by Eric Vall
Rori sighed. “Ah, don’t worry about it, kid. I didn’t expect you to spill. I’d go to Layla if I really wanted to know, but I’ll hold back. If there was something I could do to help, I’d probably already be in on it.”
I chuckled to myself ruefully. “That’s pretty true. I can’t really do anything to help now either, so I’m sort of left adrift until Arwyn figures things out.”
Rori quirked a smile. “If you’re bored, why don’t you go visit her? I’m not allowed to set foot in her lab, but I’m sure you can go to keep her company without holding her back. Though, I suppose that depends on what she’s doing.”
I tilted my head as I considered the idea. “You know what, I think you’re right. I’ll go visit her today.”
Rori crossed his arms. “Good. Hearing you say that almost makes it worth getting up early just to catch your stupid ass before I’m stuck in classes all day.”
“You got up early to find me?” I asked in bafflement.
Rori snorted and rolled his eyes. “Of course I did. You’re fuckin’ predictable, so it wasn’t hard to figure out where you were. By the way, as long as you’re sitting on your ass, do me a favor and organize your essence crystals.”
“What? They’re fine as they are,” I protested as I looked down at my bandolier.
Rori pointed at crystals along my belts as he spoke. “Just because you’ve got them memorized doesn’t mean your system wouldn’t be faster if you changed it. You’ve got speed slugs in five different places and an axe goblin next to your pyrewyrm. It’s dumb, you look ridiculous, and you’re young enough to change it easily.”
I stared glumly at my system. “I guess you’re right,” I said, “but it’s never been a problem before.”
Rori patted me on the shoulder. “Wouldn’t tell you unless it was something I believed in. Did y’know I used to do the same thing for years? I’d just add crystals as I got them, and I never organized a thing.”
“Huh, really?” I asked curiously.
He nodded and grinned. “Yep. Stopped after I accidentally threw out a bluewing instead of a cementroll. I nearly drained myself into unconsciousness right there in a construction zone.”
I gaped at him. “No way.”
“It happened,” he said before he cast me a stern smile. “Word to the wise, organize your crystals with the most powerful ones far away from the weaker ones. You’ll thank me someday.”
I smiled back and ran a self-conscious hand over my bandolier. “Fine, fine. Whatever makes you happy, old man.”
“Thanks, Gryff,” Rori said with sudden sincerity. “It does mean a lot that my advice is worth something to you. I’ll see you later, alright?”
“Alright,” I agreed as a warm feeling spread through my chest.
After we said our goodbyes, I returned the vingehund to its crystal and decided to come back to my training later. It would be nice to see Arwyn again, and I thought some time together would be good for both of our sakes. I liked leading my team, but I’d had to make a lot of hard decisions lately.
I wanted to go straight to the lab, but the only way to get there was by going through the healing clinic first. Of course, Meridan would assume I was wounded, and she’d probably ream me out for getting injured again. So, I opened the main door into the lobby with an apology and an explanation on my lips, but I never had time to give it.
Maelor and Meridan pulled apart from each other while they wiped their mouths and straightened out their clothing with guilty haste.
“Oh, Gryff!” Maelor exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you. I’m, uh, I mean--we were … ”
Nope, this was just about the last thing I wanted to deal with.
“Please don’t,” I begged. “I’m going to walk through and pretend I didn’t see a thing. If you want to talk to me later, I’ll be in the lab with Arwyn.”
“Yup, sounds good,” Maelor agreed as his face flushed. “I’m so glad you got back safe, kid.”
“Me too, but we can talk about it later. See ya!” I called as I hastily made my retreat through the door and down the hall.
I shuddered as I fled through the building. Even though I was glad for Maelor, and I’d already known somewhat that he was with Meridan, the man was too much like my father figure. I didn’t want to see him making out on a desk with his sweetheart like some teenager.
I agree, there was too much tongue, Sera said consideringly.
