Somewhere around a month of hard training flashed by. Little by little, Lucas felt like he was coming somewhat up to speed; he could last a decent amount of time against Valerie when she was genuinely trying, though he was completely on the defensive, relying on Wick’s lessons. That was, admittedly, with weapons only, not going all out. But, still progress.

  The story was the same for pretty much every type of combat they were drilling him in. The contrast between the amateur who’d first woken up in the Summoning Hall and the intermediate fighter he was growing into was stark.

  His magic, floramancy especially, was coming along nicely, and he felt he had a pretty decent grasp of the disciplines he’d picked up thus far, though he hadn’t found cause to pull off anything truly impressive yet.

  He’d mapped out the pathways in his legs and most of his torso, with only his head and heart still to go. Opening up the channels around his vital organs was a nerve-wracking experience. There were just so many channels. He’d thought he was used to the dull ache of opening them up and keeping mana flowing through them until they’d reached full size, but it turned out organs were a different matter entirely.

  Dealing with his head and heart were going to take the entirety of his focus, rather than letting them open up in the background while doing other things, like had been the case for his arms, legs, and much of his torso.

  An enormous amount of information somehow found space in his brain, too. His memory had never been his best asset, and he found it a little freaky how well he remembered things after only being told once. Still, he couldn’t deny it was a boon. He could now name all the continents, countries, states/counties/provinces/whatever, capital cities, and so on around the world, and a bunch of other geography stuff. History wasn’t particularly comprehensive, but he generally knew what he needed to.

  That was kind of the theme for his education. A speedrun through what he needed to know in every subject. He wasn’t at a level where he would’ve been able to get one of the Order’s certificates, but Valerie and Florence were happy enough with his advancement.

  There were parts of his education that didn’t sit right. Learning about beasts and demons was harrowing, but the need to prepare for them was undeniable. Lessons on how to fight other humans, however, in a practical ‘how can I kill this type of enemy’ sense rather than just sparring to get his combat capabilities trained up were deeply uncomfortable.

  Again, he recognised the necessity. The grim reality was there were people out there hostile towards him, and his comrades, while very competent, were not omnipotent. He had to be able to not only defend himself, but put down threats.

  And so there were lessons where he learned about various forms of magic and how to fight their users. He learned the strengths and weaknesses of the Five Classes. Trying to be practical about it, detaching himself and telling himself it was necessary, didn’t seem to allay his discomfort when Valerie was lecturing him on things like aiming for the eyes on lumomancers because their techniques relied heavily on eyesight.

  “What weaknesses do floramancers have?” Lucas had asked.

  Valerie had given him a look. “You already know that.”

  “Fire,” Florence had added.

  All this learning and improvement slowly started to come together, and he started to see the outline of the impressive figure he could one day become. He was still undoubtedly in the early stages, and no one skill he possessed was anything to write home about yet, since there was just so much he needed to cram in. But there was a moment, lying awake in bed after a hard day’s work in which he’d just lasted a full minute against Florence, that he started to believe.

  Every night, before bed, he’d look at the compass he’d pilfered from Claire’s chambers. The red pointer barely moved, but still he found himself staring out the window, following the compass’ directions and imagining he could see across all that distance to wherever Jamie was. Before long, he’d be out there, starting their search. He didn’t know long it’d take, or what they’d go through on the way, but he was confident he would reunite with his friend. Just a bit longer, and he’d be ready.

  The situation changed the very next day.

  He woke like usual, feeling well-rested, yesterday’s exertions gone like they were never there. Valerie had been up long before him, and she’d fetched a bowl of the salty gruel stuff for him; she rarely ate at the same time as him, for some reason. With breakfast finished, they set off down towards their basement room. Today’s focus was going to be on utilising pyromancy in combat, getting him to work closer together with Jamie the monstercat.

  Lucas’ soulbonded companion had been oddly subdued ever since arriving here, spending the vast majority of the day inert, as if asleep. He hadn’t emerged from Lucas’ soul at all, which took him by surprise a bit. It was easy to forget Jamie was even there. In fact, the monstercat seemed to have decided he was nocturnal now, only seeming to be fully awake at night, while Lucas was asleep. Multiple times, he’d woken to find the creature just… there. Aware. Not doing anything. Not even particularly focused on anything in particular. But undoubtedly in a state of readiness.

  Aside from that, the only time he stirred during the day was when Lucas wanted access to pyromancy, and even then he wasn’t particularly attentive.

  That was why it put him on edge when Jamie snapped to attention as they were halfway down the grand staircase. He immediately informed Valerie about it.

  “I don’t know what I should make of that,” Valerie said. “You know more about that creature than I do, after all.”

  Lucas grimaced, absently reaching up to rub against his heart, as if he could glean some deeper insight into Jamie’s emotions. There was nothing out of the usual emanating from the creature. “It’s just… I’d kind of been taking his inactivity as a sign that things are generally safe here, because, I guess, if he sees no reason to be on alert, there’s no immediate danger.”

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  “And him waking up and taking notice of his surroundings has you worried there is now danger,” Valeire surmised. She looked back at him. “Is there anything else apart from him waking up at an unusual time?”

  “No. I’m not getting anything out of him at all, really. He’s just awake.” Lucas frowned, delving deeper into their connection, such as he was able to. There wasn’t really a connection between them, at this point. They were just one soul, intertwined. There’d been times during their journey from Pentaburgh that he’d been able to understand exactly what Jamie’s attention was on, but he hadn’t felt that in a while. To have Jamie awake and aware but focused on nothing in particular like this was always eerrie. Like some instinct in the creature had awoken it, but even it didn’t know what or why. “Did Florence mention anything going on today?”

