Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

Sera frowned. “If you had access to everything in the spire, why didn’t you just give yourself a whole pile of magical equipment?”

“I like the way you think. I did do that, although I couldn’t access everything. Because of a brand on my body, I can’t physically leave the spire…nor can I travel to certain other parts of the tower in person. That makes retrieving things difficult, because I’m forced to work through intermediaries.”

He pointed down the hallway. “I have some things in there that I wish I’d been wearing during that fight. I was only expecting to meet with Corin. Normally, I’m untraceable while I’m in the sanctum.”

Tristan turned his head toward the floor, brushing his face again to clear another patch of blood off of it. He looked exhausted, and I didn’t blame him. “I didn’t think that anyone would be looking for me in the few minutes I was outside…but I hadn’t anticipated the possibility that someone had already divulged our plans. Researcher must have been watching us, and reported to Mizuchi the moment that I was vulnerable.”

“I’m sorry.” Researcher’s voice was a whisper.

I turned to her. “It’s okay. We know you didn’t mean any harm, and you helped us out in the end.”

Researcher nodded, but she appeared unconvinced.

Sera broke into a fit of coughing, and I turned toward her. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” She raised a hand, coughing again. “Just used too much mana again.”

I winced, remembering what happened last time she’d done something like that. “How bad is it?”

“Not as bad as last time. I was distributing it throughout my body, not just to my lungs. And most of the mana I was using was Vanniv’s, not mine. My everything hurts, but I don’t think I’ve caused myself more permanent damage this time. A few more minutes and I might have.”

That largely confirmed what I’d speculated about how she was using those powerful spells against Mizuchi — her new Invoker attunement seemed to let her draw power directly from her summoned monsters, rather than just casting their spells with her own mana supply.

If that was the case, she was vastly more powerful. I planned to ask her about how it worked later, but for the moment, I had more pressing concerns.

“We should have Sheridan look at you and make sure there isn’t any more scarring, just in case.”

Sera nodded. “Where is Sheridan, anyway? And the others?” She turned to Tristan, “And I suppose this might be a good time for me to learn what happened to my older brother?”

We took a while to fill her in. I told her about what had happened in the spire, and Tristan told her basically everything he’d told me.

I felt guilty that I didn’t have a way to send a message to Sheridan, Patrick, and Marissa to let them know that I was okay…but I hadn’t actually been gone for that long. Maybe an hour. They probably weren’t panicking too much.

“So, question.” I turned to Tristan. “Is this where you’re keeping Tenjin?”

Researcher’s eyes widened at that question, and she leaned forward expectantly.

“I…I’m sorry, Corin. I’m not going to tell you that. It’s been good to see you. And you as well, Sera.” He shook his head.

The look of disappointment on Researcher’s face was so sharp that it almost made me sad just looking at her. I couldn’t believe how expressive she was.

Tristan turned his head upward, looking wistful. “I can’t let you in on everything until I’m certain that we’re in agreement on how to proceed. And that’s going to take more than just saying a few words, if you say them at all. It’s going to take time.”

After everything I’d been through, it was hard to hear that, even if I couldn’t disagree with his reasoning.

I didn’t know if I could even believe the things he’d been telling me. The events of the last several months hadn’t exactly taught me to trust people.

We were silent for a time.

“Is your eye okay?” I asked.

Tristan grimaced. “I don’t think so.”

“Do you have someone you can get to heal it properly?”

Tristan shook his head.

“You should bring my friends here. Sheridan might be able to fix it.”

Tristan looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You want me to put my fate in the hands of Sheridan Theas?”

I folded my arms. “They’ve healed both Sera and my injuries more than once.”

“Oh, I know they’re talented. But they work for Wydd, Corin. Do you understand?”

I blinked. “You think they’ve been spying on us?”

“Undoubtedly. If it was just Patrick with you, I would have brought him up to talk. I don’t know as much about the blonde girl, but she probably would have been fine. Sheridan Theas? There is zero chance they don’t have their own angle on this.”

“Okay, maybe. But we’re just talking about healing your eye.”

Tristan shook his head. “They could put a shard of bone through it just as easily, and remove a threat to their visage.”

I sighed. “Fine. Here.” I pulled the silver phoenix sigil off my pants. “This has shielding, regeneration, and mana regeneration functions. Put it on and activate it. I don’t think it’ll fix an eye, but…”

Tristan accepted it, pinning it to his shirt and activating it. “I’ll give it a try, at least. Thank you.”

“Consider it repayment for giving me Selys-Lyann…and about that. Can you tell me more about it?”

“Some other time. For the moment, I think it would be best if you return to your friends.”

I frowned. “Why? We’ve only just reunited. It’s been five years, Tristan.”

“Because Mizuchi may not be able to reach us here, but she can almost certainly reach them .”

I had a moment of panic as I processed that. “Wait. Sera, don’t you still have a bond with her?”

Sera blinked. “Mizuchi, I release you.” Then she took a breath. “There. Gone. Thanks for reminding me. I’m barely conscious right now, I wouldn’t have thought of it for a while.”

I didn’t know if Mizuchi could have summoned Sera again immediately, but I was glad that we’d cut that possibility off before we found out the hard way.

I turned back to Tristan. “How quickly do you think she’ll find them?”

“Without her bond to Researcher, it would take her longer to find someone, but she may already know where they are if Researcher told her earlier. It could be hours, or she could have already found them.”

“She knows where they were.” Researcher said. “I don’t know if she’s heading there or not. I can’t divine her from here.”

I stood up. “We need to go, then.”

Tristan stood as well. “Follow me.”

He led us down the hallway and into the larger chamber up ahead.

From a distance, I hadn’t understood the scale.

The room was circular, maybe a hundred feet across. But the real scale came from the height.

My gaze shifted upward, taking in the spiral stairways and ladders that connected the levels of the room. And as I continued to look upward, I realized I couldn’t see where it ended – there were dozens of levels above us.

When Tristan had mentioned a “sanctum”, I had pictured something like a personal quarters. A bedroom, a desk, maybe some kind of devices for monitoring the building.

I wasn’t thinking big enough.

Just on the level that we were standing, I could see dozens of things I wanted to run to and examine.

The outer wall of the room was ringed with doors, each of which had a reflective mirror-like panel to the side and a number above it.

Rings of metal were built into the floor, with each ring having lines of metal that led off to various devices and contraptions throughout the chamber. With my attunement active, I could see mana flowing within them, and I realized they were some kind of conduits for magical energy.