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61: Desolate (5)

  The next morning found them back in Valerie’s quarters. The entire Moontower was buzzing with activity like a pentagonal beehive that had been kicked by a giant. Corridors that had previously been mostly deserted were now packed at all hours of the day. Last night, it had taken twice as long as usual to climb the grand staircase, which was already enough of a chore to begin with. Even from over 200 stories up, he could see countless people rushing around at the ground level of the Order’s territory. From here, it looked like a disturbed ant nest.

  Lucas drew in a deep breath. Held it. Counted to four. And then let it out. It was daunting to see so much activity spurred by a plan he concocted. But he supposed it was a sight he would have to get used to. He was expected to be a leader. Armies would move by his command in the future. This was just a taste of what was to come.

  He turned away from the window, facing the living area of Valerie's quarters. To his chagrin, little had changed since his arrival. Despite his determination to add a bit of decoration to this place, in the end he found himself without the time to devote to the task. The only difference now was the extra skycloak draped over the back of the spare chair they’d long ago dragged into the room so they could both sit at the table at the same time.

  Stepping closer to it, Lucas reached down and ran the tips of his fingers over the magical fabric. It was warm to the touch. Something like static electricity prickled his skin, a haptic buzz. The complexity of this garment’s enchantment was far beyond his ken, but right now he didn't need to understand it on that level, much as he wanted to.

  On the other side of the table, Valerie watched him in silence with a neutral expression. He found himself wondering what she thought of this. Skycloaks were only supposed to be handed out to graduates of the Order of Five’s Academy. Did she resent the fact that he was receiving one despite only having been here for a little over six weeks? If so, she was hiding it well.

  He figured she probably wasn’t. This was her idea, after all. She wanted him as protected as possible, while also drawing little attention to himself. There was precedent for higher ranking members of the Order deputising promising warriors in the field, apparently. Especially on the front lines. It was unlikely anyone would question the presence of an unfamiliar man wearing that iconic cloak, as long as it was made known he was her apprentice.

  Still, it felt like a cheat to him. Like he was skipping steps. Part of him wanted to do it all properly, to feel like he'd really earned it. But sometimes pragmatism had to win out.

  Deciding to get it over with, he took the cloak in hand and threw it over his shoulders in one smooth movement. It was surprisingly light, considering how thick it looked. That haptic buzz thrummed through his body, electrifying him, and the connection formed. He could feel the energy of the garment immediately, waiting to be tapped into.

  Instinct took over, and he fed a tendril of his pure mana into the cloak. It drank thirstily of his energy, but only for a moment. However the enchantment worked, it was evidently full already. That made sense. He'd already figured out that the bluer a cloak was, the more charge it had.

  There was more to it than merely charging it though. With a flex of his will, the mana system of the cloak mentally connected to his own. It took no time at all to synchronise them. In seconds, he understood the magical artefact intimately. The technique was not so different from how he'd been opening up his pathways for the last few months, except there was practically no resistance, and absolutely zero pain.

  With that done, it was now under his control. With a mental command, he had it wrap around him like a blanket. He could feel the minuscule drain on its energy, though it wasn't enough to actually darken the material. Another command, and it flared out like a pair of wings. He spent a few minutes forming it into different shapes, amusing himself as much as practising. It was a spectacular working of magic, he had to admit. Anyone with even the slightest trickle of pure mana in their bodies would be able to use one.

  Once upon a time, the blue cloak had apparently been no more than a uniform. Claire had changed that. It struck him again how much influence his friend had on this world, taking him quite off guard.

  Lucas let out a sigh as he released his control over the cloak, allowing it to fall limp. He looked over at Valerie, and she met his gaze.

  “It's really incredible, isn't it?” He muttered.

  Valerie nodded. Her expression was still neutral.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Lucas asked.

  “You don't have a penny,” Valerie said.

  “I'm sure I could find one.”

  “There are many things on my mind at this moment. But you need not concern yourself with any of them.”

  “I disagree.” Lucas frowned. “For one thing, I really want to know what you think about me wearing one of these.”

  Valerie blinked. Her eyes gained focus, and until that moment he hadn’t realised she’d been spacing out, by her standards. She observed him for a beat. “Ah. You need not worry. While I would take great offence to an outsider wearing one of our uniforms, you should consider yourself an honorary member of the order by default. A leader, even. Lady Claire was once one of your closest friends. You have more right to wear one of her cloaks than anyone.”

  “Oh,” Lucas said, feeling dumb. “That was actually very reassuring. Thank you.”

  “Don’t concern yourself with it.” Valerie rounded the table, and moved past him towards the windows. After a moment, Lucas followed her. “Chief among my concerns right now,” Valerie continued, “is the situation out there. I'm trying to predict how those outside the barrier will react to its activation in the short term. Will they respond violently? Will there be protests? Will they stir up the population to make demands of the Order? It's difficult to predict, and I dislike uncertainty.”

