4.108: What You Relied Upon Before

I screamed.

There was a startled sound. Not me, not the monitor beeping next to me; something from outside the soundproofed curtains. But not from the rest of the hospital. Something from… somewhere else. Like the hand.

I shut up and listened.

“Points, Kayden!” Saina exclaimed. “Calm down!”

“S-Saina?” I asked. I couldn’t see her, beyond that horrible image of the disembodied hand, but I could hear her.

“Yes. Yes. Everything’s alright. I mean, it won’t be if we fuck this up, but everything’s alright at this specific point in time.”

“He’s awake?” Hammond’s voice asked.

“Yes, but he’s freaking out.”

“Maybe because you’re forcing him to stare at your own amputated limb?”

“Shit! Shit! Sorry!” The scene went dark as Saina, I had to assume, squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she was – we were – looking at Hammond.

The pair were in the Pit, sitting on the big stone platform in the centre where Initiations took place and games were played. A single janitor was sitting some distance away, in the audience seats. They didn’t appear to be doing anything.

“Sorry, Kayden,” Saina said, “I didn’t mean to throw that at you like that.”

“What the hell is going on?” I asked. “Did you lose your hand?! You are WAY too calm for this! What happened?”

“It was a necessary sacrifice,” she said.

“A necessary sacrifice?!”

“Look, I’m not happy about it either, but plenty of people get through life just fine with just one hand. I’m sure you well know that one of the most reliable ways to remove a spell is via amputation, and we needed to get rid of that butterfly illusion thing to make room for the Eye.”

“The Eye?”

“The Eye of Duniyasar. My family’s ancestral spell. I told you about it once.”

“Right… the one that lets you link minds and communicate over long dist – oh! That’s what we’re doing now?”

“Exactly. Hey, hey. Are you alright? I know this is a lot to take in at once, but…”

She must have heard the sob in my voice. This was a lot to take in at once, but that wasn’t what had gotten to me. In a choked voice, I admitted, “I thought you hated me.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Of course I’m angry with you! I’m furious! I can’t believe this whole time you were planning to destroy the entire foundation of our society – ”

“I know, but the danger – ”

“ – without me!”

“… What?”

“Kayden, did you think for one single second about what the effect of destroying Refujeyo’s access to spells would mean for our society? What that would do? The complete upending of the social order, the economic collapse, the opportunistic power grabs by various rebel groups...”

“I know, I know; but there’s no avoiding it! Every other option is worse!”

“So you did think of it, and you didn’t even consider maybe getting some politicians involved? Maybe some of your numerous friends with status and training in this kind of thing, to perhaps lay some groundwork and turn ‘the risk of total social collapse’ into ‘a chaotic and dangerous adjustment period’? Did you really think that you had to do this all alone? World’s Crown, Kayden, I love you, but sometimes you are very, very stupid.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t want to trouble you with…”

“Because picking up the pieces after the fact would have been so much less trouble for me, wouldn’t it. Idiot. Never mind; are we ready to save the world together?”

“You’re… going to help?”

“I didn’t have a dead guy take my hand off with stolen surgical tools for nothing. I’m playing radio relay station for this little mission.”

“But I thought… I mean, you were so angry about this the last time we spoke…”

“Oh, you actually believed that little performance? I didn’t mean to upset you, Kayden, I’m sorry. We were being watched by sekuranti at the time.”

“Wait,” Hammond cut in, “is he saying he believed your whole ‘you have betrayed my people’ tantrum?” He shook his head, grinning. “You should be offended. Such little faith in you.”

“I choose to take it as a compliment to my truly superb acting skills,” Saina said loftily. “By the way, Kayden, how are you feeling? Sorry about the whole potion thing. It was the only way we could think of to get you out of there, and we were sure there shouldn’t be any lingering effects, but if – ”

“I’m fine,” I said. “How did you do it?”

“Well, I’ve spent the months during your captivity stirring up unrest among the Duniyasar traditionalists – you know, the guys who we thought might be trying to kill me during that whole Heiress thing? – and getting them behind me as the true heir to Duniyasar being held down by Refujeyo’s – ”

“Wait, months?! I was in there for – not important. What I actually meant was, the potion. It was in the apple juice, right? But I didn’t detect it while I was drinking it. Usually I can detect the magic right away.”

“It wasn’t in the apple juice. Half of it was. The rest was in the pudding. We couldn’t risk the guards finding it, or you noticing it and not taking the full dose, so we had to be a bit roundabout. The ingredients mix in a strong acid, such as, say, a stomach, and only then do they have a magical effect.”

“That’s… very sneaky. Huh. What does it do?”

“It gives you slightly enhanced strength for about ten minutes. Which in you case, necessitates…”

“Putting magic through every muscle in my body. Yeah, thanks for that. It sucked.”

“Sorry.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve actually been through worse magical experiences. Anyway. I’m glad you’re okay, hand notwithstanding.”

“I’m glad you’re okay too, love.”

“Right. So, what exactly are we doing here?”

“Committing terrorism, if I understand the mission correctly,” di Fiore’s voice cut in. Another scene appeared in my mind. I could switch between my hospital bed, the Pit, and… oh! It was the top level of the tower at Duniyasar. I was viewing the scene through di Fiore’s eyes as he consulted a small book and painted runes on the glass dome in what looked like blood.

“Committing revolution,” Saina corrected. “Terrorists lose. We’re going to win.”

“Here’s hoping,” di Fiore said. “My uncle would straight-up die of shame if his heir was found guilty of absolutely any part of what we’re doing here. Oh, there’s a silver lining.”

