by Andrew Rowe
The Torch that Ignites the Stars
By Andrew Rowe
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional.
Copyright © 2020 Andrew Rowe
All rights reserved.
Map of Kaldwyn by Karl Vesterberg (http://www.traditionalmaps.com/)
Dungeon interior maps by Devin McCarthy
ISBN: n/a for Kindle Edition
Version: 12-1-2020f
Dedication
For Dalia Rowe. May your life be filled with the wonder of many new discoveries.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Map of Kaldwyn
Author’s Note on Reading Order
Style Notes
Recap – Sufficiently Advanced Magic and On the Shoulders of Titans
Chapter I – Heist
Chapter II – Earlier and Later
Chapter III – Splitting the Party
Chapter IV – Where Attunements are Born
Chapter V – Detection Magic
Chapter VI – About Arbiters
Chapter VII – Mental Focus
Chapter VIII – The Missing Gem
Chapter IX – Tiger’s Den
Chapter X – Crown of Fire
Chapter XI – Extreme Shipping
Chapter XII – Words Beginning with “S”
Chapter XIII – A Party of Adventurers
Chapter XIV – True or False
Chapter XV – Iron Jaws
Chapter XVI – New Old Friends
Chapter XVII – Making Haste
Chapter XVIII – Arbiters
Chapter XIX – Dungeon Design
Chapter XX – Dungeon Defense
Chapter XXI – Dungeon Destruction
Chapter XXII – Crystal Core
Chapter XXIII – Greatest Fears
Chapter XXIV – A Reflection of The Future
Epilogue – Home Sweet Home
Appendix I – Recap on Kaldwyn’s Culture and Magic
Appendix II – Recap on Attunements
Appendix III – Recap on Enchanting
Appendix IV – Attunements of Caelford
Appendix V – Characters and Terms
Appendix VI – Corin’s To-Do List
Acknowledgements
Similar Works
Closing Notes From the Author
Preview Chapter – Carefully Worded Wishes
About the Author
Other Books by Andrew Rowe
Map of Kaldwyn
The map above shows the continent of Kaldwyn, where this novel takes place. It is divided into four major nations — Valia, Edria, Caelford, and Dalenos. Each major nation has one or more of the Soaring Spires; these are also shown on the map.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic and On the Shoulders of Titans took place entirely within the nation of Valia.
The Serpent Spire and Lorian Heights Academy are both located in Beaufort, in the eastern nation of Valia.
Corin’s home is located in Hathridge, a city south of Beaufort.
The railroad at the beginning of the story runs from Estermark (in Valia) to Westbridge (in Caelford).
Much of this novel takes place in Caelford.
You can find a larger version of the map on Andrew’s blog here.
Author’s Note on Reading Order
At the end of Arcane Ascension Book 2, On the Shoulders of Titans, Corin tells his story to several people during the train ride to Caelford.
At the conclusion of that, Corin asks Keras to tell them about how he first encountered Dawnbringer and the Six Sacred Swords.
The story that Keras tells to Corin and the others is recounted in the novels Six Sacred Swords and Diamantine, the first two books of the Weapons and Wielders series. While the majority of the content in those stories takes place years before Arcane Ascension starts, there are some parts that are relevant to this series. For example, Keras tells Corin and the others about certain characters and items that are relevant in this book.
Reading the Weapons and Wielders books is not necessary to understand this book, but Corin and the others will make some references to things that happen in Keras’ stories. I’ve tried to make sure that any of the information from Keras’ stories is explained in a way that makes sense for readers that haven’t read the other books, but readers should be aware that there are other books available if they want more context.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the book!
-Andrew Rowe
Style Notes
Some characters within the story communicate telepathically. I use square brackets to indicate telepathy. For example, [This would be what their telepathy looks like.]
I use the singular “they/them” for agender and non-binary characters, as well as characters that have not had their gender determined by the narrator yet. For example, “I didn’t know who wrote the note, but they had a peculiar style of writing”.
I use “they/them” for sentient monsters without a clear gender and “it” for monsters that the narrator does not believe to be sentient. For example, I use they/them pronouns for humanoid elementals of unclear gender, but I use “it” for things like animated statues and slimes.
I use spaces before and after em dashes (AP style). This is purely because I find this style easier to read.
Some characters are referred to with their surnames first in some circumstances, but not in others. This is because of differences in naming conventions between cultures and how they’re interpreted by local characters. For example, a character might be referred to as “Jin Dalen” by natives to Valia, since they are used to using someone’s surname as their last name. A Dalenos native might refer to the same character as “Dalen Jin”, since that would be the Dalenos style of using surnames.
For those of you who need a refresher on these books, there are three things you might want to read before starting the story proper.
Appendix I, Appendix II, and Appendix III at the end of the book are refreshers on the magic system and setting. I advise you to only read those appendices before reading the book: the other appendices have some minor spoilers.
