The Rise of Ren Crown

by Anne Zoelle

  Haynes leaned forward in the doorway. “I'd be happy to up that to a Level I Do You.”

  I pushed the button on Justice Toad and the guy turned into a toad.

  The guy behind him narrowed his eyes at his friend, then at me. He took an aggressive step toward me. “No one likes it when uppity mages get—”

  He turned into a salamander. A slender salamander. Easily misplaced.

  “Anyone else?” I asked the others behind him.

  The rest held their arms at fifteen degree angles and pointed their hands down to the ground, fingers spread, in the surrendering gesture mages used. Seeing as people frequently blasted magic from their palms, the First Layer “hands up” surrender was still a gesture I was trying to break. Hands up gestures earned magic bolts to the face.

  Not that I was going to be bolting anyone with magic anytime today. Slipping in with greased palms, or not, Excelsine did have standards, and I was easy pickings at the moment, for even the lowest of the low here, if they possessed any degree of cleverness.

  But I didn't need my own magic with a Justice Tablet in hand. I just needed justice on my side.

  And maybe some sort of Justice Holster on my belt.

  The crowd of guys stood, tense, in surrender.

  I tapped my finger against Justice Toad and waited for the amphibious spells to wear off.

  The toad morphed upward and an idiot human stood in place once more. He wiped at his mouth with both hands. The salamander followed suit a few seconds later.

  “You—”

  One of the guys in the back grabbed salamander guy and wrestled him into the room. Bolton stepped hastily into the hallway and the door slammed behind him.

  “You didn't need to come out here,” I said, flipping through punishments. I had far better places to be. Like at the new grief call that was blinking in Justice Toad's corner—it was becoming increasingly easy to identify the grief calls, and I'd bet anything they would be automated by the next day. “I could assign your punishment just as easily with you insi—”

  “Would you go on a date with me?”

  I squinted up at him. “What?”

  He shrugged, and ran an uneasy hand through his hair. “I saw you with Leandred, and my father said that having an Ori—”

  “Yeah. No. Clean the common area and let's call it a day.” Justice Toad beeped in agreement.

  “But—”

  “I can find something else, sure.” I shrugged. “Like cleaning the toi—”

  “I'll clean the common area, by my magic, I so do vow.”

  The magic registered.

  “Great.” I tucked Justice Toad under my arm and turned.

  “Wait, I—”

  “Nope.”

  The next ten calls contained six that hit the “grief punishment” response, and four that had to have been on purpose, like Bolton Haynes's call—either doing something so that I'd show up and they could make some skeazy political alliance, or verbally—and once, physically—assault me for imagined crimes. The latter had gone very poorly for the girl doing the assaulting. Justice tablets really didn't like such things.

  Justice Toad croaked happily, working out his own kinks.

  Word had gotten out about my stint on the Justice Squad, and today it wasn't only the delinquents who were trying to get me to their door.

  Anyone who truly wanted to talk—and there were a few social scientific types who had approached me in the halls in between calls to talk about current events or about the fascinating subject of Origin Magic or Origin Domes—didn't get sketchy groups together to stage an assault.

  I felt no guilt turning the other kinds into amphibians of all varieties.

  Like the ones who were plotting in a common area of Dorm Nineteen. Just my luck to be tucked around the corner filling out a report from a call on the eighth floor—a grief call.

  I had sent out a note on the Justice Squad loop to see if anyone was interested in having the grief counselors accompany us on the calls that pinged with the parameters of a grief response.

  More than a few members had sent back enthusiastic replies. It made me optimistic.

  “Leandred teaches the best spells to his conquests, and I can't even imagine what her magic could power with one.”

  I blinked and peeked around the corner. A group of four boys were leisurely spread out in a circle of chairs.

  “Power that can kill you,” another said dubiously.

  “Kill me in the best way. I'm totally approaching her after he drops her. I stole one of those roses she's been giving people from a kid down in Dorm Five. Trust me. It'll be worth it.”

