by Andrew Rowe
My left arm was folded behind my back, making it a harder target and helping to conceal what was within my hand.
On the opposite side of the car, Mara cracked a grin. With a flick of her wrist, a blade constructed from flickering mana extended from her hand. “Selyrian Cutting Style: Fourth Form, Cutting Edge.”
“Ready?” I asked.
Mara snorted. “On guard.”
Then she shot forward in a blur of motion, faster than I’d ever seen her move.
Haste. Accelerated Computation.
When her blade-shrouded hand shot toward the center of my chest, I flicked Selys-Lyann directly into her blade’s path.
My rapid computation processed a minute shift in her right shoulder just before impact. She was going to try to snake around the blade, avoiding contact between her enhancement mana and my transference.
I shifted, too.
Her eyes widened a sliver. She tried to pivot, but she’d already been making a last-minute move. When the blades collided, the force of the impact between opposing types blasted both of our arms apart. I slid backward from the force, turning the movement into a spin — usually the least useful movement in a fight, but situationally, my rapid computation showed that her follow-up punch would miss me entirely if I twirled and sliced at her neck.
As I whirled and avoided the punch as I’d predicted, my sword came around. She ducked the swipe, then slammed the ground. Alarms blazed in my mind and I jumped backward and silently opened my left hand, preparing for Keras’ Stone-Wall Slam technique.
…Just as she’d expected me to.
There was no wall. Instead, the slam had simply managed to get me to jump backward on instinct, and thrown off my balance for her next move: a burst of enhancement mana that shot her forward in a kick.
She flipped head-over-heels in mid-air, sending a shockwave of force from her feet. I sliced upward, neutralizing the attack with an identical wave of transference mana, then shot myself to the side with a burst from my ring of jumping as she descended in a classic Star Descends from Sky.
I started to bring Selys-Lyann up for a counter when Mara flicked her wrist, sending a tiny shimmering projectile out of her sleeve. Casually, I processed the trajectory and flicked Selys-Lyann to deflect it.
There was a crack as the projectile impacted my blade.
Oh, no, my mind helpfully managed to process as the glass vial exploded in a burst of concussive force, hurling me right off the side of the train.
…Or, it would have, if Mara hadn’t surged forward to grab me by the shirt before I managed to fall off the side. She smirked, hauling me with one hand to set me down on the relatively steady floor beneath us. “Round one to me.”
I groaned, releasing my active spells and sheathing Selys-Lyann at my side. “Using items is cheating.”
“Says the Enchanter with the legendary magic sword and the jumping ring?”
“Okay, fair.” I grinned. “Poof.”
Upon saying my activation word, I vanished, reappearing behind Mara. Then, as she spun around, I flicked my sword to rest under her chin. “Round two to me.”
She blinked at the sword at her throat, then glanced down at our feet to find the silvery disc on the ground. “When’d you drop your anchor?”
“When I thought you were putting up the wall. I still don’t know why I thought you could put up a wall, but yeah. Was planning to drop it right next to the wall, then teleport around it. This worked just fine, though.”
Mara groaned. “Wish I had his metal sense. Wish I had your magic sense, too.”
“Gotta admit, it’s useful. Maybe not as useful as potions in the middle of a sparring match, but useful.”
Mara laughed. “C’mon, reset. Won’t use potions this time. But you should have seen your face.”
“I’m sure it won’t be as lovely as your expression, staring face-down at the surface of the train when the next round is over.”
“Ooh, feisty.” Mara raised her fists. “I like it. Let’s go.”
I cracked my neck.
It was going to be a fun night.
***
The next several days came and went in similar fashion. It took me close to a week to think to check in on something important with Patrick.
“…Did you ever hear anything from Meltlake after she went into her second Judgment?”
He was her apprentice. If anyone knew the results…
But Patrick just shook his head sadly. “Not a word. I…she’ll be okay, won’t she?”
“She’s a legend, Patrick. She has better odds than anyone. It’s probably just taking them some time to find any reasonable challenges for someone as powerful as she is.” I sounded more confident than I actually was, offering the world’s fakest smile along with it.
“Yeah. That’s…probably it.”
We were quiet for a while after that.
“Hey, Corin?” Patrick started.
“Yeah?” I braced myself for whatever was coming next. Some horrible revelation, or criticism, or—
“I’m glad we’re friends again.”
I blinked. “…Oh.” I took a breath. “Yeah.” My smile was a little more genuine after that. “Me, too.”
***
A little later in the week, Sera and I sat down together to talk about something we hadn’t wanted to discuss at Constantine’s tower — our new marks.
“So,” I removed my glove, showing off the symbol of transcendence on my left hand. “You got one, but different?”
“Yep.” She slipped off her own glove, showing me her own distinct symbol. “Figured that if you’ve got the transcendence mana type accessible to you already, I’d ask the crystal for a different one. And I can still get transcendence mana from it, anyway.”
“Why’s that?”
Sera grinned. “Do you want to know why Keras took my fake crystal a little more seriously than yours?”
“I’d wondered if you’d put more mana into it, or maybe…” I froze. “Wait, did you summon a copy of the crystal?”
