by Andrew Rowe
Corin made a deal with Katashi, who was angry. That was worse.
After that, we had to scramble to figure out where Vera — that artificial attunement researcher that Corin had broken out of the spire’s prison — was located. We then convinced her to go back to the tower along with us.
Once inside the spire, Orden betrayed us, used a ring to control Derek, and tried to kidnap Vera for her own purposes.
I drank something that I probably shouldn’t have (an attunement primer potion that Corin gave me), temporarily vastly increasing my power, and summoned Seiryu to save us. That worked, but at a cost — I lost my voice and the ability to use magic.
Yeah, that was pretty awful.
Corin managed to sort things out with Katashi, turning over Vera and earning himself a second attunement in the process — an “Arbiter” attunement, which meant that he’d worked directly for one of the visages. It was a rare “restricted” attunement that almost no one received, so it was pretty important. It also let him do some unusual things, like make other attuned more powerful temporarily, as well as interact with the mana in human bodies in general.
He also tried to get Katashi to heal me, but Katashi said he couldn’t do it safely, so he gave me a legendary magic artifact sword — Ceris, the Song of Harmony — instead. Which was kind of weird, but okay, I’m not complaining.
Anyway, we survived the experience in the spire, albeit barely.
That strange swordsman, Keras, was conned...I mean, “convinced” into looking out for us for a while to earn points with Katashi and clear his name of some crimes that he probably did, in fact, commit. (What? Don’t look at me like that. Heresy is an actual crime, technically, even if what Keras was saying was true.)
We headed back to the school and started working on our second half of the year.
I...admit I wasn’t doing very well for a while.
Not being able to speak took a real toll on me socially, and not being able to use magic was even worse.
Corin really looked out for me back then, and I’m grateful for it. He managed to arrange for a meeting with Sheridan Theas, an old friend (and probably lover) of Derek’s.
Sheridan is a follower of the visage Wydd. They’re also a Necromancer, which we were all pretty sure weren’t real until we met Sheridan.
Long story short, they performed some magic surgery on me to help improve my condition. I’ll save you the details, because frankly they’re gross, but I got some use of my voice and my attunement back.
I was still in rough shape. My ability to cast spells had fallen to below where I’d first started the year. I had to break almost all of my contracts, because I didn’t have enough mana to sustain them all. (Don’t worry, I kept my contracts with Vanniv and Seiryu, since they were too important to give up.)
I was pretty far behind the curve at school for several weeks after that while I tried to recover. I relied heavily on my friends for help, as well as the items that Corin made me.
It was a difficult time, but I started recovering.
In the meantime, Marissa and Corin trained with Keras. Keras taught them both bits of his foreign style of swordplay and magic use, which gave them some new and unique techniques to try.
Patrick trained with Professor Meltlake, a legendary Elementalist, and learned powerful fire and lightning magic.
Keras also helped Corin make Patrick a magic sword — a replica of Dawnbringer, one of the Six Sacred Swords. He calls the replica “Bright Reflection”.
After that, we all prepped for our final exams. We passed, with some complications here and there, like Corin being kidnapped briefly by Elora Theas — Sheridan’s sister.
That situation escalated quickly, because Elora’s group had been infiltrated by a servant of the Tyrant in Gold, and when Corin pointed that out, they called for help. That help ended up being Saffron, one of the Tyrant’s own children.
And the Tyrant’s children are basically unstoppable forces of nature, so…that was bad.
Even Elora, an Emerald-level attuned, was at a disadvantage when she tried to fight Saffron. Corin managed to distract Saffron long enough for Elora to evacuate the two of them to Derek’s house, and then the three of them fought Saffron long enough for Keras to arrive and chase Saffron off.
That once again proved that Keras is ludicrously powerful and kind of terrifying. We really need to keep more of an eye on him, guys.
Anyway, we all got back and checked on Corin, and we were relieved that he had once again somehow survived fighting someone that was a hundred times more powerful than him. Apparently, being the weakest person in a battle like that has the benefit that the enemy doesn’t pay much attention to you.
After that, we all went to the winter ball. Which you’d think would be a nice reprieve from all sort of crazy death dealing nonsense, but nope! It was actually the worst.
Mizuchi, one of Seiryu’s daughters, showed up at the ball and accused some of the important people in attendance — members of the Council of Lords, Valia’s primary ruling body — of making a deal with the Tyrant in Gold. That is admittedly pretty bad if it’s true, but I don’t think it warranted paralyzing the whole room with magic and starting to blast people out of existence.
Most of us students were paralyzed by the aforementioned magic, but Corin’s attunement allowed him to gradually start breaking us out by purifying our mana.
Meanwhile, a bunch of teachers and state officials had a huge battle with Mizuchi. Most of them were pretty ineffective, except for Teft — our dueling teacher, who I gained a little bit of respect for in that fight, and Professor Meltlake, who was powerful enough to force Mizuchi to change into something closer to her true form.
And, of course, Professor Conway, who died protecting us.
Resh. I still hate just thinking about that. I’m sorry, Professor.
