Diamantine (Weapons and Wielders Book 2)

by Andrew Rowe

  The Sae’kes sliced upward, sending a shockwave of obliterating force straight at Taer’vys.

  My trick was a variation on the Instant Striking Style, the very same style that Taer’vys used. He understood what he was seeing in an instant and jumped to the side.

  But I had the unfair advantage of knowing exactly who I was fighting, and even as he moved, my shockwave was splitting into pieces.

  His sword and shield were severed into pieces.

  And, with the greatest control I’d ever managed, a single blade of cutting force hovered in mid-air, right in front of his throat.

  My hand moved to level the point of the Sae’kes directly at him. The distortion wave around the blade focused around the point, shimmering with silver light. “Get out of the ring. Now.”

  Taer’vys met my eyes and grinned.

  “Very well, Taelien. The match is yours.”

  My hand tightened on the grip of my sword.

  Taer’vys stepped backward, his smile never fading, until he was out of the ring.

  The darkness faded only belatedly, and I heard little more than confusion from the crowd when the announcer’s voice finally spoke.

  “The winner of the match is Keras Selyrian, the wielder of Dawnbringer!”

  I didn’t wait to talk to the arena staff or greet the crowd.

  I rushed straight out of the ring, my mind focused on a single thing.

  Dawn.

  I couldn’t hear her voice.

  Chapter XIX – Shining Soul

  When I rushed out of the arena, I slipped on my mask almost immediately. Not because of Taer’vys, although he was certainly going to be a problem.

  I simply couldn’t afford to take the time to deal with the crowds.

  I slipped away from the arena, then focused on Dawn.

  Dawn?

  Dawn, can you hear me?

  Nothing. I ripped off my glove, finding that the symbol on my hand was still glowing, but the light was dim.

  I punched a wall.

  There was no good reason for that, I just needed to do it.

  Then, I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes.

  My perception of mana, spirits, and all that was rudimentary at best — but it was enough to feel the essence that was still bleeding out of Dawn.

  I focused on my own essence, drawing the destructive power aside and collecting what I could of the rest. Then, I felt my connection with Dawn, and I pushed.

  My body shivered with effort. I’d transferred mana into Dawn before, but I’d done it slowly, gradually. This was less like a blood transfusion and more like I’d cut open my arm and started to pour.

  It also had about the same level of medical usefulness.

  Even as I exhausted myself by pushing as much power as I could into Dawn, I felt nothing change in return.

  I focused on the Ring of Spell Deflection next, activating it and pushing the light mana from the ring straight into her. That seemed to renew her glow just slightly, but she remained unresponsive.

  I sucked in a ragged breath.

  This wasn’t a problem a mana infusion could solve, at least not with my level of ability.

  Reaching out with my mind wasn’t working, and so, I reached out with something else instead.

  My soul touched the ragged fragments of what remained of her own.

  In the darkness behind my eyes, I saw her. She sat alone, curled into a ball. Her light had almost faded, and I could see the tears staining her face.

  I ran to her. “Dawn!”

  She didn’t respond.

  I threw myself down in front of her, then reached out. My hand brushed against her face.

  Only then did her eyes flutter and her face turn toward me. “...K...Keras...?”

  “I’m here, Dawn.” I brushed a tear away from her face. “I’m here.”

  “I...I’m cold...where...where have you been?”

  I opened my arms and pulled her tight. “I’m right here, Dawn. I’m sorry. I’m right here.”

  I felt her bury her head in my shoulder. “That’s...good. I think I’m going to sleep now.”

  That sounded very worrying, so I responded with what I feel is a reasonable degree of alarm. “Please, don’t do that. Stay awake. Stay with me.”

  “I’m...sorry, Keras. I’m tired. And it’s so cold.”

  There was absolutely no chance I was going to let Dawn’s life end that way.

  I shifted to turn her head to face me. “Dawnbringer, by my will, I bind my spirit to yours.”

  Dawn stared into my eyes, blinking. “You already did that, silly.”

