Infinite Core (School of Swords and Serpents Book 5)

by Gage Lee

  Table of Contents

  Summary

  Shadow Alley Press Mailing List

  The Triad

  The Return

  The Right

  The Clan

  The Reminder

  The Deal

  The Goad

  The Fight

  The Discovery

  The Gold

  The Loss

  The Decision

  The Trade

  The Orichalcum

  The Rebuilding

  The Core

  The Warning

  The March

  The Offense

  The Disciples

  The Split

  The Fortress

  The Calm

  The Storm

  The Dead

  The Prisoner

  The Terms

  The Team

  The Beginning

  The End

  The Infinite

  The Ignition

  Books, Mailing List, and Reviews

  Books by Shadow Alley Press

  Books by Black Forge

  LitRPG on Facebook

  GameLit and Cultivation on Facebook

  Even More Cultivation on Facebook

  Copyright

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Summary

  AN INSIDIOUS THREAT endangers Jace's quest for the Empyrean Flame and the very existence of the School of Swords and Serpents!

  With his plan to rebuild the Grand Design underway, Jace can't wait to get back to school and continue his pursuit for the next level of advancement. But when the Shadow Phoenixes are threatened with annihilation, Jace will have to put his studies second to his new responsibilities as clan elder.

  With rival clans and internal pressures threatening to tear his clan apart, Jace learns that becoming a leader may be the hardest challenge he's ever faced. And when Maps shows up with a dire warning that his time to complete the quest is drawing to a close, the young elder finds himself in a race against time to stop the Grand Design from completely unraveling.

  Infinite Core is the fifth book in the bestselling School of Swords and Serpents series, a tale of wuxia adventure, cultivation mastery, and lurking threats.

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  The Triad

  SCRIVENED PIKES WIELDED by golden-armored warriors had me pinned in from half a dozen different angles. The blades roiled with enough jinsei to flatten a city block, and the wards scrivened into their armor sizzled with sacred energy. Even with all my power and talents, my captors could gut me like a fish before I could react.

  As worrisome as that situation was, my surroundings were far more troubling.

  The unexpected portal had whisked me away from my vacation with Clem’s family and dropped me into a long, narrow chamber that was all warm wood and gleaming gold. The chamber had no exits that I could see. Scrivened pillars flanked the chamber’s central aisle. The circuits engraved in their surfaces spat silver jinsei sparks that filled the air with buzzing tension.

  A tall judge’s bench occupied the end of the room ahead of me. Three high-backed chairs sat behind the bench, and their occupants watched me with the wary interest of raptors judging their next meal.

  Or maybe the pinched expressions they wore meant they were every bit as worried about this forced meeting as I was.

  “Someone had best explain why I’m here,” I barked two seconds after I appeared in the doorless room, “before I play Whack-A-Mole with your heavies.”

  The warriors tensed, their pikes inching closer to my robes. They were close enough that I couldn’t move without touching their sparking blades.

  My anger came from more than the fact that I’d been kidnapped out of my bed. These jerks had interrupted what might have been the most important dream of my life. Maps had been about to reveal the next step of the Empyrean Flame’s quest.

  “Mr. Warin,” the bald old man seated behind the center of the bench said, pulling my attention back from my memories. His blue eyes sparked with power in the dark, wrinkled plain of his face. “I am Consul Villazostro. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us.”

  The man’s title froze my blood in my veins. The Consul Triad was the most powerful tribunal in Empyreal Society. If I’d landed on their radar, I was in deep, deep trouble.

  Knowing that, I probably should have treated them with the greatest of respect. But their kidnapping had cost me a perfectly roasted marshmallow.

  “I haven’t agreed to anything,” I said. “A portal opened under my feet and landed me inside a circle of stabby people.”

  “The Golden Wardens didn’t provide you with the summons before initiating transport?” The old man’s brows furrowed in consternation, and he glanced at the dark-haired woman to his right. “Consul Reyes, can you explain this?”

  The sound of that name set my heart racing. If Tycho, whom I’d killed mere weeks before, had a family member on the Consul Triad, there was every chance my life was about to get very, very interesting.

  The glossy ringlets of Consul Reyes’s long, dark hair covered half her face, but couldn’t conceal the cruelty of her smile. She leaned forward, hands clasped in her lap.

  “Mr. Warin has a reputation for being difficult when confronted by authority,” she said frostily. “I thought it best to bring him before our tribunal without the opportunity for mischief on his part.”

  I bristled at the condescension in her voice. The urge to show her how much trouble I could cause swelled inside me. The Vision of the Design flickered to life, showing me how to clear three of the Wardens on my left with a single swipe of my fusion blade. It would cost me blood and pain, sure, but...

  No. That’s what Reyes wanted. She hoped that I’d lash out. Two could play that game.

  “I see the family tradition of treating me like garbage remains intact,” I said, venom dripping from my words. “Tycho Reyes would be proud if he were here to see how you’ve mistreated me.”

