“You didn’t notice? He’s been staring dreamily at your swords for months! He’s obsessed with those things.”
I winced. I really hadn’t been paying enough attention to what my friends were interested in. Now that Patrick was my retainer, I needed to make more of an effort to understand him. “Okay. I’ll definitely need to get him an enchanted sword sometime.”
I shook my head. “In the meantime, though, we’ve got more important matters to discuss. When Jin and I looked into Vera, we found out that Elora Theas — Derek’s former beau — was one of the people who went into the tower with Vera. It’s very likely she’s connected with all this nonsense, which makes it possible that Derek is also connected.”
Sera leaned over, picking up Selys-Lyann and testing the weight, then picked up my other sword and did the same. “And you’re worried he’s going to stab us in the back? Is that it?”
“Yeah. And he’s Emerald, Sera.”
She set the sword down at that, staring at me. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “Saw his shroud with my attunement. He’s been suppressing it.”
Sera’s hands clenched and unclenched in the air. It was a familiar gesture. I did the same thing when I was stressed. I hadn’t realized she shared the habit. “That makes this rather awkward.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I told him that he could come along if you were okay with it. So, we’ve got an excuse if you want to act more angry about the whole arena thing...”
She shook her head. “No. I think we should keep him close, even if we have suspicions. If we tell him off, he’s free to wreak havoc out of sight. Maybe he goes and gets rid of Vera before we even reach her. Or, if he’s connected to Tenjin’s disappearance, he could even go move Tenjin while we go in the tower — or worse...”
I nodded. “I understand the idea of keeping an eye on him, but if he turns on us in the tower, there’s really nothing we could do against an Emerald. Unless you’re holding out on me. That thing you did with Patrick was a pretty impressive trick.”
Sera grinned. “It was. We’ve been practicing for weeks. Cooperative spells are much stronger than anything we can manage alone.”
“How’d he even help you? I’ve heard of cooperative spells, but wasn’t that an ice spell?”
“Ice and air. Elementalists can cast air spells. So, he supplied the air mana, freeing me up to use all my mana for ice. We pushed as much power as we could into that one spell. But even then, that wouldn’t even be Citrine-class. We couldn’t scratch an Emerald, and I couldn’t cast that spell alone.”
Hrm.
I pointed at Selys-Lyann. “Could you draw mana from an item? Selyss-Lyann has an ice aura.”
She frowned. “I’ve got a limited degree of ability to work with ice from my bond... maybe I could do something with it. Can’t promise it would be as impressive as what Patrick and I could pull off together, but it might be better than what I can do on my own.”
“Okay. You should take that sword, then, provided you don’t mind the curse.”
“Curse?”
“Shopkeeper told me that it’s cursed so that anyone who wields it dies. Probably just a ridiculous legend.”
Sera stared at the sword, then looked back at me. “...you’ve been using a cursed sword this whole time?”
I chuckled. “I don’t think the curse is real. But if you’re worried about it, I can hold onto the sword.”
She picked the sword up. “I’m not as trusting as you are, but if there is a curse... I’ll beat it.”
I grinned. “Okay. So, we’re taking Derek?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s hope we don’t regret it.”
We finished packing Sera’s gear and headed outside to meet the others.
Derek delivered on his promised apology and Sera accepted.
It might have been my imagination, but I got the impression he looked just as suspicious of us as we were of him.
***
One more teleport. My stomach lurched as we arrived outside Corrington Carriages.
Derek looked at Professor Orden. “We’re sure she’s in there?”
The professor nodded. “I just scried for her minutes ago. She’ll be in here.”
As I recovered, I realized everyone was looking at me. “What?”
Professor Orden looked at me. “Go on in, Corin. This part is all you.”
“You’re joking.”
Orden gestured to the door. “You’re the one she’s going to recognize. You might be able to talk her into coming along with us peacefully. If anything goes wrong, just give us the signal.”
I frowned. “What signal?”
“Scream loudly.”
I sighed, walking over to the door of the shop. To my surprise — and relief — Jin fell into step beside me. No one commented on it and I wasn’t going to complain.
From the sign on the door, we were arriving during normal business hours, so I didn’t bother knocking. I just opened the door.
The inside of the building was well-lit and doubly well organized. I was shocked to see four complete automobiles in a perfect line, each painted a different color with a small sign in front of it.
Right near the entrance, a dark-skinned young man I didn’t recognize sat at a desk, looking over paperwork. Toward the back of the room, I could see another line of automobiles, but unfinished and unpainted. From the screeching noise coming from the one on the far right, I could tell someone was working on the carriage with some kind of noisy tool, but I couldn’t see them.
I stepped up to the desk. There were chairs on my side for a visitor, but I didn’t take a seat.
The man behind the desk looked up at me. “Good day, sir. Do you have an appointment?”
Ah, a secretary. Fair enough. He’s probably another student like me, looking to make a bit of spending money.
I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. Just here to visit someone.”
“Oh, who?”
Well, I wasn’t exactly planning to tell the whole world this, but... “Vera Corrington. Is she here?”
He nodded immediately and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, lemme go get her for you. Don’t touch anything. Seriously. Aloras will murder you.”
I nodded, glancing at Jin. He shrugged at me.