by Andrew Rowe
My mind swam with the implications of everything she was telling me. “Okay. Saving dying kids. I can get behind that. But if they’re that powerful, you have to know that someone is going to try to use them as weapons.”
“Is that really any different from how normal spires work? We train our children to take life-risking trips into a spire. They come back deadlier, if they come back at all.”
“Oh, don’t even get me started on the spires. That whole system is awful. Not only does our culture pressure people into taking Judgments, those Judgment themselves are rigged. The whole thing is a scam. But what you’re doing? Giving hyper-powerful attunements to babies? Somehow, you might have managed to make things even worse. You’re weaponizing people from the moment they’re born.”
“We’ve looked into passing laws to protect the children from being utilized for warfare, but it’s not a simple thing. Given the choice between dead children and children with the potential to be used as soldiers in the future, what would you choose, Corin Cadence?”
“Oh, come on. That’s an absolute trap of a question. Obviously saving babies is more ethical than not saving babies, but you’ve raised a false dichotomy.” My eyes narrowed. “I would choose a third option.”
“There isn’t always a third option available, Corin.”
“Maybe, but you’ve already talked about getting laws passed. I think you should have done that first, and if you haven’t already, that should be expedited. You could also build restrictions into the attunements themselves to prevent them from being weaponized. Even if the children need a growing mana pool, you make it one of the non-lethal varieties. Or work to solve that whole ‘need growing amounts of mana’ problem itself. There are several avenues to explore.”
“Of course there are, and we are exploring many of those options ourselves.” Farren smiled at me. “But if you have strong feelings about what should be prioritized, there’s no better way to influence that than getting involved in the project. You’re very creative, and I’m sure you could influence the next phase. Perhaps make it conform to your principles a bit better.”
“Good try, but no. Not now, at least. I will consider your offer seriously for when I’m better trained and educated. I need time to research alternatives. There may be ways to help these children without an attunement even being necessary.”
“The Prime Crystals won’t work. We’ve already tried that.”
Farren had successfully intercepted my next line of thought. “Then…couldn’t you put a maximum capacity on how much mana these children accumulate, to prevent them from being, well, terrifying?”
“That would kill them. In order to survive, their bodies require a higher and higher mana intake.”
I exhaled a breath. “Then…what about magic to make their bodies function more like ordinary humans?”
“That’s another entire branch of research, and we do have a division focused on bodily transformation, but I don’t think it would match your skill set. Rest assured that our Biomancers and Shapeshifters are evaluating new options in that regard all the time.”
“Then—”
“Let me save us both some time, Corin Cadence. You are not going to solve a centuries-old magical problem in a single conversation. You are bright and creative and have a great deal of potential, but you are not the sole owner of progress. None of us are. Not even me.”
I rubbed my forehead. “I know, I know. It’s just…I can’t know about this and do nothing.”
“You won’t. Do nothing, that is.” Farren smiled. “Just because you can’t solve it now doesn’t mean you never will be able to contribute to the process. Now that the idea is in your mind, you will pursue it, and every other tangle related to it you can think of.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I…still can’t completely approve of what you’re doing here.”
“You don’t have to. But you do have to accept that you aren’t powerful enough to change it. Not yet. Come back when you’re ready, Corin.” Farren folded her hands. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
“You might be waiting a while. I have a lot on my list.” I nodded to Farren once more, then turned and left the room. I felt her eyes on my back long after I had left her sight.
***
“So, what are the odds that Farren knows that you’re going after Warren Constantine?” Sera asked after I explained the conversation I’d had.
We were back in her hotel room, and she was sitting on her bed. I was pacing back and forth behind a chair, rather than sitting on it. Cecily was showering in the nearby washroom.
“If she’s actually seeing the future, it’s very likely she knows. It would depend on the parameters of her future sight — how far she can see in advance, if specific type of magic can block it, all that. I’d wager Keras’ mask would be useful to counter this sort of thing. If he was around, I’d ask to borrow it for a bit. But it doesn’t matter. I can’t let the presumption that Farren is seeing my future hold me back.”
Sera smiled. “Right. You can’t let fear stop you. He could be cute, after all.”
“Cute…Sera, he’s probably like triple my age.”
She gave an appraising look, then shrugged. “You’re an adult, you can make your own choices.”
I folded my arms. “No, Sera. I am not romantically pursuing him.”
“Why not? You need to think about your future. You’re a very eligible bachelor now. Unless, of course, you’ve taken too much of an interest in someone already…” She shifted her gaze toward the washroom door, a grin spreading slowly across her face as she turned back to me.
I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath. “Sera, I need you to stop.”
“Stop what? Discussing your future prospects? I know we’ve both got some trust issues, but—”
“Stop.” I opened my eyes, putting my hands up. To her credit, Sera shut up immediately. “Look, Sera. I don’t know what I want romantically, but it’s not some old guy in a tower that I’ve never met. And as for Cecily, it’s complicated, and I don’t know what I’m going to do about that. I don’t know why you keep bringing this up.”
