by Andrew Rowe
Sure, we’ll go with that.
She continued, “I needed to have a chance to vet you first. Believe it or not, students have been used as spies and assassins in the past. I had to verify that a Corin Cadence actually entered the tower, exited, and fits your description. Beyond that, I had to check and see if you had any unusual attunements beyond the obvious mark on your forehead, or anything else of note. Your sword was of some interest, but while it’s an advanced weapon to find in a Judgment, it was not enough to imply that you were an assassin. And you made no effort to conceal it.”
Aww, she thought I might be an assassin? That’s kind of flattering, I suppose. “That makes sense. I suppose a message directing you to go to the tower while the tower is inescapable would be somewhat suspect.”
“Precisely. There are a few possible scenarios we’re entertaining. None of them are pretty. Fortunately, it’s unlikely that everyone inside will be... purged. If that were necessary, whoever sealed the tower would have also made it impossible to enter. Thus, it’s more likely this is a security measure to prevent someone specific from leaving.”
I took a deep breath as I considered how to respond. “I think I have an idea about who that might be.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“So, when I was in the tower, I ran into a few other people—”
The eyebrow lifted higher.
“—and yes, I remember the experience. I’m not sure why. Maybe the Voice helped?”
“No need to speculate on that at the moment. Please, continue.”
“Well, I found a few people and ended up making my way through some of the chambers with them. One of them was a swordsman named Keras—”
Her focus intensified at the name. I tried not to stumble over my words.
“—who ended up fighting with — and I’m fairly confident when I say this — Katashi, the Visage of Valor.”
“Katashi was there? Interesting. Continue.”
Really, that’s your only comment?
“Without getting into too much detail, I fled the fight along with the other two. I mean, one of them was unconscious, but Vera, a woman from... Caelford, I think? Maybe? She helped me carry the unconscious boy. Then she betrayed me and took the kid, running off on her own. Not really clear on why.”
“And the Voice interceded on your behalf?”
“Not physically, he just told me a route to take to get out. Then, when I got there, he told me to contact you. Oh, and he gave me the sword.”
Professor Orden looked stymied by that. “He... appeared to you? In person?”
I shook my head. “Oh, I suppose it probably wasn’t really him. Just a floating robe. Like, a simulacrum, maybe?”
She took a deep breath. “Ah, of course. Yes, that makes more sense. Did he tell you anything else?”
I paused, considering. I was being deliberately vague, of course, but I needed to tell her anything that could get me more information. I didn’t trust her enough to reveal anything that would make me look bad. “He indicated that there was something he needed to do quickly, and that I needed to leave the tower fast. I suppose that was referring to sealing the tower off. Could he do that?”
“Perhaps.”
“At the time, I assumed he was going to go intercede in the battle between Keras and Katashi.”
She raised a hand to her forehead. “Unlikely, but perhaps through indirect means. I take it that means you did not see how the battle concluded, then?”
I shrugged. “No. But it’s a foregone conclusion, right? Katashi is a visage, they—”
“I wouldn’t make too many assumptions when it comes to Keras Selyrian.”
Selyrian? I’d never heard that surname before. “Who is he?”
“A dangerous heretic. He’s appeared in several cities, given speeches against the goddess’ doctrine, and disappeared. The common theory is that he is an agent of the Tyrant in Gold, possibly one of his children.”
Oh, lovely, I may have just let a malevolent demigod out of prison.
I rubbed my forehead. “Do you think that’s likely to be true?”
Orden shook her head. “He’s certainly powerful, but I can’t say if that’s accurate. There are other possibilities. He could be one of Wydd’s forms, for example.”
I nodded at that. Wydd was the Visage of Forbidden Knowledge and she — or he, depending on the day — was known to take on many forms. There were stories of her conflicting with other visages in the past, but I hadn’t heard any that involved direct combat. “Do you think Keras is the reason the tower was sealed?”
She shifted her hand, drumming her fingers on the chair. “That is an excellent question. Knowing that Keras is involved certainly puts the whole situation in a different light. It’s possible he’s responsible. I’ll have to consider it and investigate further. You’re welcome to research him yourself, but don’t make it your primary focus.”
Orden paused, eyes pensive. “You said the woman with him was named Vera, and sounded Caelish?”
I thought back to when I’d met Vera and her interactions with the other prisoners. “Yeah, but I don’t think they were working together. She fled just the same as I did when the battle started.”
“Interesting.”
“And you mentioned a young boy. Another applicant, like yourself?”
“Not sure. He had even darker skin than Vera, so he was probably Caelish, too. He looked too young to be taking a Judgment and he had an unusual mark on his forehead. It was large for an attunement. It looked more like a tattoo.”
“That could be nothing; tattoos are much more common in Caelford. But you’re right that it’s unusual enough to note. If nothing else, it should be possible to find out if a young Caelfordian with a forehead tattoo entered through the Door of Judgment recently.”
“Do people from Caelford take their Judgments at a younger age than we do?”
