by Andrew Rowe
“Well,” I began, “That was the strangest way I’ve ever been terrified.”
Sera rubbed at her temples. “I...don’t even know where to begin. That was almost like talking to an elemental, but not of a variety I’ve ever seen. It seemed almost like she was...”
“...Not speaking to us in a linear order?” Cecily suggested.
“I was going to say ‘addled’, but yes, that’s a possibility. She certainly seemed to have difficulty with anything in regards to time, but I’m not sure I’d go as far as to assume she was speaking to us in a non-linear sequence. I would, perhaps, be inclined to believe she has seen events playing out in advance. Possibly multiple iterations of the same event, leading to confusion.”
“Chronomancy?” I speculated aloud. “I heard about a restricted attunement for that, but I wasn’t confident it was real.”
“I...don’t think it would require that. Diviners are better at seeing the past, but there’s a Seer attunement that focuses on the future.”
I rubbed at my chin, thinking. “That’s a Dalenos one, isn’t it? Not from Caelford?”
“That’d hardly be a restriction for someone with her resources,” Sera pointed out. “She could just make an attunement for herself, couldn’t she?”
Cecily shook her head. “I...don’t think it works like that. I mean, maybe it does for her, but from what I’ve read, artificial attunements don’t duplicate normal ones exactly.”
I turned to Cecily. “But they could emulate a specific function, including future sight, correct?”
“I guess so, but I don’t know for sure. I’m sorry.”
Sera gave Cecily a nudge. “You need to stop apologizing for not being omnipotent and omniscient, Ceci. No one expects you to be perfect.”
“I...” Cecily winced. “I’ll try to be better.”
“That’s...the opposite of what I was trying to say you needed to do. But never mind.” Sera sighed.
“Speaking of omnipotence and omniscience,” I interjected, “what are the odds that she’s Ferras?”
Cecily gasped.
Sera just rolled her eyes. “Let me guess — because of her name? Visage-based names are common. Unless you think Lawrence Wydmore is a visage, too.”
“It’s more than just that.” Admittedly, it was mostly that, but I kept talking anyway. “I mean, you heard her reaction to the word ‘boons’. And we know Ferras is more active about interacting with humans than most visages — maybe this is just one of her guises.”
“It’s not impossible,” Sera admitted. “But if she was Ferras, she could just hand out more attunements. Or design new ones herself. There would be no need for the whole facility.”
“Maybe it’s a method of encouraging humanity to be creative and figure out attunements on their own? It’s within the purview of the Visage of Creation to try to teach people to make things.”
“Can’t say that’s impossible, but it seems off. Farren seems too interested in getting her hands on an Arbiter for them to be the same person. Ferras could just make more Arbiters at will.”
“What if Ferras couldn’t for some reason? Maybe there’s a limit on how many Arbiters each visage is allowed to have? There certainly seem to be very few of us, and that ‘restricted’ thing has to mean something.”
Sera shrugged. “Not strictly impossible, but we’re getting pretty heavily into baseless speculation territory here.”
“Fair.” I nodded. “Sorry for the distraction.”
“It’s no problem. We’ll keep our eyes on her for any signs of visage-ness.” Sera took a breath, refocusing. “Okay. So, Farren might see the future, or might be living outside of linear time, or whatever. What does that mean for us?”
I considered that. “From a practical standpoint, very little changes, if that’s all there is to it. I mean, we should commit to not betraying her in any way if we think she can see the future.”
“Was...that ever the plan?” Cecily’s eyes widened.
“No, no.” I raised my hands in a defensive gesture. “Just saying, pragmatically, we need to play safer with her than we would have otherwise. It also means bluffing to her in any regard will be nearly impossible. Like, if we needed to negotiate a business deal, she’d presumably know what we were willing to bend on.”
“It’s possible she just gives people the impression she can see the future purely to get people to take that approach,” Sera pointed out. “Honestly, if I was in her position, I’d consider it. She has potential access to any number of powers that are unknown to anyone outside of her team. Faking virtual omniscience through some vague personality tics would be extremely effective.”
I was a pretty paranoid guy, but even I wouldn’t have guessed someone might fake something that strange. Still, I couldn’t discount it as a possibility.
That was, perhaps, a part of the problem — given her resources, disproving that she had any specific capability would be extremely difficult. So, if she implied future knowledge, or broad knowledge she shouldn’t have in general, it was easiest to just take that at face value.
After several moments of silence, I managed a statement. “I don’t like it.”
“I doubt we’re intended to. She’s put us in a difficult position. One that strikes me as calculated, in spite of her seeming...distracted, shall we say.” Sera glanced to Cecily. “Her statement about your Judgment was the most interesting to me. If you take a Judgment now and don’t return, it would show Corin and myself that Farren is unreliable. That’s quite a risk on her part, if she doesn’t have future knowledge.”
“...Meaning that she probably does know the outcome in advance?” Cecily asked.
Sera frowned. “She might, or she might be able to influence it. She could be a Whisper, for example, and intend to monitor your test and ensure the result.”
I pondered that. “Or she could simply not be that invested in our opinions of her, Sera. I don’t think Cecily should take a risk based on our guesses about Farren’s motives.”