Finally, there’s a story recap right after this. You can skip that (and the appendices) if you remember the first couple books.
Recap – Sufficiently Advanced Magic and On the Shoulders of Titans
By Sera Cadence
Since most of us have already heard Corin’s version of the first year at Lorian Heights at least once or twice now, I’m going to do us all a favor and sum it up a little faster than he would.
I’m Sera Cadence, the intrepid heroine of our story.
I was raised as “Sera Shard”, daughter of Anette Shard. Mom was a retainer to Laura Lyran, the lady of House Lyran.
Laura Lyran was a great woman. I always respected her, and she always treated me well. Her husband, Magnus Cadence, was far more distant. He was a strict disciplinarian, even then, but nowhere near as much as he’d get to be after they split up. Magnus also seemed to want to avoid me. At the time, I didn’t understand why.
I never knew who my father was. Mom was deliberately evasive; she always told me that it didn’t matter, or that she’d tell me when I was old enough to handle it.
It bothered me, but I didn’t have any recourse. I tried figuring it out on my own. I daydreamed about possibilities, like my father being some sort of heroic adventurer who had left us on an epic quest to save the world. Or maybe dad wasn’t even human — he could be a dragon, or even one of the visages...
I daydreamed a lot in gen
eral.
I was raised with the assumption that I’d be the primary retainer for Corin, much like my mother was for Corin’s mother. Corin wasn’t too bad of a kid. He was a little introverted, even back then, but so was I. We’d read together.
His older brother, Tristan...he was less kind. I didn’t understand until much more recently that Tristan had probably inherited some of his father’s methods of “discipline” for people who weren’t behaving the way he wanted them to.
So, I’ll be honest — when Tristan disappeared into the Serpent Spire when Corin and I were twelve, my first emotion was relief.
That relief quickly faded when I saw the consequences. Lady Lyran’s relationship with Lord Cadence became strained. A bit later, they split up entirely. Poor Corin was absolutely heartbroken.
Lady Lyran began to devote all of her time and resources toward climbing the spires, hoping to discover what had happened to Tristan.
Meanwhile, I had less and less time with Corin, until finally Magnus pulled Corin out of school entirely for private “training”.
Again, I didn’t understand what that meant at the time. If I had known... I’m sorry, Corin. For what it’s worth, I don’t think your mother knew how bad it was, either. That doesn’t excuse her for walking away from you, but I hope it lends some context.
We wrote to you, too. I guess Magnus was screening your letters.
The next few years were much easier for me than they were for Corin. I still had regular friends that I saw at school, like Patrick and Roland. We practiced our dueling and academics together to prepare for our Judgments.
And then, when we turned seventeen, it was time. I knew that there was a chance I’d never leave the Serpent Spire. Tristan wasn’t the only child who had disappeared during a Judgment — a good two in ten or so did.
But for the most part, I was excited.
If I earned an attunement, I’d finally be able to start making my own way in life. I’d have magic. It was something I’d always dreamed about. And maybe I’d be able to get back to seeing Corin again, since I never had any doubt that he’d succeed at his own test.
And so, I took my Judgment.
Unlike Corin, I don’t remember exactly what happened in mine. Most people have their memories of their Judgment wiped when they leave the tower, so they can’t explain the test to others. It’s like waking up from a dream; you might remember bits and pieces, but they quickly fade.
I do know what happened, though, because I apparently made some interesting decisions in there...such as backtracking after I’d earned my attunement.
You see, I earned a Summoner attunement. That allows me to make contracts with monsters. In exchange for offering a monster a portion of the mana that my body generates, I can get a bit of power from the monster. The more mana I offer, the more power they give me.
The name “Summoner” comes from a more advanced feature of the attunement — we can summon a copy of any monster we establish a contract with, provided we have enough mana to sustain the copy, and we follow certain rules that are established in the contract.
Apparently, I was feeling ambitious after I earned my attunement, and I walked back through the spire to where I’d seen a particular monster.
That monster was Seiryu: The God Serpent. The monster the Serpent Spire itself was named after. A divine beast with power only matched by the other god beasts, and of course the goddess Selys herself. Maybe the Tyrant in Gold, too, but he doesn’t count.
So, anyway, a fresh new Summoner making a contract with a monster of that level of power was an absolutely absurd idea, and I’m very proud of myself for thinking of it.
Seiryu was apparently amused, too, because she accepted my deal. The terms required that I not talk about it until I was powerful enough to summon her on my own. I think that was less about her pride and more about my own safety; there are a lot of people who would try to exploit a novice Summoner with such a powerful contract.
The contract came with some other stipulations, too. I can draw on bits of her power anywhere, but I can’t actually summon copies of her outside of the spires. Maybe I can get around that someday by renegotiating my contract, but I’ll need to be much stronger for that.
