The room was white and bright like a hospital room. Everything was carefully organized, labeled, and tucked away into compartments and drawers with see-through exteriors.
While the room may have had a portion partitioned off for treating injuries, that was not its primary purpose. It was a laboratory, specifically one dedicated to magical experimentation.
It was not an unfamiliar room to Kayden, who had seen some like it during her time in the Academy. Although she hadn’t been that involved in the technical side of what the Academy taught, all of their students had to have some minor proficiency in that area. It was what the Academy specialized in after all.
However, Ruth’s lab put even their level of organization and cleanliness to shame.
The elf herself was sitting at a tall examining table in the center of the room across from Kayden, studying the shadow dagger. She wore glasses that enlarged her eyes, and her silver hair hung all around her as she bent over the object of her study.
“Fascinating,” Ruth muttered.
“What is it,” Cassius said, who was standing next to Kayden.
“Hmm?” Ruth said absentmindedly looking up and then blinking to clear her vision as if surprised they were there. “Oh, right.”
They had come here right after Kayden’s dagger transformed. Cassius had to catch his airship but he still had several hours before it departed and he wanted to know more about her dagger before he left.
Kayden and Cassius had been standing there waiting patiently for around thirty minutes as Ruth stared down at the dagger, doing little more than occasionally turning the dagger to get a different angle. It would have seemed as if Ruth wasn’t doing much to the average person, but for anyone trained in aura sense, they would have seen that Ruth was in full-blown analysis mode.
When Kayden first turned on her aura sense, she hadn’t noticed much. Ruth’s aura wasn’t putting out much power. There were thin tendrils branching off from her and probing at the dagger. At first, Kayden wasn’t that impressed, she had been expecting something extraordinary from the elf. Every other time, she had seen Ruth use her magic, it had stunned her, but this seemed so average in comparison.
She had been about to turn her aura sense off and wait for Ruth to finish, when she decided to take a closer look. The result almost made her lose her balance. She clutched the table to steady herself.
The tendrils sensing out the dagger that she thought at first weren’t doing much, branched off into dozens, hundreds of smaller tendrils, feeling out every part of the dagger. It was mind boggling to try to comprehend how much information must be being passed to Ruth through her aura sense.
Once again, Ruth had proven to have not only a level of power above average, but in this case she had proven she had a level of control and finesse over her aura that went well beyond what was average.
It shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did, she knew Ruth specialized in medical magic, and an important part of that was the ability to use her aura to study the physiology of her patient to understand the extent of their injuries, so it would follow that Ruth would be competent at this sort of thing. Still, this was leagues above competent. This was what it looked like to observe a master at work.
That is why Kayden and Cassius had remained quiet the entire time, not even talking to each other. This wasn’t the sort of work that you interrupted. Kayden didn’t think Ruth's concentration would have been interrupted if they did talk, but it was a matter of respect and awe to watch her work in silence.
“Have you finished your examination?” Cassius asked.
“Yes.” She set the dagger down on the table in front of her and removed her glasses. “I’m no expert in the field of focuses, but I know enough to see that this dagger is very unusual.”
“How?” Kayden asked, stepping into the conversation. It was her dagger after all.
Ruth’s vision was still cloudy, looking off into the distance as if still gathering all of the information she had sensed with her aura. But she began talking, if more to herself than anything.
“Focuses are not unknown to change over time. They are strongly linked to their wielder’s aura, so as a wielder changes and acquires more power it is logical that the focus would reflect that change. However, these changes are usually minor and happen over a long period of time much like how a person naturally grows. If you put a person next to themself as they appeared ten years ago, there is usually significant differences, but if you were to watch them day to day, it wouldn’t seem as if the person were changing at all.”
“That isn’t what happened here,” Cassius said.
“No,” Ruth’s gaze sharpened, “It isn’t. In much rarer circumstances, focuses are known to evolve suddenly. This can happen due to a sudden dramatic shift in the wielder’s aura; either onset due to a dramatic experience such as a sudden shift to a wielder’s personality, an influx of power, or interference from an outside influence.”
“So my dagger has gone through one of these evolutions?” Kayden asked. “What does that mean?”
