Hollow Core

by Gage Lee

  “That is odd,” Hahen said. He tried to hide his surprise, but his eyes widened and his whiskers twitched. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that.”

  “Is there something wrong?”

  “Other than the fact that you’ve used the aspects from rodents to create your serpents of light?” Hahen said. “I’m not sure. Can you control them?”

  I stretched one hand toward a pile of books and willed the serpent to stretch up to its top. I’d only used the serpents for defense, so I wasn’t sure it would work. Fortunately, the serpent stretched out to the topmost tome without any fuss.

  An idea occurred to me in a flash.

  I willed the serpent to lift the book from the stack, and it instantly complied. The shadow body flattened, slid underneath the volume, then coiled around it, lifted it into the air, and returned it to me in one smooth motion.

  “Impressive,” Hahen said. “That isn’t how that is supposed to work.”

  “But it does.” I was too excited by this discovery to care whether it should have succeeded. I only cared that it did.

  The serpents of light didn’t require much jinsei to maintain, and I could still pull enough from my cycled breaths to activate the Army of Unseen Eyes while I had them activated. I shifted to my spirit sight, and the combined power of my rat army showed me all of the books that surrounded me. With a thought, I directed the serpents to snatch a pair of history books from two nearby stacks.

  A heartbeat later, the serpents returned with a pair of books wrapped in their coils.

  If that worked, then maybe...

  “Fetch me all of the history books,” I whispered to my serpents.

  The living shadows flashed away from my hands, pulled five, ten, twenty, fifty books from the surrounding stacks, and deposited them in a neat pile on the floor in front of me. In less than a minute, the shadows had gathered all of the history books within twenty feet of me.

  “What did you do?” Hahen prodded the books with the tip of his tail. He squinted up at me, unease plain on his pointed features.

  “I needed a faster way to get the books,” I said. “So I found one.”

  “I’ve never seen such a thing,” the rat spirit said with a gusty sigh. He peered closely at the serpents of shadow that wound themselves around my body like a pair of oversized friendly ferrets. “Serpents of light are things of pure jinsei. They can defend you from sacred energy attacks, they can strengthen you by wrapping you in jinsei, some powerful masters have even trained them to attack the auras and cores of other jinsei artists. But they aren’t tools, Jace. They cannot interact with inanimate objects, only with cores, auras, and sacred power.”

  Hahen’s definition of impossible was frustrating. While he’d explained what I couldn’t do, I’d commanded the serpents to find and organize all of the science books, and started them on the process of grabbing art books.

  “It’s impossible for what I’m doing to be impossible, because I am doing it.” My serpents swooped past Hahen with books wrapped in their shadowed bodies to emphasize my point.

  “I do not know.” Hahen backed away as my serpents gathered more books. His eyes reflected the light of the jinsei orb as he eased into the shadows. “Be careful, Jace. I do not know that I can offer you any more guidance on your path than that.”

  The rat’s eyes glowed like a pair of moons as he vanished into the darkness, and the echoes of his voice trembled with unmistakable fear.

  The Melee

  MY ROUTINE NEVER CHANGED while I was locked up in the stacks. Hahen dragged me out of bed, watched me eat the breakfast he’d brought, then settled in for an annoying hour of breath cycling. When it felt like I couldn’t draw another breath, we took a break to work on my academics until Hahen grew bored or frustrated enough to torture me with core strengthening exercises and intense core scrutiny that made me feel like I was stark naked.

  The afternoons were reserved for my work time. Those quiet hours were meant to be a punishment, a way to burn up the hours of my life with meaningless work. I turned them into my personal study time and pushed myself to strengthen my serpents, hone my techniques, and search for the next step on my path. It was grueling, frustrating work.

  And it was the only thing that kept me sane. Every day I got a little stronger. Every hour I learned a little more. If I just kept grinding away, I’d have another breakthrough.

  It was inevitable.

  I just wished it would hurry up and happen.