  Lovely. I remembered the call to Dorm Five. I'd make a little side visit there after this.

  I wondered what these four would do if I walked around the corner and flung my tablet at them. Justice Toad croaked optimistically, hoping.

  “Leandred is...vicious. I wouldn't—”

  “He cares nothing about his conquests,” the first one said dismissively. “That's why you wait.”

  “They were fighting together Tuesday,” the second boy said, more insistently.

  “Everyone was fighting together Tuesday.”

  “But he was right there, in that dome.”

  “Yeah, on the ground. With a bunch of other bodies. Wrong place, wrong time.”

  “I don't think—”

  “What are you guys talking about?” asked a new voice.

  “The Crown girl. And approaching her after Leandred is done.”

  I wanted to say, I can hear you, you shivits, but immediately canceled the thought of any direct engagement. Not unless I was going to port them somewhere. Like the Second Layer version of the Arctic. Or Hell.

  Olivia would have some ideas.

  I gritted my teeth and kept filling out the report, jabbing my fingers on the tablet's screen magic.

  “Are you insane? Two words for you—Alexander Dare. No way.”

  “There's no way she's Dare's. He doesn't date. And you saw Leandred in the cafeteria.”

  I really was going to kill him.

  “There's something weird there, I'm telling you—”

  “And I'm telling you that this is an opportunity. One that someone else will take, if we don't.”

  “She may not be dating Alexander Dare, but he is sure as hell protective of her. Have you seen the memories of them together?”

  “That just means an alliance with the Dares, as a bonus,” he said assuredly. “And I will be the utmost gentleman.”

  “No. That mother of his... You aren't thinking this through. Maximilian Dare. War with a quarter of the Second Layer. They only go for one, and they don't back away once they get their sights set.”

  “You are reading way too much into this. There are no 'sights set.' He's friends with Straught, yeah? Protective of her too, but they are just friends. This is the same.”

  “But—”

  I pushed away from the wall not wanting to listen any further to the idiots who had far too much time on their hands to create rumors out of nothing. Sights set? Ha.

  But, truly, there went any future notions of dating. Because mages like those sure as magic didn't want to date me. They were looking at opportunity not the person. I could mourn the loss of the “dating life I'd never had” once I got Olivia back.

  I could still give Constantine hell, though.

  I made my stop at Dorm Five. Poor sixteen-year-old kid had been sitting in the battle field stands and had seen too many horrors after the dome had collapsed.

  As I gave him a new flower, his expression turned rapt with awe. More alarming than the sleazy calls were the ones from people who stared at me like this, saying nothing. I backed away with a quick, “Feel better!”

  In some ways, the awed gazes were the worst. At least I knew what the harmful or opportunistic people wanted. The expectations forming in the gazes of the others unsettled me deeply. As if they expected that now that I was identified, I'd fix the world.

  Dor
m One held my last call—another frog. I signed out and tucked Justice Toad under my arm. It was a short trek back to my floor.

  Constantine didn't answer the door. Probably a good thing for him, as I had all sorts of things to say to him about what his little performance in the cafeteria had gotten me.

  I took the key he had given me out of my pocket. Staring at it, I figured, eh, worst thing that could happen was me ending up flattened in the hallway.

  The key went cleanly into the lock and the door opened. A feeling of home hit me. Still a little weirded out by that, I called out, “Hello?”

  Axer's room was locked up tight. The others were wide open. Constantine wasn't home.

  My bag was sitting neatly next to the front door, as if Constantine had known I would drop by just like this. I deliberated for a second, then rifled through and removed all the things I needed for sleeping, but nothing more. I wrote a note on top that said, “Thanks! Still going to murder you, though,” and tucked my duffel bag just inside his workroom door. If he brought someone home with him tonight, they wouldn't be going in there.

  If Axer was to be believed, I was the only one who ever did. Sometimes Will tagged along, but never without me.

