Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

“Right. I will also be accompanying you. Unfortunately, even if she is incapacitated — which may or may not be necessary — Vera will count as one of our six. That means that you children will need to decide who else among you is going to be entering the tower with Corin, if anyone.”

She paused, biting her lower lip before continuing. “Under normal circumstances, I would advise that Corin be escorted by a full group of professors or military officials…but given the likelihood of corruption in our ranks, I would advise we keep this entire plan to ourselves. I will inform some of the other Whispers of the situation so that they can spread this discretely in case of our failure.”

Teft flexed a hand in the air. “We should at least tell Jack.”

Professor Orden sighed. “Fine, fine. I agree that it’s unlikely the vice chancellor would be working against our country. He’s nothing if not a patriot. But do advise him to be cautious. In fact, perhaps we should just bring him here for the discussion after the children leave?”

Teft scratched his chin. “That would be a good idea.”

“All right.” Professor Orden turned back to me. “Given how dangerous this could be, I’d advise you to buy and pack anything you might need for the tower tonight. Tomorrow, check the archives to research Keras and Vera. Perhaps you’ll find something new. I’ll scout Vera’s location while you do that, and then meet you at the Divinatory at eleven bells. We’ll confront her together and hopefully bring her to the tower directly afterward.”

I nodded. “That should give us plenty of time to get this done before Katashi’s deadline.”

“Agreed. If there are no further questions, I’ll bring you all back to the school - and you can head back to your rooms. Do not discuss anything related to Vera, Keras, or Katashi unless you are in a secure area. You should, however, decide who wishes to go to the tower. Just keep the conversation vague. Understood?”

We all nodded. If we hadn’t been through so much, we probably would have had far more questions. As it was, everyone just looked exhausted.

With another teleport spell, we found ourselves back in the middle of campus.

We headed straight for the dining hall.

Fighting and thinking, it seemed, were both hungry work.

“I’m going with you.” Sera opened with it almost as soon as the teleport had finished.

“Okay?” I replied uncertainly.

“I would also like to accompany you.” Jin this time. A little surprising, given his reluctance before.

Patrick nudged me next. “I’m in, too, if you need me.”

Marissa had an oddly introspective expression. “I’ll go as well, of course, if you’ll have me.”

I turned to Jin. “Might be unwise for you to come with me, given how badly you were hurt.”

He slipped the ring of regeneration off his finger, handing it back to me. “As I mentioned before, my patron’s healing was quite effective. I no longer feel any pain from my injuries.”

I accepted the ring, slipping it on and activating it immediately. I already felt much better than earlier, but using it more couldn’t hurt.

Probably.

I wasn’t actually sure what happened if you had a regeneration item on and you were already fully healed.

Oh well. If I have three arms in the morning, I’ll know this was a bad idea.

I glanced between my three candidates. I was pretty sure Sera would murder me if I didn’t bring her along. She was already pretty frustrated that I’d been leaving her out so much, and I couldn’t blame her.

Perhaps even more importantly, I didn’t think anyone in our group could match her combat ability. Maybe Marissa, now that she’d hit Carnelian, but I doubted it. Sera’s summoned monsters made her vastly more dangerous than a standard attuned of the same level.

So, if things got messy? Sera was the best option I had.

That meant choosing between Patrick, Marissa, Jin. And that was rough decision to make.

Patrick was my retainer. I wasn’t very good with people, but even I understood that failing to bring him with me on a dangerous mission would potentially alienate him forever. So, uh, that was bad.

Marissa was Carnelian now, which meant she was clearly more powerful than the rest of us. That almost made the decision for me… but she looked exhausted. Sick, even. I remembered her tripping when we were heading back from the fight - had she overused her mana that significantly?

Jin seemed to be looking for a chance to redeem himself in our eyes for getting injured earlier. More importantly, he probably had something to prove to his patron visage. This would give him an opportunity to do something to garner his visage’s favor, as well as repay the visage for healing him earlier. It was a big opportunity for him.

“I’m bringing Sera. She’s family, and her summoned monsters give us more flexibility.” I saw a series of nods from the others; no one seemed to dispute that call.

I turned to Marissa next and handed her the mana watch. “Marissa, can you check what your mana looks like right now?”

She accepted the watch. She’d seen me use it dozens of times and knew how it worked. She turned, awkwardly slipped it into her shirt, then pulled it back out.

The number read “0/172”.

I blinked at the reading. Not only was her mana capacity vastly higher than my own, it was even higher than I’d expected for a Carnelian.

But her current mana was zero. That was strange . Even if she’d overused her mana, she should have recovered some of it by now. “Have you been feeling sick, Marissa?”

She nodded. “Just a bit, pay it no mind.”

Sera turned to Marissa. “I think it’s more than that. Katashi probably gave you an infusion of his mana when he enhanced your attunement. I don’t think your body has acclimated to it yet. Every time I make a contract with a new monster I experience something similar, just on a smaller scale. It looks like he gave you a lot of mana.”

That explanation made sense. It was similar to the reason why Enchanters and Shapers couldn’t safely transfer mana from one person into another.

Marissa looked downcast. “What do I do?”

Sera waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, you’ll be fine. You probably just need to rest for a few days. I think you should sit this one out, though.”

I frowned at that. Marissa was our best option in terms of raw fighting ability. Still, if Sera was right and Marissa was going to be sick for a while…

Marissa looked at me.

Resh. I really didn’t want to make the decision.

“It’s okay, Marissa. You saved me back there and defended Jin, too. You should be proud of that. Take the time to rest, you’ve earned it.”

She gave me a nod. “If you’re certain.”

That left the even harder part.

“Jin, Patrick. I want to bring both of you with me, but I can’t. I also can’t choose between you. Patrick, I know you’re my retainer, and that should take priority in most cases. Jin, however, just got healed by his patron visage and has a good chance to earn that visage’s favor here. This isn’t just about me.”

Patrick nodded to that. “Yeah, I get it. But someone has to make a call.”

They flipped a coin. Jin won the toss.

Patrick sighed. “You just take care of each other in there. I wouldn’t forgive myself if you’re hurt.”

I nodded. “We will. I promise.”

Promises are so much easier to make than they are to keep.

My first order of business was to prepare for climbing the tower. That meant getting supplies.

I headed over to the Climber’s Court, trusting that Lars would offer me some sage advice to accompany his sometimes-absurd prices. It was evening by the time I arrived — hours after the attack — but I could still see smoke rising from buildings only a few streets down.