by Andrew Rowe
Delsys sank down to the stage, fire leaking from its wounds.
As more blades arced downward to impact the wounded creature, Sera waved both hands toward the karvensi.
“Reverse!”
The frozen shards stood still in the air.
The karvensi turned its gaze toward her. “You lack the strength to turn back my spell, little girl.”
She shook, pushing her hands outward as she struggled for control over the spell. I’d seen Shapers do that sort of thing before, but I wasn’t aware Summoners were capable of it.
The shards shivered, inching closer to Delsys, who had fallen to a knee.
Finally, she smirked and spoke. “I don’t have to.”
Derek flew upward from the back of the stage — the golden sword back in his hand, its edges glowing bright — and he slashed upward, cutting through the base of one of the karvensi’s wings.
“Aaaaah!” The creature screamed in shock as it fell from the sky, landing hard against the surface of the stage.
Derek landed atop it. “An excellent fight. You should be proud.”
Then he shoved his gleaming sword into its neck.
I winced as the karvensi vanished.
The crowd erupted in uproarious applause.
My feelings were...mixed. Had they just killed an intelligent creature for a mere show?
I knew summoned creatures worked more like simulacra. They were copies of a person, not real people. But I still felt a sinking in my gut at the thought.
For the moment, though, most of what I felt was relief. Sera was safe.
“Well done, contestants! You have cleared the second round.”
More applause.
“As you know, normally this would be our final round for the competition. Tonight, however, we are honored by the presence of a special guest!”
Oh, no.
“Our house Summoners are quite exhausted, but our guest is among the most talented in her field. Our audience should know her well — and our contestants should know her even better. Introducing Derek Hartigan’s former partner, the incredible Elora Theas!”
A woman in a pristine red and gold suit, complimented by a tall hat and a dueling cane, appeared in the largest box directly above the stage. She was definitely the same woman I’d seen in the memory crystal working with my mother. “Found a replacement for me so quickly, Derek? She’s quite lovely, but a little young, even for you."
Oh, resh no.
This cannot possibly go anywhere good.
Derek glanced upward at the box. “Elora! My love, my life, my light. You must be so lonely up in that box all by yourself, without any of your many usual acquaintances to keep you company for the evening. Why don’t you come down here and join us?” He snarled. “I’d be glad to give you a proper greeting.”
“Distracted as you are by my beauty, you seem to have forgotten you are in the midst of a contest. But worry not! I will be here to console you while you recover from my contribution.”
Delsys, his wounds no longer streaming fire, finally collapsed on the stage and vanished a moment later. Derek did not spare him a glance, but Sera rushed and retrieved the sword that fell to the stage in Delsys’ absence.
“Contestants, prepare yourselves for your final battle!”
A faster song emerged from the musician’s pit beside the arena, and the arena’s barrier walls flashed.
Derek glanced at Sera. “You may want to step out of the ring, Sera. This is not going to be pretty.”
Sera glanced upward, then back down to Derek. “I’m not pleased with this little lover’s quarrel you’ve dragged me into, but I’m not one to back down from a fight.”
The swordsman nodded silently. There was nothing more to say.
Elora steepled her fingers. “Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to bear witness to something rare. A summoning of something beyond the mere pittances often strewn across this arena.”
She closed her eyes.
“You who are born of the serpent,
Wrought with scales of adamant and bearing claws of fire,
I call upon our pact.
Visage of venom, hear my voice!
Wyvern, I summon you!”
A gasp escaped the collective voice of the crowd.
They knew, as I did, what she had invoked.
The wyvern. One of the guardians of the tower.
And as she spoke her final word, it appeared.
Twenty feet of muscle, sinew, and scales. It floated above the stage on serpentine wings, opening its draconic jaws into the air.
It screamed, and the room quaked at its voice.
“Very well.” Derek glanced upward, flourishing his golden blade. “Shall we begin?”
In reply, the creature dove straight down.
Derek jumped, landing a glancing strike against its neck. The sword failed to cut through the creature’s scales. It responded with a strike from its viciously barbed tail.
The swordsman battered the tail aside, but one of the spines along the edge ripped across his chest, drawing blood. He hissed as he fell, clutching at the wound.
“Poison,” he spat, clenching his fists as he landed. “I hate poison.”
Sera was not standing idle. She had been finishing an incantation as Derek fought in the air.
“Winds, carry upon you blades of ice!”
A handful of icy daggers appeared behind her, firing forward. It resembled a weaker version of her Permafrost Cascade.
If she was using it, that meant she was probably too low on mana for her more powerful spell. Not a good sign for fighting something as powerful as the wyvern.
The icy knives struck the wyvern’s left wing, burrowing holes into the sinews between bones. The monster roared, but remained afloat. The damage wasn’t significant enough to render it incapable of flight.
Sera’s right hand was shaking heavily. Definitely not a good sign.
Derek swung his blade in the air, sending a golden crescent at the creature’s wounded wing. It twisted sideways, avoiding the attack, but Derek repeated the gesture and struck it in the opposite side.
The wyvern hissed and dove.
