Breaking Step, Draft 1, CH 34 (Patreon)

“Dhu,” Alistair said, “is the letter that represents Purity.” The shape that formed in water over his teacher’s hand didn’t make Tibs think of Purity. It was a mix of curves and lines, like it couldn’t decide which one it preferred. Purity would know. Purity wouldn’t settle for going partway. She would work the problem until she knew which one she wanted.

Tibs recreated it. The letters, this way, were simple, just a shaping of water into the form. It was etching them in combination with the lines of essence that created the difficulty. By itself, one letter wasn’t hard, since it was simply a question of dividing the line into ten, and affixing the letter at one of those points. Using only one letter also created only minor alterations.

In conjunction with another letter, each space better them was divided into ten, and would be again if there was a third and so on. Forcing the Runner to properly place the letter with a smaller and smaller margin for error.

“When use with Water, it’s ideal position is at three, six and ten, and it adds a sharpness to the attack you are etching.”

“Isn’t that metal?” Tibs asked. “Or maybe crystal?” the fragile crystals broke into shards that could slice skin open. “Purity should be—” he stopped. Revealing he knew her personality might make Alistair suspicious. “I don’t know, removing impurities or something?” That made no sense, but he was a kid, so Alistair would—

“You know better than that, Tibs. And I know you were paying attention. What’s distracting you?”

“Nothing.” He just wanted things to go the way he wanted, instead of this confusion of a letter to an element that had nothing to do with the effect. Or his supposedly friends intent on getting in his way.

Alistair studied him for a few seconds, then nodded. “Then, if you don’t mind, lets continue with the lesson. Etch a line, and see to placing the letter at three, six and ten. Once done, send it at that target.”

 Alistair etched with his knife as he pointed to the back of the training room, and essence coalesced. Tibs tried to work out the letters among the lines, but it was all so fine and compact. The only thing Tibs got out of it was that the amount of lines and letters didn’t come from the few gestures his teacher made. Alistair didn’t lie when he told him something with a point was required to etch. Had he forgotten he could will the essence into the etching, or did how it was taught mean they learned to do it without noticing?

The essence formed into the torso of a woman on a pedestal. Tibs raised an eyebrow as he recognized her.

“I figured you might want to let some of your anger out.”

“I’m not angry at her.” He formed the knife out of ice, showing how it had no jagged edges to it. Then etched his line, misplacing Dhu at the six position, then controlled how much essence that attack pulled.

The water splashed over her face, and Tibs has to step closer to see the scratches on her face.

“Not bad for a first try.”

“How much more damage can it do if I etch it correctly?”

“That’ll depend on how many lines, and how much essence you use. Also, this exercise isn’t about turning this letter into an attack. It’s about getting you comfortable adding it to your etching, so that you’ll be comfortable doing so in combination with other letters. But.” Alistair smiled and made a quick etching. It as simple as the one Tibs made, but the letters were exactly where they needed to be, and Alistair put much more essence into it.

The water splashed on Tirania’s face again, cutting it until it no longer existed.

“Properly motivated, even a simple etching like this can have deadly results.”

And waste far too much essence. Not to say that the more essence he let the etching pull, the harder it was to stop it. Tibs wanted something precise that wouldn’t splash evidence all over the place when he acted.

Or at least, didn’t splash evidence that would lead to him.

* * * * *

“He isn’t going to do it, is he?” Ganny said, angrily, as Tibs and his team walked up the stairs.

“He said he wouldn’t,” Sto replied. He sounded resigned. That was good. At least it meant Sto wouldn’t do something when his friends started insisting Tibs stick to his agreement.

“He helped you,” she snapped. “The least you could do was show you gratitude.”

“Leave it Ganny.”

She let out a huff, then was silent.

“Here?” Don asked, as they reach the doorway to the second floor.

“No,” Jackal replied. “We don’t want Tibs loosing it anywhere near where one of the guards can notice. He’ll let go of Water on the third floor, that was we’ll have privacy.”

Don opened the doorway, and they stepped through. The sorcerer opened the one to the third floor, then they were through.

“Alright Tibs,” Jackal said, turning to face him. “Let it go.”

“No.”

“Tibs, you agreed,” Mez said.

He snorted. “If you believed me, that’s your problem. We have a run to do.” Tibs walked past his team.

“Stay here,” Jackal said. “Me and Mister Light Fingers are going to have a conversation.”

“I question the wisdom of your actions,” Khumdar said.

“Well, ask anyone who knows me,” the fighter replied, “which includes you. Wisdom’s never been one of my defining traits.” Jackal joined Tibs as he reached the junction, but said nothing.

Tibs stepped on the triggers that opened the way to the lion crest. “You aren’t going to talk me out of this.”

