CHAPTER 12

“Malco, come on.”

Rev snorts and rolls her eyes, but Medrein isn’t so quick to answer. There’s something to his expression. A splash of curiosity.

“Was a Challenger,” he says. “A long time ago.”

“But…” Rev starts. She can’t believe it. “You won? You have levels?”

Medrein doesn’t answer. His eyes are fixed on mine.

“But levels are rare,” Rev says, like she’s trying to talk sense into us. “Among normal people, you... you’d have to…”

She stutters into silence.

“The Challenge hasn’t existed that long!” she protests finally. “You were never gone, how could you…”

An awful possibility rears its head in my mind.

“Are you a Godtouched?” I ask.

This time, it’s Medrein who snorts, disturbing motes of dust floating in the sunlit air. He shakes his head, genuinely amused.

“No, son,” he says. “I’m not a Godtouched.” He turns to Rev. “Levels aren’t so rare as you think, though only fools flaunt theirs. And the Challenge… Well, what you know isn’t how it was in my youth, long before the Godtouched came.”

“You really lived outside of Reach?” Rev asks.

He gives Rev a condescending smile and then looks to me to find the same doubt on my face. His eyes dart back to Rev and again to me and his smile slowly dwindles. His brow furrows deeper and deeper.

“Is it that strange to think your own father may have been someone different when he was young?” he demands.

“Er… Yes?” I attempt.

Medrein’s face softens and he drags a hand through his messy beard. ”Hah. Of course it is. Of course.”

“Did you win the Challenge?” I ask slowly. “Is that how you got your levels?”

“Win is the wrong word. I survived it, yes, but you have to understand… It was a different time.”

“Why did you never tell us this?” Rev asks, a note of betrayal in her words.

“The Godtouched don’t look too kindly at people with levels who aren’t in their pocket,” Medrein answers. “Many paid dearly for the mistake of indiscretion.”

“The Godtouched only arrived in Reach when I was eight,” I say. “Before that…”

“Before that, they were already out in the world, causing trouble," he points out.

“But not for long enough that you’d have to hide that from us. Or at least not from Rev.”

Medrein holds my gaze steadily, but eventually nods.

“You’re right,” he concedes. “Even before the Godtouched arrived, I hid the fact that I possess levels. The reasons why I did that are my own,” he continues, dismissing our protests. “And not related to my story.”

I share a look with Rev. It’s clear that this line of questioning won’t take us anywhere, though everyone in this room is too stubborn to simply let it drop.

“My decision to shut myself away from the world outside of Reach is one that I’ve come to terms with,” Medrein says, before adding, more gently, “But it’s a decision that has impacted the two of you. What you know is, like you say, Rev, merchant gabble, stories fueled with Godtouched coin. Some things I cannot reveal, but others...”

He stares straight ahead, his eyes boring into the wall as if he’s hoping to find the right words inside it.

“The Challenge is old,” he begins. “Much, much older than the Godtouched, than me, than Reach, older even than its own name, it’s history lost to time. For eons, it had only one purpose that I know of: as a test. Its creators made it fair: everyone could attempt it and have the same chances of coming out alive. Any farmhand could become a hero, any prince could perish like a dog. Back then, it was not a contest between individual participants, it was a test between the Challenger and himself. That was the Challenge that I took.” He looks at Rev. “For the chance of a life away from Reach.”

If she understands the allusion, she doesn’t show it and remains silent. Entranced.

“But fair isn’t the same as kind. For every Challenger that walked out of the dungeon, there were many that were never seen again. It didn’t matter who you were when you went in, just what you were willing to do to come out. It tested each one to their limit and past it.”

“When the Godtouched arrived, I was already a Champion,” he said. Rev opens her mouth, but Medrein raises his hand before she can interrupt. “What that means is that I’d conquered a dungeon and gained levels, riches, and power. Nothing else. What the term has come to mean since then has nothing to do with it.”

Medrein pauses a moment, collecting his thoughts, before diving in again.

“Though Champions were rare when compared to Challengers, we weren’t as lacking as you may assume. Here in Red Harbor, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see one walk past on their way to or from some quest, or more commonly a tavern. That was the life many chose: as adventurers, conquerors of the unknown. Causing trouble and getting out of it again.” A little smile darts through his face, a flash of a distant memory, before his expression falls. “And then they arrived.

“Many Champions saw the Godtouched either as threats or as equals at first. The truth is we didn’t know what to make of them, and in any case they were far stranger than any of us could suppose.”

Medrein stands and walks up to Rev again, staring into his firstborn’s eyes. It’s like he’s speaking to her only. I disappear in the background almost by accident.

“Godtouched did not need the Challenge to gain levels. They got them anyway, almost by accident, no matter what they did, and they couldn’t die. They were like children, awed and mischievous in equal measure, stumbling around the world and knocking over everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor.”

