The Light of All That Falls, page 57
Raeleth grunted. “Rian?”
“I knew a Rian, and… no.”
Raeleth sighed, audibly and dramatically. “What would you suggest?”
“What about Sandin?”
Raeleth immediately snorted in mock derision. “Is that even a name? Terrible. Just terrible.”
“It’s my father’s name. And his father’s.”
There was a moment’s pause, and then laughter from both Raeleth and Niha.
“Very well,” said Raeleth eventually. “What name are you going to use when you get out?”
Davian’s amused smile faded; he quietly withdrew, leaving the two to their conversation. He was happy for them, but… they were putting so much faith in him. In his ability to get them out of here.
It was hard not to let his failures, and the feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to overcome them, weigh on him.
He walked the perimeter of the tower for a while, stretching his legs, before finally returning to the forge. Niha had left; only Raeleth was there now, already hard at work.
Davian glanced around, then let his invisibility shield drop. Raeleth caught the motion and paused what he was doing, smiling merrily at Davian. The man was no longer surprised by Davian’s sudden appearances.
“Davian! Just who I was hoping to see, actually.”
Davian raised an eyebrow. There was a sort of nervous energy to Raeleth this morning. “Just wanted to see how you were after yesterday.”
Raeleth inhaled. “Not the most pleasant of encounters,” he admitted, his gaze wandering to where Isstharis had been skewered. Nothing was left except the hole where the Essence-strengthened spear had jammed in. “I’m fine. But it was… a good reminder, I suppose.”
“A reminder?”
“That only El knows what’s going to happen to us. That we don’t have forever here.” Raeleth spoke solemnly. “These past few months have been… surprisingly joyful, Davian. Something I never expected to find in this place. But that cannot last.”
Davian nodded, wondering whether Raeleth’s conversation with Niha had helped spark these thoughts in the other man. “True.” He frowned, trying to see where Raeleth was going with this as the other man licked his lips, looking nervous. “Is… something wrong? Is your Dark infection getting worse again?”
Raeleth chuckled uneasily. “No, no. Nothing’s wrong. Between you and Niha, the infection is under control,” he assured him quickly. He rubbed his chin. “I just… ah. I do have another item for you to make into a Vessel.”
Davian scratched his head. “All right,” he said slowly.
Raeleth shuffled his feet. “The thing is… it’s special. To me. I mean… I know it needs to be a Vessel, because we need everything to be a Vessel, but…”
He trailed off, then shook his head irritably at his own rambling and held out his hand, revealing what had been tucked in it.
Davian felt a chill as he saw the silver gleaming in Raeleth’s palm. The ring was beautifully made, three lines intertwining with each other. It glinted red as it caught the moonlight.
“You made this?” Davian asked quietly, taking the ring and gazing at it in mild disbelief. It was exactly as he remembered. The last time he’d seen it, Gassandrid had—understandably, now—been asking him why he’d had a Vessel that was so valuable. “You made this?”
“Well it didn’t just appear,” Raeleth said, a little bemusedly. “I melted down the metal from my key.”
Davian nodded, still stunned. Raeleth had been holding on to that key since his first week in Zvaelar. Since they had come north of the Breach, it had become… not quite a talisman, but close to it. Keeping it from the dar’gaithin had been Raeleth’s small, continuing act of defiance.
“I know this ring,” he said. “From my time.”
Raeleth stared and then, to Davian’s surprise, smiled.
“Excellent. That’s excellent,” he murmured. He held up a hand as Davian opened his mouth to elaborate. “No. I don’t want to know the circumstances. It might… change what I want to do. The important thing is that it makes it out of this awful place.” He motioned to the piece of jewelry. “Can you turn it into something useful?”
“Yes,” Davian assured him dazedly. “I’ll do it right now.”
Raeleth looked strangely relieved. “Thank you.” He hesitated. “And Davian? Please… don’t mention it to Niha.”
“Why not?” asked Davian absently, still looking at the ring.
