Breaking Step, Draft 1, CH 55 (Patreon)

Tibs dripped water on the already wet floor of the tavern as he crossed it to the stairs and into the room. With the door closed, he dried himself and placed the bag on the table before the archer.

The man looked Tibs over, frowning. “What happened?”

Tibs looked at himself. Right, his clothing was singed. “Thing didn’t go according to plan, but I’m okay.” He dropped on the bed. “I wouldn’t do that.” Archer was in the process of up-ending the bag. “There are a lot of coins in there.”

Archer looked the bag over. “How much?” He weighed it with a hand.

Tibs shrugged. “I emptied the largest vault I found in it.”

Archer reached in to his elbow and pulled out a handful of coins. He whistled. He dropped the coins back in and pulled out one of the bars. “How many of these?”

“I don’t know. A few. What are they?”

“They’re a way to carry a lot of money. Each bar will be worth stacks of the equivalent coins. Did you take some?”

Tibs shook his head. “The deal was you get the coins, I get to not have to deal with assassins anymore.” It wasn’t like Archer would miss the one bar of each type Tibs had kept.

The man nodded and reached into the bag again. This time pulling out a stack of the papers.

Tibs kept from asking how he’d done that. Tibs had had to imagine the papers, and by the stunned expression on the archer’s face, he hadn’t expected to pull that from the bag.

“What are they?”

Archer’s eyes flicked up at Tibs, then back to the stack. “Didn’t you check them?”

“I don’t know those letters.”

The man nodded. “They’re just accounts of what they accumulated.” He gave the explanation casually, but the words glowed. Tibs hadn’t needed that to know it was a lie. He’d filled enough pages on his ledger to know that accounts didn’t look as uniform as those pages did.

“How did you deal with the contracts?”

“I burned them.”

“How did you know which one to burn if you can’t read?”

“I burned everything in the safes of the room you told me.”

Archer stared at him. “All of them? Did you burn down the building?”

“I couldn’t; too much stone. And there was a lot of fire essence in the weave protecting it, so that might have stopped it. I just burned what was inside the safes. They got hot, but nothing else caught.” He stretched. “I’m going to sleep.”

The sound of coins dropping on the table accompanied his descent into sleep.

* * * * *

“Did you hear?” Sania asked, placing a bowl of stew and tankard of ale before Tibs and Archer. “Some thief tried to rob the Brokerage.”

“Isn’t there always one?” Archer asked before digging into his breakfast.

“But this one nearly got away. They say he made it to roof before the guards caught and killed him.”

“Good for them,” the man said dismissively, and Sania returned to the bar.

“I guess I can leave if they say I’m dead,” Tibs said.

Archer shook his head, looking around. “They say that, so no one knows they were robbed. A place like that can’t have anyone thinking they can steal from them.”

Tibs chuckled. “They think I’m dead.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I was hit by lightning.”

“You what?” Archer snapped his mouth shut as others glanced in their direction. “How are you alive?” he whispered.

“Magic.”

The archer opened his mouth, then closed it. When he looked at Tibs, it was with a large amount of respect, and a little of fear.

“So, we’re done.” Tibs scrapped the bottom of the bowl. “You have what you want. You won’t threaten to tell the guild about me again?”

Archer nodded and Tibs had to be satisfied with the fear since he needed the words to know if he was lying. If the man showed up again, Tibs would deal with him.

He drained his tankard and stood.

“Tibs,” the archer called as he walked away. When he looked over his shoulder, the man hesitated, then shook his head. Tibs left and went home.

* * * * *

“Where were you!” Jackal demanded, and before Tibs could answer, hugged tightly.

Tibs waited, suffusing himself with Earth to survive the crushing force.

“Your message just said you were leaving with that archer!” the fighter let go.

“He was watching me. I didn’t have the time to write much.”

“Where did he take you?” Jackal frown and ran a hand on Tibs’s shoulder, then looked at it as if he expected something to have come off. “What happened?”

“It was a city.” Tibs headed for their table, and Kroseph had a tankard and plate there for him before he sat.

“Welcome back. I’m glad you returned whole.”

“Like Tibs was going to let some city be a problem,” Jackal said. “Which city was it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t understand the people there, but it’s in your kingdom. Your father had business there.”

Fear crossed the fighter’s face. “Why did you go with him, Tibs?”

“He threatened to tell the guild I have more than one element. He saw me when I was chasing Sebastian with air. I couldn’t control myself back then. He tried to stop me, I sent air to throw him off a roof. Then he saw me use fire.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“It’s over.”

“You killed him?”

Tibs shook his head.

“Then he can come back… He will come back and demand more. They always do.”

“If he comes back, I’ll deal with him. But I don’t think he will. He wanted to get out of all that. Out from your king’s employ. He needed coins for that. He had me rob the place that was arranging for the assassins to come after me. So that’s over too.”

