ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR: Echoing Klerms

ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR: Echoing Klerms

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“Well?” Evul asked, stealing an ink brush from the tray in front of Emban. She twirled it once, then dragged the tip of it around one of her middle fingers. It left a slender spiral of red ink in its wake. “You braved Stu’s wrath to go have a look at the two of them. What did you learn? What do you think of Human Alden?”

“That was my next brush.” Emban didn’t look up from her work.

They were the only ones in the formal dining room. Evul sprawled on top of the table in front of Emban’s tray, which was full of brushes with colorful enameled handles. She was using them to ink an intricate pattern of lines onto a hexagonal white card.

“As for the human, I think...”

After a moment, Evul rolled over to face her, propping her chin on her hands. “Think faster.”

“It’s hard to think of anything but the fact that you’re lying on the dining table like a roast.”

“Live long, my young cousin, and learn that everywhere can be your lounger.”

“What if the Avowed walks through?” Emban lowered her voice. “How will he feel seeing a powerful hn’tyon rolling around and painting meaningless designs on herself? He may never sleep at ease again.”

“Didn’t he just watch you get covered in fruit juice?”

“That wasn’t my fault! And I’m sure he doesn’t hold me to the same standard.”

“Baby Stu’s new friend seems very casual on our calls,” said Evul. She waved the brush she’d taken under Emban’s nose. “Tell me about him.”

“I barely spoke to him.” Emban said. “But he seemed...”

Evul sat up. “Do you not like him? Is he bad for my brother? Should I bury him in a hole so deep that even Aunt Alis can’t find him?” She gasped. “Does he not like Stu? Is he faking it?”

Emban set the brush she’d been using aside.

“Alden was inoffensive. He seemed very interested in Stu’s spell, despite how long he must have been sitting there watching. I just expected him to be...”

“Taller? Hairier?”

“Special,” said Emban. “Or impressive. In some immediately apparent way. For Stu to become so attached and insistent about him...I know he spent too much time contemplating the human boy’s death because your father scolded him about that ridiculous situation during his school entrance exams.”

“Stu does like his contemplating.”

“And I know that Alden must have depth of character, for him to have earned Grandaunt Alis’s favor.” She lowered her voice even further. “But Stu’s expectations for a lasting friendship don’t make sense, do they? He’s a Ryeh-b’t whose passion must be something like lab assistant work. Stu doesn’t even like laboratory classes. They have absolutely nothing in common that I can think of. And their lives will be even less alike next year, three years from now, thirty.”

Evul rolled over again and sat up, wearing a thoughtful look. “That could be one of the things Stu likes about him.”

“The fact that they’ve got nothing in common?”

“The early years of your knighthood are the hardest,” said Evul. “There’s nothing like the closeness you feel with your first few squads. You carry each other. But you lose people so unexpectedly.”

Emban looked away.

“Human Alden might not be able to walk with Stu, but he’ll be a lot easier to keep safe.”

“Do you think Stu thinks that way?” Emban asked.

“Maybe not!” Evul said brightly. “But I’m thinking that way now! We can summon Human Alden every day to keep Red Alden company, and that way nothing bad will ever happen to either of them.”

“I suppose that’s true. I don’t know how Stu might feel about that—”

“Don’t worry about it. Go back to decorating your bonfire cards...why are you decorating those?”

Emban swept her hands slowly over the tray. “I’ve decided this is the perfect hobby. Over the next few weeks I will make hundreds of these.”

Evul peered at her. “That’s your idea of the perfect thing to do to sort your thoughts after your second affixation?”

“Yes. It’s taken me a while to pick, but this will be ideal.”

“You could go to all the best parties. I could introduce you to people. Why don’t you try some pleasure travel? Oooo...demand that an Exquisite Tongue of Knowledge tutor you to sleep every night. Or if you want to make things, Kofa dug a cave into the side of a cliff one year. ”

“I’m going to make a card for every guest at my parents’ Summersending feast. Someone is sure to say, ‘The cards are almost too beautiful to burn this year!” Emban’s eyes lit. “And I’ll say, ‘I made them for you with my own hands. Every line has been touched with my thoughts on the importance of sacrifice. Think of me as you burn them.’”

Emban picked up another brush.

Eventually, Evul said, “So the thing that’s going to keep you motivated over the coming days is adding a coat of misery to a Summersending ceremony?”

“I’m only adding a coat of perspective. If misery is the result...” Emban shrugged.

“As long as it makes you happy, I support it! I do retract my offer of taking you to parties with me, though.”

******

******

Two learning cushions, both made by the Craftswoman Enyl-tirg, rested side by side in front of the cottage window. Alden and Stuart knelt facing each other.

“All right,” said Stuart. “Tell me everything you can about your skill. That way I can help you practice! And we might come up with ideas for defeating some of your classmates together.”

Alden wanted to tell him then.

Stuart had just shared his own skill. It was important and personal and...

And I can’t fully reciprocate.

He didn’t know if he would have.

Probably not, right? If I’m not lying to myself. It’s just too soon. And too dangerous.

Most of the control Alden had over his own future relied on him not showing anyone else what he was until he was ready. He was way too aware of that.

