The god beast’s eyes met mine. “Do not thank me. It has been centuries since a Summoner as weak as she was brave enough to approach me. I preserve my own.”
With that, the beast turned its gaze toward Sera. And then, with an almost loving motion, it nudged her with its nose and breathed outward again. There was no feeling of cold this time. From my position, I could feel only a surge of energy, almost electrical, in the air.
I saw Sera, still prone on the floor, take in a gasp of breath — and then shiver for an instant before going still.
“It is done.”
Seiryu took one final glance in my direction, dipped its head in something resembling a nod, and then vanished into nothing.
And finally, I felt like I could breathe again.
The first thing I did was crawl over to where I’d dropped my cloak when Seiryu had levitated me.
Then, with my arms sore from effort, I crawled over to Sera and draped the cloak over to her.
“It’s finally over,” I mumbled, carefully pulling fragments of ice out of Sera’s hair.
“It is.” Jin’s voice. He stood Vera, shaking his head.
I was glad to see that he was looking better. He’d wiped the blood off his nose, and though he looked a little shaky, he didn’t seem to have any other obvious injuries.
He turned his head toward me, smiling sadly. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to make that date for the winter ball, Corin.”
And then Jin fired two bullets into Vera’s back.
Chapter XXIII — Finishing Moves
I leveled my gauntlet at Jin and fired a blast of transference mana immediately, but he just stepped out of the way and shook his head.
“I really am sorry about this.” He turned his gun back to her and pulled the trigger again — only to hear a click. With a shrug, he discarded the empty gun and drew a dagger from inside his coat.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what was happening.
So I fought.
I fired again, this time managing to graze his shoulder and knock him back a few steps.
“Irritating,” he said. “But you can’t stop me. If she’s not already dead, I’ll finish it soon. Don’t worry; I have no interest in hurting you.”
“What are you doing? Stop!” I tried my legs again. The ring had been doing great work. I made it to a half-standing position before my legs collapsed under me again.
Jin sighed. “Just stay down, Corin. It’s nothing personal, but she’s a threat.”
I trembled. Not with cold this time, but with rage. “A threat? She’s unconscious, Jin!”
Jin took a step closer to her, and I fired again. He deflected the shot with his dagger, but the force of the impact nearly forced him to drop it.
Jin shook his head at me. “Not an immediate threat. A long-term threat. I can’t allow you to hand her over to Katashi. Not after everything we’ve just learned. Not after everything she’s done.”
“Okay, I can understand having moral concerns about making god beasts, but this is not the way—”
“It’s not about that, Corin.” Jin sighed. “It’s about protecting my own people.”
“We stopped Orden already, Jin. There’s no need to worry about her tricking Dalenos into a war.”
He closed his eyes. “That was never the concern, Corin.”
“What are you talking about?”
With a sigh, he reopened his eyes. “I’m not from Dalenos. I’m from East Edria.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “You. You’re the Edrian spy that everyone has been so worried about?”
Jin chuckled. “I thought your mind would jump that way. That’s why I never told you. Everyone from Edria must be a spy or a traitor. No, Corin, I’m not a spy. I’m just a student who happened to be born in East Edria.”
He shook his head, giving me a sad smile. “You want to know why I never told you I’m from Edria? Because there’s nothing but hatred toward Edria here. Never mind that I’m from the part that was conquered in the same war that Valia is always talking about.”
I...couldn’t argue with that. Not really. If he’d told me he was from Edria, even East Edria, there was no way I wouldn’t have associated him with the Six Years War. I wasn’t above judging people by their place of birth, as much as I wanted to be.
I would have to be better in the future.
I shook my head. “You gave Dalen as your last name, though.”
“My last name is Dalen, Corin. You remember the story from class about the Unbroken Queen? My family were among her retainers. Where I come from, everyone in service to a family uses their family name. Even when the queen finally perished, we kept the name.”
I nodded. “I remember the story. That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, though.”
“There’s no conspiracy, Corin. I’m just a transfer student. I never showed you my attunement because I’m a Mesmer. That’s an Edrian attunement. I’m Sunstone because we take our tests at a younger age. I’m not an assassin. I’m not even that much of a patriot, truth be told. But when I hear people are making artificial attuned to use as weapons against my home? I pay attention.”
“Only for defense,” I tried, but the line sounded weak, even to me.
Jin tightened his hand into a fist. “Right, right. I’m sure they’d never realize that they had enough weapons on leashes to try them out. Maybe just wipe a small city off the map to scare Edria a little. You know, as a defensive measure. With acceptable civilian losses. It’s not like they’d be Valian citizens.”
I clenched my jaw. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe someone would use an artificial attuned like that. But you’ve seen Vera. You saw her with Echion. She treated him like a brother, not a weapon. She’s one of the ones that would try to stop this kind of madness.”