Declan lay back in a chair while the ArCore celebrated the way they seemed to always celebrate. They were engaged in a battle with a twenty foot tall demon with a body so black that the flashes of lightning made it seem darker than the night sky, like it siphoned in light. The demon attacked with giant chains of shadow that erupted from the ground around it to attack arcanists.

  Anissa sat on one side of him, holding one hand, while the senior healer at Medical sat on his right, gauging Tegan’s work. Which really was like ice-cold cockroaches crawling through his veins. “Could you please work faster?”

  “Could you please not douse the entire world wound in a tidal wave of mana?” Tegan answered. “Whatever you did, that was not supposed to happen. Don’t try that again until you have Brieze to oversee it”

  “Sound advice,” Anissa added. “Tegan, did you check the L7 junction point? That was a fuck-ton of mana. Trying to rip open your arcsoul?”

  Declan tried to sit up and stifled a groan as a shock of lightning ran down his spine.

  “Don’t move or that happens,” Tegan said. “And to answer the question you were probably going to shout, I don’t think so. You were casting one tier zero rune. You cast it wrong, and you picked the absolute worst place you could possibly mis-cast a rune. And! To tripple up, you cast the worst rune you could possible miscast at the worst place you could possibly do it. Gather, it’s mana in the desert. This is the deepest part of the ocean.”

  The head healer cleared his throat. “Our manner matters, Miss Domine. Try again.”

  She leaned over, giving him a sugar-sweet smile. “Don’t set off a mana bomb at the center of a mana pile during the build up to a mana surge. It could be bad for you.”

  The demon gave a scream of agony as ten arcanists used ropes of ice mana to drag it lower and lower, then a dozen arcanists blasted it at point blank range. “Yes!”

  Rohan’s triumphant shout echoed out. “Tier five rune! Hey, Declan—”

  “Veto!” Anissa shouted, putting a hand on Declan. “How you don’t have a rupture, I don’t know. How you have mana channels at all, I don’t know. They’re bruised and battered and you really need to let them heal. No soul-casting for a week. I’ll send post to Skinner and threaten Brieze.”

  “I don’t need to cast to do this,” Declan said. He hadn’t felt this off since the first time he orbited his mana bearing. “Bring it here.”

  A moment later, a clump of ArCore gathered to watch as Declan accepted the stone and pushed a drop of mana into it. It really did hurt to do it, like he’d bruised a non-existent muscle. The resulting glare reminded him of the level nine Protect.

  Instead, he looked away. He gave himself time to aclimate. “This won’t be fast. You might want to sit. Or go sleep. Or something—ouch!”

  “Stop moving,” Tegan said, her voice dead serious. “This is real. I’m trying to help here and you keep moving. Anissa, I’m really close to done.”

  Anissa’s touch was cool but not ice cold and buzzed as she passed her rune over him again and again. “I think you did better than I would. I’m serious, I can’t even find fissures. Good work.”

  “I concur. No casting for a week, report to his advisor and house seniors, excuse him from duties.” The Medical advisor rose and gave both ladies a firm shoulder squeeze. “Your houses should be proud. Miss Domine, I do not agree with your Lord. A battle healer is invaluable and your place as the tip of the spear makes it more so.”

  Declan sensed the private nature of this conversation and focused on the rune. The real problem was that he couldn’t even see the lines yet. The entire rune was a glowing blur, but now he knew the routine. He simply held the rune with his eyes closed.

  Then he opened them just a moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, it was a simple reality. “This is going to take ages. I mean days, and that’s just days for me to acclimate to the rune.”

  A short and vocal discussion ensued, and Declan knew the conclusion long before Anissa emerged from the group with Rohan close behind. “There’s a bunch of us who need the shard tax credit. I personally would be fine with waiting but I’m one of sixty. Also, I need to go break up a fight before Lake kills someone.”

  She took the rune, which was a relief. “Tell your father not to bring any tier fives.”

  “I’ll tell him to make a few available,” Rohan countered. “Why wouldn’t you want to use this chance to grow?”

