Chapter 17

  “So, you’re what all the fuss is about.”

  The man’s words jammed themselves between the shutters of my conscious mind and pried me out of the comfortable pocket of nothing I’d been revelling in since I’d been… convinced to sleep.

  My eyelids were slow to respond to my commands, mostly because I wasn’t particularly keen on waking up just now, but also because I was awakening after massive generalized trauma. I vaguely remembered the laser blasts, the falls, the punches, getting clubbed over the head… all that unpleasant stuff. Can’t really blame a guy for wanting to have a longer break from that. I’d been through this kind of thing before, and the day after was never a fun time, even with all my HP.

  “You’ve caused quite a stir around here the past few days, young man. Here I thought we’d have to dig you out of the lower decks like a tick.” He spoke in clipped, precise words, unaccented but unequivocally more refined than what I was used to.

  He also wasn’t shutting up long enough for me to go back to sleep.

  “Now, now. Don’t pretend. I want our relationship to be an honest one if not terribly pleasant,” he continued.

  I cracked one eyelid then the other, wincing as I allowed the harsh light to puncture whatever hopes I had of further rest. I was in a tiny room, no bigger than Isea’s junk closet, illuminated by a singular bulb that seemed to swing and jiggle on the air current from the life support vents overhead. In front of me sitting on a folding chair was a man with a dark goatee and bushy eyebrows, a familiar man.

  “Haven’ I seen you on T.V.?” I slurred. My mouth was so dry, it was hard to speak.

  He flashed, a cruel, predatory facsimile of a smile. “I suppose you have. The locals do so love their bloodsports. I imagine it’s a veritable bacchanal down there as they watch their Chosen bleed each other. Miserable people are often eager for the company of their betters, don’t you agree?”

  I shook my head but the motion made my vision swim, so I chose to use my words instead.

  “I’m kinda new here. What ‘betters’ are those?”

  If the tiny barb affected him, the man didn’t let it show. Instead, he leaned forward until his hands were nearly touching my knee.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Instructor Thadeus Marshal, head of the Marshal Family in this part of human space, but you may know of me as Death’s Touch.” His smile crossed into smug territory like I was meant to be afraid of the name or something.

  Death’s Touch. I mean aside from what was readily gleaned from the name itself, it didn’t ring a bell. Did I read about it on the Net? Maybe.

  Thadeus Marshal’s smile withered. “No? Hmm. Perhaps you are a bit young. Heroes tend to pass into legend a bit faster these days, I guess. It’s annoying, though. I’d hoped we could skip some of the titles and qualifications and get right to the useful part of our conversation,” he said sourly, but I didn’t believe him in the slightest. He looked like just the kind of man that loved to spout off all of his accolades and trophies to his prisoners. Don’t ask me how I knew that, but I did.

  Thadeus continued: “Let’s just suffice to say I am a man of great power and import, and you are Ryan Kotes, Outers boy and recaptured fugitive awaiting transport back to our home planet. Are you with me so far?”

  I summoned all the saliva I could to whet my tongue. I would have killed for some water just now. “Uh. Sure, but I would object to some of those terms” I disputed. “One: I’m an adult, not a boy. Two: The word ‘fugitive’ implies that your Family has any reason to keep me locked up aside from being dicks.”

  For the first time, Thadeus’ smile touched the corners of his eyes. “Objections noted. My Family’s ‘dick’ status aside, that does sound like something a criminal on the run might say. With how often the technique has been used, I’m surprised you people still try.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, the gesture knocking loose some dried blood, forcing me to blink rapidly.

  “If saying I’m innocent marks me as guilty, what, in your experience, would an innocent person do?” I asked.

  “I have yet to meet such a person,” Thadeus Marshal smirked. “Innocent, I mean. But, hypothetically, what an innocent man might do is put fewer good men and women in the hospital during their capture.”

  My throat tightened, and my mind shot through all of the people I’d left broken and bloody. The man’s smile blossomed into a wolfish grin. For his part, Thadeus didn’t look in the least bit concerned with the toll I’d taken on his guards. But he’d slipped that one under my guard, and that pleased him, apparently.

