Chapter 9

Lindon had spent much of the past five years working in the Wei clan archives. He was confident he knew what a library was supposed to look like.

But this room, located behind and beneath the bone tower that housed Cassias' family, was just a twenty-foot by twenty-foot square box. It had only one door, and all the walls were pale, yellowed bone. On the ceiling, a few scripted circles glowed with runelight, illuminating every corner.

A small altar of bone rose from the center of the room like an arm, with a claw cupping a ball the size of Lindon's fist. The ball was made of copper plates, and he thought he saw whirring flashes of color between the plates.

All in all, it was nothing like a library.

Eithan waited with hands on hips, clearly anticipating Lindon's reaction.

“Are the books...in the walls?” Lindon finally asked.

The Underlord clicked his tongue. “What are books but a mechanism to store knowledge? If we have something much more efficient available,” –Eithan picked up the copper ball— “then why would we need books?”

Lindon peered at the ball. It was a construct of some kind, obviously, but beyond that he couldn't guess. Maybe it would project words onto the wall—some of his mother's White Fox constructs could do as much, crafting images from illusions.

“This is the single most valuable object the entire Arelius family owns,” he said, spinning it on the tip of one finger. “Most of us aren’t aware of that, but it's true. We primarily use the powers of our bloodline to find areas that need cleaning or maintenance, but as an...unintentional side effect...we also tend to collect other information.”

He tossed the ball from hand to hand. “All of that information pertinent to the sacred arts—including secrets about the Paths of our rivals—is stored in here. Some of it also gets copied into dream tablets, scrolls, books, and so forth, but everything goes here.”

That was intriguing. If they could study the sacred arts of their enemies, they could walk into any battle with the upper hand. If Jai Long's sacred arts were in there...

“How do we get it out?” Lindon asked.

“Well, first, you have to be a blood member of the Arelius family.” Eithan continued tossing the ball in his left hand and touched the right against his chest. “Fortunately for you, I am. The original Patriarch left this treasure for his descendants, and they have learned from it and added to it one generation at a time.”

“That's incredible. Truly, it's a treasure that I'm honored even to lay my eyes on. But how do we get it—”

Eithan didn't do anything Lindon could see, but the copper plates slowly pushed out from the center of the ball. A light flashed red.

And suddenly a featureless, crimson man stood in the center of the room.

It looked like a Remnant left behind by one of the wooden training dummies: a head without a face, body slender and unremarkable, limbs lifeless and smooth. It was solid red, without details or distinguishing marks.

“Your Path of Twin Stars interests me,” Eithan said, spinning the expanded ball in one hand. He muttered something to the orb, and it flashed again.

The red man came to life, crouching on the balls of its feet and raising both hands. It pivoted, driving one hand forward and low, and a pulse of barely-visible madra extended from the blow. An Empty Palm.

Lindon stared at the scarlet mannequin hard enough to burn a hole through it. Never mind looking at his enemy's abilities—if he could study his own techniques like this, watching them from the outside in...how much could he learn? He could perfect his every movement.

“There are possibilities for the Path of Twin Stars in the future,” Eithan said. “Pure madra is rare enough that it has many advantages, which you've already realized...but it also has quite a few disadvantages.”

Another flash, and this time a green man appeared, its hands wreathed in flame. The first figure, the red one, stepped forward to deliver an Empty Palm to its opponent's core...

...and the green figure grabbed it by the face with burning hands. The scarlet head winked out, leaving the red man with bare shoulders.

“As a Path, it has remarkable utility, but it leaves you practically defenseless,” Eithan went on. The copper ball flashed red, and the red man stood—whole and alone—in the center of the room once again. “It also happens to be slow to advance, since you can't take in aura while cycling. You must rely on purifying your own madra and increasing it with external factors. Elixirs and such.”

Eithan leaned against the wall, smiling, the ball tucked under one arm. “So...I know you're aware of these problems, and you've thought of some possible solutions. What are your thoughts?”

