by Andrew Rowe
He was in a kneeling position when he recovered from the blast. When his eyes reopened, I could see that his irises were silver, bleeding into his sclera.
When he stood, dusting himself off, he turned that silvery gaze toward my mother, standing only a few feet away. “Ah, yes. Sorry to keep you waiting. Shall we?”
He raised his sword and waited.
My mother drew the saber at her side. “Let’s.”
Keras moved first, but I could tell that only because of the position where their blades locked. His weapon had been stopped by her saber when it was inches from her face.
Mother was the one smiling now.
Keras frowned.
“Let me reintroduce myself. Laura Lyran. Councilor. Elementalist. And, perhaps most importantly, Emerald Swordmaster.”
Then she kicked him in the chest.
Keras took the kick with a grunt, stepping back in surprise, and losing his push on her weapon. Mother followed with a series of rapid strokes at chest level, her own movements too fast for me to follow, even with the Divination-enhanced vision.
Another of her strokes went low, but he kicked it aside, pressing forward with a thrust of his own. Mother batted it aside with her off-hand... which was glowing with electricity. The charge traveled through Keras’ weapon and into his arm. He winced, managing to maintain his grip, but barely dodged the follow-up swipe at his gut. It tore another line across his tunic and a crimson trail along his chest.
“Curious,” Mother mused. “Your shroud isn’t working properly.”
“I’d love to tell you all about it after you surrender.” Keras swung downward in a cut that should have come nowhere close to hitting her. His blade grew longer mid-swing, forcing my mother to make a split-second dance to her right.
Where his left fist was heading.
She took the punch with a wince and then struck him in the ear with a cupped palm.
Keras stepped back, grimacing, and shifted his stance to one I’d never seen. His right arm extended almost completely, the tip pointed toward my mother’s chest. It looked almost like an Edrian fencing stance, but I’d never seen one with the sword-arm extended so far.
The intent of the stance was clear enough. It left little of his body exposed, and his sword was in the way of any further attempts at getting close to him with a fist.
My mother stepped back, lowering into a standard defensive saber stance. Then she flicked a finger against the flat of her saber and a voltaic charge traveled along the surface of the blade, flickering back and forth from hilt to tip. As long as that electrical charge was on her blade, she could shock him on any contact between their weapons. I approved of the tactic; it made attrition her ally
It also made me deeply concerned.
Such a tactic would only be necessary if she knew she was at a disadvantage.
Keras took a step forward, pulling his arm back an inch. Mother moved her guard upward. Keras reset his stance.
A test, then.
Keras and my mother stood motionless for moments save for their eyes. They were both searching for weaknesses, finding none.
With his focus on my mother, Keras didn’t see the injured guard crawling up behind him. With a nod to my mother, the guard grabbed Keras around the right leg.
Keras startled, turning his head.
My mother lunged.
The masked swordsman twisted, trying to move out of the way, but the guard’s grip held. The blade caught Keras along the ribs, sending a charge of lightning into his chest. He stumbled back a step, finally managing to kick the guard and send the man tumbling across the floor.
Mother struck again. Keras caught her blade with his, but her blade was still charged with electricity. The lightning traveled from her weapon into his, searing his skin — but he didn’t drop the blade.
He pressed back harder.
Mother fell back a step, losing her stance for an instant. Keras’ blade flashed downward, driving Mother’s into the floor below. She pulled, but it was stuck.
Mother wasn’t done, though. She released her grip on the useless weapon and stepped inside Keras’ guard, slamming both hands into Keras chest. A blast of lightning launched him backward into the nearest wall.
Keras stood again.
His aura burned brighter. The air around him seemed to tremble as he stretched out his arms, readying his weapon to strike. His blade burned with a flare of silver, bright as a newborn star.
Then he smiled and tilted his head downward. “That was the most fun I’ve had in a while. I hope we’ll meet again.”
Then he turned and swung the burning weapon at the wall behind him, cleanly severing through the stone. With a punch from his other hand, the wall gave way... and then he was rushing out of the room.
My mother grit her teeth, taking a step toward the hole where he retreated, but the guard who’d helped her stood back up in her path. “Councilor Lyran, please help me see to the wounded.”
Mother’s eyes narrowed, considering, and then she nodded. “Of course.”
I was moving. I knelt next to the old man, Councilor Lanoy, and inspected him. Still breathing. Councilor Theas was already approaching as well. She looked exhausted, but uninjured.
I turned my head toward Councilor Theas. “He’s alive.”
“We were very lucky.” Councilor Theas knelt down at his side.
“No,” My voice replied. “He chose to be merciful.”
My vision froze after that, shifting in a blinding instant back to my own eyes.
***
I turned the gem over in my hand, trembling as I considered what I’d just seen.
Keras was there to meet with Tenjin, and they tried to arrest him. It follows that the ambush probably made Keras unhappy with everyone involved.
