The Scion of Abacus, Part 2

by Brondt Kamffer

  I was stunned, not only by what I was hearing but also by the simple honesty of Deryn Lhopri’s speech. She was right. This was distasteful, and I could not imagine but that anyone else would feel as I felt. But I was also certain that she was correct about our human nature, our subconscious desires to scupper our attempts to change because of our innate fears of change. My own experiences at the University were enough to convince me of the truth in her words.

  Even now, I am frightened to the point of immobility, knowing that as I write these confessions of my deeds, I am preparing to change the world irrevocably. Can I live with the consequences of my actions? Can I die with them?

  Slowly, I reached out a hand to the book Deryn Lhopri had set before me. As I laid my fingers on its cover, the professor’s own hand clapped down over mine, gripping it firmly and holding it in place.

  “You cannot open this book, Toven Aimis, without first agreeing to my terms. You must swear to never reveal its contents, nor the contents of our discussions. You are a mage, so it is your right to know these things, but that right does not preclude all responsibility. Someday you will more fully understand this. For now, I need your word that you will never speak of these things outside of this office, not until I release you of that oath. Will you swear?”

  I thought about it for a moment, wondering how she could possibly know my heart, even if I took her oath. The level of trust she was placing in me was extraordinary, especially in the light of what she had just told me moments before and what I had been through in the previous few days. As I pondered this, preparing my answer, an answer even I did not yet know, I sensed the other presence in the room shift.

  It had remained so still for so long that I had forgotten about it, allowing it to blend into the surroundings of the room. But I felt it now, felt it move, reach towards my mind. A moment later, Deryn Lhopri said, “Yes or no, Toven? I will know whether you are lying or telling the truth when you swear.”

  In that instant, with whatever it was pressing against my mind, I realized that Professor Lhopri was serious. This presence, one I could still not entirely discern, was attempting to do to me what I had done to Hero the previous afternoon: possess my mind. My instant reaction was to fling up defenses, call upon my own strength to prevent the invasion.

  But it was useless.

  I had no power over the elements of my own flesh, least of all the fire of my mind, and I did not know otherwise how to fight this invasion. I did not know, either, how much of my mind this other presence could sense, but I knew that if I was anything less than sincere in my oath to Deryn Lhopri, it would know.

  It may even be able to kill me if I lied.

  Faced with that potentiality, I agreed to Professor Lhopri’s terms. “I swear I will not utter a word of this to another soul, not even to Hero.” I meant every word of it with a sincerity I’d rarely put behind anything I’d ever said.

  Instantly, I felt the presence in my mind withdraw. I shuddered, flinging out my own senses after it, but the presence was gone. It had left the room altogether, fleeing away down the hall and from the University.

  Deryn Lhopri was smiling at me, kindly but knowingly. “Welcome, Toven, to the Hymage’s inner circle. Look that you keep your oath, and you will become great among men. Tomorrow, we will begin with more formalized training, teaching you to control that ether of yours.”

  I risked one more question, wanting to know in that moment just how she planned to accomplish that task, seeking to understand something that had troubled me all day. “Are you a mage yourself?”

  Professor Lhopri chuckled lightly. “No, my boy, I am not. But I am now the sworn protector of two, the only two in existence. In time, you shall meet the other. For now, your concern should be for yourself. Keep your oath of silence and you will live to thank me one day for all I am sacrificing on your behalf.”

  I refrained from asking a question in response to that, and the professor reached out a hand in the ensuing silence to take up the book The World Belongs to the Strong from beneath my fingers. She placed the book back on the shelf behind her, and my eyes again strayed to The Way of Things. This is noteworthy, for it is the last time I saw that book for several years. It had vanished from Deryn Lhopri’s office by the time I returned for my lesson the following day.

  “Tomorrow will be soon enough to ask new questions,” she said by way of dismissal. “Now, go and enjoy the rest of your day. Spend time with your girlfriend. Write in your journal. And meet me again in the morning.”

  I left her office turning over the fact she’d referred to Hero as my “girlfriend.” That transition in our relationship had happened on the previous afternoon at a moment that I knew Deryn Lhopri had been far from us and in the mage’s library. My mind was reeling as it tried to make sense of the depth of her knowledge, and I resolved to be more careful and aware of my surroundings from then on, if not to protect myself—which seemed increasingly impossible—at least to protect my dearest friend from a threat I did not yet comprehend.

  -XI-

  “So, how did it go?” Hero asked me that afternoon.

  We sat once again beneath the statues at the front of the University. Hero leaned against me, resting her head on my shoulder. The scent of her hair assaulted my nostrils with a power even greater than that I’d sensed previously, as my ether had continued its awakening. It was again as though I breathed her in as very air. It was intoxicating, far more so than the false hyma I continued to drink out of fear that I would go mad if I gave it up. I wondered briefly whether Hero’s scent couldn’t become equally addictive over time.

  “What are you thinking?” Hero asked after I had failed to answer her first question.