  The Consul’s eyes went wild with dark rage. Her core flared to life, and ugly aspects of disgust flooded her aura. I hoped the Consul would take her anger out on me in front of all these witnesses. She was strong, but most of that power came from her position. If we crossed swords, Reyes’s odds of walking away without grievous bodily harm were low.

  “Enough!” Villazostro shouted. The jinsei in his voice shook the Consul Triad’s chambers and ignited a lightning storm from the pillars that ran down the sides of the room. The old man didn’t return his attention to me until Reyes had eased back into her seat.

  “I am glad that you arrived safe and sound, Mr. Warin,” Consul Villazostro said in a smooth, pacifying tone. “I know we’re all eager to complete these proceedings, so let me get right to the heart of the matter.”

  The Consul cleared his throat and shuffled a stack of papers around on the bench. I couldn’t see any of them, but that wasn’t necessary for me to know I wouldn’t like the information they held. The Consul’s aura flashed with sparks of worry, anxiety, and dread.

  He was not looking forward to my reaction to whatever he had to say.

  And he hadn’t dismissed the Golden Wardens, whose faceless helmets were still pointed in my direction, along with their pikes.

  “Mr. Warin,” he said at last, his voice calm despite the worry he couldn’t suppress from his aura, “as the sole member of the Shadow Phoenix clan, you have been called here to witness its formal dissolution.”

  Those words hit me like hammer blows. I’d strug
gled for most of my life to be accepted into an Empyreal clan. While the Shadow Phoenixes had turned out to be both more and less of a family than I had expected, they’d taken me in and made me a part of a world I’d always envied. That was who I was, and now the Consul Triad wanted to tear that all away. I didn’t know what would become of me.

  Or Byron.

  “My apologies,” I said to the Consul, “but I am not the last Shadow Phoenix. A new student was inducted into our number last year. Unless—”

  The third member of the Triad finally had something to say. “I am Consul Reeg,” he said, raking gnarled fingers through the bushy mound of hair atop his head. “That’s not—I apologize, I’m afraid we’re all rusty in regard to the proper protocol for dissolving a clan. What we mean to say is that you are the last member of your clan with any standing. Byron is a mere child of initiate level. He will be reassigned to another guild as per the School’s usual procedures. You may petition one or more guilds to allow you entry into their ranks. I am sure, given your unique position within Empyreal society, that you will have little difficulty finding a new home.”

  The world spun around me. Consul Reeg seemed to believe that slipping into a new clan would be so simple. I knew better.

  Byron would be cast to the wolves in a new clan. The younger members would abuse him for his association with the Shadow Phoenixes, and the older members would never let him rise through the clan’s ranks. He’d be little better than a slave for the rest of his days.

  My life would be every bit as miserable.

  Despite everything I’d been through, despite the number of enemies I’d made along the way, I was still a valuable pawn for any guild. My new elders would be within their rights to demand I spend every waking minute refining jinsei to line their vaults. And if they were cruel enough, ruthless enough, they could use me to get their hands on the students I’d sent to Shambala. Any guild that landed me as a member would soon be very wealthy, very powerful, and very, very dangerous.

  Whoever ended up holding my reins wouldn’t let me out of their sight for even a second, and there’d be no way to continue my quest for the Empyrean Flame.

  There had to be some way for me to escape from this disaster. I wracked my brain for an answer but came up empty. Defiance was all I had left. “And if I don’t wish to join a new clan?”

  The Golden Wardens seemed to tense at my words. I had no doubt a hidden signal from any member of the Triad would be all they needed to gut me with those pig stickers.

  The Consuls murmured amongst themselves. Reyes and Reeg were visibly taken aback by the idea that an Empyreal wouldn’t want to join a clan. Finally, Villazostro banged his gavel on the bench again and leaned forward to address me.

  “I’m not sure why you’d want to isolate yourself in that way, especially with the troubles you’ve had in your past,” he said. “Unfortunately, remaining clanless is not an option for an Empyreal in your position. Now, Mr. Warin, we asked you here as a matter of courtesy. The Consul Triad does not require your permission to complete our duties. At this time—”

  “Honored Consul,” I said quickly, “is lack of members the only reason for my clan’s dissolution?”

  Consul Reyes didn’t wait for Villazostro to answer. “With only two members the clan is no longer capable of supporting a stable group of core members.”

  That answer lit a faint spark of hope in me. Maybe there was a way out of this, after all.

  “And if the Shadow Phoenix clan had other members?” I asked.

  “If there were enough we would reconsider our verdict,” Reeg chimed in before Reyes could respond. “Tradition mandates that a clan have a standing core of no fewer than a dozen members, including the clan elder, who must be of no less than artist level, and have experience instructing others in the sacred art of cultivation.”

  My hopes soared. There might be a way to save everything. “Give me twenty-four hours and I will meet all your requirements.”

  “Impossible,” Consul Reyes barked. “My great-grandfather warned me you were treacherous, Warin, but I never imagined you’d attempt to flout Empyrean Law so thoroughly. This is not some—”

  Villazostro raised a hand, and a flash of silver light silenced Reyes. “Please be forthright with me, Mr. Warin. If this is a ploy to stall for time, my judgment against you will be swift and severe. Can you secure the requisite number of clan mates in a single day?”

