Chương 31

Tests never measure what you think.

"What are you doing?" Adhira's voice chased him into the brush, but Harker didn't answer. He fished Miriam's notebook out of his pack and flipped through its pages, hunting for a specific section he'd seen. Ah. There it is. Parting the fronds of a stunted fern, he found what he'd spotted from the road. Herbalism isn't useless. I'll show you. A colony of mushrooms clung between two boulders, each one speckled with dew that hadn't a chance to evaporate beneath the undergrowth.

The pale blue caps were streaked with red lines, and a faint ooze clung to the gills beneath. Harker checked the notebook, just to be sure, before stowing it away. With careful cuts of his knife, he removed all five of the bell caps.

"Did you stop to collect mushrooms?" Adhira wrinkled her nose.

"They smell awful."

"They're called Varen's Collapse," he said.

"Smelly, yes, and poisonous to consume. More importantly, it's an ingredient to a very useful recipe."

"Recipe? Is this because I said—""Just watch." Harker set down on the flattest part of the trail, setting the bell caps to the side. From his pack, he removed a few other reagents that were listed in the notebook—simple herbals he'd had even before Miriam's shop. He laid them out, one by one, on a stump.

"We're already wasting daylight, Harker. How long will this be?"

"As long as it takes. This is worth our time." He looked up at her, meeting her silver eyes.

"Trust me" She bit her lip, glancing up at the mountain ahead of them.

"Okay, what can I do to help?"

"You can watch." He set about cutting up his reagents, dicing the stems and shredding the leaves into four discrete piles. The caps he left alone. He took out the thaumic cauldron. The infused bowl wasn't large, but it didn't need to be. Harker guided a flow of Water out of his palm, filling the bottom quarter of the cauldron before mixing in his chopped reagents. With a press of a finger, he turned the cauldron to heat, and in less than a minute the Water was boiling merrily.

"What of the mushrooms?" Adhira asked. She watched avidly from six feet away, craning her neck to see what he was doing. In response, Harker picked up the first cap and set it into the boiling Water. Almost instantly, the mushroom dissolved into swirls of blue and crimson.

"Fascinating…" Harker smirked, quickly adding the other four bell caps into the mixture before stirring it with his knife. Normally, producing a reduction would take him hours of slow heating and mixing. The cauldron, however, turned that to minutes. Beneath the agitation of his knife, the mixture thickened as the Water boiled away. Fifteen minutes passed and all that remained was a thickened crust at the bottom of the bowl.

Harker switched off the cauldron and, using his knife, scraped away the detritus at the bottom. It flaked off easily, all save two hardened chunks at the center. Those he pried up gently with the tip of his knife. The notebook mentioned they were fragile and as some of the material cracked, Harker could see why. Two red stones lifted free of the reduction, rough and irregular shaped, and didn't quite look like stones at all.

They were porous, as if something had burrowed through it in every possible direction, but they were quite heavy. He gripped them loosely in his palm, already able to smell their faint aroma. It had a touch of the Varen's Collapse in addition to hints of citrus, musk, and a faint sweetness. Grinning, he fetched some leather straps and fashioned them into a pair of nets, wrapping the stones up into something of an amulet. He handed one to Adhira.

"Here, wear this." She wrinkled her nose.

"Why? What does it do?"

"It's called a scourge stone." Harker put his own over his neck, tucking the porous stone into his sweater.

"If you soak it in Water, they'll create a foul smoke that'll drive off Aberrants."

"This is the same thing you used on the den!" Adhira inspected the rock, peering closer at its red depths.

"All these holes…"

"A consequence of impurities boiling away from within." At least, that's what the notebook claims. Harker had other theories, namely that the undried rynwart created an inward pressure that formed air pockets during the reduction. He'd have to experiment more to see if that was true.

"What remains creates an ideal repellant for the weaker Aberrants. Wave-Warped or less."

"And you want me to put it around my neck?"