Jackal stared at Tibs. “There was a place that took care of that?”

“A place called the Brokerage. How did you think your father was making it happen?”

“I don’t know. My father was the only one with his hand on the coffers. I figured he had someone send all the money to all the assassins in the kingdom. You trust him when he says that took care of the assassins?”

“He didn’t lie when he explained what the Brokerage did, and where the contracts were kept. If it doesn’t stop, it’s because he was wrong, not because he tried to scam me.” Tibs considered something. “What will your family do about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will they try to avenge Sebastian? Will they pay assassins to come after me?”

“I don’t think they’ll bother avenging him. My father held his position as the head of the family through fear, intimidation, and removing those who got too close.”

“Your father had his family killed?”

“Or killed them himself. He never saw our family as more than a means to maintain his status. Like I told you, Wells either lead or follow. He wasn’t going to follow anyone, so any who thought they could lead in his place weren’t family anymore, just an obstacle to be removed. Any who might, somehow, have remained enamored with him as their leader is probably fighting over who’s going to lead now that he’s gone. When that’s dealt with, I doubt they’re going to have much money to spend on getting you killed. By the time all that chaos is settled, you’re going to be even stronger. So if they send them, you’ll be able to deal with them easily.”

“I already can; they’re just annoying.”

“I still think we should go and deal with him before he decides to come back demanded more of you. Can you find out how long until the dungeon opens its door? I can find out where he took you from my man within the Attendants.”

“Sto’s too busy to talk when his making changes. And he was leaving that city, too. He wanted someplace quiet, and he’d got the coins to get anywhere he wants.”

Jackal narrowed his eyes. “How much did you steal for him?”

Tibs grinned. “A lot.”

“Did you keep some?”

Tibs’s smile broadened.

“Are you going to share?” Jackal asked eagerly.

* * * * *

Tibs hesitated before the door. He’d come up with an unending number of things to do before he needed to handle this on his way, and more than once had almost given into using them as an excuse.

He knocked.

The door opened, and Don looked at him in surprise.

He looked better than Tibs expected. Well dressed, clean, and while small, the room he stayed in was respectable. Nothing like where he’d ended up hiding the last time they’d argued.

The surprise gave way to anger, annoyance, then was brought under control with a slow breath. “I’m glad you finally found time to come see me.” The sorcerer stepped out of the way and motioned for Tibs to enter.

He fought against responding to the tone. “I was planning on coming sooner, but something happens.”

“Yes, of course. You are busy, after all.”

“Don,” Tibs snapped as he turned to face the man, then kept his mouth shut while he brought his anger under control. “After Tirania told me the dungeon was closed, I was accosted and blackmailed into leaving Kragle Rock.”

“How?” Don asked, concern in his voice.

“They know I have more than one element. They threatened to tell the guild if I didn’t help them.”

“How do they know?” he asked, suspicious.

“When this started, I was affected by the element I channeled. I started acting like them, and that caused me to be careless. He was one of the men protecting Sebastian when we chased him out of the city. He saw me use air and fire.”

“You could have said you had items.”

Tibs shrugged. “I’m just Rho, as far as the guild’s concerned. How do I get the kind of items that do that and they don’t know about it? And he wanted me to steal. I can do that. So it was simply to just go and help him. I managed to let Jackal know, and I hoped he’d tell you.”

“I haven’t spent time with the team.”

Tibs nodded. Jackal had told him that much when Tibs had asked where Don was. He’d been forced to trek to the noble’s quarter to find out.

“Mez knew.”

Don sighed and sat on the bed, indicating the chair as the desk. “Mez’s got it in his head to look out for me. Don’t ask me why.”

Tibs glanced at the books stacked on the desk as he sat. Had Don bought all of them? Borrowed?

“You didn’t tell Tirania.”

“Did you think I would betray you like that?” There was a hint of anger in the tone.

Tibs looked at the floor. “When I’m angry, I’ll lash out. Make the other person hurt, too.”

“And you thought I’d do that too?”

“Don—”

“Of course you did.” The tone was resigned this time. “I’m the one who abandoned you for Sebastian’s men to kill. I went out of my way to make your life miserable more times than I can count. I’d be an idiot to think that after a few runs at your side, after a few months as part of your team, I’d have earned that kind of trust. I almost did. Tell her I mean.”

Tibs nodded. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because, as I waited for her to have the time to see me, I calmed down enough to remember the things I just mentioned. That this was exactly what I’d do before joining your team. Who I no loner wanted to be.” He chuckled. “So we got lucky. I know, that’s not a thing. It’s still how it feels. If she hadn’t been so busy that day, I would have gone back to being that petty asshole who’s more interested in his hurt feelings than the justification behind why someone felt they weren’t ready to tell me everything they could do.”

Tibs wasn’t sure how to proceed. He hadn’t expected this to be a fight, but also not for Don to accept his actions.

“What do you want to know?” he finally asked.