But of his two enormous secrets, the skill would have been the one he was a little less afraid of sharing. Especially if he didn’t mention the authority sense along with it. And at this particular moment, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to do that without permission from Joe...rankled.

Why does Worli fucking Ro-den get to control how I talk about myself? Why should he?

Alden only knew the truth about his own skill because of the wizard. Most likely, he would have spent years not knowing without Joe’s intervention.

It wouldn’t have been forever, though, would it? Having an authority sense, leveling at this rate, I would have figured out something was up with my skill on my own a lot faster than Joe expected.

Because it was a useful talent, because Gorgon had recommended it, and because it had saved Kibby, Alden would have tried to top the skill out. He might have gone down some side paths, but not that many before he noticed that Bearer just kept growing and growing.

Who knows what the System would have shown me to manage me? And when? It could have been worse than I’m thinking. But still...he could have locked everything else behind the tattoo, all the other tidbits, without making it impossible for me to tell another person what my own skill really is.

“I hate Ro-den right now,” he blurted.

Stuart, who had been kneeling there like a model of respectfulness and patience, looked understandably surprised by the response.

“We can gossip about him if you’d rather do that than talk about your skill?” he said hesitantly. “Maybe not on the learning cushions, though...”

“No.” Alden shook his head. “I just...of course I’d rather tell you about my skill. I’ll tell you what I can about all of my Avowed abilities. Um...I’ll start with the smallest one. I have a spell impression that makes temper spheres scream and turn invisible. I can show you. I’ve got a sphere in my bag. Hold on just a moment.”

He forced himself to stop dwelling on the fact that he was still bound to keep his mouth shut by a wizard who had changed his mind about using Alden some more in the future and told him to forget all of their lessons and “take the easy road for a few decades.”

That kind of thing will drive me nuts if I let it.

Instead, he leaped up and hurried across the room to grab his messenger bag from the other side of the bed. When his hand wrapped around the glass ball in the bottom of the bag, he had a surge of unfamiliar discomfort. When he identified it, he didn’t know what to think.

Am I seriously embarrassed to show Stuart my spell impression? Because it’s so much less than what he showed me?

He didn’t want to be that way about it.

“I’ve never managed to do anything very useful with this one,” he admitted. “Yet. Although Brutes do enjoy borrowing invisible balls and throwing them at people. I’ll just...you might want to cover your ears.”

Alden tossed the ball onto the bed and activated the impression. His fingers and lips moved. His focus narrowed. The temper sphere turned invisible and shrieked.

And that’s it.

He let his arm drop back down by his side and stared at the dimple in the sandy-brown bedspread where the invisible sphere lay. “So. That’s a thing I do. I can make it scream as many times as I want before the invisibility wears off.”

He seriously doubted Stuart was staring at his back thinking, How pitiful.

But Alden hadn’t expected to be thinking it and feeling it quite this hard himself. Even though he didn’t like the way the spell impression felt and he wasn’t passionate about it, he’d enjoyed showing it off to Jeremy the first time he’d used it. Making something invisible was still interesting.

It’s just different because Stuart knows more about everything. That’s all.

“I was showing you that to talk about distance limitations. When I’m shielding something that extends a long way from my body, like the cord does here, I tire myself out faster. This was actually at the very beginning of term. Let me show you something I started to figure out last week. Here. Look.”

Alden shared the video of him catching the tennis balls.

“I’m proud of this, so I saved it for last. This is the newest, most impressive thing I’ve discovered about my skill...well, the most impressive thing that I can actually do somewhat on purpose instead of waiting until I’m nearly dead and in a crisis mental state.”

Morrison Waker was flinging a Wimbledon’s-worth of tennis balls at the Alden on the video.

He minimized the image on his own interface so that he could more easily see Stuart’s reaction.

Notice my eyes are closed! Notice how cool and magicky my skill and I are being together!

He knew just how Stuart had felt showing off his bean-transport spell earlier.

Don’t get too excited.He probably won’t realize what’s happening at first. We had to watch the replays a few times before Lexi noticed.

“Your eyes are closed!” Stuart exclaimed the second the Alden on the video shut them.

“They are!”

“How did you do that?!”

He does think it’s cool!

“I was really focused, and I felt like I was in the zone. Sorry, I can’t think of how to say that in Artonan right now. And something important was here.”

Alden made a gesture he’d seen Kibby use a couple of times—a grabby motion with both hands beside his own ears. It was the equivalent of saying an idea was right in front of your nose or that you were on the verge of a breakthrough. “So I focused on the fact that Instructor Waker was throwing things at me—”

Stuart looked surprised. “Were you not focused on that already? He was throwing a lot of yellow balls at you.”

“I didn’t phrase that well. I’m just happy you noticed and I’m talking too fast—!"

“He threw so many. They’re very yellow.”

“Yes. I know. What I meant to say was I stopped thinking of it as him throwing weapons at me. I started thinking of it as him throwing something to me. And there was this feeling of getting it—”

“You were only getting some of them.”

“No. Getting it is a way of saying ‘truly understanding’ in English. So I was getting it more than normal. My skill. And it felt like the gym faded away and what really mattered was Instructor Waker being my entruster and me being the—”

The Bearer of All Burdens.

