by Andrew Rowe
“There are human cannibals. We have rules in society to prevent things like that. Presumably, any monster kingdom would have similar rules.”
“Would it, though? We’re dealing with entities that do not have the same sense of morality that humans do.”
I gave a little laugh. “Ah, yes. Much-vaunted human morality. That’s doing real well for us, what with the child-death towers and the monster farms within them.”
“That’s…yes, we have our problems. But there are creatures that wouldn’t bat an eye at the idea of human extinction. United, they might actively push for humanity to be eradicated.”
I shrugged. “It’s not like we’re any better. A human nation hears ‘monster kingdom’ and the first thing they’re going to think is, ‘we need to wipe that off the map’. Talk probably wouldn’t even be a…oh. That’s your point, isn’t it?”
Sera gave me a strained smile. “Well, it took you a while, but you got there. The minute a major nation finds out…that’s war. And it would be a costly war, Corin, on both sides. Imagine if they somehow convinced one of the god beasts to join this kingdom.”
My shoulder slumped. “But…there has to be a way to make it work. There’s already this tower out here. They’re…”
“Hiding. That’s the whole point of this. It’s not just because of Warren’s research, although I’m sure he has considerable secrets of his own. They’re gradually bringing monsters to live here to start building the foundations of a new society.”
I was silent for a time.
“…The visages have to know about this already. Warren is too high profile.”
“At least a few of the visages know Warren is out here with a tower, but they don’t think the visages know about how many monsters they’ve gathered. A few dozen missing monsters isn’t all that notable in the grand scheme of things, especially with Tenjin himself being missing. But if they continue with their plans, they’ll expand beyond the tower eventually. I think they’re waiting for something.”
“…For Warren to finish the tower itself, maybe?” I thought back to what Constantine had told me. “Maybe he plans to ask Selys herself for help.”
Sera sighed. “I think we both know the odds of that working.”
I hadn’t quite told her everything about what Warren had told me…but even with a little more context, I didn’t disagree with her.
Warren’s own plan to reach the skies seemed…farfetched, at best. And I wasn’t even certain if this whole monster kingdom plan was directly related. Admittedly, Selys saying, “monsters can have a kingdom, don’t attack it” was pretty close to the only way I could see a monster kingdom working out without a war, though, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that it was part of the plan.
“…What about going to another continent? Aren’t there some of them that are, uh, more accepting?”
Sera shrugged. “Not really my area of expertise, but my impression from my studies about Artinia is that only specific monster sub-types that allied with humanity against the Buried are considered socially acceptable. And presumably, they still face significant discrimination. There’s talk in some of my books about a continent that many monsters species originated from, but frankly, I have no idea if that place is real or if they’d even accept monsters that were born here. ‘Monsters’ is a catch-all category that humans use. From the perspective of other species, many of them are as different from each other as dogs are from cats, or humans are from human-like species.”
“…Fair. Okay. What about…”
“You’re not going to solve this problem, Corin. This is like what we talked about after I summoned Emery. We can do small-scale stuff, but trying to solve it all at once is too big for us. At least, for right now, when we’re already trying to deal with one problem outside of the scope of our abilities.”
“But if I know a problem exists, is it really okay for me to just ignore it?”
“No one person can solve every problem in the world at once, Corin. You have to prioritize. And even if I think Len is being absurd, she’s infinitely more qualified to be dealing with this than you are. As a copy of a human, she stands at a unique place in the worlds between humans and monsters. I’m sure she’s put a lot more thought into this than we have in one night: and I’m equally certain there are significant elements of her plans she hasn’t told me.”
“But if she told you about it, I assumed she wanted you to be involved?”
“Sure. But I can’t help her in the way she wants right now. I’m not going rogue from my nation and smuggling monsters to this tower. There are ways I can help…but going against Valia? That’s not the sort of thing I’m ready for. I can’t impose that burden on the rest of us, either.”
“What about Emery, then?”
“Bringing one monster out of a spire isn’t the same as trying to start a kingdom.” She folded her arms. “No one is burning kingdoms to the ground over one missing monster, Corin. Or even two, if we count the unusual case of Researcher. The issue is greater at higher scales. Even the scale of this tower probably isn’t all that threatening, except for the precedent it sets. When fifty grows to a hundred, and a hundred goes to a thousand…that’s when legions are going to march.”
“And you just want to let that happen?”
Sera shook her head. “Not in the slightest. But you’ve already helped them hide.”
“And is that really enough?”
Sera raised a finger. “Obviously not. I said that Len’s plan was insane, and that you weren’t qualified to out-plan her. I didn’t say I wasn’t qualified, nor that I wasn’t working on my own plan. Try to keep up.”
I rolled my eyes.
In spite of Sera’s apparent arrogance, I could guess why she was leading the conversation this way.
She knew my tendency to hyper-focus on trying to fix things I considered broken. If I got it into my head that the inequities of how spire monsters were treated needed to be my personal mission, I would start working to pursue that immediately…and promptly lose my focus on other things in the process.
It was the same thing that both she and Patrick had accused me of before: I was always looking for someone or something to save.
