by Andrew Rowe
“And you saw how well that worked out. All of you did.” Meltlake shuddered.
“Mizuchi.” Sera spat the word. It wasn’t a question.
Meltlake’s hand tightened around the top of her cane. “If I was still in my prime…no, even then, I couldn’t have beaten her. Not with one attunement.”
“That’s no failing of yours. I don’t think anyone could have, Professor.” Patrick sounded heartbroken as he said it, his eyes wide and full of the kind of instant sympathy that I’d never been able to properly demonstrate.
“That’s exactly my point, Patrick.” She exhaled a breath. “I reached as high as a single attunement could take me long ago.”
I frowned at that. A question occurred to me. One that was, perhaps, a rude one to ask, but I was never good at judging that — or holding back even when I knew. “What about Sapphire?”
Meltlake turned to me without anger, but only an expression showing disappointment. “Don’t ask me about Sapphire.”
“I, uh…” I didn’t know quite how to respond to that, so I froze for a moment.
Earning Sapphire had become one of my long-term goals. Given how powerful Meltlake was, she was one of the most likely people to know about paths to get there. Things that had been attempted in the past, maybe even people who had succeeded. I hadn’t expected her to look so upset when I’d mentioned it.
What threw her off somehow? Does it have something to do with her injury?
After a beat, I managed to focus enough to change the subject. “Okay. What about ascended attunements. Do you already have one?”
“No.” Meltlake shook her head. “I’m aware of the rumors, but it’s not an ascended attunement. Just a fire-specialized one. Even I don’t know how to ascend an attunement. I’ve tried several things, but…”
“I see.” I gave Sera a questioning look.
She had an ascended attunement. She must have understood what I was asking. She shook her head and mouthed “not now”.
I turned back to Meltlake. “Maybe we could help you look for new ideas?”
“No, I’m afraid not, Corin. I’d rather not discuss my attunement further.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry, Professor. I didn’t mean to bring up a subject that was difficult for you.”
She let out a deep sigh. “It’s no bother. You’re my students…and, you have a right to know. Especially Patrick.”
“You…don’t think you’re coming back, do you?” He asked.
“I can’t be certain.” She gave him a hard look. “The odds of coming out of a second Judgment go up with each attunement level, but not by much. And with my injuries…”
“Can’t you just wait until you recover more?” Patrick asked, pleading.
“It won’t matter. Too many permanent ones.” Meltlake shook her head. “It’s this or…well, the alternatives are worse.”
“Why not buy an artificial attunement? Can’t you afford one?” Again, an impertinent question, but I had to ask.
She gave me a look. “Perhaps I could. But my pride won’t allow it. If I can’t earn another attunement on my own, what chance do I have if…”
“You’re planning to fight her again.” Mara said in a reverent tone.
“I’m planning to beat her.” Meltlake replied. And then, more quietly, she added. “And next time…one of us won’t walk away.”
“That’s…” I wanted to say “suicide by demigod”, but I restrained myself, changing my message, “…let us help you.”
“I couldn’t possibly involve you children in something like this. Not again. You’ve suffered more than enough because of my weakness. I…should have been able to protect you.”
“You did, Professor,” Patrick whispered, gently. “Better than anyone else could have.”
“It wasn’t enough.” Meltlake shook her head. “And I won’t let there be a next time.”
“Uh, about that.” I winced. “There’s something you should know. Maybe…somewhere more private?”
Meltlake raised an eyebrow at me. “What could you possibly mean by that, Master Cadence?”
With some convincing, we found a more private area to chat. I felt awful every time Meltlake was forced to take a step — she was clearly still in a great deal of pain — but I couldn’t justify letting someone overhear us.
Then, omitting any mention of Tristan, I explained that Sera and I had already fought Mizuchi again in the Serpent Spire.
“And you’re alive? How?” Meltlake demanded.