Lindon had assumed Eithan was heading somewhere, and he was still fascinated by the possibilities of the red man and the copper ball. The question left him flat-footed.

“I know I need to develop more techniques, so...if you have some pure madra techniques in there...”

“That's a good line of thinking, and we should come back to that in the future. But we have roughly ten to eleven months before you have to fight Jai Long.” Eithan shrugged. “Let's call it ten, to leave some margin for error. Ten months, and you will fight someone so much stronger than you that he may as well be a living dragon, as far as you're concerned. What do you do about that?”

“I need a second Path,” Lindon said immediately. “It was one of my first ideas for my second core: you leave one pure, and fill the other with another aspect of madra. But I'm not sure if I can—”

“It's not perfect,” Eithan interrupted. “Everyone thinks of learning a second Path at some point, though usually they want to learn another set of techniques compatible with the madra they've already cultivated. You know why that rarely works, don't you?”

“There's only so much time in the day,” Lindon said. “And only so many resources you can dedicate to advancement. Instead of ending up twice as powerful, you end up half as skilled in two areas.”

“That's all true,” Eithan said. “But?”

“But...it's difficult to find someone to train you in two different Paths?”

“That's also true, but it’s not what I was getting at. You've explained why learning two Paths is difficult...but it isn't impossible. It can be done.”

Lindon searched Eithan's face, looking for signs that this was a joke, or a trick, or a setup of some kind. “How?”

“Oh, it's just as you said.” He waved the copper ball lazily. “You need to work twice as hard, or spend twice as much time, or have access to twice as many resources, or preferably all three. But I think learning another Path is exactly what you need to do.”

The ball flashed, and the green man showed back up, its fists once again surrounded by flame. But this time, the red man took a defensive pose, hands up and protecting its body.

“The Path of Twin Stars has plenty of room to grow,” Eithan said, and as the green man drove its fiery fists forward, the red man caught both burning hands in its own.

The fire went out.

The red man followed with a kick to the lower abdomen, the air rippled with colorless madra, and the green man staggered.

That had looked like an Empty Palm executed through a kick. Lindon had tried that on the dummy targets, but his control over his own madra wasn't anywhere close to good enough to execute something like that.

And how could pure madra cancel techniques?

“Would you show that again?” Lindon asked, but both figures vanished. The red man returned to the center of the room a moment later, blank and still.

“You can't take your Path forward until you learn the basics of the sacred arts,” Eithan said. “Learn how other Paths work first, and carry those lessons over to the Path of Twin Stars.”

Lindon moved his gaze from the motionless red man to Eithan. The Underlord seemed to be saying that he could start from step one with a brand new Path and fight Jai Long…in ten months.

Which even Lindon thought was absurd.

“Forgiveness. That sounds too good to be true.”

Eithan's smile gleamed. “It's not impossible.”

Lindon took a deep breath, his mind whirling with possibilities. “I’ll need to spend all my time cycling. Will I have time to learn the techniques properly? Ah, before that, what Path should I learn?”

“That's up to you.”

He should have expected Eithan to keep stringing him along, but he didn't even know how to respond. How many Paths were out there? Which could he learn?

His first thought was the Path of the White Fox, but he didn't know if even the Arelius family would have information on Sacred Valley. Or if illusions could defeat Jai Long at all.

“I have many plans,” Eithan said, “and many ideas. But I've long believed that it's better for someone to choose their own direction and then accept guidance than to be pushed where I want them to go. Now, I'm willing to show you any sort of Path you like...but I wait for your direction. The world of sacred arts lies open to you. What Path would you like to see?”

“Jai Long's,” Lindon said immediately.

Eithan nodded. “Good choice.”

The copper plates around the ball spun, and suddenly white light was running in loops through the center of the red man's belly and chest. Lindon could see it as though the figure's flesh had become transparent, and he recognized the patterns: madra channels. It was using an Enforcer technique.

