ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO: A Sharp Break

152

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“That’s funny!” said Kabir, his knives still chopping squash in time to the music. “It almost looked like The Bald General ran away from you!”

Alden’s astonishment was so complete that he stood there with a mind gone blank, gaping at the spot Joe had vacated. One of the mounds of sandwiches in the fridge, unbalanced by the wizard’s rummaging, slowly collapsed sideways onto the bare section of shelf where the trifle had been stored.

I was being friendly. Why on Earth would he run from me?

It had been more of a jog than a full run. But the intention was still really obvious.

He’s Joe.

Superior Professor Worli Ro-den. Multilingual schmoozer. Clever, confident, and a little criminal—an Artonan who’d managed to be likable on Alden’s very first day as an Avowed, when he was so nervous he couldn’t even bring himself to argue with someone like Bti-qwol.

Alden and Joe’s dynamic had been different when they’d talked back in September. During that one late-night call, Joe hadn’t been quite so larger than life. Alden had been...changed. Tireder. Better informed.

But the call hadn’t been bad.

Joe had clearly been uneasy when he picked up the phone, but they’d joked around a little in the end.

I told him I didn’t think he’d made a bad gamble. I told him I liked the lab coat. I told him I’d stood up for him with Alis-art’h.

He narrowed his eyes. “That man’s no hn’tyon, Kabir,” he said, accidentally speaking in Artonan because he was thinking so hard about a member of the species. “His name is Master Worli Ro-den.”

Alden, my darling Rabbit! So happy that we’ll be working together. What a nice, nice skill you have! You’re my savior....

You may call me Joe.

Irritation born of half a dozen less nameable feelings stirred inside him. “You know, I don’t think Worli Ro-den is allowed to run away from me.”

The two wizards by the fridge exchanged one-eyed glances.

Alden’s bag swung as he whirled, and his squishboot squeaked against the hard floor. He strode out of the kitchen.

He was going to catch that jerk.

He didn’t ask himself what he intended to do once the jerk was caught. He didn’t even know why he wanted to catch him, exactly. It wasn’t like he’d been desperate to talk to Joe.

But he had been pleased to run into someone who knew something about him. About Kibby. The lab. His skill.

What had happened to him. What he''d seen there.

I could say so much more, but I just wanted to say hi.

Inside his head...

No, the truth was located in some place more primal than that.

Ro-den was a powerful, sneaky, Artonan genius who would probably have a whole flock of amazing Avowed running errands for him again before Alden graduated from high school. But Alden suddenly had a certainty within himself that Joe owed him just a little bit more than that dismissal.

A few minutes of his time. Not “have a nice week.” Not “I really need to save some more poor Avowed.” A few friendly minutes.

Alden was almost across the cafeteria. Several Artonans were spread throughout the room, enjoying whatever meal this was to them. Joe was stuck waiting for the elevator.

When Alden stopped beside him, the professor didn’t react at all. He was making a show of examining a large black claw through his monocle. Since Alden had just seen him pull the claw from one of the pockets of his salmon-colored pants and wipe what looked like mayonnaise off of it, he doubted it was a precious item that would suffer from the absence of Joe’s focus.

“Good morning, Joe,” Alden said in Artonan. “How have you been?”

“Quite busy,” Joe responded in English. The note of alarm from just moments ago was now gone from his voice.

It had been replaced by brusqueness.

Alden’s irritation grew. “Busy? Me too. But earlier I realized you were here on Earth. And I thought, ‘That’s exciting. I wonder if we’ll get to see each other.’ It’s lucky that we’ve met so soon.”

“Not as lucky as you think. I’m heading to my room to draft a proposal for the Grand Senate. A more efficient and cheaper plan for tidying up this little spill than the one they’re currently considering.” Joe was studying that claw like his life depended on it. “No time to chat. Maybe some other day.”

The elevator arrived. A quartet of wizards was inside, having a conversation that stopped as soon as they saw the two of them standing there. Alden wasn’t sure if it was his fault or Joe’s.

As soon as his fellow Artonans exited, Joe slipped in.

“I think I’ll go upstairs, too.” So much annoyance leaked into Alden’s voice this time that he registered it himself, and it made him pause.