  “Because I’m terrified of owing anyone anything. Have any of you ever cast Gather here?” It was bothering him and Declan just wanted to know.

  “We’re planning on trying the moment you leave,” Rohan said. “It’s like a cool fresh breeze to the soul. Useless rune but the feeling might be worth getting one. Just for times when I’m off. Anyway, thank you for volunteering. I hope the dinner was worth the experience.”

  “I’ll be by to check on you later. I’m bringing a chair,” Tegan said.

  They walked him up to House Ariloch. “What about Chen? I should probably let him back in for the night.”

  “Don’t.” Rohan barked it and then flinched at the sound of his own voice. “You were right about what you said earlier. You need rules and you need respect. Break the rules and you lose the respect. We’ll probably keep him from getting killed. Letting him get attacked? That’s another thing.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “No promises,” Tegan added. She handed him his backpack. “Seriously, I will be by to check on you. Don’t make bad assumptions about why I’m there and we won’t have problems.”

  Declan was asleep within minutes of hitting his bed.

  He didn’t actually want to wake up, but the longer the shaking went on, the less he was able to ignore it.

  “Get up, you’re going to practice casting,” Tegan said, blinking the lights on and off.

  Declan sat up, shivering. “No casting for a week.”

  “Yeah, that’s the standard advice,” Tegan said. She sat in a plush chair that really hadn’t been in House Ariloch when he left. “But here’s the deal. You bruised every channel in your whole damned body. Mana channels, they’re kind of like a pipe. You know pipes, right?”

  “I’m a decent plumber. The channels route mana through the body.”

  Tegan nodded. “But they’re spongy. Adaptable. They grow as you channel mana, it’s a slow process. Unless you’re the daughter of a noble house. Then, they flood you with mana, forcing them to grow. The pipes crack and swell-that’s what you’re feeling. Then they heal.”

  So far everything she said made sense. “Won’t I rupture a channel if I do?”

  “Maybe. Possibly. If you do, I can probably fix it, but we’re not going to do that, you hear me? We’re going to go nice and steady. They’re swollen but you can push them further. And if you do, they’ll stay that way.” Tegan motioned for him to sit in front of her.

  “What do you get out of this?” She was being unusually kind. Not that he minded, it was an opportunity and he meant to take it.

  Tegan didn’t answer immediately. “My house lord isn’t in favor of me healing. He’s going to make it clear that Medical will revoke my rune access or he’ll be displeased. And they’ll do it. I like healing. I’m fucking brilliant at Destroy but I like Healing. It…keeps me balanced.”

  “Healing Bloom,” Declan said. He’d gotten it from the manape and kept it locked in his safe, which was to say, at the bottom of the vapor bottle pile. “If you have your own, Medical can’t take it?”

  “Right. Once it’s stored in my arcsoul, it’s mine. They won’t know. I’ll keep serving with medical and they’ll say ‘she wants to get it back.’ But I’ll already have it back.” She held out a hand. “I’ll ensure you have the largest mana channels you can handle. You give me the rune.”

  Declan didn’t hesitate. He dug it out. “You got it.”

  “One more teensy thing. I can’t have it on me until after they take my Healing. Rohan and Lake say you’re trustworthy. I’m going to trust.” She didn’t need to say what would happen if he broke the trust.

  “When you’re ready, it’s yours. I’m going to be the best damned arcanist I can. Tell me what to do.”

  “Love the hair cut,” Tegan said. “Sit still. Hug your cannon ball, you foundry freak, and just channel mana down into the ground. I’m going to do what I was doing earlier. Only I’m going to do it wrong.”

  “Wait a minute—” Declan flinched as her rune activated. “What. Do. You. Mean?”

  “Your channels are all swollen and you’re pushing mana down into the ground. So the key here is to create a blockage and hold it. The backup will cause your channels to swell even further. And as long as I don’t hold it too long, no ruptures.”

  A dot of ice swelled in his spine and Declan winced. “Don’t hold it too long.”

  “Worst case—”

  “Don’t.” He focused on channeling. On breathing.

