Hours into his rune forging training, Declan was surrounded by his own failure. Broken rune-stones sat in piles and his natural sense of loss kept mounting, even though Ava only smiled more with every failure. It wasn’t like he didn’t succeed in crushing together tier zero runes. It wasn’t like he couldn’t, with effort, combine tier ones. Starting with tier two he was forced to use the station and it was like painting with only his pinkies.

  Cousin Joshi had come in two hours earlier, taken one look at the stack of broken stones and laughed so hard he started choking. “That almost makes up for yesterday. The look on your face. It’s easy to watch and hard to do.”

  “Don’t.” Ava slapped his hands as Declan reached for the rune on the station.

  It would be so easy to use Insight to align the runes and then force them with the gears. She wanted Declan to use the meters. To record the values before the merge. “You’re learning. You think a rune forger has ever been trained who didn’t fail more then they succeeded? Not at first. That’s enough practice, you’re losing focus and you can’t learn like that.”

  Declan sorted the stones, counting. “Eleven destroyed runes and four successes. I had a better rate by hand and the runes I produced were terrible. They feel terrible, like they’re still desperate to get away from each other.”

  “Learn first, adapt second. We’ll fire up the glint array tomorrow when we send out supplies to the Academy.” Ava handed him a broken rune. “It’s a tradition: you keep the first failure. Tier eight runes are unbelievably dificult to forge. You need to match the concepts they represent and adapt. Intent becomes as important as position and adjustment. It takes a master to maintain an intent that bridges slightly different visions of the same concept.”

  “Thank you.” Declan couldn’t say it enough.

  Ava wouldn’t tolerate it more than once. “You’ve heard the Sun Queen’s bidding, the same as every end of court. ‘Rise.’ That’s what we do. We rise and we raise those around us. House Taylor is probably the most strict you’ll encounter. You’ve seen the happy side. We are equally harsh on ourselves and others.”

  “I’ve seen that in Rohan. The ArCore was practically killing themselves when the new swarms broke out.”

  Ava nodded. “We focus too much on what the house gains for their service and not on the cost. Take care of my nephew. Not combat wise. He’s so much more powerful than you it hurts. People are a medicine like no other. Which reminds me, we skipped something. Come.”

  Together they descended through the keep to the ground floor, where the market was in full swing. The destination was a medical post where Declan was subjected to a careful check. His busted lip had completely healed. Rohan had tried to tell him, the Sun Queen’s presence was healing. Which meant…

  “Your mana channels are healthy, though not hardened. It’s quite curious, they’re not ruptured, bruised or inflamed, but they lack the reinforcement I’d expect in even the least developed arcanist. Be gentle with your rune use and you should be fine.” The doctor stepped back. “Orbit a rune.”

  Declan didn’t have one he could orbit, but he launched the mana stone and let it circle. The wash of mana that came in was faint, almost weak. Then he soul-cast a rough Deflect. The mana coming in was the same from each orbit, but the wave no longer filled his soul. He could channel it down faster than it filled. Deflect activated, and relief flooded him. “That would have been the end of my dreams.”

  “You can recover from ruptured mana veins but it takes time and treatment,” the doctor said. “Steady, constant casting, don’t overdraw mana, don’t over-cast. I don’t know if it’s possible to combine over-casting and soul-casting but don’t try.”

  “One more duty,” Ava said. “I heard you yesterday, but my brother wants to meet you. It’s not every day the Sun Queen speaks aloud to the court. That’s reason enough for him to take interest. Then he’s heard Rohan’s accounts and probably read my notes on your process by now. Beren is House Lord, but also the most fair man I know. Even if he’s technically House Lord, I’ll smack him if he doesn’t behave.”

  “Let’s get it over with. Despite what Rohan said, I’m quiet.”

