"It wasn't my fault!" I shout behind me as I clutch the stolen card to my chest and sprint around the corner. Spells slam into the wall behind me, sending chips of stone flying. "Just stop, I can explain!"
They don't stop. My body knew they wouldn't; I'm still running at full tilt. No part of me really believes there's any way out of this. My one hope is that I can run long enough and far enough for them to forget.
The warm fire of the card against my heart is proof they won't.
Merien, I swear, you are dead. If you're not out of the city already, you better get running, because this is not something I can sweep under the rug.
No more excuses this time. I don't care what he's gotten himself mixed up in and I don't care how he tries to justify it. Some things you just don't do.
I grab at the wall as I careen around another corner, not a moment too soon. I'm only three steps away when a fireball splinters the wood facade, setting fire to the fragments as they fly in all directions.
Almost to the main thoroughfare now. I glance down at the card. Another two hundred twenty-three heartbeats to full charge. With how frantically mine's pounding I'd have expected it to be filled already.
The second's glance already wasted several, so I press it back to my chest and look up--
Just in time to slam full-on into a passing merchant's mechanical horse. I bounce off the copper and gold contraption and next thing I know I'm on the ground with half my face numb and my skull throbbing like my brain's trying to burrow out the back of it.
The man seated atop the contraption stares down at me. I can't tell his expression, but it's probably either avarice or disinterest. There's no other reason for anyone like him to pay attention to someone like me.
"You shouldn't try that without a resonator," is what he says instead, and tosses me a small glass and copper cube, like an oversized die with a round opening on one side and angular patterns carved deep into the glass on each of the other faces.
Before I finish examining the thing and look up, his steed has already clip-clopped its way into the crowd.
"There he is! Grab him!"
I scramble to my feet and dive into the crowd. Something wraps around my waist and tugs me back sharply.
I'm overbalanced. I slam flat to my back, breathless for the second time in under a minute. The cube slips from my hand and bounces away across the stone as the cord drags me away, back into the alley.
I don't dare look at the card again. I'm counting heartbeats, pulsing in my head, roaring in my ears. It has to be getting close. It has to be getting close...
Someone grabs the back of my shirt and hauls me to my feet, then slams me against the wall. The thick coil around my waist snaps to it like a magnet, holding me tight with no way to escape.
"It wasn't me," I protest breathlessly. The card remains pressed to my chest. Please... "It's not what you think."
The man standing in front of me is tall and thin, and his arms and legs have the faintly metallic hue that implies augmentation from birth. He's holding a spellbook in one hand, casually held open with a thumb as it hangs at his side, and has his other raised in command to the two men with him. They're shorter, only a little taller than me, and heavier. They're not even out of breath from our little chase, and I'm gasping like a beached fish.
"Hmmmm." He leans forward, takes a step toward me. Between one blink and the next, a set of spectacles with mismatched lenses appears on his face. The right side is clear, showing the jade-green of his eyes, while the other is like a window into an endless well, a swirling curtain of blue stars and silver fog.
I flinch back against the wall, but I can't look away.
"I believe you." He sounds surprised. He gives a twitch of a headshake and the spectacles vanish as suddenly as they appeared. "So you're an unsuspecting pawn in all of this, are you?"
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I nod.
"You have no idea what you're holding, do you?"
I hesitate, glance down at the card. It's written in Highenish, which I don't know how to decipher, but the countdown at the bottom and the central image are easy enough to understand. Only 18 heartbeats to go, but I can't imagine he'll let me charge it any further. "A shield?" I hazard.
"Not just a shield. The shield."
"I'm sorry. I'd give it back if I could."
"You don't need to apologize. You're as much a victim in this as them." He jerks his head to indicate his pair of cronies.
They look at him, then each other, confused.
In the moment their attention leaves him, his fingers twitch. Twin fireballs blast out from his spellbook and incinerate the pair in a burst of heat and conflagration that makes me flinch. The stone behind me heats up uncomfortably, even through my clothing. The ground is melted into a pair of rapidly-cooling puddles of lava.
"Fortunately," the man continues, as though he didn't just kill two people right in front of me, "you are a lot more valuable than they could ever dream."
I swallow uneasily. I should answer, but words escape me. He just killed his underlings. Right in front of me. Without pause. For no reason. Who is this man? I glance back at the busy thoroughfare at the other end of the alley.
He follows my gaze and laughs. "No one cares. Even if they saw, no one would do anything. You are mine now." A twitch of his hand, the invisible cord around my waist tugs me closer to him, and he lowers his voice and leans in close, so there's no chance of being overheard. He presses the card back against my chest, eyes boring into mine as each of the eighteen remaining heartbeats pass. "This is your one choice."
The card goes hot and soft under my fingertips, like I'm holding a half-cooked omelet. I have to use both hands to keep the card from slipping away. It's not solid any more, it's a puddle of liquid. My eyes dart to the fallen resonance cube, suddenly grasping what its purpose must be. It's way too far away for me to reach, all the way at the mouth of the alley.
"You can surrender this power, release it back to the aether, and I will bring you to the Enuvai to pass their judgment on you. You can give them your story, but I see no future in which they show mercy on one who has destroyed the sanctity of their succession game."
I shiver and shake my head. He's not wrong, but the fact that he's framing this as a choice has my mind racing to think of what the alternative could be.
He only continues to watch me, waiting. He's going to make me ask. Bastard.
"What's the choice?" My voice is hoarse, barely recognizable as my own, and dull with resignation. I knew the moment I unwrapped the card that the Enuvai would kill me for it. The only question is how long and painful the path is to that end. "You want me to lie to them for you?"
"No. The other option is that I lie to them for you." He reaches out and closes my hands over the warm pool of liquid power. "Take it. Hold it. Embody it. Your life is forfeit and you know that as well as I do." He flicks his fingers toward the alley mouth and the resonance cube lifts itself from the ground and zips over to his waiting hand. He holds it out to me. "I will arrange for you to live somewhere far away, where the Enuvai cannot reach you. In return, you will swear to serve me and protect my house's interests. Travel where you will, but any time you see my mark, you will go to that person and offer your service. I do not care who or what. If they refuse you, you are not obliged to press them, only make the offer."
I'm not sure I can believe what I'm hearing. "You want to sponsor me to leave the city?"
"I am offering to buy your life. Call it what you will. It will serve my interests regardless of how you title it."
I look down at the cube held out toward me. Then the man's other hand, still holding the spellbook that he used to melt two men instantly into ashes buried in liquid stone.
It is no choice at all, and we both know it, but I find myself desperately grateful for the facade of dignity it grants me. And perhaps another man would have chosen to do what the Temple would demand, release the stolen power and atone for its transgression, but I know better than most that doing what the Temple demands serves only them. It would earn me no favors and end with me just as dead.
"I accept." I tilt my cupped hands, allow the liquid power to fill the resonance cube. It fits perfectly. The icon of the shield floats on its surface, and the text that was on the card's top now surrounds the circular opening. But though the cube is tilted, the power within doesn't slant like normal liquid, but remains suspended perfectly in its center. I turn it this way and that, and even holding it fully upside-down the shield card doesn't fall. I look up at him and find he's backed away to the other side of the alley. "I don't know what this mark of yours looks like."
He doesn't answer. "What field do you wish to pursue?" he asks instead.
"Field?" Things are happening so fast, I don't even know how to react any more. It feels like everything is distant and blurred. Uncertain. I just can't figure out what he's asking.
"Of magic. You hold an unsealed card of Gold rank. You will need to choose a vessel and a path. I can find you a teacher, but the decision of what to study must be yours."
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