Jackal replied with a noncommital sound and Tibs kept watch in case the fighter’s place was to close to way. He might think that would be enough to discourage Tibs.

As Tibs headed for the right branch, Jackal put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s far enough.”

With a sigh, Tibs turned to face him. “Jackal, as your friend, I’m telling you to stop pushing.”

“Tibs, as your friend, if you weren’t so full of it, you’d know I can’t stop pushing.”

“I’m warning you, Jackal. You aren’t going to like what I do to make you stop.”

“Jackal,” Don call, I don’t think you should—”

A pillar of stone slammed down, blocking the way, another one slammed down, blocking the passage to the right, then the left, and finally the center one.

Tibs looked at them, trying to understand how Jackal had done it. He hadn’t felt him use essence, and he hadn’t stepped on any triggers, so he couldn’t have done it that way, not that any of them could closed the entrance to the junction, it didn’t have a door to close.

He glared at the fighter. “You arranged this with Sto.”

Jackal grinned. “What? You’ve heard me talk to it just about every run we’ve been on. I can’t hear it. I’m well aware it hears me. Or did you think I’d forgotten how you heard its yell all the way to the town when it needed your help. Since it made the stairs, I figured it could hear me if I was close enough.”

“You can’t to this,” Tibs told the ceiling. “We’re in the room.”

“Actually,” Ganny replied, “we can. Or did you forget that it’s distance, not your presence, that controls what Sto can do?”

“What, he’s scared to talk to me?”

“That you think that, Tibs, shows how bad what you’re doing is. Please, let go of Water before things turn bad.”

Tibs glared at Jackal. “It’s too late for that.”

Jackal had a piece of stone in his hand ending in a point, and Tibs made his shield, then his sword. Instead of throwing it, the fighter moved it before him and Tibs stared as essence followed the point, etching in the air. Earth, with Kha, Fey, Bor and two more he didn’t recognize.

It was more that his friend knew how to etch, it was how precise each line, each letter was. Even on the days he thought the best of the fighter, Tibs never thought of him as someone who could do precision.

“What?” Jackal asked, looking offended. “I’m Lambda, did you think us fighter didn’t get etching training?”

Tibs tried to work out what the etching did. That it remained meant Jackal was focusing on it. Etchings were done and gone unless they were consciously maintained. Breathing the fighter’s concentration was all he’d need to do to bring it down, but what did it do?

Earth essence hung in the air, a pace before Jackal and close to a pace thick. It shimmered, but didn’t otherwise appear to do anything.

“This isn’t going to help you.”

“I think it’s going to help me long enough for us to talk.”

“There’s nothing you can say that’s going to make me change my mind.” He did his own etching, using Dhu since the precious day’s practice was still fresh in his mind, and all he wanted to do was make a point.

The water flew at the fighter, hit the shimmer of earth and … scattered. It was as if each point of shimmering redirected a piece of the attack in a different direction.

“You are hurting the town, Tibs.”

“I’m doing what I have to make sure the guild will never hurt anyone here again.”

“That’s going to be easy, because the way you’re going, there isn’t going to be anyone left here for them to hurt the way you’re going.”

“Those who are strong enough will manage. But you aren’t going to be here to see that.”

He etched another attack, Kha and Fey this time pushing more essence. If he couldn’t have an attack outright reach the fighter, he’d overwhelm the defense. The thick water hit the shimmering and scattered, but didn’t dissipate the way his previous attack had.

“So that’s what you’re down to. Killing me? What are you going to tell Kro? And that the dungeon did it?”

“You’re alway throwing yourself at the creature in here. It’s not going to be that hard to convince him that you weren’t quite as strong as you think you are.”

“You’re going to break his heart, Tibs.”

“Then don’t force me to do this.” He pointed to the door. “Leave. Take the others with you. I’ll make myself another team. Another family. One that understands me, that supports me.”

“One that’s okay with letting you become worse than my father?”

Tibs snorted. “I’m never going to be like him.”

“Tibs, what would Carina think of what you’re doing?”

“Don’t mention her!” the crack was so sudden it caught him by surprise and he felt the heat rush up, barely filling the crack in time before it reached him.

“Why not? All this is because of her, isn’t it? Because the guild didn’t act to stop my father and he killed her before you.”

“It was their job to make the town safe,” Tibs growled, the ice filling with spiderwebs of cracks.

Jackal snorted. “Come on, you know that’s not true. Or that at least, it never applied to us. The thing I don’t get. Really, the one thing that baffles me in all of this, is why you cared that my father took her.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No, I mean it’s not like she was your girl, special or otherwise. She was just the sorcerer on our team. I mean I’m sure she was good looking, so you’d enjoy that but—”

“Shut up!” the heat didn’t crack the ice, it softened it as it grew. “She was my family! I don’t need to have put my dick in someone to give a fuck about them.”

