Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Hrm.

I pointed at Selys-Lyann. “Could you draw mana from an item? Selyss-Lyann has an ice aura.”

She frowned. “I’ve got a limited degree of ability to work with ice from my bond… maybe I could do something with it. Can’t promise it would be as impressive as what Patrick and I could pull off together, but it might be better than what I can do on my own.”

“Okay. You should take that sword, then, provided you don’t mind the curse.”

“Curse?”

“Shopkeeper told me that it’s cursed so that anyone who wields it dies. Probably just a ridiculous legend.”

Sera stared at the sword, then looked back at me. “…you’ve been using a cursed sword this whole time?”

I chuckled. “I don’t think the curse is real. But if you’re worried about it, I can hold onto the sword.”

She picked the sword up. “I’m not as trusting as you are, but if there is a curse… I’ll beat it.”

I grinned. “Okay. So, we’re taking Derek?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s hope we don’t regret it.”

We finished packing Sera’s gear and headed outside to meet the others.

Derek delivered on his promised apology and Sera accepted.

It might have been my imagination, but I got the impression he looked just as suspicious of us as we were of him.

One more teleport. My stomach lurched as we arrived outside Corrington Carriages.

Derek looked at Professor Orden. “We’re sure she’s in there?”

The professor nodded. “I just scried for her minutes ago. She’ll be in here.”

As I recovered, I realized everyone was looking at me. “What?”

Professor Orden looked at me. “Go on in, Corin. This part is all you.”

“You’re joking.”

Orden gestured to the door. “You’re the one she’s going to recognize. You might be able to talk her into coming along with us peacefully. If anything goes wrong, just give us the signal.”

I frowned. “What signal?”

“Scream loudly.”

I sighed, walking over to the door of the shop. To my surprise — and relief — Jin fell into step beside me. No one commented on it and I wasn’t going to complain.

From the sign on the door, we were arriving during normal business hours, so I didn’t bother knocking. I just opened the door.

The inside of the building was well-lit and doubly well organized. I was shocked to see four complete automobiles in a perfect line, each painted a different color with a small sign in front of it.

Right near the entrance, a dark-skinned young man I didn’t recognize sat at a desk, looking over paperwork. Toward the back of the room, I could see another line of automobiles, but unfinished and unpainted. From the screeching noise coming from the one on the far right, I could tell someone was working on the carriage with some kind of noisy tool, but I couldn’t see them.

I stepped up to the desk. There were chairs on my side for a visitor, but I didn’t take a seat.

The man behind the desk looked up at me. “Good day, sir. Do you have an appointment?”

Ah, a secretary. Fair enough. He’s probably another student like me, looking to make a bit of spending money.

I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. Just here to visit someone.”

“Oh, who?”

Well, I wasn’t exactly planning to tell the whole world this, but… “Vera Corrington. Is she here?”

He nodded immediately and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, lemme go get her for you. Don’t touch anything. Seriously. Aloras will murder you.”

I nodded, glancing at Jin. He shrugged at me.

We waited.

The student headed to the back of the room, and that grinding noise I’d been hearing paused after I heard a few hushed words of conversation.

A moment later, Vera pushed herself out from under the automobile, setting down a long rod that I wasn’t familiar with. She was too far away for me to get a good look at the runes on the side.

Vera’s eyes widened when she saw me. She glanced from side-to-side, searching, before walking over with the secretary at her side.

I put my hands up in a gesture of peace. “Can we talk?”

The secretary glanced at me, then back to Vera. “This guy bothering you, Vera? He must have been able to tell that she looked nervous.

Vera shook her head. “No… I know Corin. Was just surprised to see him here.”

I nodded. “I’ve got something important to talk to you about, Vera. Related to the last time we saw each other.”

Vera sighed. “I should have known it’d come to this eventually.” She turned to the secretary. “John, go tell Aloras that Corin is here, then take the rest of the day off. We need to talk privately.”

John blinked. “If you say so?”

“I do. Aloras should be in the back.”

John nodded and headed toward a back room.

Vera folded her arms once John was out of sight. “Look, I’m sorry for how things ended, but I needed to make sure I got Echion out of there in one piece. You seemed nice, but I didn’t know you or your motives. I still don’t.”

She probably left me behind as a distraction for Katashi. And maybe to buy more time to get further into the city without being reported to the authorities. I wouldn’t have done the same, but she didn’t actually hurt me. And I can’t blame her for distrusting a stranger.

I shrugged in response to her half-hearted apology. “I’m not here about that. We’ve got bigger things to worry about. Give me a second.”

I removed my etching rod and began carving a rune in her door.

“What are you doing? You’re ruining the wood!”

Oh, maybe I should have explained first.

I finished carving the rune, noticing Jin nod out of the corner of my eye, then turned back to Vera.

“Noise-dampening rune. We really don’t want people to hear us. Uh, aside from Jin here. Jin, this is Vera. Vera, Jin.”

Vera sighed. “Fine, fine. Nice to meet you, Jin. What’s this all about?”

I put my rod away, and then slipped off my glove to show her the sigil of Katashi on my right hand. “Katashi has charged me with bringing you to him within the next week, otherwise he’s going to wreck the city.”

Vera reached down for something.

Jin moved faster, a pistol appearing in his hand and pressed up against her chest before I could react. “Don’t even think about it.”

Vera sucked in a sharp breath, putting up her hands in surrender. “I… I can’t go back there. You don’t understand. It’s not just about me.”

I took a moment to process what had just happened, then moved behind Vera and removed the dueling cane from her belt.

My old dueling cane, in fact. I looped it onto my own belt.

“You can lower the gun, Jin. Thank you.”

He lowered the weapon. “If you are certain.”

I turned back to Vera. “I don’t want this to end in bloodshed, Vera. If there’s something I don’t understand, make me understand. I’m willing to listen to your side of things, but one way or another, we need Katashi to be satisfied or he’s going burn this place to the ground.”

She sighed again. “Can I put my hands down?”

Jin stepped forward, nearly eye-to-eye with her. “Reach for another weapon and you lose a hand.”

Vera glowered at him. “I don’t have any other weapons.”

“Good,” Jin replied simply.

Vera lowered her arms and leaned up against a nearby wall. “How much do you know?”

I rolled my eyes. “About seventeen years’ worth, aside from what I’ve forgotten. Can you be more specific?”

“About what really happened in the tower.”

I scratched my chin. “I’ve pieced together a fair bit. You went in the tower with a mixed group. Some people from Caelford, some locals. Something bad obviously happened, and you ended up in that prison with the kid.”