  I smiled. “I was thinking that my ether is addicted to you, or could become so, and that I might have withdrawals as well if I am forced to be apart from you for any length of time.”

  She made a soft cooing sound in response to that, and I felt my cheeks grow warm. This relationship was going to take some getting used to, I thought to myself, though it was the natural extension of our friendship hitherto. Hero sighed softly. “And your meeting with Deryn Lhopri? How did it go?” she tried again.

  “A bit odd,” I replied after a moment’s thought. “I swore an oath not to tell anyone—even you—about some of what I am learning, but I guess I can talk about some of today’s happenings, as they seem harmless enough and not covered by the oath.”

  “An oath?” Hero said, pulling away from me. “What exactly is going on, Toven? You are a mage, right? We’ve figured that out. What more is there that needs to be kept secret? What is so dangerous that you can’t talk about it? Don’t tell me you trust Professor Lhopri more than you do me, as I know that’s not true based on all you’ve said about her so far.”

  I sighed. I could sense that her mind was troubled, that she feared we would be pulled apart even as we had just begun to truly grow together. “It’s not anything I can talk about, Hero. I would if I could, believe me, but this is a matter of life and death. I think the professor—or someone, something else—may try to kill me if I talk.”

  “What do you mean ‘something’?” The suspicion flowed from her voice like icy waters off a glacier.

  I began to understand another of Professor Lhopri’s lessons about being who and what I was. I was always going to be alone. If she was right, there were only two mages in the world, but I would not get to meet the other until some future point. To be what I was meant to be alone. To be selected to join some secret inner circle of the Dominion’s hierarchy—the chief liars, as I thought of them—meant to be even further isolated from the world. I thought that there was a certain cruelty behind what Deryn Lhopri had just done to me. She knew that Hero and I had taken the next step in our friendship, and she had chosen that moment in time to further separate me from her. I began to understand just how difficult my attempts to live with Hero would be.

  “I suppose I can tell you that much,” I said at last. Hero made a face but le
t me continue. “When I entered Deryn Lhopri’s office, I sensed that there were two people within, though I could only see one of them with my eyes. As the meeting wore on, the second person sort of disappeared for a while, reappearing in the moment that I was made to swear my silence. It was then I felt like my mind was being invaded. I think it was the same thing I did to you yesterday by accident, except this time it was no accident. Whatever it was assaulting my mind knew exactly what it was doing. And I say ‘whatever it was’ because it was clear in the end that the thing wasn’t human. It passed from the room as soon as I swore secrecy, moving through the door without opening it.”

  Hero’s eyes had grown wide with surprise as I spoke. “What do you think it was?”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t a clue, but I know that it was able to form thoughts like a man. I’m also pretty sure it wasn’t controlled by Professor Lhopri, though I don’t doubt that she knew the thing was in the room with us. She had to know, for she told me she would know whether or not I was lying to her.”

  “Who is she, Toven?”

  Again, I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I don’t think she is a mage. She told me that there was another mage—”

  I clapped my hand over my mouth suddenly, realizing I’d let something slip that I shouldn’t have, that I felt certain was covered by my oath of silence. I cursed my lack of care and instantly threw out my senses in an attempt to determine whether any threat was near to make good on Deryn Lhopri’s suggestion I would be silenced permanently if I violated my contract.

  I could neither sense anything with my ether nor with my mundane senses, and after a few tense moments, I began to settle down. Hero was watching me closely, confusion in her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to say that, were you?” she asked slowly.

  “No. I was careless, but you see how difficult this is for me.”

  “I do,” she replied. “I don’t like it, Toven. It makes me scared, for you and for me. Perhaps it will be better if we don’t talk about Deryn Lhopri at all.”

  I nodded. “I think that would be wise.”

  We fell silent for a time, Hero settling back down beside me, resting her head on my shoulder once again. I breathed in the scent of her hair, allowing it to take me away from my fears into an island of time that seemed to have no end, a place where no trouble could assail me. Hero’s breathing became shallow, as though she had slipped into a doze between the comfort of my body and the warm glow of the autumn sun.

  “Toven,” she said softly, stirring a little from her rest, “I want to help you.”

  I furrowed my brow but said nothing, waiting for her to clarify what she meant.

  “I don’t know what is going to happen in the future. In a few months, we start our fieldwork, and it may be that you and I will find less time to be together.”

  “Hero, let’s not talk about it.”

  “No, Toven, we need to. Things are changing rapidly. Who knows where we’ll be in a year’s time. It seems like you may be prevented the chance for fieldwork, if my guess about Professor Lhopri’s plans is correct, so I want to do my part to help prepare you for whatever is coming.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, marveling again at Hero’s intellect that seemed able to puzzle out things that lay far beyond my talents. “What do you think Deryn Lhopri has planned for me?”

  Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? If there are two mages alive, then you must be related, as the gift only passes on by blood.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly.

