CALEN

  He was pretty sure he was starting to get the body language down.

  Or at least, Mirri's body language. Viran's tail didn't look like it would whip back and forth nearly as easily if he got angry enough to glare death at Calen, and he didn't have any blazing orange marks on the side of his jaw as a secondary giveaway either.

  "Calen!" Em finally caught up to the idea, jostling him about it.

  "What?" Calen feigned innocence. "I'm just pointing things out. They already know, so they're the only ones who could take advantage."

  Emma knew him a little too well to buy it, but all this would give Mirri time to boil over. He didn't even need an adverse reaction. Just a little more hesitation, and Em was going to start to wonder at the lack of answer from their 'hosts'.

  "You didn't have to be—"

  "No, he's right," Mirri finally spoke, interrupting Emma, and utterly shattering Calen's expectations. "You're both incredibly vulnerable to being taken as hostages, but she's the actually valuable one, assuming she's not treated as a threat."

  The confirmation always stung a bit, but Calen had other priorities this time.

  "Threat?" Emma's voice blended with Viran's bassy tones, so at least Calen wasn't the only one who was confused about that part.

  Saying it once might have been hyperbole. Twice might mean she had something specific in mind.

  The priestess flared her nostrils.

  "Minimizing the deaths from conflict keeps silver out of the wilds. Cauterizing specific tendons as they're sliced can be used to safely ransom a fighter without dismembering them to destroy their channels, or worrying they'll simply return to the field after a week of rest," Mirri's tone was clipped as she revealed the brutally pragmatic practice to them. "*If* your sister is correct about her capabilities, she breaks that option over her knee by existing, which endangers anyone reliant on that assumption for safety, including the hostages Saah's men took yesterday."

  Mirri sounded skeptical about Emma's abilities, but Calen had burned himself enough today, and the fire sorceress seemed like she would be more than willing to 'help' them prove it.

  The information was useful, but it wasn't the actual point he was trying to make.

  "So what, it's finder's keepers with the humans from the sky?" Calen challenged. "You dragged us home first, and let the only other person we know through the pass, so she's stuck—"

  "One lesson at a time," Mirri growled. "We're talking about specific vulnerabilities, and your options for dealing with them, because Mercy save me, I am *responsible* for ensuring your continued survival. Viran, water on the sand."

  Calen sat back, leaning on his palms and watching the mana as the big guy silently watered the beach. The look of consternation crossing Emma's face was all he had been after, and whether it was a bribe or not, it sounded like Mirri was about to get to the actually useful part of the lesson.

  The rest of it had been cool, but she hadn't actually given them anything new to work with, just explained how it all fit together.

  Mirri's spear traced through the sand as she resumed the lecture. Emma's circle got attention first.

  "This is a guess," Mirri warned, carving out a little less than a quarter of the space and tapping the smaller section. "Channels and sensory investment combined. I could get a more detailed guess if you were willing to let me examine your—"

  "Please." Emma's hands were already held out.

  Mirri sighed performatively and left her spear leaning against her shoulder as she knelt. Calen kept a careful watch, but only the mana behind her eyes roiled as her snout crept closer and closer to his sister's fingers.

  "I should be getting something from this close," The priestess sounded legitimately frustrated as she looked up. "How much are you using your manasight? Are any of your other senses behaving oddly? Have you felt ripples over your sca— skin when the air was still?"

  "I have," Calen volunteered. "When we were right below the cliff and the bow went off, like a shockwave."

  Mirri pretended not to hear him, but her pupils twitched just a bit and contracted when he spoke up.

  "As little as I can," Emma's gaze flicked to Calen, a bit unfairly. "I'm trying not to mess with the strange energy I don't understand, things just... happened really fast, yesterday."

  Mirri stood to erase one of the lines in the circle, and redrew the slice even smaller. *Much* smaller.

  "My manasight is important to developing control as a mage, and I see almost nothing, even that close." The priestess seemed less than happy with the outcome.

  "So she's safer than you thought." Calen tried.

  "No. People avoid proportions like this because any persistent threat is potentially lethal, and incredibly safe from retaliation," The priestess sounded like she was reading out of a textbook. "She'll be reliant on tools and allies to avoid being pinned down in a fight, and doesn't have the active reserves required to do anything offensively threatening, even if her channels were biased differently," Something that sounded almost like pity had crept into Mirri's voice, but it hardened as she turned to Calen. "That means that without my mother's support, your help and the Seraph Steel on her back are her only chance at real agency."

  That would have been great news to give Calen before they had made Em pick up the shield. Which she was currently grasping in a white-knuckled grip, so they had similar amounts of faith in Calen's ability to fight anything with a wooden sword.

  "What about—"

  "And you have somehow ended up with similar offensive issues, and none of the defensive safety." Mirri overrode Emma's question, whirling on Calen and carving a messy circle in the sand with the butt of her spear.