  Every evening, Hahen brought me dinner, watched me eat, then worked me mercilessly in the bowels of the alchemical laboratory. He’d stopped teaching me more advanced techniques, and every night was the same routine of purifying jinsei, storing the sacred energy in bottles, then spewing the aspects into their containers.

  I worked harder than I ever had in my life, and the results spoke for themselves. I’d purified hundreds of bottles of jinsei. Almost a third of the library had been sorted and organized into neat stacks by subject. There was still a ton of work to do, but I was more confident that I’d be able to finish it by the end of the year.

  And then, four months after I’d last heard a voice that didn’t come out of Hahen, someone said my name.

  “Warin,” a voice called from the hallway outside my prison one afternoon. “We’re coming in. Step away from the door.”

  “I’m already away from the door.” I was halfway across the room, my shadow serpents loaded with books. I was torn between irritation at having my practice interrupted and the novelty of seeing new people for the first time in months.

  The hallway door opened slowly, and a bright beam of jinsei poured into the stacks. If I’d been standing in front of the door, it would’ve smacked me square in the chest. I wasn’t positive that the lance of light had been an attack, but I wouldn’t put it past my captors to shoot first and ask questions later. After all this time alone, I’d almost forgotten the threats on my life. I was glad they’d reminded me before I stepped outside.

  Five wardens, one from each of the clans, followed the light into my prison. Hagar led them, of course, her warden’s badge aglow against the black robes of the Shadow Phoenix clan. She held a jinsei-fueled lantern, and its silver light caught in the tangles of her curly red hair. Her green eyes flashed as she scanned the room for me, but I was so deep in the stacks she couldn’t have found me with a floodlight and a search party. I could only see her through the eyes of my multitude of rat minions scattered around the chamber.

  “Show yourself,” she barked.

  “I’m a little busy, but whatever,” I said. All this time alone had left me short-tempered and quick to lash out. Hahen had commented on it more than once, but he didn’t have much room to talk. We spent so many hours together that we stood on one another’s nerves more often than not, and I wasn’t sure how long it would be before he gave up on me in disgust. I cared enough about Hahen to try to temper my anger where he was concerned, hard as it was.

  As far as Hagar was concerned, though, I didn’t care what she thought about me. If she’d come here looking for a fight, she was in for a big surprise. I wasn’t the same initiate she’d beat up.

  It took me a few minutes to navigate the maze of books, and by the time I reached the wardens they were tapping their toes impatiently as if they had somewhere important to be.

  “Finally,” Hagar grumped. “Put your hands up. You need to be bound.”

  “No, I don’t.” I kept my hands behind my back, the shadow serpents coiled around my wrists. “I’ll go wherever you want me to go, and I won’t cause any trouble.”

  “Rules,” Hagar sneered.

  We stood there for a long moment while I weighed my options. This close to the open door, I realized just how badly I wanted to get out of the stacks, even if only temporarily. But if I let Hagar tie me up, I’d be at her mercy. If she and her warden friends decided I needed to have an accident, I’d be dead before I knew it.

  Then again, there were witnesses from other clans here. Wo
uld they stand by while Hagar murdered me?

  Finally, I disbanded my shadow serpents, extended my wrists, and waited for Hagar to wrap a pair of silver cuffs around them. I needed to see the world outside my prison, despite the risks.

  The metal restraints bit into my skin and the chains were so short my palms practically touched. I couldn’t have defended myself from a child with those wrapped around my wrists.

  “Happy?” I raised my bound hands a few inches and grimaced when they tore the skin near my left thumb.

  “No,” Hagar said. “But hopefully by the end of the day I will be.”

  None of the wardens said another word as they escorted me back to the School proper. It took much longer to make the trip out of the stacks than into them, and I assumed that was because the wardens weren’t nearly as familiar with their location as Reyes had been. We passed through progressively newer sections of the passageway before we finally emerged into the main hall.