“We had help, of course. And Mizuchi was vastly weaker. That banishment spell…she couldn’t have been at a tenth of her usual strength. Not even a hundredth.”
“Vellum.” Meltlake frowned. “I’ll need to speak to her about how she managed that at some point. You mentioned help?”
“We had Keras Selyrian escort us into the spire.” Sera offered. It was technically true, but the obvious twisting of the tale drew some looks from Mara and Patrick. They held their tongues in spite of their obvious disapproval.
If Meltlake noticed their faces, she didn’t mention it. Instead, she laughed. “Selyrian? You know him?”
“Uh, yeah.” Patrick began, then added with a hint of embarrassment, “Actually, he just took me and Mara up to the twelfth-floor last week.”
“Did he, now?” Meltlake gave Patrick an appraising look. “I’m proud of you both, then. That’s an incredible accomplishment for your age.”
Now it was Patrick’s turn to blush. “I…didn’t really do much.”
“He’s lying.” Mara grinned. “Patrick was incredible in there. You should have seen how he handled the gorgon.”
“I think I would have liked that.” Meltlake sounded wistful.
“Well,” I glanced to the others, then back to her, “Maybe you can see something just as good.”
Meltlake turned to me. “Oh? Whatever do you mean, Master Cadence?”
“Well, we were looking for more people to climb the spire with. And, while you might only be Emerald-level, I think that barely meets our requirements.”
She gave me a genuine laugh. “You know what? If it’s okay with the rest of you children,” she got a series of nods and a gasp of delight from Patrick, “I’d be delighted to accompany you into the Tiger Spire.”
***
We discussed our plans a bit more after that. Meltlake was packed for a Judgment, not a climb, so we took a brief detour for her to pick up some other supplies she wanted. By evening, we were ready to climb.
We briefly discussed getting a sixth climber, but we didn’t find anyone on the postings that appealed to us. And honestly? We didn’t need one.
We were only planning to go up six floors. Even injured, Meltlake alone could probably handle the first twenty or more without any difficulty, unless they were an absolute mismatch for her skills.
And beyond that? We had emergency plans. I’d taken my circlet back from Cecily. Meltlake had her own return bell. Everyone else had return bell functions on our shield sigils. And we even had the ability to contact Keras if it really came down to it.
Honestly, it was probably the safest I’d ever felt when entering a spire. Even when we’d gone in with Keras, I’d known something was likely to go wrong (and, of course, it did).
This was a supposedly normal climb that we were vastly over-prepared for. Exactly the way I liked it.
With everything ready, we waited in line, talked, and signed in with the Soaring Wings at the entrance.
And with all that done?
We walked into the wide-open jaws of the Tiger Spire.
Chapter IX – Tiger’s Den
I always found something disorienting about stepping into a spire. Even knowing to brace myself, my stomach swam and my head spun as I arrived.
As I’d expected, the interior was completely unrelated to the outside. Walking through the doorway into a spire was largely symbolic; every door to a spire was actually a form of teleporter, leading to a different location within the spire. Clim
bers used sequential designations for floors to maintain their own sanity when trying to organize expeditions, but in reality, there was nothing saying that the “first floor” that we’d just arrived in had to be anywhere close to the bottom of the spire. Conventional wisdom (and a series of navigation spells) seemed to indicate that the physical location of a spire’s entry generally was near the bottom, but exceptions were always possible — like when Keras stepped through a door and ended up in a prison cell.
I’m digressing, sorry.
Anyway, we stepped into the Tiger Spire and found ourselves in a circular room that was pure white. My companions appeared all around me, some staggering with the same feeling of teleportation sickness that I’d experienced. Oddly, Sera seemed to shake it off the most easily, perhaps even more easily than Professor Meltlake. Perhaps her attunement’s teleportation abilities lent her some sort of resistance to teleportation sickness? Something to check later, maybe.