And Sera, in turn, was trying to save me from myself.
This was her way of saying: I’ve got this one. In the most haughty and sisterly way possible.
So, with that in mind, just that once…I decided to let her. “Okay, let’s hear it, then. What’s your solution?”
“I didn’t say my plan was finished, either. It’s…a work in progress.”
I resisted my urge to groan. I was pretty sure that meant she didn’t actually have a plan, but I didn’t interrupt.
Sera continued. “The important thing is that you’ve already done your part: you’ve provided this place with extended security. Security that should last until a key event: The Emerald Council. And that, Corin, is what we need to be ready for.”
“You think that’s when Len is going to make her move?”
Sera nodded. “She didn’t say it explicitly, but if it’s supposed to be here, and they’re bringing in a bunch of powerful Emeralds…the Emeralds are going to notice the swarm of monsters. And some of them are going to notice that the monsters aren’t summons. Elora certainly will.”
“Do you know if Elora is on the invite list?”
“Obviously. There are certainly more Emeralds than we know about, but I still doubt there are more than perhaps one or two hundred on the continent, and that’s an exceptionally generous estimate. Speaking only of humans, of course. Elora is both an Emerald and on the Valian council. She’ll be there. I expect Derek will be as well. And…”
“Mom.” I winced. “She’s going to be there, isn’t she?”
“I would certainly expect her to be. Now, you’ve already earned your invitation to that meeting. I’m going to earn one as well. If we want to have some sort of influence over the fate of all these monsters…well, that’s going to
be the best time and the place for us to play our hand. We won’t be Emerald in a year, even with your absolutely absurd tricks. But we have a disproportionate level of influence with four of Valia’s elite: the three we’ve already mentioned and Meltlake. If you’re feeling sympathetic to these monsters, that’s what we leverage. They’ll have the power that we do not.”
I groaned. “You know I hate politics.”
“Says the man in the middle of nowhere paying favors to a crazed old wizard in exchange for a potential alliance with his deicidal brother.”
“Hey, I don’t think Tristan has actually killed any deities yet.” I winced. “…I certainly hope he hasn’t.”
“Regardless, dear brother, you’re going to be neck-deep in politics for the foreseeable future. This is, unfortunately, just a twenty-point play on a hundred-point board.”
“Really? A Crowns metaphor?”
“Of course, Corin.” Sera smiled at me. “It’s how you should know that I’m going to win.”
***
The rest of the evening came and went without incident. When I went and visited Warren, he gifted me a set of his books to begin reading immediately, claiming that he wasn’t coherent enough to begin any lessons that night. That seemed reasonable enough.
The next morning, it was time for Sera to take her own shot at the shrine. I loaned her a few items: my circlet, my armored shirt, and the Jaden Box. None of them would conflict with what she was wearing, so there was no reason not to be extra prepared.
With all those items in-hand, Sera wished me goodbye and left with Len. I hoped that my advice would help. We both knew that it was likely the crystal would give her slightly different challenges, and she couldn’t transfer mana like I could, so she’d have to use a different strategy. I hoped it would work.
That left me alone at the tower with Warren Constantine, the man that I’d been hoping to meet since the start of my vacation.
He was looking much better in the morning. His beard was freshly trimmed, his hair combed, and he was wearing what looked like a brand-new tunic and pants rather than traditional wizard robes. He still looked a little eccentric, but his gaze was a little more focused, and his voice a little less fevered.
We sat down to eat breakfast together, talking during the meal. “I need to thank you for helping me,” Warren began. “The crystal will not last forever, but it earns me valuable time.”
“I’m glad to help.” I took a bite of some kind of strange orange vegetable, frowning at the slightly bitter taste. It was probably something local to this part of the Unclaimed Lands. “Are you feeling up for teaching me a bit today?”
“I’ll give it an earnest effort. There’s a great deal you need to know, however, and the remaining days of your vacation will not be anywhere near sufficient. You are invited to return at any time, so I can give you proper lessons.”
“Thanks. I’m almost definitely going to take you up on that.” It would probably have to wait until after graduation, but I couldn’t possibly turn down an offer like that. Constantine was eccentric, but I knew he had tremendous knowledge that would be applicable to the things I wanted to study.
“Start by giving me an idea of what you already know, then we’ll take things from there.”
For the next several minutes, I filled Warren in on what I knew about attunements, including artificial ones. He nodded, generally seeming to make an effort to listen, although his mind seemed to wander on occasion and that forced me to repeat a few parts.
Finally, he held up a hand. “I think I have a good enough picture now. You have some solid fundamentals, but there are significant gaps.”
“Such as?”
“Do you understand why your attunement is so valuable?”
“…I have some idea? I mean, it’s politically significant. Beyond that, it purifies mana and allows me to interact with attunements directly. That last part feels the most important to me, personally.”
“That’s all true, but there’s another element to it that you may not have noted — replicability. Or, rather, the lack thereof.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Farren Labs has numerous artificial attuned, but there aren’t any artificial Arbiters. Not yet. And, if you’re wise, you’ll ensure it stays that way.”
