Tibs swung the knife, pushing against the hand on his head, holding him in place, as hard as he could. Pyan’s back was arched, and that was enough to put her stomach out of reach of his blade.
She chuckled. “I get your point, well, more like it doesn’t get me. In a direct attack, it’s easy to stop you. But aren’t all of you rogues about sneaking and catching people unaware? Carrying a sword at your hip is going to get in the way of that.”
Tibs sheathed his knife as he stepped back. At least she hadn’t dismissed him outright when he asked her to teach him sword fighting, but this demonstration wasn’t going to be enough, it seemed.
“Not that I’m the kind of person who’ll sneak and stab you in the back,” he said, not bothering to mask his offense at her thinking every rogue was the same. “But in the dungeon, there aren’t a lot of chances to fight like that. There’s only two rooms with places to hide and sneak, and the rats make better use of the boulders than I could. I’ve tried throwing my knives, but Tandy can tell you how bad I am at it.”
The rogue behind Pyan covered her smile with a hand, but nodded when her team leader looked over her shoulder.
Tibs tensed as Fedora walked behind Geoff at the same time, but she was attentive enough not to try to pick his pocket with someone looking in her direction. They were at the edge of the fighter’s training field, so there was enough coming and going she didn’t stand out too much as she kept walking behind the team, and assessing them. He was going to help her do that faster. Without him distracting them, they’d have noticed her at this point.
“That just means you need to practice more,” Pyan said, focusing on him again.
“I don’t think there’s enough time in the year for him to improve significantly,” Tandy said, chuckling.
“I am not that bad,” he protested. He was, but she should be supporting him at least a little; they were both rogues, after all. “And until I do get better, there’s still the problem of surviving.”
She nodded. “True, but there’s the problem of your strength. I don’t know if you can get strong enough any faster. It might be best if you—”
Tibs quickly stepped forward and pulled the sword out of the scabbard at her hip, using earth essence to strengthen his arm, and raised it to her chest. He smiled and opened his mouth to make a point that he was stronger than he looked, but pain lanced through his arm as it cramped up and he dropped the sword.
“Tibs?” She hesitated while the rest of her team moved closer.
“I’m okay,” he said between breaths. So long as he kept his arm cradled to his chest, and didn’t jostle it, the pain was tolerable. “It’s that damned corruption.” It always passed, but would this time be minutes or hours?
He caught Fedora picking a coin out of Amid’s robe and felt better. She was taking full advantage of the distraction he was inadvertently providing.
“From when you saved the dungeon,” she said, awe in her voice. He glared at her. He endured it from strangers, people who weren’t Runners, who didn’t know him. But he knew she’d have done the same thing if she’d been the one Sto had called to. He was no different from any of them; just another Runner.
“I thought the clerics healed you.”
“They weren’t able to clear the corruption out entirely. They said it was because of how much there was.” They were right, he thought, even if they didn’t understand how it could happen. The corruption hadn’t seeped into his essence immediately, only as more of it spilled out of the box and onto him. “A lot of it cleared out by itself afterward. It’s not like what Don does. It’s not poisoning me, it’s just there, doing this—” he indicated his arm “—every so often.”
She picked up her sword and ran a finger along the edge. He felt the essence flow, even if he didn’t see the effect it had. Pyan wasn’t as showy with her use of essence as some Runners were.
“Sorry. I wasn’t planning on dropping it.”
She smiled. “It’s okay, an easy fix. But if there’s a chance your arm will seize up like this, I’m not sure now is the time to learn how to use a sword.” She considered something as she sheathed it. “Does it only happen when you strain yourself?”
He shook his head. “It just happens. How much I exert myself isn’t a factor. More like it’s looking to make my life miserable,” he grumbled.
“So it’s very much like Don.”
He chuckled along with them. Yes, in that aspect, the corruption sorcerer was very much like his element.
“I’m surprised they can’t get all of it,” Karl said. “Purity is the opposing element to corruption. You’d think they wouldn’t just give up on it.”
