by Andrew Rowe
I glared at him. “You could have gotten Sera seriously hurt.”
He raised his hands defensively. “I would have made sure she was safe, believe me. Would have jumped straight back into the arena if she was in real danger, rules or no. I apologize. I should have been clearer about the situation up front.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not the one who you need to apologize to.”
He nodded. “Of course. I’ll apologize to Sera when I see her. But let me do something more than that. I’ll make it up to you both. I put her in danger once, minimal as it might have been — but this time, I’ll keep you safe.”
I clenched and unclenched a hand in the air. “I appreciate the effort, but I still fail to see why you’re a better option than bringing another professor along.”
Derek glanced from side to side, his expression turning more serious than I’d seen it. “Look at me for a second. Really look.”
I knew what he meant. I shifted my attunement on.
He had a light red shroud, a standard aura for a Carnelian...until it began to brighten.
First, to orange.
Then, as the red burned entirely away, to yellow.
And, as my eyes widened, a tinge of blue mingled into the yellow, forming green.
Emerald. Derek was an Emerald.
I took in a deep breath.
For the first time, I could see why he’d been so arrogant about being able to handle the Survival Match alone. He had the strongest aura of any human I’d ever seen.
That was not as reassuring as it should have been.
I’d just seen his former partner’s name on the list of people who had gone into the tower with Vera.
Was that incident why they were feuding? Did Derek know something? Was he involved?
He hadn’t actually been one of the ones on the list to go into the tower himself...but then again, there was nothing that would have prevented him from going in just a bit earlier or later.
This was important, but I couldn’t think of an easy excuse to slip back into the archives to research him. I should have done it the moment Elora’s name had come up, but I hadn’t thought he’d be quite this closely involved.
I closed my eyes, disabling my attunement. “I can see what you mean.”
“Keep that to yourself, please. A good number of people already know, but I try not to draw too much attention.”
I nodded, my eyes reopening. I could see why keeping that degree of power secret was a big deal. It could draw a lot of unwanted attention, and given how powerful Emeralds were, I suspected they might be considered military assets.
That also raised the question of whether or not Derek was involved with whoever had been talking to Katashi before and keeping Vera’s location concealed.
I had a few options at this point and I didn’t like any of them.
I reopened my eyes. “I’ll be willing to take you along if Sera doesn’t have an objection. Let me talk to her about it privately first.”
Professor Orden folded her arms. “We don’t have time for distractions. Derek is, whether I like it or not, our best chance at completing this assignment safely.”
“We need to pick Sera up before we go confront Vera in either case. Can you teleport us to her room? I’ll make the conversation quick.”
“Fine. What dorm is she in?”
“Tortoise Female #14.” I stepped in closer, formulating the first bits of a plan.
This was going to more complicated than I hoped.
We formed a circle, and once again, my head swam as Orden teleported us.
At least I didn’t have a concussion this time.
***
Sera opened the door to her room. I stepped inside. The others were all standing outside the building, idly chatting. Or maybe plotting my doom. Possibly both.
I raised a finger in a gesture for Sera to be quiet, then set down my backpack and withdrew my etching rod.
As she watched with a raised eyebrow, I channeled a bit of mana into the rod and carved a noise-dampening rune into the door. A bit of gray mana, a bit of transference mana, and the rune was completed.
I didn’t bother writing more runes to set the rune to recharge. I didn’t want to waste the time or mana. I put the etching rod back, more confident now that it would be extraordinarily difficult to hear our conversation outside.
I nodded to Sera. “We can talk now.”
She folded her arms. “Can we start by discussing how much you owe me for wrecking my door?”
I chuckled. “I’ll get it fixed for you when this is all over. But we need to talk.”
Sera tilted her head to the side. “I’d gathered that from the fact that you look like you just found a group of assassins in your breakfast.”
I nodded sagely. “Delicious, but suspicious.”
Sera’s lips twisted into a half-smirk. “That rhyme was a little weak, but I’ll give you credit for effort.”
“Weak? I’d like to see you do better.”
She raised a finger to her chin. “They were vicious and ambitious, but through a turn of fate capricious, one malicious assassin proved seditious, slaying the others in my dishes. Thereafter I discovered they were delicious, and moreover, nutritious.”
...
“You win this round, Sera.”
She bowed at the waist. “Your acknowledgment is judicious.”
I rolled my eyes. “That one was a bit of a stretch. But seriously, we need to talk.”
Sera sat down on her bed next to a large backpack of her own. “Okay, so talk.”
“Teft isn’t coming. Apparently, he’s too badly hurt from exerting himself on our last little mission. They sent Derek Hartigan instead.”
Sera shrugged. “Okay.”
I blinked. “You don’t care?”
“Eh, I don’t appreciate how little information he gave me before dragging me into that whole Survival Match thing, but it was still fun. And he’s obviously a fighter. We could use someone who knows how to use a sword. No offense.”
I nodded. “None taken. That reminds me.” I unbuckled my belt, taking both scabbards off it. “I brought two. You can pick one if you want one.”
“Oh, Patrick is going to be so jealous.”