  The silence struck me immediately. The academy was normally abuzz with the sound of students going about their business, a low-level hum that filled the building with energy and life.

  Today, the building was quiet as a tomb.

  “Where is everyone?” I blinked against the bright sunlight that shone through the hall’s windows and struggled to adjust my wrists into a more comfortable position. I had a sudden fear that I hadn’t been down in the stacks for four months, but years.

  “You’ll see,” Hagar said. “It’s going to be a very big day for you, Warin.”

  We made our way to one of the exercise courtyards, which had been transformed almost beyond recognition by powerful jinsei arts. A square of fire-tainted jinsei that bubbled and churned like lava had replaced the grass. Metal stairways positioned around the courtyard’s perimeter led up to a grid of five-foot-square stones that floated a yard above the deadly energy field.

  My fellow initiates were already standing on that grid. They’d taken up positions around the edge, eyeing one another warily. Headmaster Bishop hovered above their heads on a coruscating stream of pure jinsei. When his eyes fell on me, his face lit up with a malicious grin.

  “Oh, I see our final initiate has decided to grace us with his presence,” he said. “Make way for Mr. Warin. I have a special place just for him.”

  The wardens shoved me toward the nearest staircase, and I clambered up the steps to the platform with my bound hands bouncing off my thighs. I didn’t know what Grayson thought he was doing with this stunt, but if he believed I’d be easy prey for the other initiates, he was in for a rude surprise.

  Those of my classmates nearest the staircase stepped away from it as I reached the stones, and Grayson motioned me toward his position.

  “Not on the edge, Mr. Warin,” he said. “Here, come toward the center. This is where you like to be, right in the middle of all the trouble.”

  The rest of my class snickered at that, and I wondered what stories had been circulating about me while I was locked up in the worst library in existence. I scanned the faces before me and saw a mixture of fear and revulsion, pity and disdain. My reputation hadn’t been improved by my time away, unfortunately.

  I spotted Eric and Abi, but they wouldn’t meet my eyes. Clem didn’t look away when I found her in the crowd, but her face was as cold and impassive as a statue. A flicker of recognition was all she could give me, and I wondered if it was because she was sickened by me or because she was afraid to show the others that she still cared.

  After so many weeks without human contact, her impassive glance was almost enough to make me break down right there. I’d never felt more alone.

  “Now that we are all gathered together, I have the great honor of explaining why you are all here,” Grayson intoned. “We have a tradition that goes back to the very founding of the School of Swords and Serpents. The Grand Melee will test your skills like nothing else. Pitted against the other initiates, you must prove yourself a capable combatant.”

  The Resplendent Suns in the group grinned at the announcement, flexing their muscles and slapping each other on the shoulders. The Disciples seemed hesitant to celebrate, though the Titans and Thunder’s Children looked ready to rumble. We’d all been training for months; it only made sense that they’d want to test the skills they’d gained.

  Deacon, the sole other Shadow Phoenix initiate, looked miserable as always. He hunkered back into his corner as if he hoped no one would notice him and refused to look at me.

  “The rules are very simple. You will have thirty seconds to summon your fusion swords. When that time has expired, the Melee will begin.” Grayson turned in the air as he spoke and pushed jinsei into his voice to give it an echoing, somehow sinister quality. “If the tip or cutting edge of another student’s blade touches you, you are out. For every student you remove from the Melee, you’ll be granted one ranking.”

  Grayson paused for dramatic effect, and all the initiates around the edge of the floating arena shifted uncertainly. One-on-one duels with fusion swords were dangerous, but an acceptable risk. If someone got cut or stabbed, it was easy enough to end the battle and send for medical help.

  With dozens of fusion blades swinging around wildly, though, someone was likely to get killed.

  And that was exactly why Grayson had requested my attendance at his little party. There were swords with my name on them out there, ready to be sheathed in my flesh.

  “Your time begins now,” Grayson said. “Begin your summoning.”