"At most it has a little smell. That's a small price to pay to avoid an Aberrant swarm." They had been lucky to face only small groupings of Aberrants, but swarms were far more likely at the weaker end of the Sea's mutation. Insects were especially worrisome and hard to handle. Adhira seemed to come to the same conclusion, because she reluctantly put the amulet around her neck.

"When I need to use this, I just soak it and toss it down?"

"Precisely. It dissolves within an hour of contact with Water, and you don't want that smoke in your lungs. So just…be careful."

"I see." She tucked the stone amlet away beneath her cloak.

"You were right. Herbalism is quite interesting." Adhira turned and started marching up the mountain. Harker could only watch her leave, unsure of the expression he saw fight across her face. She was upset. Why? He looked down at his own scourge stone. It would help them avoid all manner of issues.

"Human women," Stillwater said with a grunt.

"Am I right?" Harker rolled his eyes before packing his bags and following after. Harker spent several long minutes analyzing what had gone wrong, but gained little ground. He'd provided something of value and proven herbalism wasn't useless. As a result she'd… thanked him angrily. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Something was off. Stillwater wasn't any help. Not unless Harker counted cryptic adages about Gilken courtship.

If so, the Eidhrin was a fount of wisdom and sense.

"She is clearly displeased that you did not provide a dervlin mussel. Secure one from the nearest streamlet and she'll be putty in your hands."

"Putty—? Stillwater, she's a human."

"Do human women not like the taste of mussels?" Stillwater made a glottal click.

"Her loss." The Eidhrin knew nothing of humans. There was no courtship here. Adhira was using him and he was using her. He'd run foul of some plan of hers, and he'd sound it out in due time. Whatever her issues, she wasnt antagonistic. She'd taken the scourge stone, after all. He'd helped her, and already Harker could feel the Bargain between them tighten like a drawn string. Law 2—Trust Others To Act In Their Own Best Interest. It was one of the most essential of his Laws.

People would always act to preserve themselves, and if keeping Harker alive became part of that same self-interest, then he might manage to wheedle some bit of her Current. If he had any hope of building his own foundation, that is where he needed to start. Building trust had been his goal, but it was being stymied. It was clear that she wouldn't help the competition, not for free at least.

He hadn't the coin to afford her knowledge, and trying to get her into her good graces by making a useful item like a scourge stone was clearly not viable. No. He had to figure this out on his own. Between steps, a thought reared out of the Depths. It struck him and his step nearly fouled on the rocks before he gave an annoyed huff. In all the waiting, the chaos of battle, and the thrill of treasure hunting it had slipped his mind. The Chartermark. He lifted his left arm. The Ordeals.

They were still there, hidden just below the surface. Harker pulsed his Talent across his own flesh and the details lifted on hidden tides. Ordeals In Progress… Nine golden points—lines that had been folded into gleaming stars—swam before his senses, each one as bold as the last. Names flourished within him, meaning following on swift wings.

The Ordeal Of Maelstrom's Passage The Ordeal Of Blackwake's Descent The Ordeal Of Breaking Reef The Ordeal Of Tidal Climb The Ordeal Of Deep Lantern The Ordeal Of Drowning Sky The Ordeal Of Mist And Foam The Ordeal Of Siren's Undertow The Ordeal Of Abyssal Plunge Nine Ordeals. This must be the full set of trials set before would-be Aspirants. Harker frowned. Why are they buried in the Chartermark? What's the connection? No matter how much he concentrated on the names of each Ordeal, their meaning would not appear.

He could make guesses though. Everyone knew that the Nine Spires Academy tested for power, resilience, and patience. All three were necessary to navigate the Depths of the Infinite Sea. But what else? And which Ordeal was which? Beneath the names, just as before, were those transparent windows. Shaped like sheets of rectangular glass framed in gold, there was one for every Ordeal. Most of them were empty, but some were partially filled, as if someone had poured solid gold into the frame. In fact…

Harker's eyes widened. He recalled the first time he'd spied this momentous secret near the Charterstone in Creston. He'd seen the strange rectangles then, and their shapes were burned indelibly into his memory. The Ordeal of Mist and Foam… and the Ordeal of Drowning Sky… Harker swallowed. Both rectangles are more full than before. Meaning followed recognition like flame after a spark, and suddenly Harker knew what they were called. Progress bars. They measured how close he was to finishing each Ordeal.

