Chapter 98: Stability

Chapter 98: Stability

Training Overview x3

General Experience Earned

Mana Use: 3,794

Skill Experience Earned

Mana Manipulation: 745

Synchronization

Strength: +1%

Recovery: +1%

Vigor: +3%

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

CLASS

LVL

CAP

Dynamo

18

18

EXP

NEXT

TOTAL

22,749

22,750

454,832

Vitals

CUR

MAX

RGN

HP

940

940

250/d

SP

520

520

340/d

MP

6,157

6,157

466.2/h

Dark Revenant’s Armor

CUR

MAX

RGN

DUR

12,721

1,309

0

SAT

0

13,202

-92/s

CHG

0

14,209

0

Attributes

139/139

EFF

TOTAL

BASE

BUFF

SYN

STR

13.2

47

10

37/37

28%

RCV

10.5

25

10

15/15

42%

END

8.06

26

10

16/16

31%

VGR

15.3

34

10

24/24

45%

FCS

10

10

10

0/49

100%

CLR

247

247

200

47/61

100%

Resistances

0/?

FLAT

PERCENT

HEAT

2.6

0%

COLD

2.6

0%

LIGHT

2.6

0%

DARK

2.6

0%

FORCE

2.6

0%

ARCANE

2.6

0%

CHEMICAL

2.6

0%

MENTAL

2.6

0%

Three days had passed in a flash, and only now did Rain feel as if he was starting to get a handle on things. He was currently in the bathhouse, sitting on his cot in his makeshift room on the far side of the pool. He’d already been up for a few hours, having had breakfast, done a light workout, bathed, trimmed his beard, and donned his armor. The temporary padding that he was wearing underneath was a marginal improvement over his old gambeson, but it still was a bit uncomfortable.

At the moment, however, he couldn’t feel it. The final element of his new morning routine was to spend a bit of time trying to fix his soul. Aura Focus was active, blanking out his senses as he meditated, trying to visualize ‘the inner world.’

This wasn’t Essence Meditation. While he was technically using Essence Well, he had IFF set to blacklist everyone, including himself. Thus, there was no mana consumption whatsoever, with only the sensory deprivation of Aura Focus to show that he was doing anything at all. He’d found that the quiet helped him focus.

Meditation wasn’t something that Rain had been big on prior to getting whisked away from his old life. He knew how it was supposed to work, of course. Mindfulness had been hailed on the internet as a cure for everything from stress to anxiety to the common cold. Rain had tried it once, in an attempt to get himself out of his funk.

For like fifteen minutes.

The whole thing had struck him as pseudo-spiritual nonsense, designed to sell self-help books more than anything else. It hadn’t worked— obviously, given his mindset—and he’d given up after the single attempt.

Now, in a world filled with magic and confronting the existence of his soul, the practice seemed much less nonsensical. Rain was kicking himself for having dismissed it out of hand like an idiot. He’d never really given it a shot. Even if it ended up doing nothing for his soul, he was already seeing benefits just from the clarity that it brought to his otherwise scattered thoughts.

He’d long-since resolved to do better, but that wasn’t as easy as just saying it. He was still an idiot, after all. An idiot who had broken his soul before he even understood what it was. All he could do was try to be less of an idiot going forward. One day at a time.

With a flicker of annoyance, Rain realized that he was thinking about stuff, and then that he was thinking about thinking about stuff. That wasn’t how meditation was supposed to work. He forced himself to pay attention to his breathing again until the chittering of his mind faded away. All that was left was his breath.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, Rain switched his focus. He tried to visualize his soul.

When he’d earned his first accolade, he had been transported to a formless void in which he saw himself as a being of glowing blue light. Now, he was trying to recapture that feeling, to imagine himself as that being. Not a ghost, but a hologram. A digital representation. An entity of data. Of numbers and frozen light.

This was the link. The only clue that he had about what his soul might look like. The sole passage to the ‘inner world’ that Bartum had mentioned. His soul, the void, and something else.

Rain’s hand tightened on the unbound accolade that he was holding. He couldn’t feel the metal against his skin, but he knew it was there. With all of his might, he willed it to appear in the dark void of his mind. Willed himself to appear. To reach out. To take it.