And Tenjin has been missing for weeks now.
Resh. Did Keras hurt one of the visages?
That would certainly explain why he was imprisoned in the tower if it was the case.
I frowned.
And Mother was there.
Mother fought against Keras, and she handled herself better than any of the others did. I knew she could fight, but... That was pretty impressive.
When’d she get a second attunement?
That last part didn’t really matter. I was glad she’d made it out of there alive, but I’d barely talked to my mother since she’d left. While I certainly felt a pang of fear for her when I’d seen her there, now I was more interested in why she was involved.
She clearly knew more about Keras than I did if she’d was involved in an attempted arrest.
I was nowhere near ready to reconcile with my mother after years apart, but this gave me a very good reason to write her a letter. I needed all the information I could get.
Dear Mother,
It’s been too long since we last spoke. Unfortunately, this letter is less about personal matters and more about a pressing concern.
I have recently become peripherally involved in a situation regarding a man named Keras Selyrian. I understand that you have also been somewhat involved in this matter, and thus, I would like to discuss things with you — either by missive or in person, at your discretion.
In specific, I am seeking any information about his present location and disposition. I hope you will be able to provide me with some insight.
I also hope you are well.
-Corin
I handed the letter off at the courier station, paid them, and headed back to my room to ruminate for a bit.
It felt a little cold for the first message I’d sent to my mother in years. Still, she hadn’t exactly gone out of her way to see me, so any obligation I felt was tinged with bitterness.
When evening came, I dropped the memory crystal off in the spot Jin had indicated.
I had more questions than ever about this. Hopefully, my mother would have answers. In the meantime, I did have one more person I could ask.
***
“Professor Orden, can we talk?
”
Orden frowned at me, pushing a lock of dark hair out of her eyes. “Back so soon?”
I closed the door behind me before responding. “I have information to discuss,” I said, turning back to her. “Can we speak in a safe location?”
She sighed. “Very well.”
She walked over, placing a hand on my shoulder and muttering the words to her “Veiled Teleport” spell.
We appeared in that strange empty white space she’d taken me to before. My stomach still lurched as we teleported, but not quite as badly as last time. Maybe I was starting to acclimate to it a bit.
“Well?” Orden folded her arms.
“I managed to obtain a bit of information on Keras. He was in a confrontation with members of the House of Lords, who attempted to arrest him.”
Orden gave me an approving nod. “You managed to discover that a bit faster than I expected. Found out from your mother, I assume?”
I shook my head, only in the aftermath of making the gesture realizing that maybe I should have claimed that as my method. Well, too late now. “I obtained and watched a memory crystal of the event.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Fascinating. I wonder how you managed such a thing? Oh, don’t tell me and spoil the fun. I’ll figure it out. I appreciate the update, but I knew about that event. Did you discover anything you think was relevant?”
“Well, he claimed to be there to meet with Tenjin, but the council stepped in to have him arrested.” I thought about that for a moment, then reconsidered. “Or, I should say, a few members of the council. I imagine that couldn’t have been everyone.”
“Quite right.” Orden folded her hands in front of her. “The Council of Lords currently has forty-five seats. That was a small affair that I believe the Adjutant arranged in cooperation with Dalenos’ authorities.”
Forty five seats? That was more good information for me to keep in mind for the future. “I wasn’t quite clear on that. They mentioned something about heresy?”
“Keras fled arrest in Dalenos after he made a public speech about the visages deceiving the populace about the state of the outside world.”
Yeah, that’d definitely count as heresy. “In what way did he claim the people were being deceived?”
“I didn’t hear all of it,” Orden admitted, “But it had something to do with the Tyrant in Gold not being as controlling as everyone thinks.”
Oh, dear. “I’m half-surprised that Katashi didn’t fly down and smite him on the spot.”
Professor Orden chuckled. “Well, it seems it did come to that eventually, didn’t it?”
“Or something like it. We still haven’t heard anything about what happened after the fight I witnessed... unless you have?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t have any news on that subject. I will inform you if I discover anything pertinent, however.”
“Thank you. One more question, since you were already familiar with the incident I mentioned. Was that before Tenjin stopped showing up to Council meetings?”
“Right before,” she confirmed. “If you’re thinking that Keras went after Tenjin after he escaped and attacked him, that would be the prevailing hypothesis.”
Resh. And I’m the one that let Keras go free.
That means I have an obligation to help stop him if I can.
“Thank you, Professor. That’s all I needed to know.”
***
My class the next day was Mana Manipulation, one of the two classes on my schedule that was only assigned to Enchanters. I was still distracted thinking about Keras and worrying about my mother, but the class was interesting enough to help get my mind off of it to some extent.
The best part was right at the beginning.
Professor Edlyn, the same teacher I’d signed my paperwork with right when I came out of the tower, was in charge of the class. She started us out with a simple instruction.
