Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Moreover, two years of proper training meant it was less likely that an Elementalist would accidentally set a farm on fire or do something equally catastrophic.

I was optimistic that a society equipped to create attunements could find a way to make it work. It was something I wanted to research on my own, and if people were already succeeding, I wanted to know more.

The last part of what she said did bother me a little, though. Strong enough to prevent a war? Any individual attuned with that level of power was strong enough to start a war, too — or just cause tremendous damage. I’d need to find out more about that.

“What can you tell me about what you were doing with Echion? Why use a child?”

Vera shook her head. “I’m not going to get into that. It’s a deep secret for a reason. And before you chastise me for it, keep in mind that Tenjin wanted us to stop doing the experiments. I’m pretty confident Katashi wouldn’t want me spreading knowledge about them further.”

I shook my head. “Katashi seemed to want to kill Echion outright. Do you know why?”

Vera shrugged. “I can only speculate that Katashi was strongly opposed to what Echion represented. I doubt the visages are happy with the idea of artificial attunements in general.”

I nodded at that. “Can you tell me anything more about the tests you were planning to run?”

She winced. “I’d really rather not discuss anything that might make Katashi even angrier with me.”

That was pretty disappointing. I wanted to know as much as possible about these tests so I could understand exactly how they worked.

Maybe I could eventually devise safer alternatives?

More importantly, I had some pretty serious moral issues with the idea of testing experimental magic on children — but I didn’t have enough context to know what dangers, if any, the tests might have involved.

I shook my head. “Fine. We can talk about it more later if it becomes necessary. For the moment, though, tell me what happened next.”

“Once Tenjin was out, we tried to fall back, but that swordsman was brutal, and Elora knew all our tricks. She was one of the strongest members of our group in the first place. That masked woman teleported out with Tenjin. That was the last thing I saw before the swordsman knocked me out. Then I woke up in a jail cell.”

I frowned. “Describe the swordsman.”

“Tall, olive skin, brown hair. He had a local accent. He talked with the other traitor and Elora a bit during the fight. Didn’t say too much, but it sounded like he was the one giving orders.”

That brought a couple people to mind. “Any chance it was Keras?”

She shook her head. “Don’t think so. Hair was shorter and lighter. Skin was darker.”

As it turned out, I knew an Emerald-level swordsman who met that description pretty much perfectly. Derek Hartigan.

And he was, of course, standing right outside.

This was going to be awkward.

I’d known from the moment that I’d seen Elora Theas on the list that there was a good chance Derek was involved, too. This wasn’t explicit confirmation, but it made the possibility much more likely.

Keras was still a possibility. Someone as powerful as he was could have had another attunement we weren’t aware of that enabled him to change his appearance. If he had a Shadow Attunement or something similar, he could have changed minor things once he ended up in that cell so that Vera wouldn’t recognize him. I kept that possibility at the back of my mind, but Derek was clearly the more immediate concern.

I put my thoughts together and replied. “Okay. So, Elora betrayed your group for reasons unknown. She probably summoned Tenjin intentionally… but if the goal of her and her compatriots was to attack Tenjin, why bother with all this?”

Vera twisted her lips as she considered that. “Not sure. I assume those two people with her were connected with Tenjin somehow and wanted his attention focused on something else, giving them a chance to attack while he was distracted. Or maybe it’s a political thing. Presumably, they escaped with an unconscious Tenjin — and then I ended up in that jail somehow, along with Echion. Maybe they wanted to make Caelford look responsible for Tenjin’s disappearance?”

I could follow that logic. “To drive a rift between Caelford and Valia. Yeah, that makes sense. Or just to get Katashi to focus his attention on Caelford and Valia while Edria is at our borders… If Katashi sends monsters to attack us because his brother is missing, that gives Edria a window to strike while our forces are defending the university.”

“That’s what I think’s probably happening: a couple Edrian agents trying to get Katashi to wreck this place while they invade. And by ‘trying’, I mean succeeding.” Vera cracked her knuckles. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about it.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Why not? We could go talk to Katashi. If you explain everything you just told me…”

She shook her head. “Two main problems with that. One, your own government has me under surveillance here. If I go anywhere other than my house or this office, I’m going to get arrested.”

I considered that. Elora is probably the one keeping Vera under observation. I’m a little surprised she hasn’t just had Vera arrested already — or just assassinated. Maybe Elora doesn’t want to bring this issue out into the open? I don’t know enough about the politics within the city’s leadership to speculate deeply.

I wish my mother was here. She might actually be on Elora’s side in this, if that memory crystal was any indication, but at least I could probably get some answers out of her.

Vera raised two fingers, continuing her explanation. “Two, I’m not willing to let Echion get dragged into this any further than he already has been. If I go to Katashi, he could use me to locate Echion here. I’m not okay with that.”

If Echion was already powerful enough that Vera believed he had a chance against an Emerald, I could see why even a visage might be concerned about him… and I could see why Vera wouldn’t want to give him up.

Jin spoke up, surprising me. Vera seemed startled, too. “We can get you into the tower without the government knowing. Your best chance to save yourself is cooperation.”

Vera absently scratched at the wall with her nails. “I’m still not willing to risk Echion suffering further.”

I shook my head. “Echion isn’t Katashi’s focus right now. Even if he was, I think we could convince him to make a deal. He wants his brother to be back safe. If we can convince him that this was probably an Edrian plot to conquer Valia, maybe that’ll be sufficient to turn his attention elsewhere.”

“I don’t like it. Too many uncertainties.” Vera shook her head. “I’m not going in there without a clearer plan.”

I scratched my chin. “What if we offered to teleport Echion to a safe place, where even Katashi might have a hard time finding him?”

“Can’t trust that you aren’t going to put him somewhere your own people are going to study him or hurt him.”

I considered that. “Katashi is going to come after you directly if you don’t go right now, and he’ll have an army of monsters with him. If what you want is to keep Echion safe, you want him as far from you as possible. What if we put him on a train back to Caelford?”

She rubbed her forehead. “I’d have headed back to Caelford with him by now if I could, but your government has people checking up on us. Tell you what, if you can successfully get Echion and my brother on a train to Caelford, and I’m satisfied that they’re not just going to be grabbed by your troops at the next city over, I’ll go with you to the tower.”