She shook her head. “No, but people from Edria take them at twelve or thirteen. It’s possible he’s from Edria and simply had a Caelish complexion.”
True enough. It was easy to assume someone’s region of birth based on their skin tone, but there were people of all nationalities living everywhere these days.
“Were you serious when you mentioned that there could be agents of a visage coming after me, or was that just to inspire me to prepare?”
Orden cracked her knuckles. “Both. You must understand that part of the influence of the visages comes from the belief that they are infallible. You witnessed a visage fight someone — not destroy someone, not execute someone, fight them — and you escaped after seeing it.”
She waved a finger at me in warning. “That kind of knowledge is dangerous. It may be sufficient in itself for Katashi to want you eliminated. Perhaps he would be merciful enough to order someone to remove your memories. Of course, maybe he won’t care at all. It is always prudent to plan for the worst case.”
I agreed with her logic. And, considering I’d been responsible for freeing Keras in the first place, the chances that Katashi would hold a grudge were even higher than Orden knew.
“So what do I need to do for now?”
“Focus on learning how to use your attunement. First, because it will improve your ability to defend yourself. Second, because there’s a good chance I will need to take you with me into the tower to investigate this later in the year. I will try to give you as much time as possible to prepare, and I will also ask some of my contacts to keep an eye on you in case there are any actual threats in the meantime.”
I sighed in relief. “Thank you, I don’t think I’d be capable of repelling an actual assassin on my own yet.”
“I never expected you to be, but your preparations did show promise. Continue to improve on them. I may not be able to look out for you forever, especially since I will most likely need to go into the tower on my own for a while to investigate this.”
I considered that. “Do you need me to help with your investigation right now? I mean, I o
bviously shouldn’t go in the tower yet, but what about other research?”
She shook her head. “No, not yet. Focus on improving your skills. You should make certain to get your attunement to Carnelian status before you visit the tower again. You’ll be much more likely to survive that way.”
Yeah, fair enough, surviving is one of my favorite things to do.
From the way Orden was starting to glance back toward the paperwork on her desk, I got the message that she was done with the conversation. I took a step back toward the door. “Okay, that makes sense. Do you have any idea when you might need me in there?”
Orden pursed her lips. “I can’t say. You should prepare as quickly as possible. Even the first floor will be much more dangerous than what you faced in the Judgment. I would advise trying to reach Carnelian status within three months. Sooner would be better.”
Three months to hit Carnelian. One more thing to work on.
“I’ll do my best to improve my enchanting as quickly as possible.”
She scratched her nose before replying. “Good. You should also study the tower itself as well. Even if I do not end up bringing you into the tower to investigate this situation, students are generally sent back into the tower — accompanied by a teacher — for a test at the end of the year. Thus, you should focus heavily on preparing for another visit to the tower either way.”
“Got it.”
Orden gave me a curt nod. “Excellent. I hope that the Voice can clarify this situation in general, especially whether Katashi wants you dead. I will try to determine that as quickly as possible.”
I nodded in return. “And if Katashi does want me dead, I should be preparing to fight him when I go back to the tower?”
“Oh, Goddess, no, child. If Katashi decides to attack us directly, you should be prepared to die.”
***
We concluded our talk quickly after that, and she sent me on my way with one last instruction.
“Don’t discuss what happened in the tower with anyone who isn’t already aware of it. We need more information before we raise any alarms.”
I wasn’t pleased by that, but I understood her reasoning. “What about my sister?”
“You may consult with Jin if you need assistance, since he’s already gotten himself involved, but we can’t risk dragging anyone else into this situation. Understood?”
“Understood.”
I considered telling Sera immediately in spite of Orden’s orders. There was roughly a zero percent chance she wasn’t going to be dragged into the situation at some point. It was just a matter of when.
I should probably do a bit more research before I talk to her, though. At this point we don’t know enough to formulate a plan of action.
I considered my options while I went to verify a few things.
Yes, the academy guard had been informed that I was going to be under a mock “attack” the night before. No, they hadn’t expected a firearm to be discharged. Fortunately, the bullet hadn’t hit anyone.
Curtis, the dorm chief, had the same story. Apparently they hadn’t heard me screaming for help due to a rune Orden had marked in chalk on the wall outside my room. That was good. Everyone had heard the bullet, though. He’d made it outside to reassure the other students that it was just a drill shortly after Jin and I had fled the scene.
He also mentioned that this sort of thing happened occasionally. He’d been a target of a similar “attack” himself the first year. Apparently, it was something of a tradition.
Wonderful.
I wasn’t amused. In fact, I was rather bemused. But... at least her story seemed to check out. I even found an unfamiliar rune marked on the outside of my door, presumably the one for dampening noise. I wrote it down so I could look it up later.
I left a note for Jin telling him that I was safe, and then headed to my next class. I’d tell Sera that everything was okay at dinner, as planned. Hopefully I’d have a better idea of what I was actually willing to tell her by then.
