by Gage Lee
“What are we supposed to do here?” Eric called out. “Shouldn’t we have heard the rules by now?”
That was an excellent point. I’d been so distracted by the darkness and my worry that one of my teammates would fall to their death that I hadn’t even considered what our goal was. The first challenge had been tricky, but at least we’d had something to go on. In this one, though, we didn’t even know where to begin. I stretched out my senses again, searching for jinsei, aspects, or even the aura of an inanimate object that might give me some clue as to what I needed to do to win this thing.
I felt a trickle of water off to my right, though it was so faint it could have emanated from background humidity. That was no good. I needed more information.
“I’m about to try something,” I said. “Everyone hang tight for a second.”
“Do your thing,” Hagar said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Once more, I activated the medallion on my chest. The Borrowed Core technique stitched to the medallion burst to life and locked onto a familiar target: the rat I’d used to demonstrate my experiment to Hagar. The connection wavered for a moment, and a strange disturbance, like static on a telephone line, crackled between us. I pushed through the noise and put the next step of my plan into action.
I triggered the Army of a Thousand Eyes technique stitched into the band around the rat’s forearm. When I’d first learned the technique, it had been difficult to connect to more than a few rats. As I’d grown stronger, though, the number of allies I could add to the Army grew. Delamination had knocked me back several steps on that path.
The vessel, though, didn’t have that limitation. The rat’s core was solid, and the technique I’d scrivened onto its band was the advanced form I’d mastered. The technique, with the aid of my ally, pulled dozens upon dozens of rodents into my Army.
“Come to me,” I whispered.
Though the portal was invisible from our side, the rats found it immediately. Through our shared senses, I watched them scurry across the courtyard and plunge through the blue gateway. Their noses and ears twitched with confusion when they found themselves in utter darkness, and they wisely froze in place until their keen senses could tell them more about where they’d landed. Satisfied they hadn’t died, the rats fanned out in every direction.
The Army of a Thousand Eyes technique synthesized the senses of a hundred different rats and gave me a much clearer picture of the arena. The rats couldn’t see in the dark any better than I could. Their twitching whiskers, on the other hand, relayed an enormous amount of information about their surroundings. In a handful of minutes, I’d armed myself with a mental image of the arena.
“Everybody still all right?” Hagar called. “Something’s moving out there.”
“That’s me,” I said. “Here’s the deal.”
I quickly sketched out what I understood of our surroundings. We were in a circular chamber roughly fifty feet in diameter, with no exits that the rats could detect. Twisting chasms split the floor into irregular islands. The Army of a Thousand Eyes couldn’t tell me how deep those rifts were without sending a rat into one, and I wasn’t about to do that. My allies deserved better. The rats also found ten pillars scattered around the room. These were topped by strands of jinsei that had been woven into cages or baskets. The rats couldn’t get close enough to those to tell me what they contained, unfortunately.
The strangest features of the room were the clusters of elemental aspects scattered around in no discernible pattern. There were so many pockets of fire, earth, air, water, and metal aspects I was surprised I hadn’t sensed them earlier. The arena must have done something to mask them.
“That still doesn’t tell us what we’re supposed to do,” Clem said. “We can’t just stand here in the dark all day.”
“Eric,” I called out. “I’m sending you a guide. Follow it.”
“Uh, okay,” my friend shouted back. “How will I know—oh, there it is.”
I focused my thoughts on the rat I’d sent to Eric and instructed it to tug on the laces of his boot. Eric inched forward in response, and I repeated the pattern until my friend was standing before a bundle of fire aspects suspended in midair by some unseen force.
“There are fire aspects right in front of you,” I said.
“Okay, I found them,” Eric said. “They’re weird, though. I feel their heat, but there’s no light.”
“Can you protect yourself from fire?” I asked.
“Yep,” Eric said.
“Great. Grab one of those aspects!” I shouted.
A burst of fire banished the darkness from around Eric. That flash of light showed me the entire arena in the blink of an eye. Combined with the information I’d received from the Army of a Thousand Eyes, I now knew that Clem was the furthest away from me, Hagar and Eric were about the same distance from my location, and Abi stood on a thin bridge of stone just a few yards away. It also showed me something in the air above our heads.
“Do it again!” I shouted. “I see something.”
The fire blazed again, and this time my eyes were focused upward. Eric’s light revealed a rectangle of scrivened metal floating twenty feet above the arena’s floor. The flames were gone before I could make out any details other than a connection point near the construct’s lower edge. A serpent could easily trigger that scrivening.
Unfortunately, using my serpents was a good way to speed up the delamination process. I’d need some help.
“Abi,” I called. “I’m sending someone to guide you to me. Try not to step on them.”
One of the rats scampered over to Abi and tugged at the hem of his robe. The rodent scurried a few feet away from my friend, chittered loudly, then waited for Abi to follow the sound.
“I do not like heights,” he called to me. “Please be careful.”
“Just follow the rat,” I said. “You’ll be here in no time.”
One shuffling step at a time, my friend made his way across the bridge to me. His outstretched hands brushed against my robes, and he let out a sigh of relief.
