Chapter 122: Pieces

Toren Daen

I left the cafe feeling a warmth in my stomach and a chill in my heart. I'd worked out a time and date for my appearance in the newly built Crimson Pool Theater in central Aensgar with Renea, going over merchandising and plans for the event. After all, she still needed to make some kind of profit.

I looked up at the sky as I left. It was still cloudy, and the stones under my feet were still wet from the storm. A nearby canal was rushing at a faster pace than usual as the system naturally flushed the excess water down its length. Whenever storms hit, the canals became far more dangerous.

Sevren, who had been leaning on the doorway to the cafe, slowly walked beside me. I didn't say anything, still thinking about the way Renea had shifted me into place in Aensgar. How much did Lady Shorn know of Mardeth? And how planned was my little show in Vechor's central city?

We walked in silence. I didn't know where I was going, exactly. I strolled aimlessly along the canals, watching the waters churn and rush.

As I meandered toward the more business-oriented area of North Fiachra, I spotted a flat pane of pure mana projected in front of a storefront. A short, repeating few seconds of video played on it. As I neared it, I felt the artifact pushing words into my mind.

"A revolutionary display!" It said in an announcer's tone. "Music through magic: Is Toren Daen Fiachra's next rising star?"

The little pane of mana showed the aftermath of my concert not a few hours ago. I was holding my violin and bow to the side as water streamed off of me, my arms raised to the sky in offering. My burning pupils focused on the clouds instead of whoever had captured the video.

It seemed Renea Shorn worked even faster than I anticipated. I hadn't even registered that someone had been recording my performance, but it made sense.

I stared at it for a while, Sevren Denoir by my side. "She works fast," I said, crossing my arms.

Sevren turned to me, giving me a pointed frown. "You were a lot more… familiar with Renea Shorn than the last time we met. Of all the people you could have chosen, why her?"

He said it in good humor, but I caught the undercurrent of irritation that lurked beneath. Before I could respond, however, my bond spoke through her puppet. "He neglected to inform me of that aspect of their relationship as well," she said. And I could not parse her emotion over our bond. "Indeed, he could have focused on any other woman."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead with my hands. Something about Renea Shorn had deeply rattled my bond, yet I did not understand what.

I thought over my interactions with the dark-haired woman. Flashes of her floral perfume and deep, red lips were at the forefront of my memories. Her predatory smile as she sipped her tea.

It was true that I'd found many women attractive in Alacrya. Magic had a habit of accentuating the physical aspects of the body favorably, something that was easy to see here. Yet I'd never made an effort to pursue anything romantic–or anything more shallow than that, either–with any person in this world.

I was able to pinpoint when our interactions shifted with relative ease. After our confrontation in the depths of Trelza's clinic, something had changed between us. I'd found myself attracted to her care for even the lowest of people. I remembered how she'd marched up to me as I accused her of indifference, her passion leaking through her cloaking artifact. So that I could taste its surety.

How many other people truly recognize the value of even the smallest life? I thought, remembering how my hand interlocked with little Kori's. The blithe-tortured girl's soulful eyes branded themselves into my memory. How many others would be willing to try and save one small girl?

Afterward, we'd settled into a strange sort of playful dance. A back and forth that crested when we met in her headquarters in Aedelgard. But her willingness to still shift me like a striker on the Sovereign's Quarrel board…

"I don't think I should be justifying my taste in women to either of you," I said with a note of irritation. "It's perfectly understandable from my perspective."

Sevren huffed out, but Aurora's puppet form shivered in agitation.

"If you're so content with your taste in women," Sevren said, "What's got you so ruffled?"

I tapped a finger on my arm, staring at that mirror image of myself in the recording artifact. My eyes were glazed over, looking to the sky with an expression of near-emptiness. The renewed sigil of Named Blood Daen stood out prominently on my chest.

"After we parted in the Relictombs, there was a lead I needed to track down." I looked at Sevren from the side of my eyes. "You know my ongoing quarrel with the Vicar of Plague? He's gone now. But he won't be forever. So I've been tracing his path of experimentation and destruction." I tilted my head, attuning myself to the surrounding heartfires. "But I'm not going to say anything where I'll be heard."

I looked up to the nearby rooftops. There weren't many people out in the aftermath of the storm, but I could certainly feel the mages spying on me. There were far more than ever before. I looked toward where I sensed them one by one, covertly flaring my killing intent. I'd grown skilled enough to direct it in sparse, segmented sections. And that made the terror every spy felt far more personal.

They scattered like locusts fleeing a field; little blurs jumping through the muggy air. I still felt tired.

You defaulted on killing intent again, a part of myself chastised. How long until that's all you do to get what you want?

It was just so easy to use that tool at my disposal. I found myself yearning for Renea's experience in speaking. She'd been able to force Mardeth out of his powerbase with only words. No mana involved.

Sevren watched all of this with the same tiredness I felt. He was no stranger to being followed himself, I knew.

