11 – Friends & Family

Once they were back on the flying carriage, Ari finally asked Elric what a Phasewalker was.

“They’re an Eastern sect,” he explained as they started home. “Order of the Shifting Phases. They believe in a layered reality, and that true mastery of stoichiomancy can only be achieved by moving between phases at will.”

“I don’t understand what moving between phases means.”

“Each essence has different isotopes that, when placed into a spell, give it a different phase. For example, Calor-β gives heat, while Calor-ɑ gives a kinetic force. Phasewalkers believe they can shift a single calor essence from one isotope to another while holding the rest of the spell form steady, thereby remaking the whole spell at will. This is what makes them so dangerous.”

“Ah.” That explained the bond switching she’d seen in the Phasewalker’s spell form. He had been shifting through different phases of the same spell, giving himself motion, heat, and explosive force all at once, without the need for multiple spell forms.

It was genius, and they probably conserved a lot of essence that way.

“Can I learn that?” she asked.

“Possibly, but I couldn’t teach you. I don’t know how to do it myself. It’s a skill mastered only by those in the sect, and attempting to share sect secrets likely triggers certain death.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. And it’s probably for the best that the skill remains an enigma, to prevent amateurs from attempting it. Switching phases is an extremely technical and challenging task, something that only the Phasewalkers have perfected. Failure carries dire consequences. Even one misstep can lead to severe entropic backlash, like what happened to the one in the market.”

Arielle didn’t mention that the entropic backlash hadn’t been caused by the man’s misstep, and it had, in fact, been her doing.

She didn’t want to get in trouble for using magic without permission again.

“The Phasewalkers used to be a more neutral sect,” Elric continued, “Having originated from one of the Calor-dominant clans. However, after the sect was denied a seat in the Celestial Assembly, some of their members have taken to committing acts of terrorism as revenge. The sect leader, of course, denies all this and claims that the acts are being committed by defectors of the clan and are not sanctioned by the sect at all. But I’m not sure how much I believe that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a long story, but essentially, there are disputes about who the head of the sect should be. The former head was caught colluding with the head of the demonic sect. Do you know who that is?”

“No, but I’m not sure I care.” Now that he was discussing politics, Ari promptly lost interest in the direction of the conversation and asked,

“Why do you never display your celestial blessing? You keep it restrained, don’t you?”

He looked taken aback by the question, but answered honestly. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Frankly? It’s because I find it tacky. Unrestricted authority, or celestial blessing as it’s more formally known, is essentially like walking into the room and throwing gold coins in the air so people think you’re important. It’s a cheap way to earn admiration and respect, and it often has the opposite effect, in signifying a distinct insecurity and a lack of mastery. After all, only the most talented mages have enough control to restrict their authority.”

She nodded. “So Master Phineas is tacky, insecure, and untalented.”

“No.” Elric choked and snorted at the same time. “No, I wouldn’t say that at all. Well, maybe a little insecure, but definitely don’t say that to his face. Or repeat to anyone else.”

She nodded. “Is Master Phineas a friend of yours?”

He thought about it and said, “I don’t know. I suppose. It’s hard to have true friendship or anything more than acquaintanceship with someone in a different position of power than I am. I used to believe it was possible, but now…we can try and pretend for some time, but eventually something will happen to reveal the vast distance in our station, and that can cause a split in the friendship as well. I guess that’s what happened with Phineas and me.” He cleared his throat. “I suppose that’s another reason I prefer to restrict my authority. Most of the people I work with are either adept-level mages or unascended, and sometimes they treat me with a deference that can be off-putting and isolating.”

“What about other Archmages? Can’t you be friends with them?”

He made a face. “No. First of all, there are only about fifteen Archmages in existence right now, and they’re spread out all over the continents. Most of them are old and cantankerous, and the young ones are arrogant and crazy. The white-haired man you just met is one of them.”

“Archmage Giovanni? He seemed sane and friendly.”

“It was a ploy to get you to let down your guard. He was toying with you.” He looked her in the eye. “Be very careful around him, Arielle. He’s not entirely a bad person, but he has a slight sadistic streak that you will only discover when it’s too late.” He shook his head. “He’s like a barely domesticated dire wolf, parading as a pup. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he allowed those Phasewalkers to escape just so he could have the pleasure of hunting them down.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I just told you why. Because he’s a sadist.”

“But it’s so wasteful. The Phasewalkers caused a lot of damage.”

Elric shrugged. “He must have known I would be around to fix it. Even if I wasn’t, I’m not sure how much he would have cared. One thing about having that much power is that it makes things very boring.”

Ari looked down and flexed her fingers in her lap. Everything Elric had told her did somewhat dim her enthusiasm and cast a dark cloud over what she’d thought would be a significantly bright future.

“I thought having power made it easier to make friends.” It was one of the things in the ‘pro’ column of her list, and part of why she was so excited to start at the Academy. She thought that being an ascendant might make up for her social ineptitude and make her more of an attractive candidate for companionship.

It was a simple equation. People liked useful people. Power made people more useful. So if she gained power and became useful, more people would like her.

