by Andrew Rowe
I invited Derek, but he turned me down.
He was staying at the hospital with his aunt, Professor Meltlake.
She apparently didn’t have anyone else.
There were obviously other members of the Hartigan family — they were a prominent house. I didn’t ask why no one else was there for her. If he wanted to explain, he would have.
But I realized the fact that she didn’t use the Hartigan name might have involved more than her just acquiring a fancy personal title.
I visited her, but she hadn’t woken up. She was...not in good shape.
I tried not to think too much about what I could have done to prevent that.
I tried to visit Professor Vellum, too, but she’d already left the hospital. That was good, I guessed.
I didn’t know where else to look for her. She wasn’t at her office, and the school was basically shut down for the year.
I wanted to know what had happened to her. But, perhaps even more than that, I could have used her advice.
Even if I knew she wouldn’t approve of my plan.
I resolved to figure out how to contact her later, but for now, I had more pressing concerns.
Without Derek, I wanted someone else who was close to his level of power. That didn’t leave a lot of candidates. Teft was still badly injured, even more so than his students.
Sheridan was the logical choice. I asked them to come, and they agreed faster than I’d expected.
With that, we had a healer. And I was pretty confident that Sheridan had a few other tricks up their sleeve, too.
Number six had to be a Diviner. Or, at least, someone with a comparable skill set.
I headed to the Divinatory.
***
“So, I know you have information gathering magic. Does that work the same way for you inside the spire?”
Researcher blinked. “I am a Researcher. My abilities are designed to function within the tower. The original that I am copied from resides and studies within.”
I nodded. “That’s what I thought. Do you have spells designed for locating people?”
“Yes. My abilities are similar to a human Diviner’s, but with a stronger emphasis on searching through large quantities of data. Location spells are within my abilities.” She gave me a quizzical look. “This is an unusual line of questioning.”
“I need to find someone who is inside the tower.” I folded my hands in front of me. “Would you be able to help with that?”
“It is... generally not permitted for me to provide information on anyone inside the spire to anyone other than one of the visages or other researchers. As you are an Arbiter, however...” Researcher frowned. “I have not been prepared for this situation. It may be irrelevant, however, as I am not capable of reaching the spire.”
She waved down at the apparatus that was providing her with the mana necessary to remain stable.
I’d thought of that, though. “How much mana do you need to remain stable?”
“I consume a total of one hundred mana per hour.”
That was more than what I was hoping for, but I could work with it. Maybe.
I took out my bracer of mana regeneration and offered it toward her. “This device is designed to regenerate the wearer’s mana. It has a mana capacity of sixty, and regenerates one mana per minute. Can you determine if the mana inside is something you could use?”
She took the offered bracer, turning it over in her hands.
For a moment, her pupil and sclera shifted to bright azure. “The mana inside is pure, and the transfer function would work on me.”
Her eyes returned to normal, and she handed the bracer back to me. “Your measurements appear to be accurate as well. I would drain the initial mana charge in approximately 36 minutes, if not for the regeneration function. In that 36 minutes, it would have regained another 36 mana. That would take me 21 minutes to drain, during which it would regain...”
I waved a hand to stop her. “You’d be able to last just about an hour, yeah. We could get you to the spire that fast without a problem, although we’d need to make sure to get approval from the guards in advance to avoid waiting in line or any paperwork.”
“But I would not necessarily have enough time to get back.”
I pondered that. “What would happen if you ran out of mana? Would you reappear here?”
She shook her head. “I would die.”
I blinked. “...Die?”
“This version of me would cease to exist. While my Summoner could summon another copy, it would not be...me.”
She sounded...scared.
Had she developed enough of a sense of self to distinguish herself from other versions?
In a way, it made sense. Vanniv also had humanoid intelligence, and he had a similar epiphany, if not to the same degree. He’d just wanted to be re-summoned in the future; apparently, that was enough to count as continuing to exist.
Maybe Researcher was different because of the apparatus that maintained her, or maybe she’d just been in this state so long that the function of the summoning spell that inhibited her desire for self-preservation had failed.
Either way, I’d have to respect her view. If she considered vanishing to equate to death, I needed to prevent that. “Okay, let’s not let that happen. Hrm.” I considered options. “Can you use a return bell?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I am not certain. It is most likely possible, however.”
I wasn’t going to accept uncertainty when someone’s life was involved. “Can you pull mana directly out of another object if it’s not designed to transfer mana?”
She shook her head.
I considered other options for a bit, but it was Researcher that suggested the solution that should have been obvious. “Did you enchant that bracer yourself, purifying it with the Arbiter attunement?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Can you make a second bracer?”
I put a hand on my forehead in exasperation. “Of course. Or I could just add copies of all the runes to the same bracer and double the capacity and regeneration. It shouldn’t be anywhere near the mana capacity of the metal yet.”