  “And, if everything we know about mages is true, then you have the potential to be far more powerful than any Hymanni ever was.”

  “All right,” I said again, beginning to follow her logic, but not liking where it was leading us.

  “If that is the case, then doesn’t it make sense for the most powerful among us to become the most powerful politically?”

  “The Hymage?” I asked, the word breathed between my lips like a hiss. Again, I flung my ether far and wide to sense whether or not anyone was nearby to overhear this whispered conversation, one I knew to be more dangerous than any words Deryn Lhopri had exchanged with me thus far.

  “Think about his title. It is a blend of hyma and mage. Hymage Quillan Bakkis could be related to you, and Deryn Lhopri the person to train you to take his place.”

  My mind retreated instantly from what Hero had said. “No,” I said forcefully. “That’s not true. It can’t be.”

  “Why not?” Hero asked. She could obviously sense my distress, but Hero was never one to allow me to flee from the truth as she saw it.

  “No, Hero. There has to be another explanation. Besides, you are making judgments based on a single piece of information I accidentally let slip. You don’t know what else Deryn Lhopri has told me, about myself, the Dominion, or the Hymage.”

  She sighed. “There is something going on, though. I know it. Mages shouldn’t even exist anymore, yet in a couple of years, you’ve proven to me that this is just a lie of the Dominion. I don’t say that lightly, either. I believe in the Dominion, Toven. I believe in the Hymage. He is our father, after all. But I also believe in you, that you are something extraordinary. Deryn Lhopri knows this, and she will not let you go far without her oversight.”

  My mind was still reeling from the conclusion Hero had so quickly drawn on the basis of one scrap of information. “No, Hero,” I said again. “This isn’t right. Hymage Quillan only took his seat thirty years ago, but Deryn Lhopri said the last mage was born three hundred years ago. He can’t be a mage.” I decided that since I’d already let slip that there was another mage, I might as well let slip a further piece of information in order to quash Hero’s enthusiasm for conspiracy theories at once.

  Things did not go as planned.

  “Three hundred years ago, and yet Professor Lhopri says you’ll meet him someday? How is that possible?”

  “Mages live longer, I guess.” It was true. I hadn’t even considered how such a thing were possible, struck as I had been by the sheer possibility that I was not, in fact, entirely alone in the world. Deryn Lhopri had not told me as much about the lives of mages, neither had Abacus’ book mentioned any such thing. None of the volumes in his library that I’d read spoke of the longevity of mages either, but then I had not read all there was to read on the subject.

  “If that is true, Toven, that mages live longer, what’s to stop the same mage serving as Hymage for all three hundred years, only changing his name every generation to give the appearance of passing?”

  “For someone who claims to be absolutely loyal to the Hymage and the Dominion, you are asking a lot of dangerous questions,” I said, hoping that might slow her down enough to give her pause. I had a bad feeling I’d be hearing more about this conversation the next day from Deryn Lhopri, despite the fact that I could sense nothing to indicate anyone—or anything—was overhearing our discussion.

  “I understand the need for secrecy. But if this is true, and I think it is, then of course the Dominion wants to keep it secret, and I do not blame them. There are those who could use this to cause all manner of trouble. The Eikos are always restless, and they cannot be allowed to unify behind some claim of conspiracy. Some things need to be guarded.”

  I eyed her for a moment, wondering at what she had said, sensing some inherent contradiction in the words but uncertain of what it was. Eventually, I sighed. “Can we stop talking about this now? My head hurts.”

  She smiled. “Sure. But I still want to help you. I want to help you develop your abilities. Deryn Lhopri has the task to do so, and while I’m not entirely sure of her motives, I do know that she is only going to teach you what she feels you need to know and not necessarily all that you are able to know.”

  “You are an enigma,” I said. “You trust the Dominion, yet you don’t, yet you do.”

  She giggled. “What can I say? I believe in the system that ensures I am who I am, but I guess I just love you more.”

>   I flushed, and Hero quickly kissed my cheek before leaping to her feet and holding her hands out to me. “Come on. It is almost time for dinner.”

  For the second time in as many days, I was struck by the utter incomprehensibility of women, and I stumbled after Hero like a man in a drunken haze, once again unable to make sense of anything.

  * * *

  “We have a problem, Toven,” said Deryn Lhopri the following day as I sat in her office. She did not look pleased, as I had suspected, and I knew at once she’d somehow managed to figure out what Hero and I had spoken of the day before.

  I knew, also, that once again there was a third party in this room, the same odd being whose air element I could sense, along with a faint hint of fire, but nothing of stone or water. But I barely paid this presence any attention once Professor Lhopri began speaking, for she was livid and would not allow my mind to wander even an instant from her anger.

  “This is quite unsatisfactory, Toven. You swore to me that you would not reveal what we discussed, and yet you were barely without these walls when you were baring all to Hero. The Hymage himself is very displeased, and despite your talents, you shall not escape without punishment. The question is how best to punish you, how best to impress upon you how serious this really is.”