Stepping Up, Draft 1, CH 34 (Patreon)

“This isn’t good,” Carina said, tapping the name of their team on their schedule. She hadn’t even asked Tibs to locate it.

“I don’t see the problem,” Jackal replied. “Nine days is plenty of time for Tibs to get ready.”

With the conscripts, the schedule now stretched to close to a month. Tibs hoped that with Sto back to his old self and the survival rate now reasonable, more potential adventurers would come. He wanted more ordinary people to take part. Even if they had to pay the guild for the privilege, Tibs wanted people who were neither criminals nor nobles involved.

“Our run is on the sixth of Marmel,” Carina said. Tibs frowned, trying to remember why the month was important.

“Yes,” Khumdar said, “that will cause some difficulties.”

“The eighth,” Tibs said, remembering. The Dark Night was on the eight.

“I still don’t see the problem, so Tibs is going to have two—” Jackal stopped and looked around. They’d waited until the crowd thinned before approaching, but there were people within earshot.

Tibs’s gaze stopped on the sorceress who was standing at the edge of the square, looking the crowd over. She didn’t have an etching this time and her expression was borderline bored.

“Tibs?” Mez called.

“Sorry, what?”

“We’re going to our room to continue the conversation in private,” Jackal said.

“Good idea.” Tibs followed them, watched to see if the sorceress noticed them. She’d shown an interest in Jackal that first day maybe she worked for his father? He had the coins to afford a sorceress.

* * * * *

“So,” Jackal said, dropping onto his bed. “What is the problem with the run?”

“It isn’t with the run,” Carina said, taking the chair and sitting to face the beds. “It’s with how close the two audience will be. I should have thought about that. This is one time when paying to be earlier would have been a good thing.”

“Possibly not,” Khumdar said, “but this is certainly complication.”

“You two are agreeing about this,” Mez said, “so I know it’s serious, but I don’t see how either.”

“I’m with them,” Tibs said. “I’ll just continue not eating after the run.”

Carina shook her head. “It’s not that simple. You’re going to be near death from hunger before the run; you have to be for this to work. You can’t then go two more days without eating.” She shook her head harder. “We need to change one. We’ll focus on Darkness this time, and on the following run, Tibs can have the audience with Light.”

“I’d rather not risk it,” Tibs said. “Sto is going to graduate, eventually.” He ran a hand over the bracer. “Possibly soon. Even with making these, he must be close. I want to use the time we’ll have to travel to find a way to the Purity dungeon and find a way to have the audience. I want Purity to be the last, because there’s no way to know what Sto’s going to be like after graduating. He might not have the strength to set things up for me.”

“Can Tibs live off his essence?” Mez asked.

“Oh I hope not,” Tibs replied.

“I doubt it,” Carina said at the same time.

“Why do you hope you can’t survive off it?” Mez asked. “It would solve the problem of you nearly dying.”

“I have to be afraid I’ll die for this to work,” Tibs answered. “If I can survive with my essence, that isn’t going to happen.”

“You can stave off thirst with your water,” Khumdar said, “but I am not aware of any element that can replace eating.”

“So we can’t do this,” Carina stated.

“We have to,” Tibs said. He wasn’t missing this opportunity. Too many things could go wrong trying for it later.

“You could die, Tibs.”

“I can die anytime I go on a run.”

“How about we do this,” Jackal said. “We get ready for the run and Tibs’s audience with Light. Then, we watch him until the Dark Night. If you or Khumdar decide he’s in too bad a shape, we feed him and wait for the next one, or have the dungeon give him a dark room, that’s going to work, right?”

“I’d rather not ask Sto for another favor,” Tibs said.

“But it is an alternative we can work with, right?” Jackal looked at them, focusing on Carina and Khumdar.

“It is a valid alternative,” the cleric said.

Carina sighed. “I guess it is. I still don’t like that it’s putting Tibs at risk.”

