The Protection of Ren Crown

by Anne Zoelle

  Constantine noticed everything.

  No wonder girls were knocking down his door all the time. If he was so focused and responsive with every mark, they didn't stand a chance. It was equal to what I imagined it might feel like to be handled by a pinpointed storm.

  Of course, afterward, every girl got tossed from his tornado, to fall broken and discarded to the ground. The storm never cared about the destruction left behind. It only thrived on the churning it did.

  “Stop that line of thought, darling. Try thirty milliliters and an emotional shot of remorseless victory instead.”

  I did as he said, only further convinced that his superpower was that his perceptual skills were lightning fast and ironclad in their accuracy.

  If Dare and Constantine ever worked together, they'd be unbeatable.

  I looked at our fifty-minutes' worth of progress—all complete failures, but each with a high degree of knowledge gained. Messes made logically. The promise of success in future work sessions was extraordinarily high.

  This was going to work out just fine.

  ~*~

  While I was on call alone, Patrick and Asafa got into a Level Four situation, which mandated an administrative review. They rubbed their hands together, looked straight at me and said, “Send over your negotiator.”

  Olivia had them out an hour later, after they had promised to assist two design professors and work some gaming expo in the Spring helping—aka corrupting—tweens in the greater Second Layer community.

  Constantine, Will, and I were making significant progress on our leeches and were just starting to dabble with the remote activation of Patrick and Asafa's controller. But we needed to secure another bit of tech from the tricksters, so I sent Olivia to negotiate with them again several days later.

  She slammed into the room three hours after departing.

  “It didn't go well?” I cocked my head to the side. Since my implementation of the karmic spell, Olivia's health had been at the highest levels I had ever witnessed—take that, Helen!—but her cheeks were abnormally red right now. “Did they wrangle an extra boon? It's okay, if so. Working with them is always fun.”

  Olivia drew up to her full height. “Of course they did not. What do you take me for? A hornless tricorn? I nailed down every term we wanted.”

  “Then—”

  “They are ruffians!”

  Ah. I coughed, holding my hand over my mouth to hide my smile. “Did they flirt with you again, Liv?”

  “I will not discuss such absurdities.” She began shuffling things around on her desk, obviously flustered.

  Awesome.

  “We should head down there for tournament night next weekend,” I said casually, lounging on my bed with my tablet while pretending to be completely oblivious. “They hold them every Sunday.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Oh yeah. We were so going. I gave her my most earnest look. “We need to check out the console in action, so we can keep adapting our controller correctly.”

  “You can take William.”

  I nodded and looked back at my tablet. “Sure. We'll probably be there all day. I'm sure they won't try to acquire any more tech from us while we are playing and having fun. And if—”

  “Fine, fine.”

  Protection of friends and promotion of their happiness: +5

  ~*~

  After the addition of Asafa and Patrick to Olivia's defense roster, her client list bloomed out of control. Asafa and Patrick knew everyone on the troublemaking circuit. And their word was golden. With her crazy class schedule, our project work, her fancy, tedious legal clubs, and her daily or even twice-daily defense litigation, she looked as exhausted as I did every night.

  But underlying the fatigue was a deep and fierce satisfaction that I hadn't previously seen Olivia display before. She was enjoying every minute of this term.

  “So, Saf and Trick—”

  “Cretins,” she said without looking up.

  “—invited us over tonight instead of waiting for game night.”

  “Cretins.”

  “To talk about how the controller slides through mental magic versus holding it. We were approaching it all wrong.”

  “Cretins.”

  “And they have a new box of your favorite éclairs in their fridge.”

  “Cretins.” But her frown and the way she started to pack up her bag immediately to visit them indicated that they were starting to be her cretins.

  I couldn't withhold my delight.

  ~*~

  Dare hadn't even tried to be evasive in his comment concerning Okai the fourth time the building had popped up when we entered the Midlands. Ultramarine eyes had taken in all of the symbols around the doorway and the rocks standing at attention, then his too-blue gaze had turned to me, and he'd said, “Friends of yours?”

  We had visited the Midlands many times since—Dare had now claimed every free space in my calendar, no matter how small, so I saw him at least three or four times each day—and he'd said nothing concerning the building or rocks since. But he fully examined Okai's structure, the rocks, and surrounding landscape each time we entered, and I was pretty sure it was all committed to memory. Dare would be able to find me in the Midlands any time he wanted, I had no doubt of that. My secret lair was getting less and less secret. I hoped that didn't come back to bite me.

  Why he had let me get away with a panicked affirmative to the “friends” comment then let the subject drop, I didn't know.

  Puzzling reasons scrolled through my mind as Will, Neph, and I headed to Okai to work on one of Will's projects. Olivia was busy with Asafa, Patrick, and club business, so it was a good time to nerd out with Will, celebrate our latest successes, and impress Neph.

  Will eagerly showed Neph the intricacies of his latest prototyping designs. He had taken our joint projects in our Architecture and Design class, pieces of my previous model sketching and my monster animation for Asafa and Patrick, and our work with the mind magic side of the leeches, then picked out all of the individual “Ren” or “Will” components and added connections common for any mage to use.