They couldn’t even tell there was any left in him anymore. They thought the cramping was Tibs seeking attention, and they’d told him to stop bothering them with this when he’d sought one of them out during one of his trips back to Kragle Rock.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, wincing as if the pain was especially high and getting Amid’s attention back on him. Fedora had fingers in his pocket again. And maybe Pyan was. What was the point of learning to properly hold a sword, only for him to drop it, or have his leg buckle under his weight?
“She’s right, Tibs,” Geoff said. “Focus on getting healthy, then see about learning something new. Learning already takes a lot out of you.”
He knew that. He had the headaches from learning his letters and numbers. “I just want to be more useful to my team,” he said. He did not whine.
“Says the person who took on an adventurer by himself,” the archer replied, “and won.” His expression turned serious. “Tibs, I don’t think any of us would even have tried it, let alone won. Don’t undervalue yourself.”
“You’d have done it,” Tibs replied. “The dungeon is our life. If you’d known what was happening, you would have done everything you could to protect him.”
Pyan and Geoff exchanged a look. “I’d like to think you’re right, Tibs,” she said, while the other three didn’t look certain. “But you’re the one who did it. Geoff’s right. You showed you’re valuable just by being willing to take on an adventurer. And that’s even if we don’t take into account the other ways you’ve helped your team. You were the first ones to open the Boss door, and I expect that’s because of you.”
“I doubt I was the first one to notice it. I just happened to have an element that let me make the tools I needed to pick the lock. If someone else had—”
“Tibs,” Geoff said, “the fact someone else could have done something doesn’t take away from what you actually did. I did a run with you, remember? Maybe you aren’t physically impressive, but you are smart, determined, and, probably even better: unlike a lot of people in this town, you’re eager to help. Once you’re healed, you’ll be back to being a great help to your team whether you learn to use a sword or not. But until then, you need to take it easy and let them look after you.” He smiled. “I’m sure there are plenty of other, rogue-related, skills you can still work on and that will make you an even better member of your team, right?”
Tibs nodded. The pain in his arm had lessened and maybe that contributed to him feeling better.
“Gotcha!” Karl exclaimed, grabbing Fedora’s arm. “I knew I’d felt something, you little piece of—”
“Karl!” Tibs called. “Don’t hurt her. I told her to pick your pockets.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The fighter stared at him in disbelief. “After Geoff went on about how helpful you’ve been, you’re stealing from us?”
“No, please. She’s Omega and she needs the practice. We’ve been there and you know how little they teach at the training ground. If none of you had noticed her, I’d have made her give everything back.”
Pyan glared at him, while Karl pulled Fedora forward. “You should have told me what you were doing, Tibs, not set this wanting to learn as an excuse to get us here, so she could train.”
“I do want to learn,” he insisted. “This just turned into a convenient way to add to her training. And if I’d told you, you’d have been on the lookout for her.”
“I wouldn’t have told the others, Tibs. And I wouldn’t have reacted if she’d stolen from me. It’s the courteous thing to do.”
“Leave him be, Pyan,” Geoff said, placing a hand on her arm. “He’s trying to help someone new to this. I know I’d have liked help when I got here.”
“I’m sorry,” Tibs said. “I didn’t think you’d mind.” He motioned for Fedora to return what she’d taken.
Pyan let out a slow breath and patted the archer’s hand. “Just check in with me next time.”
Tibs nodded. Not that there would be a next time, with the others looking at him suspiciously. Fedora only had a few coppers and one silver, which she stared at and seemed reluctant to return. Karl gave her the time to make the decision herself. Now that he’d gotten over his surprise and anger, he looked understanding of her behavior.
“I’m proud of you,” Geoff whispered in Pyan’s ear, then nuzzled her neck.
She giggled. “Cut it out. I didn’t do anything special.”
The archer wrapped his arms around her. “You held in that famous temper of yours, that deserves a reward.”
“And that’s my signal to go find something else to do,” Amid said, before walking away.