He almost said the words. But they wouldn’t come.

He hadn’t meant to say even this much, but here they were. And Alden wanted to share something real and important he’d noticed about his skill. With someone. With Stu-art’h, who had spent the past day sharing real and important truths of his own.

What am I doing? I just thought about how this was a bad idea even if I kind of want...

The secrecy contract had stopped him. The gremlin was awake now and giving him the mental equivalent of a suspicious look, like it thought he might be thinking oftrying something forbidden.

Ro-den told me I might be summoned into a bullet. He said Stuart’s father would somehow make my life an endless misery if he ever found out about my skill. I shouldn’t want to.

He’d probably only gotten this far into his explanation because he’d had no intention of arriving at this moment when he’d set out. And now he was just kneeling here with his mouth hanging open and his thoughts scattered.

“Alden?” Stuart asked. His eager expression morphed into an amused smile. “What is it?”

Alden stared into his rust-colored eyes.

I mean it’s probably for the best, right? a voice in his head said. What were you going to do? Trust him with your life this fast?

Alden took a breath. He shut his mouth.

The endless misery was probably something obvious. Like being summoned a lot...or being forced to train the skill for the good of the Triplanets or something. Everything under the Intensity 99.9 category probably qualifies as “endless misery” to Joe.

“Alden? You just stopped talking so suddenly. Are you all right?”

“I hate Worli Ro-den.”

“>!” Stuart exclaimed. “What’s he been doing on Earth to make you keep saying that?”

“Nothing. He’s working so hard that half of the people on Anesidora think he’s a hn’tyon.”

Stuart’s face scrunched. “You should correct them.”

“I will. But let me tell you some things about Ro-den. I was sohappy to see him on Earth because I didn’t expect to get the chance to meet him again. And I did go to a dangerous chaos moon to pick berries that he wanted. He paid me, but...I thought since so much had happened, maybe we’d talk about some of it.I wanted to drink some wevvi or some tea and tell him how his loyal assistants died. Because I thought he might want to know where their bodies fell so he could honor them. And I wondered if he personally knew Kibby’s new guardian. I just wanted to make sure they were a good person who would take good care of her.

“Tea, a short period of socialization, him acting like I was a person instead of a brokentool he couldn’t safely use anymore—obviously that was crazy of me. He ran away from me like I was a demon, and I had to chase him into an elevator and force him to talk to me. And then he told me he would speak to me for the time it took to go up twenty floors and then never again.”

Stuart’s mouth was hanging open now.

Alden replayed everything he’d just said in his head. He adjusted his position on the learning cushion. “Thanks for letting me drop all of that on you. It just surprised me that he would treat me that way.”

“He hurt your feelings.”

Alden grimaced. “He did a little.”

Stuart made a doubtful humming sound.

“More than a little,” Alden admitted. “I didn’t think we were friends. But I thought...he would respect what I’d been through enough to give me some of his time without acting like everything was about him. Or something like that. ”

“Last week,” said Stuart, “he made us practice identifying the elemental alignments of a > embedded within the fourth > of a dead >.”

“Yuck.”

“My arm was almost too short to reach.”

Alden blinked. “You had to reach? You couldn’t use a spell? Or a knife?”

“He is a > instructor. I could sense the alignments from the exterior, but he kept acting like there was some secret within that I might be missing. I was afraid to be mistaken, so I had to reach inside and feel around like everyone else.” He shuddered. “If you want, I’ll tell you all the rumors my classmates shared about him after that lab.”

Tempting. Very tempting.

“Our time is too precious to let him steal any more of it,” Alden said. “Wouldn’t you rather throw things at me and see if we can get my skill to work like it did in that video?”

Stuart nodded. “I would.”

“Me too.”

They stood from their cushions, and Alden headed over to the bed to pick up the temper sphere he’d tossed there.

“Alden.”

He turned back.

Stuart stared at him for a few seconds. “I’m going to say this even though it may not need to be said. It will be heavy for me if I don’t.”

Alden drew a sharp breath.

“It would upset me,” said Stu-art’h, “if you ever accepted a skill or a spell that didn’t >you, just because it was the best available on a list offered by Earth’s Contract.”

Then, he smiled.

Alden didn’t know what his own expression looked like, but he was sure it wasn’t bland.

“I don’t know much about the options human Avowed have,” Stuart added, “but I do know it’s possible for me to increase those options for you. And it wouldn’t be hard. So if you didn’t ask, and you ended up with another spell impression that you didn’t even know the purpose of...it would upset me. A lot.”

Alden found his voice. Or someone’s anyway. It sounded like it belonged to another person when he finally used it. “Thank you. I understand.”

“Yes?”

Alden placed a hand over his chest.

“I’m glad,” said Stuart. “And stop being envious of my choosing season while you’re busy with one of your own. When you were standing out in the storm and we spoke of life purposes—”

As the two of us tend to do, thought Alden.

“—I was thinking how good it was to talk to someone who recognized that he had important choices to make, too. You should contemplate. And I won’t bother you about it unless you ask me for advice. That’s how a choosing season should be.”

******