"Lady Shorn set up my next show in Aensgar," I said. "In a mid-sized theater in their middle-class district. The owner just finished its construction and owes her a favor. So I'm going to be the opening act."

It didn't take long for Sevren to put two and two together. "And that's where you need to go to reach Mardeth," he said quietly.

"Not exactly," I said truthfully. "But it's where I need to start. And I had no good reason to refuse."

"And Renea Shorn hates Mardeth as well, doesn't she?" Sevren asked, his face darkening.

"She does."

Sevren turned around, then kicked a rock with enough force to send it flying into the sky. His mana churned under the surface. 

"That's what it's always like, Toren," he said bitterly. "That's all they'll do. Manipulate and move you around the board. That's all they know. And all they'll ever know."

I felt surprised by Sevren's outburst. I was unnerved by the subtle manipulation Renea had performed, but the Denoir heir… he was angry.

"And now you're going to be at the center. They're all going to try and move you around like a pawn. Like one of their little toys. I've already drawn too much attention to you by being seen with you constantly."

I exhaled through my nose. "I've been expecting that," I said quietly. "With my plans for the future, clashes with the uppermost echelons of this continent are inevitable. And I have some people by my side who see me as more than just a piece."

Sevren's shoulders slumped. "You won't change them, Toren. Even if you try."

The bitterness in his voice cut deep. I saw the truth of it there. Some part of the Denoir heir had already given up. I opened my mouth to reply, but someone in the nearby shadows pulsed with sudden energy. I turned, spotting Karsien's mist-wrapped form.

Sevren hadn't sensed the intrusion, but a tap on his shoulder got his attention to turn. Karsien maintained severe eye contact with me for a long moment. We need to talk, those eyes said. Now. Without a word, Karsien darted up the roof. I looked back at the Denoir heir.

He nodded. "Go," he said, looking toward the Fiachran Ascender's Association. "I'll wait for you at the Ascender's Association. We can talk more then."

I sighed. "I made you a promise regarding aether," I said quietly, preparing to leave. "I will fulfill that."

Sevren's teal eyes were misty. "That's what sets you apart from every highblood out there, even if you play at their politics. You mean what you say."

I swallowed, feeling somewhat uncomfortable in the face of the empty way he said it. Then I suppressed my mana signature and darted after the Rat.

—

I blurred out a window at high speeds, squinting my eyes against the wind buffeting my face. As I launched into the street, I thrust my arm out to the side, engaging my telekinetic emblem. The window frame I'd come from flashed white as I held onto it mentally.

I lurched sideways, the centrifugal force of my psychokinetic tether sending me down the street like a pursuing shadow. The plaster-like frame of the window crumbled from the force, splintering as I finally released it. My eyes were locked on a single target: a man garbed in mist that weaved through the area like a serpent.

Karsien knew the streets better than I did. I was faster than him; more maneuverable with my telekinetic pushes and pulls. But he was less than a shadow as he darted across rooftops, through alleyways, and shifted through abandoned buildings like an eel wriggling through a tight gap.

I grit my teeth, then slammed a push into the ground beneath me. The poor excuse for concrete cracked as I zipped toward Karsien's form.

The Rat weaved into an abandoned building, pulling the door shut behind him with a crash.

I worked my jaw. At the speed I was going, slamming into that building–which already looked so decrepit–wouldn't do anything good for the internal structure. And from a brief hint of the heartfires around me, I knew people squatted inside.

Making a split-second decision, I pushed off the ground with a mindfire stamp. The combination of explosive fire and propelling telekinesis changed my trajectory from a horizontal dive to a near-vertical spurt. I surged upward, cresting the roof in moments. I skidded to a halt on the top of the building, dust and dirt flying as I came to a stop.

I focused on my heartfire senses once more. Karsien's mana was indistinct and hellishly difficult to detect, and while his lifeforce was a bit murky as well, it was far easier to pinpoint.

My head snapped to the side as I sensed him leaving the building, taking a hard right turn to once again zip through the alleys. Dusk was here, and though my vision was enhanced by mana, I could just barely make out his trail of mist as it moved.

You want this chase to continue? I thought with a hint of adrenaline, Then you're on.

I jumped off the roof, using a telekinetic pull on two adjacent buildings to send me flying over the streets like a slingshot. Aurora's clockwork puppet circled overhead, and her thoughts had returned to normal since I'd begun this game of cat and mouse. 

A blast of fire exited my feet as I used the force to reorient slightly, my eyes focused on the fleeing Karsien.

The people of East Fiachra stared upward in wonder as I darted over them. Where before they might have shied away in fear, my face had long become recognizable. The patrolling mages of Bloodstone Elixirs, however, cried out in shock as I blitzed past them.

East Fiachra was looking better. It seemed I thought that every time I came through here, but it was true. In the time since Mardeth's expulsion, people had slowly begun to return to their daily lives. And for once, I thought I sensed something in the populace beyond mute acceptance of their circumstances.

Anger.

