Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  Lonely grinned when he saw the judge tremble a little. The old man handed the rock back, and Lonely put it in his pocket. He'd douse the Eternium lump in saltwater before sending it off. It was not a true Lord's funeral, but it'd be better than nothing.

  He left the judge's room then walked to the center of the Hall, where the list of names displayed the Houses that commanded the most Sinsworn. The panels flickered before his eyes, and then his name and colors appeared.

  House Head: Lonely

  Total Sinsworn: 9,341

  Rank: Not Applicable

  Even with over nine thousand Sinsworn, the customs barred him from achieving a rank. It was absurd. The board was organized by whoever commanded the most Sinsworn. He could clearly see himself in the fifth spot, but the numbers skipped right past him.

  The fifth spot was higher than he expected. 9,341 should have placed him eighth. But then he remembered that some of the other highest-ranking pilots had been engaging in House battles of their own. Even if a victor hadn't been decided yet, both sides would lose Sinsworn in combat and temporarily fall in the rankings. In a battle between two strong forces, it'd even be possible to lose hundreds of Sinsworn.

  "Him?"

  "How!"

  "He beat The Tooth Man!"

  "No way, I thought it was just luck!"

  All around him, Lords were muttering in disbelief. But they went quiet when he turned, or most of them did.

  Lonely saw Forever pointing and whispering with a Lord who must have been her friend. There weren't many friends among the Lords, but Forever seemed strangely insistent on talking to the other woman and Lonely knew she was an only child.

  "Ha! I'm not sure how he managed to win against The Tooth Man, but it'll be back to endless losses for him soon. Did you know he tried to team up with me once? I sent him straight to hell and took my share. The only thing these Sinsworn will do is give him a bigger buffer before his sister can take over. Maybe she'll even kill him to get the spot!"

  Forever's friend was desperately trying to get her to shut up, but she didn't notice. Lonely's stomach coiled with anger again, and the sphere pressed against his pocket. If it hadn't been for her and the other idiots, they never would have lost to The Tooth Man in the first place.

  He coughed, and she whirled.

  "I sent you running fast enough last time when you came to watch. Do you want to take your own try, maybe? I beat The Tooth Man when he outnumbered me ten thousand to a hundred. How many Sinsworn do you have?"

  He spoke loudly, just in case any of the other mutterers were listening.

  He took another look at the board, and his anger rose even higher.

  He'd won his battle. He would have won even without the sphere. During the first battle, he'd utterly routed The Tooth Man. If anything, the sphere had only saved The Tooth Man from getting captured by Gallant. But they still refused to respect him. The board still wouldn't rank him. They were still obsessed with the old battles, the fake battles that wouldn't help with the Conquest. They still thought he was the No Familiar Freak.

  "Actually, you know what? A Ransom battle would be fine too. How about it? How about you challenge me and see what happens?"

  He had dueled and defeated the three of them – Scry True, Drowsy, and Forever – at the same time to convince them to fight by his side. They should have been terrified of him. They never should have betrayed him.

  "How about it?"

  She let out a high-pitched cry of fear and fled, stumbling out of the Hall as fast as she could.

  Lonely forced himself to smile and turned to her friend.

  "How about you?"

  Her friend at least had the grace to answer.

  "No thank you."

  He turned again.

  "Or you? Or you? Or anyone for that matter."

  None of them accepted. Once again, it was just as Bringer said. The vaunted bravery of the Lords was all fake. Just a week ago, everyone here had treated him like scum. He didn't have their respect now, but at least they feared him.

  Lonely grimaced and took another look at the board.

  Rank: N/A

  Even the lowlifes looked down on him. He'd scared the judge and sent Forever packing, but they'd start murmuring about him again as soon as they were back in their Castlecraft. He'd come here the honest victor. There were no rules in House battles. He'd won his Castlecraft by all the laws of the Constellation, yet he was still treated with disdain.