“Risk is an adventurer’s life,” Mez said, as if he was repeating something he’d said multiple times before.

“And with risk, comes rewards,” Jackal added, grinning.

“Yeah, rewards.” Carina didn’t sound as enthusiastic.

“Tibs, what had you distracted in the square?” Khumdar asked.

“That sorceress was there, watching us.”

“You mean you,” Jackal said. “She showed an interest in our little Light Fingers when she arrived.”

“She was looking at you,” Tibs replied, “and don’t call me that.”

Carina looked from one to the other. “Why would a sorcerer be interested in either of you? And how did you know she was one?”

“She had the robe,” Jackal said.

“You wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told you,” Tibs said.

“I would have,” the fighter protested. “They were distinctive, white and yellow and with lots of gems on her. She’s probably rich to afford all of those. Maybe you can do your finger magic on one of them, Tibs?”

“I’m not picking a sorceress’s pockets, and those aren’t just gems, they’re amulets.”

“Are you sure?” Carina asked.

“She made an etching while she studied the area and I could see the essence flow from them to it.”

“How many?” Carina asked, turning pensive.

Tibs shrugged. “Lots, why?”

“Maybe she has someone charge them.”

“What difference would that make?” Mez asked.

She looked at them, hesitated, then answered. “Sorcerers have their own ranking system beyond the guild’s. It’s based on the number of elements we can interact with. I only have my element right now, but somewhere between Lambda and Zeta, I’ll start training to interact with another element. Then I’ll gain more as I grow in power. The more elements I can interact with, the higher I am within the sorcerer’s hierarchy.”

“You are going to have audiences?” Jackal asked, frowning.

“No, it isn’t like Tibs. It’s just intense training to be able to tell the minute differences between essences, and learning to apply our will to them. It’s hard work. I don’t think anyone can interact with more than a dozen elements.” She smiled. “Well, for now. I don’t intend to stop at twelve. I am going to master all of them.”

“I have no doubt you’ll be the greatest of them,” Jackal said.

“What would a sorceress powerful enough to have ‘lots’ of elements be doing here,” Khumdar asked. “Let along be paying attention to Tibs.”

“She was looking at Jackal,” Tibs stated. “Look at him. Why would anyone pay me any attention next to him?”

“Because there’s a dozen of Jackals in town,” Mez said, “but only one Tibs.”

“Hey now,” Jackal replied. “There aren’t a dozen of me. I’ll grant four or five, but there’s no way I’ve left a dozen hang around without pounding them into place.”

“Are you counting Cross in there?” Tibs asked.

“Fine, six,” the fighter conceded. “But she doesn’t really count, she’s a late arrival. She might leave any day now.”

“The point is that Jackal isn’t that unusual,” Carina said. “I doubt she’d be interested in him simply because he was the first to reach Lambda.”

“Not that I tried,” Jackal said.

“I didn’t want to graduate to Rho,” Tibs said. “I just wasn’t careful enough in hiding what I can do.”

“And Jackal had to either do what he did or die,” Carina said. “I’m happy he chose to live.”

“So is Kro,” Jackal replied.

“But we are straying off the important matter,” Khumdar said. “Why is a powerful sorceress here, and why did she pay attention to Tibs? Is he why she is here?”

“She didn’t do anything odd after studying him,” Jackal said. “She kept scanning the crowd as she walked off.”

“She could be hiding her interest.”

“Shouldn’t you be the one to know, Khumdar,” Carina asked. “Secrets are your thing, after all.”

“Knowing someone has a secret and uncovering what it is are not the same things,” the cleric replied. “And like Tibs, I am wary of attracting the attention of a sorceress seemingly as powerful as she is. You may be the better person to find out what she is doing.”

“Or Tibs could simply ask her,” Jackal said. “She’s staying at the inn after all.”

“She is?”

“Where else is a powerful sorceress going to stay? In a room like this? She’s paying for a room with only one bed in it. That tells you she has money.”

“Are there poor sorcerers?” Mez asked.

