Declan wasn’t running by the time classes were over. He was barely walking and had managed to retrieve Lake’s rolling chair, which he sat in while he waited for her. The aches in his joints now shot all the way up his arms and legs and made him shiver despite not being cold.
He had more important things to deal with. The first was pushing his way in as the class let out, making his way to the instructor. “Ma’am?”
She glanced up. “Skinner’s assistant. Page 478, lower half. He had me researching it all night. Outstanding support rune, any duelist’s nightmare. We keep our cards close, Mr. Thorn.
Insight, variants Hidden Insight, True Insight, reveals the nature of runes when observed, granting the observer knowledge of weakness and strength, and with appropriate effort, counter-runes. Fixed tier only, no observations beyond tier three and horrifying there. Key strategies involve killing the holder before or after a battle, before they can relay the information to a duelist who will come prepared.
The rune for tier one was a circle with a sideways ‘V’ on either end. If one squinted, perhaps it was an eye.
He glanced up as Lake joined him.
“Explains how you knew what my runes were doing. Doesn’t explain Tegan’s. She doesn’t pull that out unless it’s ass deep in monsters and if you’d seen it, you wouldn’t sleep at night. Are you shivering?” Lake frowned. “I’m weak, but I’m not dead. Should you be the one in the chair?”
“I’m fine. You need commons food before we go?”
She feigned a gag. “I’d rather eat the carpet in Ariloch. Much rather. Come on, the walk would feel nice. I’m not an invalid.”
They moved through the winter darkness, keeping to the lamp-lit paths—that is until Lake stopped. “Hey, you can come out rather than skulk. I don’t know who you are, but I can feel the arcsouls. Stop following me or at least come look me in the eye.”
Two men emerged from the shadows. Pitch black runes like clouds faded away as they moved in unison. “Lake Domine, come with us. Whoever you are, step away and you won’t be harmed.”
“Declan Thorn, house arcanist for Ariloch, Instructor Keel Skinner’s assistant. And currently my task is to deliver Miss Domine to her home. My house. What was it he said? ‘If you encounter trouble, handle it yourself, don’t bother me?’ No, no, it was ‘If anyone gets in your way, I want to know.’”
“Come on, cousins,” Lake said. “You want to duel, come during class hours. I’d be delighted to show you how much better I’ve gotten in the past few months. Practice makes deadly, as they say.”
“Be careful,” one of the men said.
“We were only making sure nothing happened,” the other added.
There was no insight needed for that lie. Declan patted the chair. “If you use shadow cloak around me, I’m going to assume it’s because you’re getting ready for an attack. You want to know what kind of rune dispells shadow cloak? It’s called light bloom. Tier one, damn near useless, low, fixed cost. What were the others you were summoning? They looked interesting.”
Both stepped back as Lake summoned rune after rune. “Who wants to learn first? I have a message to send and I need a messenger.”
They ran.
After long minutes, Lake sank into her rolling chair. “Please get us home as fast as you can.”
He found the strength to sprint after all, all the way to the inner circle, where a team of arcanists launched runes at a gorilla the size of three men whose fur crackled with lightning.
At the steps of Ariloch, Declan picked up the entire chair and sprinted up and inside, slamming the door as he sank down. Every breath came harder. “Who the fuck was that?”
“Rocca’s little brothers. Her disposal crew,” Lake said with amazing calm. “I could have killed one for sure, but the second would have fucked me up in a way you don’t come back from. They’re called duelists but they’re more like assassins. Light bloom, huh? I’ll have to get one.”
“Made it up,” Declan said. “It sounded like something that would counter shadow cloak.”
Lake almost fell out of her chair laughing. “They’ll be eating ash and shit tonight when Rocca finds out. The real problem is that they felt like they could try at all. Next time won’t be like this. Next time they won’t give me a chance to sense them. You really Skinner’s assistant?”
“Really.”
“He’s not even an actual instructor. His class is getting yelled at about what you’re doing wrong. That’s not an exaggeration. He’s here because of what he did in the war and they don’t know what else to do with him. Son of a bitch doesn’t fit in in government.” Lake shrugged. “Most of the veterans just faded away. Live isolated. Not him. That man fought the Defiler face to face and survived. He’s seen shit.”
“He had me deliver an envelope.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Take the rin, take the win,” she answered. “I need to sleep. If Tegan comes by to see me, don’t give her a hard time. ArCore would make anyone crazy. She started out that way.”
House-sense let him make the mental adjustment to the locks. Then he retired to his apartment, dropping sixty pounds of pack. He could have left it, but the weight was comforting and holding the bound bearing spread the warmth out through his aching limbs. He set it down and gave it the mental shove. It rocketed sideways and broke the plaster beside the door. A lighter shove had it rolling back, then around, then off to the side. It could be called a circle as long as no one had ever seen a circle.
When it finally reached the starting point, it might have been because the orbit was only a closed loop, but the gush of mana inbound didn’t make him pass out. If anything, it made the chills wracking him pass and brought a warmth that countered the shakes.
He lay over, clutching it like a heater, and fell asleep.
###
“It’s some kind of foundry thing,” someone said. “They give rusty cannonballs to their kids, a ritual when they turn ten. Gets them ready to work or something. Ask the house arcanist from House Sullivan.”
Declan opened his eyes, unsure of a few things. First was how someone had gotten into his apartment. Second was who these people were. “Get out.”
