Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

And it was, fortunately, already very-well magically protected. I inspected the runes on the walls on my way in. Some were familiar, like anti-scrying and anti-teleportation, but others were new. I’d have to write them down later.

We sat in an opulent living room while Derek and I explained to everyone what we’d encountered. Keras spent most of the time doing some kind of meditation exercise with his sword, since he’d already heard it all from me.

When we finished, Patrick was a combination of excited and incredulous. “So, Professor Orden was the traitor?”

I sighed. “No, Patrick. If you want to get technical, I was probably the closest thing to a traitor. Apparently all this was something our government approved of.”

Derek raised his hands in a halting gesture. “Woah, slow down there, Corin. Orden might have overstated her support a bit there. She might have members of the Council of Lords supporting this little endeavor, but certainly not the whole thing. My mother is on the council and the first she’d heard of this was when I brought it to her attention.”

I frowned. “How’d you find out about all this, anyway?”

He sighed. “Elora. Dear, darling, Elora. She told me all about it after she’d helped abduct Tenjin and the others. She was so excited. Thought I’d just automatically approve of her idea to kidnap our allies and the visage we worship. How could I have possibly disagreed?”

That made sense. He’d mentioned having a falling out with Elora Theas. I’d assumed it was just some kind of petty lover’s quarrel.

Apparently, it was much more serious than I’d given him credit for. And, to be fair, maybe Derek himself was a little more serious than I’d realized.

I was grateful to have him on my side. If he’d taken Elora’s side in this, it would have been a catastrophe. He’d have stopped us from ever getting Vera to the tower.

“Think this is a bit much for us students to be dealin’ with.” Marissa tapped her fingers on the edge of her chair. “Not to be discountin’ the help of m’lord Hartigan and m’lord — what was it, Selys-something?”

“Selyrian,” Keras corrected. “It just means ‘from near the city of Selyr’.”

“Oh, got that. Right, so not to be saying yer not important an all, but if they bagged a visage—”

Keras came over and sat down on a couch next to me. “No offense taken. I mean, I could handle fighting the whole government here in a straight fight—”

Derek leaned forward toward Keras. “Do we need to take this to the roof?”

Sera scribbled a note and passed it to me.

I read it and laughed. “Sera would like you to keep it down here. She says she ‘wants to watch’.” I waggled my eyebrows in implication.

Everyone laughed.

It was a good sound.

I turned my head. “But, more seriously, Marissa had a good point. We’re going to need more than a handful of people if we all agree we want to do something about this.”

Derek turned his head to me. “Well, if we’re just talking about rescuing Tenjin, we’ll have Katashi’s support. That may come with support from a number of noble families, both locally and in Dalenos. If you’re talking about stopping people from making artificial attuned, that’s much more complex.”

I shook my head. “I’m not worried about that, so much as saving the people that Orden kidnapped and trying to make sure that Orden and her allies didn’t destroy our alliance with Caelford out of greed.”

Derek nodded. “That’s more or less what I’ve been thinking, too. I’m sure this is a lot for all of you to take in. Don’t worry about anything tonight. I’ll take care of making sure we’re safe here.”

Patrick frowned. “Will we be able to go back to class tomorrow?”

I hadn’t even thought about that. It seemed so unimportant compared to everything else going on. It was a valid question, though. We needed to figure out what types of things we were safe to do in general. We needed an overall plan of action on how to proceed.

I was just so tired. I couldn’t think about it in detail. Not yet.

I turned to him. “You and Marissa are probably fine. I don’t think anyone has any idea of your involvement at this point… aside from Professor Teft.”

Derek leaned back in his chair. “I don’t think Teft was on Orden’s side in this. If he was, Orden wouldn’t have bothered taking me with her to the tower. A reliable ally would have been better than bringing me along and trying to control me.”

I folded my arms. “Unless she knew you were aware of the situation and she was planning to get rid of you, too.”

Derek shook his head. “Too much of a risk, even for her. No, if she had another attuned she could have counted on that was of a similar power range to ours, she’d have brought him or her instead.”

I considered that. “Why didn’t she bring Elora, then?”

Derek rubbed his forehead. “Elora’s been missing for a couple weeks. I’m not sure where she went. Might be that she’s the one guarding the prisoners right now. I don’t believe what Orden said about them cooperating for a second.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, unless her idea of cooperation involves more of those control rings. Which it probably does, but I imagine they wouldn’t last forever on their own.”

“She’d probably use self-recharging rings. They could last indefinitely if that’s the case.” Derek sighed. “Can’t believe I let her give me a ring.”

Keras snickered. “I’m sure a lot of people say that at some point in their lives.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Okay. You don’t get to talk anymore. House rules.”

Keras quirked a brow. “Then how am I supposed to flirt with you for Miss Cadence’s entertainment?”

“Ugh. I’m going upstairs.” Derek pushed himself out of a chair.

Keras stood up, too. “Is that an invitation?”

“Ugh, no. Stay here . I insist.”

We laughed again. Keras sat back down, feigning dejection.

I spent much of the rest of the day telling everyone more about what had led up to this point.

We found a Valor board eventually. Sera beat all of us at it, although Keras seemed to be playing toward some kind of goal other than winning that none of the rest of us knew about.

Later, I thought to ask both Keras and Derek about the mark on my right hand. It was an attunement, not a strange one like Sera’s mark, but neither of them recognized it.

Derek offered me some books to read and pointed me to a room where I could study and sleep for the night. He had enough rooms for everyone else to stay there, too. Even Keras decided to stick around.

When I finally retired to my bedroom, I pulled out a book — but not the one that Derek had given me to read. It was Trials of Judgment, the book linked to the Voice of the Tower.

I had some questions for him.

Dear Voice of the Tower,

Lyras Orden was responsible for kidnapping Tenjin.

I’m going to presume you already knew about this from the beginning.

I’m also going to assume that you were somehow responsible for how I ended up with the keys necessary to open the prison cells for Vera, Echion, and Keras, thereby distracting Katashi from his pursuit of the real culprit.

I’ve stopped Orden. Katashi has her.

I’d like to give you a chance to explain what you’re really up to before I decide if I need to point people in your direction.

Corin

The note might have come across as a bit more vindictive than I had intended, but I felt pretty significantly betrayed.

There had been a body outside the jail cells where Vera and the others had been imprisoned. House Cornell would be mourning for the loss of a child. Had that death been the Voice’s work, too?