The whole way back into the academy Jair’s heart raced as his thoughts spun frantically. He felt increasingly certain they must have failed. Despite his best efforts, Ran would somehow be dead anyway. Even killing the dragon couldn't save him if fate itself was set against them, but didn’t dare revert until he was certain.

Notek spent nearly an hour going over Jair's various injuries, spending the most time on his shattered legs. Spells stretched and writhed within him, shifting broken pieces back into their proper shape.

Jair dismissed the discomfort as the healer worked, and instead traced and retraced the twinned pattern for Lift and Impose Weight on his forearm. He ran through the battle again and again in his head. He needed to be able to recount it perfectly if he had to redo this.

This time the dragon had circled an extra half loop before descending, entirely shifting the angle of attack from the previous norm.

Firdon was invaluable for battlefield control and repositioning, but very personally vulnerable. This was twice now he'd gotten eaten.

Irres had the best striking force of any of them. Jair remembered how he'd taken Maelstrom toward the end, driving it into the dragon's well-protected neck despite its heavy scales. Whenever Jair tried that himself the blade always skittered off to the side, scratching the scales at best.

Rapid footsteps roused him from his reverie.

“Notek!” Irres’ voice.

Notek hurried out, and Jair ran after him. “Is it Ran? Did you find him? Is he alive?”

“You need to rest. Go back and lie down. Relax. I’ll tell you once we know anything.”

Jair tried to protest, but the two professors locked the door behind them as they turned down another wing, leaving him to pace in ignorance.

Notek’s presence had to be a good sign - they wouldn't need a healer if Ran was dead. Right?

He couldn’t bring himself to trust it.

Jair returned to mentally replaying and analyzing the battle as he paced.

Derall had that frost imbuement. Very strong, but only good for a single strike. What if he gave her Maelstrom to freeze, then handed it off to Irres for the initial strike. Could they end things sooner?

Or perhaps they needed to stop striking like hunters who could afford to take their time waiting for their prey to die. The heart may be the best accessible spot, but it didn't kill fast enough. The dragon's inhuman ability to continue fighting long after it should have collapsed made things tricky.

If they extended the tunnel all the way under the academy, could Ran run through it straight to the transit platform? Jair couldn't dig that much quickly enough, but Firdon with his stone manipulation probably could.

"I told you to go back and lie down." Notek frowned when he saw Jair still pacing on his return. “You should be resting.”

"How's Ran? Is he alive?”

“I’ll tell you once you’re back in bed where you belong.”

“Just tell me!”

Notek strode away toward the room he’d left Jair in, not answering.

Jair dearly wanted to summon Maelstrom on the spot and threaten the man into compliance, but if there was any chance they’d succeeded he didn’t want to jeopardize his future to that extent. Starting a fight with a professor was a good way to die. This was the closest to a chance they’d ever managed, so it would be foolish to waste it by attacking a teacher.

Hissing curses under his breath, Jair rushed after him and sat down on his assigned bed. “Okay, I’m here, tell me.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, but Ran–!”

Notek put a hand on Jair's chest, pushing gently until he lay semi-reclined before finally speaking. "Ran Serin is fine. He'll be fully recovered in a week. You, though--"

Jair collapsed back, all strength gone from his body, buzzing in his head drowning out Notek's words.

He'd be fine.

Ran had survived. He'd recover.

They'd done it.

Injuries didn't matter. A week? That was nothing. A blink.

It was over.

Finally, finally, he'd done it.

Exhilaration surged in his chest even as his whole body felt light and weightless. He wanted to jump and run and dance and scream triumph to the skies. Though he could hardly do any of that until his shattered legs were repaired.

For now he simply lay in contentment, happiness and satisfaction flooding him completely.

The promise of Maelstrom’s power to change fate had been fulfilled. He and Ran could face the future together, no longer would Jair be one man against the world.

Together they could navigate the political chaos of the mad king’s descent. Together they could travel to Orard and seek out Aethron. Together they could seal the gates and prevent the coming desolation.

Ran could finally attune his soulspell, reforge his sword, and reach his own ascension.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Notek dripped a vile-tasting curative into Jair’s mouth, rousing him sharply from his thoughts.

Jair coughed, resisted the urge to spit it out, and swallowed with a convulsive spasm.

"What's that for?" he choked out. It tasted familiar, but he'd been through so many injuries of so many kinds over the years he couldn't immediately place it.

"It's the best I can do for you. Might buy you another month at best, as long as you take it regularly."

Jair tilted his head, trying to parse the meaning. "Eh?"

"The dragon blood in your system. If it were a fire dragon or a shimmer dragon, there are methods to purge it before it causes irreparable damage, but for a poison dragon… It's… this is going to be very hard..."

Jair's memory snapped the pieces together. He’d been splattered with the dragon's poisonous blood. His armor had shattered when he landed, broken bones piercing skin. Exposing him to the dragon's deadly venom.

"Ah.” Despite the dire news he couldn’t stop smiling, voice coming out cheerful even now. “I have one month left to live?"

Notek nodded somberly. "I'm sorry."

"No need. That's more than enough time. As long as Ran's okay, that's what matters." Jair sat up, swinging his legs around to jump up.

Notek pushed him back. "You need to rest. The more active you are, the faster the venom will propagate."

"No. Resting won't solve anything. I need to get started now."