  If that was the case, he shouldn't worry about using the sphere. It was the best way to make them pay. He could just grip it far away from Gallant. He could use it from one of The Tooth Man's Castlecraft. After all, every Lord should pursue their own interest, and it was in his interest to destroy the weaklings whispering behind him. Otherwise, he and Gallant would never find peace.

  A sudden cry shook him out of his angry thoughts.

  "No! No! No! Please! It was a House battle! A House battle! I swear to the Thirteen! It was a House battle!"

  There was a loud crash as a door exploded outwards, and a terrified man sprinted outside. He was big and burly, almost six and a half feet tall. He must have weighed over 250 pounds. Even if he hadn't torn the door down with his bare hands, his strength would have been obvious.

  But despite his power, the man was shrieking in terror.

  A Namer walked out past the broken door, their mask flashing and glowing as they stared down the fleeing man.

  "No! Please! House battle! House battle! It was a House battle! I swear to the Gods! It was a House battle!"

  ____

  The thirteen eyes were just as Lonely remembered. The glowing golden voids somehow emitted and absorbed light at the same time. The sight couldn't be described. It could only be seen in person. The voice regulator scrambled the Namer's voice beyond recognition, modulating tone and pace so that nobody could ever identify them.

  The voice was slow and stately, though it lacked the pauses of the one who executed the twins.

  "If it were a House battle, you would have come here to register after you won. You would have known the customs."

  The Namer's finger jutted upwards and pointed at Lonely, who cringed despite his desperation to stay brave. His challenge had already thinned the crowd, but now they were outright fleeing. The assembled Nobles screamed and ran, pushing and shoving each other to try and be the first out the door.

  "Like that guy. He followed the customs. You didn't. You don't even have proof he surrendered. You did not sign a contract. There were no witnesses that a House battle had even begun. And he officially accused you of theft."

  The big man was horrified.

  "No! There was a Contract! There was a House battle! I don't know why...I don't know ...he's lying! He's lying! I didn't know I had to register! Please! It was my first House battle! I declared it, and he agreed! Look at his Sinsworn! Look! I destroyed over half of them! That's why he surrendered."

  The Namer sighed. It was a long and staticky noise.

  "So in addition to theft, you also damaged his property."

  "No! No! I swear! Bring him here! Just look at him! Honestly, please, just look at him! How could he possibly beat me!"

  The Namer did not respond. They only stared, the lights in the mask flickering back and forth.

  The other man turned and ran, easily breaking past the assembled crowd. He was big, strong, and fast. He almost reached the hangar. Then there was a tremendous bang, and his brains erupted out of the back of his head. Mealy gray twisted through the air, rising higher and higher on a geyser of red blood and black bone. The shattered lobes spun twice before landing on the ground with dry splats.

  The Lords screamed, and Lonely screamed with them. The way his brains had spun in the air was nearly as bad as The Tooth Man's yellow pus.

  After the death of the twins, he knew that the Namers could really kill with a single glance, but it had never been public before. They must have forgotten to lock the door. He remembered that – the distinctive s
ilence of the room, how the lock had clicked exceptionally loudly. Lonely stared at the body and shook his head. It was probably just because of his size. Any man that big could barge through doors like they were nothing, but it didn't do him any good. Nobody cheated the Namers.

  The Lords squealed with terror at the sight of the dead body. Some fell to their knees. Others were sick. A few were so desperate to avoid looking at it that they sprinted away with closed eyes, slamming awkwardly into their peers. Lonely realized it was probably the first time any of them had seen a dead body before. He was a fully-grown man of sixteen, and yet he'd only seen four dead bodies, five counting The Tooth Man's Familiar. Bringer was right. Combat in the Constellation had been utterly sanitized. The Lords that died under Ransom battles starved inside their shrinking Castlecraft where nobody could see them. How were they supposed to Conquer Old Earth if the Nobles grew sick at the sight of a dead body?

  Lonely felt sick too. He was a bloodless fighter, just like the rest of them. Bringer wouldn't approve.

  And almost as if on cue, an extremely familiar voice echoed through the Hall.

