by Kalyn Crowe
The Order's Reliquary wasn't just a small receptacle for holy artifacts; it was a massive vault of their most precious, or most dangerous, items.
"And those papers you gave the school, are they real transfer papers like you told the man at the counter?"
"Yes." He looked a bit surprised. "The same set will reflect in Pinnacle. These moves are layers of our lie to find the truth. If you wish to recant your involvement now, do so, you can go south and still live a predictable life."
"But, once you remove the ward, there's no putting it back."
"No, not without involving a Resistist and an Apexist. If someone finds you without your ward, a Spiritist can, and will, prove my guilt." He held up the scroll. "This is our contract of trust."
So this was it — no turning back for either of us.
4 - Cloaked
Kepi hopped down from the window and sat beside the scroll case. Her dark eyes two still voids. She saw everything before, and she would bear witness to the future.
Had she waited all this time for what happened now?
In some manner, hadn't I?
I took a deep breath and said, "All right, take this thing out of my head."
He shot me a nod and undid the ribbon.
The vellum unfurled.
Conrad looked it over, and to my slight terror, he paused and wiggled his mouth.
Kepi cocked her head.
A spell scroll held a series of invocations. The first activated it. Made it listen, some said. The next word called on whatever Anima the vellum held. Lastly, a description of the desired target.
If he misspoke, it might dissolve my head instead of the ward.
I cleared my throat. "You have read the archaic before, right?"
He looked up from the writing. "Of course. Rushing is not a sign of competency."
I stood as steady as possible.
With his focus locked back on the scroll, he said, "Ready?"
"As ever," I croaked.
With a scowl of concentration across his face, he touched my head and said, "Ekhlekh. Yoroolgui. Ustgakh toirog esreg Nekhmel, tav."
A tingle passed through my mind, one not wholly physical, but not entirely imagined. Only then, I realized I shut my eyes. I opened them, and I spoke the words back in modern, "Begin. Abyss. Remove ward against Weaving…" I paused and looked at Conrad. "Five?"
"This town's number or your only allowed location until school graduation."
The vellum's edges smoldered inward. They glowed a weird blue instead of fire's orange. The last little piece fluttered from Conrad's fingers and consumed itself into nothing.
I said, "Can I try it out?"
"Please." He smiled.
I bent my right arm over my head and unfurled my hand. Green Conduction Anima filaments faded in from above and eastward. I knew it was east, as each Anima originated from a unique direction. Individual threads snapped onto each fingertip.
It was like a first spring walk after a winter trapped within a crate — the first gasp after suffocation.
I lifted my left hand to overlap my right.
A matched set of filaments came to my fingers. I swept one hand in a circle and moved the other in a zigzag.
The speed of creation and density of a seal depended on the strength of the Weaver's Attunement. Yet any Weaver could dare pull filaments from an Anima at higher speeds at the cost of health.
Filaments didn't suffer reality the way real threads did; this wasn't warp and weft. They weren't material. They had no weight. As such, these threads melded through one another in an art form more akin to air finger painting than yarn work.
I created a compact green disk about three hands wide. Each filament showed as a distinct part of the seal's tapestry to the one who pulled them. It allowed the Weaver who owned the seal to modify and manipulate it. To everyone else, the seal appeared like lit stained glass. Its glow colored the room in an emerald tint.
I collected all the strands in my right hand and reached down and west with my left. Another set of filaments came upward, Resistance. I wrapped those into a magenta sphere of equal proportion to the seal.
The ball released from my fingers and attached to the green seal. It drew in the ends of the Conduction filaments and secured them in place.
Like repelled like, and opposites attracted.
I lowered my empty hands and glanced over.
The seal hung free in the air.
He said, "Of all the magic, Weaving is always something to see. The filaments' light, and no invocation to start the spell as the other Attunements need."
"It's still invocation, only with movements instead of words."
Kepi jumped back to the window and scanned outside.
He said, "Makes you spell sick as well, I know." He closed and locked the scroll case and placed it back in the drawer.
"It does, but a counterbalance lets me release the primary seal's filaments. Holding them is what makes us spell sick."
"Along with the amount pulled as I understand it."
"Right. And it's worse if something strikes the seal without a counterbalance. Hits cause a surge in Anima."
He said, "If I'm not mistaken, that surge stops you from setting a counterbalance."
I touched my seal, and it let my fingers pass through but didn't budge. "It does, and we can't move a seal after we set a counter. It may be pretty, but it has limits."
He squinted. "Good then, knowing as much could save you. After a moment, he said, "I see you made a sphere, what do you know of your mother's creation of the Capstone Seal and the Maw?"
I frowned a little at my tiny seal. I pulled the magenta ball away with some effort. As the distance grew, the seal stretched, and its filaments unraveled, as did the sphere. Both the Conduction and Resistance filaments disappeared back whence they came. "My mother used an enormous seal. Well, a solid Apex sphere, to draw Abyss Anima so close it opened a hole through the boarder of our Natural Plane into the Plane of Abyss. She called it 'The Maw.'"
"That portal is many times the size of what an Abyssist could open. Even with a disk." He smoothed his beard.
