221 (II)

Academia [I]

Shiv’s eyes widened. “Then we can dump it across into the Tutorial. That’s a pretty good idea. That’ll relieve Lone Star by jacking up the orcs and also help them scratch their itch, and also deal with the Tarrasque problem for a while if we can’t easily put it down.”

And then that looped back around to one of Shiv’s requests earlier as well. He wanted a means to engage his enemies without causing too much collateral damage. If he could drag his adversaries over into the endless wasteland dimension that was the Challenger’s realm, then that would solve a great many of his problems.

“Okay, okay, I think we can really work with this,” Shiv said. “It’s not all bad.”

A low grumble sounded from Cripple, and its incandescence began to recede. “I am being called. Councilwoman Chandler has summoned me. We are due to convene regarding the prison breakout and the matter of the missing Deathless along with his maker.”

A beep sounded from Radio, and Shiv offered a grunt of displeasure. “Any chance you can tell Veronica she’s a felling moron?”

“I will tell you what comes of this meeting, but in the meantime, please, I beg of you, try to be more subtle. It is already extremely straining, hiding your presence within the academy, and if any of your conflicts become even more overt…”

“Yeah, I know,” Shiv said, “which is another reason why we want this thing to start working, because if everything goes south, we’re going to need somewhere to flee. It’s also a good place to funnel any other escapees from the Rubix Well, if we catch them. We can move them across the Tutorial and into the Gate Piety if we judge them to be reasonable enough. The ones who want to stay can, and the ones who are going to be a problem…” Shiv looked at Adam, making a strangling gesture.

The Gate Lord grimaced, but he didn’t argue the point. They would follow the same procedure with whoever they encountered as with Divider, the Jump Mage automaton, and Breeze, the half-harpy that had been with Andra and Urri.

The two Heroic Pathbearers were currently contained in a makeshift cell and being monitored by Five, Kura, and the rest of the ex-prisoners in Shiv’s group. They would remain in there until Adam got their full measure, and then either be allowed to leave the cell and sit around in the colloseum with the others or be dealt with. Currently, they were playing board games with Candles that the Pyromancer had dug up from some crate in the storage area. Shiv had a pretty good feeling about the two, besides the fact that Breeze was blatantly cheating in every game and that Divider wasn’t snitching on her, but he wouldn’t be executing anyone for being a bad sport.

“Alright,” Adam finally said, “I suppose that will be that for now.” He looked down at his feet for a moment and finally sighed. “For whatever it’s worth, Cripple, I thank you for informing us.”

The Ascendant’s form dimmed. “It is, I suppose, the least I can do. Be mindful of who you deal with. I may be decaying, but there is more than one kind of decay. Those who deal with the underhanded, the fell, and the criminal have been corrupted in more… mortal ways…”

And with that, Cripple vanished back into Radio.

The small automaton bounced on the ground and shook its head. “I hate it when it does that. I hate it.” It patted itself down and briefly puffed up its impish body. “Can’t believe I agreed to this nonsense, and you,” it spun on Shiv, “you know how terrible your cape dimension is? There’s nothing but orcs in there most of the time. You ever been inside a cape filled with a bunch of orcs?”

“Friend, I’m surrounded by orcs,” Shiv said. “I know how they are.”

“Yeah? Well, not everyone’s built like you. You’re practically a baby orc yourself. I can’t fight them off, and you tell that big guy to stay away from me. He tried to plug his spark ignition into my charging socket. It’s demeaning, not to mention violating. Also, there’s nothing to do in there! I’m just sitting around waiting for you to get things done so I can finally come out.”

The small automaton’s wiry fingers were curled, but slowly it lost its luster for arguing. “If you can find like… a tabletop game or like some cards, just hand them over to me. Like, give me something to pass the time. I thought I was going to get some spicy drama about that kid you’re pretending to be, but it just turned out to be another fucked-up horror show. I don’t want to hear none of that shit. I want something cool. Being a Pathbearer is supposed to be cool, felling hells.”

Merrielmel cleared his throat. “We do have several board games that the Pyromancy fellow dug up earlier, including Aeromancer’s Tower, Gates and Raiders, and Don’t Impregnate the Succubi.”

“What?” Shiv said, surprised by the final offering.

“Oh, that sounds interesting.” Radio poked its head out from behind Shiv. “Never played the Succubi one before. How’s that work?”

Merrielmel chuckled, scratching at his smooth chin. “Well, it—it’s more of a concept art book than a board game, though there are rules…”

“Just give him the Gates and Raiders thing,” Concelhaunt growled. “It’s the size of a small table, and it’s gonna take them a week to read through the rules. Also, what the fuck?” he suddenly shouted at Shiv and Adam. “Was that Cripple the Strongest? You had an Avatar of the Auroral Council hiding in your cape this entire time?”

