Chương 42: Concordance

By the time Aurelia and Garrick reached the center of Bellhaven, the smoke had swallowed half the sky. It rolled above the rooftops in dark sheets, thick enough that the midday sun had become a dull orange smear behind it. The closer they came, the worse the air became. Woodsmoke was familiar—comfortable, even, when it came from a hearth or campfire—but this carried other smells underneath it. Scorched pitch. Burned cloth. Something metallic and bitter that caught in the back of Aurelia's throat.

And beneath all of it came the noise: Shouting, crying, the crash of timber, and the relentless clanging of Bellhaven's alarm bells. People flooded down the sloping streets toward the lake, some running, others stumbling as they supported children or injured relatives. A woman hurried past with half her hair singed away. Two men carried another between them, his right leg hanging at a wrong angle beneath the knee. Someone screamed for a missing daughter from somewhere beyond the smoke.

Aurelia stopped for half a heartbeat. Three buildings were fully ablaze that she could see, and a fourth had fire crawling across one side of its roof. The explosion had struck near one of the busier central streets, where homes and workshops had been built close together. Flames jumped between exposed beams and overhanging roofs faster than Bellhaven's people could contain them. The guards were already trying. A bucket line had formed from one of the narrow streams that ran downhill toward the lake.

Men and women passed water hand to hand as quickly as they could, throwing it against doorways, walls, rooflines—anywhere that might slow the spread, but it was not enough. The fire had started too large and too suddenly. This was not a cookfire escaping a hearth. Bellhaven had begun the fight already losing.

"Aurelia." Garrick's voice brought her back. He had stopped beside her, eyes moving over the scene. She could almost see him making the same calculation.

"Too many," he said quietly. Aurelia nodded. Then, someone shouted their names.

"Garrick! Aurelia!" They turned. Talia came barreling through the crowd. She vaulted a tipped market cart rather than going around it, landed cleanly, ducked under the arm of a fleeing fisherman, and covered the remaining distance at a speed Aurelia had never seen from her before. Her breathing was heavy when she reached them, but not nearly heavy enough.

"I'm glad you're okay," Talia said.

"I heard the explosion from the range. Nobody knew what happened, so I just came." Garrick stared at her.

"The archery range is across town."

"I'm aware."

"You got here before half the guards." Talia planted both hands on her hips, still catching her breath.

"I sprinted and hopped over anything that looked slower than me." Aurelia looked her over. No obvious injury, and no torn clothing beyond a fresh scrape along one sleeve. Talia continued, "I've been a little more nimble since Awakening. I didn't exactly stop to measure it." Garrick and Aurelia looked at each other; neither needed to say anything to understand. Envoy. Whatever Talia's class ultimately became, apparently crossing ground quickly was going to be part of it. Aurelia put both hands on Talia's shoulders.

"Listen to me. Go back to the embassy as fast as you safely can." Her eyebrows rose.

"Aurelia—""If Orion and Aegis are still there, send them here. They may have heard the bells. They might not know how bad it is." Aurelia glanced over her shoulder. A section of roofing collapsed in a burst of sparks, causind people to scream.

"We need Aegis's rain. We need Orion wherever someone is trapped. Tell them exactly what you saw." Talia nodded.

"What about you two?"

"We're staying."

"That was what I thought you'd say." She exhaled, set her shoulders, and turned.

"Don't break your neck!" Garrick called after her. Talia glanced back without slowing.

"That would make Aurelia furious!"

"Correct!" Aurelia shouted. Then Talia was gone. She threaded through the fleeing crowd with an ease that would have looked impossible from anyone who had been an ordinary fifteen-year-old only weeks before. Aurelia had three seconds to be impressed, then someone screamed nearby. A man lay half-curled beside the street, one arm raised protectively over his head. His clothing had burned away across one shoulder, leaving the skin beneath angry, blistered, and blackened in places. Aurelia moved.

"Garrick, stay close."

"I'm right behind you." She dropped beside the injured man.

"Can you hear me?" His eyes opened.

"My wife."

"We'll find her."

"My—""Look at me." She placed one hand near the worst of the burns. Golden Weave spilled outward, responding faster than it would have even a few weeks ago. Her Crisis Care no longer needed the same fumbling concentration it once had. Aurelia reached, her Weave answered, and damaged flesh began rebuilding beneath her palm. Blisters shrank, split skin closed, and the blackened areas softened to raw pink. The man sucked in a sharp breath.