She snorted. “I’m mostly teasing you, Corin. You’re so adorably awkward about love, it’s funny.”
“Teasing is fine, just don’t expect me to find some random guy and ride off into the sunset on a unicorn.”
Sera blinked. “…When did unicorns get involved in this scenario?”
“That’s…not the point. Look, I’m not dating anyone right now. Is that clear?”
We stared at each other for a minute, then Sera shrugged. “Fine. I do sincerely think you should be putting some more thought into your future, though.”
I let out a deep breath. “I sincerely will throw a pillow at you if you continue down this line of conversation. And given that I’ve managed to hit people with thrown swords — which is, as we both know, is the worst possible way to use a sword — I can attest that I am deadly accurate with thrown weapons.”
“The pillows are next to me, Corin.” Sera grabbed one off her bed. “And, given my mastery of air mana, I—”
I twitched a hand.
A pillow slammed into Sera from behind.
She let out a little gasp, turning to the offending pillow, then spun back around and hurled her own pillow at me.
I side-stepped it easily, only to watch it float back upward and fly toward me.
I punched the pillow with a hint of transference mana, sending it flying into the nearby wall with an ‘ooph’, then twitched my hand again.
The pillow behind Sera hit her a second time.
“How are you doing that?” She exclaimed, grabbing the pillow that kept hitting her and noting the resistance when she pulled at it.
The resistance was minor, unfortunately, and she quickly wrestled the pillow into her arms.
That snapped the frail mana threads that I’d managed to attach to it during our conversation — but not the mana threads next to the third pillow, which slammed into her a mom
ent later.
You see, I’d been practicing with my threads a bit here and there. And while they were nowhere near strong enough to actually throw a pillow directly, they did serve as conduits for my magic — meaning I could, with a bit of effort, send transference mana through them.
And with that? Bamf. Pillow to the face.
“Augh! Oh, it’s on now.” She hurled the second pillow at me, then waved a hand to send the first levitated pillow at me again.
Haste.
I danced around both the flying pillows with speed and grace, then jerked the chair in front of me upward with more mana threads when she hurled the third pillow toward me.
Sera was mid-way through conjuring a ball of snow when we heard a startled shout from the washroom. “Is everyone okay out there? I heard a noise!”
Pillows gently floated toward the ground and snow dissipated in Sera’s hand.
“We’re fine!” Sera and I chimed in unison.
We laughed together. I tossed the pillows back onto her bed.
She patted the bed. I laid down across it, next to her, and we rested quietly until Cecily emerged from her shower.
It was the nicest moment I could remember for a long, long time.
Chapter VIII – The Missing Gem
A knock on my door in the middle of the night probably should have woken me up in a state of alarm, but I wasn’t sleeping. I had too much to think about.
So, when the knock sounded, I was only mildly alarmed, rather than severely. I did a quick roll out of my bed, drawing my sword, and then stared dangerously at the door before recalling that knocking was, in fact, a perfectly normal and acceptable form of alerting someone to your presence.
With that in mind, I lowered Selys-Lyann before heading to the door and swinging it open, braced for anything.
I found Patrick.
He was looking more than a little worn out, with deep bags under his eyes and a look of utter exhaustion on his face. I didn’t see any obvious injuries on him, unless one counted the patch of hair that was conspicuously missing and a small burn mark on his forehead. If he had any concern about seeing Selys-Lyann drawn, he didn’t show it. His expression brightened the moment he saw me. “Corin! I was afraid for a minute I might have had the wrong room.”
I turned to the wall and disabled the wards I’d written into it before waving for him to come inside. “What are you doing here so late? And where’s Mara? Is she okay?”
“Oh, she’s fine. She went to the girls room. She wanted to talk to you, but she was too tired. We both need sleep. Like, desperately.”
I nodded in understanding. “Washroom is right there if you need it. There are two beds. Get some sleep if you need to.”
“Will do. I’ll explain things in the morning.”
He went and washed up briefly, then collapsed on the bed. In spite of his snoring, I was glad to have his company.
I still reactivated the wards at the door before I went to sleep.
***
I pestered him for information first thing in the morning. “So, how’d it go?”
“It was amazing! We made it a long way. Close to a dozen floors!”
I whistled in appreciation. “That’s impressive, Patrick. There are plenty of adults that never make it that far.”
“I know! It was thrilling. I mean, Keras helped a little. Okay, maybe more like a lot, toward the end. But Mara and I did all the heavy lifting for the first few floors — Keras thought it would be bad for us if we didn’t get any experience out of it.”
I nodded in understanding. That was generally how it was supposed to work with teachers escorting students through the spire. You know, when those teachers weren’t secretly planning to betray the whole group or that sort of thing.
It’s possible I was still a little bit annoyed with Professor Orden, even after all the time that had passed. Or maybe more than a little. I’d trusted her, and she…
Ugh.
Anyway, Patrick filled me in on some of the floors that he’d gone through with Mara and Keras. I won’t spoil that, maybe they’ll tell the rest of us the whole story in detail later.