  I had hoped that using that incantation in this...mindscape, spirit thing, would help me pull her tighter and share my spirit with her. Apparently, that wasn’t how it worked.

  I pulled her tighter. “Dawn, you’re hurt right now. Your spirit is hurt. I need you to take some of mine.”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. That sounds sort of...are you sure?”

  “Dawn. Look at me. I need you to do this right now.”

  Dawn stared at me, then nodded. “Okay, okay. You don’t need to be so serious about it. I’ll eat your soul if you really want me to.”

  “Hey, that’s not quite what I—”

  And then the mindscape shattered, and I experienced an indescribable new level of pain.

  I have a very high degree of pain tolerance. I can tell you that I’ve had stab wounds, bite wounds, acid wounds, and fire wounds that should have incapacitated an ordinary human being many times over, and I’ve walked them off.

  This was not the sort of pain that I could walk off.

  This was the type of pain that, if I had any ability to think, would have made me question why the gods had designed people so poorly that it was possible for anyone to experience even a tiny fraction of that level of suffering.

  If my mind and body had any sort of reasonable response to things, I would have blacked out then and there. But somehow, in spite of experiencing something that felt like I was being hollowed out from the inside, I didn’t. I couldn’t.

  I tried.

  It wasn’t over in an instant, either.

  No, it wasn’t quick at all. I don’t know how long it lasted, because counting was far beyond my abilities in that state, but I do remember that there was blood running from my eyes when Reika finally found me, and that’s not something that should happen to anyone.

  “Keras!” Her voice was absurdly loud. She rushed to where I was lying on the ground — I don’t even know when or how I ended there — and knelt next to me. “What happened?”

  I couldn’t talk. My eyes were open, but I couldn’t even move to scream.

  Reika moved to put a hand on my chest, then pulled it back in shock. If I’d been more cognizant of the situation, I might have worried that I’d hurt her with my aura, but I wasn’t thinking that clearly.

  “Your...spirit...” Her eyes shifted. “Dawn!” She put her hand on Dawn’s hilt. “Dawn! Dawn! Speak to me!”

  If she spoke, I couldn’t hear the answer.

  From the way Reika gritted her teeth, though, any answer she heard couldn’t have been good.

  “Hold on. I’m going to save you both.” Reika took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. “Ancestors...father...forgive me.”

  When her eyes opened, they burned with white light.

  “Dawnbringer, by my will, I bind my spirit to yours.”

  I heard a crack. My right hand burned.

  And then my vision was overtaken with pure white light.

  ***

  I hovered in a void of darkness, but I was not alone.

  I still held Dawn in my arms, pressing her tightly against my chest.

  The pain was gone. When I lifted my head, I saw her flying toward us — a woman in white, with majestic horns and outstretched wings.

  Dawn lifted her head at the same time. “...Rei?”

  Reika descended next to us, her eyes full of worry. “...Dawn? Is...that you?”

/>   I helped Dawn to her feet, brushing away the last of her tears as we stood.

  Dawn turned to Rei. “Who else would it be? You don’t see Keras tenderly holding any other nebulous spiritual entities, do you?”

  “It is you!” Reika grabbed us both into a hug, her wings wrapping around us like a shield. “You’re...people shaped!”

  “I’ve always been like this in here. It’s, uh, just sort of new that you can see me. How is this happening?” Dawn paused. “Am I dead? Are we all dead? Did I die a vir—”

  Reika covered her mouth. “We’re not dead. You may have had a slight case of serious damage to your spirit, which Keras tried to fix, uh, poorly.” She gave me a bright grin. “Which was very sweet of you, by the way, but can you maybe talk to the spirit dragon next time you have spirit problems?”

  I winced. “I...she was in a bad way. It felt like an immediate problem.”

  “Maybe it was, but next time, try to find me before you do anything drastic? Please?” She gave me a pleading look.

  “I’ll try.”