I blinked. “Why?”
“You didn’t notice? He’s been staring dreamily at your swords for months! He’s obsessed with those things.”
I winced. I really hadn’t been paying enough attention to what my friends were interested in. Now that Patrick was my retainer, I needed to make more of an effort to understand him. “Okay. I’ll definitely need to get him an enchanted sword sometime.”
I shook my head. “In the meantime, though, we’ve got more important matters to discuss. When Jin and I looked into Vera, we found out that Elora Theas — Derek’s former beau — was one of the people who went into the tower with Vera. It’s very likely she’s connected with all this nonsense, which makes it possible that Derek is also connected.”
Sera leaned over, picking up Selys-Lyann and testing the weight, then picked up my other sword and did the same. “And you’re worried he’s going to stab us in the back? Is that it?”
“Yeah. And he’s Emerald, Sera.”
She set the sword down at that, staring at me. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “Saw his shroud with my attunement. He’s been suppressing it.”
Sera’s hands clenched and unclenched in the air. It was a familiar gesture. I did the same thing when I was stressed. I hadn’t realized she shared the habit. “That makes this rather awkward.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I told him that he could come along if you were okay with it. So, we’ve got an excuse if you want to act more angry about the whole arena thing...”
She shook her head. “No. I think we should keep him close, even if we have suspicions. If we tell him off, he’s free to wreak havoc out of sight. Maybe he goes and gets rid of Vera before we even reach her. Or, if he’s connected to Tenjin’s disappearance, he could even go move Ten
jin while we go in the tower — or worse...”
I nodded. “I understand the idea of keeping an eye on him, but if he turns on us in the tower, there’s really nothing we could do against an Emerald. Unless you’re holding out on me. That thing you did with Patrick was a pretty impressive trick.”
Sera grinned. “It was. We’ve been practicing for weeks. Cooperative spells are much stronger than anything we can manage alone.”
“How’d he even help you? I’ve heard of cooperative spells, but wasn’t that an ice spell?”
“Ice and air. Elementalists can cast air spells. So, he supplied the air mana, freeing me up to use all my mana for ice. We pushed as much power as we could into that one spell. But even then, that wouldn’t even be Citrine-class. We couldn’t scratch an Emerald, and I couldn’t cast that spell alone.”
Hrm.
I pointed at Selys-Lyann. “Could you draw mana from an item? Selyss-Lyann has an ice aura.”
She frowned. “I’ve got a limited degree of ability to work with ice from my bond... maybe I could do something with it. Can’t promise it would be as impressive as what Patrick and I could pull off together, but it might be better than what I can do on my own.”
“Okay. You should take that sword, then, provided you don’t mind the curse.”
“Curse?”
“Shopkeeper told me that it’s cursed so that anyone who wields it dies. Probably just a ridiculous legend.”
Sera stared at the sword, then looked back at me. “...you’ve been using a cursed sword this whole time?”
I chuckled. “I don’t think the curse is real. But if you’re worried about it, I can hold onto the sword.”
She picked the sword up. “I’m not as trusting as you are, but if there is a curse... I’ll beat it.”
I grinned. “Okay. So, we’re taking Derek?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s hope we don’t regret it.”
We finished packing Sera’s gear and headed outside to meet the others.
Derek delivered on his promised apology and Sera accepted.
It might have been my imagination, but I got the impression he looked just as suspicious of us as we were of him.
***
One more teleport. My stomach lurched as we arrived outside Corrington Carriages.
Derek looked at Professor Orden. “We’re sure she’s in there?”
The professor nodded. “I just scried for her minutes ago. She’ll be in here.”
As I recovered, I realized everyone was looking at me. “What?”
Professor Orden looked at me. “Go on in, Corin. This part is all you.”
“You’re joking.”
Orden gestured to the door. “You’re the one she’s going to recognize. You might be able to talk her into coming along with us peacefully. If anything goes wrong, just give us the signal.”
I frowned. “What signal?”
“Scream loudly.”
I sighed, walking over to the door of the shop. To my surprise — and relief — Jin fell into step beside me. No one commented on it and I wasn’t going to complain.
From the sign on the door, we were arriving during normal business hours, so I didn’t bother knocking. I just opened the door.
The inside of the building was well-lit and doubly well organized. I was shocked to see four complete automobiles in a perfect line, each painted a different color with a small sign in front of it.
Right near the entrance, a dark-skinned young man I didn’t recognize sat at a desk, looking over paperwork. Toward the back of the room, I could see another line of automobiles, but unfinished and unpainted. From the screeching noise coming from the one on the far right, I could tell someone was working on the carriage with some kind of noisy tool, but I couldn’t see them.
I stepped up to the desk. There were chairs on my side for a visitor, but I didn’t take a seat.
The man behind the desk looked up at me. “Good day, sir. Do you have an appointment?”
Ah, a secretary. Fair enough. He’s probably another student like me, looking to make a bit of spending money.
I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. Just here to visit someone.”
“Oh, who?”
Well, I wasn’t exactly planning to tell the whole world this, but... “Vera Corrington. Is she here?”