“No,” Jackal answered.

“Sometimes,” Carina said and drew stares. “Not every sorcerer is interested in selling their skills. Some spend their time in research. That gets expensive, but we’re getting sidetracked again. Her reason for being here might have nothing to do with Tibs. I say we wait until she does something to indicate what she’s here for.”

“So long as she doesn’t cause trouble,” Tibs said, “I don’t mind her being around.”

* * * * *

“You have to explain something to me,” the woman said, plopping herself in the seat across Tibs. Tibs didn’t think he’d ever seen a noble plop on a chair, let alone a sorceress. Carina never plopped, she sat.

He paused, meat dripping with spicy sauce nearly to his mouth, and stared at her. This was his last meal before he prepared himself for his audience with Light. He hadn’t planned on having it interrupted by who had to be the most powerful sorceress in town, short of whoever the guild had training Carina and the other Runners.

He considered ignoring her. He could easily ignore nobles, especially nosy ones, but a sorceress was another level of danger he didn’t think he was equipped to deal with. He put the meat back on his plate next to the larger chunk of it and vegetables. He’d wanted more, but Carina had told Kroseph what Tibs would be doing, and the server wouldn’t let Tibs gorge himself.

“Explain what?” he answered, surreptitiously counting the amulets. Sixteen.

“Two things, really. How is someone as young as you here, and how is it that your eyes are brown?”

Tibs sighed. It had been a while since anyone had asked about his eyes and he’d forgotten how tiresome that got. “My teacher says that my eyes are because I’m so young. I’m the youngest surviving Runner. He thinks that as I get older, the color will come in.” He risked a question of his own. “Why do you care?”

“I’ll answer that after you tell me how you got to be here.”

Tibs rolled his eyes and her frown said that might have been a mistake. He didn’t hurry his answer. “I picked the wrong pocket.”

“A thief then?”

“Rogue,” he corrected. Definitely a noble under that sorcerer’s robe.

“It doesn’t explain what you are doing here.”

“Surviving. You’ve been through this, you know how it goes.”

“What makes you think I put myself through this?” she motioned around them.

“There’s only one dungeon not controlled by the guild, and you don’t look like a cleric.”

“Still, I could—”

“No, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t get this powerful without a dungeon.”

Her smile was coy, but knowing, and Tibs wondered what he’d given away.

“Astute observation.”

Tibs shrugged.

“I’ll answer your question and in return you’ll explain yourself without the word gymnastics.”

“I don’t know what that last word means.”

“You’ll explain yourself clearly,” she clarifies, annoyed. “I’m curious about you because I’m curious about the unusual. Anytime there is something unusual happening, there is something to learn. I love learning new things.”

“Is that what you were doing when you were going?” Tibs placed his hand before him, palm up, and moved it left and right.

She tapped a finger on the table, considering him. “Yes. The most common unusual thing that reaches me is someone more powerful than they should be, so I was scanning people.”

Tibs nodded. “Jackal’s the first to reach Lambda, he nearly died reaching it, that’s how he got powerful.”

She tapped the finger again. “I can’t decide if you very skilled at evading questions or just dense.”

Tibs shrugged. “I just think you should ask him your question if you’re interested in whoever is more powerful.”

“He’s the man who was with you? Well, boy really, it feels like new adventurers get younger with every new dungeon, but no, he isn’t who interests me. You are the curiosity here. I’m never encountered someone so young with suck concentrated essence. What are you classified as, Lambda too? Zeta?”

“I’m Rho,” Tibs answered.

“Really?” she flicked her hand, and an etching formed. Tibs figured it was the same as before, but he couldn’t tell enough of the essences apart to be sure. “Why are they quantifying you so low? This is definitely Lambda level concentration, at least.”

“So you can see my essence with that?” Tibs was confident he knew the answer, otherwise she’d have reported him to the guild, or stolen him away to study.