“That would provide one hundred and twenty mana per hour, which is sufficient to support me indefinitely — provided I do not expend mana on spells.”
I hadn’t considered that last part. “How much mana would it cost for you to detect someone’s location within the tower?”
“I have a number of spells with location functions, but they vary in cost and requirements. Most have a cost within ten to six hundred mana.”
Six...hundred?
I couldn’t possibly supply enough for that. “Okay, but there’s something basic you could do with ten?”
“Ten mana would be sufficient to determine if someone is present within the tower.”
That wasn’t quite good enough. “What about sixty? With that, could you get a floor number, or a direction?”
“A direction would be possible. Determining the exact floor number would be a more powerful spell, costing three hundred and sixty mana.”
Out of my current range, then. But a direction was probably good enough. We could use it more than once and just keep climbing. “What would you need in order to cast a direction spell?”
“A unique identifier, such as a material component linked to the target, or sufficient knowledge to search using a mental connection.”
I nodded. “I think we can provide that.”
Researcher floated down to her pedestal for a moment, looking wistful. “I do not know if I should help you. You may be exceeding the authority of an Arbiter by asking for this.”
I had to choose my words carefully here. I didn’t want to be dishonest. “This is related to a matter of both personal significance to me and directly related to a task that Visage Katashi asked me to investigate previously. If I am able to complete this task, I may be able to provide further information to Katashi that would assist him with a matter of significant imp
ortance.”
That was tailoring my answer, to be sure, but it wasn’t a lie.
And I did want to help Katashi find Tenjin... I just didn’t want to get my brother killed in the process.
Even if Tristan was involved in something I didn’t approve of, he was still my brother.
And, more than anything, I needed to ask him what had happened and why he’d made the choices that he had.
There was still so much I didn’t understand.
She seemed to search my face...and for a moment, her eyes changed again. “You are speaking the truth. For the most part, at least.”
Oh, resh. I didn’t know she could do that.
I grinned sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to be misleading.”
“Yes, you did.” She shook her head. “But it is sufficient justification, even if you are hiding something. You sincerely believe you could acquire information that would be relevant to a visage. That implies you are operating within your role as an Arbiter, and therefore I can assist you, even in a matter that would normally be forbidden.”
Researcher turned her head away. “In the future, I would prefer if you do not deceive me, however.”
I clenched my hands for a moment, then nodded. “Sorry. It’s a delicate matter. I will try to be more direct in the future.”
She looked back. “I believe you.”
Another question occurred to me. “Would leaving here violate your Summoner’s instructions?”
Researcher smiled. “They have not given me explicit instructions to remain, since it would normally be impossible for me to leave without them.”
“Okay. And how powerful would you say you are in combat?”
Her eyes widened for a moment. “I...would be useless in a fight. I do not even have a shroud. Do you anticipate violence occurring?”
That...was bad.
“We’re going to be climbing the spire. There will be all sorts of rooms, some of which will involve traps or battle.”
She took a step back. “Oh. I’ve never gone up the spire before. I’ve seen much of it, of course, and I knew...”
“If you know a way for us to move up without fighting, I’d be glad to use it.”
She shook her head. “Shortcuts do exist, but I do not have access to them, and neither would you.”
That was disappointing. “Okay, we’ll just need to protect you, then.”
“We?”
I nodded. “For now, I’ll go upgrade this bracer to make it strong enough to maintain you. We’ll test it in this environment for a few hours, just to make sure it works. Then we’ll leave in a couple days, and you can meet the team.”
***
I spent most of the rest of the evening upgrading the bracer, as promised.
The rest of the night was dedicated to modifying the Ring of Derek Controlling.
The anti-tampering runes were a tricky problem to solve.
I couldn’t move the mana out of the runes. I couldn’t add new runes. Destroying the runes might have worked, but it also might have destroyed the ring.
I was just about to use my etching rod to try to scratch out the runes when I came up with a slightly safer plan.
I asked Keras to use his metal magic to reshape the ring to remove the tiny sections of metal containing the anti-tampering runes. Fortunately, it didn’t explode.
With that, the ring was safe to modify.
I made some minor adjustments, and then I put it on and ran some tests.
It worked exactly as expected.
The next day, I gave the bracer to Researcher. We tested it. It worked as expected.
After that, we had two days remaining before it was time to head into the spire.
We all spent more of that time preparing.
Keras had purchased five return bells from Lars at my request. They were expensive, but everyone having a separate means to evacuate would make things much safer.
I didn’t need a bell; I still had my circlet, with the same function, but voice activation. If for some reason it didn’t work, though, having the bells as backup would be great.
We debated where to place the anchors for the return bells. Elora’s house was too far away, as was the school — it had to be within about a mile of the spire.