“Because it’s for her,” said Raeleth hesitantly.
Davian nodded, then stopped as he registered what Raeleth was saying. He looked up at the other man, who was watching him with a mixture of nervousness and awkwardness.
“Oh. Oh!” A slow grin spread across his face. “Really?”
Raeleth shrugged, unable to help grinning back. “I love her. She loves me.” He gave Davian a mock-stern look. “And no, before you ask. It has nothing to do with her saving my life yesterday. I’ve had this ready for days.”
Davian chuckled, inclining his head. Four months didn’t sound like long, but here—living in such close quarters, spending almost every waking second together—it was an eternity. The bonds he had forged with Tal, Niha, and Raeleth in this terrible place were stronger than anyone could possibly understand.
“Well for what it’s worth, I hope she says yes,” he said jovially, clapping Raeleth on the back. “Even if I do think that it makes you the bravest man alive.”
Raeleth smiled at that. “Well it’s either that, or be the stupidest one if I didn’t try,” he observed. “Finding her here has been like… finding a jewel in amongst the dirt. An emerald, dropped into the cup of a beggar.”
Davian chuckled. “Raeleth the wordsmith, at work once again.”
Raeleth made a face at him. “That joke was old after the first week, you know.”
“I just enjoy seeing you react to it,” Davian responded lightly.
They talked amicably for a while longer, but as always, Davian felt the pressing weight of responsibility before too long. He soon bade Raeleth farewell and activated his invisibility Vessel again, strolling back to the shining steel tower.
He sat at Tal’s desk and drew the ring out of his pocket, gazing at it, barely daring to believe it was the same one. There was no mistaking it, though. He had worn that ring for months; the lines were an exact match to the one that Asha had handed him so long ago. The one Tal had destroyed in Deilannis to send him back to his own time.
He eventually closed his eyes, feeling the vague warmth in his right wrist as he activated his focus Vessel again, grasping kan. They still hadn’t been able to determine why Davian was able to access the power here. Even with his own focus Vessel, Tal claimed that he was completely unable to even sense the dark energy.
Time passed as he worked. Last bell rang to signal the onset of night, but Davian barely noticed. He set fine lines, destroyed and then set them again, carefully intertwining and meshing kan structures on top of one another. He hadn’t created a Vessel like this before, but these types weren’t especially difficult to set in metal: the kan didn’t do much more than convert Essence into a different form of energy—in this case, a concentrated blast of wind. The size of the Vessel made it a painstaking process, requiring multiple restarts, but Davian didn’t mind. He enjoyed the creation, the act of actually putting his knowledge into effect, far more than studying. And if Tal found out and complained, then he could always argue that it was good practice.
Another two tremors forced him to pause as he worked. Worry continued to build in the back of his mind over that, but he ignored the feeling for now. He already knew that Zvaelar was getting closer to complete collapse, and that he needed to come up with a solution to help everyone withstand the journey through the rift before that happened. Dwelling on it wasn’t going to help.
By the time he finished adding the tiny Initiation endpoint to the ring, the final peal of first bell had faded away.
Davian examined the end result with undisguised satisfaction. Though little else had changed since Davian had arrived here, he certainly felt different. His progress in his studies, his ability to use kan—even at a basic level—and the addition of the Vessels to his body had all served to change the terrifying nature of this place into something… manageable.
Reluctantly, he let the flow of Essence to his focus Vessel wane, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his head. He knew it wasn’t healthy to use the Vessel too much—Tal had once told him that Cyr had used one for an entire year, and had had headaches for the rest of his life as a result. He wasn’t going to do anything so extreme as that, though.
For now, all he needed was some sleep.
Tal had returned when Davian woke.
The morning was still relatively young, he was glad to discover; one of the benefits of using the focus Vessel was that he didn’t need as much sleep as he would have otherwise. He yawned, letting his invisibility shield drop and acknowledging Tal as he stood, stretching.