“I’ll...think about it. Farren was right about one thing, though.” Cecily turned her head downward.
“Oh?” I asked.
“You two are worth more than me right now. I can’t keep up. I felt silly even being there.”
Sera leaned over and prodded Cecily on the arm. “None of that. We’re all just getting started. You have years to catch up in terms of mana.”
Cecily sighed. “But I just have one normal attunement. You two—”
“—Have advantages and disadvantages,” Sera cut her off. “Remember, Derek is stronger than any of us, and he has a single standard attunement. Meltlake, too.”
I raised a finger. “I...actually think Meltlake might have an ascended attunement.”
Sera leaned over and hissed at me. “Not helping, Corin.”
“Sorry, sorry.” I winced. “But, uh, normal attunements obviously can ascend. So, Cecily, if what you want is an ascended attunement, we could try to figure that out?”
“I...don’t know what I want. I suppose an ascended Enchanter attunement would be interesting. What would that even do?” Cecily frowned, but not in sadness this time, more in an introspective sense. “I mean, enchanting people is more of a Biomancer thing, or an Arbiter thing, I suppose. So what additional functions do you think an ascended Enchanter would gain?”
I’d given that a bit of thought already. “Plenty of possibilities. I think the highest odds would be for functions similar to other item-modifying attunements. Maybe the ability to bind monsters to items like Soulblades, or the ability to create temporary items like Architects. It might also be something like automatic mana purification, similar to my Arbiter attunement.”
“You don’t think it would be totally unique?” Cecily asked.
I shrugged at that. “It might be, but Sera’s Invoker attunement strikes me as sort of a hybrid between a Summoner and a Shapeshifter. I figure other ascended attunements are likely to be the same way, but we don’t have enough data. If it
does have a unique function…well, there are tons of options. Enhanced mana crystal creation. Imbuing your shroud with a passive enchantment effect. A library of stored runes.”
Cecily’s eyes widened. “A library? You mean it might just…tell you new enchantments?”
“Basically. I’m thinking of a function that has images and concept stored, and when you think about something — say, a rune for making fire — the attunement function just shows you those images and what they do.”
“I suppose that’s possible…sort of like a memory crystal, but with information that displays when you’re thinking about it…” Cecily went silent, apparently caught up in contemplation.
“I hate to interrupt you two, but we need to focus a bit more on the main subject. Are we going back there tomorrow?” Sera asked.
“I think I am…in spite of any potential dangers, I think I need to learn more about what’s going on. As for Cecily, though...” I turned to her.
“Let me sleep on it. I don’t know. Taking another Judgment is a risk, but I don’t want to offend Miss Farren...”
Sera sighed. “You shouldn’t worry so much about what other people want you to do, Ceci.”
“I...I’m sorry. I’ll try not to.”
Sera and I both sighed at that reply. Then, Sera turned to me. “Okay. It’s been a long couple weeks of not doing anything, and I’m going out on the town. You’re not coming, because you hate people.”
It was not a question. She was correct.
I gave Sera a wave. “Don’t die in a way that would embarrass me.”
Sera snorted. “I would never dream of embarrassing the scion of House Cadence.” She turned to Cecily. “Come on. Let’s give Corin some room to read more about magic theory or whatever he thinks a vacation is for.”
I was, in fact, planning to read about magic theory. But not for the whole night, thank you.
...At least, probably not. Some of those books were very interesting, okay?
Sera stood up, and Cecily followed her. I waved at them.
Cecily gave me one last look, like she wanted to say something, before silently following Sera out of the room.
***
The next morning, we met up again to discuss our plans.
“I...think I’m going to go.” Cecily told us. “To the spire, that is.”
I winced. I didn’t want to be too pushy, but I still felt like this was a terrible idea. “Are you sure? Even if Farren has future knowledge, we don’t know what she’s playing at. This could be a trap.”
“It’s fine.” Cecily shook her head. “I...think I need this. Even without Farren’s prompting, it’s what I was planning on doing when I got to Caelford. Ever since what happened with Mizuchi, I’ve felt worthless. Powerless. If there’s any chance I might get something in there that could help...”
I shook my head at Cecily. “You can’t think that way. We’re barely starting as attuned. There’s no point in looking down on ourselves just because we can’t handle the children of god beasts on our own yet.”
Sera snorted at me. “You’re one to talk. We’ve all heard your story. You’re the king of self-deprecation.”
“I’m...like a minor earl of self-deprecation at best, sister, but I know you like to inflate the family’s status to make yourself look better.”
Cecily reached up and adjusted her glasses. “Thank you both. I appreciate your concern, but I’m going. If I don’t come back, you can always come rescue me, right?”
The half-smile she gave me was absolutely heart-breaking to look at. It reminded me of how much I’d already lost.
“Come on, then,” Sera grabbed Cecily by the hand. “We’ll go and wait for you outside, at least.”
I winced. “Uh, about that, Sera. Second Judgments take a lot longer. I don’t think we can do that.”
“We’ll wait for her outside, Corin.” Sera’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s...okay. Thank you. Corin is right.” Cecily smiled at Sera. “I’ve read about this. Second Judgments can take days or weeks.”