This was all new information to her. She hadn’t learned much about focuses at the Academy. That was something they reserved for after the third year.
“What that means is that your dagger is no longer simply a shadow dagger, or a blood dagger. It isn’t something in between either. No, more like it is something new. Like combining two chemicals and producing something with properties that neither of the chemicals had alone.”
Great, Kayden hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to fully understand the abilities of her shadow dagger and now it had gone and changed.
Cassius asked the question, Kayden was just about to, “So, what are the properties of this new focus.”
“That is what is so fascinating. Cassius, your primary strength with blood magic is forming contracts, so it would follow that that is what would have translated over the Kayden when you formed the sycophantic bond, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In a way Kayden’s shadow magic has hijacked your blood magic to empower itself, and as a result it seems to have gained an ability that you do not have.”
Cassius frowned. “What is it?”
“It is hard to get a full picture of how it functions, even for someone like me, but it is strongly linked to the element of death. The best way I could describe your evolved dagger would be to call it a death dagger.”
“A death dagger,” Kayden whispered. That certainly didn’t sound foreboding.
“For someone like me who has extensive training in the medical field,” Ruth said. “This is of particular interest. The element of death is an extremely rare one to obtain, and when in the wrong hands it can be catastrophic. But in the right hands, it can potentially open up doors previously inaccessible.”
Ruth’s eyes had taken on a feverish edge and she turned her gaze on Kayden. “I have to ask you whether you would be willing to assist me. Your abilities might not be compatible with what I have in mind, but it is worth a try.” Ruth turned to Cassius. “She can finally help us reach the stage which has eluded us for so long.”
Kayden’s eyes darted between Cassius and Ruth, trying to puzzle out what they were talking about. Cassius wore a thoughtful frown.
“It is something to consider,” he said after a second. “However, Kayden has not even finished her basic aura training yet, and she was only just beginning to get a grasp of her shadow abilities. I do not feel comfortable throwing her into something like that without yet understanding these new abilities to their full extent.”
“I can help her understand them,” Ruth said with greedy eyes. “The death element is rare but not unheard of. I am sure the Academy will have hoarded all of the knowledge on it for themselves, and with our resources there is no reason we can’t get the information we need. There are also the deep denizens we can go to for whatever information we can’t find ourselves.”
“No, the denizens always ask for more than I am willing to give. That isn’t an option. But there is no reason we can’t ask around. I am still of the mind that we proceed with caution. We don’t need to jump into things without having a level head just because it might offer a shortcut, especially when this shortcut could be--as you put it yourself--catastrophic.”
Ruth’s expression sobered somewhat. “Of course. I wasn’t suggesting that we put Kayden in danger in any way.”
“Your experiments were producing admiral results regardless of the failures you have faced. There is no reason to change what we were already doing. Once Kayden has a competent grasp of her current training, then we can begin to incorporate more, but I think that will only happen once we have more knowledge of the death element. Until that time, you are not to experiment with it. Do you understand?” This last part was directed at Kayden.
She nodded, despite wanting the opportunity to work with Ruth. Who else could say that an elf had helped train them. But there was no room in Cassius’s voice for argument.
“What about my shadow element?” she asked. “I was making some progress with it.”
“I see no reason why you can’t continue to grow your abilities with shadows, but proceed with caution. There is no hard line where one ability’s element strays into another. It is likely that all of your abilities will now be tinged with the element of death.”
“Sir,” Ruth said. “I know you don’t want to push her too hard, but is there any reason why we haven’t seeked out someone to train her shadow abilities. I’m sure if she had someone to guide her, it would be much safer as well as faster. Then we would be able to study her new abilities with less fear.”
“I did ask someone, but he wasn’t interested in taking on a student,” Cassius revealed to Kayden’s surprise. “And there aren’t many other options. Shadow is one of the elements that is heavily regulated by Uptown. The only known people who study it are the deep denizens, and as I already said, I will not turn to them for this.”
“What if we offered more to this person you asked to train Kayden since circumstances have changed.”
“It wasn’t a matter of money.”
“Who was this potential teacher?”
“High Tower.”