These thoughts came and went in a flash as the street blurred beneath me. Mana thrummed in my channels as I neared Karsien's fleeing form. I felt myself smile as I raised a hand, just about to tag his back.

My instincts flared at me as something erupted from his trailing cloak. A misty, nondescript humanoid form was suddenly face to face with me, a shadowed knife lurching toward my throat.

I hastily pulled on the ground beneath me as the mist clone swung. My back bent at an impressive angle as I avoided the attack, then used the momentum to deliver a devastating sound-shrouded roundhouse kick to its side.

My attack carved right through Karsien's summon, a trailing fog following the path of my attack. The vibrating particles of mana I leveraged made the clone disperse in a puff.

But in the brief time my vision had been clouded by that clone, the Rat had escaped my senses. I ground my teeth as I stood in the middle of the street, my quarry nowhere to be seen or sensed.

Aurora, I thought, What do you see?

Look for yourself, my bond said over our thoughts. The tethers of lifeforce that suture me to this puppet are available to you as well.

At her permission, I reached a hand out to the side. Those vibrating strings of heartfire–my heartfire, but somehow not–anchored my bond's soul to the clockwork raven overhead. And as I grasped those tethers…

At first, the images came in nauseating flashes. One moment I was looking at the ground, and then I was soaring in the sky. Then I was on the ground again, my mind struggling to process the back and forth.

I shuddered, then called my own lifeforce into my hands. The orange-purple light helped give me more control of what I saw as the vision stabilized.

Aurora's puppet, which had been soaring overhead, suddenly became open to me. I looked through burning eyes at the wide swaths of Fiachra below, the wind whistling between my brass feathers.

And few hunters could match the senses of a bird of prey. The puppet's eyes tracked over the streets, the vision bearing pinpoint precision beyond anything I could manage. Even from several hundred feet in the air, I could make out the smallest of pebbles on the streets below. And if I focused…

There! I thought, catching a note of mist. Karsien had turned northward, heading toward…

Toward the old Doctrination temple.

I released my hold on Aurora's tether, my hands tingling from where my heartfire had surged. The orange-purple light faded from my fingers.

Thank you, I thought to my bond. Then I was off again, heading directly toward the temple.

It didn't take me long to reach it. In fact, I was already waiting on the roof when Karsien's misty form trailed up the side.

"You're slow, Karsien," I said while smirking, the setting sun casting a deep, purplish-pink color through the retreating storm clouds overhead. "I made it here first."

The mist surrounding the Rat dissipated slightly, revealing him in his masquerade mask and bandana. My smile slowly faded as I locked eyes with my second mentor in this new world.

"Do you know what you've brought to these people, Toren?" Karsien asked, gesturing to the town around us. "With what you did today?"

The Doctrination temple was the tallest building for a mile around. It constantly tried to justify its own existence with its grand windows and arching columns. But it also provided a perfect place to look down on everything–and everyone–nearby.

"I've started something good," I said honestly. "You've seen what my music can do. If people can start to understand each other, then there's an opportunity for growth. For improvement."

Karsien walked to the side, looking down at the ground below. "That's what you think, Toren?"

A long, unsettling silence stilled the air. My adrenaline, which had finally started to fade in the aftermath of this chase, began to course through my veins once more.

The man turned back to me. His mask, which depicted the long snout of a Rat, seemed more menacing in the low light, like something out of a horror film.

"First, Mardeth followed you here," the Rat said, slowly loping toward me. At the mention of that man, my hands clenched. But I stayed silent. "Then he brutalized the innocent people. And in the aftermath, you brought Renea Shorn to our doorsteps. Now her mages patrol these streets. They keep law and order, yes. But you would be a fool to think they have no other orders."

I opened my mouth to reply, but Karsien's tone pitched low and menacing. "And now mages are sent here every day as word of your exploits and relationships spreads abroad. Bloods of all shapes and sizes want to know the origins of Toren Daen. And so they infiltrate this place; harassing unadorned and enforcing their own will. Until we make them stop."

My mouth clicked shut.

"Are you really doing this for the people of East Fiachra," Karsien asked, "Or just to assuage your own guilt for all the suffering you've brought?"

My lips curled up into a sneer. "That's an interesting thing for you to ask, Karsien," I said, trying to keep my anger under control. "Considering your entire vendetta against Blood Joan. How many times did you draw the attention of the higher-ups in the area toward this place because of your reckless robberies?"

Something flashed in Karsien's hand, steel glinting against the last glimmers of light. Mist poured out from under his cloak, the lilting fog kissing the stones underneath our feet as it spread. But I could immediately tell something was wrong.

Karsien's mist had always distorted my senses. Even as I improved in skill, I'd struggled to pinpoint his mana signature, and to a degree, his heartfire as well. But as this mist slowly coated everything on this rooftop, my senses weren't just dampened. As the fog enveloped me, everything became a confused blur. My heart hammered in my chest as I tried to understand what was up and what was down.

I spun on my heels, revving up my telekinetic shroud, just in time as something sharp blurred straight toward my throat.