Already he showed noticeable progress on Mist and Foam, Tidal Climb, Breaking Reef, and Drowning Sky. Each stood at perhaps 8% complete. Siren's Undertow and Abyssal Plunge however, were closer to 2% or 3% while Maelstrom's Passage, Blackwake's Descent, and Deep Lantern didn't have even a sliver of gold. If the Ordeals are in progress, then that means that everything since taking the Chartermark has been a test. Stillwater had said the Charterstones had an ancient Stature that he couldn't discern.

Could the Chartermark track his actions? Could it see everything he did? If so he was in worse trouble than he realized… but Harker doubted it. Such a power would be impossible—viewing events across the whole of the world? Not even the Ancestors could manage that. No. The Chartermark must be tracking my progress through each Ordeal and assigning my efforts some sort of percentage gain. That alone was hard to fathom, but he couldn't argue with what he'd found buried in the mark. What happens when they reach 100%?

"Night is coming on swiftly." Harker started, his awareness snapping back to himself in a rush. Adhira was close by, staring up at the dimming sky.

"So soon?" She raised an eyebrow.

"We have been hiking for hours."

"Ah," Harker glanced back down the path. He couldn't recall walking it.

"Of course."

"Let's make camp. I saw a space about five hundred feet back." Adhira led the way back to a flat section of ground and immediately started preparing a fire.

"I can start the fire if you think you can catch something good to eat." Harker touched his knives. He could catch all manner of beasts, but he had his rations. Hunting or even setting snares was time not spent on training…or figuring out how his Chartermark truly worked.

"No need." He pulled his dried fruit and meat from his pack.

"I have enough to share." Her nose wrinkled, accentuated by the dirt that had been smeared across one cheek.

"I—thank you, but no. I've had enough trail rations to last a lifetime." From her bag, she produced a large iron skillet, which she set on stacks of wood. She lit the fire, and into the skillet went a number of vegetables and even a thick cut of mutton.

"Where'd all that come from?" Harker asked between dry bites.

"Creston. The market had quite a bit available, so I snagged up a few pieces." She adjusted the pan, letting the vegetables stew.

"None of it will store well, so I figured I could enjoy at least one meal on the road." The smell of it was enough to mark Harker drool, but not enough to distract him. He sidled closer, sitting down on a rock only a few inches away from the girl. Close enough to feel her body heat in the rapidly cooling night. His heartrate spiked again, the tension thrumming through him. With her distracted by dinner, this was his chance to peer at a proper Current.

"Sovereign Sight," he whispered, and clenched. His Talent wobbled for only an instant before it narrowed and speared across the short distance. Directly into Adhira's back. It rebounded. Harker tried again, and this time his Talent didn't even get thrown back. It merely met a wall and was halted. Something inside Adhira was protecting her from his gaze. Of course she's protected. Harker wanted to scrub his face with the heels of his hands, but Adhira was watching from the corner of her eye. What else can I do?

The fire guttered, and suddenly its flames turned a vivid blue-green. Harker leapt to his feet, knives in hand—while Adhira groaned. Reflections danced across their campsite, like sunlight refracted across the depths of a lake.

"Hold out your arm," she said.

"What?" Adhira's vambrace fell off her forearm with a thud. She lifted her right arm, bearing her Chartermark.

"Like this." Harker hesitated for a moment, before hauling back his sweater. Gold met his gaze, gleaming and brighter than ever in the dark. No sooner did he reveal it, however, that the lines blazed all the brighter. Lines cut outward from their forearms, each one a mess of intersecting points. They blurred, silver and gold coalescing into a tall shape. A figure, draped in a cloak and hood, standing between the two of them.

"Greetings–" Harker threw his knife at their throat.