Chapter 62

Nox led them down into his crater, deep under the hollowed-out shell of masterfully arranged fallen masonry and columns, and without any ceremony leaped down into the steep tunnel that led into the caverns below.

“Nox has played fairly with us thus far,” said Scorio, sliding down the steeply sloped scree to the lip of the tunnel. “He wouldn’t agree to my plan if there wasn’t a chance it would work.”

“Right. Didn’t you say he was willing to attack Imogen before? He’s clearly a paragon of wisdom and restraint.” Leonis slid down next to him and glowered down at the dark hole. “But sure. Let’s trust him to decide what’s best.”

“He seems excited to show us something,” said Scorio with a grin. “Who knows what it might be? Come on.” And not giving his friend the chance to complain further, he leaped in after the toad. The initial drop was some five or so yards, so Scorio ignited his Heart to land smoothly on the nearly sheer slope and drop into a controlled slide, legs crouched, darkvision activated, to swoop down and out as the tunnel leveled out.

Nox edged around, clearly able to make him out despite the darkness, throat bulging out and sinking back in, and a second later Leonis half-slid, half-stumbled in behind Scorio, flailing around as he caught hold of a ridge of rock and steadied himself.

“This way,” was all Nox said, edging back and then striding deeper into the darkness. Wordless, the two Great Souls followed. This time, instead of cutting to the left as he’d done the first time when he’d led Scorio to the Academy, Nox dropped into a side tunnel to the right. This wound around and around then narrowed to such an extent that Scorio wondered how the toad could squeeze his way through until at last it opened into a small cavern.

“Welcome to home.” Nox hopped forward and turned his head from side to side as if suddenly hesitant. Even as Scorio took in the cave, the toad flicked out his tongue, catching a glob of what looked like half-dissolved meat and yanking it into his mouth. He swallowed noisily, then turned to the Great Souls. “Apologies. Home messy.”

“Not a problem, friend Nox,” said Leonis with false heartiness. “You should see Scorio’s chambers. Covered in dead meat knee-deep.”

“Oh?” Nox sounded curious and pleased. “Very nice, best friend Scorio. Females must be attracted.”

“Something like that,” said Scorio, moving forward slowly and taking in the cave. It was simple, with a corner that served as a larder of sorts from which he averted his eyes. But his gaze was drawn to a pool that dominated the center of the cave, its edges rimmed with black stone, its surface gelatinous and glowing a pale, milky white. “So this is where you practice the Delightful Secret Marinating technique?”

Nox hopped up to the pool’s edge. “Yes. This marinating pool. Imperial Ghost secret imperial gel. Gel function as matrix net, hold mana, make mana conductive. Technique take place inside.”

Leonis stepped up to the edge of the pool and stared into the viscous, softly glowing goo. “You’re saying you have to immerse yourself in your imperial gel for the technique to work?”

“Yes.”

Leonis clapped Scorio on the shoulder, hard. “You are far, far more dedicated than I am, favorite friend Scorio. The ten hells love you.”

“For how long?” asked Scorio, staring down at the pool.

“Depends. Mana strength, level of desire. May be one cycle, may be ten.”

“Ten cycles,” said Leonis, disgusted to the point of hilarity. “If you think I’ll be bringing you snacks while you vacation in there, you’re sorely mistaken.”

Scorio tuned him out, not least because if he allowed Leonis’s disgust to filter through his resolve, he might blanch and lose heart. “So how does it work? What is the technique?”

Nox shifted his weight, his eyeless head held high. “Complicated to explain, simple to do. Draw mana in. Find equilibrium, exceed slowly. Imperial gel act as stabilizer, as matrix, help cycle mana, help heal body. Find falling point beyond equilibrium.”

“I don’t understand,” said Scorio. “I need just need to draw more mana than I can burn off?”

Nox shifted irritably, or perhaps it was in frustration. “No. Inside imperial gel, toad draw mana in. Equilibrium where mana taken in same as mana burned. Push beyond. Use imperial gel, break equilibrium, become mana hole. Mana fall toward you, never hit, always miss, circle toad, pull more mana in.”

Scorio was listening so intently he felt a headache coming on. “So I use the imperial gel to help mana come at me but never reach me. And all this mana—where does it go?”

“Mana fall around toad, grow compressed as more mana enter. Stabilized by matrix. Saturate toad. When gel hold no more, toad become mana, Delightful Secret Marinating technique.”

