The Restored: Chapter Two

The spell I cast wasn’t anything fancy. All things considered, it was actually one of the less impressive tricks that I’d been able to pull. 

But while the figure had been smart enough to realize not to wear metal, they hadn’t been smart enough to pick where to fight me. Elderglass was the city of metal. Everything here was metal, from the beams used to construct buildings, to the airships hanging in the sky, to the lining of the walls. 

To the very metal plates that made up the roof of the sunken building we were standing on.

The metal peeled away, and the figure fell down. An instant later, the metal closed around them, trapping them in place. It wasn’t an attack, the pressure not crushing them enough to trigger their force armor. Their red light flared out, trying to drain aura from the spell, but there was nothing to grab. I wasn’t sustaining any spells on the metal – I’d just punched a hole, then closed it back up.

“Let me go!” they shouted, speaking for the first time. 

That actually caused me to relax. Given the random assortment of attacks and defenses, I was guessing that I’d been dealing with either a druid or an enchanter, and given that there was something distinctly demonic looking about the red light magic, combined with the water serpent, I’d been leaning druid. 

As such, I’d been a little worried that they would have the third arch-star that allowed them to swap places with their familiar. If they only had corporeal familiars, that would be fine – I could shoot the familiar and destroy the vessel it was using in this world before they could escape. But there was always a risk that they’d been holding a mind spirit in reserve, or a shadow spirit, or some other intangible familiar. 

If they had, though, that meant they must not have one now, or they’d have just swapped spaces with it to stop me from trapping them. If they were shouting, it meant anything they had to escape would at least take a bit of time. 

I squatted and pulled a knife from my pocket. They flinched, but I just used it to flip back the hood of their cloak back. I didn’t want to touch it with bare hands, because I didn’t know what they’d done to it. 

I was met with a kid, maybe nineteen at oldest, with a scruffy black beard that hadn’t fully grown in yet, and blue eyes. Their neck was covered with tattoos that presumably swirled to the directional druidic enhancements on the arms and legs, and they had a glowing mark on their forehead that stood out against their dark skin and tightly cropped hair. 

It was probably either a familiar bond or a boon of some sort, and I was guessing it was elemental of some sort, though it could easily have been a faerie, or even a particularly strange demon. Color and symbol shape was rough, and I was no archmage to be able to see such things. 

I sheathed my knife and sat down next to them. 

“I’m guessing that you’re Deepwater’s replacement?” I asked. 

They – he? – flinched at the name, but said nothing. I frowned and shook my head. I shouldn’t project onto the replacement.

It was tempting, though. Deepwater and I had been close, as close as Jessica and I had been. They had always drawn my interest in a way that even the conventionally attractive Alyphize hadn’t. 

It had been quite a confusing childhood, balancing the emotions of a growing teenager, the training of an assassin and arena fighter, and the schemes of demons and powerful people. 

If only I’d actually been able to escape it. 

“What’s your real name kid? What do you go by?” 

“Deepwater is my name! And I… What?” 

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. 

“The old Deepwater found that being a man didn’t suit them, but they had a beard and the like. What are you?” 

“A man?” the replacement for Deepwater said, though it came out more like a question. 

“Eh, think about it. If you’re happy with the–” 

“Shut up! I was told about you. You can’t stop us. I don’t know how you stopped the demon spell I unleashed on you, but–” 

“That’s enough,” I said, cutting them – no, him – off in turn. “What’s your name? And why were you trying to kill me?” 

I knew that Nexus would probably have preferred for me to just put a bullet through the kid’s head here and now, but Nexus could go rot in the Fallen Void for all I cared. I’d been told I didn’t need to kill the Arenamaster’s newest versions of my siblings, which meant I wasn’t about to do it. 

The kid was quiet, so I sighed. 

“Alright. If you want to be completely uncooperative, then I’m gonna have to handcuff you, and take you…” 

I considered it for a moment. 

The constables were out immediately. Not only were they completely in the pocket of Nexus, but I didn’t trust them to handle a kid. They’d thrown Kelly in with someone who they suspected of murdering a high level government official. Right now, the kids who had been stolen by the Arenamaster needed a gentle hand to help deprogram them from their brainwashing, not to be thrown in a cell and shown the worst parts of the world. 

I hadn’t seen Hadiya in a while, not since the dinner we’d had to talk about our next plans with Nexus, so bringing him to Elucidate Labs was out of the question. Plus, she’d gotten assigned some new project, at least according to Rhys. I’d been staying in Rhys’ guest bedroom, and Kelly had been sleeping on the couch. 

My old apartment was empty, though. I legally had the rights to it until the end of the month, since I’d pre-payed rent. I opened my mouth to say that, then realized just how creepy that sounded. It was, technically, an abduction, after all. A tall, strange man, chaining up and leading a nineteen year old to his abandoned apartment…

Maybe one of Jessica’s safe houses, then. 

