“As are the contents of this book. Do Imperial Ghost toads write down the most successful stratagems of each parliament to consult and learn from?”
“No,” said Nox with obvious reluctance.
“Then you have here a secret depository of the best Quantic techniques. One secret for another.”
“Why Scorio wish to learn?”
“Yes,” said Lianshi, turning on him. “What are you thinking? You’ll die of mana poisoning.”
Scorio didn’t look at her. “Because my Heart is fractured, Nox. I lose most of the mana I draw upon. I want to use your technique to compensate for that loss.”
“That doesn’t make sense!” Lianshi almost stamped her foot. “Your body is filled with blood! If you perform his technique, you’ll replace it with Coal mana, and die, Scorio.”
“Favorite friend Lianshi speaks true.” Nox adjusted his digits upon the rock. “This not a good idea.”
“I understand, and I don’t mean to execute your technique as you do,” said Scorio, speaking carefully, cautiously, patiently. “Just learn the outlines of your approach, and then implement a key adjustment. That’s all.”
“A key adjustment?” Lianshi’s frustration was reaching a fever pitch. “You can’t adjust your basic biology, Scorio. If this is your plan, then I regret helping you! Nox, ignore him, please!”
The toad’s throat swelled out, returned, swelled out, returned. “Won’t work. Imperial Ghost Toads enter ghost state to absorb dense mana. Humans cannot.”
“Right,” said Scorio. “I won’t have to, though. I’ve an alternative in mind.”
“What alternative, Scorio?” Lianshi sounded half despairing, half like she wanted to punch him.
“Easy,” said Leonis, pulling her back a step. “Give the man a chance to talk.”
“I’ve eight weeks or so to cultivate Black Star plants. I mean to plant hundreds of them, as many as I can, and harvest them three times before the Gauntlet run. With that many seeds, I’ll make enough diluted tincture to submerge myself in. Then I’ll perform the Secret Marinating Technique and absorb enough mana all in one go to break through to Emberling.”
His words hung in the air, his crazed idea, and even as he said it, Scorio fought off despair. It sounded like rank madness, so wild a hypothesis that he’d not have dared voice it if he had any other chance.
“Scorio,” said Lianshi, tone pitying. “There’s got to be a better way.”
“Like what, Lianshi?” He rounded on her, his anger suddenly burning bright. “Ask Dola to take me back so I can commit more crimes, steal more treasures from the Houses? Smuggle myself out into the Rascor Plains so I can hunt down fiends I can harvest for treasure? Abase myself to Praximar and beg for a second chance? Steal from our cohort?”
“No,” said Lianshi softly, and the sorrow in her face was almost more than he could bear. “Maybe you have to admit that you can’t win through on this one. Maybe you need to accept defeat, and find a way to start over again, from outside the Academy.”
Her words were like daggers punching into his body, and Scorio stiffened, his jaw clenching.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But nothing is worth your dying over.”
Scorio looked to Leonis, whose jocular face was now cast in a solemn expression. “I’m sorry Scorio,” he said at last, tone grave. “I’m all for wild and improbable strategies, but asking an Imperial Ghost Toad to teach you his Delightful Secret Marinating technique so that you can drown yourself in a bath filled with toxic Black Star tincture doesn’t sound…” He trailed off then shrugged his shoulders apologetically. “Maybe Lianshi’s right on this one.”
Scorio felt his breath coming rapidly in shallow pants. The worst of it was that he’d wrestled with these very doubts himself. But the alternative, the path of defeat, just wasn’t an option. The thought of leaving the Academy, shoulders slumped, to—what—find some low-tier job at House Chimera under Gelegos’s blessings?—drove him half-wild with madness.
“No,” he hissed, and curled both hands into tightly knotted fists. “I’m Scorio the Scourer, Lord of Nagaran, Master of the Black Tower, The Bringer of Ash and Darkness, the Shadow of Spurn Harbor, the Abhorred, Quencher of Hope and Unmaker of Joy. I will not admit defeat. I will not bend the knee to Praximar, to anyone. I will find a way to victory, or die trying.” His stare was such that the air before him seemed to quiver with heat. “Do not try to stop me.”
His friends stared at him, their faces pale, and then Lianshi looked away. “Fine. But I won’t witness your self-destruction either. I care too much for you to stand by and watch you commit suicide. I’ll pray for your success, Scorio, but I won’t enable you further. I… I just can’t watch you do this to yourself. I’m sorry.”
And with that, she turned away and began crossing the bridge back to the Academy.
Leonis stood there, shoulders squared, lips pursed, his gaze steadfast. Then, with a sigh, he walked over to where Scorio stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m with you, my friend. I don’t agree with you. But I won’t leave you, either. If you mean to kill yourself, then at least I can make sure you don’t die alone.”
Scorio’s eyes prickled with tears, and he placed his hand over Leonis’s own, then turned to stare at Lianshi’s departing back.
“Give her time,” said Leonis quietly. “She feels more deeply than either of us. She’s with you still. She just needs time.”
“Fair enough,” said Scorio, his voice thickened and rough. “Thank you.”
Leonis gave his shoulder a squeeze and stepped back, turning to Nox. “So, favorite friend Nox. What do you say? A treatise on Quantics in exchange for a small favor for your favorite friends?”
Nox’s impossibly already wide mouth widened further into a disturbing smile. “For my favorite friends? Absolutely.”
Chapter 62
Nox led them down into his crater, deep under the hollowed-out shell of masterfully arranged fallen masonry and columns, and without any ceremony leaped down into the steep tunnel that led into the caverns below.
“Nox has played fairly with us thus far,” said Scorio, sliding down the steeply sloped scree to the lip of the tunnel. “He wouldn’t agree to my plan if there wasn’t a chance it would work.”
“Right. Didn’t you say he was willing to attack Imogen before? He’s clearly a paragon of wisdom and restraint.” Leonis slid down next to him and glowered down at the dark hole. “But sure. Let’s trust him to decide what’s best.”
“He seems excited to show us something,” said Scorio with a grin. “Who knows what it might be? Come on.” And not giving his friend the chance to complain further, he leaped in after the toad. The initial drop was some five or so yards, so Scorio ignited his Heart to land smoothly on the nearly sheer slope and drop into a controlled slide, legs crouched, darkvision activated, to swoop down and out as the tunnel leveled out.
Nox edged around, clearly able to make him out despite the darkness, throat bulging out and sinking back in, and a second later Leonis half-slid, half-stumbled in behind Scorio, flailing around as he caught hold of a ridge of rock and steadied himself.
“This way,” was all Nox said, edging back and then striding deeper into the darkness. Wordless, the two Great Souls followed. This time, instead of cutting to the left as he’d done the first time when he’d led Scorio to the Academy, Nox dropped into a side tunnel to the right. This wound around and around then narrowed to such an extent that Scorio wondered how the toad could squeeze his way through until at last it opened into a small cavern.
“Welcome to home.” Nox hopped forward and turned his head from side to side as if suddenly hesitant. Even as Scorio took in the cave, the toad flicked out his tongue, catching a glob of what looked like half-dissolved meat and yanking it into his mouth. He swallowed noisily, then turned to the Great Souls. “Apologies. Home messy.”