  That made sense. Lucas supposed that someone who spent so long fighting against chaos would come to develop a love of order. But still, he had to point out, “No one can predict the future.” He paused. “Or can they? I guess there is literally a prophecy that caused this whole mess, as far as I'm concerned.”

  “Precognitive magic is notoriously difficult, though it has been done. Generally, it has been achieved through freak anomalies of talent, such as the great Oracle herself. Deliberate attempts to create such techniques have mostly been failures. Lady Claire claims that the future will have already become the distant past by the time you figure out how to See reliably through a repeatable magic technique.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “But that doesn't mean you can't make predictions based on knowledge and reasoning. For example, if I know of a group that styles itself as an opponent to the Great Heroes and has a particular dislike for the Order, and if I have reasonable suspicions regarding the identities of the upper echelons of their organisation, it is possible to make guesses at what path they might take in response to what they perceive to be unusual behaviour from the Order.”

  Lucas eyed her. “And what's your best guess?”

  Valerie's gaze was distant, flittering back-and-forth across the city as if she was seeking out specific locations. Her eyes narrowed. “I expect them to give me just cause.”

  “Like Jyn did?”

  “Yes. Like Jyn did.”

  They settled into silence after that, both of them descending into their own thoughts. Lucas found himself reaching into his pocket, seeking out the comfort of that smooth wooden box. He didn't even need to open it up any more. He knew the arrow wouldn't change its direction. But its presence reminded him that his friend was out there, and that always made him feel better. More anchored. Present.

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  But the thought of Jamie drew his attention to another concern. Namely, the mysterious creature in his chest. Jamie the monstercat—and now that he knew the real Jamie was out there somewhere, he was going to have to find an easier way to distinguish between them, but it felt wrong to steal away the name he'd given to the cat. He decided to call it Jam for short instead. That felt suitably appropriate for a pet.

  Even if it was, perhaps, not appropriate to think of the monstrous creature with way too many bones and limbs and organs and other bits he didn't want to devote too much attention to as a pet.

  Regardless, the point was that Jam hadn't come down from his state of awareness at all since first coming to alert the previous day. Every waking moment, the creature was seemingly on guard. It had him on edge too. Paranoid thoughts flitted through his mind. In the past, the cat had only shown such diligence when enemies were near, and especially so when those enemies were of a chaotic nature—beasts and demons, in other words.

  This didn't feel like that, at least. In the presence of a demon, Jam had gone absolutely mental, thrashing around in the nexus of Lucas soul to the degree that it was difficult to even use his magic.

  So was it a mundane enemy that had caught his attention? It was hard to say. The thing was, Lucas had been able to feel what Jam was focusing on in the past, at least to a degree. This situation wasn't so different now. The problem they were having was that it seemed Jam wasn't focused on anything in particular. It was like even the creature itself didn't know what was wrong, just that there were some kind of threat.

  The fact that it had come just as the forces from Harwyck had returned didn't bode well. The most obvious conclusion to make was that Jam had somehow detected that something or someone within the returning army opposed a danger.

  Whatever was happening, it meant they had to be diligent even within the tower. That wasn't necessarily a huge departure from the previous state of affairs, since they had to be careful not to reveal Lucas's identity anyway. But still. It was extra concern they did not at all need.

  Lucas let out a sigh. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Not for the first time, he found himself wondering how things would have been if he had shown up with the other 100 years ago.

  As quick as that thought had come, he banished it with prejudice. It wasn't a good road to go down.

  Luckily, a distraction came in the form of a knock on Valerie's door. The visitor didn't wait on permission before opening it and striding in, and the fact they were able to do so revealed their identity, immediately stifling is alarm before it could get started.

  “I have another assignment,” Florence said. “This one is outside the tower.”

  Lucas and Valerie turned to face her. As an experienced Ranger, Florence had been called into missions almost immediately, while Valerie’s skills were yet to be directly needed. Valerie could undoubtably perform any menial task the Order required, but a Captain was not easily assigned to such things. They expected the masters would find her something to do eventually, but so far nothing had merited her attention.

  “What is your task?” Valerie asked.

  “I'm to meet a butcher who supplies meat for the Order,” Florence explained. “As you would expect, it's important that we secure provisions in case we find ourselves under siege.”

  Lucas grimaced. “Does that seem likely?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Valerie said, far too nonchalant.

  “An unlikely possibility,” Florence hastened to reassure him. “But one we must account for.”

  Lucas nodded. He was not reassured. “So, will we be accompanying you on this one?”

  “If you like,” Florence said, with clear reluctance.

  “I just want to get out and see the city for myself,” Lucas said. “We reckon I'm decent enough in a fight now, right? I should be able to defend myself in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, surely. And it's better to do something like this to give the masters the idea that Valerie is available for more mundane things, rather than leaving them to stew and eventually come up with some far and distant quest to send her on.”