  "Lay it on me," Calen invited her to explain, gesturing at the sand. "Let me know if you need a look."

  Mirri grumbled something about the guards on the Spire being able to make out his channels. It was under her breath, but she only got a few words in before Calen dropped a minor trickle of mana into his brain stem to slow things and listen carefully, so he caught the rest of it.

  If she noticed him eavesdropping, the lesson was deemed more important.

  "Sensory investment is somehow the least offensive choice you've made. Your manasight makes you look like a threat to the most dangerous type of person on the planet, someone who wants *privacy,*" Alright, maybe she had noticed, if she was warning him again. "Be careful showing off, you don't know who's an Immortal looking to have a quiet retirement."

  Calen's circle got about a third of itself sliced out.

  "Primaries, heavy regeneration with minimal resistance, no strength, and a glaring, instantly lethal weak spot. Regeneration cannot fix the destruction of your brain, because the mind is the source of intent." Mirri carved another quarter of the pie away.

  "Channels, focused on an esoteric element with minimal combat usage. There simply aren't practical uses for light over other elements in combat or in free-casting, if you even make it through the decades of practice you would need to form an external array," Mirri tapped the largest section last, and it was hard not to pick up on her meaning from tone alone. "And there isn't a single signal tower on the planet that needs this much power in an array, so your employment prospects are limited too."

  All of that sounded like using a whole lot of words to call Calen useless in a very detailed manner. He was halfway through deciding how safe it was to ask where he could get a second opinion when Emma stuck up for him.

  In the exact wrong way.

  "What about his Seraph Steel?" She asked. "Sariel would have seen all the stuff you're describing, right?"

  Calen had no intention of picking up the possibly-cursed item until he figured out whether it was hitting Emma with some sort of mental whammy, but that was an interesting angle to take.

  Either they were sacrifices, and Mirri would have to come up with a lie, or there was some seed of potential in Calen's 'build' that she hadn't seen, but a much more experienced fighter had noticed.

  Calen's fingers found the little disk of melted plastic he had shoved in one of his new belt pouches this morning, absentmindedly turning it over while he waited for a reply.

  "I... yes." Mirri deflated a little.

  The scales on her brow scrunched as she pointed her snout at the circles she had drawn for them, clearly stymied by the idea.

  "What is their deal anyway? His, her, whatever." Calen prodded her to think out loud. "Your mom has been long on the details about Wardship, and short about the Seraph Steel. What's Sariel's mandate?"

  Any clue about what 'Sanctum' wanted might help tie things together, or at least let him know what kind of mess Em had gotten them wrapped up in.

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  "Their. A Seraph just *is*." Viran rumbled, reminding them all he was there. "They don't wear clothes because there's nothing private to hide."

  Mirri paused with her mouth jaw partially open, cocking her head at him instead of answering Calen.

  "I asked Auntie earlier." The big guy replied to the unspoken question.

  "Wait, so how do they, uh, make more of them?" Calen wasn't sure whether to be proud of Emma for directly addressing Viran, or worry that it was another sign she was under the influence of something while she had that shield strapped to her.

  At least she was worrying at her lip while she turned over the problem. Not that that was usually a good sign, but after her recent behavior, the familiar tic felt like a lifeline, a promise that his sister was still in there.

  "They don't," Mirri's tone was grim. "That's why they work with teams of Immortals to drive back the Maw. A duty I am somehow supposed to prepare you two for, by the time your Wardships end. *If* you take them at all, which you should."

  Calen definitely owed Emma a hug next time she demanded it for being the one to ask. Mirri didn't even seem to realize the gravity of what she had just given away.

  If attrition was permanent, then the Seraph Steel might have strict rituals around its passing because there always had to be someone willing to take the hit for the Seraph.

  Like those convenient mortals who kept popping up, no matter how many of them died.

  "End?" Calen straightened, trying to keep his voice casual. "How long are they usually?"

  Isha had *also* neglected to mention an end date to their theoretical service, but if that was a factor relevant to Mirri's responsibilities, she would be hard-pressed to deny them the information without making Emma even more suspicious.

  And if the limits to Wardship were strict enough, even Em might reconsider signing up for whatever crazy crusade these people were on.

  "Usually? A decade and a half," Emma might have even flinched when Mirri answered, but the priestess wasn't done, seemingly unaware of the effect her words were having. "Sometimes two, but Wardship under a Warden is different from fealty to a town council, it's more transactional than just serving your community after training as an adolescent."

  A thrill of excitement ran through Calen's limbs. There was no way Em would go for something that would eat so much of their lives.

  Viran was nodding along too, and added his own opinion.

  "Auntie can only ask for service as long as your training was, once you pass your Proving. It's why my match is this summer, and I didn't, uh, formally start until yesterday," The big guy moved, tilting to block Calen's sun a little bit, but he was just scratching behind his horns. "It lets me go back north sooner, without bindings that will make people worry she's in charge when I do."

