To which Scorio had no answer. His original farm had proved fortunate in avoiding attention, but even so, it had suffered losses since he’d joined the academy. Four hundred plants? Leonis was right. Unless he camped in the farm every day and night for the next seven or so weeks, but then he’d be expelled from the Academy for failure to show to his classes. And even if he did, how would he fight off everything that would come as a mere Cinder?
“Favorite friend Scorio, Nox has idea.”
“You do? I mean, great! Yes. I mean, what is it?”
“Scorio need two batches Black Star Coal mana.”
“That’s right.”
“After, what happen to plants?”
“After?” Scorio stared at the toad, nonplussed. “I don’t know. Either I’ll have succeeded in my goals or failed.”
“Imperial Ghost Toad Nox make offer: Imperial Ghost Toad Nox guard Black Star plants for two batches, then Black Star plants belong to Nox.”
“Yes,” said Scorio without thinking, not caring if it was a good deal or not.
“Four hundred plants,” said Leonis. “You’re going to… you know what, never mind. You’re in no position to bargain.”
“And he’s letting me use the imperial gel,” added Scorio.
“No, you’re paying for that with the Quantics treatise.”
“No,” said Nox, “Favorite Friend Scorio paying for Delightful Secret Marinating technique with treatise.”
“Oh.” Leonis made a face. “You were going to negotiate something for the gel?”
Nox dipped his head in acknowledgment.
“Savvy toad,” said Leonis.
“It’s a deal.” Scorio didn’t care. He felt as if he were hurling himself headfirst off the edge of a cliff. There wasn’t room to maneuver or quibble. “You guard the plants, and they’re yours once I’ve harvested eight hundred beads from them.”
“Eight hundred beads,” said Leonis. “Look, I’m sorry to be constantly negative about all this, but that’s at maximum toxicity, isn’t it?”
Scorio nodded soberly.
“And you’re counting on a gel made by toads for toads to protect you, who are not, may I add, a toad?”
“Yes.” Scorio stared at Leonis, expressionless but for his raised eyebrows.
“And if the Imperial Ghost Toad imperial gel doesn’t work for humans like it does for them?”
Scorio laughed bleakly. “At that level of toxicity and that dosage amount? I’ll die in minutes.”
“Minutes,” said Leonis, shaking his head. “And that huge variable doesn’t concern you?”
“No,” said Scorio, and inside he felt nothing, no fear, no elation, no concern. “It’s an acceptable risk.”
“Your pursuit of power is… I don’t know the right word. Horrifying? Impressive? Awesome in the literal sense of the word? By the ten hells, Scorio. I’ve never heard of a more far-flung stratagem. It goes beyond desperation into sheer suicidal hope.”
“Fair.” Scorio took a deep breath, turned to Nox, and bowed low. “Thank you, my friend, for your help. We have a bargain. Do you know where I could plant that many Black Stars?”
“Will think. Find safe place. Come with seeds when ready.”
“I will,” said Scorio. “On that, you can count. In fact, I’m going to go harvest them now. You ready, Leonis?”
His large friend stared at him. “You’re asking me if I’m ready to go? Whether I’ve finished my own business here in Nox’s private burrow? Yes, Scorio. I’m ready to go.”
“Good. We’ll see ourselves out.” And with another bow, Scorio strode past his friend toward the burrow’s exit, his darkvision illuminating but a portion of the tunnel before him.
They climbed out in silence, and once back under the burning sun-wire, strode through the ruins in continued silence. Scorio could sense Leonis’s searing disapproval, but he didn’t have time for that just yet.
Instead, he mulled over his plans. Eight weeks till the actual tournament. Which meant he had seven weeks to pull this off. Three-week cycles for the production of the beads. It was going to be incredibly tight. Of course, he could hunt wild Black Stars once the first lot were planted, so as to accumulate more seeds to plant as reserves. This meant that the second batch could conceivably be far greater than the first—
“Scorio.”
Leonis had come to a stop, and now stood, hands on hips, staring flatly at him.
“Hmm?” Scorio paused and looked back. “Yes?”
“Stop a moment. Just come here.”
Reluctant, wanting to continue to his original Black Star farm, Scorio retraced his steps to stand before Leonis.
“I know you want to win,” said Leonis. “I know you want it more than anything else. To prove Praximar wrong, to rub his face in his cheating tricks. To defeat Jova Spike and get her to check her journals for you. But just stop a moment and think: is that worth dying over?”
“Who said I was going to die?”
“I’m talking odds, here, Scorio. The odds of the Black Star not poisoning you to death. The odds of the marinating technique—which I still don’t understand—not killing you, too. Or if they don’t, that channeling this much Coal mana all at once won’t splinter your Heart into ragged chunks, or burn out your mind. And think: even if it all works, who’s to say this will work well enough to guarantee you make Emberling? Who’s to say that even if it does, your body won’t be wrecked by the process, so that you’ll enter the Gauntlet crippled?”
Scorio had no answer, but he felt his ire rising as his friend glared at him.
“Stop glowering at me for a second and just think about what I’m saying. We don’t even know if Jova has anything in her journals. We’ve literally no confirmation that she’ll have what you’re hoping for. So you’re gambling on a gamble.”
Scorio pursed his lips and stared down and away.
“I know there are no other good options, but there’s a reason the Academy hasn’t filled its halls with imperial gel pools, right? If this was a shortcut that worked for Great Souls, you don’t think someone would have exploited it already?”
“They don’t need this exploit,” snapped Scorio. “Why go through the trouble of brewing and absorbing eight hundred doses of toxic Coal when you can just take a Fat Cricket or Glittering Sage pill?”
Leonis frowned.
“This is the answer for Great Souls who are all out of options,” said Scorio, taking a step forward. “Great Souls like me. Who aren’t content to accept what the Academy sees fit to dole out. Unlike everyone else, who happily gets in line with their notched badges and accepts elite treasures like their Luminous Ghost dust pouches. I won’t let the Academy crush me. I won’t let it tell me how good I’m allowed to be. I want better, and since I’ve ruined my own chances of getting a House sponsorship, all I’m left with is a vat of Imperial Ghost Toad Imperial Gel.”
Leonis let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just don’t understand why this is worth risking your life over. Such a wild gamble. You could bow out, leave the Academy, and then try for the Rascor Plains. Join one of the lesser outfits, work your way up the ranks. With your talent and determination, you’d be making a name for yourself in a couple of years. All sorts of opportunities might open up for you.”
“Might,” repeated Scorio with emphasis. “And if they don’t? What if I’m turned away everywhere I go for being a Red Lister with a tarnished reputation? A Great Soul who flunked out of the Academy and is a known criminal associate? What if all I find are more people eager to use me?”
To which Leonis had no answer.
Scorio took a deep breath. “I appreciate what you’re trying to say. I’m sorry if I’m being…intense. But I won’t let anyone kick me around. I won’t wait patiently at the back of the line when the line itself is an artificial creation. I’ll be damned if I let Praximar decide my future, and I’ll do whatever it takes to control my own destiny. And if I fail? If I get it wrong? Then I’ll die. And someday, a year, or ten, or a hundred from now, I’ll be reborn and give it another shot.”