Chapter 37 #3
“Shadow can move between the active channels without giving it enough to consume.”
The answer was true. It simply wasn’t all of the truth.
I crouched at the edge and sent a thread of my magic into the exposed foundation.
The current lashed toward it. My Shadow divided around the strike and kept going.
Behind me, the court had fallen strangely quiet.
I ignored everyone. The channel had split below the western plate.
I could feel the cavity underneath it where stone should have been supporting the repair.
Nothing.
Six feet at least.
Maybe more. “Who maintained this section last?”
The senior attendant knelt beside me. “Court Six was inspected last winter.”
“Then your inspection was worthless.” He stared at me. “The brace is sitting over empty space.”
“That’s impossible.”
I glanced at him. “Then put your hand in it.” He did not. “Thought so.” I sent Shadow farther. The cavity widened beneath the wall. It was old work. Very old. Someone had repaired the surface repeatedly instead of rebuilding the support beneath it.
The attendant swore. “Clear the lower path. No Earth stabilization. No Fire. No Light until the main current is diverted.”
“What do you suggest we stabilize it with?” I looked at him. The attendant opened his mouth, thought better of it, then looked at me. “Right.” For the next twenty minutes, Court Six became mine whether anyone officially approved of that or not.
I had three Shadow candidates brace the outer fracture without touching the current.
Two more anchored the eastern wall. The ward attendants redirected the active channel while I kept Shadow packed through the cavity beneath it, not holding the weight so much as giving the failing stone nowhere else to move.
It was ugly work. When one of the candidates tried forcing more power into his brace, I struck his hand with a tendril. He flinched. “What was that for?”
“You’re pushing.”
“I thought that was the point.”
“If you have to overpower a broken foundation, you’ve already lost.” He frowned at the fracture. “Feel where it wants to fall. Hold there. Nowhere else.” He adjusted. The trembling beneath my feet eased. “There.”
He looked startled. I did not congratulate him. He would survive without it. Eventually the ward-master himself arrived, took one look at the exposed channel and began asking questions no one had enough breath to answer.
I stood. “You have a hollow beneath the western plate. At least six feet. Possibly eight. The current separated when the eastern brace shifted.”
He stared into the break. “How do you know the depth?”
“I put Shadow through it.”
“You entered a live foundation current?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause. “That was reckless.”
“So was allowing candidates to train over a hollow ward-channel.” His mouth closed. I left him to be offended somewhere useful. Lyra and the others had been moved toward the lower infirmary entrance.
I found them before they went inside. Raiden was sitting on the stone ledge while a healer checked his shoulder. Dax had a bleeding palm and enough dust on him to look as though someone had dragged him through half the mountain.
Which, to be fair, Lyra nearly had. Vareena stood close to Lyra. Emrin was speaking quietly to the healer. Lidia had planted herself beside Raiden with her arms folded, apparently daring anyone to tell her to leave. The healer finished wrapping Dax’s palm and left to find supplies for Raiden.
Raiden was the first to speak. “That was yours.” No one pretended not to understand.
Dax leaned back against the wall. He didn’t look frightened, though he didn’t look particularly comfortable either. “You wield Shadow.”
“Yes.”
“And Light.”
“Yes.”
His attention shifted to me. “And you knew.”
“Yes.”
He looked to Vareena and Emrin. Both confirmed it with small nods. Then his attention shifted to Lidia. She stared back. “Night before last.”
Raiden’s head turned. “You knew?”
“Do not start.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Raiden, you have one functioning shoulder and I’m already pissed off. This is not the time.” His mouth shut. Smart man. He looked at Lyra again. His attention dropped briefly toward her hands, as if some part of him expected the Shadow to return.
It didn’t.
Lyra stood with her arms folded across her ribs, too casual in the way people became when they were anything but.
“My father used to say Shadow took more than it gave.” The corridor changed. Lidia straightened. Vareena’s face went carefully blank. Lyra gave no outward reaction at all.
Raiden noticed. “I’m not saying he was right.”
“No?” Lyra asked.
“No.”
He rubbed his good hand over his face. “I’m saying I’ve heard the same things about Shadow since I was old enough to manifest Fire.
That it corrupts. That it gets inside everything eventually.
That you don’t trust someone who can wield it because you never know whether the thought in their head belongs to them. ”
Dax muttered, “That’s cheerful.”
Raiden ignored him. “I almost died ten minutes ago, Lyra. Your Shadow pulled me out.” He exhaled. “I need longer than ten minutes to untangle those two things.”
“That’s fair.”
“But I’m not going to tell anyone.”
Dax looked offended on principle. “Obviously neither am I.”
Raiden glanced at him. “You stared at her like she grew another head.”
“I was hanging over a hole.”
“You were already out by then.”
“I remained emotionally vulnerable.” Lidia rolled her eyes. The tension loosened enough to let everyone breathe.
Dax looked at Lyra again. “Why didn’t you tell us?” There was no accusation in it this time.
Lyra looked toward the corridor before answering.
“Because if Halos finds out, I don’t know what happens.
If the Council finds out, I don’t know what happens.
Half this place already thinks the Crucible broke because something is wrong with me.
” Her voice dropped. “I wasn’t ready to give them another reason. ”
Dax’s gave a small nod. “I won’t.” Raiden nodded too. Neither made her ask twice. I had expected suspicion. Fear, perhaps. Questions.
I had not expected it to be that simple. Then again, Lyra had nearly watched both of them die before choosing secrecy over their lives. That had a way of clarifying things.
Dax looked at me. “If anyone asks, that was all your Shadow?”
“Yes.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It is when properly trained.” Lyra’s mouth twitched. Dax noticed that too. Unfortunately. His gaze moved from her to me, then back again, slowing around the scratches visible above my collar. I watched realization spread across his face far too quickly.
His eyebrows rose. “Oh, I get it now.”
“Dax,” Emrin warned. He looked delighted. Lyra covered her face with one hand. Vareena turned toward the wall suspiciously quickly.
Dax’s grin only widened while Raiden looked between us, still several steps behind whatever revelation Dax had just had.