I’d been judging him largely based on our first meeting, which was admittedly a terrible first impression. But in fairness, the teacher who had seemed nice was the one who was actually masterminding a scheme on a national scale, so maybe I just needed to stop judging people on appearances.
“I understand your reasoning, but I’m still not sure I can trust him.” I tightened my jaw. “Then again, I’m not sure I can trust anyone right now.”
“That brings me to another point, actually.” Derek shook his head. “I didn’t tell Teft or the vice chancellor about Jin. I wanted to get your take on it first.”
I winced. “Do you know what happened to him?”
Derek shook his head. “No. I just know what you told me and Keras, and I haven’t followed up. Do you think he’s a threat?”
I thought back to what Jin had said when we’d fought. He’d made it clear that he wasn’t a spy for another government…he was just trying to protect his own homeland.
That was no excuse for what he did, but I didn’t expect him to take other immediate steps to cause harm. “I don’t think I can make an accurate assessment of that. I clearly misjudged him before.” I hesitated, then added, “But for what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s probably a threat to either of us. And I don’t see him doing anything to directly sabotage Valia, either. His action was opportunistic. Now that Vera is out of his reach, I don’t see him doing anything drastic.”
Derek nodded, considering. “Sounds about right.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Okay. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to hire someone to keep any eye on him for a while, just to see if he does anything suspicious. But I won’t turn him in to the vice chancellor, not yet. Treason charges aren’t the kind of thing you walk away from, and I get the impression he doesn’t deserve that kind of punishment.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you’re being that charitable.”
Derek shrugged. “I’ve seen the kinds of things being an outsider can do to someone. And, for what it’s worth, I’m not convinced Vera didn’t deserve what she got.”
I blinked. “I thought you liked her.”
“I did. Doesn’t mean she was a good person. I’ve done a lot of digging into those artificial attunements over the years, and the picture isn’t pretty.” Derek shook his head. “That’s a topic for another time, though. For the moment, I have a present for you.”
He took out a stick.
I put a hand over my heart. “Such a touching gift! You shouldn’t have.”
The swordsman shoved the piece of wood in my direction. I accepted it with more curiosity than cynicism, turning it over in my hands. No obvious runes.
I turned my attunement on.
The glow was very subtle, but it was there. Just a hint of a colorless translucent field, like around a Quartz-level attuned, but fainter. If I wasn’t looking for it in specific, I was confident I wouldn’t have noticed it. Even looking straight at it I was half-convinced it was just in my mind.
I frowned, turning my attunement back off.
“That,” Derek gestured, “Is perhaps the world’s most advanced magical object.”
My eyes shifted down, then back to him. “Yeah, no, not believing that.”
He laughed. “Okay, fine, it’s a stick. But it is a magical item — and, as I’m sure you noticed, not a typical one.”
“No runes.” I ran my fingers across the surface. “Not even invisible ones.” I paused, considering. “Wait. Is this one of your Soulblade items?”
“Oh, no, I don’t like you that much. It’s just an unusual enchanting style.”
I turned it over in my hands. “Where are the runes?”
“That’s between me and the Enchanter who made it.” He grinned. “And that gives you an advantage. No one knows to look for it.”
Hrm. Maybe he carved runes on an inner rod and glued this bark onto it?
Or maybe there aren’t any runes, and it’s alchemically treated somehow?
I turned the stick over in my hands, pondering.
“So, what’s it actually do?”
“If you crack it in half, it sends a signal to a linked item in my possession. My item will make a sound and begin to glow. Once I notice it, I can activate my item to see a visible trail to the location of your stick.”
I raised a hand to my chin, thinking. “It’s an emergency signal. That’s good, but wouldn’t something like a return bell be better?”
Derek grinned. “Sure, but those are expensive. Sticks are cheap.”
“Thanks, Derek. Your generosity is overwhelming.” I set the stick down on the table. “If I get my bell back at some point, could I set it to teleport here?”
“Nope. Anti-teleportation field around the whole house. You’d need a key to circumvent it — and I’m not letting you make one of those. Besides, standard return bells only work if you’re in the spire. They draw on the tower’s mana or something. You can make ones that work anywhere, but they’re more expensive and have a shorter range. We usually call those jump bells.”
Huh. I guess that’s why the ones we used during the fake tower tests worked a little bit differently?
I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future.
I nodded. “Okay. Do you have more magic sticks, at least? Sera, Marissa, and Patrick could probably use them.”
“I can handle making those. Might take a few days, but I’ll get one for each of them.”
“Okay, thanks.” My mind was starting to wander onto the next steps in my plan. I should figure out how to make one of those more advanced return bells. I think Derek called them jump bells? They’re probably too powerful for me to assemble on my own right now, but I could start working toward it.
Derek raised a single finger. “One more thing. That new attunement you’ve got? I’m pretty sure it’s either an ascended attunement or a restricted attunement.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What are those?”
I’d heard of ascended attunements briefly, but I had no idea what restricted attunements were.
“Ascended attunements are attunements that have progressed to the point of changing into something new. They can generally do everything a normal attunement can, but some new things.”
“So, they’re just more powerful than normal attunements?” I asked.
Derek shook his head. “It’s not a matter of power, like progressing from Quartz to Carnelian would be. Ascended attunements just have new things they can do, like giving you additional types of mana or new abilities. Before you ask, I don’t know how to get one, and I don’t know much about how they work. Believe me, I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while.”
I nodded.
Derek continued. “I think it’s more likely you’ve got a restricted attunement. There are a handful of attunements you can’t get out of a standard Judgment. The only known people with them are the ones that the visages hand them to. No pun intended there. It’s possible they normally come from Judgments in the Spider Spire, but since no one knows where that is, it’s impossible to say.”
Now that was interesting. “Isn’t there some kind of seventh tower in the middle of the Unclaimed Lands, too?”