By the Maker, she really knew how to turn a distressing situation into something way worse.
Happy to help, she said with genuine pleasure at my suffering. You know, I can make it much easier. Just surrender to me, Gryff.
“Oh, you are saying my name now?” I chuckled. “It’s not just ‘dumb human?’”
You know, Gryff, I’m really starting to like you. I can’t wait to see how our love will blossom into something magical.
“Love?” I scoffed. “You are crazy.”
I’m already in your mind. Soon, I’ll be in your heart. Then you will be mine forever, Gryff. I have such wonderful things planned for us.
“Fuck you,” I sighed.
That’s the idea, Sera purred, but I just rolled my eyes and forced her voice down into my mind until I couldn’t hear her.
Chapter 16
I opened the lab door with a visible grimace plastered across my face. “Arwyn, I need to forget what I just saw.”
She startled and looked up, and a lock of red hair fell across her face. “Oh, Gryff. I was worried it was somebody who shouldn’t see this.”
I stepped forward and brushed her hair out of her eyes, and we both smiled at the gesture. Then she reached up and took my hand, and her fingers were warm around mine.
“Just me,” I said with a pleased smile. “Unless you count the monster using my eyes.”
Arwyn pursed her lips. “I suppose she can’t tell anybody.”
“It is one of the better parts of this,” I agreed. “I think she’s pretty uninterested in what I’m up to. She only pays attention if she thinks she can use it as leverage to take over my body.”
“Very comforting,” Arwyn joked. “I’m glad you’re seeing the bright side of things.”
“I’m hoping you can tell me you’ve figured out how to get her out of my head.” I nodded and looked down at her desk, which was absolutely covered in historical books and old linguistic guides as well as pages of notes.
“Not yet,” my lover said, “but I’ve made some progress.”
“So, it’s going well?” I asked.
She tapped one finger on her journal. “It is, actually. We’ve gotten quite a bit translated. Give Cyra our thanks, since you two did some nice work to get started on the ciphers.”
“I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear that,” I told Arwyn. “What are the translations about so far?”
Arwyn flipped through a few pages of her journal. “The direct translations are almost incomprehensible, as you may well know, and we haven’t really begun to put them into contemporary phrasing. Language has changed a lot since the days when these were encoded and written down, and the author was making it hard on purpose, too.”
“It definitely wasn’t clear,” I agreed as I remembered the struggles Cyra and I had encountered with the language.
Arwyn traced a line across the page as she read the words back to me. “God of the monstrous and terrible, so hold some that call upon the powerful maker of the beasts.”
“Maker of the beasts,” I repeated as my brow furrowed. “The Beastmaker?”
The tablet we found at the volcano was engraved with some words written in our common language, and what it said was The Beastmaker Prophecy. Despite the muddy wording, I thought this translation had to be referring to the same thing.
Arwyn smiled approvingly. “Good catch. That’s exactly what I thought.”
I loved the way she sounded like a proud teacher, even with a simple discussion like ours. There was something wonderful about listening to Arwyn like this, since she genui
nely got excited to share whatever she learned.
“Anything else about the Beastmaker?” I asked as I squinted at the journal in front of her.
She wiggled a hand from side to side in an uncertain gesture. “There is some. It makes the Beastmaker sound almost like a deity, actually. He or she is related to the Archons in some way. I suspect it’s saying the Beastmaker had the power to control the nine Archons, but maybe it’s saying whoever controls nine Archons will become the Beastmaker.”
“If it’s a prophecy, wouldn’t it be the second option?” I wondered out loud.
Arwyn leaned back in her chair and frowned. “That’s what Professor Lle’shenne thinks. She also believes we should ignore the Beastmaker, and that we’ve got to start finding and killing the Archons.”
I bit my lip as I considered it. I’d never met the other professor, but she had to be a genius if she was working on a project like this. Maybe she was right, and we should ignore the Beastmaker portion of the ciphers just to take the information we needed about how the monster realm worked.