A moment later, straight lines formed on red skin, sliding from the core out to the limbs.

“You're fighting Jai Long,” Eithan said. “He was trained in the Path of the Stellar Spear, the signature Path of his clan.”

The red man extended one hand, and a red spear fell into its hand. A thrust drove the spear forward, then swept it to the side, fighting an invisible opponent. Spinning the spear, the man moved faster and faster, occasionally blasting a river of white light that splashed harmlessly against the bone wall. As he fought, needles of that same white madra formed over his shoulder, shooting off as soon as they were completed.

An Enforcer technique for speed, a Striker technique to attack, and a Forger technique to defend and cover its movements.

“However, he deviated by bonding a Remnant with subtly different aspects. Now...” The pattern on the scarlet skin changed from straight lines to twisting, serpentine lines. The figure spun its spear just like before, but the spearhead left a trail of white light that hung in the air and came to life.

Like a pale Remnant, the serpent of Forged madra turned to Lindon and opened its jaws in a silent hiss.

The red man traced curls of light through the room, like a man painting on a canvas, until it was surrounded by a spiraling nest of snakes.

“Imbuing Forged madra with temporary life is an advanced technique, far beyond Jai Long. He can only produce this result because he absorbed a Remnant from a Path we’ll call…unnatural.” Lindon reached up for one of the snakes, to see if the lines of color were illusions or actual Forged madra.

“Treat each snake as though it’s made of razor-sharp wire,” Eithan said, and Lindon snatched his hand back. “In the fight, I mean. Jai Long will use these to cover his approach—” Suddenly the figure lunged for Lindon, who flattened himself against a wall. The shining white serpents covered the entire room; there was nowhere else for him to go.

“—to block your escape—” Eithan continued, and just as Lindon tried to slide under the light, the red man swept his spear up from the ground and walled him off with white madra.

“—and to corner you for the kill.” A snake coiled and snapped at the tip of Lindon's nose.

Though he knew it was a training exercise, Lindon's heart was still hammering. Gingerly, he passed a corner of his sleeve through the light. When it survived unharmed, he tried with a finger.

He felt nothing; no heat, no resistance. With his other hand, he passed through the red man, and once again it was like waving his hand through only air. It was just like the Path of the White Fox, then. Forgers could make solid illusions, and Strikers could produce foxfire, but in the end it was all only light and dreams.

He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

“This isn't even his only technique,” Eithan said conversationally. “Just his most common one. If we get you to Lowgold, perhaps your Empty Palm technique could affect him...but he would never allow you that close. In a thousand fights, you would fail a thousand times.”

Eithan stopped talking, and all the slithering lights left by Jai Long's techniques vanished. The red man reappeared in its starting position, empty-handed.

Lindon waited for his heart to return to a healthy rhythm before he rose back up the wall to his feet. “So then. I need a second Path that covers for my weaknesses and targets Jai Long's.” He hesitated for a moment. “Or...I'm not sure how to ask, but are there any...famous, or especially powerful Paths out there?” The myths and legends of Sacred Valley were filled with tales of unbeatable Paths, so if those really existed, Lindon didn't want to be stuck with a mundane one.

Eithan raised one eyebrow. “You think you need a special Path? Are ordinary Paths not good enough to meet your esteemed estimation?”

Lindon ducked his head. “I knew it was childish to ask, excuse me. I only wanted—”

“No, you were right. Powerful Paths, coming right up.”

The ball flashed emerald, and the green man reappeared. This time, this one held the spear, and as it twirled the weapon, the spearhead shone like a star. The Path of the Stellar Spear, though Lindon couldn’t tell if it was the original version or Jai Long’s twisted one.

The red man cupped its hand and gathered a ball of deep purple light. The technique trembled against invisible restraints, as though pushing against the air, and an equally vivid purple sword appeared in his left hand. The weapon crackled and shook, also straining against some unseen bond.