Nothing happened.

Disappointed by his failure, he relaxed his grip. The accolade experiment was only one of the things that he’d tried, but he’d really thought it would be the key. After a moment, he frowned and pushed aside the emotion, focusing on his breathing once more. Then, he shifted focus, visualizing the blue dialogs that he saw as the system.

Soul Interface.

He pushed, straining to define what he wanted. To will the panel into existence.

Again, nothing happened.

...

Absolutely nothing.

Damn it. Why can’t I find a book about this? I miss Wikipedia.

He’d looked, of course. There was nothing on the subject in Staavo’s tower, which had been thoroughly ransacked during the riots. Rain felt bad about that, having been the one to leave it unlocked. He knew where the key was now, having located it in the mess with Detection, but he hadn’t thought of it back when it would have mattered. He shook his head.

And now I’m thinking again. Balls.

Breathing out slowly, he let his frustration fade away, returning his focus to his breathing. He floated in the darkness, dead to the world and his own problems. Another indeterminate quantity of time passed, with not so much as a thought to disturb the stillness.

Then, there was a flicker. Blue light, then a spiraling, twisting sensation accompanied by a rushing roar and an overpowering sense of impending destruction. Rain cried out, dropping Aura Focus and lurching to his feet. He windmilled his arms, managing to catch his balance before he toppled over onto his face. Sight returned, leaving him blinking in the mid-morning light.

“What the fuck was that?” he gasped.

“He?” Breggeh asked. “Slimes have gender?”

“Not really,” Rain said. “At least, I don’t think they do. A friend’s daughter decided that Dozer was male, and since then, I’ve just kind of gone with it. Easier than trying to argue with a seven-year-old.”

Breggeh smiled. “I suppose it is. My own daughters are the same way. I wish I could go see them.”

Rain winced, and the conversation stalled. Mercifully, there were only a few moments of awkward silence before Kettel returned and tossed Rain the Quickstaff. Rain snagged it out of midair and retracted it in one smooth motion, then slipped it into a pouch.

“How do ye do tha’, anyway?” Kettel asked, gesturing to the pouch. “Make it smaller, like?”

“Mana Manipulation. Magical Utility tree.” Rain said. “It lets me power the activation rune on the staff. It does the retraction thing all on its own. I told you about Mana Manipulation before, didn’t I?”

“Oh, yeah, that ye did,” Kettel said. “Workin’ me way there. Anyway, I ran inta’ Captain Carten. He knows yer here. Says ta meet him in the study. Second door on the left once ye get inta’ the main hall.”

“Show me?” Rain said.

Kettel shrugged. “Ye can’t miss it. ‘Sides, he said he wanted ta talk ta ye alone. Also told me ta get back ta guardin’.”

“Right,” Rain said. “Well, hang in there, you two. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get Velika to let you go, or at least take a break or something.”

“Don’t...” Breggeh hesitated, then shook her head. “Thanks. Just don’t say anything to piss her off.”

Rain sighed. “I’ll do my best, but she might not like some of what I have to say. It needs to be said, though. Don’t spread this around, but the city’s only got six weeks of food left. We need to get her to lower the barrier before people start dying. If she kills me, well...” He sighed. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Nice knowin’ ye, Rain,” Kettel said with a grin, clapping him on the shoulder again.

“Thanks, Kettel,” Rain said, then slid his visor closed and walked into the courtyard toward the keep.

As he passed the tower, he noticed something strange. He diverted his course, coming to a stop in front of the door to the tower. It was made out of metal, not wood, and there was a line of runes carved into it around the edge. They weren’t glowing, but that didn’t mean anything. He recognized one or two of them, though he had no idea what they meant. The symbols that runecrafters used were still a bit of a mystery. They were fascinating from a mechanical standpoint, but information on them was scarce, perhaps even scarcer than runecrafters themselves.

It was on his list of things to look into if he ever got the time. If he could tame a slime without the system calling him a tamer, then runecraft might be possible for him too. Chemistry worked, he knew. Reason had said as much, and Meloni had proven it by showing him a potion that she’d made all on her own. She had even offered to show him how she’d done it, but again, the lack of time issue had reared its head. There just weren’t enough hours in the day.