Scorio couldn’t tell if he understood or not, but Nox’s tone betrayed the toad’s growing anxiety—or was it impatience? “How do you draw the mana in the first place?”

“Build reservoir through hunting. Extrude into gel, then as technique used, more mana pulled in by act of missing.”

Scorio glanced sharply at Leonis, who was frowning and rubbing at his chin. “So, to summarize, you get into the gel, extrude your initial load of mana, then pull it back in. You use the gel to pass your point of equilibrium, then use the gel and your technique to have the mana… miss you, somehow… and that missing means it just spirals around you, growing thicker as it pulls in more mana behind it?”

“Yes!” Nox’s excitement was palpable. “Favorite friend Scorio understand!”

“Not really,” muttered Scorio, but then smiled broadly and stood up straighter. “Yes! I mean, I think so. The gel is the key, right? It… facilitates the process of making more mana condense around you?”

“Yes,” croaked Nox.

“Question,” said Leonis. “How does surrounding yourself with super dense mana help you, Scorio? Couldn’t you, I don’t know, just cultivate a bunch of Black Star plants and drink as many elixirs as you needed?”

Scorio hesitated, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if Leonis was correct, but then he turned back to Nox. “You said the gel helps heal your body?”

“Yes,” said Nox solemnly. “Delightful Secret Marinating technique kill toad without imperial gel. Condenses Coal mana, very toxic.”

“Perfect,” said Scorio, clapping his hands once. “That’s it right there. The stronger my elixirs, the more toxic they’d be. I’d not be able to consume enough of them without dying or falling unconscious. But this would allow me to consume as much mana as I needed without poisoning myself. Right, Nox?”

“It is so,” said Nox.

Leonis dropped into a crouch and studied the pool. “All right, fine. But you’ve got no reservoir of mana to ‘extrude.’ At least, I hope you don’t.”

“That’s where my Black Star plants will come in,” said Scorio, and grinned at the sensation of all the pieces slotting into place. “I’ll grow as many as I can over the next seven weeks or so, and make a bunch of tinctures, which I’ll have you pour into the gel once I’m immersed.”

Leonis frowned, clearly searching for another objection.

Scorio turned back sharply to Nox. “I mean, can I use your pool, Nox? Would that damage it or the like?”

“Favorite friend Scorio use imperial gel,” said Nox. “Easy to extrude more.”

“So gross,” said Leonis.

“It’s a system,” said Scorio, feeling fired up, his chest expanding with emotion and fierce joy. “If the Academy thinks it can control us by deciding who gets what kind of pill, well, the Imperial Ghost Toad Delightful Secret Marinating technique is the best way to tell them to go to hell.”

“How much mana will he need?” asked Leonis, turning to the toad. “To make sure the process works?”

“Much mana,” said Nox gravely. “Is why toads spend lives hunting to build reservoir. Must be Ruby strength, better if more.”

“Ruby strength,” croaked Scorio.

“That’s—I wish Lianshi was here—what, sixty-four thousand volts?” Leonis rubbed at the back of his head. “How in damnation are you going to get that much mana, Scorio?”

The number hit him like a punch to the temple. Scorio dropped into a crouch, cupped both hands before his mouth, and stared out at nothing. “Sixty-four thousand. Black Star plants take two weeks to grow, then produce a bead every week. That’s three weeks till the first bead. Twenty-five beads to make an elixir, which if completely unfiltered results in eighty volts. Two batches, so I need thirty-two thousand volts per batch, that’s four hundred plants for each batch.”

“Four hundred,” said Leonis flatly.

“I’ve got a hundred still growing on my original farm,” said Scorio. “I can split each of their seeds in four, that’s four hundred right there.”

Leonis blinked. “How do you know all this?”

“Bought a treatise,” said Scorio, rising to his feet to pace. “Given strong enough mana, I could have four hundred plants in two weeks’ time. That’s four hundred beads by the end of week three, eight hundred by the end of week six. Eight hundred multiplied by eighty, that’s sixty-four thousand volts’ worth of Coal mana.” He paused, blinked again, then gave a decisive nod. “That’s exactly how much I’d need.”

“You’re mad,” said Leonis with something akin to wonder. “Four hundred Black Star plants? Sure, the numbers add up, but how will you find a safe place for them? That kind of concentrated mana production will draw every predator from miles around.”

To which Scorio had no answer. His original farm had proved fortunate in avoiding attention, but even so, it had suffered losses since he’d joined the academy. Four hundred plants? Leonis was right. Unless he camped in the farm every day and night for the next seven or so weeks, but then he’d be expelled from the Academy for failure to show to his classes. And even if he did, how would he fight off everything that would come as a mere Cinder?

“Favorite friend Scorio, Nox has idea.”

“You do? I mean, great! Yes. I mean, what is it?”

“Scorio need two batches Black Star Coal mana.”

“That’s right.”

“After, what happen to plants?”

“After?” Scorio stared at the toad, nonplussed. “I don’t know. Either I’ll have succeeded in my goals or failed.”

“Imperial Ghost Toad Nox make offer: Imperial Ghost Toad Nox guard Black Star plants for two batches, then Black Star plants belong to Nox.”

“Yes,” said Scorio without thinking, not caring if it was a good deal or not.

“Four hundred plants,” said Leonis. “You’re going to… you know what, never mind. You’re in no position to bargain.”

“And he’s letting me use the imperial gel,” added Scorio.

“No, you’re paying for that with the Quantics treatise.”

“No,” said Nox, “Favorite Friend Scorio paying for Delightful Secret Marinating technique with treatise.”

“Oh.” Leonis made a face. “You were going to negotiate something for the gel?”

Nox dipped his head in acknowledgment.

“Savvy toad,” said Leonis.

“It’s a deal.” Scorio didn’t care. He felt as if he were hurling himself headfirst off the edge of a cliff. There wasn’t room to maneuver or quibble. “You guard the plants, and they’re yours once I’ve harvested eight hundred beads from them.”

“Eight hundred beads,” said Leonis. “Look, I’m sorry to be constantly negative about all this, but that’s at maximum toxicity, isn’t it?”

Scorio nodded soberly.

“And you’re counting on a gel made by toads for toads to protect you, who are not, may I add, a toad?”

“Yes.” Scorio stared at Leonis, expressionless but for his raised eyebrows.

“And if the Imperial Ghost Toad imperial gel doesn’t work for humans like it does for them?”

Scorio laughed bleakly. “At that level of toxicity and that dosage amount? I’ll die in minutes.”

“Minutes,” said Leonis, shaking his head. “And that huge variable doesn’t concern you?”

“No,” said Scorio, and inside he felt nothing, no fear, no elation, no concern. “It’s an acceptable risk.”

“Your pursuit of power is… I don’t know the right word. Horrifying? Impressive? Awesome in the literal sense of the word? By the ten hells, Scorio. I’ve never heard of a more far-flung stratagem. It goes beyond desperation into sheer suicidal hope.”

“Fair.” Scorio took a deep breath, turned to Nox, and bowed low. “Thank you, my friend, for your help. We have a bargain. Do you know where I could plant that many Black Stars?”

“Will think. Find safe place. Come with seeds when ready.”

“I will,” said Scorio. “On that, you can count. In fact, I’m going to go harvest them now. You ready, Leonis?”

His large friend stared at him. “You’re asking me if I’m ready to go? Whether I’ve finished my own business here in Nox’s private burrow? Yes, Scorio. I’m ready to go.”

“Good. We’ll see ourselves out.” And with another bow, Scorio strode past his friend toward the burrow’s exit, his darkvision illuminating but a portion of the tunnel before him.

They climbed out in silence, and once back under the burning sun-wire, strode through the ruins in continued silence. Scorio could sense Leonis’s searing disapproval, but he didn’t have time for that just yet.

Instead, he mulled over his plans. Eight weeks till the actual tournament. Which meant he had seven weeks to pull this off. Three-week cycles for the production of the beads. It was going to be incredibly tight. Of course, he could hunt wild Black Stars once the first lot were planted, so as to accumulate more seeds to plant as reserves. This meant that the second batch could conceivably be far greater than the first—

“Scorio.”

Leonis had come to a stop, and now stood, hands on hips, staring flatly at him.

“Hmm?” Scorio paused and looked back. “Yes?”

“Stop a moment. Just come here.”

Reluctant, wanting to continue to his original Black Star farm, Scorio retraced his steps to stand before Leonis.

“I know you want to win,” said Leonis. “I know you want it more than anything else. To prove Praximar wrong, to rub his face in his cheating tricks. To defeat Jova Spike and get her to check her journals for you. But just stop a moment and think: is that worth dying over?”

