Oh, cruel temptation. She wanted us to wonder.
I sighed.
“Mysterious towers” was one more thing I’d need to fit into my research schedule. If this secret tower was connected to the six Shifting Spires, maybe it could help illuminate some additional secrets about how the towers truly worked.
Late one night, I heard a knock at my door. This was not all that unusual in itself, but I was still a little bit worried about potential assassins. I brought my sword with me as I approached the door. “Coming!”
I opened the door a few moments later. Jin was standing outside. He was standing with his back straight, wearing an intensely serious expression. “Corin.”
I waved at him. “Oh, hey, Jin. Don’t have any more items ready for you just yet, sorry.”
He shook his head. “I am not here for that.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What can I help you with?”
He raised a gloved hand to his chin. “It has been brought to my attention that there is a formal social event coming up in the winter. It is customary for students to attend with a date.”
I winced. The last time someone had asked me to help them find a date to the ball hadn’t exactly ended well. “You want me to ask someone for you?”
Jin tilted his head downward and laughed nervously. “No, Corin. I want you to come with me to the ball.”
Oh.
Oh!
I blinked. “Uh, I mean, as a friend? Or as a date?”
“As a date, unless you have an objection.”
“I…uh…”
“Breathe, Corin. You can think about it.”
Thinking. Right.
I did some of that breathing thing.
I didn’t know what to say.
Jin had stood out from the first moment I’d seen him. He was strange; he seemed smart. Our interactions always left me grinning. Was I attracted to him?
I mean, he had a pleasing aesthetic. Athletic body and all. I liked the shape of his chin?
But that just meant I liked looking at him. I still didn’t — what if he wanted to… It honestly never occurred to me that this might be an issue. I had no interest in asking anyone out, and the thought of someone taking an interest in me hadn’t crossed my mind.
Now that he’d asked, though… Could I date someone?
My face was reddening.
I closed my eyes for a moment, flexing my hands in the air and taking a deep breath. “Okay. Breathing now. I think I’m interested? I’ve never really done anything like this before. And, uh, just so you know, I’m not that into…touching?”
He nodded. “I’ve noticed. It won’t be a problem. We can dance if you decide you want to. If not, I would be more than happy just to have you there to talk with me.”
I laughed, just a hair too loud to be natural. Dancing. Is that all?
I think I can handle dancing.
Maybe.
Maybe just talking. Talking is fine.
“Okay, let’s go with that, then. It’s a date.”
“I look forward to it.” The slightest smile crossed his lips. “Good night.”
I nodded hastily. “Okay. Great. Good night.”
Jin closed the door.
I stared at it for another few moments before retreating to my bed, heart pounding in my chest.
What have I done?
I don’t know how to date!
In spite of my panic, a spark of excitement had been lit. As the minutes passed and my anxiety faded, I once more found myself grinning after our conversation.
I had a date!
Twenty weeks into the semester. It was time for our second major exam, and I didn’t feel anywhere close to ready.
We assembled for a strategy session the day before the test. Fortunately, we were using Marissa’s room this time, on account of it being much larger than mine. She was still in the Tortoise’s Heart, indicating she was getting excellent grades, but the rest of us were still stuck in the normal ones.
Except for Jin, maybe. I wasn’t actually sure if he was still in the room above me — I rarely visited him directly. He’d usually found me.
Even with the extra room, it was pretty cramped with five of us, but I was glad to see everyone.
Especially since I had presents.
I passed out the sigils first, since I had one for everyone. They were a simple enough design — a few runes etched into the back of a copper phoenix, about the same size as our usual existing shield sigils.
“What’s this?” Patrick accepted his phoenix sigil, fiddling with the pin on the back. “Should I put it on?”
“Wouldn’t hurt anything.” I handed out the last one, which Jin eyed dubiously. “They’re self-recharging shield sigils. Higher capacity than the class-issued ones, and if they’re drained, they’ll refill completely in about an hour. You can still recharge them manually, but you won’t need to unless it’s an emergency.”
Marissa blinked. “Wouldn’t something like that be super expensive?”
I grinned. “If you had to buy them, sure. Fortunately, aside from the metal, I made everything I needed myself. They’re not much more complicated than a standard shield sigil — just a few extra runes to make them recharge automatically.”
Jin scratched at his chin, turning the phoenix over in his hands. “Useful. I wasn’t aware you had reached the point of making Carnelian-level items en masse.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten your list. In fact, I managed to get to one of your higher priority ones that I couldn’t make before.” I dug through the pouch on my side, withdrawing a monocle on a chain.
This one had been the toughest project yet — in part because of the amount of mental mana it required, and in part because I had to borrow a Shadow to test if it worked. Took three attempts to get everything working right, but it’d been worth it.
I handed it to him gingerly — I wasn’t going to risk tossing something so easily breakable.
In retrospect, maybe I should have thrown a resilience enhancement on it, too.
Jin lifted the monocle over an eye, frowned, and looked at his right arm.
Which promptly vanished.
I blinked, and I heard a few gasps from the others. We’d seen plenty of magic before, but Jin rarely showed off his capabilities in public.
Is he showing us a bit more trust, or is he just doing this as another step in obfuscating his real attunement?
I could ask him about it, but that might get him to retreat back into keeping everything to himself. If he’s a Spider, he probably can’t tell us anything more than he already has without losing points.
His arm reappeared a moment later. “Acceptable,” he pronounced. From the tiny curve of his mouth, though, I could see that I’d pleased him.
Patrick nudged me. “You going to share what that was with the rest of the class?”
“True Seeing,” Jin explained. “It sees through illusions and deceptions.”
“Mm.” I raised a finger. “Not quite True Seeing, unfortunately. That’s a higher level version of the same effect. But it generally functions the way you described — it just won’t work on extremely high level illusions.”
Jin gave a curt nod. “Of course. Thank you.”
“You got it.” I turned to Marissa next. “Your turn, Mara.”
She blinked. “You actually got me something? I, uh, there’s no way I can repay you for any of this…”
I laughed, startling her. “You’re a part of the team, Marissa. This is my contribution.” I looked around to the rest of the group. “Something we all need to be clear about — I’m not going to be able to pull the same kind of weight within the tests as the rest of you. Preparation is my strength. Sure, I’ll contribute ideas and muscle once we’re in there, but as you all get better with your attunements, the gulf in our abilities is only going to grow.”