  “Driven. Sneaky.” She read his surprise. “What? You don’t openly grasp for power but I saw the look as you worked. I know that look. I felt it myself when I was younger, you want to make the most powerful runes you can. Pursuing power is not wrong. Blindly pursuing power is.”

  Together they rose on a quick lift, this time only going a few floors up. Declan slowed as they approached a pair of double doors, remembering his Etiquette.

  Guards opened the door to a beehive of a room. Messengers entered and exited, all of them approaching the central desk, where Beren Taylor sat. He was Rohan made mature, the same lean, muscular build, a greying beard and thinning white hair, a gaze Declan felt was both kind and cutting. If Lady Domine had measured and planned for every eventuality, Beren Taylor measured each person and kept his evaluation to himself. “We don’t have that much cloth, we only got three wagons from the capital and we owe two to the Huto. Tell Perth they get one. Consequences may come, I accept them.”

  To the delegation of three in white on his right, he focused next. “We’ll send soldiers to the Foundry on a rotating basis, not a permanent one. If House Sullivan can’t secure its most valuable posesssions we will. But it will be brought to court in a month.”

  “That won’t be necessary. In a month, we’ll have the support to handle swarms ourselves,” the leader answered. “For now we welcome the garrison.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Hold off, give me fifteen minutes,” Beren said, standing. He passed by Declan and gave Ava a hug. “You missed your appointment.”

  “I was…teaching,” she answered. “Also, I didn’t want to do it and it wasn’t my duty. It’s yours, oh great and glorious House Leader. You’ll always be Little Bear to me.”

  He stiffened. “Ava, not in front of guests!”

  “Because you were so—”

  “Don’t.” He snapped.

  “Beary cute!” Ava finished. “You don’t order me, House Leader.”

  The display of self control on the House Lord’s face was impressive. He calmed and focused on the ground before looking up. “Declan Thorn of House Ariloch. Good to meet you.”

  History collided to support Etiquite for the proper answer, a chance to impress. “House Ariloch extends formal greetings to House Taylor. As it was when the Donghi horde swept over you, so it will be. You stand firm and let the waves break against you. Across you? Let the wave—ash and shit, that’s House Kell.” Declan covered his mouth. “I mean, good to meet you too. I’m still learning Etiquette. And History, apparently. And Rune Forging, today!”

  “You tried,” Lord Taylor said. “We ask only the best of every person they are capable of. We accept nothing less. You’ll do better next time. Now, I am very pleased with Harry’s report on you. Trades like this are like trials. There’s always risk but there’s no such thing as avoiding risk. I see you found synergy between two runes?”

  “Two are definitely chain attacks. Squall followed by sword, but there’s supposed to be something else after that. Something that uses the mana imprint left after the sword does its effect. The other two are interchangeable, I think. Maybe. Like Harold Taylor’s rune, except he’s flat out using it wrong and those two, if there’s a right, I don’t know what it is.” He was dangerously close into falling into that pit trap again, trying to puzzle out the intent from his image of what the result would be. “There’s supposed to be more. It’s not that the runes won’t work. The sword will cut if you use it first. More importantly it will slow. Squall will…it’s terrible. It should only be used when you can chain it. Same with the lightning runes, they’ll work but the imprint will fade because there’s nothing to build on it.”

  “Rune sets are guarded. Synergies are less guarded because any fool can learn them by testing enough and some synergies are just logical,” Beren said. “We have runes from a set that are eight hundred years old and have never found the missing piece. We can’t even forge one that would stand in with lesser effect. But it’s another piece of the puzzle.”

  So much connected now. “That terrible armor rune is terrible because you’re trying to make a rune that fits a set. A set you didn’t build and don’t have the pieces for.”

  “Correct.” Beren’s eye had a new gleam as he looked on Declan. “That, as you put it, ‘shit rune’ came very close to functioning. And the person testing it survived, this time.”

  “What are you trying to bridge?” Declan asked, growing more excited. “The answer is in the mana imprint. The one you built won’t work because the right hand half is cut off from the imprint. It might not explode but my gut says it won’t work.”