I nodded. “I know they wanted to get a look at my sub-glyphs, presumably to figure out how to do exactly that. But it seems like they’ve been able to make plenty of progress without Arbiters. Sure, having more would be efficient, but is there more to it than that?”
“Yes. Presumably, you’ve noted that there are parts of your attunement that you can’t access?”
“Sure. I assume that’s for things people aren’t supposed to know about — the inner workings of core attunement functions, maybe.”
“You’re on the right track. Attunements have a number of hidden functions that even the people of Farren Labs have limited knowledge of. Conventional attunements have no ability to access them…but Arbiters do. At Citrine-level, when you gain access to your third mana type, you will also gain access to restricted attunement functions. It is this property of your attunement that Farren covets above all else.”
Immediately my mind jumped. “Wait. Couldn’t I just turn my attunement to Citrine for a minute and access that stuff immediately?”
Warren laughed. “That would be a terrible idea, but perhaps it would work. The more important thing is that Farren has significant enough knowledge of attunements that if she had access to the sub-glyphs for an Arbiter, she could rebuild that function in another attunement immediately. With it, she could see the deepest functions of attunement design that have been hidden from her: and that is not something we can allow.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why?”
“Your Arbiter attunement began as a brand, yes?”
I nodded slowly. “Sure. It…oh. Oh no.”
Warren gave me a grim nod. “You seem to have pieced it together, but I will state it outright. Every brand is just an attunement that has certain functions disabled and others enabled. And every attunement still has the ability to perform the same functions as a brand. Meaning…”
“Meaning that with the full knowledge of every restricted section of an attunement’s functions, Anabelle Farren could…turn on brand functions for any attunement she makes. Like, for example, the ability to detonate an attunement on command.”
“Ah, but you are thinking too small.” He shook his head. “This is not just about artificial attunements. With sufficient knowledge, Farren could learn to access the brand functions in any attunement. Perhaps, for example, learning to access them remotely, with no interaction required at all.”
I went silent.
I’d been afraid of a similar possibility: Farren building tracking enchantments into attunements, for example, or scrying enchantments.
But this…this was on an entirely different scale.
“But…but…wait. If that’s possible, then…” I took a sharp breath. “Couldn’t you already be doing that?”
Warren gave me a soft, heart-tearing smile. “No. Not anymore.”
I blinked. Once again, I activated Detect Aura. Once again, I saw nothing around him at all. “You’re…”
“I am no longer an Arbiter, Corin.” He winced as he pulled the glove off his right hand. His skin was burned almost beyond recognition. “I am, in fact, no longer an attuned at all.”
“Wait. You…what happened? Did she destroy your attunements somehow? Is that why you and Farren…”
Warren shook his head. “No. I destroyed my own attunements. Better to do that than be subject to their weaknesses.”
“…But…couldn’t you have just removed the brand functions, or altered them somehow?”
“I tried, of course. But restricted functions — that’s what I call those hidden ones that you can only see at Citrine and above — have greater protections against certain forms of alteration. I was able to identify that certain func
tions were designed to kill anyone who interfered with them. And, of course, those functions had nested protections as well.”
He lowered his head, suddenly looking very old. “For years, I researched. I experimented. But ultimately, I came to the conclusion that no attuned wishes to reach: this was beyond my abilities. I strove against the machinations of the visages themselves, and I failed. My attunements could not be rendered safe. They could only be purged.”
I shuddered as he uttered the last word. “But…was that truly necessary? Weren’t there safety measures you could have…”
“It was the hardest decision I ever made.” He tugged his glove back on, then experimentally flexed his injured hand. “If I was purely weighing the power of my attunements against the chances the visages would betray me, then perhaps I would have kept the attunements. A short life of strength would have been be preferable, I think, to the weakness that resulted from my choice. But no. While I did not trust the visages, there were two others I trusted even less: Annabelle Farren…and myself.”
His shoulders slumped. “If Farren had not seen my attunements destroyed, she may have found a way to capture me and take their secrets through force. Perhaps she could have found a way to remove my hand and transfer the attunement to someone else. It is not impossible. And even if she did not take such measures, I…I could not be trusted with that power, either. I am not certain anyone should be.”
“Was there something that happened with Farren that caused you to—”
He lifted a hand for me to pause. “There were many things. Small things and larger ones. The picture it painted was of a person who would go to any lengths to reach her goals…and I was not so different, once. I could understand her well enough to fear her.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I see shadows when nothing is there. Perhaps I feared her unfairly. But even if she herself did not abuse the knowledge locked within my attunement, who is to say another would not? Once this secret is learned, it cannot be unlearned. There will be no turning back.”
“Then…I…”
“You have a grave responsibility.” He leaned closer, looking like he might put a hand on my shoulder. Perhaps he saw my body language, however, and he pulled back before doing it. “You are young yet, and you have been entrusted with the knowledge that you possess a great potential for harm. With that potential also comes the potential for tremendous positive change, if you make wise choices and have sufficient luck. One day, if you survive long enough, you will be faced with a choice: will you do as I did, and cut out the source of both weal and woe? Or will you choose to embrace it, and take the risk that your hubris may destroy everything you cherish?”