That left a random place, like I’d used last time, or something more familiar. We’d initially talked about using Derek’s old manor, but I didn’t like the risk of Saffron showing up there, even if it was very unlikely he would arrive right when we did. There was always the chance he had it under observation.
Ultimately, we just left the anchor rods with Lars. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time someone had done that. His shop was near the spire for a reason.
After that talk, I remembered what he’d said about healing potions earlier.
They were expensive. Like, shockingly expensive. A single potion cost about half as much as a return bell.
Apparently, that was because they required so much mana to be saturated into a small area to be effective, and because they also required certain rare herbs to create a useful healing effect (as opposed to just pouring raw liquid life mana onto a wound, which would be awful).
There were cheaper ones, but Lars didn’t sell them. Apparently he’d had bad experiences. I didn’t question that.
Sera and I pooled our funds and bought a case of a half dozen of them. I stored them in the Jaden Box.
Aside from that, I spent the last of my time training with Keras, and working on building a mana regeneration function into my phoenix sigil. It was much easier now that I’d both built and upgraded the bracers.
I didn’t know if wearing a mana regeneration item at all times would be safe for me, so I put in a function rune that would stop sending mana into my body, just in case.
It wouldn’t be a waste if I had to do that. A quick test with my mana threads told me that I could easily move mana from one part of the phoenix sigil to another — meaning the stored mana for the mana regeneration function could be moved to the shields to recharge them instantly.
I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it that way, but realistically? I knew I would.
I wanted to build a replacement mana watch. I wanted desperately to check my mana.
I didn’t.
It wasn’t a priority.
And I had started to learn just how important a few days of properly prioritized time could be.
I got one final night of decent sleep.
I said goodbye to the friends that weren’t going with us.
And then, with five unlikely companions, I made my way to the Serpent Spire.
Chapter XXIII – Climber
“I...can’t believe I’m going to the spire.” Researcher was practically bouncing with excitement. She was walking next to me, but I use the term “walking” loosely, because her feet never quite touched the ground.
The bracer of mana regeneration shined brightly on her right wrist. I was glad it actually fit her. I hadn’t thought to check the fit in advance.
I’d given her one other item after some consideration — my school-issued shield sigil. She didn’t have a shroud to protect her, and I knew first-hand that anyone’s chances of surviving in the tower without a barrier were minimal.
I had the materials to make another silver phoenix sigil for her, but I hadn’t thought about it in advance. If we ended up spending several days in the spire — which was a real possibility — I planned to make her one as soon as possible.
I went to meet up with the others just outside the Climber’s Gate like we’d planned. I expected that part to be relatively straightforward, but I’d forgotten a minute detail.
Researcher froze when she saw Keras in the distance.
In that moment, I remembered what had happened the last time an elemental had seen him.
She trembled. For a moment, I thought she was going to bolt in the opposite direction.
She ran straight at him instead.
“Who are you? What are you? What’s tha
t mask? How are you making your shroud do that?”
Keras took a step back, eyes widening, and lifted his hands in a warding gesture. “I, uh, hi. You can call me Keras.”
“But that’s not your name, is it? You’re not a person! But you’re not a summoned monster, either.” Researcher didn’t slow down until she was inches from running into him. When she finally did, she stood up on her toes, bringing her face so close to his that her nose was almost touching his mask.
I walked over, trying not to show how amused I was by Keras’ obvious discomfort.
Keras tilted his head down. “That’s complicated...and a bit of a secret.”
Researcher’s shoulders slumped. “But I want to know.”
Keras sighed. “You’re a knowledge elemental, aren’t you?”
“Oh! Yes.” She nodded vehemently. “Forgive me for failing to introduce myself. I’m Researcher 437-C. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Right.” Keras took a step back. “Knowledge is your sustenance, isn’t it?”
“Well, technically I can subsist by converting gray mana into mental mana, but that’s so...disappointing.” She looked away from him. She was usually so professional that seeing this reaction was jarring, but it was kind of endearing.
Do elementals have stronger emotional responses than humans? Tavare shifted their behaviors rapidly, too, and Researcher had a similar shift in approach when I told her I was an Arbiter...
Or maybe I’m just the unusual one. A lot of humans seem to experience emotions more intensely than I do, too.
Keras sighed. “I can’t tell you everything you want to know right now, but...” He leaned down and whispered something in her ear.
Researcher’s eyes widened, almost comically. “That...is so amazing! I mean, how would that even work? Are you coming with us into the spire?”
“I should be, yes.”
“Amazing...” Researcher turned back to me. “I am so excited.”
Elora walked over to the rest of us. “Well, this is all quite fascinating, but I’d like to be gone as quickly as possible. Can you all please head to the spire?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were teleporting us in.”
“In a sense. I’m opening one of the gates and activating it to lead toward a specific destination. Simple teleportation would never get through the spire’s defenses.”
