Declan stagged backwards, clamping his hands down on the wound in his side as a tingling numbness spread. Then he stumbled and hit the wall.

  “Anissa!” the blonde roared. “Need a healer! Someone get Anissa! I swear to the gods, Alister, if you kill someone it won’t matter who your father is. House Rush will have a new heir because they won’t have you.”

  Shock made Declan analytic, detatched. The pain was growing and threatening to drag him down into panic, and panic seemed appropriate. But the house heir seemed aghast, almost confused at what exactly had happened.

  “Move your hands,” the blonde said. “It’s a Stab wound. Deflected off the shield. Gods, Alister. You should have enough control to avoid doing that.” Then she glanced back, eyes narrowing. “Don’t wake Rohan. Get the fucking commander.”

  “I am insulted,” Alister said quietly. “Not because he’s hurt. We’ve all bled. There’s as much blood as mana in any good rune. I’m insulted you think I’d be so stupid as to do it publicly. Where there are witnesses. I didn’t even consider he wouldn’t be able to defend against a tier one, garbage rune.”

  Anissa was a woman with dark tan skin and sleeping clothes on, her black hair tied up and slippers on her feet. She sprinted in and slid on her knees to sit beside him. “Nice, clean cut, goes through the muscle here, ok that’s not great. Declan Thorn, I know that name. Insight guy.”

  Declan’s teeth chattered. “Potion. Healing potion.”

  “That might do more harm than good when I can handle it correctly. Nothing special about my runes, I’m afraid. You’ll be bored but you’ll survive. Just tell them you were sparring with one of us. It’s going to be a cool scar.” Her runes burst into existence, a trio of perfect Healing runes.

  “Tier three? So many layers to the points,” Declan said.

  Anissa gave him a mock frown. “It’s not polite to comment on the tier of a woman’s runes. Or her points. Hold on, we’re going to work inside out and the last layer of skin heals better on its own than via a rune. And no one uses a potion if they can help it, it’s barely better than drinking pure cancer.”

  The feeling of his guts moving on their own was the most disturbing part. As power suffused the wound, the pain didn’t disappear but it became mingled with a buzzing like she’d packed the wound with bees. That, too, was a disturbing thought.

  “Stay with me, focus so I don’t have to try and keep you out of shock. You were lucky this didn’t hit your chest. There’s not a good place to get stabbed but there are bad places and there are worse ones.” Anissa stopped and took heavy breaths. “I need a moment to refill my mana. You know what’s better than a healer? Not getting hurt. Shields. Armor. Anything but me keeping you from opening death’s door. You own a shield? Want me to get you one?”

  Her constant chatter had a purpose. It kept him distracted, and he began to suspect she was a master conversationalist for no better reason than keeping patients engaged and buying time to work.

  At last, she stepped back, her face pale and breaths coming hard. “I need signoff from another healer, I’ve got one coming from Medical. I know it still hurts but I promise you, if I knit the skin back together you’ll feel it for years. If it heals on its own, you’ll be fine in two weeks. Stand up, we’ll walk together, I want to see how the wound reacts when you move.”

  With Anissa by his side, he limped out. It wasn’t like he’d die but he’d always imagined healing as…more. “That son of a bitch tried to kill me.”

  Anissa’s sigh said he wouldn’t like her opinion. “If Alister Rush wanted to kill you, he’d just kill you. You think he’s been up for two days straight on the off chance you’ll come to report and ask to test a rune in case it was a shield and then bounce it off the shield and hit you? No. He was careless, and it’s going to cost him leadership of the arrow, but you’re disposable. House Rush would pay a fine for your murder and move on. His daddy would probably let him do it as a Long Dark present.”

  “Your bed-side manner is shit,” Declan said.

  “Look at you, walking, all determined.” Anissa stopped him outside of medical. “This isn’t representative of the ArCore. We’re supposed to be the best of the best. Instead we’re tearing ourselves apart doing too much in too many places. We got wrecked by a bunch of turtles with flame shields because we didn’t slow down to do probing attacks.”

  “Tegan’s asleep in House Ariloch, passed out on her cousin’s bed. I heard about Rohan. I fucking hate Alister and hope he gets his dick bitten off by a turtle, but none of you look healthy.” Declan wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones. He just wasn’t sure how revenge worked when one person was a house arcanist and the other the top arrow in the ArCore. “Hey…since your people just literally tried to kill me, I want an answer.”

  “It was not an attempt. We don’t try, we do. I’ll still answer,” Anissa said. “Is it about the healing runes? They’re rare and drink mana like water in the desert. You don’t have an arcsoul to power one, sorry.”