  If Constantine wanted to Sixteen Candles my underwear, it was better than Bellacia doing it.

  I couldn't wait for him, though. I had to get my time in at Bellacia's. I'd see him in the morning.

  Four more hours would seal it up with Bellacia for the day. I'd be completely out of luck on the roommate penalty front, if Axer hadn't done what he'd done that morning.

  With help from Will and Neph, I'd figured out what the tangerine device Axer had given Bellacia was. It tricked the room's magic for four hours by actively giving the room a reflection of my magic. It had to have the buy-in of the other person involved, however. Axer had given Bellacia some of my magic, in exchange for her buy-in.

  I was pretty sure I couldn't trick her into a permanent or semi-permanent solution. In fact, I was pretty sure that had been a singular event. And one that I might not have come out on top of. I shuddered at the thought of her freely investigating my magic. I had needed that rest, though.

  But I needed another three hours for today and another twelve tomorrow at Bellacia's. I was going to catch up on all my missed sleep during those hours, or die trying.

  I locked their room back up, and headed down the dreaded five doors with a much smaller tote.

  In the wake of safely unlocking Constantine and Axer's room and becoming engrossed in my own thoughts, I made a mistake. I touched Bellacia's door without running a diagnostic.

  A spell immediately shocked me, sending pain down my arm. I closed my eyes and refrained from thumping my forehead against the wood. I'd made that mistake once earlier, and received a very unpleasant daymare that some anonymous soul had thoughtfully left for me.

  I yanked open the door, battling two other spells, and locked the door behind me.

  I furiously located my “roommate.”

  Bellacia was watching a video in her workroom, though they didn't call them videos here—my translator simply made the word into the best description for me. There was far more magic involved in creating magical videos—and they allowed the viewer to examine the scene in greater detail than was possible with video in the First Layer, capturing everything in multiple dimensions at a set distance. But special recorders had to be used to ensure that the record was accurate, and not due to a magical memory, which was easy to fake.

  “Back from another one of your little justice jaunts? How many hours do you have to serve again?” she asked idly, flipping to another view.

  “Nope,” I said, trying to shake off the last spell hooked onto my fingers. Looking at Bellacia and at the spells, I could see they weren't hers. She wouldn't be so obvious. It didn't lessen my ire.

  I had signed out from Justice Toad too early. Next time, I was keeping him on until I reached the interior of the room. The Justice Magic would give the thoughtful mages who kept leaving spells a really nice return message.

  Bellacia gave a husky laugh. “Oh, darling, these are the easy questions. The ones with already gathered answers. It will only be a matter of time before all of your secrets are mine. Best to give up early, yes?”

  “Nope.” I successfully extinguished the spell with perhaps a bit too much fire. My base magic was looking up, finally, thirty some hours after Kaine had caused me to burn the ends completely.

  “Are you sure?” Bellacia's voice warmed the scarab I had secured around my neck. I was keeping the small beetle there forever.

  My gaze strayed to the video she was scrolling—pulled there as I'm sure she was hoping it would.

  It was of Kaine. Leveling a town in the Third Layer. A little timestamp marked it as earlier today.

  I swallowed bile as I watched the destruction.

  Sure, I had seen Axer destroy dozens of opponents at the same time. Freespar was anything goes combat, and the Midlands were man versus supernatural nature. I had observed one of the best fighters of our age in action up close. But Axer killed cleanly and quickly. And he almost always resurrected and released the monster of the day into its proper habitat. He didn't...savor the kill. Didn't go in for maximum pain and damage. The shadows that swirled around Kaine were ever-hungry and vicious and motivated by pain. Lashing out, whipping skin, and tearing flesh. Making fear and death last.

  Raphael also wasn't a clean killer. Though the madness in his killing was different.

  I got the impression both from Raphael and from Greyskull, that Raphael had been different, once upon a time. I got the impression that Kaine had always been this way.

