by Jakob Tanner
“Sounds good,” said Casey. “As I can mediate the wind around us, it’s probably better if I take the candles from you.”
Max agreed and handed her both of their candles.
If he had wanted, he could have blown out her candle, just as she could do the same to him now. Yet, with every trial they went through, their trust for each other grew. Max felt good about this.
They searched the interior of the summit jungle and found a slab of rock and set up a shelter point around it.
After they had set up camp, Casey stayed behind and guarded the two candles as Max went off to search the summit for other passages.
“Am I allowed to eat now?” said Casey.
“Definitely,” said Max.
It was imperative that they stayed properly hydrated and nourished. This was more than a physical exam, but a mental and emotional one as well. The climber who didn’t have anything to eat or drink right now would be in a very bad situation.
Max materialized a protein bar from his pouch, unwrapped it from its packaging, and took a bite. He was very glad he didn’t have to worry about finding something to eat, water safe to drink, and be worrying about keeping his candle aflame.
It was simply too much to juggle at once.
Thankfully, Casey and him had arrived at this exam prepared.
He scoured the summit jungle looking for another passage up top. Thankfully there wasn’t one. He set up a subtle string trap right at the top of the summit passageway and returned to Casey.
With everything set up, all they had to do now was survive the night.
Cyrus grinned at the screams of anguish coming from behind him.
His goons were torturing unranked climbers at the back of a cave.
“Please...” said one of the unranked climbers. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me. What more can I do? What did I do to deserve this?”
Cyrus smirked. Did he really think he could negotiate with them? The boy in some ways was correct. He was helping them, in a way, but Cyrus liked to control people with fear, not persuasion or deals that worked out for everyone.
What was the fun in that?
He turned around and saw two unranked student climbers exhausted at the back. One was sweating and looked like he’d pissed his pants as Cyrus’ goons had beat him.
“The beatings will stop now,” said Cyrus, approaching the boy squirming on the floor. “So long as we still have a deal?”
The boy and girl nodded.
“My friend Sybil and I here get to keep your lit candles, yeah?” he said. “And in exchange, we give you each a thousand gold coins tomorrow when we get back to the tower-zone. Then you can finally help your destitute traitless families?”
The two climbers nodded dejectedly.
Of course they did, thought Cyrus. They had no other choice. Pathetic fake-veins. They shouldn’t even be allowed into the academy in the first place.
“We already agreed to the deal,” said the boy. “Why must you keep hurting us?”
Cyrus grinned a monstrous smile.
“Because it’s fun,” he said. “And we can.”
He signaled to his goons to keep an eye on them.
He walked to the end of the cave and found Sybil leaning against a slab of stone.
“Is the torture really necessary?” asked Sybil. “They are doing us a favor.”
Cyrus raised his eyebrow at her. She must be joking. Sybil Westley loved every minute of making those weak students squirm and cry as their dreams of becoming climbers was whisked away from them.
“Oh shut up,” said Cyrus, running a hand through his hair. “You’re just upset because you didn’t take part.”
She stopped leaning and whipped her long blonde ponytail behind her shoulders.
“Ah, you might be right,” she sighed. “Tell me: are the candles protected.”
“Yep,” he said. “The two fake-veins did exactly as we planned. They ran off right as we arrived on the island while we created as much chaos on the beach as possible. All they want now is the money we promised them.”
“Ah, good,” said Sybil. “With that all sorted, I guess we can start the exam’s fun part. Invite your little posse as well.”
“Oh yeah?” said Cyrus, raising an eyebrow once more. “What exactly is the fun part you’re inviting us all too?”
“Ah, hunting down other students, of course,” said Sybil, grinning viciously. “And forcing them to fail.”
61
The sky on the island darkened. Night was quickly approaching.
Max and Casey sat around a fire at their base camp.
“Now, it’s all just a waiting game,” said Casey.
“Pretty much,” said Max, keeping his ears alert for the trap he’d set up. “Though, we still have to worry about people trying to steal our candles.”
Max looked at Casey who sat near their fire, holding a candle in each hand.
These tests were always so simple yet complex, he thought to himself. They all could have passed the exam together and it would have deflated the difficulty level of the test.
Why hadn’t it worked?
Where had he gone wrong in expressing his plan?
Or perhaps that was a hidden lesson in this test. Or two lessons really. First lesson: the importance of teamwork and working with other climbers. The second lesson: not all climbers like working together and can be trusted.
Max sighed. Two competing lessons. How did you resolve that?
Maybe they should have run straightaway and he could have made his proposal to individual groups at a later point.
It was too late for that now though. Forty percent of the class was now hunting the remaining students with lit candles. It wasn’t safe to traverse the island now.
Stars twinkled through the foliage. The sounds of the ocean waves echoed around them.
Max smiled at the view.
