Chapter 177: Skill Issue

No more than a minute after Karina left the room, the door opened. Janice stepped inside and sat down across from Father as the door shut again behind her. For several moments, neither of them spoke.

Then, to Janice’s surprise, Father sighed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers and poured himself a glass of wine. Setting the bottle down on the desk before him, Father drained the entire goblet in one fell swoop.

“Pieces are moving, Janice,” Father said. He looked up at the ceiling, letting his fingers run along the smooth wood of his table. “And not even I can predict where all of them will land.”

Janice chose to remain quiet. This was a side of Father that she’d rarely seen before, and she was pretty sure she didn’t like it. It wasn’t exactly emotion – Janice wasn’t sure if Father even had that – but he sounded pensive. Thoughtful.

As if he was considering that things might not actually go his way.

“Is there something you would have me do?” Janice asked, realizing that Father wasn’t planning on saying anything else until she spoke. “Should I interfere with Karina? It’s likely that she will attempt something drastic after your words.”

“If she actually manages to kill Vermil, then I will do nothing but thank her,” Father said with a shake of his head. “No, her path is cut from ours. We no longer need her branch’s strength. All has gone as I wished it to, and we will join the main branch within a month.”

“Then what concerns you?”

“There are too many things changing,” Father replied. “More than there should be. Vermil – or rather, the demon puppeting his body – I don’t know what he seeks. I have no doubt he suspects that I was the one that ordered the Inquisitors after him, and yet he has done nothing.”

“Not very demon-like,” Janice said with a nod. “I have confirmed that he is at Arbitage. He and a woman from the Torrin family went on a trip to train their students.”

“Just like real teachers.” Father tapped a finger on his empty goblet. “I do not understand him, and that is cause for concern. Anything that I cannot understand is something that can surprise me.”

“It looks like he’s not interested in what we do. Maybe he plans to leave us alone if we do the same to him? The Inquisitors don’t have any trail left of him – I’ve already taken care of the search party that they sent out to determine what happened to the original two that came for Vermil, so he has no reason to maintain his anger toward us.”

Father gave Janice a slight shrug in response. “For now, yes. But relying on the good will of others is a poor plan. Vermil is not the only one, though. I did not lie to Karina. She would have been a useful member of the family. It is a shame that she will be wasted.”

“There’s always a chance that she comes to an agreement with Vermil,” Janice pointed out, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. “Considering the manner in which he dealt with us, there’s a good chance that he’ll find a way to work things out with her.”

“It is possible,” Father agreed. “But that will leave her compromised. She will no longer be trustworthy. Karina’s usefulness to us is gone. If she survives, at best, she will be a neutral party. At worst, she will be an enemy. And she is not the only one.”

Janice watched Father silently, her expression unreadable.

“Brayden grows even more distant than he once was, and though he obeys my orders, I suspect his interests are no longer fully aligned with the family.”

Janice said nothing.

“Do you have no thoughts on this?” Father asked.

“No, Father. I do not.”

“And if I were to ask you to investigate Brayden?” Father asked. “To determine if he is starting to take actions that benefit him rather than our family?”

“I would investigate, Father.”

Father smiled. He poured himself another glass of wine. “You are the greatest among my children, even if you are not born of my blood. Your loyalty will be rewarded in time, Janice. I have much to think over. Go.”

“Do you have any orders for me?”

“Keep to your current duties,” Father said. He paused for a moment, then took a sip from his glass. “And look into Brayden. I do not believe he has turned against us, but one may never be too cautious.”

“Yes, Father.”

***

“Well,” Moxie said as they all looked down at where Bria had vanished. “This totally won’t cause us any issues.”

“Evergreen is going to kill both of us,” Contessa muttered, swallowing and taking a step back, as if to run. “How are we supposed to explain what happens when Bria reports back to her?”

“You won’t have to,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “Come on. There’s no way that Bria was actually from the Torrin family. That was way too suspicious. Besides, doesn’t Evergreen have a way to directly contact Moxie? What would the point of sending a random student even be?”

Contessa pursed her lips. “She sent me. That other method of contact is less than ideal.”

“Sure,” Noah said with a dismissive wave. “Let’s say she sent you then. Why would she bother tacking on an extra student? A secret at that? That seems like a complete and utter waste of a trump card. Is Evergreen a moron?”

“Of course not!” Contessa snapped. She opened her mouth, then paused.

“Did Bria actually tell you anything about the Torrins that couldn’t have been easily inferred? Think back to when you first ran into her. Were her questions ones you’d expect from somebody in the loop, or were they leading questions that were meant to keep you on the backpedal?”

Contessa’s brow furrowed. A moment passed, and her face went pale. “Damned Plains. I got played for a fool. How did you know? Do you have some way to spy on me?”

Noah just gave her a wry smile.

Because that’s pretty much exactly what I did with Todd and Isabel. Bria clearly has some shapeshifting ability, so I suspect that we didn’t even talk with whoever Bria really is. That was just a character.

Contessa took Noah’s lack of answer as confirmation and paled even further. Her eyes darted around, likely going back over everything she’d said or done over the past month and wondering if Noah had seen it.

“That must have been why she wouldn’t bring me food or water,” Contessa muttered. “She wanted to keep me addled.”