  After talking extensively to Asafa and Patrick about game design, Will had pulled it all together into a project that was pretty extraordinary. The simulation rooms were incredible, but didn't allow creation to be captured as it was formed. What Will was trying to do was to capture creation specifically in a pinpointed modeling design that any mage could learn. A way of shaping, forming, and capturing from the mind and putting it into a direct framework.

  Will, Asafa, Patrick, and Kita, a female gamer in Asafa and Patrick's inner circle who had a business focus, were now actively working on how to use Will's tools—and gaming designs, in general—to revolutionize modeling in engineering. Olivia was looking into the legal and business aspects with Kita for setting up a company to take the product to market. They had been working on it extensively over the past few days

  While Will dazzled Neph, I presented a new pencil—full of protection magic and a tiny drop of the winning paint Constantine and I had made earlier that day—to Guard Rock, and a set of smaller, magically enhanced sticks for Guard Friend.

  Guard Rock examined and tested his new weapon, and Guard Friend jumped around whipping her sticks in the air. “Awesome, yeah?” I said, warmth filling my cheeks and chest. “We are getting better at this, aren't we?”

  “Paint session went well today?” Will asked, watching the rocks work their new treasures.

  “Constantine and I completely owned it,” I said in satisfaction. In addition to the presents for the rocks, I had made Delia a set of stretchable clay dressing dolls that would “malfunction” and bite anyone who insulted her in their presence. They also came programmed with insults. They weren't sentient like the rocks, but maybe in a few weeks... “We are going to be making Awakening level paint in no time.”

  Will and Neph exchanged glances.

  I put my hand up. “I hear it nightly from Olivia.”

 
; Will and Constantine were working well together on the leech project, as I had figured they would. Will didn't have the kind of conceit that would rub Constantine the wrong way, and Constantine was a focused and brilliant mage in a lab setting, which more than satisfied Will. But even though we were zipping along working together as a trio, there was still a formality between them. They wouldn't naturally gravitate to working together on their own after we finished the project.

  “We just worry.” Will shrugged helplessly. Neph bent to speak softly with the rocks, leaving the conversation to the two of us. “The leech project is really interesting, and I can't wait to start the dodecaplex next week...but Leandred being unnaturally professional behind closed doors doesn't make him any less shady other times. Are you sure you know what you are doing?”

  “I think Constantine would argue that he is completely shady all of the time,” I said. “But I appreciate you looking out for me.”

  I bumped Will. He picked up a set of calipers, but I could see him smile.

  “And, yes, I'm sure,” I said.

  Will nodded, letting it go, like he did with so many things that freaked out other people. After all, he had thought being stuck inside a man-eating sketch had been a grand adventure.

  I looked over at Neph, who had drawn Guard Rock and Guard Friend away from the door and was teaching them to dance on their little rock legs, a ribbon of lavender magic wrapping around them like the ribbons that gymnasts used.

  Her sachet was attached to her soft belt sash. She never went anywhere without the sachet we had made.

  She smiled fondly at both of us.

  Warmth gripped me.

  Protection of campus: Neutral

  Protection of friends: +7

  Chapter Twenty-three: Combat Qualifications

  Excitement and anticipation lit all of campus going into the combat qualifier. Campus safety and traveling restrictions were still in full force, but there were more people buzzing around Excelsine than there had been in the six weeks since classes had started. Alumni, media, and VIP's had been given temporary permission to be on campus after a strict vetting by the Department. Unfamiliar adults interspersed with students on every level of the mountain.

  I stayed away from anyone who looked like they had lived longer than twenty-five years.

  “An especially auspicious field,” a gushing girl said as we walked amongst the excited masses. “The media mages have been listing the biographies, skills, and charts for the competitors at Excelsine and the other schools. I have all of their stats memorized. Isn't Alexander Dare the dreamiest? He's ranked first overall. You should see how each mage ranks compared to—”

  The girl was separated from us by the surging crowd.

  The section of the Seventeenth Circle that made up the base of the stadium was level, and the field extended inward toward the mountain until it jutted straight up. Carved into the mountainside, the stands rose all the way to the Fifteenth Circle.

  Mike and Delia made a beeline for a particular section, dragging the rest of us in their wake. Will and Mike fiddled and debated over which privacy spell to use and where to anchor it. Olivia and Delia argued about who was going to sit where. Neph layered comfort spells onto the seats, and I stared around in awe. Decisions finally made, we raised the wards and sat in a tightly knit formation. I was sandwiched between Neph and Olivia, with Will, Delia, and Mike in the seats directly behind us.

  Almost immediately upon me sitting, a guy, shaped liked a redwood, bounded into position in the seat directly in front, forcing me to crane my neck from side to side to look around him. I could catch glimpses of people warming up on the field using staffs, boomerangs, swords, wands, forks, crystals, and other gizmos, but I wanted to be able to see everything.

  Olivia looked over at my increased fidgeting. “An ocular magic spell will drift through in a moment. Stop moving.”

  A minute later, a gong sounded three times throughout the stands, then a trail of magic wound up from the wooden seat and into me. It misted over my eyes and through my ears. Then it bloomed out toward Neph, on my left side, and Olivia on my right. The giant head in front of me started to shrink. The field grew closer, as if pulled forward in a camera zoom.

