Orden waved a hand dismissively. “If blaming Edria doesn’t work, we’ll find another route. Perhaps we don’t need to move against Katashi. We can find a way to placate him before he deals too much damage. Maybe point him toward Keras again. It’s a manageable problem.”
I saw the bodies of the Soaring Wings that Mizuchi had left in her wake.
And, with all the resolve I could muster, I clenched my fists and said something unwise. “Leaving a trail of dead bodies in the wake of your schemes is not a manageable problem, Orden. If you truly want to protect Valia, you need to stop treating her civilians as acceptable losses.”
Orden closed her eyes. “It’s a utility calculation, Corin. I can—”
I put my hand on the hilt of my sword. “Let me stop you right there. We’ve all heard about stories of sacrificing a hundred to save a million. I get the concept. That’s not the core problem. The problem is that you’re taking a cascading series of greater risks — and several of them have the chance to wipe out the entire population of our country. If a group of freshly attuned students can figure out your plans, do you really think no one else will?”
“But you didn’t figure out my plans, Corin. You saw something amiss, and then I explained my plans. I can see you’re concerned, and that’s understandable. We need to make certain we execute each step of this plan as perfectly as possible to mitigate the very risks you spoke of. I want to work with you, not against you. If you have an alternative suggestion, I’d be glad to hear it.”
I considered that. “Let us finish our mission and deliver Vera to Katashi. Even if you want to fight him at some point, this gives you more time before he starts taking chunks out of our city. Time you can use to research him, find weaknesses like you did with Tenjin.”
“Not possible, I’m afraid. We require Vera’s assistance to expedite our research. And now that you all know my plans, I can’t risk you making contact with Katashi. You could tell him everything I’ve told you.”
Vera folded her arms. “And if I don’t want to help with your little research plan?”
Orden shrugged a shoulder. “That would be quite unfortunate — but I do have more rings.”
The smug expression on her face when she watched Vera’s fists clench was enough to finalize my decision.
I didn’t draw my sword. That would be a pointless gesture, one that might have triggered a response from her.
Instead, I offered her a final question. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance that we could convince you to surrender to us?”
Profeessor Orden didn’t even laugh this time. “Oh, Corin. No, there would be no chance of such a thing... You aren’t considering anything foolish, are you?”
I turned to Sera and said, “Signal.”
I’d always wanted to make that joke.
She didn’t laugh. She just spun, waved a hand, and said, “Wall.”
A wall of ice sprung up between us and Derek.
“Derek, break that wall!” Orden shouted.
I heard no response from the other side.
I reached into my bag, grabbed the return bell and charged it with mana, then rang it. I’d made sure that Vera, Jin, and Sera were in range.
Nothing happened.
That was when I remembered that Professor Orden had been drawing runes on the walls, presumably including anti-teleportation ones.
Vera turned and blinked at me. “Uh, that clearly didn’t work. Now what?”
I shoved the bell back in my bag. “Now we run!” I turned, opened the door to the spider webbed room, and stepped inside.
Sera, Jin, and Vera fell in right behind me.
I slammed the door shut. “Watch for the spider.”
Vera took a step closer to me. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to lend me a weapon at this point?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just take the dueling cane off my belt, you should be used to it by now.”
She unsnapped the cane. “Great! Brings back memories.”
I sighed, reaching into my pouch and pulling out my etching rod. I knew Orden could teleport, but I could play the same way she did.
In the fountain room, I could hear something slam into the ice wall, but I ignored it and focused on drawing the anti-teleportation rune.
When something heavy slammed down behind me, ignoring it was harder.
“Uh, Corin, there’s—” Vera started.
“Great Spider,” Sera began. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I am a Summoner, and I wish to make a pact with you.”
Oh, Goddess, please let that work.
I finished drawing the anti-teleportation rune, slammed my hand into it, and shoved mana into the rune as fast as I could. I drew a second rune to make the door more resilient, charging it in seconds.
My hand stung with the effort of using so much mana that quickly, but buying us time was the best thing I could think to do.
“No pact, Summoner. I hungry.”
I spun around. Sera was holding her throat, looking ill.
I don’t know why I’d expected the spider to only be human sized, or maybe something reasonable like wagon sized.
It turned out to have a main body more like the size of a train car, with each of its legs a twenty-foot spike.
It perched on a web about ten feet up and about forty feet distant from us. From the look of those legs, it could probably cross the distance in a single jump.
“Jin, Vera, hold the door shut.” They moved to comply.
I turned my head to address the spider, reaching into my bag. “Great Spider, could we interest you in eating a delicious mana crystal instead of us?”
The spider clicked its mandibles together, then I heard a reply in my mind. “Eat you first, then eat your mana crystals.”
Okay, wasn’t expecting it to be that smart. New tactic.
I shook my head. “I’m afraid there’s a problem with that. There’s a really strong human in the room behind us, and she’s about to break in here and eat us before you can. Could I maybe convince you to seal the door behind us shut in exchange for a mana crystal? Then you can try to eat us after that.”
The spider’s legs bent.
That was the only warning we got. Fortunately, we were all looking right at it, and we had the instinct to scatter.