ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR: Echoing Klerms

164

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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.

“There weren’t a lot of Ryeh-b’t spell impressions I wanted from the list the Contract offered to fill out my affixation,” he explained.

The silence stretched until it was so uncomfortable he considered making the damn sphere scream again.

“You couldn’t find anything you wanted more on the list?” Stuart asked finally. “Was it so limited?”

“I…” Alden swallowed. “I was annoyed by it at the time, but that was a personal…there were spells I would enjoy having so much more. There really were. A lot of them.”

The Rabbit spell impression list hadn’t actually been bad. It had been a good list for Rabbits. But Alden had automatically dismissed all of the low-rank household spells as boring and useless.

Because I couldn’t use them to get into CNH or fight crime.

He could have taken a spell that fluffed pillows, dusted surfaces, or straightened stacks of paper and used it a hundred times by now.

“What’s this spell impression for anyway?” he asked. “Do you know?”

“No.” Stuart’s voice was a little higher than usual.

I swear I can hear him blushing back there. Alden looked around. Sure enough…

For some reason, the sight of Stu-art’h squirming on his cushion and turning purple like the terrible liar he was, made Alden feel instantly more at ease.

“Whoa! Your face…did I take a spell for something completely awful? You’ve got to tell me now.”

“It’s not!” Stuart said. “It’s useful. It’s good.”

“What is it?”

“A…um…”

“Are you trying to think up an amazing use for it?”

Stuart cringed.

Alden walked back over to kneel on his cushion again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to start my show with the spell impression I regret picking. And then I acted weird about it. I’m really fine.”

Stuart’s hands were resting on his thighs. They tightened into fists. “I don’t want you to have any regrets.”

“Thank you, but…” Alden scratched at the fading mark where his injured left hand had been mud-healed. “That’s probably unavoidable, isn’t it? In my case. Let me back up. You know that I’m going to superhero school now, and you also know that I don’t actually think I want the job. At least not the version of it most people are there hoping for. The hero schools are just the best places for skill development, and I want to develop mine. Thegund’s still bothering me.”

“You want to challenge yourself,” said Stuart in a serious voice. “To master your abilities.”

“Yes. But what you don’t know is that I used to think I wanted a superhero job. I admired a superhero I knew. She was confident and kind, and she…was good at being inspiring. So I wanted to be more like her. I wanted to support other Avowed with my powers and together we’d stop evil people from hurting innocent ones. We’d be…an English phrase—more than the sum of our parts.”

Stuart was listening with a fascinated expression.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“When I was selected by the Contract, that was what I wanted. And I still think it’s a good ideal, especially the part about not being on your own when you’re fighting something bad. I’m just not sure it’s what I want for my future anymore.”

I was naive.

“I’m a little envious of you, Stuart. When you talk about your choosing season, I want it for myself so much. If I could choose my talents now, for the person I am now…I’d spend years thinking and getting to know myself before I picked. If that was an option.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “When I was selected, I was just so focused on the wrong things. I didn’t realize how much I was rushing, but I was rushing. My friends and I thought affixing as soon as possible during my class-trading period would give me extra time to practice with my new abilities before I had to leave to go to Anesidora. Which would give me a better chance of getting into the school I wanted. Which would give me the job I wanted…and that seemed like the most important thing. And it was exciting. So I didn’t ask myself enough questions, and everything fell into place quickly.

“I decided on my skill in just a few days…”

A strangled gasp of horror made Alden’s eyes snap open. And then he almost fell backwards off his cushion at the sight of Stuart’s nose a millimeter from his own face.

“Stuart! You have a habit of sneaking up on—!”

“What planet’s days?!” Stuart shouted in an appalled voice.

Alden stared at him. “Are you hoping I’ll name one with a slower rotation than Earth or the Artonas?”

“Yes.”

Still leaning back, Alden couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the intensity in Stuart’s voice. “Earth days. Obviously. And yes. I know. You’re weaving a friendship with a big idiot.”

Stuart brought his hands up to his cheeks and finally returned to his starting position on his own cushion.