“You were spying on me!” I accused him.

“No, my uncle was spying on you,” di Fiore corrected. “Which frankly you should have expected when you took him on as a surveyanto, so really, that’s on you.”

“You helped him. You figured out how to track me.”

“Oh, yes, and there was certainly no call for that. Not like you were planning on essentially destroying the foundation of my society or anything. Absolutely no reason why I should have been suspicious of your behaviour at all, clearly my response was completely unreasonable and not suitably cautious at all.”

“Are you two going to be done arguing soon?” asked… was that Clara’s voice? “We need a third aleph reverse crosspeak drawn up there, and I can’t reach.”

Di Fiore turned to look at her. It was Clara, painting the dome with runes of her own. But more important than that was the sight I caught out of the corner of di Fiore’s eye. A figure in black, slumped against the rune-covered pillar in the middle of the room that stretched all the way up to the middle of the dome ceiling.

Kylie.

“Kylie! Are you alright?’ I asked.

“Kylie, Kayden wants to know if you’re alright,” di Fiore said.

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be fine?” She smiled weakly. She looked like she had lost weight, but didn’t look sick. She held a silver, crescent-moon-shaped dagger in one hand. “Are you alright?”

“Kayden, Kylie wants to know if you’re – ”

“I heard her! I’m fine!”

“Kylie, Kayden says he heard you and he’s fine.”

The book that di Fiore was consulting looked familiar. “Is that Max’s book?” I asked.

“One of them, yes.”

“How did you get that?”

“I stole it. Obviously. It’s a good thing, too; without these data, we’d have no idea how to set this up. It took all of Max’s notes and months of additional work by the smartest mage in our generation to – ”

“Max was the smartest mage in our generation,” I snapped. “You certainly aren’t.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was talking about Clara, not me.”

“I’m not a mage,” Clara pointed out.

“Will you guys be ready with the rune network in time?” Saina asked.

“Undoubtedly,” di Fiore said. “This will take another half an hour or so. Elephant feet down there in the hospital will probably take hours to extract the heart.”

“Hey, if you want to swap jobs, I’m totally happy to do that,” I said. “Let’s see if you can carry it.”

“Hush, both of you,” Saina said. “di Fiore, I’m dropping you for now to do a security sweep. We’ll check back in at go time at the latest.”

“Acknowledged.”

My view of Duniyasar went dark. Instead, I was looking at a stone wall.

“Activity?” Saina asked.

“No change in patrol,” Mae said. “Terry’s got eyes closer to the hospital; we think the check-in should be at the regular time.”

“Then we have about ten minutes,” Saina said.

“Mae?” I asked.

“Oh, hey there, Koala. You’re awake. You have massive street cred by the way. Political prisoner of The Man. You’ll have to tell me all your war stories if we survive this.”

“I mostly just learned a lot about ancient Mesopotamia,” I admitted.

“… Unexpected. But okay.”

The scene faded out to be replaced by a slightly different section of stone wall. “Activity?” Saina asked.

“Students only,” Magistus reported. “I’ve got the squad ready to assist in evacuation if anything collapses. Stuart and Freddie are out of commission, by the way.”

“What happened?”

“They tried to blackmail us for more bribe money. They didn’t know anything that could actually hurt the mission, of course; I’m not an amateur. But the mess of having resentful traitors around was too dangerous.”

“Understood. What do your people think we’re doing, by the way?”

“Prank to embarrass Siu Hung in retaliation for that shit he said about my sister at Kascia’s birthday party. Everyone thinks someone else is in charge of the smoke bombs so we shouldn’t have any accidental detonations, but they’re ready in case we do need the cover.”

“We shouldn’t, but good thinking. I have to go.”

“Good luck.”

Magistus’ view vanished, to be replaced by another. This time, I could see Talbot, tapping his fingers nervously on a wooden table.

“You guys ready?” Saina asked.

“Is it go time?” Hua whispered.

Talbot looked up. “That her?”

“We’ll go in about ten minutes,” Saina said. “We don’t know how long Kayden’s mission will take, so…”

“So our window is unpredictable. Talbot, they’re going in about ten minutes.”

Talbot stood up. “We should get going, then.”

And then it was just me and Saina. “Kayden. You ready to do this?”

“Well, I’m handcuffed to a bed without any supplies,” I pointed out. “I don’t have a map, I don’t have – ”

“We have an… agent, I suppose… ready to handle all that. We got your plan from Kylie, don’t worry. You’re going to have to dodge some guards, but I can guide you. That’s what the scouts are for.”

“Right,” I said. I was still trying to adjust to the situation. For ages (months, apparently!), I’d been coming to terms with the fact that it was all over. That with Kylie and me captured, there was no one to save the world. And apparently the whole time, all of these people had been organising… whatever this was. Giving us another chance.

My eyes alighted on the photo frame again, and I was stuck with a sudden wave of memory. Kicking the frame across the floor in anger, finding the tracker in it, breaking down in tears. Me in the Initiation, refusing to let go of my friends, using Chelsea’s tracker (or a facsimile of it) to guide me out. Being deep in the Labyrinth of Dreams, pacing out the corridors, Kylie shielding us from magic while Max sketched our steps and told me where to go next.

A long time ago, Fionnrath’s Destiny had told me that to get through this, I would need to rely on what had gotten me out of the Labyrinth twice before. I had assumed, arrogantly, that it was referring to my sense of direction, my ability to navigate treacherous paths. But that hadn’t been what had gotten me out.

What had gotten me out, every time, had been my friends.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m ready.”