He nodded immediately and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, lemme go get her for you. Don’t touch anything. Seriously. Aloras will murder you.”
I nodded, glancing at Jin. He shrugged at me.
We waited.
The student headed to the back of the room, and that grinding noise I’d been hearing paused after I heard a few hushed words of conversation.
A moment later, Vera pushed herself out from under the automobile, setting down a long rod that I wasn’t familiar with. She was too far away for me to get a good look at the runes on the side.
Vera’s eyes widened when she saw me. She glanced from side-to-side, searching, before walking over with the secretary at her side.
I put my hands up in a gesture of peace. “Can we talk?”
The secretary glanced at me, then back to Vera. “This guy bothering you, Vera? He must have been able to tell that she looked nervous.
Vera shook her head. “No... I know Corin. Was just surprised to see him here.”
I nodded. “I’ve got something important to talk to you about, Vera. Related to the last time we saw each other.”
Vera sighed. “I should have known it’d come to this eventually.” She turned to the secretary. “John, go tell Aloras that Corin is here, then take the rest of the day off. We need to talk privately.”
John blinked. “If you say so?”
“I do. Aloras should be in the back.”
John nodded and headed toward a back room.
Vera folded her arms once John was out of sight. “Look, I’m sorry for how things ended, but I needed to make sure I got Echion out of there in one piece. You seemed nice, but I didn’t know you or your motives. I still don’t.”
She probably left me behind as a distraction for Katashi. And maybe to buy more time to get further into the city without being reported to the authorities. I wouldn’t have done the same, but she didn’t actually hurt me. And I can’t blame her for distrusting a stranger.
I shrugged in response to her half-hearted apology. “I’m not here about that. We’ve got bigger things to worry about. Give me a second.”
I removed my etching rod and began carving a rune in her door.
“What are you doing? You’re ruining the wood!”
Oh, maybe I should have explained first.
I finished carving the rune, noticing Jin nod out of the corner of my eye, then turned back to Vera.
“Noise-dampening rune. We really don’t want people to hear us. Uh, aside from Jin here. Jin, this is Vera. Vera, Jin.”
Vera sighed. “Fine, fine. Nice to meet you, Jin. What’s this all about?”
I put my rod away, and then slipped off my glove to show her the sigil of Katashi on my right hand. “Katashi has charged me with bringing you to him within the next week, otherwise he’s going to wreck the city.”
Vera reached down for something.
Jin moved faster, a pistol appearing in his hand and pressed up against her chest before I could react. “Don’t even think about it.”
Vera sucked in a sharp breath, putting up her hands in surrender. “I... I can’t go back there. You don’t understand. It’s not just about me.”
I took a moment to process what had just happened, then moved behind Vera and removed the dueling cane from her belt.
My old dueling cane, in fact. I looped it onto my own belt.
“You can lower the gun, Jin. Thank you.”
He lowered the weapon. “If you are certain.”
I turned back to Vera. “I don’t want this to end in bloodshed, Vera. If there’s something I don’t understand, make me understand. I’m willing to listen to your side of things, but one
way or another, we need Katashi to be satisfied or he’s going burn this place to the ground.”
She sighed again. “Can I put my hands down?”
Jin stepped forward, nearly eye-to-eye with her. “Reach for another weapon and you lose a hand.”
Vera glowered at him. “I don’t have any other weapons.”
“Good,” Jin replied simply.
Vera lowered her arms and leaned up against a nearby wall. “How much do you know?”
I rolled my eyes. “About seventeen years’ worth, aside from what I’ve forgotten. Can you be more specific?”
“About what really happened in the tower.”
I scratched my chin. “I’ve pieced together a fair bit. You went in the tower with a mixed group. Some people from Caelford, some locals. Something bad obviously happened, and you ended up in that prison with the kid.”
“Echion,” she replied. “He’s... more than just a child.”
I folded my arms. “When you were in the jail cells, you acted like you didn’t even know him.”
She frowned. “Sorry about that. I couldn’t let anyone — especially Keras — realize how important he is to me. And in general.”
“What if that deception had caused me to leave the two of you in there? Or if Keras got impatient and triggered the traps?”
Vera shook her head. “Had to take my chances. There was too much of a chance Keras would have killed Echion outright if he’d known what he was dealing with. Echion wouldn’t have starved, and I doubt the traps would have done much to him.”
She paused for a breath. “Believe me, I thought long and hard about how I was going to behave in order to find the best chance of getting us both out. And that meant trying to get myself out, so I could find a way to free him. You having a second key just made it easier. If you’d just freed Echion and tried to walk out, I suspect Katashi would have just killed you both.”
I nodded. “Why’d Katashi attack him? Was this some kind of coup? Is Echion actually Tenjin?”
Vera shook her head. “No, but it’s not a bad guess.” She took in a deep breath. “Let me start from the beginning. Caelford and Valia have been allies since the Six Year War.”
I remembered the class about that. About eighty years ago, Edria’s army had swept east and conquered the kingdom of Kelridge — now known as “East Edria” — which sat along Valia’s border. They’d continued to push toward Valia, but we put up a better fight.