The Diviner: Journals of Evan Tailor Book Two, page 8
As she was focused on redirecting the blow, however, his shadow familiar finally managed to pin down her feet.
She gritted her teeth as the nightmare spirit redoubled its assault, her ring glowing brightly as its reserve of Aura drained to keep it out.
With her distracted, he slashed at her with the magma blade, but her own blade met it.
He hissed as it blew his blade apart, and the magma titan’s gift faded from his Aura.
She brought her sword up at him, but he cloaked his body in shadow, and the blade passed through him.
It still hurt—his shadow intangibility wasn’t as complete as it could have been—but the injuries were quickly repaired.
Her defenses were running down, though, the stored Aura in them all but gone. The nightmare spirit pushed into her mind, and she slowed as it filled her mind with nightmares.
His shadow spirit crawled up her legs, then coated her entire body.
A moment later, it split away, having drained enough strength and endurance from her and her enchantments to make a shadow copy of her. The shadow spirit and Draven both launched into a series of strikes, but then she unleashed a spell that she’d stored inside one of her arch-stars.
A circle of good luck surrounded her, with the negative luck leaking out around her and into the air around Draven. Her hand fell to her belt, and she uncapped a small vial, then drained it.
Abruptly, his nightmare spirit was pushed out of her mind and back to his own. It wasn’t the same as her shield from before. This was more like it had enhanced her mind, and she’d driven it out with an enhancement to her natural will.
She leapt forwards, and her blade struck her shadow copy in the chest, dissolving it back to its semi-insubstantial form.
Draven used the moment to get behind her, slipping inside the circle of good luck and biting into her neck, draining some of her to restore a tiny portion of his lost reserves.
That blade… He’d never seen something that used space, causality, force, and an awful amount of bad luck, all woven into one item, but it was certainly effective. He’d be sure to keep it when he killed her.
She dropped to the ground and thrust the sword upwards, forcing him to fly back to dodge it. She then rose and threw herself after him, but he tapped one of his arch-stars and swapped places with his nightmare spirit, her blade passing harmlessly through the space where he’d been. As she landed, she pulled a small stone from her pocket and crushed it. Power filled the air around her, but he could still make out her magic with his true sight.
He shot forwards, using another gift to coat his right arm in scales, which formed fierce claws at the tips of his finger. His claws plunged into her skin, but her blade struck his heart.
He staggered back, and she leaned on the blade, driving it down with her weight and enhanced strength.
He let out a low groan as he felt his vampiric power flood from him, draining away to keep him alive. His familiars attacked, but the potion still let her overcome the mind spirit, and the shadow spirit had been reduced to a lower-powered state.
Draven was going to die. It may take a few moments, but she had him pinned, and her masterful enchantment was overcoming everything he could do.
He may have a few gifts that’d let him escape, or he could switch positions with one of his familiars, but it’d be delaying the inevitable.
So he called his third familiar. He didn’t like to summon his demon, but…
Power surged from his Aura, and the demon materialized. It looked rather like a handsome young man, with beautiful blond hair that fell to its shoulders. The only signs that it wasn’t human were the small pair of horns and the thin whiplike tail that swished about in the air.
That, and the fact that it gave off a sense of malevolence that sent shivers down even Draven’s spine.
The demon raised his hand and clenched it in a fist.
Draven wasn’t pacted to a Demon Lord—that was too much power, even for him—but this demon, Aylzer, was first in line to the Throne of Pain.
A dozen lashes of bright red power erupted from his fist, slamming into Rowan’s chest and pinning her to the wall. She let out a scream of pain as the demonic power spread throughout her body.
Aylzer grinned and held up his other hand, which coated itself in red light that resembled claws. He stepped forwards and ran the thin claw up Rowan’s throat to the tip of her chin.
Draven felt a bit of pity run through him. He’d suffered Aylzer’s attentions once, and he had no desire to see anyone go through them.
He rose, picked up the blade she had dropped, and struck her down with a single concise blow, fueling the foci inside the blade. He looked at Aylzer and tried to dismiss him. The demon’s vessel resisted, fighting against Draven’s will.
Draven gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, exerting his Aura and will, and the vessel burst apart into Aura.
With Draven’s Aura drained and willpower exhausted, the last thing he heard was the demon’s laughter before he passed out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Exploring Zheren
XXXXX
“He’s a bit of a drama queen, don’t you think?” Osheen asked.
I stared at him. He stared back.
Then I burst out laughing. It wasn’t even that funny, but after the tension of the negotiation, I couldn’t help but laugh. I’d actually been on the verge of having a panic attack, with the stress of the situation and the proximity to the rather large train station compounding, but the humor helped me relax some.
Once we had calmed down, Osheen went inside to order us some drinks, and he emerged with a pair of coffees, mixed with cream and chilled over ice. I stared at the drinks.
“Isn’t coffee expensive?” I asked. I’d seen the drink, but Aldvarri had never had the money to keep it around, let alone the money to pay to have it chilled with ice. Even though Paerús and Zheren were northernly enough that ice wasn’t too expensive, even in the summer, it was still costly.