Or she was an asshole. Might be reaching a bit now.

“Either way, you’ve done your job here,” Noah said with a sigh. “There’s still some time left in the month, and we’ve got a lot of work left to do. Now that you’ve fulfilled your duties to Evergreen – leave.”

“Can’t I just travel with–”

“No.”

Contessa’s face fell, but Noah didn’t care. He waved Lee down from where she was training with the students. Lee sprinted up to them, skidding to a stop and pelting Noah with a small spray of gray stones.

“Thank you,” Noah said dryly.

“You should have stabbed the weird lady faster,” Lee suggested. “Are you here to ask for tips on stabbing?”

“Not yet,” Noah replied. He nodded toward Contessa. “I know you’ve probably got some extra jerky stashed away. Give her enough to get back to Arbitage without starving to death. Water too.”

Lee’s eyes narrowed and she studied Contessa. “I have to give away my food?”

“In return, if she screws up, you can eat her.”

Contessa shot Noah a wide-eyed look, but Lee rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“Like an investment. Put in some jerky right now, and get a fresh meal later.”

“I am not a meal,” Contessa said, taking another step back and sending a desperate glance toward Moxie. Moxie suddenly found her nails fascinating.

“We could always start with a limb or two,” Noah offered.

“Deal,” Lee said.

“No deal!” Contessa exclaimed. “I don’t want to get eaten.”

“Nobody does,” Lee said, giving Contessa a sympathetic pat on the back.

“Enough teasing,” Moxie said with a shake of her head. “It’s a waste of good time. Contessa will do her job. If she betrays us – then Lee can have her fun.”

“Fine,” Lee muttered reluctantly. Contessa let out a relieved sigh, sending a grateful look to Moxie. Noah suppressed a grin.

Look how quickly the tables have turned. You were abusing her less than a month ago, and now Moxie is the only thing that’s keeping you from getting eaten alive.

A few minutes later, Contessa had been sent on her way. Everyone gathered at the camp, and after Noah filled the students in on what had happened, they prepared to get back to training.

“I’ll handle today,” Moxie said. “Considering what you showed me this morning, I’m getting the feeling that you’re practically frothing at the mouth to test your new magic out.”

“Got me there,” Noah admitted. “Will all be fine?”

“Lee will be with me,” Moxie said. “And I don’t think either Contessa or Bria are coming back any time soon. We’ll be fine.”

“Great,” Noah said with a grin. He rubbed his hands together and drew his flying sword, tossing it to the dirt. “I’ll see you all in a few hours. Don’t slack off, kids.”

“Have we ever slacked off?” Isabel asked.

“It’s a figure of speech, and it makes me sound cool,” Noah replied. He sent a pulse of magic into his sword and it bucked, launching off the ground and carrying him into the sky. Noah scanned the ground beneath him as he flew through the air, searching for some Bleaters to test his magic against.

There were likely some other monsters in the area as well, but he knew Bleaters pretty well and didn’t want to end up getting killed because he couldn’t work his new Rune properly yet.

Actually, for that matter, it would probably be smarter to test what I can do before I try to fight.

Noah landed on the top of a nearby hill, stumbling as he tripped over a large rock and catching himself before he fell on his face. Sending a glare back at his sword, Noah plodded over and returned it to its place on his belt.

The surrounding area was empty of monsters from what he could see, and it was far enough away from the camp that he was confident he wouldn’t cause the others any trouble if he started a fight.

Noah reached into his soul, drawing power from Natural Disaster. It felt… thicker than the magic from his Rank 2 Runes, for lack of a better word. He took a few moments to let his body get used to the magic.

Unlike all his previous Runes, Natural Disaster covered much more than just a single element or individual type of magic like water or ash. It was much closer to a concept.

Deciding to keep things simple, Noah went with a water angle. He reached into the air with his senses, trying to draw the water from it.

It came, but much slower than it had when he’d been using Trilling Monsoon. What normally would have taken him a second actually took nearly thirty. Noah’s brow furrowed.

Did I somehow get weaker with this combination?

He gathered the water he’d pulled from the air and pushed his intent into it. And, to his surprise, the Rune resisted. Instead of forming into a spinning drill of water like he’d imagined, Natural Disaster’s magic actually pushed back against him.

That didn’t stop the magic from flowing out of his body, though.

Noah’s eyes widened as he felt the Rune pull more energy than he’d originally planned to use. The sphere of water churning above Noah’s palm exploded outward, turning into a thick black cloud above his head.

The air around Noah crackled. His eyes widened and he flung himself to the side as a bolt of lightning crashed down from the cloud, slamming into the dirt where he’d been standing with a loud crack.

Noah spun toward the cloud, his eyes wide, as it dissipated. The lightning bolt hadn’t been massive, but it had more than enough energy to pack a serious punch. As the smoke rose up from the ground before Noah, a grin flickered across his face.

Got a bit of an attitude, huh? I can work with that. Let’s see just how far I can push this, though. If I can summon thunderclouds with that much energy – if I really pour all my magic into a spell, what can I do?

Noah pressed his palms together and drew deeply on Natural Disaster, reveling in the power that filled every part of his body.

Let’s find out.