“Only the concentration. I can’t tell what your element is without your eyes telling me. Unless you had lightning. I’d be able to tell that since it’s my element. She indicated her yellow eyes.”

“What does lightning let you do?”

“It—” she closed her mouth. “No, you haven’t answered my question. That was the deal.”

“I’m here because I was caught picking a pocket. Instead of getting my hand cut off, I was sent here with everyone who’d been in the cell with me. Conscript, that’s what they said I was, before I was a Runner.”

“Then how did you survive your crawls, being as young as you are?”

Tibs shrugged. “I’m good. I made friends to help me.” He paused. “A lot of them died, some to protect me. I got stronger.”

“And somehow the guild is only quantifying you as Rho?”

“I don’t have a large reserve.” He concentrated water on his palm. “Without having an amulet, that’s all I can do.”

She looked at the etching. “That can’t be right. What I’m seeing here shows you should be able to fill the inn with water.”

Tibs shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re seeing. My teacher says I’ll get a larger reserve once my eyes turn blue.”

She closed her hand and the etching dissolve. “Who is your teacher? I’d love to know what they think of your situation. Who is the sorcerer assigned to watch you?”

“There isn’t a sorcerer watching me.”

“Why not? There’s never been a case like you. We should be studying you. Figure out why you aren’t reacting to your element as others do. What it is about being younger— what is your age?— that causes it. Was there any problem with your audience? Did water comment on your age? Did she say when your eyes would turn blue?”

Having someone other than Alistair around when he trained could be a problem. How many misconceptions he’d let his teacher keep would an experienced sorcerer see through? If she talked with Tirania, the guild leader might get it in her head to have Tibs studied herself. Still, there was one roll of the die he could try. He was confident the guild would do it, and even nobles were reluctant to spend coins.

“You can ask the guild,” Tibs said, “I’m sure they won’t charge you too much for the privilege of studying me.”

She groaned. “Them and their coin grabbing. I certainly don’t miss that aspect. Research shouldn’t be charged. Understanding what is happening with you could help everyone.”

“Only those who survive to get an element,” Tibs pointed out. “I’m the first in a long time. What are the odds they’ll be another one? The guild leader doesn’t seem like someone who cares for things that might never happen.”

The sorceress sighed. “Maybe I can talk with the leader at another dungeon. One who isn’t so shortsighted. It should be easy enough to arrange experiments. There are plenty of urchins in every city. How old did you say you were?”

“I don’t know. I was too busy surviving to count.”

She nodded. “It doesn’t matter. Take a selection, test them before and after. Bring you over as a benchmark when one of them gets an element. Is it only something with Water, or will any other element cause the lack of eye change?” she asked him.

“I don’t know.” He hoped it wouldn’t be fast. What were the odds any of those people picked the shadow of the element? What would she do if, no matter how young they were when they had their audience, their eye changed color?

“No, of course you don’t. Something else to test. Light Fingers, that’s your name, right?”

“It’s Tibs,” he answered with a groan. “What is yours?”

She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I gave you my name. You give me yours.”

“I’m Nora,” she answered, straightening more and then recited. “Nora Asterope, wielder of ten.”

He guessed the ten referred to the elements she should interact with. Carina said twelve were the most sorcerers managed, so that made her powerful.

“How long do you think it’s going to take until you need me at that other dungeon?” a time frame would let him plan. If he could reach Epsilon before that, he’d have some freedom to evade her.

“There’s no telling, that’s the great thing about research. You never know how long until you get a conclusion.”

“How do I let you know where I’ll be, then? Once I reach Epsilon, I don’t know where I’ll go.”

She smiled. “That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. By the time I need you, I’ll have enough to convince the guild to give me access to you. And if there is one thing the guild knows is where its members have gone to. The guild never losses track of an adventurer for long.”

That didn’t sound good at all. Tibs watched her leave before looking at his plate. His appetite was gone, and the food was cold, but this was his last meal until after his audience with Darkness. He wasn’t letting it go to waste.