Anyway, circular room. It was about fifty feet in diameter, which was pretty standard for an entry room. In the center was a mana fountain, which wasn’t exactly comforting, given that those were normally right near spire guardian rooms. I didn’t exactly like the idea of running into a spire guardian this soon, but it wasn’t impossible. Perhaps one was through the gigantic locked door straight ahead of us with the skull-shaped keyhole.
That seemed plausible.
Aside from Mr. Skull Door, there were two other doors on the sides of the room with boring generic locks. Unlike the neatly color-coded doors in the Serpent Spire, this spire’s doors were largely unlabeled, save for the aforementioned skull-shaped lock.
The room was illuminated…somehow, but with no obvious light source. I did a quick scan with Detect Aura to see if there were any runes on the walls, but I couldn’t see any. There were no immediate threats of any kind.
The wall behind us was completely blank. This was only mildly unusual; sometimes spire entrances had exits on the first floor, sometimes they didn’t.
“Huh.” I scanned the room again, searching for any kind of hidden monsters or traps.
“Problem?” Sera asked me.
I frowned. “No, just…honestly a little surprised we’re not being teleported straight into room with a god beast or something. This feels…normal.”
Sera laughed. “I think you’ve gotten a little too acclimated to special treatment. Not every experience with a spire has to involve disproportionately deadly and dastardly…what’s a ‘d’-word for the overpowered monsters we keep running into? Oh, demigods. Deadly and dastardly demigods.”
“In fairness, only one of the demigods we’ve fought was inside a spire.” I pointed out. “But that’s beside the point. Shall we get to work?”
“Let’s.”
I waved to Sera. “Lead the way.”
She scanned each of the doors. “Mara, Patrick, any insights from your previous visits?”
“First floor for the last visit was totally different. Looked like a big carnival tent, except everyone and everything there tried to kill us.” Patrick explained.
I felt a hint of relief that our current floor wasn’t anything like that. “That’s kind of how I feel at carnivals in general.”
“Right. You suffer from a tragic allergy to anything fun. We know.” Sera shook her head sadly, then turned to Mara. “Any ideas?”
“Haven’t done any floors quite like this, but it does sound kind of like that temple Keras was describing in his story about Dawnbringer. Maybe we have to find the big skull key in one of the other passages.”
That sounded about right to me, too.
“Any preference on which one?” Sera asked.
Mara and Patrick both shook their heads.
Sera turned to Meltlake. “Suggestions?”
“I’d rather let you make the decisions. I’ll tell you if there’s anything critical you seem to be missing.”
“Fair. Okay. Well, since everyone important has given their suggestions…”
I rolled my eyes and cut her off. “In cases like this, general protocol is to open both doors and choose a path based on the contents of the rooms. There are sometimes traps in the doorways, but it’s rare at this level of the spire. Exploration is generally rewarded, rather than punished. Also, we should check the seemingly blank wall for secret passages.”
“Very good, Master Cadence. Always suspect anything that looks out of place.” Meltlake gave me a nod.
“Know something we don’t?” Sera asked.
“Plenty of things.” Meltlake smiled. “But in this case, no, I have no prior knowledge of this room’s layout. I haven’t been here in years.”
“Right.” Mara stepped toward the wall. “Guess I’m on wall testin’ duty, then, unless one of you’ve got a spell for it.”
I did not, in fact, have a spell for it. Not yet. Trap and secret door finding spells were more of Analyst territory, but maybe I could research some in the future.
With a series of confirmations that no one had a better approach, Mara took the traditional route of tapping on the wall for obvious weak spots. She found none. Then, in a possible nod to her mentor, she punched the wall.
There was a crack as her fist met the stone and sent splinters of rock flying. Several rapid punches followed the first, breaking away larger chunks of rock. After a flurry of blows, she’d worn away a large section, but there was nothing but more solid stone beyond.
With a look of mild irritation, she extended her right hand. A warbling blade of energy manifested around her hand, extending nearly a meter and burning through the ground where it made contact. She swung again, this time slicing cleanly through the stone.