I also owe her a favor, because I didn’t have enough mana to make a “standard” contract with her. I won’t go into the details on that right now, but suffice to say that I might need to disappear for a while at some point to handle that.
Anyway, I got my attunement and headed home.
Mom was ecstatic. I’m sure Lady Lyran would have been, too, but she wasn’t home.
And then Mom told me something she’d always promised to — it was time to meet my father.
And she took me to meet Magnus Cadence, who I’d met many times before.
I’m ashamed to say that I’d never really considered him to be a serious possibility. I’d grown up around the Cadence family, but the idea of being an illegitimate child...well, it didn’t really fit the fantasies I’d pictured.
But I was still glad. I was so very glad to have a father. And the fact that I knew him made it better in some ways, at least at first. He was familiar, and he’d already been an influence on me when I was young.
He was also powerful, famous, and a nobleman. That wasn’t half bad.
And since I’d earned a Summoner attunement — broadly considered to be one of the most powerful in the kingdom — he legitimized me.
I was proud. And when I heard Corin had gotten an attunement that wasn’t quite as popular, I admit I took a bit of pride in that. I’m sorry.
It’s not that I ever disliked you, Corin. It’s more that I’d been raised to believe I was inferior to you. That at best, I’d be your loyal servant. Maybe throw myself in the way of some kind of attack and die so that you’d survive. That was the romantic ideal for being a retainer.
But as your sister, with an attunement that was arguably more prestigious than yours, something that I’d earned...well, it felt good. It felt like I’d finally proven that I could be your equal, maybe even more than your equal.
I never wanted to hurt you or anything. I just wanted to be treated with respect.
I wanted to be your family, not your servant.
And for a little while, it seemed like that would work out okay. I knew Magnus was probably trying to play us against each other, but I also knew neither of us was going to fall for that nonsense.
I loved and cherished getting to know you again once we headed to the academy together.
I was thrilled when we reunited with Patrick, one of our oldest friends, and that he’d earned a good attunement, too.
Our first few months at the school were pretty smooth, at least from my perspective.
Corin was getting into all sorts of nonsense. You see, during his time in the spire, he’d done a couple unusual things, too.
First, he’d picked up a book, Trials of Judgment, that kept having new messages appear inside. He followed some of the advice of the book and ignored other bits.
One particularly important part was that he found a jail cell inside the tower after finding a secret passage, and he managed to let out all of the prisoners inside.
One of them was Vera, a researcher of artificial attunements from Caelford.
Another was a small child, Echion, who Vera had been running tests on. Corin didn’t know about their connection at the time.
And the last was Keras Selyrian, who is so absolutely ridiculous I’m not even going to bother trying to explain everything about him right now. He’s basically some kind of foreign demigod swordsman with the most convoluted backstory I’ve ever heard.
Anyway, Corin got into some trouble with Katashi, the Visage of Valor, for letting people out of prison — and that whole affair set off a bunch of other events that would come up later. As one of the six visages of the goddess, Katashi was one of the most powerful entities in the world, so getting on his bad side was kind of a bad move on my brother’s part. Keras somehow
decided fighting a visage of the goddess was a good idea and bought some time for the others to escape.
Corin got betrayed by Vera a little bit on the way out, but still managed to earn his attunement, even if it ended up being kind of a terrible one. Enchanter is better than nothing, but certainly not as good as my own Summoner mark.
Anyway, he kept the book after escaping the tower, and the book convinced him to talk to Professor Orden at the school. She started both training him and manipulating him, because she’s actually one of the villains of the story and they do that sort of thing.
Yeah, I’m skipping ahead a little. That’s fine. This is a long story; I need to do things like that.
Important things happened at the school. I met Marissa, who is the best puncher in our generation, and Jin, who is sneaky and enjoys creepily stalking Corin for some reason. They both joined our team for our yearly exams, because I’m not the only one who has made some questionable life choices.
I also met Derek Hartigan, an old classmate of Tristan’s. Derek and I participated in an arena-style sport called a Survival Match where we fought a bunch of monsters for money. It was awesome, and I used it to make bindings on a bunch of monsters. Bindings are like contracts, but more limited in scope; I can’t do all the same things with a binding that I can with a contract.
That was also when I met Vanniv, who is second only to me in importance in this story. Vanniv is a karvensi, a type of winged humanoid with stone-like skin and literal rock-hard abs. He also has abilities similar to an Elementalist and a flirtatious disposition.
Vanniv and I got along immediately, and we figured out some shenanigans to upgrade the binding I put on him to a full contract.
After that, while we were taking one of our exams, there was an earthquake and the environmental shield around our city disappeared. That’s bad. That isn’t supposed to happen.
The team and I headed to the Serpent Spire at the behest of Professor Orden, where we all very nearly died. That was also bad.