“It only cost me five silver slips,” he responded.
“Slips?” I asked, and he nodded and pulled the envelope from his pocket.
“Apparently, rather than using coins, they use paper here.”
“Oh, cheques? Letters of credit are so common that they’re used for paying for things?” I asked, a bit confused.
“No,” he said as he removed money from the envelope. It resembled a letter of credit, insofar as it had a number indicating how much silver it was worth—ten ounces, which was slightly more than the weight of a Silver Crown—but that was where the resemblance stopped. It had the marking of a stern-looking man on the front and a silver deer on the back.
“Weird,” I said as I flipped it over in my hands. “Why not just use silver itself?”
“No clue,” Osheen said as he passed me my drink. I took a sip and nodded appreciatively. Given how much I’d heard about coffee, I had expected it to taste bitter like a potion. It was surprisingly smooth. Maybe that was the point of the ice and cream?
“So, what do you want to do with our time, now that the politics is out of the way?” he asked.
“Honestly?” I asked. “I’m pleasantly surprised at how normal Zheren is so far. It reminds me a lot of being back home in the capital, albeit more magical. I think I should be alright to head out some and explore, though I may need to go back to the hotel if I start to have a panic attack.”
“Makes sense,” Osheen said with a nod. “Do you want to have dinner? It is a bit early, but that means we would beat the rush—fewer strangers to have to deal with.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “Where?”
“I have no idea,” he said with a chuckle as he drained his glass and set it on the table. I did the same and rose.
We wound up eventually finding a place that served pasta and shared a bowl of thick, eggy noodles in a light butter sauce, with mushrooms and chicken. I’d never had anything quite like it—I had rarely even eaten much chicken since Aldvarri was a vegetarian—but it was good. When we finally returned to the hotel, I found Victoria waiting for me outside of our room.
“Evening, Evan. We need to talk,” she said.
I froze, and Osheen squeezed my hand gently.
“About why Zheren is being so nice to us?” he asked her, and she nodded in response.
I took a deep breath. I’d let myself get distracted by Draven, then by Osheen, and I hadn’t prepared a lie that would be convincing enough to fool her. But could I tell her the truth?
Maybe a part of it.
“I don’t think it would be wise to tell you everything,” I said, honestly. “There are some powerful people involved, and they probably don’t even like that I know anything, let alone you. I told Osheen because he’s my boyfriend, and he grew up in politics.”
She nodded slowly, then bit her lip.
“Tell me what you can,” she said, after a few moments of silence.
“You remember how the king died stopping the mad summoner last year?” I asked, continuing when she nodded. “Well, I was involved with that whole debacle. After that, there was a meeting about the future, and since I happened to know Finnalir was at the school, I was able to leverage that fact to help smooth along the peace talks.”
“Alright,” she said, nodding. “I understand that, and I don’t really want to get involved in matters of state, at least not without a strong sponsor backing me. So… Have you had a chance to check out any of the shops here?”
I shook my head, and she reached into her pack to remove some papers.
“I visited an enchanter’s shop here, and they were willing to sell me a bunch of enchanting designs, with the principles behind them. And most of it was Adept and Journeyman-level spell formulae!”
That did sound interesting. More than likely, most of it wouldn’t be revolutionary, but I still really wanted to look over them. Then again, I had really been enjoying the time with Osheen. I considered for a moment.
“Can I study them when we get back?”
“Course,” Victoria said with a nod, retreating to her own room.
The next morning, I decided to let Osheen sleep in. He was always a late sleeper anyways, so I wanted to run an errand that he probably wouldn’t be too interested in before he woke.
I left him a note explaining what I was doing, just in case he happened to wake up early, then I pulled on my cloak, along with a pair of boots that I had borrowed from Victoria.
I opened the window, then stepped out onto the ledge.
So far, Zheren had been nothing but nice to me. But they had a good reason to be. If I was in their situation, I’d be putting on my best face for the visitors.
So, I activated my cloak and leapt off the edge of the balcony. I flowed Aura into the foci spell on my feet, forming a small platform in the air, and I used it to leap to the next building.
My Aura was easily the weakest of anyone I knew, even Victoria—she had spent a lot of time increasing its density over the summer—but I could manage the odd force disc under my feet, especially since Victoria had worked to make these extra efficient.
I ran across the city under my veil, using the boots to run over the air where I wasn’t able to jump from roof to roof until I had eventually found my target.
An orphanage.
Back home, orphanages would hold children until they were fourteen years old. At that point, you were turned out to find work on your own, usually as a factory worker.
I slipped inside the building and looked around. To my surprise, the entrance hall was clean and large. Several people were moving around, getting ready for breakfast or heading out for the day.
I inspected their clothes and was pleasantly surprised. None of them were richly appointed, of course, and everything was untailored and off the rack, but it wasn’t the shabby, five generations’ worth of hand-me-down clothing that I’d seen in the orphanages back in Paerús.
I silently moved into their dining room and was surprised to see eggs and sausages, along with what looked like savory scones. The sausages weren’t large, but it was still a luxury that I hadn’t known.