Crap. What am I doing demanding attention from this guy? I shouldn’t care about this. Sure, there are some things I could talk to him about and tell him. And he’s being rude for no reason, but that doesn’t mean I need to be an even bigger—

“Have you eaten?” Joe asked.

“No,” said Alden, startled by the question coming out of nowhere. “I was about to when—”

“Then you have no business pestering me when a dining place full of human treats awaits you.” Joe had finally looked up from the claw. The two of them were eye-to-eye as the doors started to close. “Stay here.”

The words held zero of his usual schmooze. They were cold. Imperious.

The thought that Joe might really be angry for some reason hit Alden, and his stomach clenched with a very particular type of nervousness. It was strong, but not strong enough to snuff out the fresh flare of his own anger that came with it.

He thrust an arm between the doors just before they shut and bulled through to glare at the man.

“Why are you being so...what’s wrong with you?” he demanded the second they were alone.

The car began to rise.

“It depends on who you ask,” Joe muttered, shoving his claw back into a pocket and staring at the floor number like he was willing it to move faster.

“Are you mad at me?” Alden couldn’t fathom why he would be. “Are you mad at me?”

Joe didn’t answer.

Oh my god. Is he giving me the silent treatment? Really? This is insane. I can’t believe—

“What do you want from me, Alden?” Now, he sounded neutral. It was the third major mood shift since they’d run into one another.

“I’m confused by you right now. What do you mean what do I want?” Then something occurred to him. “Did Esh-erdi tell you not to talk to me? When we saw you on television earlier—”

“Why were you watching television with him? What did he...?” Joe’s lips thinned. “No. It’s irrelevant.”

He suddenly started pressing the buttons for all the floors above them.

“I suppose a conversation must be had since you insist on it, but there’s no need for it to be an extended one,” he said. “You can talk to me about unsecret matters until we are interrupted. Or until we reach the top floor of the residential section, where I will sleep in a tiny little cupboard of a room and try to avoid dreams that remind me of the uniquely miserable place I’m at in my life.”

The elevator chimed as they stopped on the next floor. The line of buttons glowed.

Alden turned to face forward instead of staring directly at Joe. “So...what? I’m only worth twenty floors of your time?”

His anger had been punctured. It was taking his energy and certainty with it as it left.

The doors shut again.

“Nineteen now,” Joe said mildly. “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re very persistent for someone who wants nothing.”

The doors opened. Another empty hallway stretched in front of them.

Alden couldn’t appreciate it.

“Just look at you!” said Joe. The sudden cheer in his voice was as sincere-seeming as ever. “I hardly need to worry about you finding a good way forward without me, do I? You’ve earned an extraordinary commendation from Hn’tyon Alis-art’h. That comes with attention from the sorts of wizards I couldn’t possibly steal your time from.”

Had he emphasized the word ‘attention?’ If he had, it had been so subtle that Alden couldn’t be sure.

“You’re a hard worker, Alden darling. And I see you’ve ended up in a . Take better care of yourself.” He dropped his arm to let the elevator go. “We part ways here. Good luck. Take the easy road for a few decades, won’t you? I recommend a vacation.”

That’s it? He really means for this to be it?

Only a sliver of Joe was visible through the gap in the doors.

“I took a vacation,” Alden said flatly. “There was a Hawaiian shirt and everything.”

******

******

“I’m glad you have a new hobby, Esh.” Lind-otta sat in one of the chairs by the window in their shared suite, leaning over her knees while she tapped a short wand to each of her bare toes to apply a massage spell. “But are you sure your efforts to help him aren’t overwhelming him?”

“What have I done that’s overwhelming?”

She looked over. Esh-erdi was sitting on the sofa, intently focused on a ring in the palm of his hand. When Lind linked their interfaces, she saw copies of the eight different information displays floating in the air in front of him. “You’re walking around with an image of the boy’s skeleton in your right peripheral vision.”

“It’s not as though he knows that! The bones in his foot are still healing. I’ve never monitored a human’s healing process. What if something goes wrong before it finishes?” Esh smiled at the ring, then closed his fist around it and sat back.

“And I see you’re still attempting to study every preservation warp ever registered,” Lind added. “Is this a book on human affixation theory? I didn’t know any good ones had been written yet.”