Ruth’s expression froze. Kayden’s eyes widened.
High Tower? The legendary bandit? Cassius not only knew him, but he had asked him to train her? He had said no, but still even the thought that Kayden had been close to becoming his student caused her to blush bright red.
High Tower was probably the only famous, criminal Cliffsider looked on favorably by Uptown. His escapades as a ruggedly handsome thief and bandit were eaten up by everyone.
Women especially were known to purchase and hide the more salacious stories surrounding his name--of which there were numerous, all of them claiming to be true. Kayden may have been thinking of one of those such stories that she had borrowed from Rya when they had still been friends when his name was brought up.
Although there were all of these stories of women claiming to have been his lover, there was little proof that any of them were true. In fact, any time there was someone that claimed to have met or seen him and was questioned by the police, their statement was quickly discarded as a fabrication. Nobody seemed to know anything about him except that he was a Cliffsider.
The reason he was so adored, excluding the intrigue surrounding his identity, was the fact that those he stole from were usually universally disliked. But even then, at the beginning of his inception, he was only given begrudging respect. It wasn’t until after his greatest theft for which he received his name, was he launched into the status of a living legend.
The High Tower of Ingbald, one of the richest merchants to have ever lived, was a building that rivaled even the Palace of Commerce in scope and beauty. At the top of the tower was a glass dome holding the Gem of Alisaer to shine like a lighthouse.
The High Tower overlooked all of Mitros, casting a long and dark shadow over its inhabitants, both literally and figuratively. It was largely whispered about--the activities taking place within the Tower, but Ingbald’s wealth was so vast that nobody could investigate him and those that did were known to disappear.
When more and more young women vanished on the streets that once were thought to be safe, his name was often associated with them. Ingbald the Letch they called him.
To this day it was kept secret what was uncovered in his tower, only those part of the investigation could say, and they didn’t. The documents detailing the atrocities had been redacted from any public record by the Judges themselves. But they all agreed that it was only brought to an end because of High Tower’s interference.
There was a world famous photograph of the event. The only picture of High Tower in existence. Him at the top of the tower, a dark silhouette, holding aloft the Gem of Alisaer, shining like a beacon as bright as the sun. Another figure just as dark and hard to distinguish bursting out of the tower after him, monstrous and not at all human. They said the creature was Ingbald himself, but that was never confirmed. Nobody knew who took the photo, it was turned in anonymously to a newspaper with a caption written under it: No being is so high that it is out of reach.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Kayden remembered that night. It happened when she was eleven. The whole city had woken to the unearthly roar the creature had made as it attacked the bandit that would take on the name of the very tower which he brought down to the earth. She had hidden under her bed in fear as the battle that ensued shook the entire city. That had been one of the many times when her father was absent and she had no one to comfort her.
After that night and the monster was dead, Ingbald disappeared, but the police didn’t search for him, leading to the conclusion that he must have been the monster himself.
His tower had been torn apart during the battle, but High Tower had gone out of his way to rescue several of Ingbald’s captives, leading to him being called a hero. He had never claimed to be anything other than a thief, but after the battle of High Tower even his skeptics had to admit that he wasn’t the average thief. Since then he was known as the Bandit of High Tower, then simply as High Tower.
He had toppled the tallest tower Uptown and they called him a hero for it, a Cliffsider and blight on Uptown was suddenly their icon. It was unprecedented.
Cassius went on as if he didn’t notice either Kayden or Ruth’s reaction. “High Tower is the only other wielder of a shadow dedicated focus that I know of, although his isn’t a dagger. He could teach Kayden a lot about her abilities, but he’s a loner and didn’t like the idea of dragging someone around with him.”
“You know High Tower,” Ruth said as if she shouldn’t be surprised.
“We have made several contracts over the years. The High Tower incident was in large part only possible because of Nikiphero. Your father worked closely with High Tower a couple of times. They weren’t friends, but they had respect for each other. He was there that night, battling Ingbald’s lesser minions while High Tower scaled to the top and stole the Gem of Alisaer.”
