Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

That sounded pretty amazing. “If this herb is so potent, why aren’t we growing it on farms or in laboratories?”

“Attempts have been made, of course.” Researcher smiled. “But it isn’t a naturally occurring herb — and all attempts to breed it have failed. We have a poor understanding of the conditions under which it grows. At one point, the Valian government placed the entire mountain under observation for the winter. No herbs were found that entire season. According to local legends, the herbs only grow when the goddess visits the mountain to mourn a friend. Thus the name.”

I nodded at that. “And I presume that, given the value of the herbs, there’s a great deal of competition for them?”

“Oh, yes. And the Vanreach Mountains are infested with monsters.”

Of course they are. Everywhere interesting seems to be.

“I’ll take a look at the books when I get a chance, thank you.”

“It is my honor to be of service, Arbiter.”

I twisted my lips in response to her words. “You don’t need to be so formal. I’m not that important.”

Researcher put a hand over her chest and closed her eyes. “Oh, thank the goddess. It was so hard doing that. It’s been ages since I’ve had to be all… ‘It is my honor to serve you’ and such.”

I laughed. “I’ve never been much for titles and formalities.”

“That’s a relief. Now, what else do you need?” She folded her hands in front of her, rolling back and forth on her heels with obvious energy.

“I think that’s most of it for today, actually. Let me think for a minute.”

What else did I need to know?

A whole lot of things, actually.

But what could she help me with immediately?

Probably more questions related to my new attunement? Or maybe something about the Whispers, that organization that Tristan supposedly belonged to?

Maybe not that last part. Asking her about the Whispers could be suspicious. She’s being extremely helpful, but I’m not her Summoner, and I still don’t know who her Summoner is. She wouldn’t tell me last time…

…Meaning that might be a good question.

“Do I have sufficient authority now for you to tell me who summoned you?”

She shook her head. “Nope! That’s one of the things I’ve been expressly ordered not to share.”

I considered that. “If I asked you the name of a Summoner, could you tell me if they’re not the one you’re contracted with?

“I suppose I could answer that.”

Who seems likely? Hrm. “Is it Elora Theas?”

“Not her!”

I didn’t actually know that many other Summoners. I listed a few more names of students, but none of them came up. “Professor Orden, maybe?” She told me she wasn’t a Summoner, but she’d deceived me about plenty of other things, and I knew she worked in here.

“Nope!”

I nodded absently. “Okay…Do you have a list of all Summoners working at the university?”

“Not in a single location. You could look at the general faculty lists and cross-reference them with the individual profiles for each faculty member, though.”

I waved a hand dismissively. “Too much work. It’s not that important.”

“If you say so!”

I rubbed my chin. “I think that’s all I have to ask for the moment, but I’m sure I’ll be back here soon. Thanks for all the help.”

“It’s been my pleasure, Arbiter.” She bowed at the waist. “I had fun, too! You should come by more often.”

It struck me that she sounded lonely — and that made sense, given that she was standing around, sentient and conscious, doing…virtually nothing all day? Maybe she was scanning through the books somehow. I didn’t really know.

“I’ll try to do that.”

I meant it, both for her sake and mine.

I went and grabbed the books about the Vanreach Mountains she’d told me about, packed them in my backpack, and headed out.

It was time to risk visiting my dorm.

I strongly considered going to Jin’s room first.

It was just above mine.

It would have been easy to check on him, just to see if he was there.

To see if he was even alive.

But what would I say?

Oh, hey, Jin. How’s that shrapnel in your chest doing?

My hands had balled into fists without my conscious knowledge.

No, I wasn’t ready to look for Jin just yet.

I told myself it was because Sera was my priority right now, but I was aware I was deflecting. That was fine, though. The lie was sweeter than the truth, but the truth was sufficient reason to stay away in itself.

We’d nearly killed each other. The next time I saw him, I knew he might try to finish what he’d started.

I doubted it, but that doubt itched at the back of my mind, and I knew it would continue to until I found a way to expunge it. That was, like dealing with any fear, a substantial task: and one I wasn’t particularly adept at.

I made it to my own door without being ambushed by assassins.

I admit it was kind of a let-down. I would have felt vindicated if there had been assassins, and maybe it would have distracted me from thinking about Jin.

Probably not. In retrospect, assassins reminded me of the first time he’d saved me.

Resh.

Okay, clearing mind, focusing on work.

I opened my door.

I didn’t have a perfect memory, and it had been a while since I’d been back to my room, but I was pretty certain it was not how I’d left it.

It didn’t look like someone had sacked the room.

But there were little things that were out of place.

The books on my desk were on the left side, not the upper right hand corner where I usually put them.

My clothes were folded too well. Honestly, I was awful at folding.

I activated my attunement, scanning the area for magic. I found something faint, glowing subtly under the carpet.

I couldn’t ignore that. I’d just have pay for the damages. I cut away a square of the carpet, finding a set of runes that I most certainly hadn’t put there.

Let’s see…

That’s very similar to the activation rune on my return bell, but with a higher level of sensitivity. Betting it’s for detecting if anyone steps on the area above.

That’s the function rune. It has something having to do with air mana, and it’s tied to the next rune…

Which is something that stores a specific sound.

That’s a targeting rune for setting a destination for a spell effect.

The rest of them are just runes for capacity and recharging the enchantments automatically.

After a moment of consideration, I determined they were a simple signaling enchantment. Something that activated another set of enchantments elsewhere when it detected someone present in the area.

From the level of the range rune, the targeted location could be anywhere in the city. And, unfortunately, I didn’t have any way of tracing where it was going.

Not immediately, at least.