  "Cheaters! Cheaters! I hate them!"

  Lonely blinked. It wasn't quite Bringer's voice. But it was his cadence, and he used the same jocular tone. If it weren't for hearing the Namer and his voice scrambler, he might have never recognized his plain-faced patron. Bringer's voice was scrambled too. His tone and pitch were changed, and now his voice was deep and booming instead of simple and unassuming.

  "House battles are the future of the Constellation! How dare that cheater bring such disgrace to the future of the Constellation!"

  As always, Bringer spoke faster and faster as he grew more and more excited. His nondescript machine stood outside the Hall, a thin blade raised in its hand. When Lords tried to flying past him, he'd gently shepherd them into his growing crowd.

  "Stay! Stay! I have something to say! Stay!"

  The cartoon eyes were the same as before, but now a strange mask covered the hole in its mouth. Lonely had never seen anything like it before. It was long, narrow, and hooked. It several feet long and looked like a bird's beak. A few Lords had pelicans or seagulls as Familiars. The mask looked like their mouths. It was strange, ugly, and out of place - even weirder than the random hole.

  The mask easily projected his voice so that everyone could hear him. The Paragon sounded like it was standing right beside him even though it was drifting through space.

  "Some of you might recognize my machine. I'm the mystery pilot that defeated The Tooth Man. I took down one of the highest-ranked Lords in the Constellation. It was one of the biggest upsets in history – but I got nothing, nothing at all. A measly one Sinsworn for the greatest upset ever. I had forty Sinsworn at the time, and The Tooth Man claimed to have ten thousand. How is that fair? What if one of you beat The Tooth Man? Would it be fair to award you a single Sinsworn? No! You clearly were more deserving. If our goal is to Conquer Old Earth, the best Lords must rise to the top."

  The Lords looked at each other and muttered. Most of them were lower-ranking Lords or in the middle-rank. By the nature of the Ransom battles, only a few had a Sinsworn count exceeding even five hundred.

  "But now look! Lonely defeated The Tooth Man. An even greater upset than mine. The man everyone derided as The No Familiar Freak, The Ignorant, was able to defeat his tormentor and claim everything he owned. That's what I call justice! When the Ignorants stole Old Earth from us, did they leave us be after we handed over one of our Sinsworn? No! When we take back Old Earth for ourselves, are we going to be content with a single Sinsworn? No! We mean to take it all back. Our battles should be the same! We must reward the bold! Lonely is a symbol of the greatness inside all of his us. He is the symbol of ambition, the symbol of pursuing your own interest. He is what we need to take back our birthright."

  The beaked machine's eye cameras flickered as they saw Lonely through the window in the Hall. Bringer let out a booming laugh and pointed right at him.

  "What a happy coincidence! And here is our hero! To Conquer Old Earth, we need men of all types. We need men with guile. We need men with cunning. Lonely has those in spades. His first battle against The Tooth Man, he was outnumbered ten thousand to a hundred, and yet he smashed his opponent while losing fewer than ten Sinsworn. Do we really think that we can't use more Lords like that in the Conquest? And that's not all!"

  Bringer pointed at a random Lord in the Hall. Lonely turned. He knew who the man was at once, but there was no way that anybody else in the hall did. So Clear was in the middle-low ranks. The last time Lonely checked, he had fifty Sinsworn under his control. He was the definition of obscurity.

  "So Clear! You are another example of the sort of man we need. You have the gift of sight – one that we've foolishly derided for too many years."

  The elderly man gaped eagerly at the Paragon pointing right at him.

  "Sight might not be useful in single combat. But imagine how useful it is in a House battle! Sitting in your Castlecraft, you can monitor your foe's every move. While we float above Old Earth's colonies, we will be able to predict their defender's every action! Do you really mean to say that this won't help in the Conquest? Only an idiot would think that!"