  Exotics, Ryan. They’re Exotics. They’re probably feeling just like you are right now, except they’re free and you need to stall.

  Thadeus reached out and patted my leg a single time. It wasn’t comforting as the gesture might have been when done by someone else. My first instinct was to tense up and slap the unwanted contact away. However, I found both of my arms quite immovable at the moment. The rattle of cuffs sounded from behind my back.

  I flicked Detect Iron on and got a hit from the cuffs, but not as much as I hoped. A little probe with my mana confirmed that, though the cuffs had a metal core to them, I wasn’t touching any of said metal. The rest of it was made of something else.

  I returned my attention to Thadeus, who was leaning back in his chair again and brushing something off the cuffs of his black robe.

  “So, you have me. What happens now?” I asked. I was actually kind of curious how someone would force an Exotic through a jump point, considering they’d normally have to accept a prompt, and the more explaining Thadeus did, the fewer questions I would have to answer.

  “Right now? Nothing,” he said. “You are well in hand, and some of my people need time to recover from what you did to them. That leaves time for you and me to talk.”

  A single bit of exposed skin on the back of my leg was touching my chair. I could shape that, but to what end? I could make a weapon, I guessed. Maybe I could fashion a pick for the cuffs if they had that kind of mechanical lock. I could Automate it into something helpful, perhaps, but that had bad odds of working. Thadeus here would probably take note if my chair started to slowly morph into a robot spider thing or a gun. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to sit on a gun. My eyes darted around the room for more options. Detect Iron wasn’t giving me much other than where the door was and more iron beyond.

  “Sounds like you know all you need to know” I said, trying not to clench my jaw and show my frustration.

  “Yes,” he replied, drawing out the word and taking on a pensive look. “I suppose I do. You’re wanted back on Proxis, and it is my duty to send you back. However, the official reports rarely capture the essence of the thing, do they? It’s more of a plastic wrapper around the actual morsel of truth. What is your real story, Ryan Kotes? You say you’re being unfairly persecuted. I would be happy to listen to why you believe that to be so.”

  I bit my lip and thought for a moment while Thadeus waited. The way he phrased things bothered me. It tickled a memory I had from just before I’d been knocked out. “The other guy didn’t know,” I finally remembered. The light of realization beamed in my mind so bright, I couldn’t help but crack a bloody smile. “The spear guy. The one with the big shield. He went on about crimes and all that, but I got the impression he was just a stooge. Proxis didn’t tell you anything about me, did they?”

  That seemed to insult Thadeus in a way my snipes about his ethics and his Family didn’t. His lip curled into a silent snarl for a split second before he got his emotions back under control.

  I’d found something there, a vulnerability, and I was feeling just angry enough, trapped in this little box and in these cuffs, that I wasn’t above lashing out.

  “That’s it, isn’t it? They didn’t trust you with the ‘why,’ and you just have to blindly follow along with it like a stooge. I bet they sent you my name, my face, and a couple tidbits then told you to bring me in at whatever cost. That had to sting, especially for a man of ‘great import’ like yourself.”

  I cursed my cuffs for not letting me do air quotes around “great import” and really twist the knife, but what are you gonna do?

  “We’re all doing our duty here,” Thadeus ground out between his teeth. “To Family and species. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know why. What makes you worth all of this trouble, Ryan Kotes?”

  “I mean, since you’re just doing your duty, it doesn’t really matter, does it? You don’t really need my story. So, when your betters told you to stick your finger in the other Families’ collective eye and make all sorts of enemies with nothing more than a ‘because I said so’ as justification, how did that make you feel? Go ahead, Thadeus. This is a safe place.”

  The man took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and breathed out again. The air in the room grew very still.

  “Do you feel that?” he asked.

  I looked around the room, down at my body, at Thadeus.

  “Interesting,” he observed before switching gears again. “Now. As you said, you have some notion as to what I gave up to capture you. Therefore, you know what is at stake for me and the sacrifice I made to have this meeting. I am nearly done being cordial. Start at the beginning.”

  A vicious cramp in the muscles of my leg begged for my attention, but Thadeus’ face was suddenly right there, inches away, his gaze wide and still. I hadn’t seen him move.