I’m too afraid to interrupt and break the spell, but still exchange a look with Rev. Godtouched can’t die? That was knew information to me.

“When they discovered the Challenge, they saw it only as good fun. Something new to try that they hadn’t yet. The first to go in were a powerful group who had made a name for themselves in the city of Karth. They went inside to cheers from other Godtouched and not a little trepidation among the existing Champions. What if they breezed through the Challenge like they did with everything else? What if they proved beyond doubt that nothing was sacred, that the old world had truly come to an end. Alas, when only one survived… We thought that would teach them respect. Show them that at least one part of the world was sacred and fair.

“I hardly need to tell you how wrong we were.”

There’s a sudden, timid knock on the door. We all turn to find Palona standing there, half in the shadow, already a little bowed.

“Pardon, sirs,” she says. “There are men downstairs. Soldiers-like. They say they want the young miss.”

We look at Rev. Her arms are still coiled around her body. She stiffens, but then breathes out slowly and her posture becomes relaxed. She smiles.

“Those will be the guild men,” she says. “I only had a little while to say my goodbyes.” For a moment she seems full of doubt, as if the story had lulled into comfort and security, away from what she’d set out to do. An instant later she’s back to her old self. “No sense putting it off.” She starts walking around the room, digging through her things.

I follow her with my eyes, barely listening to what she’s saying. Medrein has his hands behind his back, staring straight ahead out through the window. Little details float into my awareness, random tidbits I hadn’t yet noticed. How bright copper Rev’s hair is, so different from my own. How amazingly weary Medrein is, no matter how straight his back and how level his voice. I’d be surprised if he slept at all between Reach and Red Harbor. Suddenly, Rev is standing in front of me. There’s a flash of red.

“…a memento, right?”

I shake my head.

“What?”

Rev smiles. She gives her hand a shake, and ruby lights dashes through the room.

“Hold on to it, all right? At least we took something from them.”

“I thought you’d gotten rid of it.” I take the vial. It’s warm from Rev’s pocket.

“As if I was going to get rid of thirty gold pieces,” she says with a grin. “Whatever this is, I can’t believe it’s worth that much, but who knows? Godtouched are insane. And I can’t take anything with me, in any case, so you watch over it, all right?”

I look into Rev’s eyes, her confident smile. I hug her tighter than I’ve ever hugged her before. I know part of it is a hug I wish I’d given Katha before she was taken.

No. Before she was given away.

Medrein’s blade is returned to its owner, though he takes it without words, looking at the object with something like distaste. Putting the sword aside, Medrein rests a hand on Rev’s shoulder. I wonder if he did the same to Katha before surrendering her to the Godtouched. Hate flashes through me like vertigo. Everything is wrong because of him. A Champion who couldn’t even protect his family. A father who gave away his own daughter and now salutes another as she leaves of her own volition.

“Here,” Rev tells Medrein, extending her hand. In it, there’s a round red circle, with a black sword emblazoned in the middle. “They gave me this at the booth. It’s for Challenger families, so you can go into the arena. You know. If you want to see how well I do.”

Medrein regards the token with clear disgust.

“I cannot watch you do that to yourself. I cannot. If you knew…”

“It’s all right,” she says gently. “I don’t have anyone else to give it to. I’ll see you at home in Reach, then.”

“You will never see Reach again, you stupid child!” Medrein explodes. “You’ll die in that hole! Don’t you see that? Don’t you…”

He relents then, squeezing the token in his hand and turning back to the window to fume. But Reva is uncowed.

“Before I go,” she says. “What Archetype did you get? Warrior, right?”

“Brawler,” he answers. “And then Armsmaster. Fool I was, fool I remained.”

“No, I mean Warrior, Rogue, Mage…?”

The look Medrein gives her when she turns is full of pity and regret. He takes a timid, hesitant step forward and stops in his tracks.

“The things you don’t know. The lies they wrought, it’s… Stay,” he says finally. It’s almost a whimper. “We’ll leave Reach. Start a new life somewhere. Don’t do this.”

If I’m shocked to hear Medrein beg, Rev’s expression shows every trace of the pain she feels. She realizes what she’s doing to him, how broken he’ll be when she says no, and how she must say no. She shakes her head. And with one last look back, Rev is gone. We hear her descend the stairs. Doors open, close, and she is gone.

“I want to be there,” I blurt out in the silence. Medrein turns to me a ghost, a shade. “I want to be there when they enter the dungeon. To wave goodbye to Rev and Katha.”

He just stares. I can tell that he’s having trouble understanding what I’m saying.

“I won’t stay to watch the Challenge,” Medrein says finally, hoarsely. “Nor will you want to when—”

“No,” I stop him. “Just the departure. To see them again. If it’s the last time.”

Medrein sets his jaw. Then nods.