  “Something wrong, Ren?”

  “You really need to watch happier things,” I told her, going for blithe as I tried to erase the images from memory. “Like Dragon Talons—Rip or Tear? or Living in an Iron Maiden for Fun and Profit. Quality, light entertainment.”

  Bellacia smiled. “You don't like the real thing?”

  I dropped the act. “It's horrible. I don't know how you can stand it.”

  “Yes.” She leaned forward. “It is terrible the things people will do. The people who are freed from their cages.”

  “Ah. That your angle? Kaine is too dangerous to be allowed out? Well, sister, you aren't going to get an argument from me. However, it's because he's evil, not because he has a little something extra in the backseat.”

  Her brows creased, then smoothed. “Ah. Such unusual expressions your First Layer tribe has.”

  “My tribe knoweth the best.”

  “But part of what makes Archelon Kaine what he is, is his own birthright. A Shadow Mage. He can't help his nature.”

  “What about Sirens? Lure anyone to their death lately, Bella?”

  For a moment, I thought she would pull out all the stops, rip off my scarab, and hammer me with auditory magic. But she just smiled.

  It was a terrifying smile. It said that she thought she had all the time in the world.

  I flipped her off and walked into the bedroom, tossing Justice Toad on my borrowed comforter.

  My Picasso Guernica coverlet had been left behind in my real room. It had been easy to leave behind—it grew increasingly uncomfortable to sleep beneath with each ruined and devastated town attack that occurred.

  I closed my eyes. Sleep. I could do this.

  By the time I was done in the bathroom, Bellacia was getting comfortable in her own bed.

  “You surprised us earlier, slipping your trackers. You are making us rely on the old ways. But the old ways have their uses too. Watching you specifically is fascinating. I've always loved visiting the Fourth Layer zoos the best. They keep magical beings in them sometimes. The ones who've been particularly...bad.”

  I didn't respond.

  “I wonder what they would do for your exhibit,” she mused. “It would probably be better there than with the Department. They'd probably give you an art studio so you could create works for visitors to see. A sort of muse
um prison. Cami has a sharp eye for talent and ability, and she told me she asked you once about painting her.”

  It wasn't a question, so I didn't respond to that statement either.

  Bellacia continued, not needing a response. “I've seen many of Kinsky's portraits. Women make wonderful standard bearers. You should paint Cami. I'd love to see it.”

  “Nope.”

  She laughed again. I didn't know how she did it. I found her act exhausting.

  I looked out the window. I could see the firesnake grove from here, one circle up. Distant, but still beautiful, their opalescent scales sparking vibrantly under the rays of the sun. The crimson leaves and vivid colors of the grove glowed.

  It was a beautiful view. I hated it.

  I leaned my head against the glass, watching the snakes blink in and out of their camouflage as they rebuilt their home, which had been affected in the attack, like most levels above the Magiaduct. Someone from our team had set up enticement traps around the grove, to lure anything not connected to Administration Magic there.

  “Your little friends aren't helping you any, you know,” Bellacia said offhandedly. “They protect you from the knowledge that you are a pariah. That you are dangerous.”

  I pressed my lips together. “I got that picture fairly well on my own, actually. Pardon me for not wanting to dwell on the ostracism that I will never shed. Pardon me for not wanting to be a bitter, dangerous leper on society. Bitterness and brooding seem to lead to such positive life choices.”

  I thought she would persist with the interrogation, but she flipped off her screens and reclined on her bed.

  “Goodnight, Ren. Don't kill us all in the morning.”

  “Goodnight, Bella. Don't die in your own delusions.”

  I closed my eyes, and took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing mind and heart. It was fine. Everything was going to be fine.

  Olivia would be rescued. Bellacia would be a bad, buried memory. Campus would go back to rights. And I'd make good, long term, careful plans about what to do going forward. Solid threat assessments. We'd all be fine.

  I should have known Raphael wouldn't wait for fine.