Don chuckled. “What don’t I want to know? Tibs, do you understand how impossible what you did is. What I think I’ve worked out you can do is? I want to know how it happened, why you, what else don’t I know?” The sorcerer became agitated, and Tibs couldn’t help imagine lightning coursing through his body.

“I don’t know a lot of the answers. I don’t know why me. When I had my audience, there was a shadow within Water and I reached for that instead of taking her as my element. I’ve only been able to find one other person who saw it, but they still chose the element.”

Don’s gaze became distant. “I don’t remember something like that. Do you know why the two of you saw it? Do they have Water too?”

Tibs shrugged. “They don’t have Water.”

“And that shadow, it gave you all these elements?”

“No. I had to have audiences for each of them.”

“You can’t have more than one audience, certainly not with another element.”

Tibs grinned. “Who told you that?”

“My… right, why should I trust everything the guild tells me.” He studied Tibs. “You have Corruption, don’t you? That time I tried to hurt you with it, you didn’t react immediately. It’s always bothered me that you’d been able to resist the pain even that short time, but it didn’t actually hurt you, did it?”

Tibs shook his head.

“Sebastian’s house, that was you?”

Tibs nodded.

“How? I figured it was me, that I’d somehow caused a reaction within the weave, but that was because I’m the only one with Corruption. How did you manage to throw so much essence into the weave?”

“My reserve is big.”

Don nodded. “It gets larger as we become stronger.”

“No, each time I get a new element, my reserve increases by the size of that reserve.”

“So you have a full reserve for each of your element. That’s what I… that isn’t what you mean?”

“I have one big reserve, along with really small ones for each of the elements.”

“You have one reserve. And it’s the size of each reserve for the elements you have combined? Which element is it, then? And why the small reserves?”

Tibs let go of Water, and Don stared. “If I’m not channeling an Element, it’s an element that… that Sto calls life.”

“Who’s Sto? No, let’s leave that for later. What are you talking about? Life as an element? That isn’t a thing.”

“Everyone has it. In the townsfolk, it’s thin. If there’s a crowd of them, it’s difficult to tell them apart. If a Runner’s among them, they’re all I can sense.”

“And Runners have it too?”

“In Runners it’s different. It’s colored by your element. I can sense it’s life, but I ‘see’ is tinted. Like with you, it’s purple. Jackal’s it’s red-brown, Mez, it’s red-orange, Khumdar it’s black. It matches the Runner’s element.”

“So a Runner’s essence is composed of our element and that…”

Tibs shook his head. “It’s not the same. I can sense your element coursing through your body. When you use it, I can sense it pullout of your reserve and moving about.” Tibs paused as Don’s essence poured out of his reserve and filled specific lines. “I can tell you’re filling your channels. What does it do?”

“Nothing yet. This is an exercise to strengthen them. I’ve read the theory, but my teacher won’t confirm any of it. Something about not letting what I know prejudice what I can do.”

“You can do anything.”

“No, our element limits what we can do.”

“No. It changes how it’s done, but if someone does something, you can to the equivalent with your element.”

“How do you know? If that something with having all the elements?”

“It’s something I noticed, and my teacher sort of confirmed it. He made it so no one could listen in on our talk, but how does water do that? It’s more of an air thing, right? It’s how the weave is made, how the letters are used within it.”

“Alright, but filling my channels with my element isn’t the same time. That creates a specific effect. It’s documented. I’ve read books about it.”

“Okay, what if they’re wrong?”

“No. They wouldn’t write them if they thought they were wrong.”

“What if they don’t know they’re wrong?”

“They spend years researching the subject. They’ve worked out all the mistakes.”

“How many years has your teacher used his essence? How many ways does he use it from another adventurer with Corruption? Maybe you haven’t met enough. Did he tell you that an amulet works like a reserve?”

“Yes, I can pull from one when I need more essence. It’s why sorcerers have so many.”

“How do you refill it?”

Don frowned. “It happens over time. It absorbed the essence that’s around us.”

“Did you try pushing some of your essence into it?”

“That isn’t how it works.”

“According to who?”

“Everyone.”

“No me.”

Don went to a chest and rummaged through it. He pulled a small amulet and closed his fist around it. Tibs sense the essence flow from the sorcerer’s reserve and into the amulet. Don’s cursing was loud and colorful.

“Why would he hold that back from me? Do you have any idea the times having an extra amulet would have made handling the dungeon easier? Have two dozen in there I can’t use because they’re recharging.”

“I don’t think he kept it from you. When I showed that to my teacher, he was surprised. He’d never thought about it because he’s not a sorcerer, but if he’d know sorcerers who know about it, wouldn’t he have learned? Even if he didn’t think it was something a rogue could use?”

“You’re saying that even a sorcerer doesn’t know we can use our essence to refill an amulet?”

“Why would your teacher keep something this important from you if he knew about it?”