Rain frowned and looked away from the door. This wasn’t the time to get distracted.

A sudden flash of light halted him in his tracks only moments after he’d started moving away. In the corner of his eye, he caught a flicker on the bar that displayed his armor’s mana saturation. A few hundred points of magic damage had been absorbed. Someone had attacked him.

Rain whirled in a circle, searching the courtyard with his eyes as he activated Force Ward. He saw no one other than Breggeh and Kettel, who were both looking away from him. Just as his saturation bar drained back to empty, the flash came again, and it shot back up. Rain cursed. Where the hell is it coming from, and what the hell is it? It is magic, clearly, but I can’t see the projectile. It’s like Val’s spell, but Val wouldn’t attack me like this...

The flash struck him a third time. Rain narrowed his eyes and dropped Force Ward. If the attacker was going to stick to magic, then they’d need stronger stuff than this to get through his armor. The mana dispersion rate of the Dark Steel was simply too high. He activated Detection instead, searching for entities. There were signals all around him, he was in the city, after all, but the one that caught his attention was directly above him.

He looked up just in time to catch another blast of magic straight in the face. His visor blocked the spell entirely, the magic drawn into the metal with none of it making through the eye slit. It was still bright, though.

Rain cursed. Damn it, always remember to look up.

He blinked, clearing his eyes, then his eyebrows rose behind his visor as he saw the face of his attacker leaning over the parapet of the tower. What the? It actually is Val! What the hell is he doing?

Seeing that he’d attracted Rain’s attention, Val quickly raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.

“What you doing?” Rain signed at him clumsily in hand code, but Val only shrugged. He replied with a single sign, the one that indicated a question.

Shit, he doesn’t understand. He probably only knows the few signs that people use in combat.

Rain flipped up his visor and opened his mouth to yell at him, but Val quickly made the sign for ‘stop.’ He pointed at Kettel and Breggeh, then made the sign for ‘sentry.’

Rain sighed. “Are you...trap?” he signed, pointing at the tower as he looked up at Val.

Val spread his arms helplessly.

Rain shook his head. Damn. I don’t know the sign for prison, but there’s no way he would either. I knew Velika had him locked up somewhere, but I figured she’d have him in a dungeon, not the top of a tower. What is he, a princess?

Val caught Rain’s attention with another sign. “Mana?”

“What?” Rain signed back.

“You, mana?” Val signed.

“Yes?” Rain signed, making it a question. He’s asking if I have mana? Does he want me to give him some?

“Yes. Defend. Force,” Val signed.

Then, he jumped off the tower.

Rain gasped in shock, activating Force Ward as Val fell. The tower was taller than Staavo’s, at least six stories high. Rain barely had time to process what had happened before Val hit the ground, absorbing the impact with his legs and several hundred of Rain’s mana.

“What the fu—” Rain began, but Val cut him off with a hiss.

“Shh. Keep your voice down,” Val said.

“What were you thinking?” Rain hissed back. “If I hadn’t been fast enough, you’d be a pancake!”

“I’d have been fine,” Val whispered, “My legs wouldn’t have broken. Probably. I’d have jumped ages ago, but I didn’t want to take the risk.”

Rain goggled at him. “Val, you can’t just— What were you thinking?”

Val grinned. “Nice to see you too, Rain. I like the beard. Also, thanks for saving me again. Not from that damn tower, though that too. I mean from the snake. Scaly bastard got me good.”

“Val—”

“Sorry Rain, gotta go,” Val whispered urgently. “If the guards see me, they’ll tell Velika, and then she’ll rip my arms off and shove them up my ass.”

“That’s...disturbingly specific,” Rain said, still scrambling to catch up.

“Don’t tell anyone that I’m not up there anymore.” Val pointed at the tower. “Not even Carten. He’s on her side, the damn lovesick idiot. I’ll come find you later.”

Before Rain could reply, Val vanished. Literally. He was there, and then he wasn’t. Rain’s jaw dropped, then he activated Detection. Val’s signal came back as clear as day, hurrying toward the gate. Rain could hear his rapid footsteps, but he couldn’t see him at all.

Invisibility?