  “Why, Kotes? Why did I have to eat so much shit on your account?” he purred. Then he reached out and put two fingers on my shoulder. Immediately, I could feel something was wrong. The muscles underneath the skin seemed to recoil, squirming, contracting, balling up into rock hard lumps. My leg was in the process of doing the same.

  Something was wrong. There was magic bullshit afoot. I knew it.

  I unfocused my eyes and went into mana sight, scanning, taking stock. There, in my shoulder, my knee too, there was some kind of… build up… No. more like slowdown in the flow of power through my body. It hurt, not anything I couldn’t handle, but it was supremely uncomfortable. Both places were where Thadeus had touched me in my brief time awake.

  He sighed contentedly. “Ah. There it is. Painful isn’t it?” Death’s Touch said as he reached out and put a finger on my other knee. “The body gets so dependent on the spirit after a while. Having your mana turned against you must be a novel experience for one so new as yourself.”

  Status gained: Cursed [Mana Tap]

  Turned against me? I didn’t feel anything like that. It was uncomfortable, sure, but I was doing okay, all things considered. In mana sight, the curse he’d put on me was a fuzzy sort of ball like a sea anemone or one of those blown up holos of a microbe. It was big and intrusive compared to my little motes, and it seemed to expand, reaching out for the mana flowing in my channels, tangling them in sticky tendrils. My MP was still at max, meaning my mana wasn’t being harmed like when I’d been cursed in the past, but my captor seemed to be pleased with how things were going.

  For good measure, I cycled my mana from my aura into my body and boosted the amount flowing through the system. That helped a bit, jarring some of the captured motes out of their captivity and back into the stream. As far as curses went, these seemed manageable, though my experience was limited.

  “Can’t sustain that aura anymore either,” Thadeus cooed with mock pity. “I was wondering when you’d reach your limit. Three Taps is impressive. I’ve seen hardened fighters go down after two. Perhaps we should start with your Level then. Tell me.”

  I breathed slowly as I concentrated on keeping my mana moving. It was hard, a constant mental flex, a lot like how it used to feel when I was just learning Mana Manipulation. Back then, one wrong move would make me lose control of the whole system, but that was before my increased control and all my time alone in my cell. Now, the drill was like an old friend.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Too much?” came Thadeus’ voice again. “Let me help.”

  Suddenly, the world turned red, and a guttural scream tore its way out of my throat. I convulsed, collapsing forward on my chair until I was staring at a fresh pool of my blood spreading across the floor. A ragged flap of skin just below my knee leaked fluid down my leg as if something had torn its way out.

  “Oh. I see. You are, indeed, exceptional. I expected you to pass out after that. That will save us some time,” Thadeus praised.

  I gasped for breath, my concentration in shambles after that little display, and I felt my aura billow out of me again.

  “There it is. Let’s keep this balance for just a moment. Your Level. What does my Family want with you? I will take an answer for either.”

  “They didn’t tell you?” I asked between clenched teeth. My voice was hoarse, and my concentration was gone.

  “No. They didn’t. They simply wanted you kept from the Academy and brought back to Proxis. No explanation. No details. Now, I think I am owed that explanation.”

  “Buddy, I don’t even know why they want me,” I insisted.

  “I doubt that. Let’s explore the topic together, and maybe we’ll both come out of it with something we want.”

  “You cursed me.”

  Death’s Touch sat back with a sigh and revelled in my discomfort. “And I can take them away. That is our relationship. Figure it out, Mr. Kotes. Let’s try another question then. What is so special about you?”

  He touched me again, this time on my neck, just to the side of my Adam’s apple. Again, I felt my mana begin to run into resistance.

  Desperation helped me gather myself. I’d fought Kolash’s curse by keeping the flow moving and eventually overwhelming his magical constructs. His were manifestations of maelstrom light that destroyed my mana, while these things I was contending with captured and kept. The more I failed to destroy them, the stronger they were. I was feeding them the longer they stayed in my channels.

  Split Mind is now level 12.

  Mana Manipulation is now level 5.

  Upgrade Paths available:

  Externalized Control

  Manifestation

  Body Infusion

  Mana Manipulation is now level 6.

  I howled as something rooted around in the wound on my knee. I could feel it scraping at my insides and tearing at my flesh.