  Declan shook his head and pulled the mana stone from his pocket, putting it in orbit. “How do I bind a third one? You’ve done it.”

  “Oh, that was a good question. Much better than I thought you’d ask. You did the second one by pushing both, right?” She waited for his nod. “The best way I can explain three or four, I’ve heard five is the same, is this. Imagine you’re counting to three. One, two, three. Each number is attention to a rune. Then you do it faster. Faster. Faster. Eventually you start to blend. It’s not three, it’s one action but you’re not forcing your will out, you’re letting it flow. I’ve technically bound my fourth healing rune. When I think about trying five…I’m good at tier four. I’ll have a long career at four.”

  “Thank you.” Declan meant it. “Count to three. I can do that.”

  “There are tools the major houses own. Artifices with enchanted light-stones that glow when you’re focused on them. You train by keeping one lit, then two, then three and so on. Take an oath and make it a condition of the oath to get access. Insight may not be perfect but it is valuable. Houses will come looking and you want to know what you want.” Anissa left him with the healer who emerged from medical. “I’m going to go draw some blood, Declan. Not with runes. Everyone expects runes. I’m going to use my fists.”

  ###

  By the time he returned to House Ariloch, breakfast was on. Declan sketched up what Anissa had described. It made sense to him, and he had a solid plan. “Has anyone seen Chen? No? Good.” Anything that smelled like drain cleaner would take time to sleep off, but he was more certain the man needed something different than he was getting. After Long Dark, it would change.

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  Declan was almost never alone and never left alone when he was out in the kitchen or the common room. Sometimes it was asking if they had space for a new resident, or asking him to identify a rune, or asking if he was looking for a bed-mate, all of which were yes, but one of which required a lot more effort.

  After his last relationship, Declan was cautious. Having things literally set on fire by a welder had been a learning moment for him, a mourning moment for his favorite pants and a lesson in how one person might be ready to be married at seventeen and Declan was not. At all.

  His bed was empty but not burned and that was acceptable for now. As for the rest of House Ariloch? Arcanists were a randy lot not because magic made them so but because they were human. Between the pressure to survive, the constant thrill (or terror) of being hunted, and the drive to succeed, relationships were like molten arcite, white hot, entrancing and likely to leave scars.

  At lunch, he brought Harris an extra slice of cake as thanks and delivered it without comment. “Eden, Roland, Harris. Want to see my new stab wound?”

  “Who did it? I’ll stab them myself,” Eden said. “Technically, I’ll pay someone to stab them.”

  “I know a guy,” Roland said.

  Declan explained about the rune and the experiment and his conclusions on Healing as a rune. “Strike is more valuable. It works better.”

  Harris hadn’t spoken yet but he seemed sad. “If I told you how many times I’ve been hit by shrapnel in Inscription we wouldn’t finish lunch. The head healer for ArCore was right, if House Rush woke up and decided to kill you in the scab, there would be a lot of upset people and a lot of yelling but the only blood spilled would be yours.”

  “Stay away from the ArCore,” Eden added. “Arcanists are already crazy. They’re ten levels worse. It’s probably natural to them, no different then bumping into you in the hall.”

  “Bumping into you with daggers,” Roland added. “I still know a guy.” After that, Roland spent all of lunch expounding on new plan to get people who were close—but not quite—to qualifying for ArCore to train each other. All while owing him. “They’ll be the most powerful arcanists in their generations. That’s worth a little effort.”

  After lunch, Declan didn’t make it to Skinner’s class before a messenger intercepted him. “Instructor Skinner says you have an assignment today in 28C and he expects you to master that third stone.”

  After all this time, the layout of the academy was becoming ingrained. It was also completely in the wrong direction, so he ran the long way around ring six, arriving closer to House Ariloch than the Armory. He’d had no reason to come to this area, and didn’t understand exactly what he was looking at as he passed through training fields with rune stones mounted on poles.

  28C proved to be not a classroom but a tent among the training fields, and an older black woman with long gray hair and wrinkles around her eyes smiled as he glanced in. “You’re Thorn. Keel asked me to do a private session. Apparently, you need to learn a shield rune.”

  “Little problem with that. No arcsoul, I’m better at getting hit with a sword and I’m being completely stumped by my third mana stone.”

  “Eesa Sherman, Instructor Sherman to you, and a pleasure to meet you. I wondered what had Skinner up and around. Haven’t heard him yell in years. Now, Protect may be a bit much with no arcsoul, but there are options. You’re aware of the angle issue?”

  Declan was and repeated his understanding. “The more angles in a rune the more mana it takes and the harder it is to use from the arcsoul. It’s better to orbit the rune and let it guide the mana.”