"Started on what?" Notek sounded incredulous. "Whatever affairs you need to put in order, we can deal with over the coming week. You shouldn’t be running around, I just told you you're dying. The more you move the faster the poison will–"

“Which is exactly why I need to start looking for the cure." Jair had no intention of dying to dragon blood poisoning.

“You’re in no condition to go looking for anything.” Notek’s voice softened. “You’ve already done everything you possibly could to save your friend. Even when none of us would listen.”

“Yep. Ran’s safe, my turn next.”

“I’ll do everything I can for you, but you have to calm yourself for now. These early hours are the most critical. The antivenom will start to build up your resistance to the foreign substance in your bloodstream, but it’ll take days to reach full strength. The more you can rest, the slower the dragon’s poison will propagate.”

“Yeah, I understand all that, but–”

“No buts. You’re staying here and you’re going to rest. Even at best we can only slow it, not stop it, but three days now could buy you another week to live.” Notek glanced away. “This is all my fault. I should have recognized that you wouldn’t come making up crazy stories. I’ve seen your records, you’re a model student, I shouldn’t have disregarded your warning.”

“Well, too late now. Best thing you can do for me now is let me get on with solving this myself.”

Notek refused to allow him to leave the recovery ward, despite every protest he could make against the injustice.

Eventually, after arguing himself hoarse, Jair gave in.

In a way, perhaps he should be glad of the forced rest, even if every day that ticked away cut into his remaining month to live.

Doing nothing for days provided a secure buffer between him and any potential future disaster. He didn't want to risk reverting to before their final battle. Even if he felt confident they could slay the dragon again, there was always the chance this was the only success they'd ever get.

The second evening after the fight, Ran came to visit him. His injuries were much less severe than Jair’s, and his recovery period much briefer.

“What happened during the fight?” Jair asked immediately.

“I didn’t see much. I heard sounds outside while hiding below the wall, then something crashed over the entrance. I assume that was the dragon. I froze completely, sure this was the part where it ate me that you’ve seen so many times, but then the back of the tunnel tore open. Before it could come for me, the armor was pulling me into the sky. I couldn’t see much, but I did get to watch you guys fighting it for a little. Then the dragon jumped off the tower and I was falling.”

“Were you hurt?”

Ran pulled up one sleeve and held out a heavily bandaged arm, scowling. “I forced Ward to activate prematurely, and it ruptured my pathing. I ended up half buried in sand, couldn’t get out, bleeding all over the place. If Professor Derall hadn’t come to dig me out, I’d probably be dead.”

The interplay of manabody and physical body was normally symbiotic. But any time the connection became unstable, damage to one could impact the other.

“Are you alright?” Jair asked, again, eyes searching Ran’s robed body for any sign of other injuries. He found none.

“I’m fine. A few bruises from being thrown around by the magic flying armor, nothing serious. I’m already cleared to attend classes, but I’ll have to leave my spell imprints untouched for weeks. I’ll lose half my progress because of this.”

Jair didn’t see this as much of a problem. “Then we can take our time deciding on your final loadout. Those basic spells you have slotted in for now have got to go.”

“Basic? My father personally selected this set for me.”

“And yet you had Ward as one of your secondaries? Useless waste of space. If you want protection, pick an element and get something properly aligned to your shift. Or, better yet, set Absorb and Reflect as primaries.”

“Absorb and Reflect?” Ran laughed. “How rich do you think I am? We’re a noble house, not a royal one.”

Jair paused, momentarily taken aback. He’d been using those two as his baseline spells for so long he’d assumed they were relatively common knowledge. At least among the nobility if nothing else. But now he thought back… Yes, he had originally copied them from the royal library in all the chaos after the assassination, hadn’t he?

“I can draw them out for you,” he offered. “Then we can match.”

Ran snorted and punched him. “Right. But your element idea has merit, Ward is pretty baseline and if I’m going to start over anyway we may as well–”

“I’m not kidding. I can draw Absorb and Reflect for you right now.” Jair began to trace the pattern across his own hand, the complex movements leaving the faintest glowing trail behind that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

Ran stared, speechless as the complexity of the design mounted. He’d seen Jair do this before more than once, but he’d never paid enough attention to know what it meant at the time.

Now Jair watched Ran’s dawning realization at what he’d overlooked before.

Absorb. Eight sequences, flawlessly interlocked to form the most elegant magical protection royal money could buy. Any spell of lower power would be entirely subsumed, while those of greater strength would be dramatically weakened.

It did nothing to mitigate the side effects of drawing in formed mana, unfortunately, and couldn’t be used to power itself, but it was the closest thing to a full magical defence Jair could find across a hundred lifetimes.

He switched to his other hand, precise movements flowing naturally after so many years of tracing and retracing them.

Reflect. Six woven patterns that formed an impenetrable kinetic redirection field. Arrows would fly back toward their source, sword strikes rebound at full force, a charging bull stopped dead in its tracks.

For a few minutes, as long as your manabody could sustain the spell, nothing could touch you.

If Jair had his full complement of spells a week ago, the dragon would have posed no threat to them at all.

Ran could only gape at the display, still speechless.

“I guess they are pretty strong spells,” Jair conceded.

Ran finally managed to choke out a single whispered word. “How?”

“That is a very long story. But, in short, I assisted with the elimination of a particular monarch, and obtained the spells as a reward. A year or so in the future.”

“...I think it’s time we had our serious conversation.”

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