The older members of the orphanage were also older than I would have expected. It didn’t look like they were forced to leave until they were about seventeen.
One of the older members of the orphanage in the kitchen even had an Aura and was using some glyphs to manipulate the flame as she cooked more eggs. A nervous-looking adult hovered nearby, watching her and either nodding approval or shaking their head whenever the girl created a new glyph.
I had heard that Zheren had more people with Aura than we did in Paerús, but that hammered it home more than even discovering the streetlamps did.
I headed upstairs to take a glance at the rooms. While they did have to share rooms, it wasn’t as cramped as mine had been in Paerús. There were two or three to a bedroom, rather than the six that I had been used to.
As my cloak’s power tapered out, I left the orphanage and ran across the city again.
If this was how Zheren treated its poorest and least important citizens…
I shook my head in amazement. I’d been lucky, ending up with Aldvarri, rather than slaving away in a workhouse.
Which made me curious. They had to have workhouses of some sort, but what wages would they offer?
I headed to a library, one far enough away from the hotel and with enough of a random path between them that I felt fairly sure that Zheren’s government couldn’t have messed with it.
I had to take a break at the library. Running across the city, even though I was far overhead, and thus away from where most people were, was exhausting. Physically of course, but even if I wasn’t in and around people, it was still so much open space.
Oracle sent me a pulse of concern and appeared for a moment to nuzzle my shoulder, and I smiled at him.
Once I was feeling better, I used the library reference cards to find legal texts and isolated the labor laws. It was all in fairly complicated legalese, but I was surprised to see there was an established minimum amount that someone was able to be paid—ten silver slips per hour.
Given the odd conversion, I guessed that’d work out to about twelve crowns. That was… better than I had expected. Most workhouses in the capital paid half that.
It still wasn’t enough to live in the level of comfort that even Aldvarri did, but… it was enough that you wouldn’t have to fret about getting food on the table too badly.
I shook my head and whistled to myself.
Zheren, despite what Paerús may like to say, seemed to be a far better place to grow up to me.
I read through some more of their laws, interested to see how their system worked—orphanages, the control of magic, and their collegiate system.
Before I knew it, my stomach rumbled. I checked the clock in the front of the library and was startled to realize that it was nearly noon.
I’d skipped breakfast to head out on my exploration trip, and it was already lunch. Osheen was probably worried about me, even if I had left a note, so I rushed back, hiring a horse and buggy to take me there quickly.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Streetlamps
I arrived at the hotel to find Osheen in the lobby, looking worried. I sat down next to him and gave him a light hug, and he gave me a relieved smile.
“Sorry, that took me longer than I expected.”
He gave me a smile and shrugged as we headed outside to grab some lunch.
“My worry is on me, really. You did leave a note saying you’d be out for a while. So, what did you think?”
I tapped my chin as I considered my answer.
“Well,” I said slowly, “as long as I assume that nothing I saw was fabricated, I’m… really impressed. It seems a lot better than Paerús’s system. I don’t think it was fabricated, either. I ran across the city, and while I guess they could have had someone scrying me, and a team on standby to alter anything that I encountered, that seems like a lot of effort to go through.”
He nodded slowly.
“I’ve noticed that, too,” he said. “Not with the orphanage, of course, but in general. Selt isn’t their capital, and I don’t think it’s their magical center either, the way Hallowbrooke is for us. I asked around about it in the coffee shop, and apparently, Estlite has their highest magical concentration—it has three magical academies.”
“Three?” I asked. “Why would they need three? One for each type of mage?”
He shook his head.
“No, apparently, they’re just… different schools. Same way there are multiple law schools.”
That was weird. But… was it? I was used to Paerús, where magic was a tool of the nobility and military. Having one large school under their control allowed them to further control the flow of magic.
Here, though, things seemed to be different. It seemed more like a type of profession that some people went into. That was true in Paerús, to an extent, but…
“Is it possible this is all a façade for us?” I asked. “I mean, I know we just said that it was a possibility. But, realistically, could they pull off something this large scale?”
“I… don’t think so. I mean, Emilia’s probably going to wind up living here, if her relationship with Finnalir keeps developing, plus the effort it would take would be immense. I suppose a powerful group of mind mages could be doing it, but that seems unlikely to be the case. That’d make it hard to manage random physical evidence we could bring back.”
I nodded in agreement.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“I… don’t know,” he responded. “Frankly, I don’t know if there’s anything to be done. What were you thinking?”
“I don’t know either. Part of me thinks we should grab our friends and come live here. See about going to school here. We’re skilled enough that I can’t imagine we’d fail out.”
But I still had the Ligature to think of. They had a presence here, but how many other people did they have in Hallowbrooke, Yesgol, or even Paerús, in general.
“But,” I said, continuing my train of thought aloud, “that also would only help us, and it might not even do that. What happens if Paerús decides to attack Zheren anyways? I mean, the war is stopped for now, but what if Draven reneges on his deal? Or if someone else decides it’s worth an attack? Then we’re stuck here and may have to fight anyways.”