  “Eyes on me, Kotes,” Thadeus commanded angrily. “Answers. Now.”

  I offered him something. “They put me in prison after my tutorial.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Thadeus sounded supremely unsatisfied.

  This time, he jammed his fingers into my forehead, fingers still slick with my blood. My head rocked back as if I’d been hit by a club.

  With this one, the mana in my body reached a tipping point, and the flow ground to an almost immediate halt. I felt like someone had just put an iron clamp on my lungs. My breathing stopped, and my body’s processes went still with the exception of my heart. Hurray for not having one of those.

  “There we are! Finally!” Theadeus exclaimed. He got to his feet and stood over me with a victorious grin. With a flourish, he waved his hand in front of my face and beckoned me to stand.

  Suddenly, my limbs twitched, and my muscles painfully contracted on their own. I rose from my chair spasmodically then kneeled on the ground. A second later, I slammed my face directly into the seat of my chair. No hesitation. Face met chair. My nose broke. Blood gushed from it and my mouth.

  Then I did it again. Three times.

  Dazed, bloody, I got up and sat back down on the now dented and deformed seat.

  Thadeus took his seat again as well and leaned in close until we were nearly touching noses. I couldn’t even force myself to look away.

  “Five Taps. Very impressive. Exceptional, even to someone that sees the exceptional day in and out. Sadly, for you, Level still means something. I’ll try guessing, and you let me know if I have it right. You obviously don’t have any experience being a Chosen. A rogue, perhaps? Those are always unpredictable. Could have something to do with why my Family wants you. I’ve never had to tap anyone five times before. A unique mana type? ” Death’s Touch speculated. “Am I close? Blink once for yes, twice for no.”

  I blinked rapidly in response. For one, I had no idea. Second, I still didn’t want to give this asshole what he wanted.

  “We’ve already been through this, Ryan. If you want to be evasive, we’ll have to start all over again.” he reached up and put his fingers on my forehead once more. I could feel the curse inside respond to his touch, pulling, ripping its way toward the surface of my skin. My body wouldn’t let me take a breath, wouldn’t let me scream.

  “Such resistance,” he whispered. “It feels like we’ve let it go too far. Brace yourself.”

  The door behind Thadeus Marshal melted into a puddle of glowing orange goo. What electronics or insulating materials that had been used in its construction burst into flame, and the doorframe warped and spread like plastic under a blowtorch. Smoke billowed up toward the ceiling.

  It had happened so fast. Just, one second the door was solid metal, the next, it was a puddle on the floor, instant like I’d used Shape Change. The room became a furnace, so hot my skin felt like it was going to peel away, and the heat distorted the air to the point I couldn’t even see much more than a blob of color where Thadeus was.

  Death’s Touch froze like a prey animal caught out in the open.

  The glowing pool of molten metal parted and flowed to the side until a path formed, allowing a woman to pass through. She wore a red, figure hugging dress in a flowing style that brought to mind flickering flames and melted candle wax. Her long, braided hair was the color of basalt, shiny and dense with the exception of her temples that seemed to be prematurely turning gray. I say prematurely because her face was the picture of youth but uncannily so, like her features were carved from stone instead of made of flesh. She carried herself like visiting royalty, her imperious face turned up so that she was always looking down on those in front of her, myself included.

  Hey. I saw her on T.V. too.

  “Professor Marshal, how elucidating to see you again,” she said in a richly accented alto.

  Death’s Touch was suddenly standing up straight and struggling with where to put his hands. He tried behind his back, clasped in front of his body, before finally settling on placing them at his sides.

  Thadeus’ voice sounded choked, maybe because of the heat. I was certainly feeling a little dried out. “Dean Yisu! I- good evening. I-”

  “Yes, I know we rarely confer outside of work, but I hope I am not intruding too deeply this morning,” the Dean cut across Thadeus’ greeting.

  “Uh. No. Not all, ma’am. This is just so unexpected. Could I get someone to bring you tea or maybe breakfast?”

  “No, thank you. I will not trouble you for long. As for being unexpected, yes, one rarely expects company in their secret prison cell where they believe they are safe from oversight.”