  “Would it be so problematic if Valerie was directed away? I'm more than capable in a fight myself, you realise?” Florence said, raising one eyebrow.

  Valerie's lips thinned. “I will not leave Lord Lucas's side under any circumstances.”

  “You would defy the masters if they ordered you on a solo mission?”

  “Without hesitation,” Valerie said, also without hesitation. “All I would have to say is that my current mission outranks anything they could assign me. Lady Claire is unlikely to punish me for insubordination, once she finds out my reasoning.”

  “You're not wrong.” Florence snorted as she moved the edge of the table. Her eyes were on Lucas's cloak. “It suits you. The colours of the Order.”

  “I can't deny it looks pretty good,” Lucas said. He shifted, feeling a little awkward. “I'll just have to get used to it, I suppose.”

  “It's easier once you're in armour,” Florence said with a smile.

  “I don't know about that. I've never had to wear armour in my life.”

  “The Order’s custom armour is lighter than you think, and once you've bonded with it, you'll barely notice it’s there,” Valerie said.

  “Plenty of our members forget they're wearing it if they've had it on for a long time,” Florence said. “Even veterans.”

  “And we’re okay with me bonding to Order standard issue armour?” Lucas asked, sceptical.

  “This isn't the same as typical bonding,” Valerie said. “It’s a custom procedure specifically designed by Lady Claire herself. It doesn't bond to you directly, instead inhabiting a space held by your cloak. That's why we needed to get you a cloak first.”

  “Makes sense,” Lucas said. “We gonna do that before we head out then?”

  Valerie frowned.

  “You still don't seem 100% on board with this,” Lucas observed. “It was kind of mostly your plan, remember?”

  “I know. It's a necessary step we need to take. We need to show that I can do local low stakes missions, that you can accompany me in them, and that Florence can work together with me. I just don't like that we are being forced into this before we planned to.”

  “Hey, I still want to do one of those Academy training exercises some day.”

  “I'm sure you'll get your chance,” Florence said.

  They filed out of the room after that. The way down to the armoury was just as much of a chore as the way up to Valerie's quarters has been, with the grand staircase endlessly choked by skycloaks flying back-and-forth.

  One silver lining was that Lucas got the chance to practice with his own skycloak. It took some getting used to. Physically speaking, the cloak shouldn't have been capable of catching enough air to suspend his fall like it did. All it took was a bit of mana, and it acted like a parachute with a dozen times the surface area. He felt like he was hopping around on the moon. The training room beckoned to him, and he dearly wished they'd gotten around to this sooner.

  But it was not to be. The armoury was an enormous room that covered the entirety of a floor of the Moontower. Hundreds of suits of white armour hung on wooden racks. It made him think of the world's strangest department store. It was almost eerie.

  A towering Amazon of a woman strode forward to meet them the moment they stepped out of the archway. She looked between the three of them for a moment before her steely gaze locked on Lucas. Turning on her heel, she beckoned him to follow her with a lazy wave. Lucas hurried to obey. She led him through the rows of armour with a purposeful stride, not stopping for a moment to glance at any of the sets of armour. Near the end of one row, she came to a halt seemingly at random as far as Lucas could tell. There, she pointed at a suit of armour that looked no different to him than any of the others and gave him a significant look.

  Glancing between her and the armour, he took a tentative step closer. It was identical to Valerie’s and Florence’s. White as moonlight, the metal was etched with subtle engravings he couldn't make sense of, but assumed were part of some kind of magical array that would allow him to bond the armour and store it away like he’d seen Valerie do plenty of times. The woman nodded at him, and he reached out to touch it.

  Against his fingertips, he felt the same haptic buzz that came from his cloak. Literally the same. It was like this suit of armour had been designed to pair with the cloak on his back. It seemed far-fetched; he doubted that was actually the case. But still, pairing them was as simple as putting the armour on while he was wearing the cloak.

  Which, admittedly, wasn't actually that simple at all. Armour was a cumbersome thing, and especially when he was unused to it. Florence and Valerie had to help out, but he got it on in the end. From there he didn't require instruction. The armour had been made for this purpose. Following simple instinct, he sent a mental command through his connection to the cloak, and it adhered to the armour like they had always been a set.

  The next step took a bit more figuring out, but eventually he happened upon the mental command that reduced his armour to motes of twinkling starlight that were immediately drawn spiralling into his chest. However, they didn't enter his soul. Instead, the cloak gathered them up and integrated them into its own crude mana network. They were entwined in moments, and he knew all he needed to do to get his armour back was trigger another mental command.

  And just like that, he had the tools of an acolyte skycloak at his command.

  Turning to face his companions, he allowed the grin that had been threatening for some time to finally reach his lips. “Let’s do this.”

  He was ready for his first mission.

  Discord :)

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