  The elderly Consul’s stare burned into my core with irresistible force. I could no more have lied to the old man than I could have turned off the sun. I gulped and nodded.

  “Yes,” I said. “I will have to confirm their willingness to join my clan, but I—”

  Reyes bolted out of her seat. Her hands tightened into claws on the bench’s edge, fingertips digging into the polished wood with a series of loud crunches. “This is preposterous,” she spat. “Your clan has no members, Mr. Warin. Your previous elders died stopping your mother’s abominable scheme. Heretics killed off the rank and file. I will not allow you to stand here and besmirch their good name as you did with my great-grandfather. You are the son of filth, and you will always be filth. I will never...”

  Villazostro’s gavel banged on the table for a good three seconds before Reyes stopped her verbal assault. I remained calm throughout her tirade. Losing my temper and pointing out how her great-grandfather had used and betrayed me wouldn’t accomplish anything. Better to let her rage and look like she’d lost all perspective than add fuel to that fire. When she finished, I bowed to her and continued.

  “You have my condolences over the absence of Sage Reyes,” I said quietly. “I did my best to save him and the other sages during the Kyoto incident. But I assure you, my claim is not preposterous. I have a small, but very loyal, group of students ready to join my clan. They are in a secure location, and I will be happy to reveal them once we have agreed.”

  “Young man,” Consul Reeg scolded, “as of this moment, there are no Empyreals above foundation level available to join your clan. If you are suggesting you have another source of clan members, we would be very interested in knowing their whereabouts, as they would represent a very grave breach of protocol.”

  It was difficult to maintain the steady rhythm of my meditative breathing under the Consul Triad’s penetrating glare. I thought I held up to their scrutiny, but it was impossible to shake the sudden case of jitters that landed on me like a ton of squirming rats.

  Pikes nudged against my skin, so close the jinsei in their scrivenings raised the hair on my skin. The Golden Wardens were ready to finish me if I got out of hand.

  This was the most delicate part of the entire meeting. Theoretically, the Council could demand I tell them everything. Doing so would put my whole plan, and some innocent kids, in danger. Not to mention possibly ignite a political incident with Shambala after we’d just paved over centuries of unpleasantness with the dragons. My future was balanced on a knife’s edge.

  “If I could beg your indulgence for a moment,” I said carefully, “I can settle your concerns. But only after we agree on next steps. Will you agree to spare the Shadow Phoenix clan if I can secure more members?”

  A cold wind gusted around Reyes, disturbing the coils of her curly hair. Jinsei gushed from her core into her channels until she glowed with power. “I will not have this abomination serve as the elder of a clan. Not after what he did to my family.”

  My serpents strained at the edges of my control. If I let my guard down, even for a moment, they’d manifest and strike before I could stop them. That would not be a good look. Rather than focus on Reyes, I stared solemnly at Villazostro.

  “I understand Consul Reyes’s opinion,” I said, “but she is only a third of the Triad. What do the rest of you say?”

  Villazostro looked up and down the bench, his eyes filled with concern. Whether that was for me or Reyes, I couldn’t tell. Finally, he leaned back in his seat and threw up his hands. “I have no wish to dissolve an entire clan. I will gi
ve you twenty-four hours to prove yourself. If you are wrong, though, you will suffer the full penalty for wasting our time.”

  Reyes practically hissed, she was so angry. She threw herself back in her chair so hard the legs squealed against the polished floor, then crossed her legs. “I want my formal disagreement on the record,” she snarled. “And I demand that this boy be held to the highest standard of conduct becoming an elder.”

  Consul Villazostro nodded and fixed me with a grave stare. “Listen carefully, Mr. Warin. Should you proceed, you have twenty-four hours to produce twelve guild members of at least foundation level. In addition, we require a signed affidavit of competency from the School of Swords and Serpents regarding your ability to guide others in the arts of cultivation. You are responsible for the actions of all your guild members. Finally, your clan must not fall below twelve members and yourself. If this last requirement is not met we will dissolve the Shadow Phoenix clan and exile you to the Far Horizon to contemplate your sins at the Monastery of Echoing Silence.”

  Banishment was better than execution, but not by much. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to complete the Empyrean Flame’s quest under lock and key at a monastery. There’d be no way for me to even communicate with my friends.

  But the alternative was to let the other clans put Byron and me in chains of honor and duty. He deserved better than that.

  “I accept your terms,” I said firmly.

  “Very well,” Consul Villazostro said, his voice grave. He banged his gavel to conclude the tribunal. “The Consul Triad will reach out to your headmistress in one day’s time. If she confirms you have held up your end of the deal, then we will recognize you as the elder of record for the Shadow Phoenix clan.”

  With that, the old man stood and vanished without a trace. Reeg was the second to leave the room in a cloud of silver light.

  “Congratulations, Mr. Warin,” Consul Reyes said, a malicious smile quirking her lips. “I hope you are prepared to reap the whirlwind of chaos you have sown today. Trust me when I say we will all be watching what comes next with great interest.”