I stared at him. “Do you know what it does?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, don’t recognize that one. I know some people who might, but they’re not here.” He frowned. “Unless Wrynn is. She’d probably know.”
“Wrynn?” I asked.
“Wrynn Jaden, the one who made your box. If she’s still around here, we could try to track her down. I’m a little worried about her, truth be told. It’s not like her to leave her box behind anywhere, for any reason. When that thing recharges in a few months, we might want to try to summon her with it.”
I nodded absently. Jaden was supposedly hundreds of years dead, but considering who the suggestion was coming from, I decided he probably knew what he was talking about.
I liked the idea of meeting Wrynn Jaden eventually, but for the moment, I had other plans for the box.
I pressed the mana watch against Sera’s attunement.
It displayed 0/0.
That was not a good sign at all.
I turned to Keras. “You wouldn’t happen to have any way of fixing mana scarring, would you?”
He shook his head sadly. “Sorry, Corin. I’m not a healer.”
I wasn’t sure how to phrase my follow up question, so I just asked. “I don’t want to be rude, but... what are you? Are you another visage? Or a servant of the Tyrant in Gold?”
Keras just laughed. “I’m neither of those, I assure you. I’ll have to think about the best way to explain. Every time I’ve tried to tell people around here about my abilities it’s ended poorly.”
A fair answer, but I still wanted to know more. I had so many questions.
I turned back to Sera, patting her on the shoulder. “We’ll find a way to get you healed.”
Sera nodded back to me. Her eyes were filled with determination.
And, fortunately, she did seem to like the new sword.
***
The train ride took about ten hours.
Derek and Keras spent most of that time bantering with each other, and I was pretty sure they went out and had a sparring match on the roof of the train at one point.
Sera and I couldn’t talk to each other, but I felt closer to her than I ever had. We sat next to each other, exchanging notes. Fortunately, Keras had paper and he’d been willing to give it to us for a good cause.
Her first note was particularly endearing.
Corin,
Stop thinking about going after Jin.
You have more important things to worry about, like the things that I want.
Also, possibly the friends who didn’t betray us. They’re somewhat important, too.
Sincerely,
Sera
Signing and addressing it was completely unnecessary, given we were right next to each other, but it was so very Sera that it made me feel better.
She was right, of course.
It was probably better that I didn’t try to find Jin again immediately. The wounds were too fresh for both of us, both metaphorically and literally. There was a reasonable chance he’d want to kill me when we saw each other again, and I couldn’t blame him for it.
But I wasn’t going to blame myself, either.
I was going to move forward.
***
It took a while to find Marissa and Patrick.
This was because, rather than being in their rooms, they had been waiting outside of the tower for us.
When we hadn’t made it back the first night, they’d camped out together.
Even after all Patrick had done for me over the course of the year, I still didn’t know how to respond to displays of loyalty and concern like that.
It was so good to see them.
They were glad to see me, too, if a little surprised by the company. Surprised and maybe a little alarmed.
Keras was wearing his mask again now that we were in town. He got some strange looks, but no one approached us to ask about it.
After an aborted attempt to explain everything, Derek pointed out that we should not be discussing everything that had happened in public. He escorted us to one of his homes. It was a small manor only about a mile away. Apparently, it was where he stayed when he was preparing to go on a climbing expedition.
And it was, fortunately, already very-well magically protected. I inspected the runes on the walls on my way in. Some were familiar, like anti-scrying and anti-teleportation, but others were new. I’d have to write them down later.
We sat in an opulent living room while Derek and I explained to everyone what we’d encountered. Keras spent most of the time doing some kind of meditation exercise with his sword, since he’d already heard it all from me.
When we finished, Patrick was a combination of excited and incredulous. “So, Professor Orden was the traitor?”
I sighed. “No, Patrick. If you want to get technical, I was probably the closest thing to a traitor. Apparently all this was something our government approved of.”
Derek raised his hands in a halting gesture. “Woah, slow down there, Corin. Orden might have overstated her support a bit there. She might have members of the Council of Lords supporting this little endeavor, but certainly not the whole thing. My mother is on the council and the first she’d heard of this was when I brought it to her attention.”
I frowned. “How’d you find out about all this, anyway?”
He sighed. “Elora. Dear, darling, Elora. She told me all about it after she’d helped abduct Tenjin and the others. She was so excited. Thought I’d just automatically approve of her idea to kidnap our allies and the visage we worship. How could I have possibly disagreed?”
That made sense. He’d mentioned having a falling out with Elora Theas. I’d assumed it was just some kind of petty lover’s quarrel.
Apparently, it was much more serious than I’d given him credit for. And, to be fair, maybe Derek himself was a little more serious than I’d realized.
I was grateful to have him on my side. If he’d taken Elora’s side in this, it would have been a catastrophe. He’d have stopped us from ever getting Vera to the tower.