“It’s not a bad idea,” I replied. “The Archons obviously have some kind of power to open rifts, and Phi and Sera both controlled monsters in order to attack us. Maybe if we get rid of all nine Archons, the monsters will be trapped in their own realm.”
Good luck with that, Sera said with an amused laugh.
Was Sera saying killing the Archons wouldn’t stop the attacks, or was she saying it was impossible to kill all nine? I had no way to parse Sera’s words for which one was the truth, since she was so unlike a human. I’d even considered she might be bluffing, and in that case, I should just ignore her altogether.
“I think we should consider the Beastmaker as a figure of the past,” Arwyn said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “These were written so long ago, they could be a prophecy that occurred thousands of years back. Perhaps the Beastmaker was like the monster equivalent of the Maker. He created the Archons and the monsters to plague us humans.”
“A dark deity to oppose the light one,” I mused. “It’s kind of a horrible thought.”
“I know,” Arwyn replied grimly. “I wouldn’t want to hear the Maker had competition. A lot of people base their hope and faith in how overwhelmingly strong our god is. Why worry about monsters when we have the all-powerful Maker on our side?”
“Hearing about this would rattle a lot of nerves,” I realized as I shifted uncomfortably. “I hope that isn’t what the Beastmaker is. He might be a figure for good, like a hero who can rein in the Archons and hold back the monsters.”
Arwyn smiled. “I like your take. You might be onto something. I’m glad you’re here to talk about this, Gryff. The more ideas we have, the better we can piece together the final translations.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Glad to help, even though I feel like I’m not even in the same league as you scholars.”
Arwyn gave me a long, pondering look and rested her chin on her fist as she leaned against the table. “Now that I think about it, you came in here for some advice, hm? Was it about forgetting something you saw?”
“I guess I do want some advice,” I admitted with a wince as I remembered Maelor and Meridan, “but it definitely isn’t about what I saw. Now that we know the Archons are directly involved with the Beastmaker, it means Sera could be even more dangerous than we’d previously thought. Phi took down Gawain without a problem, and I’m worried about Sera’s potential to do the same to me.”
“I know you are worried. We all are.” Arwyn’s eyes filled with concern as she considered the question. “We think it took Phi months to seize control of Gawain, and we have to assume Sera might be able to do the same to you. You seem perfectly in control for now, but we’re not sure how long it will last.”
“I know,” I said as worry grew within me. “I feel like I’m in power here, but maybe Gawain felt the same way, too.”
“Well, one thing to consider,” the redhead said as she looked deep into my eyes, “is Gawain never told us Phi was in his mind. I believe that is because she had the upper hand from the start.”
“Ahh, good point,” I replied as I thought about her words.
“So, you are probably fighting back more than Gawain was able to. How are you sleeping?”
“My dreams are a bit troubled,” I admitted, “but they seem to be better when I sleep with someone.”
“Oh?” Arwyn asked as her mouth curled up into a smirk.
“Well, you’ve been so busy trying to study the ciphers that you wouldn’t know,” I joked.
“I’ve been combing through records to try to find some account that can help you,” Arwyn explained as she bit her lip, “but so far I haven’t come up with anything helpful. Perhaps with Ashla’s expertise in journal research and artifice, we could make a dent in it.”
“Ashla?” I asked in complete surprise. “Artifice?”
Arwyn blinked before her expression softened. “I suppose she’s more of a hack and slash type these days, but Ashla used to be one of the foremost academics at the Academy. She liked building simple things, like weapons or traps, but she always created them with perfect craftsmanship. It was like watching a sculptor bring out the life in a block of marble. She made her axe, you know.”
“I really had no idea,” I admitted in awe as I considered the expertise involved.
“She’s fantastic at journal research, too,” Arwyn added with a laugh. “She got used to combing through old diaries and notebooks in her search for artificing ideas. She would always find the most miraculously important idea in the middle of the most boring books.”