  Thadeus cleared his throat and seemed to finally know what to do with his hands. He turned his chair and gestured for the Dean to sit. Mine was taken… also bent to hell. The Dean nodded to her host and gracefully took her seat. When the fabric of her dress brushed against the metal, it sounded like sizzling on a griddle. She hadn’t even spared me a glance, despite my open-mouthed, idle puppet pose.

  After a long, pregnant pause where the Dean simply pinned Thadeus in place with her uncaring stare, the man finally broke the stalemate.

  “We- Uh- Use this place for… dangerous… sensitive…”

  “Students?” The Dean interrupted again.

  “No!” Thadeus choked out. “Never, ma’am. I would never dream-”

  This time, the Dean held up a hand to forestall further discussion. “Before you finish that sentence, Thadeus, I would like to give you a chance to not become a liar. What, precisely, are you doing with this boy?”

  “He’s a fugitive from our homeworld, ma’am. Proxis business.” Thadeus declared with a little regained authority.

  “And what are you doing with him?” Dean Yisu repeated the question.

  Thadeus’ eyes flicked over to me. “Interrogation then extradition.”

  “If he was already convicted of a crime, I imagine it is a bit late for an interrogation. He has been convicted of a crime, yes?” The Dean’s question was the hot edge of a knife the way it cut.

  I laid there unmoving on my chair. I’d not taken a breath in a minute, and I wasn’t feeling very good about it. Even my involuntary processes had been hijacked. All I could do was cycle my mana through my body manually and try not to pass out. Even that was getting mixed results, and my vision was starting to feather at the edges as my lungs cried out for fresh air. The ‘Taps’ the asshole had put on me had grown, and they were blocking my channels more and more over time. I could feel them there, sticky, swollen.

  Blood clots. Maybe they're like blood clots.

  Split Mind is now level 13.

  Mana Manipulation is now level 7.

  The voids I usually created to encourage my mana to flow in a particular direction weren’t working effectively enough to keep it going. The force I could gather through the method just wasn’t doing the job anymore. My mana channels were a stagnant pool while they should have been a rushing river.

  I concentrated on that metaphor. Movement meant energy. Energy meant force. With great effort, I tried pulling mana back from the Tap, gathering it up, and then letting it rush back into the vacuum of its own accord. I had limited space to work with, but I also had very good control of my personal mana type nowadays. The little motes responded to my intent readily, gathering into a tight cluster, building upon themselves and pressing closer to one another. When I let go, the mana slammed up against the curse barrier, but Thadeus’ magic held fast. It was even able to snatch a few more motes out of the air to add to its mass.

  “Yes. He is a criminal. What we are waiting for now is-”

  Dean Yisu interrupted once more with her soft but commanding tone. “I received the strangest message this morning. Would you like to hear it?”

  “I-” Thadeus Marshal opened and closed his mouth like a fish, hesitant but also unwilling to say no to the woman. “Yes, ma’am. I would if it pleases you.”

  The Dean crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. Her gaze went up to the ceiling like she was recalling a story that amused her. “It was delivered by someone from the lower decks. He was waiting for us at the entrance to the Academy with a canister of liquid phase medium too heavy for him to even carry. The poor boy had dragged it all the way from the lower decks to our front door on a wheelbarrow. He also had quite a story to tell, which he did at length. Conspicuously absent were your security forces.”

  Again, I let my mana slam into the Tap in my neck. This time, I felt a tiny twitch as the curse shifted under the force. I redoubled my efforts, collecting mana from other parts of my body and bringing them together, rallying them inside the narrow confines of one spot.

  “Y-yes, ma’am. It took a lot to apprehend this one. Many hands.” The Marshal rubbed his hands together nervously.

  “I’m unsurprised it took many of your personnel, considering this boy is the first Chosen in decades to take the Colonial Authority’s seat at our Academy.” She took on a conciliatory tone. “I hope you didn’t lose too many men subduing him, dear Thadeus.”

  Now. Go.

  My tightly compressed mana shot forward and slammed up against the Mana Tap. It moved.

  Again. I gathered everything I could, an entire quarter of my pool if I was estimating correctly, and squeezed it into a tight shape like a battering ram, even going so far as to sharpen the point of it. Then I shot it forward with as much mental mojo I could conjure.