"That hurts less."

"That is the idea."

"Are you—""Yes, I'm the dragon girl. No, this is not the best time to discuss it." He gave something halfway between a laugh and a cough. Aurelia helped him sit.

"Can you stand?"

"I think." Garrick moved in immediately, taking the man's good arm.

"I've got him." Together they got him to his feet. Aurelia pointed farther downhill.

"Go until you reach the wider square near the lake. Stay there. Do not come back for anything."

"My wife might still—""We'll look." The words came out firmer than she intended. Aurelia softened herself before speaking again.

"I promise we'll look." He nodded, then staggered away with Garrick supporting him until another civilian took over. Aurelia turned toward the fire again. A young woman lay near a doorway clutching her side. Someone else cried out from beneath a broken awning. Another man stumbled from the smoke with blood running down one side of his face. Too many. Aurelia ran to the woman. She put one hand over the injury, then reached for the man with the head wound at the same time. Her Weave split into multiple streams.

The woman's breathing steadied, and the blood along the man's temple slowed. Then Aurelia heard a scream from somewhere deeper inside the burning street. Her stomach tightened. This fire had detonated into existence, causing several injuries right out of the gate. Burns, broken bones, people struck by debris, and even more she couldn't see yet. Even with all her practice, she could not feasibly care for them all as she was.

"Aurelia." Garrick had returned with something in his hands. A bundle wrapped in cloth, which he looked at with something almost akin to guilt.

"What is that?" He held it out, pulling the wrapping free. The wand from the shop rested in his palms: dark polished wood, metal channels, and a pale crystal. For a moment, the roaring fire seemed to disappear behind the rush of blood in Aurelia's ears.

"When did you—""My privy trip." Aurelia stared.

"You did not go to the privy."

"I did eventually."

"Garrick."

"I was planning to give it to you later." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. She took it automatically, the weight was exactly as she remembered.

"That cost…You shouldn't have—""Aurelia." His voice changed. It wasn't harsh, but it carried the same firmness he had used at lunch.

"Not now." She stopped. Garrick glanced toward the injured civilians.

"I'm going to pull everyone I can toward you." Her eyes narrowed.

"From where?" He looked toward the nearest burning building.

"There are people inside."

"Then wait for the guards."

"They're busy keeping the whole street from burning down."

"Garrick."

"I can do this." Something in the way he said it made her pause. Not bravado or sixteen-year-old stupidity, but almost as if he had very specific confidence. He nodded toward the wand.

"Can I leave the rest to you?" Aurelia looked down at the focus, then back toward the injured. She tightened her grip around the wand.

"Fine." Garrick smiled.

"Wish me luck."

"Garrick—" He stepped away, then his entire posture changed. Aurelia felt the Weave move before she understood what he was doing. It gathered around him in a way that was almost warm and familiar. Garrick strained as his shoulders tightened and his jaw clenched. After a moment, steam curled from the collar of his shirt.

"What are you doing?" His skin flushed. Not from exertion, but from heat that radiated strongly enough that Aurelia felt it from several feet away. Then the system answered. [Knight Ability: Concordance = Active.] Aurelia's breath caught; another message followed. [Current Concordance: Kindle, the Hearth Drake.] [Heat Resistance Active.] [Muscle Heating Active.] He bent his knees, and Aurelia's eyes widened.

"Garrick, don't—" He jumped - high enough that Aurelia briefly forgot he was a person. Garrick launched across the street, cleared the lower edge of a burning awning, and crashed through an open second-story window.

"Don't be rash, you idiot!" He disappeared into the smoke while Aurelia stared at the window. One second, then another as the building groaned and continued to burn.

"Garrick!" A crash answered as he came through a different window. The wooden frame exploded outward as Garrick leapt from the building with an unconscious woman in his arms. He landed hard, which was expected given the leap from the second-story, then he stood. No burns or visible injury; only his hair smoked slightly. He then crossed the distance and placed the woman carefully beside her.

"Don't gawk." Aurelia blinked.

"What?"