“Yeah,” Shiv sneered. “Pretty nifty, huh?”

“No, not fucking nifty. What’s the point of the secrecy and cloak-and-dagger shit if one of the Ascendants knows that we’re here? What are you, some kind of super-asset? A special rat?”

“Nope,” Shiv replied. “It’s more like there’s a conspiracy happening within the Auroral Council, and we’re part of it.”

Concelhaunt’s jaw dropped wide open. “A conspiracy in the Council? So, what, we can expect one of the Ascendants to keep a secret from the others?”

“Cripple’s already keeping several ugly secrets,” Shiv said, “mainly me and Adam, along with all the other escapees with us. You are probably among the least of its concerns. But after this is over,” Shiv shrugged, “I don’t know, it might come after you. Who knows?”

“If you’re trying to fill me up with fucking confidence, you’re spilling the juice all over my chest instead of down my throat.” The goblin looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“Don’t see the point in bullshitting you,” Shiv said. “Look. If things do go wrong, we’ll let you stick around in Gate Piety. You fine with that, Adam?”

The Gate Lord frowned at nothing in particular. “We are already accommodating murderers, clinically insane Pathbearers, and even orcs. I don’t think I have the hypocrisy in me to damn two questionable professors to their fates.”

That didn’t seem to reassure Concelhaunt much. Still, the goblin refrained from complaining overmuch as he understood his situation. Merrielmel, contrarily, looked more agitated than ever. “B-but with the orcs and the Ascendants and all that has happened, what—what if we-we-we…”

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“Merrielmel, Merriel! Calm.” Concelhaunt held out a hand. “Just breathe. Breathe.”

The elven Enchanter started breathing a bit too hard. Shiv studied him.

Psycho-Cartography: He’s worried that he will never get to save his brother. There are too many uncertain variables. He is on the verge of a mental break. The only way to get him to stabilize is to give him some semblance of control back. He needs something to convince him that his project won’t just be severed halfway.

“Merrielmel,” Shiv said. Both crafters looked at him. Merrielmel’s eyes were wide with worry while Concelhaunt glared with distrust. “I want you to get this done just as much as you do. Your brother is missing? Well, I have someone I care about trapped in the Outside as well. I’m not letting the Ascendants, orcs, or anyone get in the way of this. Same with Adam. We need this to work. We’re in the same boat.”

The elven Enchanter swallowed but nodded vigorously. “I—We will begin calibrations soon. It will take some time to fully stabilize the diffusion mechanisms, but once it does, we-we-we—”

Shiv held out a hand. “I got it. We’re rushing because we have no guarantee when the next crisis or bullshit problem will come our way. We’ll do what we can, but understand that after you get this slipgate working, a whole bunch of people are probably going to make a grab for it.”

“I—I just want to—” Merrielmel was about to start hyperventilating again before Shiv intervened.

“I know,” the Deathless said. “And I’m sorry. But this thing you have is too valuable to too many people. And that’s why you really need to gather your stuff and get ready to move once this is done. I don’t know what the Neath’s endgame is here, but if they get their hands on you and your slipgate, I don’t think they’re going to be that willing to let you go again.”

“But… why?” Merrielmel asked.

“Competition,” Concelhaunt said, understanding. “We’re giving them a way to choke the market. Any market. That’s ignoring whatever felling goldmine they might find in the Outside.” The goblin Smith sighed. “You know, before, I was considering going to the headmaster and just telling him about everything once we were finished with this mess. Yeah, might cost us our positions, but—”

“It will likely just see you two pressed into making more slipgates for the Ascendants or the Inquisition instead,” Adam said. “It’s valuable. Too valuable.” He sighed. “If only that value could be shared with the people instead of being fought over by a pack of criminals, monsters, and unworthy gods.”

“And us, Adam,” Shiv said, grinning. “We’re here too.”

“Barely better at this point,” Adam muttered, sounding stressed. “Half of us are monsters, a few are bloodthirsty criminals, and then there’s you and me.”

“But still better,” Shiv insisted. “So, might as well be us that hold the slipgate, right?”

Adam nodded. He regarded the chamber around him and sighed. “We’ll have a way of slipping past the Ascendants soon, so that’s something. I just hope my gate’s still there by the time we reach it. You think Null Mont’s made a move to claim it in the name of the Composer yet?”

“She might’ve,” Shiv said, frowning. “But she’s pretty terrified of us, and Still Water should still be there too. She probably kept her from doing anything too stupid.”

“One can only hope,” Adam breathed. “We’re going to need to build a checkpoint here as well. A dimensional bunker right outside the Slipgate chamber.”

“For the orcs?” Shiv asked.

