Chương 33

Secrets creep through muscle and bone, until every twitch is a hidden truth. Without another word, the Watery apparition popped. It fell to the ground but evaporated before it could touch the dirt, and from its matrix came lines of silver and golden light. They zipped back, faster than thought, glowing against Adhira's and Harker's arms at the same time the fireplace regained its ruddy hue. Harker stared at where Magister Sivak once stood. The Ordeals…

Sovereign Sight still flowed through him, pulsing continuously since Sivak had appeared. Now Harker pulled it back, turning his attention inward and onto his left forearm. The lines glimmered and parted. Ordeals In Progress…

The Ordeal Of Maelstrom's Passage - The Trial Of Power - 0% The Ordeal Of Blackwake's Descent - The Trial Of Truth - 0% The Ordeal Of Breaking Reef - The Trial Of Change - 8% The Ordeal Of Tidal Climb - The Trial Of Resilience - 8% The Ordeal of Deep Lantern - The Trial Of Harmony - 0% The Ordeal of Drowning Sky - The Trial Of Vigilance - 8% The Ordeal of Mist and Foam - The Trial Of Stillness - 8% The Ordeal of Siren's Undertow - The Trial Of Judgment - 2% The Ordeal of Abyssal Plunge - The Trial Of Ambition - 2% Harker sucked at his teeth.

Somehow his Chartermark had updated. Both the type of trial and the percentage of completion are now showing. Was this information always here… just inaccessible until I learned it? Harker had little choice but to assume it was true for the moment. His Talent… well, it was just as strange as the Bargain he wore across his wrist. His progress bar was an advantage in the race toward the Travelspire, but it wasn't everything. Failure was always an option. Story of my life.

Harker flexed his left hand, shifting the golden mark and the Illwrought scars that intermingled with it. The stakes were just higher now. If he didn't reach the Travelspire before the countdown ran out, then it would be something far worse than he could imagine. A Bargain of this size… if it breaks, what would it do to me? He looked around, but Stillwater was still hiding. Not that he'd be able to speak to the Eidhrin with Adhira so close. Besides, we have a lot to talk about, her and I.

Adhira sat on the other side of the fire, as lost in her thoughts as he had been. She didn't seem particularly surprised by the apparition or anything he'd said. Her lips were pressed thin and her jaw set tightly.

"So," he said into the quiet.

"Who was that?"

"You heard him as well as I did."

"Magister Sivak, yes. That isn't what I asked." Harker leaned forward.

"You know him." Her shoulders twitched and she pulled her hair forward and began raking an idle hand through her curly locks.

"I know of him." Harker waited. The fire crackled as it consumed its thinner kindling, and the pan atop its flames bubbled. Adhira reached out, snagging it off the makeshift platform and setting the food to cool on a rock. The silence stretched, growing thinner by the second, until she shoved her hair back.

"He was—He is one of the more difficult magisters in the Nine Spires. And an exceptional Fifth Depth Talent." The words came out in a bit of a rush, like a pent up breath.

"Oh." The two Second Depths in the Grim Company had been able to put down Illwrought with a single strike, and that had driven him to run further than he'd ever gone before. Sivak's arrogance suddenly made a great deal more sense.

"You're saying I was a few feet from a Fifth Depth Talent?"

"He wasn't truly here. It's a projection." Harker glanced at his arm.

"You know how it works?"

"... No. The Hold only told us to expect a message shortly after Threllsnacht. Other messages will come later."

"He's going to do this again?" Harker didn't like that.

"Why?"

"You heard him. He's the Spire representative for our region. Their responsibility is reaching out and updating the Chartermarks with any pertinent changes or details. Usually there are only two or three times he'll reach out, but I'm unfamiliar with Phaar."

"You said, 'our region.' You're from the southern isles."

"I am, but Threllsnacht is the official start of the yearly Ordeals. Something to do with all the Charterstones being activated." Adhira pushed her axe to the side, resting it against a tree.

"Whatever the case, once enough marks are handed out, it begins. Anyone in the region at that time is resassigned." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Harker lifted his left hand.

"So these do track us."

"Not like that. They don't take in specifics. It's more—" She struggled for words for a moment.

"Do you feel that tingle when you get close to a Charterstone? That's the mark and stone communicating."

"Is that where it updates our rankings too?"

"That is what I've been told. So entering towns or cities along the journey is a must for seeing your ongoing position." Which helps the Spires keep their tabs on you. Harker kept his face smooth, but a scowl was assembling beneath. I don't like that at all. He'd have to look into it. For now, however, there was little they could do except bear the weight of the Chartermark.