"Heal." Then he turned and sprinted back toward the fire. Aurelia looked down at the woman; she tightened her hand around the wand. Focus. The shopkeeper had said it stabilized Weave and could direct it. Aurelia reached for Crisis Care; golden light gathered around her hand and began to flow into the wand. The difference was immediate. Usually, ranged healing felt like trying to pour water through a thin reed. The wand seemed to widen the path, so long as she could sustain it. Aurelia pushed harder into the tool.

She did not want a line, she wanted an area. She wanted everyone near her to be taken care of. Everyone. Weave surged into the crystal. The pale core brightened as Aurelia gritted her teeth.

"Come on." The wand vibrated. She felt resistance, like it did not belong to her skill but could be forced into shape if she gave it enough power. So she did, and golden light erupted upward. [Crisis Care can now extend around the Caretaker while channeled through a compatible focus] The light curved and spread, then dropped around her in a dome. Golden Weave shimmered across an area roughly the size of a large room, and every injured person inside it reacted. The unconscious woman inhaled sharply.

The man with the bleeding head wound reached up as the torn skin along his temple began closing. A child with cuts across both arms stopped crying long enough to stare at the golden light moving over her skin. Aurelia felt all of them. Not individually; more like pressure against different parts of the same web. This one bleeding, that one burned, another breathing poorly and with a fractured wrist. Her Weave Reserve dipped fast, but not unreasonably. She had spent weeks cultivating via Reciprocal Pulse.

Learning how to recover more efficiently and teaching her reserve to hold more than it once could. The numbers kept dropping, but it was manageable. She could not repair shattered bones or drag someone from the edge of death, but she could repair minor injuries and stabilize those around her. Aurelia raised the wand higher.

"Bring them here!" A nearby guard looked at her.

"What?"

"Anyone injured! Get them inside the light!" He hesitated only a moment, then understood.

"You heard her!" he shouted.

"Move the wounded to the healer!" The entire rhythm of the street changed as people began carrying the injured toward Aurelia. Garrick returned with another man, then vanished again. A pair of guards dragged someone from beneath fallen timber. Aurelia's dome caught them all. Golden light crawled over burns and closed shallow wounds. The strain increased, but Aurelia breathed through it. In. Out. Do not force everything, and let the Weave flow. Reciprocal Pulse had taught her that.

Not every act of healing needed to be a war. Some damage wanted only enough energy to remember what healthy felt like. Minutes blurred as the fire roared. People screamed less as the injured were being gathered somewhere they could survive. Garrick burst from another doorway with a child clinging to his neck.

"Found three more… One can walk!"

"Then make them!" The child looked terrified. Garrick softened immediately.

"Sorry. Not you." The girl clung tighter, which almost made Aurelia laugh. Then pain punched through her abdomen. Her body stopped. For one impossible instant, she did not understand what had happened. Then she looked down to find that a dagger protruded from her stomach all the way to the hilt. Someone appeared behind it as the air distorted. A shape peeled out of empty space: dark robes, a covered face, and one gloved hand wrapped around the dagger buried inside her. The assassin said nothing as Aurelia stared.

She coughed as blood filled her mouth, red splattering across the front of her clothes. Civilians screamed around her as the healing dome flickered. Aurelia gripped the wand harder.

"Who…" The assassin's face remained hidden, and no answer was given. Aurelia's knees weakened as her health dropped hard. Aurelia's eyes shifted from the precise strike to the body that drove it in. [[Name:???]] [[Third Seal: Silencer]] For a moment, the assassin simply watched her, waiting and expecting her to die. All that served to do, however, was annoy Aurelia. She swung the wand at his head with all the force she could muster.

The assassin moved fast, releasing the dagger and bending backward just far enough for the wooden shaft to miss his face.

"You stabbed me!" The assassin landed several feet away. Aurelia wrapped one hand around the dagger, then pulled. Her vision flashed white with pain as blood poured down the front of her clothes. Then golden light flooded the wound as skin closed and muscle knitted back together. The deeper damage took longer, but her own Crisis Care was already racing inward, repairing what it could. The assassin watched. Not visibly shocked, but something shifted in his posture. Aurelia spat blood onto the street.

The dome around her had weakened, but it remained.

"You're more than just a pretty-faced healer, aren't you?" Aurelia breathed through the pain.

"Thanks for the compliment… But I'm already on a date." The assassin's head moved. Garrick was behind him, his leg was already in motion. The kick missed the assassin's skull by inches, and only because the man folded sideways with an acrobatic twist that looked completely unnatural. He landed in a crouch as Garrick dropped back beside Aurelia.

