Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

I had no idea.

One thing I would have to learn more about was how the Whispers worked and their level of influence. That might help me narrow down whether or not Tristan was currently inside the spire, and if so, how much freedom he had to move around and confound any search.

Another thing I’d have to look into was how the book worked. If Tristan had been using it to spy on me, could I find a way to reverse that process? Was he just writing in a similar book of his own to send me messages, or did he have another method of sending writing to it? How was he viewing me from a distance?

If I could view Tristan from a distance, I’d gain a major advantage in finding him and learning what he was truly up to.

Third, I’d need to look into what Elora Theas was up to. How deeply involved had she been?

Fourth, I’d seen my mother working with Elora Theas in the city council chamber when I’d viewed the contents of a memory crystal. It was the first I’d seen of my mother in years, and I’d discovered that she’d somehow managed to secure an important government position.

Did that imply that mother was working with Elora on this whole affair? Did that further imply that my mother was aware of Tristan’s situation and had chosen not to tell me?

If so, she had a great deal to answer for.

That last line of thought made me realize that I was neglecting something important while I was fixating on solving this newly-arisen puzzle.

I’d been terrible about sharing what I knew with my family.

Telling my mother about this was questionable; it would be a sign of trust, and if she wasn’t involved, I’d be doing her a great kindness.

But if she was involved, telling her I knew about Tristan was playing my hand openly.

…Then again, if she was working directly with Tristan, he could just tell her that himself.

So, I’d tell my mother. Maybe not immediately; it’d be safer to do it in person.

I wrote her a quick letter, one that I’d hand off to a courier in the morning after I’d had a chance to acquire a seal for it.

Dear Mother,

I didn’t heed your warnings, as I’m sure you expected.

Fortunately, I am alive and relatively intact.

I have a considerable amount of information that I believe you would be interested in. In specific, I am aware of Keras Selyrian’s current whereabouts. I also have conclusive evidence that he was not involved in Visage Tenjin’s current situation.

Due to the sensitive nature of this information, I would like to share it with you in person in an area that is warded against observation. I understand that this letter may take some time to reach you, and that you have other responsibilities, but I would like to meet at your earliest convenience.

I hope you are well.

-Corin

She’d last told me that she had urgent business in Dalenos. That was months ago, however, and I hoped she was back from her journey. If I didn’t receive a reply within a week or so, I’d see if I could find a Wayfarer who could send her a message with magic. I wanted to avoid that route for now because it would require giving that Wayfarer all of the information in the letter, which wasn’t a great idea.

For the moment, though, I had other family members to attend to.

My father? Given how he’d treated me, I didn’t feel the world’s strongest urge to be kind to him.

But I couldn’t justify hiding this knowledge forever just because of how he’d treated me.

I planned to tell him as soon as I could safely travel to his estate and figure out what I wanted to say. That would probably be sometime after I finished my first year of classes.

I had another family member that was closer, though, and one who deserved answers as much as I did.

I left my room, taking the book with me, and knocked softly on the door to the guest bedroom where Sera was staying. Fortunately, the Hartigan manor was large enough that she had a room to herself.

“It’s Corin,” I added after a moment.

I heard some shuffling within the room. About thirty seconds passed before she opened the door, her eyes narrowed and her hair hilariously askew. She’d been sleeping.

Honestly, seeing her like that reminded me of how similar we looked when she hadn’t gone through her morning hair-wrestling and general beautification rituals. Her hair was a little longer than mine, but it was the same black with a bit of wave to it, and we had a similar athletic sort of build. Neither of us was as skinny as Marissa, but we were both in good shape.

I grinned at her disheveled appearance. “Can I come in?”

She waved me inside and closed the door behind us. She went to sit on her bed.

I pulled over a chair from the nearby writing desk. “We need to talk.”

She tilted her head to the side, narrowed her eyes, and pointed at her throat.

I coughed in apology. It was too easy to forget that she couldn’t talk. She still hadn’t recovered from the damage she’d sustained drinking the potion I’d given her in the tower.

I’ll have to figure out a way to help her. It’s my fault she’s in this bad of shape.

I shifted the book to show it to her. “Poor choice of words. I mean I need to tell you something? Or, really, to show you something.”

I handed the book to her. She raised an eyebrow.

“Look at the last few pages that have writing.”

She nodded, flipping through the pages until she reached the end, then going back a bit. I waited patiently while she read.

Her eyes visibly widened when she read the part I’d expected, then she slammed the book shut and handed it back to me.

“Yeah, I’m…”

She raised a hand to quiet me, then moved over to the writing desk and retrieved a pencil and paper. We were lucky that Derek had a pencil and an eraser available; pens were far more common in Valia.

She scribbled a quick message on the paper. “What are the odds that it’s really Tristan?”

I winced. “Unfortunately, rather high. Right before we left the tower, Katashi said something about Tristan being involved with Tenjin’s disappearance. I found that book right when I walked into the tower for my Judgment, and I’ve seen evidence that it can be used as a tracking device.”

I hesitated for a moment before continuing. It was difficult to admit my conclusions out loud. “I think Tristan has been keeping an eye on me and manipulating me this entire time.”

Her next reply was simply writing, “Resh.”

I sighed in assent. “Yeah.”

There was a part of me that was relieved that she didn’t react with joy at hearing that Tristan was alive. On some level, I’d felt like I was fundamentally broken for failing to be happy about the revelation. I was supposed to be overjoyed that he was alive, wasn’t I?

Sera scratched another message on the page. “Don’t do anything drastic. We’ll figure this out.”

I gave her my best effort at a smile in response. It wasn’t a very good one, a half-smile at best, but I tried. “Thanks.”

She put a hand on mine. I tensed at the physical contact, but I didn’t pull away. Sera was trying to comfort me, and maybe she needed a bit of comfort herself.

We hadn’t really talked about how Tristan’s disappearance had affected her in any depth. We were all close as children, but the little bit that she’d told me recently gave me the impression he wasn’t always nice to her.

A part of me wanted to ask her about it, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for the answer. I didn’t think I could handle my opinion of Tristan sinking any further.

I’d idolized him for too long.

I’d fought so hard to try to find a way to bring him back home. To try to fix the bonds that had broken in his absence.