Sheridan took a breath and then continued. “Enhancement elixirs work more like your attunement; they flood the body with mana. That can be useful in moderation, but as you’ve seen with your own attunement, there’s a maximum benefit you can achieve without causing the body harm.”
I rubbed at my chin, thinking. “Okay. But none of that explains how the brand worked that Katashi gave me, or how he changed that into an attunement.”
“You’re quite right, that’s something different. Unfortunately, it’s not something I’m allowed to explain.”
“You sure there’s nothing else you can tell me?”
“Anabelle Farren.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Head researcher for artificial attunements in Caelford. If you really want to know how that brand worked, or how to give someone else an attunement in general, you should talk to her.”
That sounded like something that I absolutely needed to do, but that I couldn’t do immediately. Caelford was weeks away by train, and I wasn’t done with the school year. And even if I was, I didn’t find it likely I’d be able to slip away to Caelford any time soon.
Still, it was good to finally have a name of someone I could talk to. It was both a lead on how to research my own abilities and potentially relevant to Tenjin’s whole situation.
“Anabelle Farren,” I repeated. “I’ll look into that. Thank you.”
Sheridan smiled. “Good. Now, I think I’ve given you enough secrets for one day.”
I nodded and stood up. “Thank you. You’ve been a tremendous help.”
Sheridan waved a hand dismissively. “You were entertaining. That’s a good enough exchange for me.”
After talking to Sheridan, it occurred to me that I still hadn’t heard anything from Derek about the other Theas sibling.
There was a part of me that was still tempted to confront Elora directly. She was a key part to all this, but she was also vastly more powerful and influential than I was, and I wasn’t sure if I could deal with her safely. Things clearly hadn’t gone as she’d planned, and I didn’t know if she was still working with Tristan or not.
I decided to ask Derek first. “She’s not around,” he explained.
“Around?” I asked. “What does that mean?”
“She’s apparently been in Dalenos for a month or so.”
I stared at Derek. “Isn’t that around when the grand cathedral in Dalenos exploded?”
I deliberately didn’t mention that my mother was also in Dalenos. This news strengthened the possibility that Elora was working with Mother in some way.
Derek shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like her style.”
“But kidnapping a visage is?”
“That was unusual for her, admittedly. But blowing up a major place of worship seems too…messy for her. She values precision. Organization. The kind of random destruction caused by something like that wouldn’t appeal to her.”
“But you’re not ruling out that she could have been involved?”
Derek sighed. “No. I can’t rule anything out at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a part of the same organization that she’s working with that caused the explosion, I’m just saying I doubt it was her personally.”
I nodded. “Do you have any way of getting in touch with her at a distance? Wayfarer, that sort of thing?”
“I already sent her a few messages. She hasn’t bothered to reply. She’s probably still angry about…well, lots of things.”
That was inconvenient, but I could work around it. “Okay. Point me to your Wayfarer, and I’ll contact her.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Derek frowned. “If she’s reminded that you exist, that gives her a reason to start paying more attention to you.”
“Is that a problem?”
“You do not want Elora Theas’ attention unless you can control that attention.”
I twisted my lips in concern. I didn’t like the sound of that. “I’ve managed to keep up with Sheridan so far. I think it’s worth a try.”
“Deni and Elora are not the same…but it probably won’t hurt. Okay, I’ll give you some directions and write my friend a note.”
Derek gave me a letter, as promised, and sent me to a Wayfarer on the other side of town.
I wrote a brief letter, hoping it would get me an effective response.
Dear Lady Theas,
Please forgive me for the unsolicited message.
This is Corin Cadence, son of Magnus Cadence and Laura Lyran.
I believe we have both been involved in some matters relating to the Serpent Spire, and I would like to arrange for an exchange of information.
It is my hope that we can be of use to each other.
Sincerely,
Corin Cadence
The Wayfarer sent the message for a discount, but it still cost me more than I would have liked. I planned to get back to enchanting and selling goods as soon as the exams were over.
For the moment, I just had to hope the message was worth the cost.
Two more weeks passed.
It was week twenty-six, with four weeks before the winter ball.
I was far from idle during that time.
I continued training with my Arbiter attunement, using it to bolster Patrick and Marissa’s mana, as well as the power of my own Enchanter attunement.
Sera wouldn’t let me check her mana for a while, claiming that she didn’t like me bothering her all the time. When she finally let me check her a couple weeks after the exam, her mana registered at 24/24 — more than I’d started the semester with. I still wasn’t comfortable using my Arbiter attunement to make her stronger, but she was getting to the point where she was something closer to a functional Summoner again.
She still had difficulty speaking, though, and pushing herself always resulted in a series of wracking coughs. Sheridan apparently paid her a couple more visits and continued to help heal the mana scarring damage, but I wasn’t around for any of them.
My own attunements were still growing stronger. My Arbiter attunement was up to 121/121 mana, and my Enchanter attunement was at 90/90.
In terms of the rating system, that meant I’d moved up from Carnelian E to Carnelian D for my Enchanter attunement, and my Arbiter attunement was already at Carnelian C. I was well ahead of most of my classmates at this point, although I’d heard about a couple truly outstanding cases that had already gotten even further.
After I hit Sunstone, advancing further would get exponentially harder. The mana requirements for each attunement level went up six-fold for each level. People at higher attunement levels generally gained mana more quickly as well, but only a little bit, not six times faster.
If I wanted to catch up to people like Derek, I’d need to keep finding ways to increase mana capacity faster.
It was with that in mind that I spent most of the first week trying to make an enhancement elixir.
I had a unique advantage in that endeavor. I didn’t need a complex and expensive apparatus to purify my mana: my attunement handled that. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only difficult part of the process.
First, I had to figure out how to create mana in a liquid state. I’d gotten much better at making solid mana crystals, but making liquid mana was a slightly different technique.
I asked Vellum for advice. This was, as usual, a mistake.
“Oh, making Citrine-level potions now? Congratulations, you must have taken two years of potions classes and graduated from the university while I wasn’t paying attention.”