“Tell me the ground we are standing on is solid,” he begged.
“You’re good,” I confirmed. “I need you to look up. There’s a scrivened metal panel above us. We need to get some jinsei to it.”
“I can do that,” Abi said. “Allow me a few moments to summon my serpents.”
Seconds later, I heard the faint rustle as Abi’s serpents emerged from his aura.
“Eric,” I shouted. “Hit the lights!”
Fire blazed again, and Abi’s serpents speared toward the panel above us. A trickle of jinsei flowed from his core, up through the serpents of light, and wove itself into the connection point on the panel. Silver threads crawled across the rectangle until every swirl and spike of the scrivenings was filled.
“The challenge of aura,” a deep voice boomed through the room. “All for one. Defeat the elements. Banish the darkness.”
Five musical chimes rang out at the end of the announcement. With each crystalline sound, silver circles appeared in the air between the pillars I’d detected earlier. The argent light surrounded clouds of purest darkness and faded away with the last note.
“That’s what these aspects are for,” Clem called out. “I sensed wood and metal not far from me, but I thought it was a trap. We can use them to get rid of those darkness aspects we just saw.”
“How?” Eric asked. “Just throw the fire at the dark?”
“It can’t be that simple. Remember the first challenge?” It had seemed straightforward on its surface, but there were greater rewards for deciphering its cryptic instructions. The same thing had to be true here. “Before we do anything, let’s make absolutely sure we understand what’s expected.”
“Banish the darkness seems simple enough,” Hagar said. “You’re good at separating aspects, Jace. Just pull the darkness into your aura, and we win.”
“That’s only one of the instructions,” Abi said. “And it’s the last one.
Clem, you found wood and metal aspects. Eric, you’ve got fire by you. Anyone else?”
“I’ve got earth over here,” Hagar called.
“And there’s some water off to my right,” I finished. “That’s all five of the sacred elements. Somehow, we have to defeat them.”
“Eric,” Clem said. “Can I get some light again?”
“Your wish is my command.” The Resplendent Sun lit up the arena, and Clem clapped her hands.
“There are pillars on either side of the darkness aspects,” Clem called. “They have containers on top of them.”
Suddenly, it all made perfect sense.
“Fire melts metal.” In alchemy, every element could generate or destroy another.
“Metal cuts wood,” Abi continued, excitement growing in his voice. “Woods splits earth, earth absorbs water, and water quenches fire. That’s it.”
“Awesome! Now we know how to defeat the elements. That’s still only two of the rules,” Hagar called. “What does all for one mean?”
We fell silent and struggled to understand the first of the instructions. I mentally walked through each step of the process we’d follow to complete the challenge. I understood what had to be done.
“I think one person has to carry all the elemental aspects in their aura,” I said.
“There are dozens of darkness aspects in each pocket,” Clem said. “You’d have to have dozens of elemental aspects in your aura to cancel them out.”
And that was the problem. Most people couldn’t hold more than ten or so different aspects in their aura before they lost control of them. As they added new aspects beyond their capacity, the first aspects they’d absorbed would be pushed out. Powerful sacred artists used this to their advantage, moving weak aspects like exhaustion or hunger out of their aura with more beneficial aspects like strength or courage. It was a tricky balancing act, and one most students struggled with.
Except for me.
My unique core had given me the ability to manipulate aspects with far greater ease and speed than anyone I’d ever met. Even as a hollow, I’d been able to purify jinsei by stripping away corrupted aspects. This challenge would be a piece of cake.
Or, it would’ve been, if it wasn’t built to exploit my personal weakness.
Filtering aspects through my core and into my aura might speed up the delamination process. I could win the challenge only to split my core in half. That would knock me right out of the Gauntlet.
There might be another way, though. I had to try.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said. “It might not work, but I think it’s the best shot we’ve got.”
“Don’t strain yourself,” Hagar warned me.
“I won’t,” I promised. “Abi, I need your help.”
“Anything,” Abi said. “Tell me what to do.”
“Can you sense the water aspects I mentioned earlier?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Perfect,” I said. “Pull a few of them into your aura.”
The key to this challenge was cooperation. None of the other teams would have someone with my unique abilities. They’d have to rely on more traditional means of manipulating the aspects. The simplest solution would be for each teammate to gather one of the elemental aspects and then pass it to their leader using their serpents. The stronger the leader’s core was, the more aspects they’d be able to hold in their aura, and the more quickly they’d complete the challenge. Other than me, the strongest of the contenders only had an adept-level core. Assuming everything went smoothly, it would still take them a long time to unravel this puzzle.
We could do it much more quickly.
“Okay,” Abi said. “I’m loaded up with water aspects.”
It was possible to transfer aspects from one aura to another, if both participants were willing. That was how jinsei medicine and sacred energy surgery worked. The physician would harness beneficial aspects, overlap their aura with the patient’s, and then exchange healing aspects with illness or injury aspects. It was slow and tedious work, and it could be dangerous if the doctor didn’t have a stronger core than the patient.