Val’s signal slowed as he reached the gate. Once he was past Kettel and Breggeh, he sped up again, vanishing as he passed outside of Detection’s range.

Rain closed his mouth with a click, letting the spell drop. What the hell, Val? Since when can you become invisible? There’s not even a skill for that!

After a minute to process, Rain sighed, then closed his visor again. Well, I know how he got into the lair now. I’ll have to ask Velika what she was planning to do with him. I need to know how dead he’s going to be when she finds out he’s gone. I also need to talk to him about Lightbreaker. It’s just too much of a damn coincidence.

He shook his head, trying to put Val out of his mind. He resumed his march toward the keep and entered through the large wooden doors, activating Force Ward as he did so. ‘Sparsely decorated’ didn’t even begin to describe the entry hall. That would have required it to be decorated in the first place. The walls and floor were bare stone, and there were no windows. The only light to be had was spilling out from one of the doorways leading off the hall, the second one on the left.

Well, I see why Kettel said I couldn’t miss it. It looks as if Halgrave decorated his house like he decorated his office, if you can even call this a house. It’s more like a haunted ruin. Maybe he got a good deal from his realtor. Rain narrowed his eyes, then headed for the lit doorway. He was careful to stay away from the stairway that was cut into the floor on the right side of the hallway across from the door. The steps plunged down into unknown depths without so much as a railing for safety, a blatant code violation if he’d ever seen one.

The door to the lit room was ajar, and Rain knocked on it politely.

“That you, Rain?” Carten’s voice said tiredly from inside. Rain pushed the door open and saw the big man sitting behind a desk that was piled with papers. The light was coming from an oil lamp sitting on the desk, dangerously close to one of the stacks of paper. Carten wasn’t wearing his armor, just a roughspun shirt and plain pants. He was holding a feather pen and staring at a sheet of paper in the dim light from the lamp.

Rain blinked. “Hi Carten.”

Is Carten doing...paperwork? What?

Carten sighed and looked up from the sheet of paper, setting down his pen. “I told ya not ta come ‘til she sent for ya.”

“Carten, are you okay?” Rain asked, entering the room. As he did, he noticed that it was noticeably cooler inside than it had been in the hall. There was a metal plate hanging on one wall covered with runes glowing with a faint blue light.

“No, I’m not okay,” Carten said, then chuckled, the familiar grin returning to his black-bearded face as he got to his feet. “It’s good ta’ see ya, Little Mouse. I’m glad ya ain’t dead.”

Rain smiled. “Thanks, Carten.”

“C’mon,” Carten said, picking up the lamp. “Let’s go fer a walk. Lord Whatsit an’ that Enforcer bloke’ll be here soon. I don’t particularly want ta talk to ‘em. I’m fine makin’ em wait fer me.”

“Enforcer Sannin?” Rain said, raising an eyebrow. Belatedly, he remembered his visor was closed, but he didn’t open it. He didn’t know where Velika was. “From the Bank? Who’s Lord Whatsit’?”

Carten laughed, wrapping a meaty arm around Rain’s shoulder and giving him a friendly shake before letting him go as the pair of them walked out into the hallway. “If anyone ever asks ya ta check the books, Rain, just tell em ta piss off. Actually, no, you’d probably like doin’ all that math. Bloody hells, I hate multiplyin’.”

“Carten,” Rain said as the big man led him down the hallway deeper into the keep. “Why are you doing the Citizen’s taxes? Doesn’t she have someone else to do that for her?”

Carten sighed. “No, and it ain’t taxes. That money’s already gone. I tell ya, Rain, I thought I was bad with crystal, but Velika...” He shook his head. “As fer why I’m doin’ this, well, there’s no one else. Lord Whatsit said it weren’t lordly work, and I don’ trust ‘em furthern’ I can kick ‘em neither. Sannin’s a cold-eyed snake, Rain. The man’s got no fear. Velika borrowed money, and he jus’ won’t shut up about it. She’d probably kill ‘em if I let ‘em talk ta her.”

“Well, he is a banker,” Rain said. “That’s what bankers do. How much money?”

