Chapter 6 A Shield Answers
Luca finds me in the workshop.
The little vials on my bench stay clear when I bend over them. No pain behind my eyes. Finally. I put the last one away before I can find an excuse to try something ambitious.
He stands in the doorway with his shield held loosely at his side. "You said you needed another way."
I set down the vial I'm holding. "I've been thinking about it."
Luca crosses to the customer chair and sits without waiting for invitation. That's new. When he arrived, he wouldn't have entered a room without permission.
"Tell me." He rests the shield across his knees, fingers tracing the carved patterns.
I bring the patient chair over and sit facing him.
"Last time, I tried to understand the whole seal at once.
Pushed into it, triggered the trap." I lean forward, elbows on my knees.
"What if I don't try to understand it? Find the loosest edge and ease off the pressure.
Not breaking anything. Just giving it room. "
His thumb stops moving on the metal. "Would that work?"
"I don't know." The honest answer. No more false certainty. "It might not trigger the defense. Or it might do nothing at all. I can't promise you results, Luca."
He looks at the shield for a long moment. How many times has he heard promises that went nowhere?
"What would it feel like?" His voice stays careful, measured. "For me?"
I leave my hands on my knees. "Maybe warmth. I can't be sure. Any moment you want me to stop, I stop."
Luca's jaw tightens. He stares at the worn grooves in the metal, and I watch him weigh six years of failed attempts against whatever slim hope brought him here.
"Okay." He looks up. "Let's try."
Cali appears from somewhere and jumps onto the workbench, settling beside my tools with her paws tucked beneath her.
"No heroics, old man." Her tail curls around her haunches. "If he tells you to stop, you stop."
I move a sharp tool out of her reach. "I know."
Cali puts a paw where the tool was. "You pushed last time."
Luca is watching us. Good. He should know she means it. "I know that too."
She holds my gaze for a moment, then turns her attention to Luca. Whatever she sees in his face satisfies her, because she settles deeper into her spot without further comment.
Lyra brings a kitchen chair to the doorway and sits where she can see both of us. I'm grateful she stayed.
"Same as before." I keep my voice steady. "Hand on your shoulder. You tell me to stop, I stop immediately."
Luca nods once.
I rest my palm on his shoulder and let my awareness sink into him.
[SKILL ACTIVE: Soul Mending (A)Target: Previously detected soul damage.Seal: Active.The trap is still there. No prize for landing on the floor twice.]
The seal wraps tight around abilities that should be strong. I can feel his core beneath all that scarring, buried but present. The trap waits at the center, ready to bite if I push too hard.
I don't push.
Instead, I trace the edges, looking for somewhere the pressure isn't quite even. Like finding the corner of a bandage starting to peel.
There. A thin section near what feels like the surface. The seal's grip isn't as tight here.
I ease the thin edge away from the ability beneath it. It moves a little. I wait before doing any more.
Luca's breath catches.
His hand comes up to grip my wrist. "Something's happening. Wait."
I stop immediately. My magic goes still, hovering at the edge of what I found.
"What is it?" I keep my hand where it is but don't move deeper.
His fingers tighten on my wrist. He's breathing hard, eyes squeezed shut. For a long moment, neither of us moves.
Then his grip loosens.
"It felt like falling." He opens his eyes. "Just for a second. I'm okay. Keep going."
His hand has left my wrist, but I wait for him to look at me. "You're sure?"
He nods, letting go of my wrist. "Keep going."
I ease back into the work, gentler now. The thin section gives slightly, like a door opening the barest crack.
Warmth floods through the gap. Not mine. His.
Luca gasps and jerks upright. His hand comes up, palm facing out, trembling.
A shimmer appears in the air above his palm. Faint, wavering, barely visible. A shield no bigger than my hand, translucent as morning mist.
It holds for three seconds before it flickers and dies.
Luca stares at his empty palm.
"It came back." His voice cracks on the words. "It's tiny, it's nothing, but it came back."
He laughs, then covers his mouth as a sob catches him. His other hand stays raised. He won't lower it yet.
[SOUL MENDING (A)Restoration: Partial.Sealed ability: Accessible.Barrier Projection: Degraded.The seal is cracked, not broken. His ability found the gap on its own. That's what matters.]
I pull my hand back and give him space. My own throat has gone tight. How many times did he try that when nobody was watching?
But I know what it feels like to get something back that you thought was gone forever.
Lyra crosses to stand beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder. He doesn't flinch from the contact.
Cali jumps down from the workbench and stalks over to investigate, sniffing at his shield.
"Do it again." She sits back and looks at him.
Luca blinks. "What?"
Cali lifts a paw toward his open hand. "The tiny shield. Show me."
He looks at his palm like he's not sure it will work twice. Then he takes a breath and holds his hand up.
The shimmer appears again. Faint, wavering. It lasts four seconds this time before fading.
"Good." Cali's whiskers twitch. "Keep practicing."
