Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

With his focus on my mother, Keras didn’t see the injured guard crawling up behind him. With a nod to my mother, the guard grabbed Keras around the right leg.

Keras startled, turning his head.

My mother lunged.

The masked swordsman twisted, trying to move out of the way, but the guard’s grip held. The blade caught Keras along the ribs, sending a charge of lightning into his chest. He stumbled back a step, finally managing to kick the guard and send the man tumbling across the floor.

Mother struck again. Keras caught her blade with his, but her blade was still charged with electricity. The lightning traveled from her weapon into his, searing his skin — but he didn’t drop the blade.

He pressed back harder.

Mother fell back a step, losing her stance for an instant. Keras’ blade flashed downward, driving Mother’s into the floor below. She pulled, but it was stuck.

Mother wasn’t done, though. She released her grip on the useless weapon and stepped inside Keras’ guard, slamming both hands into Keras chest. A blast of lightning launched him backward into the nearest wall.

Keras stood again.

His aura burned brighter. The air around him seemed to tremble as he stretched out his arms, readying his weapon to strike. His blade burned with a flare of silver, bright as a newborn star.

Then he smiled and tilted his head downward. “That was the most fun I’ve had in a while. I hope we’ll meet again.”

Then he turned and swung the burning weapon at the wall behind him, cleanly severing through the stone. With a punch from his other hand, the wall gave way… and then he was rushing out of the room.

My mother grit her teeth, taking a step toward the hole where he retreated, but the guard who’d helped her stood back up in her path. “Councilor Lyran, please help me see to the wounded.”

Mother’s eyes narrowed, considering, and then she nodded. “Of course.”

I was moving. I knelt next to the old man, Councilor Lanoy, and inspected him. Still breathing. Councilor Theas was already approaching as well. She looked exhausted, but uninjured.

I turned my head toward Councilor Theas. “He’s alive.”

“We were very lucky.” Councilor Theas knelt down at his side.

“No,” My voice replied. “He chose to be merciful.”

My vision froze after that, shifting in a blinding instant back to my own eyes.

I turned the gem over in my hand, trembling as I considered what I’d just seen.

Keras was there to meet with Tenjin, and they tried to arrest him. It follows that the ambush probably made Keras unhappy with everyone involved.

And Tenjin has been missing for weeks now.

Resh. Did Keras hurt one of the visages?

That would certainly explain why he was imprisoned in the tower if it was the case.

I frowned.

And Mother was there.

Mother fought against Keras, and she handled herself better than any of the others did. I knew she could fight, but… That was pretty impressive.

When’d she get a second attunement?

That last part didn’t really matter. I was glad she’d made it out of there alive, but I’d barely talked to my mother since she’d left. While I certainly felt a pang of fear for her when I’d seen her there, now I was more interested in why she was involved.

She clearly knew more about Keras than I did if she’d was involved in an attempted arrest.

I was nowhere near ready to reconcile with my mother after years apart, but this gave me a very good reason to write her a letter. I needed all the information I could get.

Dear Mother,

It’s been too long since we last spoke. Unfortunately, this letter is less about personal matters and more about a pressing concern.

I have recently become peripherally involved in a situation regarding a man named Keras Selyrian. I understand that you have also been somewhat involved in this matter, and thus, I would like to discuss things with you — either by missive or in person, at your discretion.

In specific, I am seeking any information about his present location and disposition. I hope you will be able to provide me with some insight.

I also hope you are well.

-Corin

I handed the letter off at the courier station, paid them, and headed back to my room to ruminate for a bit.

It felt a little cold for the first message I’d sent to my mother in years. Still, she hadn’t exactly gone out of her way to see me, so any obligation I felt was tinged with bitterness.

When evening came, I dropped the memory crystal off in the spot Jin had indicated.

I had more questions than ever about this. Hopefully, my mother would have answers. In the meantime, I did have one more person I could ask.

“Professor Orden, can we talk?”

Orden frowned at me, pushing a lock of dark hair out of her eyes. “Back so soon?”

I closed the door behind me before responding. “I have information to discuss,” I said, turning back to her. “Can we speak in a safe location?”

She sighed. “Very well.”

She walked over, placing a hand on my shoulder and muttering the words to her “Veiled Teleport” spell.

We appeared in that strange empty white space she’d taken me to before. My stomach still lurched as we teleported, but not quite as badly as last time. Maybe I was starting to acclimate to it a bit.

“Well?” Orden folded her arms.

“I managed to obtain a bit of information on Keras. He was in a confrontation with members of the House of Lords, who attempted to arrest him.”

Orden gave me an approving nod. “You managed to discover that a bit faster than I expected. Found out from your mother, I assume?”

I shook my head, only in the aftermath of making the gesture realizing that maybe I should have claimed that as my method. Well, too late now. “I obtained and watched a memory crystal of the event.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Fascinating. I wonder how you managed such a thing? Oh, don’t tell me and spoil the fun. I’ll figure it out. I appreciate the update, but I knew about that event. Did you discover anything you think was relevant?”

“Well, he claimed to be there to meet with Tenjin, but the council stepped in to have him arrested.” I thought about that for a moment, then reconsidered. “Or, I should say, a few members of the council. I imagine that couldn’t have been everyone.”

“Quite right.” Orden folded her hands in front of her. “The Council of Lords currently has forty-five seats. That was a small affair that I believe the Adjutant arranged in cooperation with Dalenos’ authorities.”

Forty five seats? That was more good information for me to keep in mind for the future. “I wasn’t quite clear on that. They mentioned something about heresy?”

“Keras fled arrest in Dalenos after he made a public speech about the visages deceiving the populace about the state of the outside world.”

Yeah, that’d definitely count as heresy. “In what way did he claim the people were being deceived?”

“I didn’t hear all of it,” Orden admitted, “But it had something to do with the Tyrant in Gold not being as controlling as everyone thinks.”

Oh, dear. “I’m half-surprised that Katashi didn’t fly down and smite him on the spot.”

Professor Orden chuckled. “Well, it seems it did come to that eventually, didn’t it?”

“Or something like it. We still haven’t heard anything about what happened after the fight I witnessed… unless you have?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t have any news on that subject. I will inform you if I discover anything pertinent, however.”