Another weight settled on him. Whether victory in the Uncrowned King tournament would really make all those changes for the common citizen of Akura territory, he didn't know. This all may have been a show designed to draw support from the people for the competition.
But at the very least, they thought it mattered to them. This human tide would be listening for news of his performance, deciding whether Lindon had done them proud or let them down.
The Blackflame Empire’s fate would be controlled by this tournament, but so would the lives of millions of other people he would never meet. His performance, the people he defeated, would matter more widely than he’d ever imagined. The knowledge settled into him.
He had to be worthy of it.
When the cheers began to fade, a sleek black cloudship slipped in from overhead. Its design made it look small, though it dwarfed even the Blackflame Emperor's ship. It looked almost like a slice of Stormrock, the floating Skysworn city. Lindon's stomach lurched as his platform began to drift upward, toward the ship.
Mercy and Pride raised their hands and waved to the crowd, Mercy eagerly and Pride reluctantly. Lindon did so as well, having been instructed to mirror anything the other two did. Once again, the crowd roared.
The platform dropped the three of them onto the deck of the airship, and Lindon let out a breath. “Are we finished now? Is it over?”
“Learn patience,” Pride ordered him, and Mercy rolled her eyes at her brother.
“We're going to fly off to make it look like we're leaving,” she explained. “Cheers. Well-wishes. Promises of victory. Everyone's happy. Then we're going to loop around and pick up everyone else. The whole family's coming.”
Except for the servants, Lindon would be the only one aboard the massive cloudship whose name wasn't Akura. That thought was no comfort.
“How long do we have to travel?” he asked carefully.
“It usually takes eight months to reach the center of the Ninecloud continent,” Mercy said, “though the journey is risky. There's never a guarantee of success. But the tournament is in two months, so the Ninecloud Court has sent us superior propulsion constructs and a navigational construct to ensure we reach our destination in six weeks.”
[A navigational construct, you say? That sounds like it might be full of delicious, delicious secrets.]
A different part of the statement had intrigued Lindon. “Ninecloud?”
Pride sneered at him. “The tournament is hosted by the Ninecloud Court. I suppose you’ve never heard of them.”
With Suriel at his side, Lindon had stood among the Court itself, watching Sha Miara's coronation. He hadn't known at the time, but he now suspected she was a Monarch.
Lindon gave Pride a smile that made the shorter man ball up his fists. “It so happens that I have.”
~~~
With her blindfold tight, Yerin sent her perception around the cloudship. The heavy scripts manipulated wind and cloud madra, keeping them in the air. Sealed in a construct below, powerful rainbow madra provided by the Ninecloud Court fueled the ship and gave them the speed necessary to reach the tournament in time.
The crew of the ship were mostly on Paths of cloud or wind, which allowed them to do their jobs, but Yerin sensed at least one on a fire Path and one that used force techniques.
Naru Saeya was a brighter spot than any of them, a concentration of wind madra, but Eithan proved more difficult to spot. Pure madra was easy to overlook. Yerin strained her perception not to reach further, but to drill deeper.
Her Blood Shadow stirred, hungrily reaching out, which gave Yerin another thing to distract her. She pushed the Shadow down, still scanning the deck, gripping her sword tightly. If she had to wrestle with the spiritual parasite for long, she would never find Eithan.
She heard nothing, but she felt him for an instant, a faint whisper of danger in her spirit. Her sword came up, ringing with her Ruler technique, and the air sliced apart by dozens of invisible blades. Many of the crew stopped in their tracks, and Naru Saeya's spirit quivered in surprise, but Yerin ignored them and tore off her blindfold.
Eithan stood before her, frozen in mid-lunge, eyes wide. His one outstretched hand held a silver comb, which he had been using to attack. Its top half fell off, cut by the Endless Sword, and plinked to the deck. The edges of his ornate pink-and-gold outer robe were shredded, and a few strands of his hair drifted down.
He wasn't cut, but Yerin had never felt so victorious in all her life.
She raised her sword into the air and gave a triumphant shout as though she had just captured an enemy's fortress. Naru Saeya cheered along with her, applauding furiously, and several of the crew joined in.
After a moment, Eithan's shocked expression melted into an appreciative smile, and he added a few claps of his own. "If I had thought you'd pick it up so quickly, I'd have tied my hair back."
Yerin drew in a deep, satisfied breath, looking up at Eithan. "Next time, I'm drawing blood."
"You sound so eager."
She reached into her outer robe and pulled out the purple crystalline construct that had been delivered to her months ago. It wasn't the time for her to speak with Lindon yet, so he might not be able to answer, but it was at least the right day.
Yerin held it out to Eithan, who provided pure madra to activate it. Sword madra would work, but it would wear the construct down faster. It was already on its last legs.
But she wouldn't need it for much longer. In only seven more days, they would reach the Ninecloud Court. Lindon might be there already.
The construct shot sprays of madra essence in brightly colored sparks, and the light within it flickered. Dream and shadow madra twisted around each other into a whirlpool, and Yerin caught the faint impression that it was drilling into something...deeper.
But the impression was gone in a moment, and Lindon's voice came through, distant and weak. "Yerin, can you...may not...much longer."
The cloudship shuddered as the crew prepared them for landing; they would touch down soon to allow their scripts to draw on aura and refuel. The wind picked up as they descended, which didn't make it easier to hear.
"Lindon," Yerin shouted into the construct. "I cut Eithan!"
"That's not strictly true," Eithan pointed out, but she waved him to silence.
"...apologies...what did you...Eithan?"
"I cut him! I finally sensed him coming!" She had shared her progress in this training exercise with Lindon, and while she had sensed Eithan before, it was never quickly enough to interrupt his attack. He strengthened his veil every few days, and she’d begun to worry that she would never catch up.
Lindon's distant voice grew excited. "Really? That's...how did...even him."
The construct's light flickered again, and the sound died out. Yerin lowered it, trying to shake off her disappointment. Eithan could power the device again, but it was reaching the end of its life. Besides, she would be able to talk to Lindon directly in another week. Their cloudships were both supposed to arrive at about the same time; two weeks before the start of the tournament.
She pushed out a smile for Eithan and tucked the construct away. "You'll have to watch yourself from here on. Won't be able to sneak around like a rat."
"I wouldn't be so sure; I have many other rat-like qualities that will serve me well."
Naru Saeya stepped up, multi-colored sword in her hand. "My turn to cut Eithan."
"While Yerin is making excellent progress, she did not cut me. I want that to be clear."
"Draw your comb."
Yerin stepped back while Naru Saeya and Eithan exchanged blows. They both had Iron bodies suited for speed, which had recently made it hard for her to follow their matches.
Now, by extending her perception over the both of them, she could sense the changes in their spirit much more clearly and quickly than before. Those small shifts gave her a sense of what would happen a moment in advance.
She continued thinking about it as their cloudship touched down. It felt similar to how her spirit sometimes warned her in moments of danger, as she sensed signs of approaching hostility that her conscious mind was not yet aware of. That was the ability she was training.