She’s gotten much better with the aura blade technique.
I was impressed and a little bit jealous. I’d practiced the technique a bit on the train ride — enough that I was getting used to forming a coherent blade and I thought I could fight with it in a pinch — but my aura blade couldn’t possibly cleave through stone like she was. Her mana composition made her blade much sharper and her control was vastly superior to my own.
She really does take after Keras. She’s going to be an absolute terror to fight in dueling class next year.
After a few more sweeps of the aura blade, Mara turned around and shook her head. “Nothin’ ‘ere, so far as I can tell.”
“Very good, Mara, thank you.” Sera nodded to her, then gave me a look. “Sometimes a wall is just a wall.”
“Yes, yes. It was still worth checking. Shall we continue?” I gestured to the door on the right.
“I’ve got it!” Patrick ran to the door excitedly. I didn’t see an actual doorknob or handle to pull, but Patrick must have already known the right procedure. He put a hand on the center of the door and the door slid open, no key required. I wondered why the doors looked like they had keyholes if keys weren’t required, but I didn’t say anything about it at the time.
I jumped out of the way the moment I saw the contents of the next room. I wasn’t the only one, but fortunately, the evasive maneuver wasn’t actually necessary — not immediately, at least.
There was a golem in the center of the room, partially enclosed by a strange formation of stone pillars. Or, rather, there was the top half of a golem — a titanic torso, arms, and head made of solid stone. Beneath it was a single fist-sized crystal contained in a rune-etched metal casing: a power core, and a sophisticated one. Both the core and the golem itself were floating a few feet off the ground, putting the head of the golem about seven feet up.
Now, ordinarily, a half-made golem wouldn’t be a source of alarm, but this one had a glowing circular panel on the center of its chest. I recognized that immediately, and so did my friends: we’d been briefed on common golem weaponry, and that was one of the more irritating types: an integrated beam array. It didn’t unleash the weapon the moment we opened the door, though. Instead, it rotated ninety-degrees in the air and then fired, unleashing a torso-wide burst of light mana straight into one of the ro
om’s walls.
Based on the brightness and intensity of the blast…well, I didn’t want to get hit by that.
It continued hovering in place after that, the weapon inside its chest momentarily dimming as the golem’s power recharged it.
“Woah, okay. Next room?” Patrick asked.
“No, wait.” I told him. I was still evaluating the rest of the chamber. The golem itself was the main feature, but I noted a few other things.
Two other doors, for example, on the right side and straight ahead. Notably, if the golem kept rotating, it would shoot a pillar next, but after that, it would blast the door on the right. Maybe that would open the right door? Was this a timing-based puzzle, where we had to run through the door right after a blast temporarily opened it?
No, that would only open that door, and there has to be a way to open the one straight ahead. And with a pillar blocking that route... I kept looking, and I noted something else of interest. It was hard to see from the entrance, but the stone pillars had something shining on one side of each of them, right around at the same height as the golem’s chest. And…were those tiny buttons on the sides of the pillars?
Sera must have noted the same thing I did. “There are mechanisms on the pillars, and if you look at the base…I think they can move. And possibly rotate.”
“Oh, goddess. It’s a mirror puzzle.” I groaned, rubbing my temples. “We’re supposed to reflect the light in a specific pattern.”
“Couldn’t we just avoid the light and go straight to the next door?” Patrick asked.
“Maybe. Doors are probably locked until we reflect the light in the correct pattern, maybe into the door, or…”
“Back to the golem?” Patrick considered. “Maybe that would open both doors?”
“Possible.” I frowned. “Or…”
The golem rotated again. I winced, but it just fired its beam into the door on the right…which did, in fact, briefly open.
“Huh. Okay. So, beams do open doors. We could go that route right now…”
The door closed. Apparently, it did only stay open briefly after being hit.