  *CRACK*

  My mana ram tore a ragged hole in the center of the curse, ripping through the center and severing the tiny latices that seemed to make up its interior. Finally, there was space for my MP to flow, and flow it did. It flowed so forcefully, that the rest of the curse construct dissolved from the inside until there was nothing left.

  Mana Manipulation is now level 8.

  Mana Manipulation is now level 9.

  Thadeus’ face twitched, and his fingers curled arthritically at his side. “We… I… no. No one is dead. They performed admirably.”

  The Dean shot the man a look that could skewer a Bray.

  “Good. Then you can afford to lose the ones that tried to stop me from entering your little clubhouse. You really should train your people better. Threat assessment is almost as important as actual fighting prowess for those at their Level.”

  Thadeus’ face went ghostly white despite the temperature, and I believed that if he had a collar, he would have tugged at it and asked if the heat was turned up too far in the station.

  “Oh. Yes. Of course, ma’am. They should never-”

  “Have overstepped their authority?” the Dean cut him off again. “Indeed. Had they known their place, they’d still be alive.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Thadeus squeaked.

  *CRACK*

  Another curse fell to my mana battering ram. With this one, my mana started to flow more naturally again, and my aching muscles started to relax. My body took a reflexive deep, greedy gulp of air. Oh good, my diaphragm had rejoined the party.

  This time, the Dean did look at me, a detached but curious sort of look. Then she gave me the slightest of nods as if I’d done something she wasn’t entirely unimpressed with.

  Her gaze fell back on Instructor Thadeus. “Now, Professor Marshal, would you like to withdraw this farce of an Audit? I assume it involves this one, and with him finally out in the open, we can all go back to our lives.”

  My mana, now free from much restriction, swept through my body like a flood from a wrathful god. It swept away the rest of the curses, breaking them apart and restoring my body to what it should have been. I helped it along as much as I could, shaping the leading edge of the flood so that it could penetrate the constructs that tried to block it.

  Mana Manipulation is now level 10.

  Upgrade paths available:

  Advanced Manifestation

  Structure

  Sensitivity

  I bolted upright, breathing hard, my body finally back under my control. Then I spit the blood that had been pooling in my mouth onto the ground.

  Devouring Grasp [5mp/sec]

  You gain knowledge of material: Insulglass [1/10]

  You gain knowledge of material: Steel [60/1,250]

  I brought my hands around to the front of my body and rubbed at my wrists. They were still bound, though the cord that had kept them fastened together had a neat, seared line between them.

  Thadeus Marshal rubbed his hands together and shook them out like he was in pain. The look he shot me might have stopped my heart if I’d had one, but it was brief. He had his boss to contend with.

  “No, ma’am. I don’t think so. What I said was true. I still believe that this Academy has grown lax in its admission process and instruction and wish to evaluate all students one by one, existing and incoming. This is in accordance with the rights afforded in the Charter.”

  The Dean closed her eyes, weariness creeping onto her otherwise unblemished face, and her shoulders hunched slightly.

  “Very well,” she sighed. “The Academy values the rule of law and the charter. I hope you know what you’re doing, Thadeus.” She punctuated her final words by uncrossing her legs and rising to her feet. The temperature in the room dropped significantly.

  “Now,” the Dean continued. “Release my student.”

  “Respectfully, ma’am. He’s not a student yet,” Thadeus objected.

  “I will not ask again, Thadeus.” Yisu’s eyes flashed a vibrant orange, and Death’s Touch visibly wilted before her, taking several steps in retreat until his back was against the wall before he bowed his head in contrition.

  “You’re dismissed,” Dean Yisu pronounced.

  Thadeus seemed to react to the command with confusion at first, turning this way and that. Then, with as much dignity as a man dismissed from his own place could keep, he marched out of the interrogation room.

  The Dean turned to me, all the wrath gone, cool and collected. “Come with me now, Ryan Kotes. We need to talk.”

  Hey. Thanks for giving In my Defense a chance. New chapters will be posted Tuesdays and Thursdays, eventually ramping up depending on the amount of interest we can generate here.

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