  "So there's no minimum? We can just pass a... whatever a Proving is, and that's it?" Calen prodded, filing away that last tidbit about how Isha wasn't all-powerful in the valley, even among local dragonborn.

  But Mirri seemed to be done letting her cousin spill information for free, no matter how talkative the gray had become once they had gotten him started.

  "The minimum is decided by your competence in overcoming the problems I just outlined with your mana investment," She tapped at the circles at their feet. "Have Viran erase these when you're done committing them to memory. Neither of you will be ready for an arena any time soon, unless you've forgotten that you don't even know how to swing that sword on your hip yet."

  Calen's attempt to scowl up at her was interrupted when he jabbed himself in the ribs. Sitting up straight had changed the geometry of the fancy stick shoved through his belt.

  "Arena? Is a Proving just a fight?" A hopeful note entered Emma's voice as she realized the path to freedom might be familiar ground. Familiar for her, anyway. "Have you done yours? Was it hard? How is Calen going to... I mean how are we going to compare to other people?"

  "That's not something you need to worry about today, or even this season." Mirri's voice was oddly strained, but her face hadn't flushed, and her tail was almost rigid, not beating at the sand again. "Learn how the world works, learn how to use your weapons, and don't do anything foolish with your mana until you have a plan. Maybe ask to the Seraph when they come back."

  The last sentence sounded just a little bit too smooth to be anything other than disguised mockery.

  "I'm good. My ears bled last time I tried that," Calen informed her, waving to 'his' circle in the sand. "If I can't do external casting with all this, how do magic items work? Vir mentioned a squire using a wand, is that like, something that creates a specific effect, or is it just a focus for power?"

  Mirri might think light was useless in a fight, but the military-industrial complex had spent the last few centuries using to to do the kinds of things that made the firecrackers she tossed around with her mana look like... well, firecrackers.

  Calen didn't need to burn missiles out of the atmosphere a hundred miles away, or even one. He just needed to cook monsters from a few dozen feet away instead of a few dozen inches. Sariel was making those lasers somehow, without any kind of lens, so if Calen could copy the array in a wand, even at a much lower power level, he might be able to make the sword the backup plan, or at least equalize the playing field a little.

  With his brain stem apparently being a literal glowing target, getting mixed up in arm's reach with stuff that wanted to kill him sounded like a plan worth avoiding. Maybe something like that had been the Seraph's plan all along.

  "The term is used for both implementations. If you want to understand the differences, you should aim for a long Wardship regardless, to maximize the amount of training you receive," Mirri clamped down on the idea of telling Calen anything useful in favor of telling him to shut up, be grateful, and do as he was told, *again*. "People far more important than you are pay to cross the seas for a fraction of the resources my mother has turned towards you two already. Try not to waste them by getting your brains spilled. Viran, teach him how to use that, if he's still eager to learn where effort is involved."

  Mirri's cousin looked up from the water, palming the silvery disk he had been playing with in Isha's office instead of dropping it into the lake.

  "I'm not good with a sword," Viran rumbled hesitantly. "Shouldn't you be the one—"

  "He only needs to learn the basic cuts for now, and it will save Dovin some time," Mirri interrupted him before turning to Calen and Emma. "I'm going to make sure the sparring pits are in good order while you two examine your options, and then see how much Emma remembers from this morning while we wait for sundown. Don't leave those diagrams out, there are no tides to wash them away."

  Dusting himself off, Calen didn't have long to scowl after her retreating tail before Emma got in his way with a frown of her own. Which was pointed at *him*, for some reason.

  "What?" He asked. "She's obviously hiding information because they want us to do something specific."

  There weren't any strands of mana stretching from the slab of silver on Emma's back to her head, but that didn't mean anything. It might only take contact, or work off mana in her head.

  If the artifact was even influencing her at all. It sure sounded like his sister when she laid into him.

  "Yeah, she wants us to learn to do all this in order so we don't look embarrassing in front of Isha's people. She's important, what we do reflects on her," Emma jabbed at his chest with a finger. "So would it kill you to stop being a jerk for a whole day while they try to fix us?"

  Calen raised his open palms and stepped back.

  "Oh well excuuuse me for not really being on board the moment she tells us we're useless without help and absolutely need to swear fealty to her mom for a few years. I'll just quietly let them 'fix' whatever they want about us without asking any questions," He gave his most derisive scoff, and doubled down. "Did you notice how fast she ended the discussion after she said the Seraph works with Immortals because they don't make new ones? They're offsetting their losses by using us as cannon fodder, and that shield is what you get in exchange. Until it gets us killed."

  He also tuned his manasight up until even the water soaking the sand buzzed a bit.