Derek ran.
The wyvern hit the stage, breaking boards where it landed, smashing a path as it surged toward Derek with open jaws.
Sera raised the gauntlet and sent a blast into its side.
The visual difference between a burst of gray mana and a blast of transference mana wasn’t very obvious.
The effect, however, was quite distinct.
The wyvern must have weighed twenty times more than a man, but the burst of mana was still sufficient to knock it off course. Its jaws closed around the empty air just to Derek’s side.
And Derek, never to miss such a perfect window of opportunity, thrust his sword into its neck.
“Hah!” He slammed the palm of his other hand into the pommel of his sword, driving it deeper into the creature’s throat. It thrashed wildly as his hand began to glow, sending a surge of golden mana across the blade and blasting a deep hole into the wyvern’s neck.
Derek grinned, pulling away. “You see that, Elora?”
The wyvern’s tail smashed into him a moment later, leaving a bloody smear across the stage.
The motion carried him all the way out of the ring.
And then, it rose, roaring.
Sera was alone.
The wyvern turned, coughing blood onto the ruined stage. Standing on its two legs, it raised its tail like a scorpion, poised to strike.
“Run, Sera!” I shouted.
I knew there was no chance she could hear me from my position in the stands.
The tail shot downward like the thrust of a spear, and Sera spoke.
“Ogre, I summon you.”
The ogre’s hands caught the wyvern’s tail.
And suddenly, I understood.
Those “Binding” spells she’d been using weren’t to slow the monsters down.
She’d been marking the
monsters for her later use.
The wyvern hissed, pulling its tail free from the ogre’s grasp. As strong as the ogre was, it was nowhere near as large or powerful as the wyvern.
That didn’t stop it from charging the wyvern with fists flailing, though.
Sera fell to a knee, shaking. She looked pale. Too pale.
The ogre smashed a fist into the wyvern’s jaw. The wyvern recoiled at the blow, but quickly retorted, snapping its fangs around the ogre’s arm.
Sera dropped the crimson sword, wiping her forehead. “One more,” she mumbled. “Just one more.”
The ogre howled in agony, slamming its free arm into the wyvern’s face, but it was doing minimal damage. The wyvern snapped down again, tearing the ogre’s injured arm off entirely.
The ogre fell to its knees.
“Karvensi...” Sera mumbled, raising both hands. “I summon you.”
The winged man appeared at her side as she slumped against the floor.
“Really? You’re summoning me now?” He sighed, turning toward the wyvern. “And I suppose you want me to handle this for you?”
Sera twitched her head in what could barely pass for a nod.
“Well, I suppose it’s something to do.”
The wyvern’s tail descended, spearing the ogre through the chest. The ogre twitched once, then vanished into nothing.
The karvensi shook its head, gathering flames in its hands. “I was hoping the brute would have lasted a moment longer, but I suppose this will have to do.”
The wyvern turned its head toward Sera.
The karvensi’s hand shot out. “Tell me, wyvern. What’s your opinion on fire?”
The stage, with the exception of a small patch around Sera, turned red.
And the wyvern, as powerful as it was, was not intelligent enough to see the danger.
Flames rippled upward from the stage, and the wyvern’s bulky form was bombarded with dozens of blasts. It howled into the air, its wings flapping to carry it above the danger.
The karvensi shook its head, lifting the burning sword that Sera had discarded. “Now, how does this thing work? Do I just throw it like so?”
He hurled the sword at the wyvern’s already injured wing, and it embedded deeply. Fire began to spread across the surface where it impacted.
The karvensi frowned. “Hrm. No flame person this time.” He glanced down at Sera’s shivering form. “Did I do something wrong? I must have done something wrong.”
“Finish...it...,” Sera mumbled.
“Right, right. You know, you really look quite unwell. You probably should see a healer or something. You humans are so fond of those.”
The karvensi took to the air, flying high above the writhing wyvern. “You really are quite a disappointment, wyvern. I expected better from one of the serpent’s children. But alas, few can match my own splendor.”
It gestured to the air above it. “This should put an end to your struggles, I think.”
A dark cloud gathered at the top of the stage, electricity crackling in its midst.
The karvensi turned away from the wyvern, bowing in the air to the crowd. “Enjoy the light show, humans.”
Lightning struck from a dozen angles at once.
The wyvern hissed, its flesh sizzling where each impact had struck. It rolled over, raising its wings toward the lightning in a blocking gesture.
“Really? You need more?” The karvensi sighed. “Fine. You’re resilient, at least, I’ll give you that. More lightning it is.”
More flashes from the cloud. Dozens upon dozens of them.
Finally, the wyvern lay still, and began to fade.
Sera reached up with a shaking hand, muttering a single word. “Bind.”
Symbols whirled around the creature’s fading form, and I laughed so hard it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
She was half-dead down there, and she was still thinking about adding another monster to her summoning collection.
Maybe we really were family after all.
As the wyvern faded, the audience stood in uproarious applause.
I rushed out of my booth, past a guard, and tried desperately to find the stairs.
I needed to make sure that Sera was safe.