  “Your ‘gut’ matches our testing,” Lord Taylor said, crossing his arms. “If you’d like to accept an oath-stone I’d be delighted to share the rune sequences with you. Otherwise, I am truly grateful. I’d like to reward your effort with something to help you grow.”

  Ava stepped in front of Declan. “Absolutely not. You give him a rune forging station and he’ll die two weeks from now, forging some tier nine monstrosity in a basement at midnight. Growth, not death.”

  “If you want to take him on as a student, it would make a nice hobby for you, as opposed to your current one of making me miserable. I was thinking a rune atlas to clear out Asa’s workshop. We once dabbled in inscription. In return, if Declan should choose to spend a few hours studying some of our collection? A decent trade.” He sounded smug.

  It sounded fantastic. “I’d appreciate that. Insight works better when I know similar runes or constructs. And while I won’t offer an oath, I will say that everything I saw here is your business, not mine. I intend to offer this service to many of the major houses. I mean to build relationships with most.”

  “Not all?” Lord Taylor asked.

  “Not all. I’ve seen the underside of a couple of them and won’t forget it. All the cheer in the world won’t erase what I know.” Declan was decided on that.

  But he’d upset Lord Taylor, the man’s growing frown said. “Don’t confuse choosing to see the best in people with not recognizing the worst. Don’t mistake kindess for naievety. I look forward to seeing you grow. And, if I’m honest, to the benefits my house will reap.”

  “That’s honesty I can accept. Maybe we grow together? I…forgot what the proper agreement closer response is. I think my instructor was more worried about greetings than goodbyes. I’ll be practicing both.” Declan did remember the short bow.

  His retreat was quick and his relief palpable. Declan leaned against the stone, trying to keep the grin on his face contained. “Thank you, Ava.”

  “Don’t thank me,” she said. “You and I need to sit down and talk about what this really looks like. I enjoyed our session today. I’ll take you on as a occasional student, say, once a week? I provide the right tier rune-stones. A limited number per session so you don’t chew through them. You analyze runes for us the first part and learn the second.”

  “That sounds fantastic,” Declan said.

  “That’s because you haven’t considered the details. Let’s say you do manage to forge something decent. It belongs to us. There’s not much point in storing runes forged past tier three, but your work accrues to us. You take home only the knowledge.”

  Again, this felt like a reasonable trade, for less rin than he would have spent on a class at the Academy. “I have a question about tier zero runes. I saw bins for Protect, Strike, Gather, and Combine. Why not Pierce?”

  “Because the monsters that give it aren’t worth hunting. Even the tier zero ones can kill a man with a lucky hit, and even if you did get a full rune, it’s still a Pierce. Anything it does you can do a thousand times better with a higher tier start.” Ava slowly walked him back to the lift. “What do you plan to do until the glint opens?”

  “I was thinking maybe heading to the armory, looking at a few more of those runes,” Declan said. “Or that rune atlas.”

  “Rune atlas.” She spoke it with contempt. “We don’t need a rune atlas. My brother’s kind gift is him dumping something we don’t want to store. We contract with House Harding for identification and no longer waste our efforts with inscription.”

  “Then you won’t mind me studying?”

  “No reading!” Ava slapped him behind the head lightly. “You’re too much like my nephew. Life is not all monsters, runes, potions and battle. I’m banning you from the armory. And your room, in case Beren tries to leave an atlas volume. Go down into the market. The Huto dancers perform there every night, don’t come back until midnight. Later, if you want extra credit. With company for extra extra credit.” She dug in a pocket, removing a string of three silver beads. “And don’t drink the fermented fruit bowls. You’ll be in medical for two days and the bathroom for two days after that.”

  He couldn’t study runes, wouldn’t go outside to face monsters, and was stuck watching sword dancers while drinking watered down rum. It was a good night in spite of that.