“Among other things,” Adam said. “We’re going to be facing the Outsiders again. If one of them manages to slip over, that might be even worse than an orc invasion. Imagine a Recollector dropping in on campus grounds.”

Shiv cringed. He tried not to imagine just how many kids might end up dead or worse in that situation before he or Adam managed to intervene. “Good idea. Should get started on that while the crafters and Can Hu focus on finishing the Slipgate. Okay. So, with the situation here somewhat figured out, we should do a debrief and get our other chores done. Helix is going to get on my ass about my Biomancy, and we need to get some evidence from Irons too. What else do we have to worry about?”

“Have you selected your classes yet?” Adam asked.

“Selected—uh, no. Shit. How does that work?”

“It’s simple.” Adam pointed to Shiv’s pin. “You focus on that, and when the interface is pulled up, you think about classes, and you’ll get a whole list of options.”

Shiv did just that, and a massive, sprawling tree of potential class options materialized at the top of his vision. At the bottom, a weekly schedule appeared. One class had already been assigned to him. It was the Tac-Strat class that Irons recruited him into. Currently, it occupied the early morning of his weekends on Solsday and Restday. A strange time for that course, but Shiv supposed Pathbearers who didn’t need much sleep and had the resources to attend the most prolific academy of the country would have stranger schedules than most.

That left much of his week open, and with how many choices he had—

Shiv noticed a blinking sprawl of text at the bottom of his vision just then. “Student has not… selected Gen-101. Gen-101 placement is required. Gen-101?”

“Oh, Gen-Ed,” Adam said with a wince. “Right. You need to take that so the academy can gauge where you need the most remedial education. The learning standards, unfortunately, vary a lot across the Republic, and so most first years have to take intensive classes that catch them up to speed with the rest of their peers. It makes some people’s first year quite hectic.”

“Let me guess, though: You didn’t need to take any remedial classes.”

Adam held his head high and placed his hands on his hips. “There wasn’t a point. I had no academic, social, or martial weaknesses. You, on the other hand… Oh, shit. What are we going to do with you?”

“What do you mean?” Shiv said. “I’ll just take Gen-101 and figure things out.”

The Gate Lord licked his lips, appearing to be searching for some measure of tact to convey what he wanted to say. “Shiv… how good were you at schoolwork? Actually, what do you remember of your schoolwork?”

“Not much. Stopped my formal learning after the matrons were finished with me. But I hung around the library quite a bit, and Georges made me read and do some accounting. I got basic math down, and I can write.”

“Barely,” Adam muttered.

“Hey, eat shit. Not all of us can have a chain of tutors—”

“It’s not an insult, Shiv,” Adam replied. “But it is a problem. Marcus got in on the Wild Card Program. Those can be rescinded if the student does not perform up to standard. And considering Marcus is not a martial Pathbearer, you’re going to need to perform well academically… And that might be a bit difficult without some… assistance.”

“What kind of assistance?”

“Well, you’re probably going to be taking Helix with you in your cape, right?” Adam asked.

Shiv sneered. “I don’t think he’s going to take no for an answer.”

“Well, I suspect you’re going to need his help for more than just Biomancy. I don’t usually condone cheating, but if you botch Gen-101’s basic coursework, you’re going to be examined for brain damage first, and then up for probation after. We can’t have that.”

“You want my orcs to do my math and language schoolwork for me?” Shiv asked, slightly offended.

“I simply ask that you ask them in case you run into anything you don’t know,” Adam said placatingly. It was a funny way of saying “cheat”, in Shiv’s opinion. The Gate Lord pushed through his discomfort and continued. “Have you thought of what else you wish to learn?”

Shiv’s first instinct was to go for a cooking-related class, but then he reminded himself that Marcus didn’t have any skills for that. Despite this, Shiv was still interested in seeing how developed the capital’s culinary arts were. Even if he couldn’t study cooking in the open, he was going to refine and improve himself in the shadows.

That left Marcus’s main skills. Surgery. Practical Metabiology. Skills related to Biomancy; things that would help Shiv’s development as a Biomancer.

Finally, a chance to actually learn some felling magical theory, Shiv thought. The idea of not needing to brute-force everything was—His heart almost skipped a beat. Don’t fuck me over now, System. Not when I’m this close.

“You know anything about medical or Biomancy courses?” Shiv asked, scrolling through the vast array of choices. “Because I’m thinking about filling my time up with that.”

And it was like a lightning bolt had struck Adam. “I do, in fact. Medic-301. You need that. You’ll love that. And it’ll let you do a little good for the people of the capital as well.”

Shiv liked the sound of that. “What’s it about?’

“Oh, it’s just the most hands-on medical experience you can have,” Adam said, “because the students who pick that course get slotted into the Phoenix Academy medical apprenticeship program. Residency, I think they called it. Start with that.”

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