Luca laughs, wet and shaky. "Yes ma'am."
Exhaustion hits me all at once. The work wasn't long, but it demanded everything careful I had.
"That's enough for today." I lean back in my chair, letting the tiredness show. "You need rest. I need to figure out how to do more without triggering the trap again."
He nods, but his eyes stay on his palm.
Lyra catches my eye and tilts her head toward the kitchen. I follow her out, leaving Cali to supervise Luca's continued examination of his own hand.
The kitchen is warm. Lyra pulls me into a hug the moment we're through the door.
"You did it." Her voice is muffled against my shoulder.
"Barely." I wrap my arms around her and hold on. "It's a crack. His ability found its own way through."
"A crack is more than he had this morning." She pulls back to look at my face. "How do you feel?"
Tired. Hopeful. Worried about what comes next. "Better than last time. Ask me again after tea."
She kisses my cheek and goes to put the kettle on.
She sets tea in front of me. The notification appears as I lift the cup.
[LEVEL UPGREGORI | Archmage: Archon, LegendaryLevel 34 → 35 | Tier 2 of 4Maximum HP: 1,840 → 1,880Maximum MP: 15,200 → 15,500INT: 356 → 360 | WIS: 312 → 316Unchanged: STR 18 | AGI 26 | DEX 118 | LCK 24Partial soul restoration on a sealed patient.
You found the loose edge. You stopped when he asked.
You kept going when he chose to.That's worth something. ]
I set down my cup. Level 35. The first since the dungeon break.
Lyra notices my expression. "Good news?"
"Level up." The words come out quieter than I intended. "From helping Luca."
She smiles, warm and proud. "You earned that."
Did I? The question rises automatically, and I push it down. One good result. One level gained. I'm allowed to feel pleased about it before I start cataloguing everything still broken.
Lyra brings her own tea over and settles into the chair beside mine. Her hand finds my knee under the table.
"The certifications," she says. "Luca has one. So do you. I want to compare them."
I think about the marks on Luca's shield, the patterns that match what was done to me. "You think there's something connecting them."
"I think whoever did this might have left traces." She squeezes my knee. "Do you still have yours?"
"In the chest by the bed." I haven't looked at it in years. Haven't wanted to remember what it represented, the credentials I earned before someone decided to take everything away.
Her hand stays on my knee. "Can I see it?"
I drain my tea and stand. "I'll get it."
The chest is dusty. I haven't opened it since we moved here. My certification sits at the bottom, folded along old creases, the paper yellowed but intact.
When I return to the kitchen, Nella is there. She's sitting at the table with her own cup, watching me with careful eyes.
"Luca told me." Her voice is neutral. "About the shield."
"He's resting." I set my certification on the table. "It took a lot out of both of us."
Luca comes in behind me and takes a folded paper from inside his shirt. He lays it beside mine, then sits. Lyra opens both carefully. Both documents are old, dated years apart, issued in different regions.
She bends over them, comparing marks and seals with careful attention.
"There." She points to a corner of Luca's certification, then to the same spot on mine. "That mark. It's on both."
The hooked pattern. Small, subtle, easy to miss if you weren't looking.
Nella leans in to see, keeping her cup clear of the papers.
Lyra moves a finger between the two corners. "Small enough to miss. But it's on both."
My paper beside Luca's. I wish the thing we had in common were anything else.
"Could be the same person who made them." I stare at the hooked lines. "Or someone who learned the same technique."
"Either way, it's a connection." Lyra folds the papers carefully. "The regional records hall might have more examples. Other certifications with this mark."
Nella's hand tightens on her cup. "You think there are others like us."
It's not really a question.
Luca draws his paper closer, flattening a crease with his thumb.
"Others." He keeps his eyes on the paper. "At the waystation. I wasn't the only one they kept there."
The kitchen goes quiet.
Nella turns to look at him. "What did it look like? The place."
"Stone walls. Low ceilings. Rooms with metal doors." Luca's voice flattens as he recites details he's probably tried to forget. "A room with a chair in the middle. Straps on the arms."
Nella's face has gone grey. "And lights. Bright lights above the chair."
Luca stares at her. "You've seen that."
"A place with the same arrangement." Her hands are shaking slightly. "Not the same location. But the same setup."
Two people describing the same nightmare.
Lyra catches my eye. Her expression asks the question I'm thinking: how many more?
Luca settles back in his chair. His hand finds his shield automatically, fingers tracing the worn edge.
"Maybe we'll find them," he says quietly. "The others. Maybe they'll come here too."
Nella doesn't answer. Her eyes are distant, seeing something none of us can follow.
But her hand moves to rest beside Luca's on the table. Close, not quite touching. She leaves it there when he looks down.
Two people who arrived alone, finding something shared between them.
I leave the papers where we can all see them. The tiny shield was real. So is this mark. We finally have something to look for.
But how do I help the people still waiting in those rooms?