game? Can I see a stacked weapon?"

"Yeah, sorta."

She goes to one of the lockers and thinks for a bit. Grabs a long box out of it, then goes to another and gets a pair of long axes.

"Quiver here, for a magic crossbow I was trying that proved pretty disappointing compared to just whaling on things, or even mana bolts." She takes out a metal-tipped arrow from the inch-high box. Then another. Then another. A dozen, held in her hands, and more still visible in the quiver. "Doesn't work unless they're all functionally identical- Not molecularly so, but one being damaged or any kind of decoration will ruin it."

Then she grabs the two axes, holds them in her arms spread apart, and then - moves the one in her left hand over to the right. The one that was previously in her right hand mimics the motion in empty air. She gives a demonstrative swing, which is also followed. "Stacked. They're the same, so if I can hold one I may as well be holding the other, is what the rune basically does?"

"Damn, that's so cool. I'd like to learn more magic."

"It's not impossible. But not a cakewalk either. Gravity Maven absolutely did not have the patience for it when I tried. It's sort of, uh... Do you know anything about programming?"

"I know how to do mildly interesting things in Excel but nothing beyond that."

"I have Excel formulas in my brain and procedural knowledge of how to competently lay them out because I took the power for it. And old Hephie's blessing doesn't hurt either, Hephaestus, he's the one who empowered me even if he doesn't mind me working with the Puchuus. You'd have to start at the level of learning how CPUs work and writing ones and zeroes."

"Well, you know, best time was five years ago second best time is today?"

"I'm pretty sure teaching a craft counts as worship, even."

"Is that the deal you have with, uh, Hephaestus?"

"...Gods are more demanding than Puchuus. He yells at me to make mighty weapons and offer libations and prayers and convert and teach. You'd have to at least offer the odd ceremony if I teach you. It's only polite. They're not too onerous. The not-amish do it, they call themselves Torchbearers."

"Sounds fair enough. Would this be in addition to charging me or nah?"

"Nah, no payment other than that unless you want to get intense or work to your schedule instead of mine."

"My schedule is mostly open apart from, like, school, and I sleep a lot less now!"

"Evenings then? Once or twice a week? The ten minutes until G gets here aren't enough to really get into it but-" She offers a short prayer to Hephaestus, asking him to guide her words as she teaches the craft. You carve things, or cut or even sew or weave, juuust right. And starts describing how the shape of runes carved into things matters, but also the depth, order of strokes, pacing, orientation, and more. The standard rhythm is like so. Here is some jargon to write down. Why it fundamentally works is something about resonance with the oldest memories of the world, ritual and precision.

Bella takes extremely high-density notes!

Eventually, someone crashes through the door, flying at a moderate speed!

"Hello, good to see ya! You didn't call ahead like I asked so I wasn't here to meet you, sorry! Hi, Tites!"

Titanium Steel visibly represses an annoyed sigh. "...Hello, Gee. Bella, as I was saying-"

She finishes the current thought about carving depth, as Gravity Maven fidgets and hovers, then with a final nod, brushes herself off and stands.

"Nothing will stop her from taking us all to the obstacle course, now..." (Gravity Maven giggles.)