by Andrew Rowe
***
Passing dueling class had left me with a higher degree of confidence that I could pass my classes for the year, but I’d also seen how much it had helped to prepare in advance.
I already knew what one of them was going to be — the third attempt at the fake spire. It would be considered our final exam for Magic Theory class.
This time, I was determined to be ready.
Unlike with Teft’s class, it was clear that researching the rooms in advance was going to be considered cheating. I wasn’t against the idea of cheating a little bit in emergencies — passing was more important than following arbitrary rules — but I didn’t want to take the risk of getting caught.
And, more importantly, beating the test without cheating would be far more satisfying.
I wrote a list of all the rooms we’d seen so far, and drew simple maps of each.
We had a few specific challenges we’d have to overcome for each room. The shadow monster, the fire statues, the false Tyrant in Gold, a sleeping dragon...
Those would all be tough to deal with in direct confrontations, if not impossible.
I spent some time researching magical items to help with those challenges, as well as some general ones.
I still wanted communication items more than anything else, and I spent some time digging into how to make them. Most of them were based around variations of Wayfarer spells, and many of the functions I wanted were higher level than I could handle.
The other problem was getting a communication item to send a message where I wanted it to go.
Most of them worked by sending a message to another item that was enchanted at the same time, similar to how Keras had described the pair of earrings that sent sounds back and forth.
That wasn’t very flexible, though. For any member of my team to communicate with any other member of my team, I would have to make pairs for each combination of team members, and that was both prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
I wrote up a rough design for a single item that could connect to five others by using different runes to activate different communication functions. Unfortunately, the runes involved were too advanced for me to manage, and I didn’t have a Wayfarer friend to help me with them.
I focused on other items instead, trying to prepare a couple things that would both be useful for the test itself and for future ventures into the spires. I had limited time to work with, so I had to prioritize, but I was pleased with my results.
I wasn’t sure what my other final exams would consist of yet. I tried asking around, but the teachers were being pretty tight lipped. Apparently, each individual teacher had quite a bit of flexibility in choosing how to run their finals, as long as it covered certain basics.
Aside from final exams, we only had two real activities left before the end of the school year.
The first, I’d almost forgotten about entirely: Spider Division.
The second, I’d been deliberately ignoring as much as possible: the winter ball.
I briefly went through my list of suspects for spiders, but I hadn’t gathered enough information on anyone.
Roland missing classes was unusual for his personality, and it could have easily been because he was doing special Spider Division activities, but I had no evidence.
Jin was almost too suspicious, to the point where I doubted he was actually a spider.
Beyond that, I hadn’t noticed anyone behaving too unusually. I knew I’d need to make an effort to start investigating soon.
While the whole situation with Katashi and Tenjin was obviously a bigger issue, I still needed to make certain I passed my classes. I couldn’t help anyone if I was kicked out of the school and sent home. I was still determined to score well and get assigned to being a climber.
I checked Trials of Judgment to see if Tristan had sent me any further replies, but there was nothing new.
With worrying about Tristan deferred to another time, that meant I had to confront the one thing I’d been looking forward to the least.
I’d planned on willfully ignoring it right up until the day before, but Patrick never let me get away with doing anything easily.
***
The following day, I had a surprise visitor.
I was reading about artificial attunements at the time, from what little I’d been able to scrounge from the library. The publicly available information was scarce, but it was still worth researching.
“Your friend is at the door for you,” Derek informed me. “You know, the one who almost killed you.”
I didn’t have to clarify who he meant. “Thanks.”
“Just keep an eye on that one. I don’t want to deal with any more trouble than I already am. Understand?”
I nodded to Derek. “I’ll make this quick.”
I headed to the door.
Jin stood in the entryway. He still had a visible bandage on his right arm, but aside from that, he looked reasonably recovered. He’d shaved and brushed his hair, which went a long way toward making him look more like typical Jin. “Corin. I’d like to talk, if you have a bit of time.”
I frowned, then pointed at the floor. “Leave your weapons here.”
Jin raised an eyebrow. “No weapons allowed inside?” He reached into his coat, removing the two pistols I’d enchanted for him.
“No, there are plenty of weapons in here. I’m just not comfortable with you carrying them.”
Jin’s mouth opened, then closed again. Slowly, he set the pistols on the ground without complaint.
“The dagger too,” I said, waving my hand toward it and ignoring the hurt in his expression.
He tilted his head back, breathing in slowly through his nose “Didn’t think you’d remember that.” He unbuckled his belt and set it on the ground. A scabbard carrying a dagger was attached to the back portion, where it had been concealed within his coat. “Satisfied?”
“For now. Come on.”
I took him upstairs, drawing a concerned look from Sera as we walked by her.
We settled in my room. I offered him a chair while I sat on the bed. “What did you want?”
“I know you probably still haven’t forgiven me—”
“Correct.”