“Close your eyes and put your hand over wherever your attunement is located. Now, take a deep breath, and think about the passage of the mana within your body. If you’ve ever used a runic item, think about how that mana flows out of you into the object. If not, simply try to picture a flow of energy within your body, emanating from your attunement mark.”
I followed her instructions, envisioning the familiar sensation of the dueling cane leeching mana out of my hand. I felt a twinge of phantom pain just from remembering the sensation.
“Now, say the words, ‘Detect Aura.’”
I repeated the phrase.
“Open your eyes.”
I opened them. I immediately shut them again.
Everything had been glowing.
It was blinding. I blinked and blinked again, but the auras didn’t go away. From the murmurs of excitement and frustration around me, I wasn’t the only one experiencing it
“If you’re sensing auras now, you’ve just activated your attunement. Different Enchanters sense auras differently; this appears to mostly be tied to the location of the attunement mark, but there is some variation. If you haven’t activated your attunement yet, we’ll try another method...”
She ran through a few more exercises until all of the students indicated that they were able to sense the auras around them. During that time, I gradually acclimated to what I was seeing around me.
Brilliant nimbuses of power, shimmering around every student. They varied in intensity from person-to-person, and each student’s aura seemed to emanate from a different spot.
Most students had colorless auras, just distortions around them that looked like waves of heat. A few of them had a crimson tinge to that aura. One student’s was already completely red. I assumed that meant he’d already hit Carnelian level. Impressive, considering we’d just started the school year.
Professor Edlyn had a shifting, multi-colored aura, clearly brighter and broader than those of the students in the room.
Mana. I’m seeing mana.
I chuckled in delight at the thought. Lifting my hand, I could see my own mana, a translucent field that seemed thickest within my right hand. The lack of color made it difficult to discern, but it distorted everything beneath it, like looking at something immersed in water. Of course, my most important mana source was the attunement on my forehead, but I couldn’t exactly see that without a mirror.
I thought that I could feel it, though. Maybe just a little, like a pool of warmth beneath my skin. I briefly felt a surge of dysphoria at the concept of mana occupying the same space as my brain. Sure, it was supposed to be a normal part of my biology, and I knew that, but it was weird.
“Now that you can perceive your mana, you should be able to shift a portion of it to another part of your body. This is the simplest Mana Manipulation exercise and one that serves as the foundation for dozens of others. You will need to be able to shift the mana within yourself to learn to shift it out of your body, and thus to empower runes.”
I proceeded to spend the next two hours trying and failing to complete this utterly basic task.
Over the following week, I tried again and again, but I just couldn’t get my mana to change. I assumed it was some sort of mental block; I’d heard of people who could alter their heart rate just by thinking about it, for example, and I couldn’t do that either.
It was just before the next Mana Manipulation class that I realized I had a way to cheat.
I kept my attunement disabled most of the time. Activating and deactivating it was as simple as closing my eyes and thinking about it. The words “Detect Aura” were just a shortcut for tricking our minds into doing what we wanted them to do, and different shortcuts worked better for different people. I didn’t need that one.
Since it was easy for me to perceive my own aura, I realized that if I wanted to move it on my own, I should try focusing on it while it was being manipulated by something else. Namely, while practicing with my dueling cane.
My next two dueling classes didn’t actually put me on the stage. They were focused around tactics and tec
hnique, with a few other students bearing the brunt of Lord Teft’s antics. I did, however, get permission to use a dueling dummy for practicing with my cane.
I turned on my attunement before I focused on the rune, activating my dueling cane the same way I had so many times before.
This time, I saw it. The essence flowing from my arm into my thumb, which triggered the rune. A second surge of essence from my hand into the body of the cane, then flowing out from the cane in a burst of concussive force. I saw an unfamiliar aura around the dummy before the strike impacted, and then a different aura manifest as the dummy’s shield activated, blocking the burst.
I tried again, and this time as the cane drew mana out of my hand, I pushed.
More mana flowed out of my hand into the cane, charging it with power. The force of ensuing blast tore the weapon right out of my hand.
The mana burst missed the dummy entirely, but dissipated harmlessly in the air before it impacted anything.
I breathed a sigh of relief, even as my hand twitched in pain.
I’d done it. My mana had moved.
It took me two more days to reproduce the ability to move my mana without the use of my cane, and even then, it was much harder. But, challenging or not, it worked... and that was enough.
Immediately after my next Mana Manipulation class, which discussed the basics of transferring mana from an outside source from one place to another, I attempted my first enchantment.
...Or some facsimile thereof, at least.
Normally, Lord Teft recharged our protective sigils before the beginning of each dueling class. Studying the sigil, I realized it was more complicated than I had originally expected. It had three main runes, each with a different function.
One, it had a persistent aura that detected if it was in close proximity to a person. This seemed to have a range of a few inches, so it could be worn on a garment that was over a layer of armor.
Two, it had a second persistent aura for detecting incoming attacks.