“Few thousand Tel,” Carten said with a shrug. “She needed jus’ a bit extra fer enchanted equipment fer her guard an’ such. Now, we’re in trouble. Most of ‘em have run off with what she gave ‘em, but I don’t have a list of who’s who, so I can’t exactly go an’ get it back. Lord Whatsit says he’s workin’ on it.”

“Who’s lord Whatsit?” Rain asked again.

“Skinny, pasty guy,” Carten said. “Wears a stupid hat. His name’s Wagarar...agar... somethin’.”

“Lord Wagarardrogrum?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Carten said, nodding.

Rain smiled. “Yeah, Lord Whatsit is better.”

Carten laughed, then pointed to a staircase leading up. “Velika’s on the third floor.”

Rain nodded. “You don’t call her Citizen Sadanis?”

“No,” Carten said. “Not anymore. You shouldn’t either if ya know what’s good for ya. In fact, don’t say the word ‘Citizen’ at all.”

“Why not?”

Carten shrugged. “I’ve asked. She won’t explain. Threw me down the stairs instead.”

“Carten—”

“Listen, Rain, Vel’s not feelin’ so good. Not like she was before.”

“Carten, why are you still with her? I mean, seriously, you’ve only known her for like a week. Don’t tell me you—”

Carten stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, then turned to face him, a serious expression looking incongruous on his bearded face.

“She’s a good person, Rain. What the Watch did ta her weren’t right. They tried ta kill her, and for nothin’! Almost succeeded, too. Her leg’s still not healed, and her hair...” Carten shook his head. “She had ta kill em back. She didn’t have no choice, Rain. Now, I know how ya feel about killin’, but ya can’t go judgin’ her on it. It’s weighin’ on her, too, Rain. She jus’ wanted ta be free, and now...” he shook his head. “She’s trapped like us.” Carten winced after a second, realizing what he’d said. “Shit. Don’t tell no one about that.”

Damn, he really is in love with her, isn’t he? How is that even possible?

“It’s okay, Carten, I already know about the situation,” Rain said as Carten released his shoulder and continued leading him down the hallway. “That’s why I need to talk to her.”

Carten shook his head, then sighed. “Okay. Just watch what ya say an’ how ya say it. She ain’t in a good place, like I said. All she gets excited about is eatin’, fuckin’, and terrorizin’ the servants. Rest ‘o the time, she’s...well. You’ll see.”

“Carten...” Rain said, at a loss for what to say.

“It’ll all be okay, Rain. She’s gettin’ better. It’s just gonna take time. She’ll know what to do, once she’s back ta normal. She’ll convince that Westbridge fucker ta come let us out. I know she can.” Carten trailed off, coming to a halt. He pointed down the hall. “She’s down there, in her room. The door at the end. Ya better go alone. She’s mad at me right now, and I really do gotta go deal with that banker bastard.”

“Carten,” Rain said, looking at him. “Hang in there, okay? I’m going to talk to her. We’ll get this sorted out, one way or another.”

Carten nodded, then hit his head with his hand. “Damn, I only brought one light.”

“I’ve got a candle,” Rain said, digging around in one of his pouches. He retrieved it, then lit it from Carten’s lamp. Then, he offered the big man his hand.

Carten grabbed it and squeezed, shaking firmly. Even through his gauntlet, Rain could tell that the man’s grip was like a vice. Rain smiled slightly behind his visor, then squeezed back, hard. Carten’s eyes widened, then his old grin broke out across his face as he strengthened his grip to match.

“Haha, Little Mouse! Now that’s more like it!” Carten said. He gave Rain’s hand another hard squeeze, then let go and clapped him on the back. The serious expression returned to his face. “Good luck, Rain.”

“You too, Carten,” Rain said, watching as the big man retreated down the hallway and disappeared around a corner. I’ll talk to him about his relationship later. I need to see how bad it is first. She threw him down a flight of stairs? I mean, sure, Carten would just bounce, but that doesn’t make it okay. He might love her, as preposterous as that is, but she probably just thinks of him like some disposable bed warmer. Rain shook his head and turned to face the door.

After taking a deep breath, he walked the rest of the distance down the hallway and knocked. There was no response after a few seconds, so he knocked again.

This time, a mumbled reply came through the door. “Go away.”