  A few more Lords tried to leave, but they quailed after Bringer flicked his blade. Technically speaking, it was illegal for Bringer to hinder their movement. But everyone knew what would happen if they left. Bringer was boasting about House battles right to their face, and he'd defeated The Tooth Man in single combat.

  The beaked Paragon turned and pointed again.

  "And you! Forever, is it? Your ability might not be good in single combat. Why would a foe wait around two days for you? But in a House battle? Two days is nothing! You can blast opponents to shreds from the safety of your Castlecraft. Imagine how the Ignorants will feel when we use your skills to bombard them from the heavens!"

  As always, Bringer's enthusiasm was contagious. He named each of the Lords individually and listed out their strengths, explaining why they would be invaluable to the Conquest. Lonely knew how they felt. He was only a low-ranking Lord himself when Bringer first approached him.

  Then Bringer pointed at the board.

  "Lonely is the first of a new generation – the first to win a real battle. Yet look at his rank! Not applicable. Not applicable! He has over nine thousand Sinsworn. That's a fact! And his rank says not applicable. The Sinsworn are real. The Conquest is real. The rank is just some rotting custom."

  He contemptuously wagged his thin blade back and forth.

  "We can no longer go back to the fake Ransom battles now. They are only for cowards. They are only for people who don't care about the Conquest. From now on, this board will only have the names of the truly worthy – the names of those who can win House battles! It will have your name, and your name, and your name, and yours! In a House battle, everyone has a chance to rise! Look at Lonely and let his ambition inspire you to Conquer!"

  The crowd flew into an uproar. Some of them challenged each other to House battles then and there, sending the information to the Namers. The more clever ones waited to return to their Castlecraft to accept. A House battle couldn't be refused, but the Lords were given a two hour grace period to prepare. The dumber ones did not. Brawls broke out as the combatants began fighting without even calling on their Paragon. The people who'd brought their Familiar to the Hall with them were at an immense advantage. But nobody challenged Lonely. It was just like he thought. His recent win, combined with the fact that he now had over nine thousand Sinsworn, was too daunting for the small Lords around him.

  And even after Bringer's praise, they still eyed him with a mix of fear and disdain. He even heard a few in the corner chortling among themselves.

  "Symbol of ambition. More like symbol of how easy it is."

  "Even he can do it. I can't wait to see how easy it'll be for us!"

  Yet when he turned, they squealed and fled just as Forever had. His stomach felt sour. He e
ntered his Paragon and left the hangar. Bringer was waiting for him outside.

  The two Paragons stood before each other, the plain one with a beaked mask next to Lonely's personal machine. Lonely still hadn't removed his last disguise. His usual black and gold were hidden beneath a coat of red. He had no need for disguises anymore. Once he returned to Brightwalls, he'd find a machine that worked for him, something that projected the image he wanted.

  "What did you think about that demonstration earlier?"

  "Well, it was obviously worked. You put them all up in a storm. People were declaring House wars in the Hall. A few fights broke out without Familiars or Paragons."

  "No. I meant the Namers rushing out and killing that man in front of everybody."

  "What?"

  "That wasn't an accident. When was the last time they killed someone publicly?"

  Lonely hadn't known they'd killed people publicly before.

  "They've never done it. You only see them courtroom executions and births. But this time, they decided to do it publicly. Do you know why?"

  Lonely wasn't sure, but there was only one answer that would satisfy Bringer. The plain-faced man had a single-minded obsession.

  "Because of the House battles."

  "Yes! Yes! It was deliberate! They let him escape! Do you think that no other Lord has tried to run? With the House battles come the temptation to cheat the rules, and the Namers can't have that. And there's something beyond that, of course."

  "Yeah. Everyone in the Hall was scared. The Constellation doesn't know what death looks like. We live in a bloodless world."

  Lonely could hear the smile curling through Bringer's amplified voice after he repeated the line he thought of earlier.

  "Yes! Yes! Yes! And whose fault do you think it is?"

  Before Lonely could answer and tell him it was because of House battles, Bringer abruptly pivoted to a different question, just as he always did.