  Florence had been keeping an ear to the ground, staying on top of the whatever rumours were going around. Mostly, it had been to make sure they were up-to-date on the politics of the city. Apparently, things were a bit out of alignment with Claire having been gone for quite some time. Her presence typically kept a lot of disparate elements in line. There wasn’t word of anything boiling over, especially not towards the Order itself, but Lucas was starting to wonder.

  “Nothing,” Valerie said, frowning as she turned ahead once more. Her pace had notably slowed—they tended not to linger long in areas that weren’t their training rooms, the cafeteria, or Valerie’s quarters. Valerie’s reputation preceded her. There was a lot of staring, and he’d caught more than a few disbelieving whispers at seeing her here rather than the Front Lines. He also couldn’t help noticing that literally no one apart from Florence had approached her, let alone said a word to her. “Actually, no. There is something, but not what you were implying. The Front Lines had to rapidly retreat, and the force that went to assist in Harwyck lingered after the evacuation in order to assist. They were expected back any time this week. They could be returning today. May already be here, even.”

  “So there’s going to be a lot more skycloaks here, all of a sudden?”

  Valerie nodded, picking up her pace once more. Soon, they were practically jogging. “The situation was crucial enough that a great percentage of the Order’s standing forces were deployed. Honestly, I’m surprised it took them this long to return.” She paused. “And I’m somewhat surprised that nothing has happened here in the meantime. One would have thought it would be the perfect opportunity for one of these radical groups to try something ridiculous.”

  “Can you think of any reason the returning skycloaks might have spooked my little passenger?”

  “Yes. There are too many possibilities to count, some more likely than others. It’s difficult to say without delving deeper into the capabilities of your soulbonded companion.”

  Valerie hadn’t wanted to mess around with Jamie unless Claire was here to oversee things. She’d been relieved about the creature’s inactivity. “What would you say is your best guess?”

  “The obvious,” Valerie replied. “The returning forces bring trouble with them of some kind.”

  It was a frustratingly vague answer. It also matched what Lucas was now thinking.

  They ended up almost running down the stairs, making it to the atrium in record time. As soon as they reached the area where the walls fell away and the grand staircase spiralled through the centre of the great room, it became immediately obvious that their suspicions were correct. The place was always busy, but today there had to be thousands of people packed together, spread out in every direction and overflowing beyond the five massive arched entances. It was like a crowd at a concert, all blending together into one mass. The vast majority of them wore skycloaks, and many of their cloaks were darkened, like Valerie’s had been when hers was drained. They all faced the staircase.

  Despite having so many people packed into one place, it was eerily quiet. The only sound was the echoing voice of one man, too distorted to make out his words from so high up. Lucas peered over the edge of the staircase’s rail, and from there could make out a single man in the middle of the open stairs, making him visible from every direction. He appeared to be floating a few metres in the air, and his gauntleted hand was placed against his neck. It was hard to discern too many features from here, beyond the fact the man was dark-skinned and bald. His cloak was cobalt blue.

  Lucas and Valerie edged further down the staircase, not wanting to bring any attention to themselves. It seemed like the whole Order was down there, and he wondered how word of this hadn’t found its way to Valerie. He’d noted that no one had talked to her on their own volition in all his time here, but did it really extend this far?

  The man’s words became clearer only when he appeared to be reaching the end of whatever speech he was given.

  “—my friends and comrades, we must make this decision carefully and with due consideration, but it must be done swiftly. Delay too long, and the cause will be lost. Our leader is not here, but decisive action must be taken all the same. I propose that we cast a vote in seven days time. That will give us long enough to send messengers to the Front Lines and further afield to gather the opinions of as many of our brothers and sisters as possible without tarrying too long. Thank you for your time.”

  As the man finished speaking, a low din erupted in the room. Countless hushed voices conferred with one another, but the man who’d been speaking didn’t join, instead floating upwards, heading up the staircase. He only rose a few levels, but he appeared to remain there. Valerie rushed down, and Lucas was forced to hurry to catch up with her.

  They came across the speaker a dozen or so levels up from the ground floor. He was standing with his hands behind his back, walking slowly up the stairs, his gaze pointed out across the sea of skycloaks, but seeming not to see anything. It was clear he was deep in thought, because he didn’t notice Valerie’s approach until she was right next to him, her hand on his shoulder.

  His eyes were gold as molten lava, Lucas noted. They were the only remarkable thing about him. He sported a salt-and-pepper beard that clearly hadn’t been groomed in quite some time, and his lips were oddly pale and thin, in contrast to his dark skin. Small scars dotted the bridge of his nose like freckles. He was tall, but not Wick tall. Only a couple of inches over Lucas’ six-ish feet. But the way he carried himself made him seem larger.

  This was a leader, Lucas was sure. Not someone who went out on Claire’s missions, but a guy who ran things in this tower. He would’ve been able to tell even if the man hadn’t had a room of thousands of skycloaks listening quietly to him mere moments ago.

  “Master Haddem. What’s going on here?” Valerie asked, voice strained. Lucas hadn’t heard that title before, and it only further confirmed this man’s status.

  “Captain Vayon,” the man—now revealed as Haddem—said, blinking. “I sought you out on the Front Lines, but you were not there. If you have been here all this time, then you must not have heard the news, though I’m sure you will have already guessed what has happened.” He sighed, shook his head. “With the fall of Harwyck, the Blight has spread. It plunged south far faster than we could have predicted, and it moved further than even our most pessimistic estimates.” He paused. The reluctance in his voice was clear. “Pentaburgh now rests within the Blight. The Order of Five stands at a crossroads.”

  Valerie sucked in a sharp breath. “We are debating whether to abandon the city?”

  “We are debating whether to abandon any hope of Lucas Brown arriving,” Haddem said, and he sounded like he was agreeing with her.

  Discord :)