“Brace yourself,” I said. “This might get a little rough.”
The rat that had guided Abi to me scampered over and perched on his foot. I was still tied to the little rodent through the Army of a Thousand Eyes. When its aura overlapped my friend’s, I felt the water aspects like they were splashing over my own hands. My excitement grew. This was going to work.
The medallion on my chest that held the Borrowed Core technique wasn’t the only one I’d stitched to my channels. A charm on my forearm held the Thief’s Shield technique, and I activated it with a thought.
“You weren’t kidding,” Abi gasped. “That was something else.”
The instant I’d activated my technique, all the water aspects had been pulled out of Abi’s aura and into the rat’s. They then flowed through the bond I shared with the rodent into my aura, and the rodent’s cycled breaths refilled the charm’s jinsei reserves.
“We’ve got this,” I shouted. “Everyone gather up as many elemental aspects as you can hold in your aura. Let me know when you’ve gathered your element.”
While my friends worked on their part of the challenge, I put my Army to work. The rodents scampered across the stone, their whiskers twitching as they mapped out the terrain for me. In a few minutes, the rats had formed rodent pyramids at the base of each of the pillars. Individual rats had also reached my friends. We were so close to winning this thing.
“I’ve got the wood,” Clem called. “And there’s a rat on my shoulder. Please tell me it’s one of yours.”
“Mine hasn’t gotten to you yet,” I teased.
“Jace!” my friend shouted.
“Just kidding!” Where my rat’s aura overlapped with Clem’s, I felt the wood aspects she’d gathered. It was an impressive number for an adept. “Good work, Clem.”
A few moments later, the rest of my team announced they’d all stuffed their auras with elements. It was time to put my theory to the test.
“Brace yourselves,” I called out again. “You’re not going to like this part.”
The jinsei from the rats’ cycled breathing had refilled the vessel that contained the Thief’s Shield technique. I drew in a deep breath, held it, and activated the technique.
The Borrowed Core combined my core with all of the rats’ cores. But, because auras and cores were so closely related, it also bound our auras together. Each of my friends had a rat perched on their shoulder, and that meant that all of our auras were overlapping.
The instant I triggered the Thief’s Shield, the technique stripped the elemental aspects from my friends and distributed them through my aura and the aura of the rats. It also stole jinsei from the channels nearest the rats, which had to feel awful. Fortunately, because I’d activated the Shield through a vessel, all that jinsei rushed into it rather than into my core.
“Ugh,” Hagar moaned. “That was awful.”
“Please don’t do that again,” Clem groaned.
“No such luck.” I pulled all the rats away from my friends, except for Clem. “Sorry, Clem, I need the metal aspects from you.”
“Give me a second,” she said. “I need to cycle and restore my jinsei. No wonder Rafael was afraid of you after your duel.”
That was a name I hadn’t thought of in a while. Rafael had decided I was his nemesis during my first year at the school, and he’d challenged me to a formal duel during my second year. I hadn’t seen him at all this year, though.
Weird.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Clem called.
“Sorry!” I shouted and activated the technique again.
“Yuck,” Clem said. “That is just awful.”
“You’ll be fine,” I promised her. A quick inventory of the aura I shared with all the rats showed me we didn’t have nearly enough aspects yet. “Which is awesome, because we need to do this at least three more times, everyone!”
They all groaned at that but had already started gathering more aspects. Five minutes later, I couldn’t hold another element.
“Rest,” I said. “It’s time to finish this.”
The rat at the top of each of the pyramids stood up on their hind legs and rested their front paws on the baskets. An electric thrill ran through me at the contact with the inanimate auras.
My Army and I held hundreds of aspects within our auras. I could taste the power at my command. I savored that moment and marveled at the implications of my abilities. Some day, I would be able to control a vast swarm of rats. Not hundreds, but thousands, tens of thousands. And everywhere those rats went, I would go as well.
It was amazing and terrifying.
And something I’d have to think about, very hard, when I had more time.
Right now, I had to win a challenge.
The vessel on the left side of my chest vibrated as I unleashed the Eclipse Transplant technique. Elements flowed out of my Army’s combined aura, filling each of the baskets with a single type of aspect. It took only seconds to fill the containers to overflowing.
I’d arranged the elements with opposing elements on either side of each pocket of darkness aspects. When the baskets were filled, water would douse fire, fire would melt metal, metal would cut wood, wood would sunder earth, and earth would bury water.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Fountains of light shot out of the baskets and plowed through the bundles of darkness aspects. When the elemental interactions consumed the aspects in the baskets, they also consumed the pitch black that had blinded all of us.
Silver light crawled through engravings on the walls of the arena to form images of humans and dragons marching and flying in a circle around the room. Their formations moved faster and faster, the dragons soaring near the ceiling while the humans strode along the arena’s floor. Color flooded the engravings, adding dimension and detail to the already intricate carvings. Soon the sounds of marching boots and flapping wings filled the arena. It all seemed so real, as if the dragons and human soldiers were in the chamber with us.