“All’s well?” he asked.
Tal snorted. “As well as it can be. The tower takes more Essence every day to keep back the corruption, now. And these tremors…” He shook his head, sounding as exhausted as he looked. “I think we may have less time than I’ve previously said.”
Davian’s heart sank. “How long?”
“Months.” Tal made a cautioning movement as Davian sat up straighter, a thread of panic running through him. “I haven’t mentioned this to any of the others yet, because I’m not sure. I just thought you should know, because…” He shrugged.
“Because whether everyone gets out depends on me,” said Davian. He didn’t put any self-pity into the statement, though the responsibility weighed heavily on him. It was simply fact.
“I wouldn’t have suggested this until recently, but I think you should add the time Vessel to yourself,” said Tal. He held up a hand, anticipating Davian’s protest. “I know you can’t test it in here, but you’re past the need to create practice versions for everything, Dav. Besides—you could be going back at any point now. You may not have time to do it when you return to Ilshan Gathdel Teth, and you are going to need it if you want to escape.”
Davian paused, but nodded reluctantly. Time manipulation didn’t work in Zvaelar—at least, not for him. That made sense; the entire city was already inside an enormous time bubble, and everything Davian had read in Deilannis said that ‘nested’ time manipulation was impossible. Though given that, he and Tal had only theories as to why the al’goriat were able to do it.
“I think I had it in the fight against Gassandrid,” Davian eventually admitted, rubbing his chin.
Tal grunted. “Have you had any more chance to make sense of that?”
Davian shook his head ruefully. He had explained his vision to Tal early on, and both had agreed that Theshesseth must be the one to take him back. But he’d had a chance to simply win that fight, escape of his own accord and make the Vessels necessary to bring back everyone else. So why had he allowed Gassandrid to win, gone out of his way to speak to Nethgalla? Tal had already explained that Nethgalla would have made herself a target by creating the Tenets Vessel—Davian’s mind still reeled at that; she and Scyner must have lied to Wirr’s father about its origins all those years ago—but Tal thought that that would be a compelling argument for avoiding her, not going to her for help.
“Never mind. I’m sure you’ll have a good reason,” said Tal quietly.
Davian gave a slight, grateful smile at the unfeigned confidence in Tal’s tone. The two of them had slipped easily back into the same roles they’d had in Deilannis, but the extra time—and the complete honesty in the relationship, now—had helped forge an even stronger bond between them.
“Do you really think that the Venerate will be able to send me back in time to speak with Asha, without me leaving Talan Gol?” asked Davian. That was what Gassandrid had said was going to happen, in his vision. Asha had never mentioned anything to suggest that Davian had done so—but then, he was going to warn her not to. And he hadn’t exactly mentioned his vision of his fight with Gassandrid to her, either.
He and Tal had agreed on the most important thing to tell her if it happened, anyway: not to be tempted to leave the Tributary, even briefly, to come for him. Davian didn’t think she would, given the potential consequences—but Tal had said that if the Venerate knew of their relationship, they would almost certainly try to exploit it. At the very least, his message might give her some measure of comfort that she was making the right decision.
Tal gave him a grim nod.
“If this escherii you mentioned is there, then I imagine so—he’ll be powerful, no matter what I do to bind him when the time comes. And Gassandrid obviously has the mechanical knowledge to do it, given where and when we are. It will only work because Asha’s so significant to you, but combine that with your ability to survive the time stream, and… yes. I’d say it should be easy enough.”
Davian nodded slowly. That made sense—Zvaelar was continents away from Andarra, as well as in the past. “How do you think they’ll do it?”
Tal eyed him, hearing the curiosity in his tone.