  I blinked and looked at the boy in front of me. He appeared in full form. Looking back to the field, the boy disappeared, leaving the scene beyond clear and near. The boy hadn't actually disappeared; magic had simply accommodated my preferred view.

  I could see the mist connecting everyone in the stands, performing the same enhancing ocular and auditory magic on everyone. The mist then shot down—rooting into the mountain, and down into the earth.

  My view was now fantastic. Front row, unimpeded view, while still well above the action. The perfect box seat. But when I looked away from the field directly, I could see how far away I truly was, and how close the crowd was that surrounded me. The disparate perceptions were dizzying.

  Everyone around me was avidly checking the field, eyes moving in strange perceptual fashions, and fingers manipulating the air in front of them.

  “A little bit of battle, a lot of blood. Campus life is good,” Mike said, rubbing his hands together over my shoulder.

  “Campus is still closed, the Peacekeepers' Troop arrives Monday, and you are making it sleet tomorrow in our usual practice spot,” I said.

  “Meh.”

  “Meh, nothing. The combat mages are completely crazed, trying to neuter the Troop before they even get to campus. What do you think I've been doing during the entirety of my spare time?”

  “Mad projects?”

  “Those aren't spare,” Will piped in.

  Mike grinned and turned to Delia. “These two. Who are you rooting for?”

  “Out of a bunch of hyped-up testosterone junkies spilling blood and battling it out for world domination?”

  “You obviously have a favorite then,” Mike said, a little dryly.

  “Whoever looks hottest in his outfit, of course,” Delia said, deflecting a true answer, her attention turned back to actively scan competitors who fit that description.

  “Lovely,” Olivia said, crossing her arms.

  Delia smirked. “What about you, Mikey?”

  “There was an all right guy I partnered with last term in my wind metrics class. Ben Franks. Talented. I put down ten on him for the weather events.”

  “Oh, I heard he was quite good.”

  “Yeah. Won't dent the big three, though. Dare, Lox, and Ramirez have a lock in the betting magic. They take your munits and backslap you, if you bet outside of them in the big categories.” He mimicked the motion with his hand.

  “That's what happens when you win the Second Layer Combat Games at seventeen.”

  “Almost eighteen,” Mike said.

  “Two months to go or not, Axer Dare was still seventeen last year,” Delia said. “Against all the twenty-one- and twenty-two-year-olds. A very big deal. Hot.” She winked at me.

  I could see him warming up on the field. Five seconds of staring pulled his image closer, as if he stood only five feet away. I panicked, looking to my left and right.

  Neph cocked her head at me, her gaze questioning.

  “Can anyone see what I see?” I whispered.

  “No, it is all individual.”

  Thank God. I took a deep breath, then watched to my heart's content. I watched him do a particularly complicated maneuver and thought how nice it would be to see it again in slow motion, when suddenly up popped an instant replay with four different, angles to swap between. That explained the eye and hand motions in the crowd. I gave the magic a whirl, swapping images and angles. Wow. There were some nice body angle options. I was coming to these events as often as possible from now on.

  Working with the guy three or four times a day, every day, had expunged my crush on him. However, it had left me with something far trickier to label. Such trickiness had been evident when I had finally given him a working paper wasp with which to annoy the Junior Department—the
wicked smile he had gifted me with had stunned me stupid.

  The warmth I was accustomed to feeling when I gave things to friends and family had been present, but there had been something else there too.

  I felt all eyes on me suddenly and for a terrifying moment I thought I might have said all that aloud or projected my view to everyone. Maybe Neph meant it was individual for normal mages.

  “Ren? Who are you rooting for?” Mike prodded.

  Oh, thank God. “Whoever uses device magic best, of course.”

  Will gave me a thumbs up.

  Mike rolled his eyes. “Nerds. Both of you.”

  “Nerds with style,” Will emphasized.

  Delia snorted. “Ren's rooting for Axer. Don't let her fool you.”

  “Partners have to stick together,” I said in a too-serious tone, just to make Delia snort again.

  Everyone seemed to accept that answer, though, so I went back to watching the field. Even if I didn't recognize many of the competitors by face or physical reputation, I'd have been able to pick out skill levels just by the way the competitors carried themselves. Strolling, striding, or hunching—arrogant, assured, or scared as hell.

  Dare was, unsurprisingly, neither hunching nor apprehensive. He was wearing the little bloodthirsty quirk at the edge of his mouth that he did when he anticipated some serious Midlands action and slaughter.

  A gong sounded, and all of a sudden magic connected in a twelve-point system from each mage's cloak collar, arcing up over the participant's head, points connecting together, then going clear.

  “I heard the combat mages arguing against wearing helmets, but those shields are the same thing, aren't they?”

  Will shook his head. “Helmets would have their own magic. All combat mages use devices to some extent—the cloaks being a prime example—but many combat mages think relying on outside forces makes people sloppy. Cloak magic gets powered by the mage consciously, but a helmet would be a separate device.” Will shrugged. “In a real battle, separate devices—and especially head gear—are a primary target.”