He looked irritated at my interruption, but paused only briefly before continuing. “But we’re still supposed to be on a team for the next fake spire test.”
“Skip it. We can handle it without you.”
Jin shook his head. “That’s not acceptable.”
I folded my arms. “Why? Aren’t you a Sunstone-level attuned? How is any of this even applicable to you? Why are you even bothering with classes like ours, at your level?”
Jin relaxed, seeming more prepared for that question. “I performed well enough in my first few years of service to Edria that I was selected to spend two years here as part of an exchange program. Ironically, my main role is to make positive relationships with powerful families here, mostly to help foster good relationships for trade and diplomacy. Unfortunately, I still need to maintain my grades, or they’d just send me back home.”
“I find myself lacking sympathy for your situation. If your goal was to make friends here, you’ve clearly failed.”
Jin’s expression sank. “Look, I know you’re still angry, but can we just find a way to take the tests, at least? You know I can be useful to you. We make a good team.”
“We did make a good team. At this point, how can you expect me to trust that you wouldn’t put a bullet in me the moment I turned my back?”
I didn’t think it was likely that Jin would actually try to attack me again, but there was still a nagging suspicion that he could. Maybe one day he’d decide one day that he needed to clean up any witnesses for his assault on Vera. I didn’t know if I’d ever get over feeling that way.
“I...never wanted to hurt you, Corin. Not physically or otherwise.”
My laugh was tinged with an uncharacteristic bit of spite. “Well, you did both. Congratulations. Now,
are we done talking?”
Jin shook his head. “I’m serious about needing to take the exam. And I do think you’ll need me. They’re going to make the final one harder. And I know that getting good grades is important to you, too.”
He was right about that. Good grades were a key to unlock my future freedom. And I couldn’t deny that having a Sunstone-level attuned on my team was a benefit. “It’s not up to me,” I decided.
“Sera will defer to you on this matter, we both know that.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Fine. You can help with the exam. But you’ll be with me. I’m not risking letting you harm the others.”
Jin nodded. “That is acceptable.”
“Good. Now, was that all you needed?”
Jin shook his head. “One last thing. Have you, or any of the others, reported my actions to the authorities?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “I haven’t, and I don’t intend to. I don’t agree with what you did, but you’ve made it clear enough that members of the Valian government were deeply involved with starting all this mess. I’m not turning you over to them.”
“Good.” Jin let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t processed just how tense he’d looked before, but when he changed his posture after that breath, I started to register how nervous he must have been. “Thank you.”
“You can thank me by performing well in the test, and by being honest if you come across any relevant information in the future.”
Jin pursed his lips for a moment, considering. “I can do that.”
With that, I escorted him out of the house.
***
As Jin had predicted, Sera acquiesced when I told her that I thought she should allow Jin to remain on our team.
She wasn’t happy about it, but she was even more pragmatic than I was.
“If he hurts anyone on our team, I’ll kill him myself,” she told me.
I had no reason to doubt her sincerity.
***
It was the twenty-fourth week of the semester, six weeks before the winter ball. The school year would end the week after that, and we’d have a few weeks off before being sent off to participate in some kind of activity before the second year officially started.
Assuming we passed, of course. If we failed out, we’d either be sent to the military or forced to retake the first year, depending on our performance.
Neither was an acceptable option. I had to make sure I passed my classes.
I also needed to graduate with excellent grades, because I wanted to be able to choose to be a military climber. If I passed my classes, but didn’t get good enough scores, there was a good chance I’d be assigned to a support division. If that happened, I wouldn’t have access to the spires until after I finished my service. I’d just be stuck churning out magical items for the military.
A total of two weeks had passed since the dueling midterm.
I had one more of my final exams during that time — Physical Combat class. It was pretty similar to dueling class, but without Teft’s eccentric puzzles, and we were only allowed to use weapons and martial arts. No magic.
I was fortunate enough to be matched against another Enchanter...and most Enchanters didn’t have the kind of combat training I did.
The average Enchanter didn’t have years of “training” with a duelist father to draw from, nor did most Enchanters take the dueling elective. They would have had the same basic physical training that the rest of the university did, but that wasn’t anywhere comparable to my experience.
I probably should have gone a little easier on him. Hopefully he had better scores in other classes.
With that completed, I still had a few more classes I hadn’t taken a final exam for yet. Aside from Magic Theory, which I was already preparing for, I wasn’t sure what I’d be up against.
Understanding Attunements was probably going to be a written exam, and I suspected Introductory Runes would be the same. I wouldn’t be the best in my class for either of those, but I wasn’t particularly worried about them, either.
Permanent Enchantments was a bit more worrisome. It was an elective, so I wouldn’t fail out of the school if I failed the test, but I had a feeling Professor Vellum would find a way to make me feel miserable if I didn’t get a good score.