“But you wanted to, right?” Jackal smirked. “Considering how often you were with her, just the two of you. Learning your letters.” He rolled his eyes. “All your talk of never wanting to have a special someone, that’s all it was, right? Talk. You wanted her. You wanted to bed her, you just didn’t—”

Tibs screamed and Fire launched itself at the fighter. It hit the etching and scattered, but Tibs kept feeding it his rage. He was going to turn that man to ash for reducing what Carina meant to him to just fucking.

When he stop and the haze cleared, Jackal was sweating, but still standing.

“Oh, I am so glad that worked,” he said.

“Once,” Tibs snarled, and poured fire at the fighter, who only now realized the attack had destroyed the etching.

Jackal threw himself out of the way, and on landing tapped the ground and poured essence into it, lifting stone in intercept Tibs’s next attack. It didn’t last long, fire consumed even dungeon reinforced stone when it was a hungry as Tibs had made it.

Jackal yelled something, but Tibs couldn’t hear it over the roar of the fire underlying his scream as he trailed him, but the fighter was fast, and when he couldn’t quite stay ahead of the fire, he had stone block it, giving himself the time he needed to get out of the way.

Fine. Then Tibs wasn’t going to give him any place to run. He filled the junction with fire, added more to it then when he’d let loose in the Ratling’s camp. Let Jackal even try to survive that. When he thought he had been enough, he fed the fire even more. He wasn’t taking the chance the man’s stone body could survive that. He was going to melt the stone off him until all that was left was his essence and then he’d rip that apart.

Fire didn’t stop willingly, but Tibs was its master. He panted as he turned in place, slowly taking in the empty space and snarling in satisfaction. He’d won. He’d killed Jackal for tarnishing Carina’s memory. He’d killed him for bad mouthing his family.

Tibs had killed Jackal.

He’d…

“Jackal?”

No!

He looked around. He couldn’t have. What had he done?

He snarled. “What did you force me to do?”

“Hey Tibs,” someone said and turned in time for the fist hit him in the face. “That fucking hurt!”

Jackal was smoking, his armor was blackened and his stone face didn’t look right, part of it was drooping.

“You’re alive!” Jackal was alive! Tibs couldn’t believe it he hadn’t—

“No thanks to you,” the fighter snarled. “I swear to the abyss, Tibs if that ruined my pouch, I will make you pay.”

“You made me do it!” he screamed. And reached for Water. He couldn’t let himself.

“No fucking way.” Jackal hit him again. “We’re not fucking done.” The next punch went through Tibs as he suffused himself with air. Then he had a whirlwind around the fighter, trying to lift him, to send in smashing into the walls over and over until he was rubble in disticguishable from any of Sto’s dead creature.

He poured more and more essence into the wind. How could Jackal be that heavy? He was just stone, and— the fighter’s essence went into the ground from his feet.

“You’re fucking cheating!” he let go of the wind and grabbed corruption, flinging it at the running fighter.

“How are you surprised?” Jackal demanded, pulling the same trick as with fire and getting stone pillar to block the attack. “But you’re going to have to try harder Tibs. I guess she wasn’t enough of  girl for you to care for after all. Aw, fuck!” Jackal exclaimed as Tibs filled the room with Darkness.

“I am going to make you pay for that.” Tibs headed for the man. “She was the most important person to me!”

“Okay, that hurt, I knew you longest.” Jackal had retreated to the wall, waving his hands before him as if Tibs couldn’t sense him.

“You aren’t the same! You’re a brother! She was…” he swallowed the pain. Then screamed as the punch connected with his face again.

“Come on, Tibs, try harder. It’s like you don’t know what I can do. Earth fighter here.”

Tibs pushed himself to his feet. “Then I’m a fucking Earth rogue.” He didn’t bother with pillars. He made spires of stones, thin and sharp, and sent dozens of them at the fighter from all directions.

Jackal couldn’t move in time. He was pierced from all sides, then he was still. It happened so fast he hadn’t even reverted back to flesh.

Tibs walked to the fighter skewered in place.

There’s he’d done it.

He’s made him pay.

He’d won.

Tibs dropped to his knees before the corpse of his friend, his family.

He was alone now. Utterly alone, again.

And he’d been the one to do it this time.

He wailed, wishing he could go back and take back the words, his actions. He should have listened to him, Jackal was smarter than he let on. If he had, this wouldn’t have happened. Tibs wouldn’t be alone.

Arms closed around him. “It’s okay, Tibs,” Jackal said. “I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”