“I’ll take you to a safe house, where you’ll be safe from the Arenamaster until we can get this sorted out.” 

“You just thought of that, didn’t you?” the kid asked. 

“In my defense, I didn’t think I’d be able to catch you. The fake Mist kept slipping away, whisked out from under my nose by Alyphize.” 

The new Deepwater shuddered, and I nodded. 

“Yeah, she creeped me out too. So what’s up? Why were you trying to kill me?” 

“I…” Deepwater said, shifting uncomfortably from where his arms were pinned by the metal. “I can’t say. You should let me go. How did you even escape my curse? A demonic curse of that scale? I was given it by Alyphize, and it was supposed to be a guaranteed kill for you.” 

“Here’s the thing about defenses against powerful esoteric charm magic like spatial warping, luck manipulation, or time magic: ninety-nine percent of the time, they’re useless,” I said. “Most people can’t do anything with that. But the one percent of the time where they’re needed, they’re really, really needed.” 

I didn’t mind if he did escape and told Alyphize that. They would have been able to deduce that I had some protection anyways, and my statement was vague enough that Deepwater would hopefully see me as cooperating, and be willing to do the same. 

“So, why did you try to kill me?” I asked. What was this, the third time? Fourth time? 

“I don’t know!” Deepwater finally snapped. “I’m just… We were told that you, Zone, and Firefright would all need to die, in order to complete the ritual, and then we could accomplish our goals.” 

Before I could ask what exactly those goals were, Deepwater continued speaking. 

“I don’t know. I can tell you’re about to ask. I know that if we accomplish them, we’ll have more power than anyone in the city. We’ll rule it how we see fit, if we wanted. We’ll be stronger than anyone has any right to be, and can fix everything. The city is a mountain of blood and sacrifices, and it’s not paid out well.” 

That struck a memory of me when I was far younger, listening to a lesson. The Arenamaster explaining how the arena was fair in a way that no other stage could be. Two walked in, both betting their lives, and they were true equals. No matter what position they were born in, only one would walk out. 

Even at the time, I’d had questions. Those had amplified even more when my demon Odril had pointed out how the circumstances that led a person to the arena could in turn alter their performance, making fights far less even than the Arenamaster seemed to think. 

It seemed that she was still feeding her wards the same drivel, though.

“Alright,” I said, nodding. “What’s your name? Don’t give me the Deepwater nonsense. That’s a stage name at best, and you’re an adult enough to pick your own.” 

I wasn’t sure I agreed with the fact he was an adult – nineteen or twenty was barely an adult to my mind. But I also knew that calling him a kid was going to just set him off, and I wanted him to be cooperative, not resistant.

“I… don’t have one. It’s Deepwater.” 

“Pick one,” I said. “Listen. If you can look me in the eyes and say that you would rather be called Deepwater than you would be called David or Evan or Jack or –” 

“Calder,” the kid said. “I liked the name Calder. I saw it once, and… I liked it.” 

“Alright, Calder,” I said. “I’m going to let you up. Are you going to attack me or try to run away?” 

“I should run away,” Calder said. “You kidnapped me.” 

“Yeah, well, you tried to kill me,” I said. “I feel like my response was fairly restrained, all things considered.” 

They glanced at the roof, and muttered under their breath. I waited patiently, until they spoke up. 

“Fine.” 

I nodded and stood, quickly building a spell to warp the metal before extending a hand to pull him out of the hole and back onto the roof. 

“Alright,” I said once he was standing on solid plates of metal again. “So, was it a coincidence that you happened to be outside of Cipher Nightclub? Were you there because of me?” 

Calder shifted from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable and I sighed. 

“Alright, listen. I’m not going to force you to talk. You can be quiet if you want. I can take you to a safe room, it’s well warded, and stocked with enough supplies that it can keep you safe until I can talk to my sister and see if she’s willing to take you in.” 

“You’re not throwing me to the constables?” Calder asked, his thick eyebrows knitting together in obvious confusion. 

“I mean… I can? Would you prefer it?” 

“No!” Calder said quickly. “It’s just. The Arenamaster said if anyone outside of her forces ever caught us, we’d be locked in a room forever, because we were considered bad people and the world was scared of us.” 

I felt my heart start to melt at that, and I took a grounding breath to center myself. 

“You’re not a bad person. You’ve been raised by one, but you’re only just starting to learn that there is more to life than just what you thought,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve got room for another kid, or I’d offer to hang around you.” 

“I… Oh.”

Calder was quiet, looking at his feet for a while, and despite the fact he was about nineteen, the years of brainwashing and control from the Arenamaster made him look far younger, like a scared child. 

He seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, then looked up at me. 

“You should go to the nightclub,” he said. “My sisters are working there. I was told to deal with you and distract you, to lead you away so that Zone can set up the Aura-spark spellcraft. If you hurry, you might still have time.” 

The constant pounding of music in the distance suddenly went quiet, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach.