On the Shoulders of Titans

by Andrew Rowe

  I expected Researcher to vanish. To die the moment her contract was broken.

  But I hadn’t been paying enough attention. Neither had Mizuchi.

  “I never planned to beat you by invoking one monster.” Sera turned toward the Mizuchi. “So I made another contract. Researcher, I invoke your power.”

  A brilliant nimbus of light engulfed Sera for the briefest of moments, then collapsed inward toward her face. When the light faded, her eyes continued to glow.

  That was what Sera had been doing when she’d rushed toward the doorway. She’d made a contract with Researcher, allowing Researcher to survive without Mizuchi.

  Mizuchi howled and rushed toward Researcher, but Sera formed a whirlwind of mana that shot herself directly into Mizuchi’s path.

  When Mizuchi swept her tail at Sera, the attack missed by a large margin. The next three swipes of her claws were equally ineffective, with Sera somehow anticipating them and stepping out of the way.

  She’s using Divination to anticipate Mizuchi’s movements, I realized. Researcher must have been doing that before, which is why she knew to warn Sera to jump. And now she’s given Sera that ability.

  Mizuchi stepped back and pulled her hands together, firing a wide blast of flame that enveloped nearly the entire half of the room that Sera was in.

  Sera didn’t have nearly the power to counter it directly, even with Vanniv’s power. Instead, she fired a much smaller blast of ice, which burrowed a small hole in the fire blast. She stood in the exact spot it cleared, with the fire blast washing over her without causing damage.

  She countered with a blast of lightning, which hit Mizuchi directly, but didn’t deal any damage.

  I did notice something potentially important, though. It wasn’t the first layer of Mizuchi’s shroud that deflected the lightning; it went through two layers before deflecting off the third.

  In that moment, I developed a hypothesis, but I couldn’t be certain about it.

  I moved to Tristan. He was back on his feet.

  I handed him my sword. “Next time she takes a breath, I want you to hit her immediately, as hard as you can. Push the ice aura into her if you can.”

  He nodded. Even after the potions, he was still in bad shape, and half his face was still covered in blood.

  His right eye was closed. I suspected it was ruined.

  He took the sword anyway and walked closer to where Sera and Mizuchi were still exchanging blows.

  Sera was still anticipating Mizuchi’s strikes, but she lacked Mizuchi’s raw speed.

  Mizuchi swung a claw, extending her aura much like Keras would, but forming three massive blades rather than a single one. Sera formed a shield of ice and blocked the attack, then responded with a burst of fire.

  The fire wasn’t effective; it reflected off Mizuchi’s shroud, just like the lightning had. But it did teach me something. I was almost certain the fire deflected off the first layer of the shroud that it hit, rather than the third.

  That was enough to gamble on.

  I began to charge transference mana in my right hand.

  Mizuchi ripped off Sera’s remaining wing, then hit her with a solid blow to the chest. Sera flew backward, her stone armor cracking from the force of the blow.

  She was running out of time.

  I ran closer, reaching into my bag again, and to the Jaden Box.

  “Retrieve: Luck Lily Extract.” A globe of liquid appeared. I left it in the bag.

  Mizuchi flew after Sera, but Sera raised a wall of ice in Mizuchi’s path.

  I ran to where Silverbrand had clattered to the ground, grabbing it off the floor.

  Mizuchi stopped, growled, and took a deep breath.

  Tristan ran toward Mizuchi, raising Selys-Lyann.

  Sera raised her hands and formed a dome of stone that encompassed Mizuchi entirely.

  Now or never.

  I hurled Silverbrand at my target.

  My aim was a little off.

  That was an unacceptable result, so I blasted the hilt of the dagger with transference mana.

  Inside the spire, my control over my mana was fantastic. Good enough, in fact, that it caught the pommel of the dagger and carried it straight into the anti-teleportation rune.

  The rune fizzled and died.

  Mizuchi’s breath of lightning annihilated the wall of stone surrounding her a moment later, burning straight through the wall of ice as well.

  It hit Sera, too.

  She flew backward on impact, smashing into the floor. Her armor crumbled, and she convulsed uncontrollably on the ground.

  In that moment, while Mizuchi’s shroud was at its weakest, Tristan was ready. He hit her with a focused blast of ice from Selys-Lyann, which broke through her remaining shrouds and hit her, spreading across her body.

  She took another breath.

  Another one of her shrouds vanished, consumed as she converted it into mana to blast away the ice.

  As the ice melted away, I closed in and made my next throw.

  Her lightning shroud was gone. Her fire shroud was gone.

  The bottle froze as it passed through the ice layer of her shroud, then shattered on impact, drenching her with Luck Lily Extract.

  Mizuchi had just a moment to look at me with confusion before I blasted her with transference mana, triggering the effects of the compound.

  Teleportation to a random location.

  Mizuchi vanished.

  And, for just a moment, the room was silent.

  Tristan stared at the space where Mizuchi had been just a moment before. “What the resh was that?”

  “Teleportation potion, basically. I don’t know where it sent her. It probably won’t keep her long.”

  “We need to go.”

  I nodded. I rushed to Sera.

  She was still conscious, but barely. “Retrieve: Healing Potion.” I pressed it to her mouth, and she drank.

  “Mm.” She coughed. “I...don’t think I can move.”

  I picked her up and turned to Tristan. “Where can we go?”

  Researcher ran out of the doorway where she’d been hiding, joining us.

  “This way.” Tristan led us to the double doors he’d emerged from. “In Tenjin’s name, I unlock this sanctum.”

  The doors swung open.

  Researcher and I followed him inside.

  “In Tenjin’s name, I seal this sanctum.”

  The doors slammed shut behind us.

  “We should be safe for now.”

  I set Sera down.

  We all just sat there for a moment, breathing heavily.

  “I can’t believe we just survived a fight with Mizuchi.” Tristan wiped the blood from his face on his shirt.

  Sera chuckled, then coughed. “That’s two for us. You’re behind.”

  Tristan laughed. “I suppose you’re right. I think I’ll let the two of you keep the advantage in that area.”

  Sera turned to me. “So, she was weaker right after she took a breath, or something?”

  I nodded. “She had multiple shrouds, each of a specific element. Sort of like how Professor Meltlake could turn her shroud into fire, but Mizuchi had several at once. Every time she drew in a breath, she was using the corresponding shroud to power it. The first time I hit her with a potion, she used her fire shroud to evaporate it before it could do much damage. I knew if I wanted to teleport her, I needed that fire shroud gone, and ideally the lightning as well.

  “When she took the breath, it used up the lightning shroud. Then Tristan hit her, and she used her fire shroud up to get rid of the ice. After that, she still had multiple layers. I don’t know what they all were, but I think it hit the ice one first, so it froze. From there, I hit it with transference mana, which triggered the compound to teleport her.”

  “That’s...actually pretty impressive,” Sera admitted. “Even if I’d figured out how her shroud worked, I probably would have just tried to wear it down and hit her hard while her defenses were weak. Your approach was bet
ter.”

  “I don’t know if it was better,” Tristan cut in, “But it was definitely Corin’s style.”

  I grinned.

  Keras had been right.

  I was much more effective when I was fighting like me, rather than trying to be someone else.

  I turned to Tristan, an important question coming to mind and wiping away my moment of reflection. “How confident are you that she can’t find us in here?”

  “She can’t get in. No one can, not without the right key.” Tristan patted his chest.

  “This is Tenjin’s private sanctum, then?” Sera asked.

  “Indeed. Or, it was.” Tristan grinned.

  “I don’t believe I should be in here.” Researcher said, glancing from side to side. “This is a forbidden place. Even the other visages are not allowed inside without Tenjin’s permission.”