“Remember to stay away from the room,” Karl called after him, then looked at his teammates with a roll of the eyes and also walked away.
Tandy looked at them wistfully, and Tibs got angry at Mez because of it. He didn’t know how close the two of them had gotten, but him choosing that noble over her had hurt Tandy.
“Come on, Fedora, they’re going to have them time. We don’t want to be around for that.” He recognized the looks they were giving each other. Jackal and Kroseph got similar ones before vanishing into the back of the inn. At least his friend didn’t bring Kroseph to the team’s room to do that stuff.
“Did you really fight an adventurer and win?” Fedora asked in awe, and Tibs groaned.
* * * * *
Jackal was on his bed when Tibs entered, sitting, shoulders slumped, head down. He was looking at his hands like he didn’t know whose they were. Carina and Khumdar were watching the fighter warily from their bed. Mez wasn’t there. Probably with his special girl, so she could look after him. He shouldn’t feel good that the archer had gotten a fever from the splint Tibs had done on his arm.
“What happened?” Tibs demanded cautiously when no one said anything.
“I’m Lambda,” Jackal replied, as if that was the worst thing to ever happen to him.
“How?” Carina asked, dismayed.
“Is that not a good thing?” Khumdar asked.
The fighter sighed. “Something about having to hold myself together while I was stone pushed my essence out of my reserve and throughout my body. Turns out that’s what’s needed to graduate from Rho to Lambda.”
“Were you even Rho?”
Jackal shook his head. “I’ve been avoiding getting tested since Tibs showed us how to stop thinking of my essence as the element.” He closed his eyes in pain. “One of the instructors heard me bragging about how I’d fought the golem and held myself together on the way back, and ordered me to the guild for testing.”
Carina snickered, then fought to regain her seriousness.
“It isn’t funny,” Jackal whined.
“Done in by your need to brag,” she replied, unable to stop herself from snickering again. “It sort of is.”
Jackal sighed. “Yeah, it kind of is.”
“What was the test?” Tibs asked. Knowing that ensured he could fail it and not graduate.
“Levity aside,” Khumdar said, “I still fail to understand why this is treated as if you have learned that… that your father had fallen ill.”
Jackal snorted. “Trust me, this isn’t the face I’d make if someone told me my dad was sick.” He rubbed his face. “The problem is that I’m now too strong for this level of dungeon. The dungeon’s only Upsilon, since it has two floors. The guild only allows one member on a team to be one level higher than the dungeon. That would be Rho. I’m now one level above that.”
“They aren’t kicking you off the team,” Tibs stated. He wasn’t letting them do that.
“They considered it. My instructor said that there was talk of sending me to a different dungeon, one that recently started taking in Lambda adventurers.”
“But you aren’t an adventurer. You’re a Runner.”
“Definitely,” Jackal said, smiling. “But it isn’t like the guild cares about what we think it should do. Believe it or not, Knuckles talked them into keeping me here.”
“Would he not be the first to want you to leave?” Khumdar asked. “He has made it clear he does not like you. This would suit his desire greatly.”
“Yeah,” Jackal said bitterly. “Which’s got to make you wonder what the guy’s planning.”
Tibs had a memory from while he was sick with corruption. Vague enough, he wasn’t sure it was more than a dream. Harry talking about Jackal. He didn’t recall the words, but he was left with a sense that his animosity toward his nephew was more an act than anything else.
But right now, there was only one thing out of this that mattered. “So, you’re staying. That’s good.”
“Yeah.” The fighter smirked. “You’re even the team that’s still stuck with me.”
“Now the long face makes sense,” Carina said. “Everyone knows you can’t stand us.”
Jackal smiled, but it faltered. “The problem is that rule about only one Rho per team. With me as Lambda, they aren’t going to let anyone graduating stay.”
Tibs and Carina exchanged a look. Alistair had explained his test, and now that Tibs had figured out how to manipulate essence while sensing it, he would pass it with only a little training.