Marissa managed to save a downed Teft from being killed, but got herself badly hurt in the process. The rest of us weren’t anywhere near as effective as she was, but we did what we could.
Ultimately, Professor Vellum — Corin’s other, weirder mentor figure — managed to banish Mizuchi back to the Serpent Spire, but very nearly died due to the cost of the spell.
Corin managed to prevent Professor Vellum from dying, then got Sheridan to show up and help assist with the wounded.
A lot of people still died that night, but I’d like to think that by stepping in, maybe we helped save a few. I honestly don’t know if we made things better or worse. It was clear Mizuchi wasn’t aiming for the students in the first place, but I think she would have killed Teft and Meltlake if we hadn’t stopped her.
I try not to think about whether or not Professor Conway would have lived if we’d never gotten into the fight.
We spent some time recovering after that, but not for very long.
Corin was insistent on going to the Serpent Spire to figure out more about who was pulling the strings on all the attacks we’d been seeing. He put together a team. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t in any shape to go with them.
I ended up in there anyway, against my will.
You see, during the fight with Mizuchi, I’d tried to bind her — much like I do with other monsters regularly. I’d recovered a bit of my magic, but that led to some overconfidence on my part.
I’d hoped to figure out how her magic worked and learn to use it against her.
I hadn’t realized that Mizuchi had the powers of a Summoner herself, and that our binding went both ways.
So, while Corin fought his way up the Spire with the others, Mizuchi summoned me to her.
And then she kidnapped me and used me as a tool to find the location of our brother, Tristan.
You see, Tristan had been the one sending messages to Corin through his magic book — Trials of Judgment — all along. Tristan was a key part of a conspiracy that had worked to break free of the control of the visages, and he’d been involved in an attack that had resulted in Tenjin, our local visage, being kidnapped
.
Mizuchi had discovered Tristan’s role, but hadn’t had a way to find where he was hidden...until she got her hands on me, a family member of Tristan’s. My blood was linked to his, and could be used to track him any time he wasn’t hiding in a location that was protected from divination.
And, as it happened, Tristan was outside of that kind of safe area at the moment — because he was waiting for Corin to come and meet him. Oops.
All three siblings were finally reunited when Mizuchi brought me to Corin and Tristan’s location in the spire. I wish our meeting could have been under better circumstances, if it had to happen at all.
Mizuchi tried to kill all three of us, but she was still weaker than usual from being banished. And I had a new trick up my sleeve — when I’d taken that attunement primer, it hadn’t just broken my power. It’d changed it into something new; an Invoker attunement.
I still barely knew how to utilize my new capabilities, but I managed to invoke some of Vanniv’s power and hold Mizuchi at bay until Corin figured out a clever trick. He managed to mix some potions together in order to make a teleportation concoction, and Tristan and I managed to break through enough of Mizuchi’s barrier for Corin to splash her with it.
Mizuchi was teleported out of the area, and we all ran to hide in a safe spot of the tower Mizuchi couldn’t reach.
We were worried that Mizuchi might go after our companions, though, so we couldn’t stay long.
I did, however, manage one more feat during the fight: I made a contract with Researcher, an elemental librarian that Mizuchi had previously contracted. By making my own contract with Researcher, I managed to get Researcher to switch sides and help us in the battle. After that, I maintained my contract with Researcher, which allowed me to summon her to us in the future or invoke her powers.
Tristan told us a bit about what he’d really been up to — he was a member of one of three factions working against the visages, each with different motives. The Godslayers wanted to kill the visages outright. The Peacemakers still wanted the humans and visages to live together in harmony, but with more of a balanced relationship. And Tristan’s faction, the Ascension faction, wanted to level the playing field more permanently — by finding a way to get humanity visage-like powers.
I still don’t know what exactly I think about all that. We didn’t have enough time to discuss all the pros, cons, and politics in detail.
Tristan had been badly hurt in the fight. I think he might have lost an eye. But he couldn’t leave the spire with us; he had a mark on his body that would basically cause him to explode if he tried to leave the spire.
So, we had to leave him behind, so soon after seeing him again after many years apart.
I wasn’t quite as torn up about it as Corin was. Tristan had never been particularly kind to me. But he was family, and family is important.
And Tristan clearly meant a lot to Corin. Corin had this ideal in his mind that if he found Tristan, he could get our family back together. Don’t look down on him for that. It may have been a little naïve, but he worked reshing hard to try to make it a reality.
And once he learned that wasn’t possible, it just meant he had to make a new series of plans.
So, Corin grabbed the rest of us to take a train toward Caelford. Marissa and Patrick tagged along as usual. Keras accompanied us, but with the understanding that we’d probably part ways for a while after the train ride.
Corin also brought Cecily, a childhood friend of ours and fellow Enchanter who I didn’t entirely trust.
We had a lot of reasons for going to Caelford. For me, the most pressing was speaking to Ferras, the Visage of Creation, who I’d been led to believe could help treat my damaged attunement more thoroughly.
For Corin, it was more about finding new answers.
More about his Arbiter attunement.
More about artificial attunements.
More about what Tristan’s faction was really up to, and why people were working to overthrow the visages in the first place.
