Chapter 23 #2
“No, I imagine you don’t.” The Master Keeper leans back slightly, fingers steepled. “Some debts are not so easily buried, as you saw with the imprisonment of your sister.”
Oh. Oh.
My gaze flicks between the two men. The Master Keeper tilts his head a fraction, savoring the blow he just dealt. Falcen’s jaw is locked, his eyes fixed on a point above the skull mask. He won’t even blink.
The Master Keeper lets the silence hold for a count longer than comfortable, then shifts his hollow-eyed attention to me. “That was an impressive display of power, Initiate Holbrook. Rarely does any student render a soul completely on their first try.”
I resist the urge to cower under the weight of that endless pit of a stare. “I did what I had to do.”
“Did you?” The Master Keeper leans forward. “Or did you require the assistance of an Elite?”
“What? No.” I jerk my gaze toward Falcen, who remains impassive. Suspiciously so. “If I’m to be honest, he did nothing but goad me. He certainly didn’t lend me any of his support.”
I don’t realize how accusatory my words are until Falcen gives a hard sniff, a muscle twitching beneath the taut skin of one cheek. It’s a warning I’ve come to recognize, one that silently screams, shut up, you fool, but I’m too riled up to hear it.
I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest.
The Master Keeper’s shoulders tighten. “Do enlighten me, Initiate Holbrook. If Resonant Reaves didn’t offer his magick to you, how did a mere novice manage to siphon an entire soul without losing all control?
Soul-rendering for the first time is a cautionary, supervised event.
It’s why we start so young, and a little at a time, so an addiction doesn’t grow.
While I do not agree with Keeper Malakai’s approach this morning, it is common knowledge that remnants are difficult to teach and contain.
Yet you fed on a soul with little to no side effects, it seems. Like you’ve done it plenty of times before. ”
I shift my weight. The ember stirs, as if sensing the danger in the air. “I ... I don’t know exactly how I did it. It just happened.”
A half-truth. I know it was the ember that fueled my magick, but I still don’t fully understand its capabilities.
Or its intentions. I’m hesitant to bring up Edon or the number of times I was forced to use my newborn magick while traveling with Falcen.
Every instinct of mine screams not to tell this man anything I don’t have to.
The Master Keeper rests against his high-backed chair.
“And you, Resonant Reaves? What do you have to say for yourself, bursting into Keeper Malakai’s lesson uninvited?
You were meant to be completing your patrols and then resuming your combat training with the other Elites. Or did something distract you?”
Despite the veiled insult, Falcen keeps his stare level with the skull’s. “With all due respect, I completed the combat trial as required for my reinstatement. Decisively.”
“Resonant Zephyr is one of our most formidable Elites. Defeating her should have taken more than a few minutes.”
Falcen shrugs. “She was likely formidable while I was gone. Not while I’m here.”
I pull my lips in to keep from smiling. Falcen’s arrogance should be off-putting, especially in front of a leader who could likely singe him into dust with one strike, but I find myself drawn into the allure of his confidence.
He can back it up, too. I’ve seen him in combat firsthand, and I have no doubt he could take on another Elite. Maybe even five. With his shirt off.
Falcen’s eyes cut to mine, one corner of his lip tilting up like he’s well aware where my thoughts have wandered.
“Or,” Falcen says to the Master, “perhaps the arena has lowered its standards in my absence.”
He’s talking about beating another Elite like it was nothing. Like it was boring.
Just how powerful is he?
“Your cockiness has not diminished, I see,” the Master Keeper says. “But that doesn’t explain why you abandoned your orders to interfere with Keeper Malakai’s lesson.”
Falcen’s smirk fades. “I merely intervened when it became clear that Malakai’s methods were excessive. He was going to kill her.”
“And that would be a loss how, exactly?”
I exhale quietly through my nose. I should be used to this kind of treatment by now. My mother certainly warned me about it during her evening reads. Though it’s incredibly different to hear the brutality of the academy read aloud versus to experience it.
Falcen takes a step forward. “I didn’t track her down and spend days fighting Void hounds and entering the Void itself just to have her get slaughtered by an overzealous instructor with a grudge on her first gods-damned day.”
I’m not sure if I should be insulted or petrified for Falcen’s life, the way he so brazenly speaks to the academy’s leader, a man who has essentially made himself king now that he usurped the royals.
That same leader confuses me further when he says, “Careful, Resonant. One might think you’ve developed a personal interest in this particular student.”
“My interest is solely in the future of the Soulren and our ability to hold off the Void and its creatures, protecting the realm. She could be an asset if she passes enough tests. Test being the keyword, not kill.”
I gape at Falcen’s profile, at the hard line of his jaw and the utter lack of emotion in his eyes as he argues with the Master Keeper.
“She is right here,” I remind him.
Falcen ignores me. “Keeper Malakai’s demonstration was unfair from the start. You know as well as I do that complete soul-rendering is highly dangerous to an untrained student.”
“Yet she did it.” The Master Keeper’s voice is soft. “Without your help, if she is to be believed.”