“Who said I was going to die?”

“I’m talking odds, here, Scorio. The odds of the Black Star not poisoning you to death. The odds of the marinating technique—which I still don’t understand—not killing you, too. Or if they don’t, that channeling this much Coal mana all at once won’t splinter your Heart into ragged chunks, or burn out your mind. And think: even if it all works, who’s to say this will work well enough to guarantee you make Emberling? Who's to say that even if it does, your body won’t be wrecked by the process, so that you’ll enter the Gauntlet crippled?”

Scorio had no answer, but he felt his ire rising as his friend glared at him.

“Stop glowering at me for a second and just think about what I’m saying. We don’t even know if Jova has anything in her journals. We’ve literally no confirmation that she’ll have what you’re hoping for. So you’re gambling on a gamble.”

Scorio pursed his lips and stared down and away.

“I know there are no other good options, but there’s a reason the Academy hasn’t filled its halls with imperial gel pools, right? If this was a shortcut that worked for Great Souls, you don’t think someone would have exploited it already?”

“They don’t need this exploit,” snapped Scorio. “Why go through the trouble of brewing and absorbing eight hundred doses of toxic Coal when you can just take a Fat Cricket or Glittering Sage pill?”

Leonis frowned.

“This is the answer for Great Souls who are all out of options,” said Scorio, taking a step forward. “Great Souls like me. Who aren’t content to accept what the Academy sees fit to dole out. Unlike everyone else, who happily gets in line with their notched badges and accepts elite treasures like their Luminous Ghost dust pouches. I won’t let the Academy crush me. I won’t let it tell me how good I’m allowed to be. I want better, and since I’ve ruined my own chances of getting a House sponsorship, all I’m left with is a vat of Imperial Ghost Toad Imperial Gel.”

Leonis let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just don’t understand why this is worth risking your life over. Such a wild gamble. You could bow out, leave the Academy, and then try for the Rascor Plains. Join one of the lesser outfits, work your way up the ranks. With your talent and determination, you’d be making a name for yourself in a couple of years. All sorts of opportunities might open up for you.”

“Might,” repeated Scorio with emphasis. “And if they don’t? What if I’m turned away everywhere I go for being a Red Lister with a tarnished reputation? A Great Soul who flunked out of the Academy and is a known criminal associate? What if all I find are more people eager to use me?”

To which Leonis had no answer.

Scorio took a deep breath. “I appreciate what you’re trying to say. I’m sorry if I’m being…intense. But I won’t let anyone kick me around. I won’t wait patiently at the back of the line when the line itself is an artificial creation. I’ll be damned if I let Praximar decide my future, and I’ll do whatever it takes to control my own destiny. And if I fail? If I get it wrong? Then I’ll die. And someday, a year, or ten, or a hundred from now, I’ll be reborn and give it another shot.”

“Yeah,” said Leonis dryly. “Fair enough. But what about your friends?”

Which checked Scorio and stalled his flood of ready answers. “What?”

“Your friends. I know we’re not… never mind.” Leonis drew himself up. “We can’t let our desire to protect you and keep you around stop you from doing what you need to do. That’s not what true friends are for. So fine. I gave it my best attempt. If you’re determined to see this… absolutely insane and utterly ridiculous plan through, then I’ll help you in any way I can.”

For a long, drawn-out moment Scorio could only gaze up at his huge friend. Drink in the rough and raw emotion that blazed in Leonis’s dark brown eyes, and feel both proud and humbled to have such a companion by his side.

“Thank you,” he said at last, voice husky.

“Damn you,” said Leonis with a tired grin. “Damn you for wanting more from life than delicious drinks by our soaking pool.”

Scorio reached out and clasped Leonis’s broad forearm, and had his own clasped in turn. “Not saying I’m against that, either. I’ll be doing my fair share of soaking in between the crazy farming I’ve got lined up ahead of me.”

“Fair enough.” Leonis’s grin widened a fraction. “Then come on. Let’s go harvest those seeds already before it gets dark. Last thing I want is to die on my knees grubbing in the dirt in the dark as some heinous monstrosity drops on me from the ruins.”

Scorio laughed. “It’s a deal. Come on. Race you.”

And with a laugh, he took off, heart thudding with excitement and exhilaration, to race with his Heart burning black flames just a few yards ahead of his cursing companion.