“Yeah, patients don’t get a say in that.” Tegan Domine leaned over, waving. “Remember me? You know what my buddy Lake says? She says ‘I told him to go get checked at Medical.’ Then Rohan tries to wake you when you don’t show up for training and you aren’t responding, which was all it took to authorize an override. We’re not even going into whatever the whole ‘cuddling with a cannon ball’ is. You have mana shock. Can you ask me a question?”
“Will you go away?”
“Possibly. How long did dearest Rohan work with you? How long did you manage to stand up before you fell over?” She asked like she already knew the answer.
“He made it two minutes,” Rohan said helpfully. “He’s got a long way to go but it was a solid effort for a first time.”
Tegan slapped him on the back of the head. “You’re supposed to start by holding it to a count of ten. Ten. Declan, when you can function again, the idiot will be by to continue and this time, go for a count of ten.”
Declan sat up. His clothes were soaked with sweat, his bed, not much better. “I’m fine. We can do it now.”
“The fuck you can. Your mana channels are this close to crawling out of your body in search of someplace—any place—safer. Rohan? Can we talk outside?”
The crowd in his apartment slowly drained, which gave Declan time to stumble to the bathroom, spray his face with cold water and take a long look in the mirror. His hair was wild, his face covered in a half-beard that said he’d never look cool if he tried to grow it out.
When he emerged to the commons, a shocking number of people waited. Most of them he recognized from the swarm. “Nothing to see here, folks. Get ready for first classes. I want to see everyone out on time and you’d better beat me to class.”
“Sir?” The voice came from a young man, too young to be a proper student. “I don’t have a first class. I don’t have anything until my tutors at second class.”
“But you do,” Declan answered. “Because I need help getting Lake to class and making sure her guide shows up. Could you do that?”
“Yes sir. Janra said I was supposed to find a room because ‘little shits don’t sleep in Rush.’ Where do I find a room?”
Declan pointed to the third floor. “Pick one that’s empty. Preferably on the one that sides with House Harding. We don’t have a maze but when we do, that side’s reserved for registered arcanists who can kill beasts from the windows.”
The long walk to Dueling Theory was a marathon, but Declan kept moving, and when they finally arrived, he spent fifteen minutes resting before pushing on to Skinner’s class. The old man looked him over. “There’s a balance between pushing for power and critically injuring yourself. Occasionally they’re related and required. The arcsoul procedure, for instance, is in effect a soul wound. Today, I need you to perform some research for me. I’m looking for any reference to poisoned mana veins in A Brief Prehistory of The Callis Empire. Report tomorrow and every day until finished.” Skinner tapped the book on the edge of his desk. “And should you find any reference to dark mana, report immediately. We have solid cross references for most volumes but most is by no means all. You may do the research at your house.”
“This could take days.” Declan had read the foreward on books this thick.
“Then it takes days. This is not some make-busy work, this Crown business you may assist with despite no prior knowledge.”
“Sir?” Declan asked. “Last night, a couple of duelists threatened Lake Domine. I…made up a task and told them I’d report it if they attacked.”
“Don’t speak for me again. Don’t rely on strength I don’t have. Find a different strength if you need one, a true one. One that won’t die with me.” Skinner motioned for Declan to leave. “Is there something else?”
“What’s a defiler?”
Skinner seemed unsurprised. He didn’t react, he didn’t flinch. He raised one hand to the thick scars on his face. “A tier nine monster. The worst kind of monster one could imagine. A destroyer of armies. A ravager who left an illness of the mind and heart behind.”
“You killed it?” Declan asked.
“Some things can’t be slain with runes. Some require the kind of cures we don’t have the heart for, and some the patience we lack. That’s enough questions.” This time, his tone lacked the gentle acceptance it usually carried.
This time, Declan left.
###
It had been four days and Declan no longer woke in a pool of sweat. He no longer ached. He no longer shook, and his house mates no longer watched in fear every time he left. Which meant it was time to break the bad news.
He did it during breakfast because Hadyn was an artist. “Who likes to eat? Who would rather go back to the commons? Who feels like a great cook needs at least decent materials? I know I do. I’m instituting House dues.”
The groans through the room told him he’d landed the news right. “Twenty rin a month, due on the first. Twenty rin, we can buy Hadyn groceries. Twenty rin, I can start to make some repairs.”
“Twenty?” one woman asked. “So, I could just pay up for the year? And I get breakfast three times a week?”
“Thirty and I’ll cook dinner twice a week on the days you don’t get breakfast,” Hadyn said.
“Who gets the money?” someone else asked.
“I decide what it’s spent on. But I already checked, the Registrar has an account for House Ariloch.” Declan didn’t mention the account had been overdrawn seventeen rin. “House dues go to the house. You know I’m looking for a rune, do some math, damnit. If all of you paid, how close would I be to even a tier zero? Close enough that if I can repeat it every month for twelve more years, I could buy one? And while I’m at it, there’s more. I decide who pays. You know how people show up here. I’m not going to meet people at the door with my hand out and turn them away if they can’t.”
“Fuck it, I’ll pay now,” said the original woman. “You can practically chew the orange juice at the commons.”
Now was the time to build something different—trust. “Keep your coins. I need you to pay the registrar so it goes into the house fund. I said the money goes to the house. One thing I will allow a vote on: What do we want fixed first?”