“You’re thinking that you might be able to do it by yourself. Skip Ilshan Gathdel Teth entirely when you go back.” When Davian shrugged an admission, Tal shook his head. “Once you’re in the rift, it might be possible,” he conceded, an abundance of caution in his tone. “It’s true that we use the rift to travel through space with Gates—but there’s a reason why only Gassandrid, Nethgalla, and I are able to make them. They’re complicated. As in, study-for-centuries complicated—and even then you need an instinct for it,” he emphasized. “Traveling through time is difficult enough on the mind. To do both, and with any degree of accuracy…” He shook his head. “There are good reasons why I haven’t suggested trying.”
Davian reluctantly conceded the point, absently putting his hands in his pockets.
“Speaking of good reasons,” he said suddenly with a small grin, feeling the cool metal against his fingers, “Raeleth wasn’t entirely truthful about not having material for a new Vessel yesterday.” He produced the silver ring from his pocket and tossed it to Tal, quickly explaining as Tal’s shocked expression gradually morphed into a genuine smile.
When Davian finished, he nodded delightedly. “That’s excellent news, Davian. For those two to find some measure of happiness here is wonderful. And who knows? Maybe we won’t get death threats every time we tease her about him, now.”
Davian snorted. “I wouldn’t count on that.”
“You’re probably right.” Tal shook his head, chuckling. “Brave man.”
“That’s what I said.” Davian hefted the ring cheerfully. “And more importantly, it means that Niha very likely gets back.”
Tal’s smile widened at the thought. “True.” The expression slipped a little. “Maybe I do need to tell them that we have months rather than years, then. If their relationship is that serious…”
“They’ll want to know,” agreed Davian, sobering at the thought. Even if they did all get out, they would be returning to their own times. And Raeleth and Niha had been born millennia apart.
Tal examined the ring. “You made it into the wind Vessel?”
“I thought that made sense. A weapon for Niha, and I already knew that it would work.”
Tal grunted approvingly, turning the metal over in his fingers. “Another extrapolation? I didn’t think we’d covered anything quite so… aggressive, yet.”
“Something like that.” Davian shrugged. “It’s hardly complicated compared to the time manipulation machinery.”
“Still.” Tal returned the ring to Davian. “I think that while you’re working on that time Vessel, we’ll start covering the next phase of your training.”
Davian looked at him questioningly. “Next phase?”
“Offensive and defensive Vessels.” Tal smiled slightly, eyes glinting. “Defense first. We can create Vessels to block Reading and Control. To prevent Essence from being drained from you. To establish a Disruption shield that requires no concentration. After that…” His smile widened. “Well. Imagine any of the Vessels you’ve ever seen in action. If you can learn the mechanisms…”
Davian swallowed, pulse quickening. He’d considered the possibilities before, of course, but his focus Vessel had largely kept his mind on the tasks at hand.
“What about those black chains? The ones which prevent us from using kan?” he asked suddenly. “Is there any way to stop those?”
Tal thought for a moment. “Perhaps. Those were Cyr’s creation, but…” He shrugged. “We can certainly try.”
Davian nodded. “When do we start?”
Tal gestured to the desk.
“We may as well start right now,” he said cheerfully.
“Let’s figure out how to turn you into a weapon.”
Chapter 36
Wirr studied the map between him and Administrator Ithar dourly, lantern fighting the fading twilight outside, trying to ignore the doubt radiating like a physical wave from the older man.
“We must be missing something,” Wirr said firmly. His eyes traced the line of the Devliss. “There must be somewhere the scouts can’t see.”
His stomach clenched as he caught the look in Ithar’s eyes. It had been just over a day since they had emerged from the Gate that Caeden had made into this heavily forested valley, surrounded on three sides by the Menaath Mountains and on the other by the massive gorge yawning down to the white torrent that was the Devliss. The valley was on their maps—it formed part of the border with Desriel, after all—but was close to inaccessible by normal means.
“Perhaps you would like them to check underwater, Sire?” The frustration in Ithar’s tone was unmistakable. “Even with these forests to hide in, the vantages we’ve found on the mountainsides provide a perfect view of the valley; any scout up there can see for miles. An army would have been spotted—even on Desriel’s side of the river. There is no one here.”