“Sounds like quite a talent,” I said with wonder in my voice. “I wonder why she never mentioned it.”
“Things have changed,” Arwyn said with a smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Though, I think we all still carry parts of our old selves with us. Her help will be valuable, so I hope she gets here soon.”
“Me too,” I agreed softly.
With poetic timing, a knock at the door interrupted our conversation.
“That would be Maelor,” I guessed.
Arwyn waved goodbye. “Go out and say hi to him, I’ve held you up long enough.”
I thanked Arwyn again as I pulled open the door just enough to slip outside.
Maelor waited for me in the hallway with an ashamed face, and his dismal expression reminded me of a kid who’d gotten caught playing with matches.
“Have you been worrying about my reaction this whole time?” I chuckled.
Mealor scratched uncomfortably at his gut. “Aye, I suppose so. Didn’t mean for you to see that.”
“I kind of realized that,” I said dryly, “so don’t worry about it. You’re an adult, I’m an adult, let’s just talk about other things.”
Maelor huffed and grinned. “I can do that. Tell me everything about this Sera, alright? I need to see how much she’s fucked around in your head.”
“Hey, I’m perfectly fine,” I complained, “and besides that, who told you about Sera? All of this is extremely classified, you know.”
Maelor winked. “I already knew most of it anyway, since I was always your go-between during Miriam’s tyranny. After you came back, I may have gone straight to Marangur Sleet and implied I was so concerned, it had begun to affect my health.”
“Meridan let you into his room?” I asked.
“Well, she didn’t hide the key from me,” Maelor said with a cheeky chuckle. “I took it as a blessing and went to talk to him in bed.”
“So, you broke in to lie to one of the most powerful mages in Mistral?” I bemoaned. “That’s just wonderful.”
Maelor laughed with unholy delight. “And it worked, too. He told me the whole thing and asked me to look after your mental health. Don’t ever say this old man is good for nothing, alright?”
“Alright,” I repeated glumly. “Now, you ought to tell me everything that happened at the Academy while I was gone. I can’t get a straight answer from anybody, and
nobody tells a story like you.”
“Well, ain’t that truer than any tree ever grew,” Maelor commented with a pleased expression.
I tossed up my hands and laughed. “This is exactly what I’m talking about.”
Over the next couple hours, Maelor and I went to the cafeteria for brunch and chatted about everything that had gone on. I felt truly at home while I listened to the old man talk, and he told me about the turmoil at the Academy and in Varle Enclave. It sounded like things had been very tense for a while, but the atmosphere was improving slowly and steadily.
I was happy to hear Maelor compliment Nia’s involvement in the political processes, and he mentioned her father seemed alright, too. Nobody in Varle shed a tear when the news of Miriam’s death broke, since she’d offended every group of people from the richest merchants to the poorest farmers. That wasn’t even to mention the military and the mages, because they had too much personal contact with the councilwoman to do anything but loathe her.
“Now, I’m not too sure about this Goredrin fellow,” Maelor continued. “He seems like he’s got his head in the clouds twice as often as he has it on earth.”
“He does like his tailoring,” I said with a laugh, “but I think he’s a good man. Maybe not the best parent.”
“Aye,” Maelor snorted. “His son hates him, as you said.”
“And he has reason to,” I replied as my thoughts turned to Gawain.
Thinking of my friend fueled my determination to be ready for when our mission started. Phi had threatened the lives of too many innocent people, and I wouldn’t let her get away with it for much longer. With the help of my team, we would take the ciphers back and stop Phi from manipulating us any longer.
I shook off my anger and focused back on Maelor. I didn’t see him as often as I once did when we worked together, and I wanted to catch up on things.
“Gawain can wait,” I said as I leaned forward in my seat. “Tell me how you’re doing. What have you been up to without Cyra or me?”
“Oh, not much,” Maelor replied evasively, but his mouth quirked up into a hidden smile.