The plan went smoothly from there, luck on our side for once as the corridor stayed clear of any potential witnesses. I had taken the ruined steel helmets with me, as well as all the cleaning supplies that I had taken into the safe room. I desperately wanted to keep the steel, just in case I needed it, but it was far too risky, even if I crumpled it up into an unrecognizable ball. So I went to the safe room right across the hall and dropped the mass of ruined steel into the cesspit under the Garrison. It would sink to the bottom, hopefully not to be found until hundreds of years in the future even if the entire structure needed to be renovated.

I went back into the hallway after scrubbing a few odd splashes of blood off of my hands and boots (Tetra and I had examined each other for splatter, but I was surprisingly clean… or maybe it was not so surprising, considering the nature of the fight). After confirming that I could indeed hear Tetra knocking on the door in the quiet hallway, and even hear her faint call if I put my ear close to the door, I ran off towards the kitchens, calling for help the entire time.

Even though matters were about as dire as I could imagine, I still felt a strange disinclination to lie… So I had already decided to just try and skirt around the truth as much as I could. I would obviously lie if I had too (lives were at stake here), but I had an odd desire to avoid any outright falsehoods whenever possible.

“Someone is trapped in a safe room!” I yelled, running up to the head servant in charge of the kitchens, my eyes wide as I tried my best to look panicked. “I heard a knocking, and when I checked there was a voice! You have to hurry!” All true, technically.

After asking for a few more details the head servant (not really a cook, just someone who told the cooks what to do) sent someone upstairs to inform the soldiers of House Flameward, clearly wanting to put the matter into their hands.

From there things moved quickly, but I didn’t have a chance to observe as I was told to return to Academy immediately. Of course I didn’t listen, but I couldn’t get all that close without being noticed. All I could do was monitor the situation from afar, staying back in one of the many empty safe rooms, to make sure that Tetra was treated well. If anyone started hurting her, or seeming like they might, I’d come out guns blazing weather I wanted to or not – when I got truly angry not acting wasn’t even an option. Luckily it was pretty hard to get me angry, outside of threatening a loved one or a friend (Tetra was somewhere in that category, but I wasn’t sure where).

I was already exhausted from expending so much energy over the last few hours, so after everyone cleared out – Tetra’s story having gone over well, it seemed – I made my way directly back to my rooms, skipping the final lesson of the day (with the Master of Water and her legends).

I had gotten off easy today. Trying to fight me with steel weapons and armor was like trying to drown a waterfall – and using lightning was even worse. But I had discovered a critical weakness today: Fire. I realized why the fireballs hadn’t seemed to damage my Ion Shield very much, and it was because the heat was all being absorbed by the Iron in my shield… the very iron that I was relying on for my ability to manipulate magnetic fields. Turning that iron into liquid, or even heating it up significantly enough, would make it just as magnetic as bronze – which is to say, not magnetic at all.

Of course, I could still use my powers even on non-magnetic materials, but it took a HELL of a lot more power and was nearly impossible to maintain for long periods of time.

I liked the power set I had come up with, and from what I could tell it was able to accomplish an astonishing amount with only a couple dozen Cultivation Points spent. By taking advantage of my knowledge of electricity and magnetism (from my time as an Electrician) I was able to wield powers far out of proportion with my cultivation level. I felt properly power-gamed, but I still had some serious weakness that I had to shore up…

As I walked through the silent halls of Academy (all the students and staff were in lessons, except for me), I pondered what direction I wanted to take things from here. Heat was a serious problem, as was my lack of ranged attacks when using magnetism. And I had to say, I liked the magnetism abilities way more than I liked the lightning: The way I was able to simply toss those soldiers around… no, toss those trained Cultivators around… was nothing short of amazing. I would have been fried on the spot if all I had was lightning, maybe taking one or two of them out with me if I got lucky.

So I was in pretty good shape against anything with steel in it. But, if they had attacked me in simple hand to hand combat, without armor, I would have been in serious trouble as well… So I needed to branch out, and the sooner the better if I was going to have all these crazy nobles coming after me.

----------------------

‘shouted’ Wolfram though the soul link.

I sent back a laugh, proceeding to explain as much of the situation as I could. I didn’t mention Tetra, however… for some reason I wanted to avoid telling my friend about her for the moment. Maybe after things had settled down.

Sent Wolfram after I had finished.

Wolfram was still pretty closeted by his family, only allowed out with escorts and along planned routes. He had still never been allowed to visit The City proper, always confined to his family’s estates… not that the estates were small. From what I understood, his family’s castle alone took up more space than the Fortress back in North Stone Village.

I sent,

sent Wolfram,

I was shocked at first that he would say something so ignorant... but then again Wolfram always did view the world a bit differently than I did. Where I was always pretty obsessed with fairness, treating everyone equally, he took a much more blasé approach to the whole equality debate. It’s not that he was against it, not at all actually, he just… didn’t care all that much – as long as he wasn’t being oppressed personally, of course. I think he was more of a realist than I was, in that sense, recognizing that the very laws of nature – survival of the fittest – made sure that true equality was never possible.

I said, struggling against slipping into ‘lecture mode’.

countered Wolfram,

I had to admit that he had a point – things were dangerous, but no more than I would expect in a typical medieval time period; and a heck of a lot more stable than I would have expected between our periodic beast attacks. I sent with a smirk.

He sent back a laugh,

I didn’t know whether to be reassured or disturbed by his comment. Maybe both…

-----------------------

Freeday had finally arrived, but I still hadn’t heard anything from Garrison about any deaths. I wished I had an easy way to get in touch with Tetra again… I might have to sneak into the fort after I got back. For the last few days things had continued on as normal, though Sylko had been absent the day after the attack. Her staff had been hard on all of us, probably under her instruction, but it hadn’t been as bad as the Master of Fire herself. Unfortunately she returned the next day, but although she seemed distracted and distant compared to her normal self (and I could easily guess why), she still went out of her way to make my life hard.

I might not get the chance at revenge that I had dreamed about, but in truth I was relieved because the way she was acting confirmed that she (and thus Alder) had bought our cover story. Surely she would have treated me differently if she had known I was capable of murdering three trained Hunters… well, killing one in self-defense, then murdering the other two. The thought still made me feel a bit queasy, but the surge of anger that came alongside it helped me cope.

I would have to be extremely careful now though… if I ended up attacking anyone and was found out, the dots might connect right back to me. And from me to my family.