Lianshi scowled at him. “Right. And?”
Leonis looked almost regretful. “You think the other Houses would allow someone like Dola to testify? Against a fellow Autocrator? Can you imagine how much dirt she must have on them all? What kind of precedent that would set? Think of what we’ve learned of Bastion’s history. How many times has an Autocrator been brought down by a fair trial?”
Lianshi slumped in her seat. “Never that I’ve heard of.”
“Never,” agreed Leonis. “When they come down, it’s due to politics. Not courts.”
Scorio shook his head sharply. “Maybe we could be the first. We capture Dola, get her sworn testimony, present it to…”
“To whom, exactly?” Leonis raised an eyebrow. “The other Autocrators? The City Council? Which is composed of the House elites? They’d kill you a thousand times over for attempting to challenge their authority. It’d be a far greater crime in their eyes than the theft you committed.”
“Damn,” whispered Scorio, slumping back in his chair. “I hate this city.”
“There has to be something,” said Lianshi stubbornly. “We can’t just let Praximar do this.”
They sat in silence. The only sound was the occasional distant drop of water from the grotto, the muffled murmur of voices as groups of students passed outside their front door.
“I don’t see what I can do,” said Scorio at last. “I saw Kayla here. He said he could summon guards from the scene of the crime, accomplices. Hell, he could fabricate as many witnesses as he wanted, and who would gainsay him? I did the crime. Worse yet, I stole from Chimera. The second they hear, they’ll revoke my sponsorship. Without it, I won’t heal. I won’t progress. It’ll take me years to catch up. I’ll wash out of the Academy with the bottom half of the class.” Then he winced. “Not to mention I made a bet with Jova.”
Leonis raised both eyebrows. “A bet with Jova?”
“What are you talking about?” asked Lianshi.
“I… damn it.” Scorio folded his arms on the table and lowered his brow to rest it on them. “Remember when I told you guys to go ahead? I wanted her help in uncovering my past. Asked her to look in her journals. She refused. So I… provoked her into making a bet. Or maybe she provoked me into being… stupid. That if I got further than her in the Gauntlet, she’d help me figure out the riddle.”
Lianshi’s voice was stiff. “And if you lost?”
“I’d leave the Academy.”
Silence. Scorio winced into his folded arms.
“That was a dumb bet,” said Lianshi at last.
“Yeah,” agreed Leonis. “What were you thinking?”
Scorio sat up. “I was angry. She insulted me to my face. Said I was a Red Lister, which meant I’d never be any good. I was flying high off my sponsorship offer, was feeling… I don’t know. Like I could accomplish the impossible. And thought I’d have House Chimera there regardless if I lost, to help me with my training.”
Lianshi sat back in her chair. “So to stay in the Academy, you’d have to renounce the Chimera sponsorship, and then somehow still beat Jova Spike at the Gauntlet run.”
“Or,” said Leonis, perking up, “and this is a bit underhand, but hear me out—Scorio agrees to Praximar’s demands, and throws the tournament. Then he keeps the House Chimera sponsorship, uses their resources to get as strong as he can, and then crushes the Gauntlet run. Jova would be forced to help him with his past, and at that point, he’d not need Chimera that much anymore, so Praximar’s threat would lose its power.”
They all considered Leonis’s plan.
“I don’t like it,” said Lianshi at last. “What’s to stop Praximar from expelling him at that point?”
“He said he wouldn’t,” said Scorio. “That I would better serve as an example to the rest of the cohort by failing my way out and being a warning of what happened if you went against the Academy.”
“But by that point, you’d have won,” said Leonis, leaning forward. “You’d have proven that you were the best.”
“I don’t know,” said Lianshi. “You’d back him into a corner. If he then revealed to House Chimera that he’d known all along you were a criminal—sorry, Scorio—then House Chimera would be furious with him. He’d embroil House Hydra in a heap of trouble for staying quiet.”
“Which is a good thing,” said Leonis.
“Not necessarily. Do you think Praximar would settle for losing like that? Would accept defeat and allow Scorio to be the cohort’s reigning champion? No. If he’s the kind to work with people like Dola, he’d not reveal your background but simply find a more permanent way to remove Scorio.”
Both men stared at Lianshi.
“You’re saying he’d have me killed?” asked Scorio.
“Obviously,” said Lianshi firmly. “He had no qualms tossing you through the Final Door the first time. And if you tricked him and humiliated him? He’d have a Tomb Spark or Flame Vault make you disappear.”
Scorio thought of how Praximar’s eyes had gleamed with quiet joy as he’d blackmailed him, and knew in his heart Lianshi was right.
“So I swear the oath, throw the tournament, use Chimera’s resources to grow as strong as possible—what?”
Lianshi and Leonis had both startled.
“What oath?” asked Lianshi.
“What oath?” Scorio frowned. “He said I had to swear an oath that I’d follow his terms before the next round of the tournament.”
Leonis groaned and draped an arm over his face.
“There goes all our maneuvering,” said Lianshi. “He probably means a Heart Oath. You break that, you rupture your Heart.”
“Rupture my Heart,” croaked Scorio.
“We learned about it in Mana Manipulation,” said Lianshi. “If you think your fractures are bad, wait till you hear what it takes to heal a ruptured Heart.”
“Damn.” Scorio curled his hand into a fist and then slammed it down on the table. “Damn it!”
He leaped to his feet and paced to the far side of the room, where he stopped and glared right through the wall. “So I’ve got no wriggle room. Either I completely agree and flunk out of the Academy, or I defy him, lose the sponsorship, and flunk out anyway.”
No answer from his friends.
What could they say?
He clenched his jaw and fought hard not to smash his fist into the stone wall. Just stood there breathing deeply, powerfully, his chest a furnace, his body filled with the burning desire to break something.
“There has to be a way out,” he whispered. “There just has to be.”
Lianshi’s tone was reluctant. “Praximar will make sure that the oath covers all the angles. You know he’s the type to be careful with the wording.”
“I’m sorry, Scorio,” said Leonis. “I wish I could think of something.”
Scorio closed his eyes tightly and rested his brow against the wall. He felt like a caged wolf, raging against impenetrable bars that surrounded him on all sides.
“There has to be a way,” he whispered. “There just has to.”
Chapter 54
They searched the ruins to no avail. Traversed the shattered streets, visited Naomi’s old, slanted apartment, called her name out over the broken courtyards and dust-choked alleys.
As Amber gave way to Second Bronze, then Second Rust, Scorio asked Lianshi and Leonis to return without him.
“Without you?” Leonis wiped a streak of ash from his face. “What are you talking about?”
“I need a moment. Just some time. I’ll follow after. Please.”
“Come on, Leonis,” said Lianshi, taking his arm. “Let’s give him some space.”
Leonis frowned but allowed himself to be dragged away.
Scorio turned and retraced his steps. He thought at first he might return to his own crude chamber but found himself walking toward Naomi’s tower once more. Climbing the angled staircase all the way to the top, he stepped across the landing and entered her room once more.