Sera laughed. “You got it. I have a crystal contract. And that’s on top of my shiny new mark.”
“Wait, wait. Hold on. That crystal predates Selys. I thought pre-Selys monsters usually weren’t compatible with Summoner contracts?”
“That’s generally true, but there are workarounds, and I’ve been looking into them for a while. There’s one particular contract I’d been trying to sort out for months, so I studied that a bit during my time at Farren Labs. Between what I’d recently learned and what the crystal already knew, we were able to cobble together a functional contract spell. It’s not dissimilar from how the bonds on our hands work, after all: they both involve forging a two-way mana and spirit connection. Summoner contracts are just designed to connect directly to an attunement, and thus, enable specific functions that something like a standard crystal bond doesn’t.”
“Interesting. Does that mean you’d be able to contract other monsters that aren’t normally eligible for contracts?”
She grinned. “That’s the goal, but it’s sort of a case-by-case thing. In this case, the crystal was able to facilitate a lot of that on their end, but I learned a lot. I think I’ll be able to crack doing it on my own eventually…and then, I’ll have some very powerful new options to pursue.”
I probably should have asked what she was talking about, but I got distracted easily, and my mind shifted places. “What about null contracts? Have you figured out if you could make one?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, haven’t figured that out yet. I know you wanted to try to sort that out in order to work on some kind of exercise enchantments, and I think it’s a good idea, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Maybe we can work on it sometime after we get back?”
“Good plan.” I nodded. “I could try to look at your sub-glyphs and figure some of it out from there, too.”
“Sure. I’d still like you to try to compare them to a normal Summoner’s glyphs at some point if we can find
one who would agree.”
“Definitely. Being able to figure out what makes an ascended attunement different from a normal one will be extremely valuable.” I couldn’t think of any other Summoners I felt comfortable asking about that sort of thing — asking Elora would be overkill, and have consequences — but I was okay with asking someone Sera trusted. That was a problem for another time. “Okay. Jumping back. Why even bother getting the mark on your hand if you’ve already gotten access to the crystal through a contract?”
“Using the crystal’s magic through my contract still uses my attunement’s mana, but this crystal mark is a whole separate mana source. I can use it without having to worry about my attunement’s mana supply…I just have to deal with the other costs. And beyond that, I didn’t get this particular mana type through my crystal contract. When I make a contract with a monster, I have to negotiate for every type of magic they give me access to: I don’t get all of them. That’s why you always see me using things like ice mana from Seiryu, but not wood. My contract with Seiryu doesn’t cover wood magic. Not yet, at least. I intend to renegotiate later.”
I nodded in understanding. “Okay. So, what mana type does your crystal mark give you?”
She smirked. “Density.”
I whistled in appreciation. “That’s the primary mana type for Shapers. Do you plan to simulate a Shaper attunement?”
“I won’t be able to go quite that far with just the mana type itself — much of a Shaper’s power is from unique functions, as I’m sure you know — but it’s undeniable that density magic is effective. It also synergizes with summoning extremely well. I can summon Vanniv and then make him equipment using density magic, for example.”
“And it’s a good all-around defensive magic type, too.”
“Absolutely. With enough work, maybe I can even make raw materials you can enchant.”
I pondered that. “Maybe. Standard Shaper-conjured materials have an abysmal mana capacity, but there’s that weird green crystal that Keras mentioned a few times…I think that’s made with density magic, and it can clearly hold enchantments. We can try to figure out how to make that.”
“That’s the plan.” She nodded. “So, density is an easy one, but transcendence magic…have you figured out what that even does? I hadn’t heard much about it prior to meeting the crystal.”
“I picked up a book on it from Warren’s library, and he let me keep it. I haven’t read it all yet, but basically, transcendence magic is all about pushing something beyond standard limits. There are spells for things like turning off your body’s ability to feel pain and exhaustion, for example, which can effectively boost your strength. There are other spells for things like focusing your mental resources on a specific task — which frankly horrifies me even more than my Accelerated Computation spell — and spells that overload other spells.”
“Hm. Sounds kind of awful, actually. Lots of risk factors in using anything like that.”
“I wouldn’t call it…awful, exactly.”
“Aren’t you the one who’s always looking to avoid any risks, Corin?”
“I can’t do that all the time.” I shook my head. “Can’t afford to. I just prefer for my risks to be calculated as closely as possible, and this is going to add some new options to my repertoire. If nothing else, things like pain removal spells could be helpful if any of us get injured and I need to treat them.”
“Let’s hope that doesn’t come up any time soon…but yes. I suppose we both know that our troubles are far from over.”
“They’re just getting started. But if this vacation is any indication…our powers are still just getting started, too.”
Sera grinned. “I like the sound of that.”
***
The trip home wouldn’t have been complete without at least one mid-journey twist.
We were just over a week into the trip when I was sitting alone in my sleeping car, right up until the point when I wasn’t.
“Hello, Corin.”
I managed a “gah!” and shot to my feet, with my hand blazing to the hilt at my hip as a figure appeared on the opposite side of the room. He was wearing a long black coat, but this time, he wasn’t accompanied by a hood or mask. That made it easier to process his all-too-familiar wicked grin.