“I fear I am not familiar with that rule,” Khumdar said. “I did not seek to investigate it when your uncle mentioned it since I do not expect the guild to be able to apply it to me, as they do not normally train clerics.”
“If you remember what Harry said,” Carina replied, “then you know all there is to know. He mentioned it mainly for the nobles, since the guild can’t control their levels as they do ours, but what Jackal said means we’re also subject to it. The reason is that it makes it too easy for a team to best the dungeon if the Runners are too strong. You need to remember that as far as the guild is concerned, our primary function is to feed the dungeon.”
“Then they should let stronger people in,” Tibs said. “He’d have to increase the difficulty to match them and everyone else would die as a result. It’s why I can’t just drain the essence out of the creatures.”
“Are they able to enforce such a rule?” Khumdar raised a hand at the glare they gave him. “I do not ask if they are allowed to make such a rule, but how long until so many Runners have reached Rho that it is no longer feasible for them to have teams with only one person of that level?”
“I don’t think they’ll care,” Jackal said. “Maybe then, if the dungeon hasn’t graduated, they’ll send those of us who can’t do runs here to another one.”
“Then we don’t let them test us,” Tibs said. “If they don’t know what our rank is, they can’t break up the team.”
“Can we refuse to be tested?” Carina asked. “My teacher was testing me after each run. The only reason I haven’t been tested this time is that she didn’t know we’d gone first. I’m sure she’d have been back already if she did.” She thought about something. “I don’t know how easy it’ll be to fail the test, or at least without her realizing I’m failing on purpose. Everything I do is easier since you made me realize the truth of essence.”
“Would Tibs not be able to convince the guild leader not to disband our team despite us having more than one member who is Rho?”
Jackal and Carina looked at Tibs.
He sighed. “Isn’t that going to be like us going before everyone else? The others aren’t going to be happy if we’re the only team that isn’t broken up.”
“Will any of them know we should be broken up?” Carina asked. “You might not be able to hide it, Jackal, once the story of how you survived spreads, but—”
Jackal snorted. “It’s already spreading. It turns out that Clerics love to gossip.”
“Still, so long as the rest of us avoid doing anything public, they could think we’re still Upsilon regardless of what the guild knows.”
“You mean like a certain someone running along the roofs and leaping much further than anyone can?” Jackal leveled his gaze on Tibs.
“What?” he looked at them. “I can’t do that.”
Jackal looked surprised. “You mean you aren’t running around testing all those essences you have?”
“I am, but I don’t have enough in any of them to do anything. I keep falling through the air disk when I’ve tried it.”
“So the stories of the roof runner I’ve been hearing are not about you?” Jackal was grinning again.
Tibs shrugged. “I’m not the only rogue running the roofs anymore; not that I’ve done it since saving the dungeon. It’s too dangerous to have the corruption cramp my legs in the middle of a leap. If I can’t land properly, a fall will end up killing me.
Jackal frowned. “Then it’s definitely someone else. They’ve been seen over this last week.”
“I was here every night. How did you think it was me?”
“I sleep,” Jackal pointed out. “I don’t think you do.”
Tibs rolled his eyes. “I do. And I’m wishing for this cursed corruption to go away because it’s going to kill me sometime soon the way it’s going. If not for the water when I fell off the ledge, I’d have broken my neck there. I nearly died when my leg buckled under my weight in the middle of a fight. Just holding a sword this morning ended horribly, as my arm cramped and Pyan wouldn’t train me because of it.”
He sighed, misery creeping in. Maybe he should convince them to get a different rogue. He could convince Tirania to let that happen even if he wasn’t dead. Don would bitch, but he—
“What did you say?” Tibs asked, head snapping up. He’d been so lost in his head he’d only caught a few words, but ‘corruption’ and ‘ask’ close together was noteworthy.
“I said that considering you can do the audience thing with other elements,” Jackal said, “maybe you should just jump in the corruption pool and ask the element to remove its essence from you.”
Tibs stared at the fighter. “That’s got to be the stupidest…” He trailed off. It was stupid, there was no doubt of that.
But…