  I glanced down the hallway ahead. It was stark white walls of stone, and I could see a larger chamber ahead, but not a lot else from my vantage point. “How is it that you have access to this place?”

  “I stole it.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  Researcher gasped.

  “My attunement. It allows me to steal magic.”

  Several things clicked together in my head at once. “You have the Sovereign attunement. That’s how you were able to absorb those spells that Mizuchi cast. It’s probably also how you incapacitated Tenjin in the first place.”

  Tristan nodded. “Indeed. The first thing I did when we ambushed him was steal a bit of his power. Much like when you strengthen someone with your Arbiter attunement, however, I didn’t retain all of that. I did, however, manage to target and hold onto something specific — a mark on his body that he used as a key for accessing certain parts of the tower.

  “That mark enabled me to access his sanctum, as well as control many of the functions of the spire that normally only he had access to. I’ve even been able to keep the other visages out of this room, at least for now.”

  I glanced to Researcher, then back to Tristan. “I’m not sure you should be saying all this around her.”

  Researcher frowned. “But I like knowing things.”

  Tristan waved a hand dismissively. “It’s harmless. If this version of her is bound to Sera now, she’ll be loyal to her. And many of the actual Researchers already know what I’m up to, anyway. I have an arrangement with some of them.”

  “An arrangement?” I asked.

  “Not all of the monsters are exactly happy about being kept inside a tower for their entire lives, bred to be slaughtered by climbers or used at the visage’s whim.”

  Researcher’s expression shifted to something inscrutable. “I suppose I’m lucky to be a copy that was allowed to be outside of the spire. Few are given such a chance.”

  That explained a great deal about how Tristan was able to keep working within the spire in the way he had been — if there were monsters on his side, in addition to other Whispers, I could see how evading Katashi for as long as he had was more plausible. Maybe the monsters were even feeding Katashi false information.

  Sera frowned. “If you had access to everything in the spire, why didn’t you just give yourself a whole pile of magical equipment?”

  “I like the way you think. I did do that, although I couldn’t access everything. Because of a brand on my body, I can’t physically leave the spire...nor can I travel to certain other parts of the tower in person. That makes retrieving things difficult, because I’m forced to work through intermediaries.”

  He pointed down the hallway. “I have some things in there that I wish I’d been wearing during that fight. I was only expecting to meet with Corin. Normally, I’m untraceable while I’m in the sanctum.”

  Tristan turned his head toward the floor, brushing his face again to clear another patch of blood off of it. He looked exhausted, and I didn’t blame him. “I didn’t think that anyone would be looking for me in the few minutes I was outside...but I hadn’t anticipated the possibility that someone had already divulged our plans. Researcher must have been watching us, and reported to Mizuchi the moment that I was vulnerable.”

  “I’m sorry.” Researcher’s voice was a whisper.

  I turned to her. “It’s okay. We know you didn’t mean any harm, and you helped us out in the end.”

  Researcher nodded, but she appeared unconvinced.

  Sera broke into a fit of coughing, and I turned toward her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah...” She raised a hand, coughing again. “Just used too much mana again.”

  I winced, remembering what happened last time she’d done something like that. “How bad is it?”

  “Not as bad as last time. I was distributing it throughout my body, not just to my lungs. And most of the mana I was using was Vanniv’s, not mine. My everything hurts, but I don’t think I’ve caused myself more permanent damage this time. A few more minutes and I might have.”

  That largely confirmed what I’d speculated about how she was using those powerful spells against Mizuchi — her new Invoker attunement seemed to let her draw power directly from her summoned monsters, rather than just casting their spells with her own mana supply.

  If that was the case, she was vastly more powerful. I planned to ask her about how it worked later, but for the moment, I had more pressing concerns.

  “We should have Sheridan look at you and make sure there isn’t any more scarring, just in case.”

  Sera nodded. “Where is Sheridan, anyway? And the others?” She turned to Tristan, “And I suppose this might be a good time for me to learn what happened to my older brother?”