  "You're an idiot," Emma wasn't clutching the shield slung over her back any more tightly, but she didn't sound like she was about to let it go any time soon either. "Her mentor died, *saving me*, less than a day ago. Now she's stuck with no teacher, and two almost-useless humans from an entirely different planet. Of course she got upset talking about it."

  There was still nothing jumping from the shield to Em's head. No direct threads of mana, at least, so the artifact either wasn't responding when he tried to talk her out of keeping it, or it already had mana burrowed in somehow. He would have to take another look when she put it down.

  And maybe ask someone else what kind of mental effects magic could create. If he had learned how to slow his perception of time by accident, some level of mental influence might be possible.

  "Uhhhh, are you two done with these?" Viran rumbled. "Or do you want to look at them after you finish your fight?"

  Calen had totally forgotten about him. A nervous glance confirmed that the dragonborn was still docilely seated just at the edge of the water, almost in arm's reach the entire time.

  "Yup, I'm done here," Emma started to turn away, then cleared her throat. "Thank you for helping, Viran."

  The big gray just nodded, sweeping up the sand with magic while Calen's sister marched away. He seemed content to sit in silence, flexing mana through the 'array' in the water in a few different ways while Calen watched.

  Calen nodded at him when the dragonborn finished with Emma's circle, and paused with the strangely shaped globule of water on his hand hovering over Calen's diagram. He didn't need the reference anymore, just a different kind of answers.

  The kind of answers that wouldn't only be in Mirri's head, if Calen could manage to get Viran to drop them casually.

  "What do you think about all this?" Calen prodded. "What changed for you when we got here?"

  The scales on Viran's bare arms roiled, bunching and un-rolling as the big guy shrugged.

  "I dunno. Stuff wasn't normal for me before you got here. Two new allies?" Viran sounded uncertain at first, but his words picked up speed as he kept talking. "If you stay. You should, it would be good for everyone. Mirri doesn't mean it when she's mean, she just likes to do things perfect."

  The swelling enthusiasm turning to an apology was the last thing Calen had expected. Maybe the big guy was lonely, after practicing by himself all day.

  Calen felt a laugh bubble out of his throat. He clamped down on it a bit when Viran looked up, but his shoulders still shook for a second before he composed himself.

  "Yeah. I know someone like that," He explained, tilting his head towards the sparring pit as Emma disappeared down the steps after Mirri. "She just needs a little help staying out of trouble sometimes, while she's aiming for perfect."

  It was hard to stop Em from trying to make everyone happy, even if it meant throwing herself at the mercy of an authority that didn't really have a motivation to create that result. She was like a dog with a bone once she got an outcome fixed in her head, and all the rest of the world needed to do was *cooperate*.

  Calen wasn't really looking forward to trying to drag that shield out of her jaws if it turned out to be cursed.

  He eyed Viran's bulging arms, and the washed-out patch of sand in front of him, wondering how much mana it took to tip the balance of things around. Clearly magic and muscle weren't mutually exclusive goals.

  "Perfect was the Venatrix staying to be Warden of the Highlands," Viran shrugged again, standing to tower over Calen as he finished his task and tossed the water back into the lake. "Now I'm the only one left who can do it, and Mirri doesn't have anyone extra to keep her safe. Just Auntie, and Auntie has to be a Warden first, not a bodyguard."

  "Say that again for me?" Calen's eyes narrowed as something tickled at the back of his brain.

  "Auntie has to be a Warden first?" Viran repeated. "That's why her title comes before her name."

  "The other part. You're... trying to become a Warden, and Mirri..." Calen trailed off, eyeing the sounds of a wooden axe thunking into rope.

  "Doesn't have a bodyguard," Viran finished. "Oh! Do you think that's why Auntie wants your sister next to her? Because she can... do the thing, if Mirri gets hurt?"

  Calen felt a grin start to creep across his face as another piece of the puzzle fell into place, but he tempered the wave of relief. If Mirri needed a bodyguard like the Venatrix because she was the Warden's daughter, Em might not be up to the challenge on her own.

  If that was even what Isha was up to.

  Right or not, he was going to have to make a show of being the kind of useful they wanted out of him, or Mirri would be able to use his lack of 'discipline' to delay or slow down lessons. Luckily, he had a much easier source of information all to himself right now.

  He just needed the right pretext to keep Viran talking, and Mirri had handed him that too.

  "Maybe. I hope that's part of it," He said, grasping for the pommel of his 'weapon' and looking up. "So what can you teach me about using this?"

  Calen had a feeling knowing how to fight was going to be useful no matter what the hell else was going on.

  Coming of age customs have persisted in hundreds of cultures throughout history, some as celebrations, and others framed more as trials. The age at which children undergo the ceremonial or legal transition to adulthood varies greatly throughout the world, from as young as twelve, to as old as twenty-one, sometimes also being based on sexual maturity markers instead of age.