  The moments became hours of not-pain but the feeling of being on the edge of throwing up, except his mouth was moving through his body and vomiting from his spleen was just weird. He was distantly aware of murmurs and shuffling feet before the blocks of ice dissolved completely. “Is it done?”

  “Oooh, boy, is it done. I would say ‘you really need to take it easy’ but it’s more likely that’ll have you out in the scab fighting in ten minutes. Work hard, carry logs, kiss cannonballs. But if you weren’t going to pull that shit, climb back in bed and sleep.” She helped him into bed and then stretched the sheet over him. “Sweaty, exhausted and shaking. Just the way I like to leave a man. You’ll feel better.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Ha! Tomorrow you’re going to be asking what the hell you were thinking. Day after tomorrow you’ll be back where you were. Day after that, yeah, better, and every day afterwards. And this is the serious part, for real.” Tegan’s tone grew serious. “No casting for real now. Don’t even push mana down. If there’s a surge, don’t work on that stone. You are really, truly, seriously in danger of a rupture if you rush it. If you don’t? You’ll be the most powerful arcanist without an arcsoul ever. That’s not really something to be proud of, but I seriously think you would survive that Gather bullshit now.”

  “When you’re ready, Healing Bloom, is here,” he said.

  “Thank you.”

  She closed the door and he closed his mind.

  ###

  Two days had passed and Declan was going stir-crazy. He’d woken just long enough to let Chen back in. The librarian’s note had been pushed under the door each day and Declan took it as a good sign.

  He finally felt well enough to limp to the kitchen during breakfast, which was crowded, and the best time to make everyone upset. Alister had been right and Declan would rather be unpopular than wrong. “Listen, people. I have an announcement.”

  With Hayden and Rohan’s help, the murmur slowly died.

  “Starting next week, you all have house chores. Jackson is making a schedule. If you don’t want to do your chores you pay someone else to do it, the point is, they get done. There’s no reason House Ariloch has to be…like this.” He gestured to the kitchen, which, while clean, was ancient. The rough floors, the worn carpet. “I want you to be proud to live here. Same story as house dues, I’ll decide when someone’s on rotation, and probably give people a week to settle in.”

  He waited for the complaints.

  Instead, the normal breakfast murmur resumed.

  Jackson was still recovering from the soul wounds of having his arcsoul opened, and looked as Declan felt. He ambled over wearing a rainbow bathrobe that was carefully tied to make sure his chest showed. “I made what?”

  “Sorry, meant to ask you before hand. Would you mind? The House Roster is fairly complete.”

  Jackson sat down with him and shook his head. “The hell it is. You don’t have people’s public runes inventoried. You have to ask if someone has fire or ice or whatever. Sure, Duelists will keep theirs secret but there’s what, three in the house, not counting Lake?”

  “Please? I’m under Medical advisement to rest just like you, but I figure I can move around and go make some orders.” The rin in his pocket was burning a hole and he could practically hear the order for the doors. Which gave him an idea. “I need a favor, not a house chore. Can someone send a message to Eden Proctor in House Drevond?”

  An hour later he’d returned to his apartment and taken a hammer to the furniture that blocked the entrance to his second room. Forget saving it, he was making toothpicks and scrap metal. “Door’s open,” he called when he heard the knock.

  “Declan, we’ve been worried. I went to Medical myself to make sure you really did get checked,” Eden said. “Do you usually smash furniture in your night clothes?”

  “No, I usually do it naked.” He lifted a wooden chair from the mound. “Ahah! Now I have furniture in my apartment.”

  “You have one of my lounges. This came from the great room at Drevond. Declan? I don’t want to know. This was in the great room last night, I saw it myself. How can we help?”

  He tested his new chair, which proved its worth by splintering under his weight. “I need to order new doors from the same carpenter who built my last five. There has got to be a better way than going myself.”

  “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back. This is going to be such fun!” Eden rushed out the door.

  Her idea of fun was probably not fun. Declan smashed a broken table. At least that was fun.