Kayden thought back to that night when she had been crying under her bed and wishing her father was there to save her. Xolan had been at the heart of it the entire time, bringing down one of the evilest men in the city with one of its greatest heroes. Learning more about her father never ceased to surprise her.
“Were you there?” Kayden asked, curious to hear more about what had happened.
“No, I thought it was foolish of your father to accompany High Tower and Richter--Richter is another of High Tower occasional accomplishes. We were only there to supply High Tower with the information he needed. Ingbar did lots of business Cliffside. Uptown may have had no idea what he was up to, but we had a pretty good picture. When the full breadth of what he was involved in came to light, Xolan insisted on backing them up. He refused to talk about what happened afterward. Apparently the rumors about the unspeakable acts were true.”
Now that Kayden thought back to that time, and her father had reappeared several days after the attack, Xolan had seemed more withdrawn and distant. It had faded after a few weeks, but it had left a big enough impression that she could remember even now. At the time Kayden had thought it was because he felt guilty for leaving her alone.
She opened her mouth to ask more about it, but Cassius raised his hand to quiet her. “This isn’t important right now. We can talk about Xolan later if you want to know more about him. The point is that High Tower isn’t willing to take on a student. So for the time being, you will have to continue to train on your own.”
Kayden had an idea about that, but she didn’t voice it. She didn’t think Cassius would agree, judging by some of the things he had said. Of course, it was exactly because of those things he had said that had given her the idea in the first place.
She couldn’t keep going the way things were. She had to get stronger. It was as if her dagger was inviting her to. And if she was going to get stronger than it was time to take some risks.
She shared a meaningful look with Ruth. Ruth gave Cassius a glance before looking back at Kayden and giving her a slight nod. They were in agreement that she needed more training, and Cassius may be willing to take his time with it, but they weren’t.
*****
It was five days after Cassius’s departure that Ruth came to her at the training compound. It was midafternoon--not that there was any difference with midnight in the cavern--and she had just entered the gym for some training.
Her duties had diminished a bit after Cassius leaving. Rem had been left in charge of Nikiphero in Mitros during Cassius’s absence and was too busy as a result to keep up the pressure he had placed on her. That combined with the fact that she was now a mostly accepted member of the initiates meant that she was experiencing a significant increase to the time she had available to train.
She was beginning to warm up for resistance training when everything got quiet. She looked around in confusion to see that everyone’s attention had turned toward the entrance, standing there was Ruth.
It took her a moment to figure out why everyone’s faces were locked in expression of shock and wonder. Then she realized they must not know Ruth. Ruth might hold a significant position within Nikiphero but she didn’t interact with them like Rem did. The other initiates wouldn’t have met her before. And not only was she extremely beautiful but she was an elf. It was like one of their childhood stories had just walked through the door.
Ruth’s eyes searched the room, seemingly unconcerned or uninterested with the attention. Her eyes lit upon Kayden and she smiled. One of the initiates had just gotten up the courage to approach her--Kyle, he was one of the veteran initiates that took charge when Bog wasn’t around.
He opened his mouth to ask her why she was here, but she blew past him as if he didn’t exist and headed straight for Kayden. Everyone’s eyes trailed after her until Kayden was also the center of their attention.
“There you are,” she said by way of a greeting. “So what are we going to do about the restrictions Cassius put on training with your dagger? I assume you have something in mind?”
Kayden nodded her head. “I need to get as strong as I can.”
She looked around at all of the people watching them. It was only a matter of time that one of them tried to cut in on their conversation. Some of them were already inching closer to try to overhear what was going on.
“Let’s go somewhere a little more private.”
Ruth looked around as if finally noticing the crowd of curious, shirtless boys. The boys looked like they weren’t trying to spy on them. She turned her nose up and sniffed. “You’re right it stinks of boys in here. Is there somewhere better we can talk?”
The mess hall should be empty so Kayden decided to take her there, but as she began to lead the way out of the gym, Kyle and one of the other advanced initiates finally gathered up enough nerve to step into their way and find out who this mysterious elven woman was.
Ruth glared at them and Kyle swallowed but he didn’t back down.
Kyle looked at Kayden. “What is the meaning of this Kayden? Outsiders aren’t allowed in the compound.”