“Will you even be able to finish before our trip back, then?” Sera asked.
“Well, Farren seemed to think so,” Cecily replied, uncertain.
“She really didn’t,” I pointed out. “She seemed to be planning on us skipping going back to Lorian Heights entirely. I really don’t appreciate that presumption.”
“It...wouldn’t be such a bad idea, though, would it?” Cecily asked. “I’m not really much of a fighter. I’d much rather work on things.”
I shrugged at her. “I’m just very tired of my life being dictated by others without asking my input first.”
Sera burst into laughter, enough that she started coughing. After a moment she raised a hand. “Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t laugh, but...Corin, coming from you, that’s just...do you even have the slightest idea how lucky you are?”
I gave Sera a hard look. “I have a hard time calling myself lucky, Sera. Do you think I was lucky that my father—”
“Please, not now, you two.” Cecily pulled her hand away from Sera, then folded both her hands. “I just...can’t.”
Sera sighed. “You’re right, Cecily. I’m sorry. We’ll...focus.” She took a breath, refocusing. “Okay. Even if we can’t stay with you the whole time, we can at least accompany you there. Would you like us to go with you to the gate, Cecily?”
Cecily nodded emphatically. “Please. I don’t want to be alone when I walk in the door.”
My mind rushed to memories of my Judgment, and how I’d felt when I first walked through that gate.
I gave Cecily a nod. “Of course. We’ll be with you right up until you go inside.”
And so, we took a train all the way back to the Tiger Spire, and headed to the Gate of Judgment.
The Tiger Spire wasn’t what I expected. For one thing, it didn’t look very much like a tiger.
The structure was far more simplistic; it was a pyramid, one constructed of hundreds of layers of blocks made from a substance I could not identify.
The blocks were white, much like Byakko’s fur was supposed to be. They were highly reflective, but not in the lustrous way of metal, and they lacked the translucence of crystal.
The material was, I realized as I grew closer, more reminiscent of rubber. But, given that the tower was so tall that it pierced into the clouds above, it couldn’t be entirely made of some kind of rubbery substance, could it?
Was I simply seeing an outer layer on each block, with some other kind of material within? And if so, what was the purpose of this outer layer?
These were the sorts of questions that people dedicated lives of research to, but for me, they were not currently important. All of my worry was dedicated to my friend, and if I needed to intervene on her behalf.
She had made her own choice, true, and she was an adult. But I’d been the one who had asked her to come with me to Caelford.
If she walked in that door and never returned, what portion of that was I responsible for?
I tried to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself. It wasn’t wise to burden Cecily any further. She was clearly already nervous, but she had steeled herself for the risks that she was taking, and I wanted to respect that.
We all stood in line together, but Sera and I paid little attention to each other. This was both because we wanted to focus on Cecily, and because we’d started an argument that we hadn’t yet had a chance to finish.
There were words lingering in the air between us, waiting to be said, but it was not the right time.
And so, with great trepidation, we waited.
It wasn’t a Judgment day for children coming of age. There wasn’t an impressive line. When the time came as we approached the Judgment Gate, I slipped my circlet off and handed it to Cecily. “It’s like a return bell. Use it if you need it.”
“I have a bell and the upgraded sigil, Corin. Don’t worry.”
I shook my head. “Take it anyway. Redundancy. You need it more than we do while
we’re out here.”
Cecily grudgingly took the circlet. I told her the activation word and the limitations on it. Then, I went and turned in the anchor for it to a nearby member of the Soaring Wings, who promised to set it up in their anchor room — a location at the nearby headquarters set up specifically for returning climbers who needed a safe place to teleport to.
She kept the anchor for her upgraded shield sigil on her, rather than turning that in. Since she already had the circlet as an escape route, the shield sigil and anchor could be used to teleport in other situations. She could toss the anchor across a pit to teleport across, for example. The range and regeneration rate on it were awful, but it was still a potentially useful tool.
Sera began to slip Ceris off her belt.
“No weapons allowed for Judgments, Sera.” Cecily shook her head. “I can’t take that one.”
“That’s true for Valia, but is the rule the same here?”
We checked with the guards at the door. It was, in fact, also true in Caelford. Cecily could bring magical items inside, but no weapons.
That was going to be a serious problem if I ever decided to take another Judgment myself.
Cecily handed over more money than I expected, signed her papers, and took a deep breath. “This is it.”
I took a breath. “Take care in there. We’ll see you at the exit gate.”
Sera stepped in and hugged Cecily tightly. “Don’t die.”
“T...thanks.” Cecily pulled away from Sera, then looked to me. I nodded, opening my arms. “It’s okay for something like this.”
I braced myself. She hugged me. I did my best to hug her back.
Then the tiger spire opened its maw, and Cecily stepped inside.
Chapter IV – Where Attunements are Born
I spent much of that night worrying about Cecily, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good.
I couldn’t do anything to help her...could I?
Maybe, as an Arbiter, I could get in there and figure out how to monitor her test...
Tristan had watched my Judgment, after all, and even intervened. I knew that Whispers had some involvement in the tests that occurred in the spires in general.