Rain shook his head. He wasn’t going to play this game. The doorknob turned easily when he tried it, the door swinging open and flooding the hallway with light. He didn’t have a chance to take in anything else before something hit him in the face.

The projectile, whatever it was, flew straight through the slit in his visor with a metallic clink and stabbed him directly in the eye. Rain had been running Force Ward from the moment he had entered the front door of the building, which was the only thing that saved him. The actual damage from the strike was minimal, completely blocked by his magic, but he still reacted as anyone would upon having a foreign object flung at their face.

“Ah!” he gasped as he stumbled backward, hands rising to protect himself.

“Oh,” said Velika’s weary voice. “It’s you.”

Rain pulled the object free of his visor with some difficulty, then stared at it with disbelief as he realized what it was.

Who throws a spoon?

He looked up from the innocuous piece of cutlery to see Velika staring at him, an annoyed expression on her face. A few other details of the scene hit him harder than the spoon had. For one, she was naked from the waist up.

“Shit,” he said, looking away. “Sorry, I didn’t know you weren’t dressed.”

Velika snorted. “Like I care. Give me my damn spoon back.”

Rain blinked. That wasn’t the reaction he’d expected, but then again, the nudity taboo wasn’t nearly as strong in this society as it was in his own. Warily, he entered the room, returning his gaze to the Citizen as he passed her the improvised projectile.

She snatched it roughly from his hand and turned back to the bowl of soup that she had clearly been eating before he’d barged in. Rain couldn’t help but notice the way her bare breasts shifted with the motion. No matter his feelings about her, Velika was physically attractive, though at the moment, she looked like a complete mess.

The hair on one side of her head had been hacked away unevenly, and what remained was a tangled, matted mess. Mercifully for Rain’s composure, she was wearing linen briefs, though they were a far cry from pants. Her left leg was tightly wrapped in bandages, though the right was bare, her dark skin smooth and unblemished.

“Take off that stupid helmet,” Velika said, slurping up a spoonful of soup. “If you’re going to ogle me, at least do it right. Get a proper leer or two in.”

Rain shook his head, looking away. The room was a disaster, and it reeked with the odor of sex and stale sweat. The huge bed was a mess of tangled sheets, and there were crumpled clothes and discarded dirty dishes everywhere.

“I said, take it off,” Velika said.

“I’d rather not,” Rain said. “Someone just threw a spoon at my eye.”

Velika laughed. “It was a good shot, wasn’t it? I wasn’t even looking. Take it off, coward.”

Rain sighed and reluctantly raised his visor. This seemed to satisfy the Citizen, as she stopped glaring at him and returned her attention to her soup.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“I needed to talk to you,” Rain said, carefully looking anywhere but at the Citizen. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. “I can come back in a little bit if you—”

“Stop that,” Velika interrupted, setting down her spoon and standing to face him.

“Stop what?”

“Looking at the wall when you’re talking to me. What are you, a fucking prude or something? Raised in an Ellish monastery?”

“No,” Rain said, looking back at her. “It’s just really awkward being fully dressed and talking to someone who isn’t.”

“Better,” she said, with a snort of amusement. She pointed vaguely in the direction of the bed. “Two ways to fix that. Either you get out of that armor and we have some fun, or you get me a shirt.”

Rain moved hurriedly to get her a shirt. There was no way in hell he was going to even entertain her first suggestion, whether she’d been serious or not.

Velika sniffed as he handed her the garment, setting down her spoon and standing up. “Your loss,” she said, pulling it on. Rain belatedly realized that the shirt he’d given her was stained.

“Do you mind if I use Purify?” Rain asked, trying not to think about what kinds of liquids might have caused the stain in question.

“Do what you want,” Velika said, abandoning her half-finished bowl of soup and letting herself fall face-first onto the bed. The heat had faded from her tone, to be replaced with resignation. “It’s not like it matters,” she said, her voice muffled by the bedding.

What the hell is wrong with her? I was expecting a lot of yelling and maybe having to run for my life, not...this. Rain activated Purify, banishing the foul odors from the air and purging the remains of food from the dishes lying scattered about the floor. He knew depression, but he’d never let his apartment get to anything even approaching this level of squalor. Something was seriously wrong. He switched to Refrigerate and cooled the hot and humid air, stopping when fog started to form, not wanting to make everything damp. It was still warm, but significantly better than it had been.