“A lot of modern historians,” said Max. “Have written about how bad the appearance of the tower was on human civilization. The destruction, the formation of a new hierarchy between the climbers with traits and those without any special powers. And maybe they were right—but then, when I look out at this beautiful world housed in this mysterious tower—I think, maybe this place can’t be all bad, right?”
Toto snored beside Casey, lying on a little leaf bed of its own.
“Toto clearly thinks I’m boring and wrong,” said Max.
“I’m not sure,” said Casey. “I see what you’re saying, but look what happened at the beach today. There’s something about climbers that force them to fight one another, like a violent magnetic pull.”
She then smiled. “But you’re right, this island and this sight of the ocean is pretty.”
They stood there in silence as the campfire flickered in front of them.
“So, after all this,” said Casey. “Are you excited for the winter ball?”
Max’s eyebrows perked up at this.
He remembered the instructor pointing out that the winter ball would follow the midterms, but he had been so focused on passing the exam that he really hadn’t given the winter ball a passing thought.
“You know, I haven’t thought too much about it,” admitted Max. “Are you going to go?”
Casey’s face fell and Max suddenly felt like he’d said the wrong thing. He’d never gone to any of the dances back at his old school in the outer-rim. He wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette. Did people still ask people to go to the dance with them?
“I figured I might as well,” said Casey, answering his initial question. “There might be more information on the following term and the final exam.”
“Yeah, maybe we can go investigate together,” Max suggested.
Casey’s face brightened at that.
“Do you mean like a—”
Rustle, rustle.
Both Max and Casey went dead silent.
Max stood on his feet. He gestured for Casey to guard the candles.
He
was going to investigate the noise.
Reginald Booth clambered up the summit hill of the island in the dark.
He tried to stay silent but it was no use with his two noisy companions behind him.
“Why are we going up here anyway?” whispered one.
“Because the boss says so,” said another.
Reginald’s two companions were two knuckleheads by the name of Ash and Resin. It seemed like very odd names to give to children but he knew nothing much about them other than that they were sixteen-year-old body guards meant to protect Cyrus Archer while at school.
Such was his job as well. Except the difference between him and the two loud idiots behind him was that the Booth family had been the Archer’s butlers, servicemen, and bodyguards for over a century.
He was trained in the art of killing. More than that, he was raised to enjoy it and that he did.
Why Samuel had decided Cyrus needed more protection while going through the trials of the academy was a mystery to him? More than that it was an affront to the work of him and his family.
But what could he do? Orders were orders.
And tonight’s order from Cyrus was to hunt down the kid from the outer-rim and his little fake-vein friend.
Maybe, if he finished those two off, the Archer family would realize the Booth men were completely competent in carrying out their duties.
The three companions already had blood on their hands from earlier. After they’d tortured the two student climbers who were holding onto Cyrus and Sybil’s candles, they’d hunted down a lone student whose candle had gone out on the beach. The boy they hunted had a rare trait called tracker. At E-rank, he could see traces of leaked mana invisible to the normal eye. He pointed them in the direction of the summit. That’s where the outer-rim kid and the fake-vein had gone. After they’d gotten what they wanted, they killed the kid.
He used his bear claw trait to shred his body, make it look like one of the island’s monsters did it to him.
Reginald kept moving up the hill.
Stars twinkled in the sky above as did a large luminescent moon hanging above this oceanic island world.
The island was silent if you didn’t listen closely, Reginald thought.
But if you closed your eyes you could hear the wisp of elements being conjured, knives thrown, and life or death negotiations being drawn out.
The island was full of danger and yet as him and his companions traversed to the summit, it got quieter and quieter.
Most of the other students hadn’t come here. But the outer-rim kid and the fake-vein girl were different. As much as Cyrus didn’t care to admit it, they were more switched on than the majority of the class.
As he reached the top, he raised his arm to stop Ash and Resin from going forward.
“What’s going on?” Ash hissed. “Why can’t we torture more students?”
“Resin like hitting things,” said Resin.
Reginald didn’t question why Resin referred to himself in the third person, but the meathead was going to get them all killed if continued walking around like a one-track homicidal automaton.
“Look,” said Reginald, pointing to the ground below.
“What you pointing at?” said Ash.
“Resin don’t see nothing,” said Resin.
Reginald groaned inwardly.
“There’s a thin steel wire here,” said Reginald. “Someone set up a trap. It’s probably a security alarm. From what I can see, this is the only trap so just take a wide step over it. That should do.”
The three companions slowly walked over the trap and entered the smaller jungle on the summit of the island.
62
Max watched the three shadowy figures walk over his trap.
The stars above made it so he could discern the three people. It was Cyrus’ entourage. It was the insufferable boy’s three goons.
He kept his breathing as steady and quiet as possible as he watched on from the bushes.