"Are you okay?"

"Define okay." His eyes dropped toward her blood-soaked clothing.

"That looked fatal."

"It almost was." Garrick's face tightened. Aurelia grabbed his wrist.

"Don't do the thing Orion does."

"What thing?"

"Decide you need to become homicidal because I got hurt."

"That feels unfairly specific."

"Experience." The assassin shifted, and Garrick immediately stepped between them. Aurelia noticed the Kindle Concordance was gone. His skin was returning to normal, and steam no longer curled from his clothes.

"I saw his status," Aurelia said quietly. Garrick did not look back.

"What?"

"When he revealed himself," She swallowed.

"My perception caught it before he concealed it again. He's a Third Seal." Garrick exhaled.

"That is inconvenient."

"That was my assessment." The assassin moved. Garrick reacted, but it was too slow. He intercepted the first attack, knocked the assassin's wrist aside, and attempted to drive a shoulder into him. The assassin slipped around it effortlessly, however. A kick caught Garrick along the ribs and launched him several feet sideways. He landed on his feet, but the assassin was already coming for her again. Of course. Aurelia braced as the assassin's dagger hand came forward.

Aurelia saw the blade and the angle, knowing most likely where it was going. Then the assassin stopped. There was no warning; Orion was simply there. One instant the space beside Aurelia was empty. The next, Orion's hand had closed around the assassin's wrist. For the first time, Aurelia felt something close to surprise from their assailant. Orion's voice was quiet.

"You chose poorly." The assassin twisted and broke free. That was enough to make the physical difference obvious between a Third Seal and Second Seal. Orion was not fighting like someone attempting to match speed, however. He had appeared exactly where he needed to be. The assassin drove an elbow toward his throat. Orion released, shifted, and avoided the strike. The attacker flipped backward to create space between them, his eyes honed on the pair of siblings. Then Garrick moved.

He had recovered the dagger Aurelia had pulled from herself, his eyes locked onto the assassin. A new system message appeared. [Concordance Active: Aegis, the Storm Dragon.] The air around Garrick snapped. Blue-white light traced briefly along his limbs, then he disappeared. Not like Orion, who could vanish and reappear. Garrick became motion - like a bolt violently streaking across the street. The assassin reacted fast enough to prevent the dagger from entering his chest, but not fast enough to avoid it entirely.

Garrick drove the blade through his forearm. The assassin grunted, although barely. He twisted with the impact, ripped his arm free, and retreated before Garrick could follow. Garrick tried to close again, but the assassin was already moving. Then a roar shook Bellhaven. Aurelia looked up to see storm clouds were forming. Dark masses twisted above the town as if the sky itself had been grabbed and pulled together. A gigantic blue shape circled over the burning district. Aegis was in his full draconic form.

His wings beat once, causing the clouds to deepen. Several people looked at him in terror, but Aurelia knew immediately what he was doing. The tension last only a few moments before the rain fell. It was not gradual, either - a wall of water crashed from the sky. People shouted and cheered as the fire recoiled. Flames that had been crawling toward neighboring rooftops vanished beneath the downpour. Smoke exploded upward in thick white clouds. Aegis banked, and the rain followed where it was needed.

It did not flood the whole town or drown streets indiscriminately. Even with the storm's size, it was targeted and controlled. The guards seized the opportunity.

"Move!"

"Hit the lower windows!"

"Keep the line going!" People who had been fleeing turned back to help. Buckets moved faster, and wet blankets went over smaller fires. The inferno had not ended, but its momentum had clearly broken. Aurelia smiled despite herself. Then she remembered the assassin. She looked back, but there was nothing besides an empty street. Garrick turned in a slow circle.

"Where did he go?" Orion's eyes narrowed.

"He concealed himself." Aurelia strained her senses, but there was nothing. Just rain, smoke, and people shouting. Garrick looked down at the dagger that remained in his hand. Blood ran along the blade - some belonging to the assassin while some belong to Aurelia. Either way, rain struck the metal and washed both toward the hilt. Orion looked toward the surrounding rooftops, while Aurelia tightened her grip around the wand. Above them, Aegis roared again as thunder rolled over Bellhaven.

The fire had finally lost, but their attacker had already disappeared.