Esh’s face contorted. “This one isn’t good. And identifying the origin of his main talent at this point in his development, with only the information provided, is needlessly difficult. It could be so many different ones.”

“The obscuration of origins prevents several types of abuse,” Lind said. “And the self is more private than a skeleton. I seem to remember you voting on many occasions to limit summoner access to exactly the sort of information you want now.”

“Yes, but I want to pry into him for the right reasons.” He pressed a knuckle to his lips while he stared at the material displayed in front of him. “This is awful. I don’t have time to go through all of the horrific possibilities. I might ask Mother.”

“That’s too much. Let him grow his current abilities normally.”

“But what if they’re poorly designed or depressing?”

“He can still make something of his own out of them. And you said you liked it.”

“I did like it! He used it to deliver an und’h to me. And hot and cold food. But what if he has been bound for the rest of his existence to a half-considered graduation project created by someone from a bad school?”

Lind stretched her legs out and wiggled her toes. “Maybe you can find a good secondary power to recommend. Or focus on the spell impressions available to him. Those are much more identifiable.”

Esh-erdi crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the skeleton. “If he’s overwhelmed by me, then it’s only because he’s been undercared for by everyone else. I have provided him with healing, clothing, and calls. Not great luxuries.”

“Did you bring up the healing of the mind again?”

He dismissed a few of the floating images with a thought and rearranged the others. “Not yet. But I have enacted plans.”

******

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Was it crazy of me? Alden wondered, sitting on the floor in the hall with the red lighting, staring down at his hands as they pinched a sharp point into a piece of green and gold origami paper. Was it wrong to expect more from Joe?

Clearly, the answer was yes.

I’ll just put it back right in my head then. He set aside the paper plane he’d folded and reached for another sheet. Worli Ro-den needed a quick way to fix a situation he and a bunch of other jerks created. There I came, gift-wrapped and willing. I agreed to do a job. I got paid for it. Period. End of relationship.

It didn’t matter what he told himself, though. He still felt like he’d been slapped in the face and set adrift.

Joe’s reasoning was fine. “It will cause both of us problems if we’re seen together” was a fine reason for them not to be seen together.

But it wasn’t like he’d seen fit to present that reasoning before Alden had forced the issue. He’d decided on his own that the right course of action was to cut Alden out of his life, and Alden hadn’t even been important enough to rate a real goodbye.

And that final advice...

Forget everything I told you, Alden. Forget that I changed your life. I’m in hot water, and I can’t manage you now. So it’s inconvenient for me if you chase after a noteworthy power and people start to notice. Abort the quest for exceptionality. Go take a nice laundry skill instead.

“Too late,” he muttered.

“I am a little late,” said a voice in Artonan.

Alden looked up from his folding to see Esh-erdi walking down the hall toward him.

Where did he come from? Is there a staircase I don’t know about?

“Are you ready for school?” He stopped beside Alden.

“Yes! Thank you.”

“What are these?” He bent to pick up one of the miniature paper planes Alden was gathering.

“Just something to distract me,” said Alden. “Paper flyers.”

Esh-erdi brightened immediately. “How perfect! I’m about to teach you how to fly.”

Alden blinked.

“To school,” said Esh-erdi, holding out a ring on the palm of his hand. “I thought it would be fun.”

“Is that the ring that controls the platform you used to rescue me?” Alden asked.

“Yes. I’ve modified it so that it will work for you.” He looked pleased with himself.

Alden took the ring. That was nice of him. And this is a good distraction.

“We’ll need to rush to get you to your assembly on time,” said Esh-erdi. “I’m sorry for that.”

“That’s okay.” Alden ran his thumb along the warm metal edge of the ring. “You said I could ask you for things if I needed them. It’s not something I need...”

“What is it?”

“I was told it was possible to get rid of portions of contract tattoos,” said Alden. “Once their terms had been completed. Just the parts that weren''t active anymore.”

“It is.”

“Would you help me do that? I don’t know if it’s a lot of trouble.”

“The one on your chest?” Esh-erdi asked.

He had seen it just this morning while Porti-loth was painting Alden with the mud.

Alden nodded.

“You want it gone?”

“I really do.”

******

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