I quickly realized that the answer was “not much”. Not because I distrusted her, but because of the public setting. If Orden was paranoid enough about the information to teleport me to... goddess, I didn’t even know where or what that place was. In any case, it implied a level of discretion was ideal.
I needed security. I’d fill Sera and Jin in on the very basics, like that I probably wasn’t going to be assassinated immediately, and then work on learning the runes for properly warding a room to prevent Divination and other forms of observation.
Assuming I could even cast them.
***
The rest of the week had markedly fewer attempts on my life. It took a few days to get my ceiling fixed, which was awkward for a time. Fortunately, Jin seemed amused by the situation.
I told Patrick, Jin, and Sera that Orden’s assault on my room had been a “surprise test”.
Patrick took this at face value. Jin tilted his head, pressing his lips together against whatever skeptical remark he had lined up. It didn’t stop his eyes from rolling.
Sera wasn’t that polite.
“That’s a bunch of resh, Corin.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “I... might have done a few things to warrant the surprise test. But don’t stress over it. I’m pretty sure I passed.”
“Right.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Feel free to let the rest of us know when you feel like trusting us.”
I winced. Sera was right, of course. I needed to show a little trust for my friends if I wanted them to trust me in return.
I wanted to tell them all right then, but I’d made a plan and I needed to stick with it. The truth was still buried somewhere and I’d need to do more digging to find it.
***
Since I wasn’t ready to tell Patrick or Sera everything about what had happened, I waited until later in the day when I had a chance to talk to Jin alone.
I knocked on the door to his room.
He opened it a few moments later, wearing a quizzical expression. “Ah, Corin.”
I gave him my best conspiratorial grin. “Want to come with me to do some research on this ‘Keras’ guy?”
Jin gave me a considering look, then glanced away. “I suppose it might be more interesting than studying,” he told the wall.
We made our way to the library first. It seemed like a logical choice at the time, but the librarian was quick to correct us. “Keras Selyrian, you say? No, I don’t think we have any newspaper with articles on him. You can check — that trouble in Dalenos was about three months ago.”
Jin looked at her, head tilted. “What do you mean, trouble?”
“Oh, that isn’t what you’re here about? He’s a heretic. Gathered a big crowd and started preaching about how the visages have been lying to everyone. The local guard tried to arrest him, but he escaped.”
Well, that’s disconcerting. I stepped a little closer to the librarian’s desk. “Where could we find out more about him?”
“Well, the papers are on the second floor near the back,” she gestured toward the stairway, “but your best bet would be the Divinatory. They might have a memory crystal from someone who witnessed the whole thing.”
I blinked. Was that possible? I’d heard of memory crystals, but not much about them. “That sounds promising. We’ll check the papers first, then head to the Divinatory.”
We did just that.
It took a couple hours to sift through all the newspapers in the appropriate range of dates the librarian gave us — everything from about three to five months back — but we didn’t find anything on Keras. That wasn’t particularly surprising, though, given that the newspapers tended to focus on local events, political gossip, and occasional advertisements.
The most disturbing thing about glancing through the newspapers was the sheer number of articles talking about hostile actions along our border with Edria. Troop movements, weapons tests... even rumors of Edrian agents found across the border, probing for weaknesses.
>
Could a war with Edria be what Keras was talking about in Dalenos? If so, is he trying to cause a war, prevent one, or something else entirely?
I needed to know more.
We headed to the Divinatory next.
I went straight to the front desk. “Excuse me, we’re looking for information on someone named Keras Selyrian. Would you happen to have any memory crystals or other information related to him?”
The second-year student behind the counter scratched his chin. “Doesn’t sound familiar, but I’ll go check the archives. Wait here, please.”
He returned a few minutes later. “Uh, would you mind telling me why you’re looking into this?”
Uh oh.
“Research assignment,” Jin replied while I was still thinking. It was a good answer.
The student glanced at Jin, frowned, and then looked back to me. “I’m afraid all information on Keras Selyrian is currently in the restricted archives. Do you have an authorization slip from your professor?”
I shook my head. “No, it must have slipped her mind. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let us take a quick look?”
“Definitely not. I’m not sure I could get you anything even if you had an authorization slip; it’s in a classified section of the archives beyond my security level. If your teacher wants you to see this, she’d be best off coming here herself and talking to the Researcher.”
I pondered my reply for a moment. “All right, we’ll talk to our teacher. Thanks.”
“Sure, sorry I couldn’t help.”
We headed back to my dorm room to discuss things. Jin leaned back against the wall, wearing a thoughtful expression. “Should we ask Orden to go pick this up for us?”
“I think if she was willing to do that, she probably would have already. I have a feeling this is probably another test.”
Jin nodded, seeming to reach a conclusion. “How important is it to you that we succeed at this?”
“Uh, pretty important? Not only could it provide critical information to help clarify what I’ve already seen, it could be the type of thing that might help keep me alive. I’d call that a pretty high priority.”