***
It took a considerable amount of arguing, but I eventually managed to get one of the guards to let me into the “recovery room”, where both Sera and Derek were waiting.
Sera was lying on a sofa, shivering uncontrollably. A man I didn’t recognize sat in a chair next to her.
Derek was sitting in another chair, his feet up on a footrest.
“Ah, Corin. Thanks for coming down to see us. Wasn’t that an incredible show?”
I punched him in the face.
Derek fell backward at the impact, clutching his face. “What the—”
“You brought a first year student into this... pit with only minutes of preparation. Yes, she agreed to it, but she couldn’t have possibly known the degree of danger that she was in.” I raised a hand and pointed. “Look at her, Derek. Look at the condition she’s in.”
Derek narrowed his eyes, still clutching his nose. It was bleeding. Good. “That’s on you, too. You’re the one I asked first.”
“Yeah, and I probably deserve more than what I just gave you. She can punch me as much as she feels like. For the moment, though, I’m going to see if I can get her warm. And you can help, rather than sitting on your ass.”
Derek’s clenched his fists, pulling one back like he was going to strike me...but he slowly growled and unclenched them, putting his hands back down.
“You’re right.” He lowered his head. “There was no way either of you were ready for that. I didn’t think that Elora... but never mind. That’s not important. Let’s see to your sister.”
I nodded curtly.
The man next to her turned out to be a Mender, but he’d quickly identified that her problem was from mana loss, and there was little he could do beyond making sure her condition didn’t deteriorate further.
I glanced at Derek. “Your weapons. Can you summon that golden entity, the one that transferred mana to her earlier?”
He shook his head. “I have to store mana in the weapons for weeks to get enough to summon them in a physical form. She’ll be long recovered before I can call on Tavare again.”
I took off my coat, draping it over Sera. She barely responded.
I glanced at the Mender. “Do you carry mana potions here?”
He shook his head. “No, they expire quickly. I do know an alchemist nearby, but those potions are expensive.”
My head turned to Derek. “The winnings. They must be substantial.”
Derek nodded. “She’ll be quite wealthy when she recovers, at least by first year standards.”
“We’re going to buy her mana potions. Enough for a quick and comfortable recovery. With your share of the money.”
He glowered at me for a moment, but let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. I will do this as recompense. But after this, no more punching?”
I nodded. “Not from me. I can’t make any promises about what she’s going to do when she gets up.”
“Acceptable.”
The medic gave us directions. Derek and I both boggled at the cost of mana potions — twenty silver for a single draught — but the winnings were more than sufficient to cover the three potions I decided she’d probably need.
Sera was completely unconscious by the time we returned. Her shivering had stopped, but the Mender assured me that she was alive. With the Mender’s help, we gingerly fed her a sip of the first potion and waited.
I sat her head on my lap, like mother had done for me when we were children. And, after hours passed with no sign of change, I fell asleep.
***
“Corin.”
“Corin, wake up.”
My eyes blinked their way open. Derek was sitting next to me.
I almost punched him again. My lack of punching ended up being mostly due to my arm be
ing asleep. Sera was on top of it, still unconscious.
I didn’t remember the non-punching agreement until at least several moments later. “Derek.”
He nodded. “Good, you’re awake. I need to go. I’ve been here all night, and my family will be concerned.”
I glanced down at Sera. “Has she woken up at all?”
Derek shook his head. “No, no sign of it yet. The medic left a few hours ago. He’s convinced she’s on the mend. We fed her another sip of the first draught, but it’s hard to get anything into her while she’s asleep. You can give her the full potion when she wakes up, but she’ll need water with it.”
“No.”
He blinked. “No?... No what?”
“You don’t get to leave without apologizing to her.”
Derek sighed. “Look, I did stay all night, and I am quite sorry for what happened. It was irresponsible of me to drag you two into this with so little warning, but I needed a partner, and—”
“Did you know Elora was going to be summoning that beast?”
“No.” His tone was firm. “All I knew was that she refused to join me in the arena tonight. I had no idea she was planning this...charade.”
I tilted my head down. “And did you learn she wasn’t joining you in the arena before or after you asked me to come to your show?”
Derek winced. “Before. But I thought I could find another friend, a veteran, who could take her place! I just ran out of time.”
“And you were desperate enough to put children in danger.”
He sighed. “I was confident I could handle it myself. Summoned monsters are usually considerably weaker than real ones. I normally don’t even have to use my bound weapons. With them, I thought this would be trivial, even without Elora’s help. Obviously, I was mistaken.”
I could understand his perspective, but after seeing the degree of danger Sera had been in, I wasn’t going to let him off lightly. “You should tell her that.”
“I will! I can come back. But I have people who are going to be worried about me. I’d think you of all people should understand that.”
It was a low blow, but he wasn’t wrong.
I may have sounded a bit uncharacteristically snarly with my response. “Fine. You can tell your family that you’re safe. But you’re coming back. And if we’re gone by the time you get back here, you’re going to come to the campus and apologize to her directly.” My eyes narrowed. “And you will not ask her to join you again.”