  We took a while to fill her in. I told her about what had happened in the spire, and Tristan told her basically everything he’d told me.

  I felt guilty that I didn’t have a way to send a message to Sheridan, Patrick, and Marissa to let them know that I was okay...but I hadn’t actually been gone for that long. Maybe an hour. They probably weren’t panicking too much.

  “So, question.” I turned to Tristan. “Is this where you’re keeping Tenjin?”

  Researcher’s eyes widened at that question, and she leaned forward expectantly.

  “I...I’m sorry, Corin. I’m not going to tell you that. It’s been good to see you. And you as well, Sera.” He shook his head.

  The look of disappointment on Researcher’s face was so sharp that it almost made me sad just looking at her. I couldn’t believe how expressive she was.

  Tristan turned his head upward, looking wistful. “I can’t let you in on everything until I’m certain that we’re in agreement on how to proceed. And that’s going to take more than just saying a few words, if you say them at all. It’s going to take time.”

  After everything I’d been through, it was hard to hear that, even if I couldn’t disagree with his reasoning.

  I didn’t know if I could even believe the things he’d been telling me. The events of the last several months hadn’t exactly taught me to trust people.

  We were silent for a time.

  “Is your eye okay?” I asked.

  Tristan grimaced. “I don’t think so.”

  “Do you have someone you can get to heal it properly?”

  Tristan shook his head.

  “You should bring my friends here. Sheridan might be able to fix it.”

  Tristan looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You want me to put my fate in the hands of Sheridan Theas?”

  I folded my arms. “They’ve healed both Sera and my injuries more than once.”

  “Oh, I know they’re talented. But they work for Wydd, Corin. Do you understand?”

  I blinked. “You think they’ve been spying on us?”

  “Undoubtedly. If it was just Patrick with you, I would have brought him up to talk. I don’t know as much about the blonde girl, but she probably would have been fine. Sheridan Theas? There is zero chance they don’t have their own angle on this.”

  “Okay, maybe. But we’re just talking about healing
your eye.”

  Tristan shook his head. “They could put a shard of bone through it just as easily, and remove a threat to their visage.”

  I sighed. “Fine. Here.” I pulled the silver phoenix sigil off my pants. “This has shielding, regeneration, and mana regeneration functions. Put it on and activate it. I don’t think it’ll fix an eye, but...”

  Tristan accepted it, pinning it to his shirt and activating it. “I’ll give it a try, at least. Thank you.”

  “Consider it repayment for giving me Selys-Lyann...and about that. Can you tell me more about it?”

  “Some other time. For the moment, I think it would be best if you return to your friends.”

  I frowned. “Why? We’ve only just reunited. It’s been five years, Tristan.”

  “Because Mizuchi may not be able to reach us here, but she can almost certainly reach them.”

  I had a moment of panic as I processed that. “Wait. Sera, don’t you still have a bond with her?”

  Sera blinked. “Mizuchi, I release you.” Then she took a breath. “There. Gone. Thanks for reminding me. I’m barely conscious right now, I wouldn’t have thought of it for a while.”

  I didn’t know if Mizuchi could have summoned Sera again immediately, but I was glad that we’d cut that possibility off before we found out the hard way.

  I turned back to Tristan. “How quickly do you think she’ll find them?”

  “Without her bond to Researcher, it would take her longer to find someone, but she may already know where they are if Researcher told her earlier. It could be hours, or she could have already found them.”

  “She knows where they were.” Researcher said. “I don’t know if she’s heading there or not. I can’t divine her from here.”

  I stood up. “We need to go, then.”

  Tristan stood as well. “Follow me.”

  He led us down the hallway and into the larger chamber up ahead.

  From a distance, I hadn’t understood the scale.

  The room was circular, maybe a hundred feet across. But the real scale came from the height.

  My gaze shifted upward, taking in the spiral stairways and ladders that connected the levels of the room. And as I continued to look upward, I realized I couldn’t see where it ended – there were dozens of levels above us.