Corin wasn’t going to let a little thing like the truth about Tristan demoralize him.
He had a new set of goals.
He had more knowledge, more power, and new friends.
And most importantly?
He has me, his sister.
And I’m never going to let us be apart again.
And with that, I’ll let Corin take over and pick up where he last left off.
Chapter I – Heist
Corin Cadence’s Perspective
I probably should have expected the train robbery. After all, we’d heard about the Blackstone Bandit robbing trains. And, perhaps more importantly, I was beginning to sense a pattern of things going wrong any time I started to get comfortable.
I’d been enjoying Keras’ anecdotes when he stopped suddenly. His hand shot to the hilt of his sword, which was an immediate signal for me to be concerned. After all, if he’d decided to suddenly kill us, there was no question that Lorian Heights was about to have five fewer students for the next semester.
Well, four, maybe. Cecily wasn’t in the train car with the rest of us. It depended on if Keras’ sudden murderous rampage extended to the rest of the train.
Fortunately, Keras wasn’t actually in a murder mood. Not for us, anyway.
“I’m going to have to put the rest of the story on hold.” Keras stood up suddenly, then glanced at each of us. I could see him evaluating the proper course of action.
“Stay here.” He turned to me. “Corin, protective runes on this section of the car.”
I nodded to him, uncertain.
What is it this time?
Assassins?
God beasts?
Assassin god beasts?
I think the God Spider might count as one of those...
He glanced at Sera next. “Sera, call Vanniv.”
“Why?” Her voice was still scratchy, but sounding much better. She’d recovered significantly over the last week or so, both in terms of her speech and her mana levels. She was back to Carnelian, but still a good way from reaching her previous maximum mana level.
Keras grinned broadly, gazing out the window.
“Because our train is about to be robbed.”
Mara cracked her neck, stretched her arms, and headed for the train door.
Keras raised an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”
“Same place you are.” Mara grinned. “Wherever the trouble’s gonna be.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of Mara leaving. Not because she’d be at risk, but because we’d be at a greater risk without Keras and her with us. I was catching up to her in combat ability somewhat, but in close quarters like a train, she’d be much more effective.
I didn’t object. I got to work. “Retrieve: Etching Rod.”
Patrick moved closer to me, drawing Bright Reflection.
I started working on writing the first of the protective runes I’d need to put on the walls. Hopefully, Keras could fix any damage I did to the train car later.
“Vanniv, I summon you.”
Vanniv popped into existence a moment later. I felt a bit of relief, not just because he could offer some extra muscle, but because I’d been a little worried that summoning someone while the train was in motion would have unfortunate results.
I was very glad he didn’t appear inside a wall. I knew he could reform if he died, but...ugh. That would have been messy.
Vanniv immediately stretched his arms and wings, which brushed against the inside of the car. “Ah. Finally, a chance to move around.” He frowned. “Although we seem to be moving without any effort on my part.”
Once again, I wondered if he could actually sense the passage of time when he wasn’t summoned. I’d have to ask that later.
Yes, yes, I know I have a bad habit of saying things like that. I’m working on it.
Sera filled Vanniv in on the situation.
“Ooh, bandits! How lovely!”
Keras and Marissa gave us
a final nod and then exited the train car, presumably going bandit hunting. I wished them luck.
I slipped out right after, considering what I knew about the train.
We were toward the center of the train. Further toward the front, we’d find more sleeper cars, including Cecily’s. She was three cars down. We’d also find a dining hall, then a bunch of other seating areas for people who hadn’t reserved sleeper cars. I couldn’t imagine staying on a trip this long without one, but it was a lot cheaper.
Then beyond that, toward the front of the train, was the vault car. The vault car carried money, plain and simple. I didn’t know a lot of the details, but apparently the train itself was owned by Haven Securities, and it was often used to transport large sums of cash from place to place. It would be the most heavily guarded section of the train.
Beyond that, the engineering cars.
In the opposite direction, further toward the rear of the train, there were a few more sleeper cars. After that, another dining car, then more seating areas, a luggage car, and finally a “holding car”. I didn’t know much about the “holding car”, but it was very heavily guarded from what I’d seen when I’d first come onto the train. I got the impression “holding” was probably a nice way of saying “prison”, and that the car was being used to transport prisoners from Valia to Caelford.
I didn’t know why that might be — maybe it was for people like Keras that had committed a crime in one country and been arrested in another? I couldn’t be sure.
I didn’t think much about it at the time. Cecily was in the other direction, and so was the vault car, which was the most likely target for the bandits.
I headed in her direction immediately. I didn’t see anyone else wandering the halls, at least not at first. The section of the train we were on was a row of sleeper cars, and most people didn’t have any reason to be wandering about. There were no obvious sounds of battle or danger; I probably wouldn’t have noticed the sound of hoof beats if Keras hadn’t pointed them out.
I took a deep breath as I walked forward. I had Selys-Lyann on my hip, but I hoped not to have to use it. I’d managed pretty well in scrapes against strong opponents before, but that was largely because I had allies that were much more dangerous than I was, and they’d drawn all the attention.