Possibly even if I did get a good score, knowing her.
I resolved to disappoint her as little as possible.
While we’d prepared for more exams, I’d finally gotten used to using my Arbiter attunement, both on myself and on Patrick.
Sera and I had agreed that using the Arbiter attunement on her was too much of a risk. When I measured her lung mana with the mana watch, it registered at 6/6. It was recovering, but very slowly. Giving her mana might have accelerated that recovery process, but we suspected it was more likely to cause harm.
Marissa was a lower risk, but I still didn’t understand the mechanism behind how Katashi had increased the power of her attunement. The amount of mana he’d given her was several fold more than I could, and I didn’t know if that meant she’d have to wait several times longer before it would be safe to give her more. We decided it was probably safe to give her mana now, but it was safer to wait a few more weeks until after winter break.
In those two weeks, I’d made considerable increases to both my own mana and Patrick’s. My Arbiter attunement registered 106/106 mana now, and my Enchanter attunement was up to 78/78.
I wasn’t improving quite as quickly as I had when I was pushing myself to my limit, but it was still a tremendous improvement for such a short time period.
Notably, I found that repeated uses of my Arbiter attunement didn’t give me the same kind of lasting benefit I received the first time. If I wanted to be able to boost my mana faster with it, I’d have to figure out more advanced techniques, like whatever Katashi had done to Marissa.
Even taking that into account, I was still increasing my safe mana capacity by about one point per day in each attunement. That was about three times faster than I had been advancing just before going back into the spire, so it was great progress.
If I could maintain that pace, I’d hit Sunstone with both attunements within a year. That would put me toward the top of my class. Less than a tenth of second-year students hit Sunstone, and having two attunements at my age was similarly rare. Having both would make me extremely competitive.
I was basking in my own amazingness when Patrick rudely interrupted me.
“Have you talked to Mara today?”
I shook my head. “We haven’t had any training today.” The idea of talking to Mara for other purposes didn’t even occur to me.
“She could, uh, probably use some company right now.” He gestured toward Marissa’s room with a thumb.
“...Why?”
“She asked someone to the winter ball and got turned down, so she’s a little upset.”
I could see that being upsetting, but I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do about it. “Why aren’t you talking to her? Oh, were you the one she asked?”
Patrick laughed. “Oh, good goddess, no. There’s no way she’d ever ask someone like... well, anyway, no. She asked Keras.”
“Keras?” I blinked. “Isn’t he...?”
“Ancient beyond comprehension? Yeah. He told her she was too young, and that he wasn’t planning to go to the ball at all for political reasons. He might not be running from the law at this point, but he still isn’t exactly welcome everywhere.”
I nodded at that. “Makes sense. I’ve thought about skipping it myself.”
“Yeah, same here. But I think we should go. It’s important for making social connections, and you’re a noble. You should be paying attention to that kind of thing.”
I shrugged a shoulder. I wasn’t sure I could be more apathetic if I tried. “I guess.”
“I know you don’t care much about that sort of stuff, Corin, but it’s probably important in the long run. Even if you don’t end up running the household, I know you like having
influence over important things. Like the whole situation with Katashi. Making connections can help with that.”
He was right, of course. I just...didn’t want to deal with it. I decided to placate him, though, since it was obviously important to him. “Fine, fine. I’ll go. But I’m still not sure why you want me to talk to Mara...you aren’t trying to get me to ask her to the ball, are you?”
“I was kind of hoping you would. I think it’d go a long way to cheering her up.”
I folded my arms. “And you’re not doing it yourself because...”
“Please, Corin. I already got rejected by Sera. Let my bruised pride recover for a while.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t see how me getting turned down is any better.”
“She’s not going to turn you down, Corin.”
I wrinkled my brow. “You think?”
He nodded seriously. “Pretty sure.”
“Huh.” I pondered that. Did I want to ask Marissa to the ball?
My feelings on the subject were...complicated. I was still reeling from what had happened with Jin, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with another pseudo-romantic entanglement.
I certainly didn’t want to give Marissa the impression that I had a romantic interest in her. She certainly had characteristics that I found attractive, but not in a conventional sense. I admired her for being tremendously good in a fight, and for working hard to achieve that.
Marissa’s demonstration of loyalty and bravery when she’d stepped in front of Katashi was nothing short of awe inspiring.
But was my admiration for her a form of romantic interest?
I really had no idea. I was still getting used to the idea that I could have any romantic interests at all. I still had no interest in physical contact, and I didn’t think Marissa would naturally pick up on that the same way that Jin had. Marissa was smart, but reading people and manipulating them was sort of Jin’s thing. That was one of the things that made me interested in him.
I did like the idea of cheering Marissa up and having company for the ball, though.
I never liked situations where I only had two options. I preferred to make a third.
And that’s why I asked both Patrick and Marissa to accompany me to the ball — as friends.