  “Good. I’ve stopped the damage from spreading, so you should both recover. I’m going to have to wake up now so I can carry you back home. Just...don’t do anything else that’s drastic while you’re unconscious, okay?”

  “Fine, fine, we get the picture. Jeez. You eat one little bit of your wielder’s soul and suddenly everyone is worried.” Dawn rolled her eyes. “Go on, get out of here. Keras and I will be fine. I won’t eat any more of him. Probably. Unless I get hungry.”

  I gave Dawn a hard look. “I’m right here, you know.”

  Dawn gave me a bright grin. “I know. You look delicious.”

  “Okay, you two seem like you’re fine, so I’m going. Bye!”

  Reika unceremoniously vanished.

  I took a breath, turning back toward Dawn. “...It’s kind of strange, being in here. Experiencing the world like this.”

  “For you, I guess it must be.” She gestured around to the blackness. “This is basically what I see all the time, unless someone is sharing their senses with me.”

  I blinked. “What. Really?”

  “Why would I lie about that?” She pulled back and folded her arms.

  “No, I’m not accusing you of lying it’s...just not what I pictured.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What exactly were you expecting the mental landscape of a sapient sword would look like?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t really picturing you having anything here at all, really.”

  “Okay, that was kind of insulting.”

  I sighed. “You know what I meant.”

  “I mean, I do, because I’m still reading your mind. But you could have phrased it a little better.”

  “Fine, fine. I just meant that I didn’t think you’d have any sort of...hm, visual component to this, without seeing through someone? And I guess there’s sound, too, or something approximate to it. I was picturing you only experiencing the sword’s physical surroundings, not...whatever this is.”

  Dawn gave me a shrug. “It is what it is. I’ve always seen this. And...”

  She didn’t say it, but I could feel what she was talking about.

  Her body.

  She had a body here. One that approximated a human form composed of varying hues of light. She didn’t look like she had flesh or bone, but when I touched her cheek or hands, she still felt like a person.

  Was this just her conceptualization of herself, or was there more to it?

  Did she have a body, simply trapped within this state? Was she some sort of elemental or spiritual being, perhaps sealed within Dawnbringer like a Soulblade’s contracted monster could have been?

  “This isn’t how Soulblade monsters experience the world. I asked Octave about what it was like for him. He’s barely self-aware most of the time, unless he’s been ‘activated’, and even then he doesn’t perceive his surroundings like I do. I don’t think I’m anything like him.”

  I could feel the disappointment in her.

  “I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out.” I smiled at her, and she looked up at me with glittering eyes.

  “I know.” Her lips turned upward. “I trust you.”

  I pulled her tighter against me. And for a time, we simply stood together. Alone in the dark.

  Content.

  Chapter XX – Across Time

  Consciousness has its disadvantages.

  The most obvious of these is that when you’re awake, you can remember all the problems you’d managed to forget about while you were cuddling in a pseudo-dream state with your sword.

  First and foremost?

  Taer’vys knew my identity.

  It wasn’t that much of a surprise, really. Even if I hadn’t used the Sae’kes, there was a good chance he’d recognized me before the match even started. He clearly knew I was from Mythralis from the outset.

  Could I have prevented that if I’d worn the mask throughout the whole tournament?

  I didn’t know. But I did know that now that Taer’vys had identified me, I had to act.

  The obvious move was to simply throw on the mask and get out of the city, leaving the tournament behind. Diamantine wasn’t explicitly a part of my mission — I was just supposed to get resources and information while waiting for my allies. I could have easily left to go find Wrynn, now that I was aware she was on the continent somewhere.

  But running away wasn’t my style.

  When I woke up, I was in my bed back at the Study of Iron, with Dawnbringer safely cradled in my arms. Reika wasn’t there, but I wasn’t alarmed. It was evening when I woke, and she was probably just out eating.

  I’d track her down eventually to talk, but first, I had another visit to make.

  I found Lia in her own room. She smiled when she saw me. “Feeling better?”

  I nodded. “Much, thank you. I do have a request, though.”