  “Definitely easier, not provably any better.” She tossed him a rune-stone. “Hold it in front of you and cast.”

  That frustrated Declan even more. “If I could do that, I could master my third mana stone.”

  “Skinner,” she said like a curse. “Try it. Don’t bother binding the rune, just hold it and force mana down into it. It may take a few moments but binding a rune is only so you can use orbits to draw in mana. It may take more than a few moments, if we’re being honest.”

  That ran counter to everything Declan understood. “If people can just activate runes they would.”

  “Try it with anything more complex than Strike and you’ll understand why it isn’t normally done. If I didn’t have so much respect for Keel Skinner I’d call him a madman and refuse.” Instructor Sherman crossed her arms. “Stop arguing and do what I told you. This isn’t the hard part.”

  He gripped the rune and held it out in front of him, aiming away, and began to channel mana at the rune, which accepted it in a way it didn’t usually. The stone didn’t fight him at all, just drinking the mana in. The rune began to faintly glow, the single line becoming brighter as minutes passed until at last, something shifted with it. With a mental brush, the rune activated, throwing a bolt of blue that struck the tent and died without moving it. “People used to work magic like this. Wait! Can I try something?”

  Instructor Sherman had been watching him, arms crossed, but inclined her head.

  This time, he set the mana stone orbiting and pushed it to move faster. Then instead of channeling down into the ground, he pushed it outward at the strike. The difference was seconds instead of minutes. The rune began to glow bright blue and locked into place with only three orbits, about fifteen seconds. This time, the bolt that hit the tent made it billow slightly.

  “That’ll do.” Instructor Sherman took the Strike and replaced it with a different rune, an inverted V. “What is that, Mr. Thorn? What does it feel like?”

  It was a Strike, obviously. But one with the longest modifier he’d ever seen. The modifer made the whole rune flex.

  Deflect: Deflect a single attack. The greater the force the less it will be deflected. Mana Cost: Minor, Fixed

  “There’s no range on this but it still has the same force. I’d call it Deflect.”

  “As would I. It’s more difficult than a Strike. The additional line, the sharp angle, they require more of the arcanist, more of the mana. Let’s see you use it.”

  His mana stone was already in orbit, filling the rune with bright blue. But it didn’t fill all at once, and the second part of the V filled at a fourth the rate, until at last it locked. “It’s done.”

  “I’ll activate on the count of three.” Instructor Sherman didn’t orbit the Strike at all. She simply crushed it with mana. “Ready? One, two, three!”

  Declan triggered the rune, which flashed in front of him. It didn’t stop the Strike, just sent it to his side. “Perfect! All I need is three minutes of warning before I’m attacked.”

  “Not quite, Mr. Thorn.” She motioned to him. “Charge again.”

  He did, going faster this time. “Ready.”

  “Put it in your pocket, remove the mana stone from orbit,” Sherman ordered. “You don’t need either and you shouldn’t need to hold it to activate. Try again, on three.”

  This time, he was all nerves as she charged the Strike. “Wait, we don’t have to—”

  “Three!” she said.

  In sheer panic, he triggered the rune, which met the bolt dead on, throwing it right back at Instructor Sherman. She didn’t move or even react, as a golden box flashed into existence around her. “Well, well. Now, you can do that with Deflect. What do you think about Protect?”

  “I think it would take me ages to charge but might save my life.”

  That was apparently the right answer. “You’ll keep the Deflect for study, I’ll see you in two days. You are to charge that rune and activate it, charge and activate. When you’re not charging, you need to be using Insight on it until you grasp every aspect, every edge, the imperfections of that instance. Do you understand what this does?”

  Maybe. Lake Domine had said something similar. “Knowing a rune makes it more powerful. Knowing the intricacies of one can make a tier one absorb a tier two Strike. What exactly is Skinner’s plan here?”

  “You think he let me in on it? I’m guessing this is a reward for being accidentally stabbed by one of the ArCore when they were testing a new shield rune.” Declan appreciated it.

  “A new shield, you say?” Instructor Sherman was suddenly far more attentive. “I’ve heard of no such thing. Where did they get it? What does it do? How do I get it? I’m the defense instructor. If anyone deserves it, it’s me.”

  Knowledge was power. It might not be the power he wanted it to be, but Declan had an idea. “One of the ArCore claimed it, but I used Insight for them on it. I have a solid idea of how you could get your own. How you could have enough to raise its tier. It’s called Punishing Flame Shield.”

  “Go on,” Sherman said.

  Declan shook his head. “I bled for this. You don’t get it. At least, not for free.”