CHAPTER 34: DENTED MEMENTOS

  “Where are we?” Elias asked.

  “At the edge of the known world,” Jalander replied.

  They were standing atop a steep bluff overlooking the artic ocean that bordered much of the United North, watching icebergs drift by like clouds from an airship. It was a pleasant enough view, though Elias questioned whether it warranted the excruciatingly cold thirty-minute walk from the city gates. There had been other bluffs along the way, besides. “You know, you don’t always need to be clever and cryptic before actually answering my questions,” he said.

  Jalander opened his mouth but said nothing. He chuckled.

  “No response to that?” Elias pushed.

  “None that are neither clever nor cryptic.”

  Elias tried to cross his already crossed arms ever more tightly, rocking on his heels. “I really thought I had adapted to the cold, but I swear this wind is going to rip my skin right off.”

  “Well, cling to it for a few more minutes, will you?” Jalander said. “I promise we’ll head back before the northern wind flays you alive.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “Your ring.” The elder collector’s tone changed as the wind stilled, gifting them a moment of mercy. “May I see it?”

  It was a request Elias had not anticipated. He yanked free the leather glove from his reddened hand and showed him his father’s only memento. The silver ring sat loosely around the winter-tightened skin of his numb index finger, though it fit snuggly in the summer months. Out here, it spun like a well-oiled cog as Elias twisted its dented signet upward, that of the Serpent Moon School, Jalander’s school, his father’s school—it would have been Elias’s school too, Jalander had told him, if the schools still existed.

  “I gave that ring to your dad,” Jalander said, “on this very bluff.”

  That was one mystery answered—their reason for being here—but as usual, it opened another dozen. Thankfully, Jalander would not make Elias beg for them this time. “The Valshynar disbanded the Five Great Schools twenty-five years ago, almost to the day, in fact,” he went on. “Agreements were struck, but the parchment that soaked the ink was woven of coercion and empty promises. Many of us knew it even then, but not everyone had a vote. Your father, having recently transcended, had more say in the matter than I did, but he too was outvoted in the end.

  “As you may recall, the Serpent Moon School was first to be absorbed by the Valshynar, not only because we were tiny, but more critically because travel through sky rifts necessitated our presence. I remember the word ‘merger’ being used. It was not a merger. Once you’ve sacrificed your independence to someone else, whatever they said, whatever they promised—it matters little. Sylas realized this straight away.”

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  “Was my father’s last name really Fisher?” Elias interjected.

  “Sylas Emerand. He changed it after going into hiding.”

  “Better than Fisher, but I think I’ll still keep my mother’s surname.”

  “As you should.” Jalander smiled a sad smile.

  “Is this why you hired us?” Elias asked. “So that you could show me this place and tell me more about my dad? I didn’t think you were that sentimental.”

  “I came here to acquire an artifact.” Jalander patted his coat pocket. “The Two Worlds Trading Company was an appropriate contractor for the job.” He cleared his throat. “But yes, it is why I asked you, specifically.”

  “And here I thought Bertrand’s flyers were starting to pay off.”

  “Sorry to disappoint.”

  “Don’t mind me,” Elias said. “I’m just trying to make more money, collect more relics… ascend. It’s not happening as quickly as I had hoped. Even now, while the business is doing better, most of our revenue goes right into our new bank account. Not that I’m complaining. I get it. We need to stay afloat, and if Sultan Atakan drops our contract next year, we’re back to surviving off table scraps. We need to keep building the business. We need more than one big employer. We need resilience. Then—then I can collect. I can grow. I can ascend.”

  “Is that truly what you want?” Jalander inquired.

  “I track every single relic I consume,” Elias told him. “Though if I’m being honest, sometimes it feels almost pointless at this pace, like a sad joke, like I’m tossing coppers into a well and wishing for wealth.”

  Jalander shook his head. “Why waste your relics, Elias? Surely you have better things to spend them on. Enjoy the power you already have, but do so in secret. Ascension only risks exposing you, and what do you think exposure would mean for the business you’ve built with Briley and Bertrand? What would it mean for you when the Valshynar come knocking?”

  “I’ll be careful,” Elias insisted. “There are benefits too. Remember that pirate attack Briley mentioned? I’m not sure we would have survived it had I not awoken. If I’d been a little weaker, a little slower, if I’d missed a shot, I don’t think I would be here talking to you right now. You say being a collector puts me at risk, but my power saved us, and it was not the only time it proved useful. Ascending, it… it isn’t going to harm The Two Worlds Trading Company. I won’t let it. But maybe, maybe it can be our advantage, like the hidden card in a magic trick. I don’t have wealth, Jalander. I don’t have connections. I have this. I would be foolish not to use it.”

  “You’re right about being foolish,” Jalander muttered. “You needn’t grow endlessly, you know, in life nor in business. What is your endgame? Where does it bring you?”

  Elias contemplated this for a cold minute, frozen in both thought and body. “It isn’t about the destination,” he said finally. “I’m not living for my life’s epilogue. I’m a flat stone skipping upon the water. I need to be moving forward, I need momentum, or else I’ll just sink.”

  Jalander exhaled a large, whirling cloud. “Elias, my boy, you are either incredibly wise or incredibly stupid. And you are very much your father’s son.”

  It didn’t sound like an insult, and Elias decided not to interpret it as one. “Speaking of which,” he said, raising his right hand again, “how did the ring acquire this nasty dent? I imagine there’s a story there.”

  Jalander nodded nostalgically. “There is. But it is another story for another day. We should return to Saint Albus. I said I would have you back for sunset. Your friends will be waiting.”

  Elias was more than happy to start their journey home, but as for the actual journeying: “Do we really have to walk the whole way back? I already can’t feel my toes.” The snow was picking up, and he was surprised by how much of it he could scoop off the top of his head. His hair was sopping wet, his ears like his toes. He took in the ocean view one last time.

  “Toughen up, lad.” Jalander turned toward their footprints. “You’re a collector now.”