"Sivak. Seems like a piece of work." Adhira snorted, then looked surprised at the sound she made.

"That…is an understatement. He is also the perfect person to oversee an Ordeal Tribunal. The judges are brilliant of mind, able to gauge Talents with unflinching accuracy. Magister Sivak is not a judge, but a facilitator. His power is all he needs to represent the Nine Spires."

"What sort of tests needs a Fifth Depth Talent on retainer?"

"The most important kind." There was more she wasn't saying, but Harker had no way of knowing how pertinent it all was. Adhira was almost certainly hiding something, but Harker was very good at finding lies. What's more, now he had Sovereign Sight. Reaching for the Water that still flowed through him in pulses, Harker expanded himself to five feet again. The world tilted, but Harker was braced, and entirely focused on the woman across the fire. He smelled her first.

It was a faint floral scent mixed with sweat and woodsmoke. It was distracting, and only the shallow nature of his pulse let him move on. There was dirt under her nails, and her hair was tangled in two spots that refused to relent to her combing fingers. Most of all though, he could feel the muscles across her abdomen and shoulders. They were tight, contracted as if she were lifting something heavy. Her free hand tapped at her knee.

"In the market, you asked me to come with you." He squashed any feeling of bitterness inside of him. It was an unnecessary emotion no matter how deeply he felt it. What he needed now was cold reason.

"Why?" Adhira didn't answer at first. The tension gathered between her shoulderblades but her grip loosened on the axe.

"You knew about the rankings," he continued quietly.

"You knew what it would take to climb them."

"I did."

"That's why you didn't want to travel with Sven and the others. They wanted an easy path." He smiled.

"So you chose me." Adhira nodded. She took him because he wasn't good enough to make things easier. Harker was a weight around her neck. Of course. He shouldn't have been offended. He shouldn't have expected anything different. He should, in fact, be happy. Harker finally knew exactly how Adhira was using him.

"Yes," she said after a moment.

"Having you along makes this trip more perilous in several ways. But I did not lie. Having a second pair of eyes on the mountain is necessary."

"Did you lure those Aberrants into our path?"

"What? No. They were drawn to us, same as any Aberrants. I have no desire to see you dead, Harker, not to climb the ranks. Looking after you while fighting was only ever meant to push me harder."

"I see."

"The Ordeals are easier for those that rank high enough. I have advantages aplenty, but the others will best me without my earnest effort."

"And you know what these tests will look like?"

"Not precisely, but everyone knows the Ordeals."

"Not everyone," Harker said.

"Until right now, I had never seen them listed." Adhira seemed surprised by that.

"Truly? Then you took this mark blindly?"

"There are stories. Glorious ones. That is enough for most." Harker folded his hands in his lap.

"Not all of us can go to preparatory schools." Adhira winced.

"Thousands across Teyr have…but you're right. Most have not. I should have realized…" Harker pursed his lips. It wasn't a surprise that nobles had such an advantage on them, but it stung.

"What else do you know that I don't? What else haven't you told me?"

"I can see you're standing in the Sea." What?

"When I focus upon you, I can see the details of your Talent, Scope, and Depth. I know you have an Accuracy Talent, though you tried to evade that point earlier." Harker grunted. It was good to know other people could see that information almost as good as it was to know that she still saw Jeren's and not Harker's own.

"What else?"

"I knew of the countdown, and I knew of the efforts required to increase our ranking. But that is all."

"So you couldn't see the ranks before now?"

"The Spires would never allow that. Not to anyone."

"Not even to those in the Hollow Hold?" Harker caught her hesitation.

"Hm?"

"No. That would grant us an unfair advantage."

"Yes," Harker's voice was dry as dust.

"We wouldn't want that." He leaned back on his stump staring up into the treetops. No one else can see the progress bars. Good. Adhira could have been lying, but his pulses had detected no further tells. The moment she had opened up to him, every twitch and tense muscle across her body had slackened. She was breathing easy. For the first time since he'd met her, it didn't feel like she was hiding anything. She swallowed and made to stand.

"I understand if you no longer want to travel together."

"I do not like being used," Harker interrupted her.

"As you shouldn't. It…it isn't my proudest choice." She finished standing, resting her hand on the pommel of her axe.

"I could give you all manner of justifications, but in the end they're too little. All I can do is apologize." Wrack and ruin. She's not getting away that easily.

"You're right. This road is plenty hard enough for two."

"You mean—?"

"We made a deal, didn't we? See each other over the Gnarl?"

"We did, but that was before."

"Eat. Get some sleep." Harker laid down next to the stump, settling onto his bedroll.

"We'll start at daybreak. Together."