  I closed my eyes and reached out for the rodents I knew had to be all around me. I quickly found a dozen of the creatures and pulled the jinsei from their cores. It flowed through me, and I forged it into the outline of my weapon in my hands. The elongated hilt filled my fist and the crystalline blade shimmered to life like a sheet of ice. When the first batch of rats ran low on energy, I bound the next batch and borrowed their sacred power to bring the blade to life.

  I held my blade at the ready and turned in a slow circle to take in the rest of the initiates. Most of them were still trying to forge their fusion blades, and I used my head start to look for obvious enemies.

  A pair of female Disciples to the west wielding barbed scimitars couldn’t take their eyes off me. A Resplendent Sun to the south held a battle-ax hoisted over his shoulder and also seemed fascinated with me. Three on one would be a challenge, and if I didn’t come up with a new strategy in a big hurry, I might be out of the fight before it even began.

  “Oh, one last thing,” Grayson said with a smirk. “If you eliminate another student, all of the rankings they have earned in the Melee become yours.

  “Begin!”

  A mighty gong reverberated through the courtyard, so loud half the initiates jumped in surprise. My more ruthless classmates took advantage of their neighbors’ shock to eliminate them from the competition. The aura of the eliminated students flashed red to make it clear they’d lost, and the disappointed students moved toward the staircases around the platform’s edge.

  The rest of us burst into a flurry of violence.

  The Disciples who’d eyeballed me got tangled up by a pair of Titans with oversized cleavers. Their clashing weapons threw sparks into the air, and their auras glowed as they furiously cycled jinsei to fuel their strikes and power their defenses. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about those two for a few moments.

  The Resplendent Sun, on the other hand, came at me like a freight train. A member of the Thunder’s Children clan darted in on his right side, her sword aimed at his exposed flank. The warrior swung his ax in a lazy backhanded swipe that knocked his attacker flat and turned her aura crimson without missing a step.

  Jinsei flowed into my core from the rats still connected to me, and I shoved it deep into the channels in my legs and arms. Fifteen rats weren’t enough to fully charge my body, but it was enough to make me a little faster and harder to hit.

  I’d expected to be nervous or afraid. In fact, I was eager to put my new skills to the test.

  My
attacker came at me with his blade held high, arms bulging with jinsei. He swung the weapon like it was no heavier than a butter knife, and it plunged out of the sky toward my face in a deadly flash.

  There was no point in trying to block an attack like that. It would’ve smashed my blade back into my face and flattened me like a pancake. Instead, I pivoted on my back leg and shifted into the Gliding Shadow stance. The ax whipped through the air alongside me, ruffling the hem of my robes, and it slammed into the stone platform.

  Before my opponent could recover from his brutal assault, I extended my fusion sword and poked him in the shoulder.

  “Ding,” I said as his aura turned red, “you’re done.”

  Enraged, the Sun flung his ax into the air, where it vanished in a spray of evaporating jinsei. He stormed away from the melee and stomped down the metal staircase so loudly his feet rang out over the clash of dozens of fusion blades.

  In a handful of moments, the number of fighters still in the competition had dropped by half. Both of the Disciples I’d worried about were gone, and the Titans who’d taken them out had been eliminated in turn.

  Eric and Abi were still in the fight. They’d wisely chosen to stick together to improve their odds of winning this thing. I wondered what they’d do when they were the only ones left.

  Clem was still in the fight, surrounded by a dog pack of Titans. Sweat poured down her face as she struggled to fend off their attacks with her slender blade. I wanted to dive into that fray to give Clem a hand, but wasn’t sure she’d accept any help I offered.

  So I didn’t ask her opinion on the matter.

  The jinsei in my leg channels carried me across the arena as swift as the wind. An angry Disciple of Jade Flame tried to take me out with a ferocious lunge, but his form was sloppy and my weapon slipped past his and caught him in the belly before he knew what had happened. Just like that, I had two rankings, and another opponent was out of the fight.