On the Shoulders of Titans

I also found out some of the people she’d worked with on that. One was a powerful Summoner named Elora Theas, and an Emerald-level swordsman.

Orden actually wanted me to work with her group. I was a little conflicted, of course, since she was one of my professors, but I couldn’t agree with her plans. Both for ethical reasons and because I didn’t think her plans would actually work. She was not only provoking a war, she was risking our nation’s survival on a tremendous number of variables, and I couldn’t agree to that. It just…wasn’t strategically sound.

So, I decided to fight.

Now, there were five other people there. So, fighting Orden should have been easy, right? Five on one?

Except she’d tricked Derek into putting on a ring earlier. A ring that made him follow her every command.

Which was bad, because Derek was an Emerald-level attuned. Which, if you’re not familiar, is as powerful as it gets. At least as far as we know.

So, with Derek and Orden against us, we promptly ran away. We ran like a lot.

Ultimately, we got caught, though, and had to fight. I gave Sera a magic potion that I’d been saving — one that I thought would make whoever drank it more powerful.

This may have been a slight miscalculation.

It did make her more powerful. Enough to turn the tide in the fight, at least.

We knocked Orden and Derek out cold.

Unfortunately, that potion didn’t work exactly the way I’d hoped, and now Sera’s attunement appears to be broken and she can’t talk.

Oops.

So, yeah, that was all bad.

And then it got worse.

Jin decided to shoot Vera in the back. Like, repeatedly.

This was an immediate strain on our nascent love life.

I tackled him.

We did some wrestling of the decidedly non-romantic variety, until I exploited a weakness in one of the magical items I’d made him earlier and made it explode.

Which, you guessed it, blew up my hand.

Not entirely. Just enough to put some nice shards of metal into it.

It hurt Jin a lot more, though.

They say the shortest way to a man’s heart is through his sternum, after all.

Hm?

Is that not an expression?

I feel like I’ve been lied to.

Anyway, he still probably would have beaten me if Vanniv hadn’t punched him in the face.

Oh, Vanniv? Yeah, you’ll like him. He’s a summoned monster. And he’s adorable.

Anyway, yeah. I cobbled a healing item together with a rock. Not the most conventional form of enchanted item, but I work with what I’ve got.

Magic Rock is the best. Don’t you dare make fun of it.

I used that to get Vera back into stable condition, found some of Katashi’s blood — I imagine that was your work, thanks for that — and then used a thing called the Jaden Box to summon Katashi to our location.

Katashi took Vera and healed me up, but he wasn’t able to heal Sera.

So, he gave me a crazy artifact sword, Ceris, to give her instead. Which is nice, I guess?

I’m still not sure what to think about that.

He sent me to you after that. Then you defeated me in battle with a chicken leg before I had a chance to introduce myself.

I am not ashamed by this. I am exhausted, and absolutely done with fighting people.

So, that’s why I’m here.

Sorry for rambling. I’m tired, I just barely survived someone that I trusted, and I’m not sure if my sister is going to be able to use her attunement again.

It hasn’t been the best day for me.

How have you been, Keras?

* * *

A bit after explaining that whole story to Keras, I found my way back to Lorian Heights.

Derek offered us all a place to stay for a while, and we accepted.

I had something I needed to do in private after I’d made sure everyone was safe and stable.

I opened Trials of Judgment, my magic book.

And I saw a message inside that wasn’t exactly what I’d been expecting.

Chapter I – Well, That Was Unexpected

I stared blankly at the open book in front of me, rereading the final lines.

And I’ll be especially interested in seeing your next move, little brother.

Survive, and you’ll soon see mine.

-Tristan Cadence

I’d spent the last five years of my life wondering about Tristan’s fate. Had he somehow survived failing the tests? If he had died, could I bargain with the goddess to resurrect him if I reached the top of the tower?

I had my answer now.

Tristan not only survived, he spent the last five years practicing how to sound like the villain from a stage play.

I allowed myself a weak chuckle. But I didn’t feel like my joke was particularly funny.

The situation didn’t feel funny, either. Nor did it feel as joyous as it should have. This wasn’t how our reunion was supposed to happen.

I felt sick.

I let my disbelief influence me for a moment while I wrote a reply.

Dear Voice of the Tower,

If you are Tristan Cadence, I would appreciate some proof.

-Corin

There was no immediate reply, just as I’d expected. I wasn’t even sure the book was capable of sending me additional messages while I was in Derek Hartigan’s manor. I knew the place was supposed to be heavily warded. I didn’t know enough about the specific runes to know if they would block whatever form of enchantment made this book function.

I frowned as I contemplated that. How does this book work?

I hadn’t seen obvious runes within it like on traditional enchanted items. It did glow while I looked at it with my attunement active, however.

I spent a moment searching the book using my attunement, realizing that the part that glowed the most intensely was the inside of the spine, where the pages were attached.

That implied that the runes were underneath the paper. If that was true, I’d have to remove the pages in order to see the runes. Not a bad way of concealing them, since taking out the paper could potentially render the book’s magic inert.

Maybe I could find a Diviner with a spell for seeing through material? That would probably work, but then I’d have to be willing to show the book to someone else…

Or I could make an item with that function. That’d be better, both due to my distrust for others and because I could see an item with that spell being useful for other applications.

I’d succeeded at distracting myself briefly with that line of thought, but Tristan’s declaration snapped me out of my reverie when the moment of interest wore off.

I’d asked the book for proof, but I didn’t need much of it. Katashi had already told me directly that Tristan had been involved with the disappearance of Visage Tenjin. The writing in the book was consistent with that.

Resh.

What do I do?

If Tristan really was one of the people organizing this, was I willing to work against him?

He hadn’t been bothered that we’d successfully defeated Orden and turned her over to Katashi, so he clearly had his own angle on this affair. What was it?