“Anyway, after we got past the second spire guardian, Keras sent us home. It was getting too dangerous for us at that point, and with the reset happening the next day, we thought it’d be more valuable to start over from the bottom if we wanted to do any at all.”
I nodded. “So, you’re feeling up for going back there?”
“Yeah, I think so. The floors will be different from what we went through, but assuming they’re about the same level of difficulty, I think the five of us could probably make it through the fifth floor without any help.”
“Five…? Oh, you’re including Cecily. That…uh, isn’t going to happen.”
“Oh? Why not?” He looked crestfallen.
“She’s doing a tour at Farren Labs for the next week. And, uh, I don’t think she’ll be going back to the spire any time soon.”
I took some time to fill him in on everything that had happened during my own week.
“Poor Cecily. I hope Deni can help.”
“Given what Sheridan was able to accomplish with Sera, I suspect this would be an easy task — it’s just a matter of whether or not they’re interested. We’ll see.”
“So…that leaves four of us, then. Assuming you and Sera want to go?”
“That’s the plan. Unless you happened to get a Petitioner’s Token?”
Patrick shook his head. “No, but I think I know what Farren was talking about. This spooky spectre thing showed up after we beat each spire guardian and offered us a list of reward options. It was kind of strange. I picked up a couple things, but they’re packed in my bag. I’ll show you later!”
“Congratulations on your prizes, and on making it so far. If you think we can make it there safely, I’d like to try the climb and see if I can get a token. From there, I can try to enter the Arbiter’s Gate.”
Patrick frowned. “With four, it’s going to be a little trickier. I know Cecily wasn’t much of a combatant anyway, but even with five, we would have been undermanned. With four…we’re getting into risky territory.”
“I know. We may want to try recruiting or call Keras back down for an escort.”
“He’d probably rush to us in an emergency, but if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’d be comfortable asking him to start over. He already was slowing down a lot escorting us the first week. I think we should leave him alone.”
“Hm. Without Keras, you’re right — this is much more dangerous. Okay. Let’s talk with the others and see if they have any ideas.”
With that, we got up for the day and headed to the other hotel room, then sat down to talk to Sera and Mara. Cecily was already gone for the day.
“Corin! S’good to see you!” Mara smiled as we came through the door. “Hug or no hug?”
“I’ll pass, but thank you for asking.” I gave her my best grin in return.
“Sure thing. C’mon in, sit down with us. I’ve got stories to tell!”
She did, in fact, have stories to tell — she had a few places she’d been separated from Patrick, and a few other details to add to his story.
After she filled us in, I told her some of the things Sera hadn’t already shared about our own week, then we got back to discussing climbing options.
“Recruitment would be the obvious answer.” Sera was writing notes while we talked, but I couldn’t see them from my angle. “There are mercenary climbers to hire, for example, or we could try one of our new friends from Farren Labs.”
“Friends?” I asked. It was an honest question.
“I’ve made a few. And you could ask one of yours, too. Maybe Ashon.”
I blinked. “Ashon isn’t my friend. He’s just someone I met.”
Sera raised an eyebrow. “Someone you met, that you spend a lot of time with, that you have shared interests with.”
“…Right, yes. In a work context. I wouldn’t call him a friend. I do
n’t have a lot of those.”
“What are you talking about? You have tons of friends.”
We stared at each other for a moment.
“…I have…like two?” I pondered. “Three friends, maybe, if we’re counting you?”
She folded her arms. “Why wouldn’t you count me?”
“You’re family. That’s a little different.”
Sera rolled her eyes. “Those things aren’t mutually exclusive, you know. And we were friends long before we knew about our heritage.”
I shrugged. “I guess. I consider family more important, I suppose, so it kind of supplants the other role in my mind.”
“I guess I can’t be too annoyed, then…but wait, two or three? That’s…what?”
I nodded, considering. “You’re right. Really, only Mara counts, since Patrick is a retainer now, and thus family.”
“Nonono.” Sera held up her hands. “Other direction. You have like, a lot more friends than that.”
I frowned. “Not really…?”
“What about Roland?”
“He’s your friend, not mine. I’ve barely talked to him in years.”
She stared at me. “Okay…what about Derek?”
“He’s more of a medium-term acquaintance.”
“You lived with him for like half a year!”
I nodded. “And I owe him considerably for that.”
Sera groaned. She was getting frustrated, but I didn’t understand why. “Keras?”
I blinked. “Uh, no. He’s my bodyguard and something of a mentor figure, not a friend. How could we be friends? Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me he can’t be trusted?”
“I mean, yes, but that doesn’t mean…” Sera groaned, covering her eyes with her hands. “…Cecily?”
I froze. “That’s complicated. You know that. Maybe we’re friends, maybe…I don’t know. Let’s not talk about her.” Sera opened her mouth again, but I cut her off. “…Or Jin.”
Sera sighed. “You know, most people have a broader concept of what constitutes friendship.”
“She’s got a point, Corin,” Patrick cut in. “When we first met up at school, you didn’t seem to understand that we were friends.”