The Master Keeper moves his bottomless gaze to mine, as if waiting for me to contradict him.
I glance at Falcen from the corner of my eye, trying to read his impassive expression. Of course, I get nowhere.
“She is a rarity,” Falcen continues. “Volatile and untrained. Punishing her for that would be a waste.”
My eyes widen. Punishing me? Who said anything about punishing me? Were the catacombs not enough?
The Master Keeper keeps his attention on Falcen.
“It seems your methods are as unorthodox as Keeper Malakai’s, Resonant.
You were only required to return to the academy and resume your duties, not to present us with a rare, unpredictable find to get back in our good graces.
One would think your time away would have tempered that rebellious streak.
Remember, you are a renewed member of this academy at my discretion.
Dropping a remnant at our feet isn’t enough of a bribe to secure your and your sister’s freedom. ”
My eyes grow hot, and not from tears. From fury.
Time away. So that’s what they call an escape. And Falcen’s grand return wasn’t about duty or loyalty or any of the noble horseshit he’s been feeding me since the forest. He needed a bargaining chip. I was a convenient discovery.
Every protective hand on my lower back, every barked command to stay close, every instance I mistook for caring, it was negotiation.
I’m not his student. I’m his offering.
“My methods get results,” Falcen replies. “Initiate Holbrook’s performance today is proof of that.”
“Perhaps.” The Master Keeper inclines his head. “You are the one who discovered her, after all.”
Slowly, the Master Keeper nods, coming to an internal decision. I shrink back, not enjoying the satisfaction creeping through his bone mask.
“Very well,” he says. “Since you are so quick to speak on her behalf, the girl will continue to be your responsibility, Resonant. You are now in charge of her volatility and any matters of siphoning off other students, which she is now forbidden from doing until she acquires the skills to do so without losing control.”
I stare at the Master Keeper in disbelief. Falcen, my babysitter? The idea is so absurd, so utterly unthinkable, that I almost laugh. But the humor dies in my throat as I see the look on Falcen’s face.
“With all due respect, Your Resonance,” Falcen says, his voice tight and controlled, “I am an Elite Render, not a nursemaid. Surely there are others better suited to this task.”
The Master Keeper folds his hands across the desk’s surface. “Are you questioning my judgment?”
Falcen’s hands flex at his sides, as if itching to call for his blade and ram the Master Keeper in the chest with it.
“A few minutes ago, you claimed your combat training to be a waste of time. And instead of attending your other classes, you’ve been skulking around the academy unseen and barking at any students who happen to notice you.
I, for one, think this is the perfect match.
You will shadow her in all her classes. It will serve as a needed refresher of what is expected of Soulren and what it takes to become an Elite, which you seem to have forgotten. ”
The tendons in Falcen’s neck strain. His eyes, bright with that unsettling hint of gold, bore into the Master Keeper’s skull mask.
“I left this place for a reason,” Falcen says. “You know that better than anyone.”
“Careful, Resonant. Pride has always been your downfall. One would think your time in exile would have taught you humility.”
The Master Keeper’s chin lowers, the dark hollows of his eye sockets seeming to deepen. “Let’s hope your choices regarding Initiate Holbrook yield better results.”
Falcen doesn’t reply, his silence speaking volumes.
“You are dismissed, Resonant,” the Master Keeper says. “Take your new charge and begin her training immediately. I expect regular reports on her progress.”
Falcen gives a curt nod, then turns on his heel and strides out of the room without a backward glance. I hesitate, glancing between his retreating form and the Master Keeper.
“Initiate Holbrook.”
The Master Keeper’s voice stops me as I turn to follow Falcen. “A word of caution. Your instability is precisely why late awakeners like you rarely survive the academy. We may not have had one of your kind for over twenty years, but heed Resonant Reaves’s guidance well, for your own sake.”
I just barely stop myself from gulping. “I’ll do my best to learn quickly. But if I may ask…”
“Yes?”
My ember heats up, like it knows what I’m about to say. “What caused Resonant Reaves’s exit from the academy? And why did you force him to return by imprisoning his sister?”
The Master Keeper doesn’t react. I resist the urge to fidget under the weight of that black stare.
“Corruption,” he says at last, “is the greatest threat we Soulren face, more sinister than even the Void itself.”
He rises from his chair, his movements fluid and graceful despite the heavy robes and the aura of age that surrounds him. He moves to one of the towering bookshelves, his gloved fingers trailing along the spines.
“The magick we wield is a double-edged sword. It can be used to protect, to heal, to maintain the delicate balance in this realm. But it can also be used to destroy, to dominate, to upset.”
He pulls a book from the shelf, its cover worn and faded. He opens it, the pages crackling softly as he turns them. “Even the most disciplined Soulren can be tempted.”
My brows pull in.
He shuts the book with a heavy thwack that makes me jump. “You’re dismissed, Initiate.”
“I—yes, sir. I mean, Your Resonance.”
Bowing, then turning so swiftly I nearly trip on my own feet, I leave his quarters, his two gouges for eyes making my back itch the entire time I’m in his scope.