“Outsider,” Ruth said with a scowl before Kayden could explain. “I am more dedicated to Nikiphero than a little boy playing gangster like you could ever understand.”
She pulled down the neck of her shirt exposing the Nikiphero tattoo of the eagle impaled with a spear, and a generous portion of her impressive cleavage along with it.
“You may have ignorantly overstepped yourself, but I would correct that error before I am forced to do it for you.”
It may have been in Kayden’s head but she sensed even without attuning her aura to it, a pressure began to build in the air.
Kayden had grown comfortable with Ruth, but this was an important reminder of how intimidating she could be. She had seen Ruth swat a grown man through the air and crush him with little more than a look.
Kyle and his backup both flushed red from embarrassment and no small amount of fear. It must have been a confusing mixture of emotions for them; at one end Ruth was an extremely beautiful elf with part of her breast exposed, on the other she was a member of the gang which they were in the process of joining with an unknown amount of power and influence. If they weren’t careful they could see themselves thrown out like Spax, or experience a fate even worse.
“S-sorry,” Kyle stammered. “I didn’t know.” He stepped out of her way with a bow of deference. “Please forgive me.”
Ruth didn’t bother with a response and walked past him. Kayden hurried after her with a pitying glance at Kyle. He couldn’t have known who Ruth was. He was just trying to do his duty as second in command to Bog.
Ruth slowed down so that Kayden could catch up and lead the way since she didn’t know where they were going.
“Was that necessary?” Kayden asked as they walked from the room and toward the mess hall.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned since being a part of Nikiphero, it is best to make a strong impression quickly, otherwise those boys will continue to overstep themselves. These boys grew up on the streets and now that they have been given a little bit of power they think they are big shots. If they sense weakness, they take advantage of it. It isn’t just important that they understand I am not weak, but that where auras are concerned it isn’t so easy to discern who is weak. They might not realize it but I just taught them a valuable lesson, one that they hopefully take to heart.”
Kayden nodded. None of the initiates had respected her since she came here besides maybe Launi. She had thought that it was just because of her Uptown origins but now that she thought about it, much of it had been directed at the fact that she was a girl who they perceived as weak, and in their minds that was justification enough for her abuse.
This wasn’t just an important lesson for the boys, it was an important lesson for her. Auras were the great equalizing force. Her fight with Spax had illustrated that. Even if he was much stronger naturally, Kayden had beaten him to a bloody pulp.
That is why what they were doing here was so important, more than being able to stick up against her fellow initiates, she was going to need to go up against the full power of Uptown if she wanted to avenge her father.
Some understanding of how Uptown’s control worked clicked into place in Kayden’s mind. The reason why they regulated aura abilities and magical items so heavily. The reason which had been bred into her since she was a child.
They said it was for their own safety, these forces were dangerous. Hadn’t that been why she had been kicked out of the Academy, because they had seen that she had an affinity for something they didn’t approve of?
Even though she had been so angry at them for doing that to her, a part of her had agreed. And even now, she realized she still harbored that sentiment. A prejudice against herself she hadn’t known was there. She was dangerous. She didn’t belong in the Academy or Uptown. In other words, there was something wrong with her.
But that wasn’t true at all. They didn’t regulate them so ferociously because they wanted to protect them. They did it because they didn’t want people to have the power to stick up for themselves.
What Nikiphero was doing here, training people in restricted aura abilities, was that they were equalizing the playing field.
Uptown misconstrued them as the bad guys because they were using violence as a means of obtaining power, but wasn’t that exactly what they did themselves, wasn’t that the whole purpose behind the police force; to enforce their will through the threat of violence?
The only difference between the two was that one was accepted by the public and the other wasn’t. And the only reason for that was because the public had faith that the police force would only use violence when it was justified.
But from what Kayden had seen and experienced first hand Cliffside was that that power was being abused. It was being wielded towards those it was supposed to protect. The only way to combat that injustice was to return it blow for blow.
Uptown knew this so they tried to prevent Cliffside from being able to retaliate. They had to keep Cliffside weak.
What had happened the moment Nikiphero began gaining traction and the power balances began to shift?