“It doesn’t,” Elric said, dashing her hopes even more. “People might admire you, but it will be for the wrong reasons. It won’t be for who you are. It will be for what you can do for them.”

Ari perked up. “Why is that a bad thing?”

“Because it leaves you vulnerable to being taken advantage of.”

She didn’t understand. Friendship was a trade, of which the cost was some kind of labor. If she was okay doing the labor, why was it bad to earn friendship that way?

He looked at her for some time and told her, “I’ll have to warn you, the first couple of years at the academy aren’t really for making friends. It’s the most competitive year, with the highest attrition rate, and the fact that you’re starting in the middle of it won’t help.”

“Oh.” That made her sadder.

“One of my sisters is currently in Cohort 3. If you want, I can talk to her and ask her to welcome you on campus. That way, you have a built-in friend.”

“No,” she said instantly. “I don’t want that.”

He nodded. “Just as well. I don’t know that she would listen to me anyway. I’m certainly not her favorite person in the world. In fact, I think she might hate me.”

Arielle blew out her breath. “My sister likes me, but she does silly things because of it. A few months ago, she paid a girl called Greta to be friends with me. A copper coin every week.”

“Oh,” he said. “That’s sweet but–”

“Upsetting. Very upsetting. I want to earn friendship on my own. I want people to like me because they think I’m likable, not because they’re being paid.”

He winced. “Yes, I can see how that would sting.”

“I have no other friends in the swamp. At the schoolhouse, people thought I was strange. They always think I’m strange. I don’t want that anymore. I want to make friends here.”

“Is that part of the reason you said yes to my offer?”

She nodded. ”People like people with power.”

His expression shifted. “Yes, but you shouldn’t want people to like you just because you’re powerful too,” he said. “Believe me, that can feel nice at first, but it gets old and very lonely.”

“Are you lonely?”

“Sometimes.”

She pressed her lips together and debated what to say next, running her palm on her frock and wrapping it around her knees. She looked at them, counting the lines underneath her knuckle as she admitted, “I just want people to like me first. I can figure out if they like me for the right reasons later.”

There were a few beats of silence before he sighed. “Well, you have at least one friend now.”

“Who?”

“Me.”

Her head snapped to him.

“You want to be my friend?” Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“If you’ll have me. I mean, we are cousins now. We have similar standings and similar backgrounds, caught between the world of the mundane and the ascended.”

“Yes.” She nodded slowly. “I suppose that’s true.”

“It is.”

A slow smile spread across her face, mirroring the one on his.

“We can be friends?” she asked again.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yes,” he said. “We might not have a choice, since we’re officially a fake family.”

Relief spreads through her muscles along with a sense of accomplishment. Her first unpaid friend.

“How often can I write letters to you?” she asked. “I assume I can send letters from the Academy?”

“Yes, but I’ll give you a messaging scroll for convenience. That way, you can write whatever message you have for me in it, and I’ll receive it in my adjoining scroll.”

“Wow.” That fascinated her. Ascendants made things so much simpler. She wondered if she could do the same thing with her father. “How often can I do that?”

“Anytime you want. I’m not sure how often I’ll actually answer. I get busy sometimes, but I’ll try to respond as soon as I can manage.”

“Okay.” She beamed, suddenly filled with renewed joy. As the carriage moved higher in the air, she told him, “I’m so glad I met you, Archmage Elric.”

“I’m glad I met you, too, Arielle.”

***

After Gio delivered the Phasewalkers and filled out his report, he made a beeline for Youth Affairs.

Something had nagged at him all afternoon, and he had to assuage his curiosity, or it would never leave.

As he walked down the hall, he saw a man in green robes walking up, preoccupied with some scrolls he was reading.

Ah yes. He was familiar. Gio remembered that the man handled youth evaluations.

“Philip,” he called out and waved when the man looked up. “Nice to see you again.”

The man cleared his throat, adjusting his robe. “It’s Master Phineas, Archmage Gio.”

“Please, just call me Gio.” He cocked his head. “I heard you completed an evaluation this afternoon. On Elric’s cousin.”

“Yes,” Phineas/Philip answered.

“I didn’t know he had such a cousin.”

“Well, he does. He has plenty of them.” Phineas/Philip seemed very uncomfortable with this line of questioning, which only made Gio more curious.

“May I see her system scores?”

“You know that’s confidential.”

Gio chuckled. “I know it sounds like I’m asking, Philip, but I’m not really asking, if you know what I mean.”

Phineas swallowed. He clearly wanted to argue, but was smart enough to know how outranked he was. He looked around, and when no one was coming to save him, he nodded.

A few moments later, Gio was witnessing something truly wonderful.

Cores in perfect balance. A capacity that was high for her level.

This Arielle was going to be interesting.

But apart from that, he’d expected more.

There had to be something more.

Especially since Philip was radiating nerves like a dirty sewer rat underneath the holy altar.

“What aren’t you saying, Philip?” Gio asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

He leaned in and grinned at his face. “Why don’t I find out then?”

***

Arielle had wanted to spend the next day studying and catching up on the scholarly material. Elric had told her that since she was starting in the middle of the year, she was behind on a lot of the theory, so she was desperate to get ahead.

However, too many things happened that day to derail that.