  “Oh? More memory crystals, maybe of your match?”

  I paused. “Well, yes, actually. That’s not what I was going to ask for, but can you get me some of those?”

  “Absolutely, I already have a few. Be aware, though, that the darkness your opponent used blocked off the view of the arena for most of the fight. Honestly, it was sort of disappointing. What else did you need?”

  “Can you send a message for me?”

  “Sure, but only if their address is on file, like we discussed before. I can check for you. Who do you want to send a message to?”

  I took a breath. “Taer’vys Ironthorn. Tell him I want to meet.”

  ***

  I adjusted the single scabbard on my left hip, then sat down at the bar.

  The man at my right lifted a bottle of something, poured two glasses, and then slid one over to me. I caught it and lifted it. The outside of the glass was wet, like it had just been washed. I sniffed at the contents.

  That’s...

  “Poisoning me right from the start? That seems a little direct.” I glanced at Taer’vys, raising an eyebrow.

  He lifted his own glass, taking a sip. “It’s just Lysen’s Tear’s in the glass. I’m sure you remember what the boss called ‘em.”

  “A ‘conversation enhancer’.” I rolled my eyes, lifting my own glass and taking a sip.

 

  It’s fine. We have plans for poison. Don’t distract me.

  Dawn wasn’t actually with me, but she was near enough to hear me. Our stronger connection was a useful communication tool — I could send thoughts to and from her, and she could talk to Reika.

  I might have walked into the tavern alone, but I wasn’t unprepared. Backup was just outside, and if anything got messy — which I was still about fifty-fifty on — they’d be ready to come in swinging. Or, neutralizing poison, as the case may be.

  Lysen’s Tears didn’t worry me. They were a compound that forced people to speak the truth, but I’d taken them before, as no doubt Taer’vys had done many times. I had a degree of resistanc
e to it, and I’m certain he had even more.

  Still, appearing to take a truth-forcing compound was an important gesture of trust.

  Taer’vys nodded. “Res’vaye always had a way of making the darkest subjects seem lighter. Think you took after him more than I did, at least in that regard.”

  “Maybe. But you were still his best student.”

  “You think?” Taer’vys’ expression turned wistful. “I suppose I did learn a lot from him. He got me started on my path, and I’m grateful for that.”

  “I owe him a great deal, too. How is he?”

  “Got promoted to servant. Poor bastard.” Taer’vys shook his head.

  I recognized the phrase he used and frowned. “He’s a Bloodsworn now?” I pieced a couple things together. “Is that why you’re here? On his orders?”

  Taer’vys snorted, then took another drink. “No such luck. He’s not in my chain anymore. I got his old job for a minute, then shuffled off onto this little trip.”

  I took another drink to keep pace with him. “And what exactly are you here for?”

  “I haven’t had nearly enough to drink to answer a question like that.” He set his glass down, turning to meet my gaze. “But I know what you’re really asking. And no, Taelien, not everything is about you.”

  I gave him a slow nod. “We’re not going to have a problem, then?”

  “Well, that depends on you.” He gave me an appraising look. “I was surprised to see you here, I admit. Wasn’t certain it was you at first, but that sword is unmistakable. By the way, where’s your other one?”

  “Safe.” My jaw tightened.

  He nodded. “Wasn’t expecting you to react so badly to that little cocktail of sorcery I hit Dawnbringer with. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you spooked like that.”

  “Don’t do that again. You wouldn’t like the results.”

  He gave me a hard look of appraisal, then nodded. “Didn’t mean any offense. You’ve broken quite a few swords in your day, as I recall. And you were planning to do the same to mine.”

  I couldn’t deny that. “The Six Sacred Swords are more than ordinary weapons. You’re going to want to avoid trying that technique on any of them. That’s free advice.”

  “Appreciated.” He nodded, lifting his glass and taking another drink. “I think I have some idea of what you’re getting at, and it’s interesting. Matches up with some things I’ve been suspecting about Diamantine. Is that sword why you’re here?”