Uptown founded a specific police force, ADOC, for the express purpose of stopping this from happening.
Crime, Kayden was coming to realize, was simply what Uptown liked to label those things which challenged their authority. And she had fallen victim to that idea. She had been harboring this prejudice inside herself this entire time.
It was like she had been living with a constant pain that she thought was natural, but now she saw it was because a spear had been thrust into her side. Suddenly she realized the significance of Nikiphero’s tattoo. She thought the hawk represented Uptown and the spear was Nikiphero, but it was the opposite. Uptown was the one keeping them from soaring in the sky.
This whole time, she thought the other initiates had been unfair toward her because of their prejudice, but she had been harboring her own prejudice inside her this entire time as well. Even as she professed to be one of them, a part of her still thought she was somehow better, that she had the moral high ground. She may be training to be a killer like them, but her reasons were just, whereas there’s were not.
It was a disconcerting feeling coming to this realization. The only other feeling she could compare it to was one time as a kid she had gotten lost in the market square and couldn’t find her dad.
She tried to make her way toward the entrance and had begun walking in what she was sure was the right direction. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she was going the wrong way, but luckily someone had seen her wandering around alone and asked if she needed help.
She had explained that she didn’t, and she was just going toward the entrance of Main Street, but they pointed out that if that was where she was going she needed to head west not east.
It was as if the whole world suddenly shifted under her feet, she had been positive she had been headed west. She looked around and it was as if she were in an entirely different place, nothing looked right anymore.
The stranger had kindly offered to guide her the right way. The entire time they walked, every fiber of her being screamed that they were headed in the wrong direction. It wasn’t until she saw the entrance to Main Street, and she saw her father looking around anxiously for her, that the whole world seemed to right itself all at once.
She was left feeling slightly off balance from the whiplash of the experience, but she couldn’t have been happier--like a fog she hadn’t known was clouding her vision was suddenly lifted free and the world was ten times clearer, brighter, and more colorful.
That is what it was like. She was seeing Nikiphero for the first time, unclouded and untainted from the touch of Uptown. It was a powerful realization, one that Kayden had been growing closer to for some time.
Nikiphero--Cassius specifically--had been like that stranger she didn’t know she needed to point her in the right direction. Ruth’s comment about leveling the playing field had been the last piece to fall into place so that she could see the entire picture.
“Are you going to go in or are you just going to stand there,” Ruth said, amused.
Kayden jerked a little in surprise. She had been standing with her hand on the door into the mess hall for some time, lost in thought.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just thought about something.”
“Anything you want to share?” she asked as they walked into the empty mess hall.
Kayden shook her head, she was still wrapping her mind around it. She didn’t think she could put it into a coherent manner that anyone would be able to understand.
“I’m just glad to be part of Nikiphero,” she said instead. “I think I understand a little why you said you were more dedicated to Nikiphero than the initiates could understand.”
Ruth nodded in understanding. “I can remember when things began to shift for myself. I entered into a contract with Cassius for my own reasons at first, but after a certain point I wasn’t serving him out of necessity anymore, it was because what I thought he was doing was good.”
Kayden nodded thoughtfully as they took seats at one of the long tables.
Ruth suddenly clapped. “Speaking of serving Cassius, sometimes he can be a little too cautious. He wants to take things slow. But I think we both want to see you progress more rapidly with your dagger. So what are we going to do about it?”
Kayden cleared her head of all of the confusing realizations about Nikiphero she was coming to and instead turned her attention to the matter at hand.
“Cassius said that I shouldn’t study the death aspect of my dagger yet, that I should focus on shadow magic. So that is what I plan on doing. And he mentioned that the deep denizens are adept at shadow magic, correct?”
“Yes, but they are a secretive bunch. Cassius has some connections with them, but I can’t say I have much experience with them.”
“Hmm.”
She had been hoping that Ruth would be able to open up that avenue, but she shouldn’t be surprised, Ruth was more of a scientist than someone who formed connections like Cassius. But they weren’t completely helpless.
“I think I may know of a way we can approach them. There is a deep denizen I met once named Sook, she runs a shop by the arena.”