Jump.
I pushed myself further, trying to conceal myself from view. I wasn’t going to get very far with just the ring moving me, but maybe Saffron would forget about me if I was lucky.
At the moment, he was walking toward Elora. She hurled blasts of fire and lightning from her hands, but he just walked through them, ignoring the attacks entirely. They vanished when they hit him.
An expression of understanding crossed Elora’s face, and she changed tactics. “Torrent of Stone.” A tornado of dozens of stone spears appeared around her.
“Interesting strategy.” Saffron turned toward her and tilted his head in acknowledgement. “You’ve summoned actual stone. Only the force carrying them is magical.”
The spears flew forward in a swarm, slamming into him.
On contact, they shattered into splinters.
“Unfortunately, they’re simply not good enough. I do commend your efforts, though.” He nodded. “Wait a moment. Why do you look so familiar?”
While they were distracted with each other, I reached into my bag.
I needed a way to get myself out of there, and I couldn’t do it while I was forced to remain seated.
“Retrieve: Ring of Derek Controlling.”
The ring that Orden had used to control Derek wasn’t explicitly designed to control him, but I used the name because it was memorable.
An ordinary Enchanter wouldn’t have had much use for the ring, unless they were the one who had made it. It stored a bit of Orden’s mana inside a rune, which made the runes respond to her voice commands.
I understood how it worked because I’d made several of the same type of rune while working on the tiles for Teft’s final exam.
Orden was a wise enough Enchanter to put anti-tampering runes on it to prevent any of the runes from being added or removed.
She did, not, however, account for an Arbiter, who could purify the mana in a rune that already existed.
I touched the rune that contained Orden’s mana and activated my Arbiter attunement. In moments, Orden’s mana signature was gone.
“You will desist at once.” Elora’s voice trembled.
“Will I now?…Oh, no. I know where I know you from.” Saffron broke into a fit of laughter, doubling over. “Oh, how fun! I never thought… No, I can’t. Ah, this is so unfortunate.”
A spear burst from the ground under him, its crystalline form sparkling like diamond.
It pierced straight through Saffron’s chest.
Blood pooled around the wound.
Elora waved a hand. Five more spears shot up from the ground, piercing through his body with similar ease.
“Trash.” Elora coughed. She must have been overusing her lung mana with all those spells. “You’ll pay for—”
Saffron’s hand reached down, snapping the first spear in twain. After that success, I saw a blur of rapid motion as he destroyed the rest.
He tumbled to the ground, then reached backward awkwardly to extract the remains of the spears from his body. “Fascinating.” He coughed, tossing a bit of spear to the ground. “That was unexpected.”
I slipped the ring on my hand.
I wasn’t sure it would work, but I had to try.
I whispered to myself, “Stand up.”
The ring activated immediately. I felt perception mana flood into me from the enchantments as the command took effect.
…But I didn’t stand.
Saffron’s spell was stronger than the ring.
I felt my heart pounding in my chest as panic threatened to overwhelm me. But I had to keep fighting. I wouldn’t let myself stop.
The conflicting commands burned in my mind, and I shivered with effort. “Stand up,” I repeated. The ring activated again.
Saffron cracked his neck, then his body blurred, and the remaining spears had been tossed to the side.
And as I watched, the gaping wounds on his body began to close. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve found anything that can hurt me.” Saffron bowed toward Elora. “You have truly impressed me.”
“Keep watching.” Elora clapped her hands together.
A dozen more of the diamantine spears burst from the ground.
But they didn’t hit anything.
Saffron was next to Elora now. “I’m afraid that won’t work a second time. I was quite distracted at first. But I was complimenting you. You shouldn’t be so rude.”
Elora took a step back. “You’re—”
He raised a bloodstained finger toward her lips. “Ssh.”
Elora glared at him.
“Stand up!” I told myself again, still shivering as the conflicting mana worked within my body.
Saffron’s spell snapped.
Slowly, I stood up, just in time to see Carter walking toward me.
Saffron was still staring at Elora. “Now, tell me, where did you get that face?”
Elora glared at him for one more moment, then looked to where the soldiers were lying bleeding on the ground.
“This is a simple question. Where. Did. You. Get. Your. Face.”
“My parents, obviously.” Elora took a step back.
Saffron shook his head. “No, no. That’s not what I meant. Think about my question.”
Carter dropped into a fighting stance as she approached, glaring at me. “You’re going to pay for screwing my cover.”
Resh, almost made it.
She’s probably Citrine level or higher, and a leg marked. That means she’s close combat focused. I don’t know if I can handle her.
I reached into my bag again as Carter drew closer. “Retrieve: Signaling Stick.”
Carter paused, staring as I pulled the stick out of the bag.
“Not one step closer.” I waved the stick. “You know what this is.”
Carter continued to approach, but more cautiously. “Might just be a stick you found on the floor.”
Elora was still talking to Saffron, but I couldn’t focus on that while my own life was at risk.
I moved my hands to brace for breaking it. “Think about how I recognized yours immediately, and how I recognized your mark.”
“You’re an Enchanter, you could have—”
I decided to gamble.
“I’d advise you to stop walking now. Sterling will be very upset if I call him all the way out here.”
I’d picked a random name, the first one I’d remembered from the “ess” names that Keras had given me.
From the way that Carter paled and took a step back, I took it I’d hit the mark. “Now, now, let’s not be hasty,” she said. “You just hand that over to me and we’ll get this sorted out.”
“Not going to happen. You stand down, and I’ll talk this over with your master directly. Then you can tell him why you were involved with interrupting my mission for this nonsense.”
“I didn’t—”
My gamble was working, but there was a problem.
Saffron seemed to have run out of patience for Elora, and now his hands were wrapped around her neck.
If I let things go, maybe I could have simply talked my way out of the situation. If I’d sold Carter with my lies, maybe Saffron would have listened, too.
But even if I didn’t approve of everything that Elora had done, I couldn’t just watch her die.
Not just out of my general pacifism, in this case.
She was my best lead on information about my brother.
I took a few steps forward, ignoring Carter. She actually stepped away from me as I moved closer to Saffron.
I whispered to myself. “Don’t listen to any of Saffron’s commands.”
The ring activated again. I didn’t know if doing that in advance would be enough to shield me if he commanded me again, but it was better than nothing.