They must have come up here looking for us, Max figured. Cyrus must have sent them after us to blow out our candles.
They weren’t carrying any candles themselves though, Max noticed. Clever. They must have allies guarding all of their candles so they could go hunt down others with no obstructions.
The goons headed deeper into the jungle. They went forward at a random angle.
Max tiptoed quietly behind them.
“Is there anyone even up here?” whispered one goon.
“Resin want to hit something,” said another. “Resin sad that there’s nothing to hit.”
“Shh!” said the third companion.
The three thugs didn’t seem to notice Max’s presence behind them. He needed to stop them before they got to their base camp. The last thing he wanted was to fight them while also protecting his and Casey’s candles.
He needed to strike and to do it soon.
Reginald peered through the dark shrubbery of the island summit jungle.
He closed his eyes and could hear the flicker and crackle of a campfire in the distance.
That’s where they needed to go.
He turned back to his companions, “Alright, guys, let’s head this way.”
Neither Ash nor Resin were behind him.
What’s going on? The two thugs were meatheads but they knew better than to pull a prank at a time like this.
That’s when he saw something flicker in the shadows.
“Who’s there!?” shouted Reginald, his heart racing. “Show yourselves! Fight with honor!”
He personally didn’t believe in honor but he was desperate. He would do anything to get his opponent to come out in the open. It would be an easier fight that way for him.
But whoever was attacking was smart. He’d taken the two knuckleheads out one by one. He doubted whoever it was would be convinced by such petulant ideals like ‘honor.’
It was always worth a try though.
The bushes rustled behind him.
So, he was trying to sneak up on him, huh? Well, he’d just have to catch him then.
The man started sprinting straight ahead.
Rustle, rustle.
Suddenly, the shadowy man’s footsteps were coming from a different direction.
Reginald pivoted, running faster this time.
Keep chasing me you idiot, Max thought. Where will you go once we hit a clearing?
Reginald sprinted full speed ahead. He needed to get his attacker out in the open.
He powered through bushes and shrubbery, knowing he needed to get out in the open as soon as possible, but—
He took a step and his foot had nowhere to go.
His stomach lurched.
He’d just run off a cliff voluntarily.
He gasped one final breath and scream before making his quick descent to the bottom level of the island.
63
Cyrus stood over Reginald Booth’s dead body.
He spat on the boy whose family had served his for generations, even before the emergence of the tower and the great changes it brought to the world.
“Pathetic fool,” said Cyrus, looking up to the cliff above.
He ran off the cliff on his own accord. He’d been there in the bushes watching it all. The plan was for the three goons to beat the outer-rim runt and the fake-vein girl and he’d swoop in to savor the final blow. They’d all blown it.
He probably could have saved Reginald, but after that pathetic display up there, he didn’t see why the Archer family even needed someone so worthless any way.
Cyrus kicked the torn apart body over so he no longer had to look at the crushed face of his companion.
He headed back to the cave where Sybil was waiting for him.
Their candles were secured, but the fun he had been hoping to have during this mid-term had turned into a total flop.
For Max and Casey, the rest of the night went by without any more disturbances.
They forced themselves to stay awake by continuously drinki
ng their water bottles so that they’d need to take frequent bathroom breaks. Or, in the case of the jungle atmosphere, bush breaks.
Eventually the sky began to lighten up and morning dawned on the island.
Casey and Max smiled at each other as the light of a new day came upon them.
“Looks like we survived the night,” said Max.
Both Casey and Toto let out a large exaggerated yawn.
“I can’t wait to get back home and have a huge nap,” declared Casey. “Isn’t that right, Toto?”
“Didn’t Toto sleep for most of the test?” said Max.
“Toto’s a growing gerbil, he needs his sleep!”
Max didn’t pursue the argument any further as they dismantled their base camp.
They waited and watched as the boat with the instructor and the examiners on it came ashore to the island.
Only now would they return to the beach. Otherwise, they were opening themselves up to any last desperate attempts made by other students to steal their lit candles.
They made a wide berth through the island to avoid contact with other students.
They were the first to arrive on the beach where the instructor and examiners were waiting.
The instructor smirked when he saw them.
“I figured you two would make it,” he grinned. “Let’s see who else did.”
Max looked at the empty beach. There must have been other students who made it? There was no way that Max and Casey were the only ones who passed, was it? Or perhaps the other students were simply being more cautious than the others?
Slowly but surely more students emerged on the beach. Many of them carried unlit candles and had dejected looks on their faces.
Cyrus and Sybil amongst a few others emerged from the shadows of the island jungle with their candles lit.
“I guess that’s everyone,” said the instructor, looking the group up and down.
Max’s heartbeat suddenly quickened.
There were Cyrus’ homicidal goons who’d met an unfortunate end who had still yet to show up, but surely the instructor didn’t know what had happened to them. Unless...