A tickle of excitement came over me. "But it's not even the most impressive part. The Abyss Anima seal known as 'Capstone' wraps the Apex sphere and the Maw. The Capstone Seal holds the Apex sphere in place. Otherwise, Abyss would pull it in. And Abyssites can't pass through Abyss filaments, so the Capstone Seal secures the city, too."
He seemed pleased and added, "In turn, the Grand Counterbalance binds it."
Excitement changed into the weird confusion when a word was on the tip of the tongue. I bit at my cheek a little and then said, "And all counterbalances must be equal and opposite to secure the primary seal. 'Grand' might not do this one justice. I can't explain how she hid something so massive. Let alone how she made it away from the seal it keeps in place."
"No one can. A remote balance was unheard of before then."
Kepi still sat in the window. She waited.
He looked at her, too. "Kepi won't tell us where the Grand Counterbalance is either. We have no doubt she's been there."
She cocked her head.
"Will you tell her?" He motioned toward me.
She turned her beak up and laid her ears flat.
"Maybe she promised my mother she wouldn't tell anyone. No matter what."
She cooed shrill, frustrated.
Conrad grumbled but then shook his head. "I see all sorts of her magic persists through death. There is the other Apexial who stays, the one your mother let in during the first test of opening the Planes. He also is despondent to everyone else. The poor creature is still in Pinnacle, waiting perhaps."
The other one I never met, he must be so lonely. "I should go see him while I'm there."
Conrad tightened his lips and seemed to think the idea over.
"Unless it would endanger him or us."
He sort of half shrugged and said, "We'll see. We do need to be flexible for this mission. Speaking of which
, do you believe the charm will let you through the seal over Philomena's office?"
Kepi wiggled her ears.
"Even as a Weaver, I can't touch another's seal unless it's Apex or Abyss."
Given that, could Weaving have removed my ward? No, it was Resistance based. It would be like pulling a rock through my brain. If they imbued Apex or Abyss, I suppose it might work safely.
He sighed. "I know, our parents tell us as children; seals will cancel the Anima in us, kill us, melt us, turn us to stone, all that."
"But it's true. A Conduction seal can stop a punch, but with enough contact, it could push out all of a person's Conduction. It could paralyze them or halt their blood. Laws restrict the use of seals to shield only magic and projectiles for a reason."
"Anything is a weapon in the wrong hands. Laws don't stop such things," he said. "We have laws against summoning, Abyssites, or Apexials. It's too taxing on invokers, too dangerous for the public, but look at what happens."
"The man in the courtyard," I said but stopped.
"Go on."
I saw him die, the portal, his face moments before. "It's just, he looked scared, or lost."
Conrad let his shoulders slump. "Law doesn't stop death. Order is merely a shell around chaos." He rolled them back with a sigh. "You know, laws don't stop good things either." With the lightest touch, he tapped my forehead.
I could only smile.
He looked up at Kepi and back. "Regarding another person's seal, what if your Attunement frequency was the same as its creator?"
"In theory, it could work, maybe even if it was close enough." I smoothed my hair behind my ear. "Maybe."
"Sybil said you traced similarly to Philomena, which is normal. The charm in combination with your Attunement is our hope here."
I didn't know how to respond.
"Safer to have the ward out for that, too, I say," he added.
I nodded. This whole concept had such a slight chance of success. Conrad's motivations must have gone beyond what I knew.
He looped his thumb through his belt and sighed. "We best be on with it. Let's have you wear the old coat downstairs, put the new one in the bag for now."
I slipped off the jacket with still too much effort and folded it into a neat square before I stowed it away in the bag. The old coat felt a hundred times more baggy and dirty than before.
"Let me carry the bag for now." Conrad looked up.
"Lady Tempest?"
She hopped down to the floor and twitched her ears.
He took one knee before her. "I'll have a favor to ask if the coast is clear below. You must trust me."
She cooed a high note and then a low one.
He bowed his head and stood with a grunt. "Meredith, carry her down as you would, act like we perused the back of the store if you see anyone."
"All right."
We blew out the candles and headed downstairs.
Conrad set the bag on the counter in front of the mustached man.
He said, "Ah, excellent sir, you're my only customer at the moment."
Conrad touched his hat.
"So then, a bag, a jacket, and a compass, or is this a set of bolt tips?" He patted the bag.
They spoke in a code of sorts. The fact they chose 'bolt tips' unnerved me a little.
Conrad said, "A compass."
"Wonderful; let me ring you up." Not a creak from the wooden floorboards sounded as the man crossed the room. He locked the front door and flipped over a closed sign.
At the same time, a girl who resembled me but far more elegant appeared from the back. She nearly floated as she moved.
Conrad nodded at the shop owner. "And a hat if you would."
"Certainly, sir." He hurried to the back room.
Conrad then looked over and said, "Give them your old coat. From now on, you are Nancy Nardovino, from the southern Midlands."
Kepi hopped down from my shoulder and jumped to the counter.
I slipped off my old coat, and let it droop in my hands.
The girl walked up and gently took my coat. "Magical as you are, you can't be in two places at once." Their voice came out a bit scratchy and lower toned than expected.