I glared at him, deliberately keeping my hand near my sword. “Oh, my, if it isn’t one of the infamous Blackstone Bandits. Should I be clutching my jewels protectively?”
Jin snorted. “It isn’t like that.”
I sat back down, shaking my head. “Oh? No robbery, today? To what do I owe this honor, then?”
Jin leaned back against the opposite wall. “Well, for one thing, I figured I’d let you know I’d be joining you on the trip back to Valia.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What, like…legitimately?”
He nodded. “Got a train ticket and everything.” He flicked a wrist, producing a ticket to display in unnecessarily stylish fashion.
“Jin, no one keeps their train tickets in their sleeves like that.”
He shrugged. “They’re missing out.”
I sighed. “…Why are you here, Jin?”
“I told you, I thought I’d let you know that I was going to be on the train. Figured it’d be less awkward this way than just, you know, running into me in a hall.”
I gave him a nod. “Okay, sure, I suppose. Was there anything else?”
“Couple more things, actually.” He smiled. “First, I missed you.”
“You…” My heart skipped a beat. “Um.”
Jin laughed spectacularly. “Perfect. Just what I was hoping for. Now, one last small thing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Another magic trick?”
“Oh, no. Although, I suppose I could…” He gave me that wonderful, crooked smile. He lifted his open hands. “You see now, that my hands are completely empty, but…”
I groaned. “Ah, yes. The illusionist’s hands are empty. Go on.”
“But now, with a mere snap of my fingers, I produce…” He snapped.
And in the next moment, he reached out toward me with a single flower purest blue.
I laughed in spite of myself. “Flowers, Jin? Really? We’re not dating.”
“Oh, no.” He flourished the flower. “It’s not for you. It’s for your sister.”
“Wait, what—” My eyes widened as I took in the flower more carefully.
Pure blue. Petals that looked almost like frozen tear drops.
My jaw went slack.
“And this concludes my trick.” He flipped the flower around, offering it to me by the stem.
“Is that…”
“Goddess’ Tears. Fresh from Vanreach Peak.” He winked. “And by fresh, I mean extremely fresh. It won’t stay that way for long. You’re going to need to…”
I snatched the flower out of his hands, reached into my pouch, and pulled out the Jaden Box. “Store: Goddess’ Tears.”
The flower vanished into the extradimensional space. Within it, the flower would be preserved, theoretically indefinitely.
“Perfect.” Jin took a step back. “I trust you know how to use it?”
“I’ll get an expert to make the potion, I’m not going to risk messing this up.” I turned my head upward toward Jin. I was conflicted, but… “Jin. Thank you.”
He gave me a curt nod. “You’re welcome. But I didn’t do it for you. Not entirely, at least. You’re not the only one that I owed a debt.”
“Then…”
“Give my best to Sera.” Jin gave me a brief salute. Then, a moment later, he vanished.
I politely declined to comment on the fact that I could still see his aura as he invisibly made his dramatic exit from the room.
***
“Jin gave you what?”
I didn’t get to see Sera startled very often. It was, admittedly, a refreshing sight. “Goddess’ Tears. I looked it up again, the pictures match. I’m pretty sure it’s real.”
“Then…”
“
Then when we get home, we’ll get an expert to make a potion with it, and you’ll get your voice back. At least in theory.”
Sera closed her eyes, shuddering for a moment. “…Thanks, Corin.”
I frowned. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re the one who figured out the flower as a possible solution last year. And even if Jin figured that out independently, as opposed to, I don’t know, finding out while he was stalking you—”
“He’s not stalking me.”
Sera snorted. “Sure. Anyway, even if he figured that out on his own, you’re the one with the Jaden Box. Without a means of preserving the flower until the elixir is made, it’s worthless.”
I frowned. “But if it’s fresh, how did he get it here? We’re nowhere near Vanreach. If he was out there, wouldn’t it have been faster to just take it to Valia?”
“Mm, no. He’s probably been in the Unclaimed Lands this entire vacation. He helped with the train robbery in exchange for some kind of favor from the Blackstone Bandit. A mysterious man with the kind of resources to rob a train owned by Haven Securities, even when it’s in the middle of a route.”
“…So, you think Jin did that whole train robbery thing in exchange for the flower?”
Sera shook her head. “No, no. I do think that’s what he got out of the deal…but I don’t think that was a robbery at all. He told you that in the first place, didn’t he?”
“He did. He implied it was some sort of rescue operation, to…” My eyes widened as I remembered what he’d talked about.
Repaying debts. Who else did he need to repay for his transgressions?
Who might be on a train between Caelford and Valia, not as a passenger, but as a prisoner?
“…Vera? Was Vera on this train?”
Sera shrugged. “Can’t say for sure. I didn’t check with her brother or Echion, either. Maybe if we’d gone to visit them, we’d have found her at home. More likely, she’s out somewhere in the Unclaimed Lands herself, staying far from the eyes of the visages along with the expedition.”
“Meaning that the Blackstone Bandit is involved with that expedition in some way?” I frowned.
“It’s probable, but not strictly necessary. He could have just dropped her off there…or not. It’s speculation.”