Velika turned her head to peer at him with one eye. “I forgot how handy you were.”

Rain walked over to the chair Velika had been sitting in before and sat down, noting that the soup hadn’t disappeared from the bowl. Purify must have still considered it to be food. It was steaming, slightly, the liquid still warm despite his use of magic.

“Where’d the soup come from?” he asked, looking at her. A nice, innocuous question seemed like a good place to start the conversation. “I didn’t see any servants or anything.”

“They’re around,” Velika said with a sigh. “Carten made the soup, though. He said it was an apology. You better not have evaporated it with your spell. I wasn’t finished.”

“Carten made soup?” Rain said, raising an eyebrow.

“Soup fixes everything,” Velika said, blowing a puff of air out of her nose. She closed her eyes and sighed. “As if.”

Rain blinked. Soup fixes everything? That’s Jamus’s line.

Rain took a deep breath and prepared himself. There was no point waiting any longer. “Velika, we need to talk about the barrier.”

“Fuck the barrier,” Velika said, not looking at him. “If that’s what you’re here for, you’re wasting your time.”

“We need to lower it,” Rain said. “Can you talk to Westbridge, or—”

Velika’s eyes snapped open, and she pushed herself up to a sitting position, glaring at him. “No. I can’t fucking talk to Westbridge.”

“Why not?” Rain said. “I thought the Citizens were linked? If not Westbridge, then one of the oth—”

“No,” Velika said. “The barrier blocks it, you idiot. Fucking Westbridge...” She shook her head. “He was the only one I could contact.”

Rain blinked. “Wait a second, what do you mean, ‘was’?”

“He’s fucking DEAD!” Velika screamed. Rain launched himself to his feet at her sudden outburst, then blinked when he saw that she had dropped her head into her hands. “And so are all of us,” she mumbled.

A sense of dread gripped at Rain as he fought to process what she meant by that, sinking back into the chair. Westbridge is dead? And so are we?

“You don’t get it, do you?” snapped Velika, raising her head to stare at him. “Westbridge told me how the barrier works, Rain. It’s got a list of people it will let through, and that list has exactly one name on it. The name of a dead man.” She tapped her breastbone. “The link told me when he died. I could feel him get cut away. It’s not like it is with the others. I can still feel them, even now. They’re all there, but out of reach. He’s not fucking coming back to let us out. No one is.”

“Fuck,” Rain said. “I mean, I suspected something might have changed, but—”

“The barrier stone won’t work either,” Velika said. “I tried it. Wormed myself down there and spent days fighting with the thing. It’s incomprehensible. I still get a headache just thinking about the things I saw when I touched it. Couldn’t break it either. It’s fucking indestructible Majistraal bullshit.” She sighed. “Westbridge was some kind of genius with that stuff. Old bastard had one foot in the grave and was a giant pain in the ass, but he knew what he was doing when it came to magic.”

“Maybe someone else—” Rain started.

Velika laughed. “Who? One of your shitty bronzeplate mages? One of the nobles? You?” She snorted in amusement.

Rain opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off.

“This is all the fucking Watch’s fault. If they hadn’t attacked me, then maybe...” She shook her head. “No mage in here is going to be able to do what Westbridge could. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that man was? He was getting weak in his old age, and he still could have killed me like that!” She snapped her fingers.

Rain shook his head. “I’d like to try the barrier stone. Even if that doesn’t work, we can’t just give up. There’s got to be a way to lower it.”

“Oh, there’s a way,” Velika said, her mouth twisting into a sardonic grin.

“How?” Rain asked, leaning forward, scarcely daring to hope.

Velika cackled with a brief bout of manic laughter, then let herself fall back onto the bed to stare up at the ceiling.

“The barrier runs on mana, Rain,” she said softly, raising her hand above her face to stare at her fingers. “People make mana. If there’s no people, then there’s no barrier.” She slashed her hand down faster than Rain could follow, a boom like a gunshot resounding from the wake of its passage. Velika spoke softly in the silence that followed, but not so softly that Rain couldn’t hear her over the ringing of his ears.

“All I need to do is kill every last one of you.”