I felt a bit unsure of what to say. "Is that, well, a wig?"
They laughed. "It is. I hope you're not offended I'm impersonating you." They put my worn coat on with the same care I did the hunter jacket.
"Of course not."
"I won't be you long. Meredith will jump from the train."
"Wait." I frowned at Conrad. "You're going to kill me off?"
My decoy smiled. "I'm unfortunately not a Weaver, and this," they pulled out a hairpin from the wig, "is not a real ward. Just a Resistance imbuement made to look like one."
I said, "The pin is to fool the Form security at the train station?"
"Right. The general scan from the Form Ring we pass through won't know the difference. The invokers there will expect the ward, and so they will see the ward." They slipped the pin back in their wig. "The Formist at the college won't be so daft. So, neither will I. I know I can't make it."
"Will you be all right? Dying, I mean."
The mustached shopkeeper patted my decoy's shoulder. "They aren't only an impersonator. They're something of an acrobat. Graceful as a cat."
"Too bad I don't have as many lives." They winked. "Don't worry; investigators won't find a body, only clothes, and a river."
Conrad spoke to Kepi. "May we also have a feather?"
She preened at her tail and held one up in her beak.
He took it and handed it to my decoy.
They slipped it in my coat, well, their coat pocket.
Conrad returned to Kepi. "You'll ride their shoulder to the station. Then circle back to me once they board the train. Meredith will meet us at the station later."
She crisply cooed.
The owner helped me put the hunter jacket on and to hide my hair under the hat. "There. Such long pale hair is too eye-catching. Best to tuck it away as much as possible."
My decoy added, "Do so when it makes sense to, a hat in an inappropriate circumstance will be more of a sore thumb."
I nodded and hoped the fear that I couldn't pull this act off didn't show.
Conrad nodded and pointed toward the door. "We will leave through the front."
"All right," I said.
"You will leave out the back and take a carriage. Bring the bag with." He looked at the mustached man.
He said, "I added a set of pants and a blouse."
Conrad bowed his head to him and walked forward. He took a deep breath. "This will work."
Kepi only watched but then took her spot on my decoy's shoulder.
They grinned. "Rumors do the Lady no justice."
She closed her eyes and wiggled.
Conrad walked to the door and unlocked it. "Bring the gift we found for my niece."
My decoy picked up a box wrapped in beautiful paper and ribbon from behind the counter. A tag marked 'Nancy' dangled from it. They followed Conrad with natural fluidity.
I said, "I'm not nearly so graceful."
My decoy peeked back and said, "All right," in a near echo of my words from a moment ago. "Good luck, Nancy."
"You too, Meredith."
Kepi and I watched each other as my likeness left with her.
The charm winked out as the door closed.
5 - Art
The shopkeeper relocked the front door. "We will take a circuitous route to the station. We don't want to raise curiosity, and we must make it look like you came from the south."
We left the shop through the back door and entered the stark alley.
A carriage, piled high with crates covered in tied down burlap, waited. As did it's two horses, one mottled brown and another white with a faint coat of dirt on its legs.
The nameless owner plucked a piece of string from the driver seat and flicked it away. "I'll drive. We'll make a stop about halfway. Our carriage also wears disguises. Plea
se stay inside."
"All right." I reached for the door handle but stopped. "Thank you, and my decoy, too."
"Any chance to save our people is worth it. Even if, in the end, it is only one." He stepped up to his seat, threw on a drab poncho, and pulled up the hood.
I opened the door and climbed in. As soon as it closed, the carriage rolled forward.
The worn leather seat's soft cushion cradled me. A touch of cigar or something earthy also tinted the air. Not at all what I expected from the outside.
Musty white linen drapes hung over the windows. Flecks of the sunset showed on them through the outside burlap cover.
I folded my hands and kept my clammy palms off the hunter jacket.
I missed Kepi already. Conrad knew he could let me out of his sight; I would always come for her. She had faith in my ability to pull this stunt off, but only if she could say so. I needed to hear what I didn't believe.
The wheels clattered over a significant bump and came to a stop. A shift in the light came with gentle scrapes along the roof. After a few long minutes, the carriage continued.
In another five blocks, we stopped again.
This time a gentle tap came at the door. "Lady Nardovino, we've arrived."
I stepped out.
The once dusty cargo carriage had turned into a lavish dark-paneled gem. Two lean black horses completed the new appearance.
I tried to keep my surprise in check, especially so after I saw my reflection in the glossy side panel. I hardly recognized myself.
The mustached man bowed and swept his arm toward the station. "I'm certain your uncle will be along shortly." He stood straight and tucked one arm behind him.
I knitted my fingers together and tried to look as proper as possible.
People filed in and out of the station. They passed templar guards as casually as possible. The glass-walled building held even more guards and commoners in neat lines. And, of course, the Form security area.
Then, like an apparition, Conrad appeared from the crowd with a bag of his own. "Ah, my dear niece. It is good to meet you in person." He nodded to the shop owner, who bowed once again and hopped back on the carriage.
I attempted a southern accent and said, "I've enjoyed our exchange of letters."