“Path of the Broken Star,” Eithan announced. “This Path branched off into the Stellar Spear many generations ago, and the original is far more...potent.”

The green man started off defensive, weaving a net of squirming snakes behind, just as Jai Long could do.

The red man disappeared, leaving a violet shadow of Broken Star madra behind. When the scarlet figure reappeared, there was a gap sliced in the barrier and a hole driven through the green man's chest.

“Jai Long might last a little longer than that,” Eithan said, “but not too much so. If you mastered the Path of the Broken Star, you'd make a splash throughout the Empire.”

The featureless figure still hadn't extinguished its sword, and it buzzed and crackled in the air.

Lindon was tempted to choose this one instantly, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what else was on offer.

“Now, disadvantages: it demands exacting madra control, its techniques are notoriously difficult to apply in real-world situations, and there's only one place to train it: a secret city long lost to the Jai clan.”

Lindon felt suddenly cheated. “If we can't find it...”

“It's lost to the Jai clan. Not to me. While it would give me great pleasure to see you defeat their heir with the Path they've been desperately hunting for centuries, it would take us at least three months to gain access. That leaves you seven months to go from ignorant initiate to skilled sacred artist, and I...well, let's say that you would have the chance to surprise me.”

Watching the purple blade, Lindon had to wonder. If there was another way to delay Jai Long or put off this confrontation, maybe he could find the time he needed to learn. It was worth considering.

The red man flickered and reset to the middle of the room, his Forged weapon gone. The green man reappeared, once again spinning Jai Long's spear.

Eithan continued for the better part of an hour. He demonstrated the Path of Crawling Shades, which would turn Lindon’s shadow into a symbiotic Remnant of darkness that devoured enemy techniques. He shows off the Path of Twisting Rivers, which used a technique of combined Ruler and Striker disciplines to accelerate Forged water until it sliced through steel.

The Path of the Last Oath was designed for and by Soulsmiths, and relied on Forging basic constructs on the fly and using them like disposable puppets. With its power, Lindon could counteract Jai Long’s shining serpents and bury him beneath the weight of his own improvised minions. The Path of Grasping Sky would allow him to grip Jai Long with a Ruler technique and then crush his windpipe as a Striker.

Lindon was very intrigued by the possibilities—and by the vast emerald wingspan that came with it—until Eithan told him that the Grasping Sky was the Path of the imperial clan.

Lindon preferred not to make more enemies than necessary, so he reluctantly set that Path aside.

Eithan snapped his fingers as though something had occurred to him. “You know, if Paths of the nobility interest you, I do have one last possibility...”

A dull flash, and the red man reappeared. This time, its hands were swallowed by a substance that looked like black fire, or a thick concentration of inky smoke. The black was streaked with scarlet, so that the figure held two handfuls of dark and bloody rolling flame.

That caught Lindon's interest immediately. The fireballs were intimidating, and this fit his image of a sacred artist: conjuring balls of strange-colored fire. His own clan had used purple foxfire for centuries.

“The Blackflame family united this empire, and ruled it until the Naru took over only five decades ago.”

The green man raised his spear, but the red one blasted it apart, a bar of dark fire slicing through emerald flesh. The technique sliced through him like a red-hot blade through snow.

“Their power came from the dragons that originally roamed these lands. It's one part fire to one part pure destruction.”

This time, after the green man died, it came back in seconds. It wove a net of twisting serpents in the air with its spearhead.

Black flames ate through the technique, and then the enemy.

“It's not versatile at all, really. It's a potent, violent Path designed for war. Its chief advantage is that it doesn't demand a great degree of control; the main technique involves spraying fire in the general direction of something you want to destroy. Doesn't require much finesse.”

The green man appeared again, moving to strike the red man in a blink, but it passed through a curtain of black flames and died once more.

“Children of the Blackflame family were deadly threats even at Copper.”

Lindon waited for the hook. He didn't like the rigid nature of the Path much; those techniques were made for blowing things apart, and nothing else. He would prefer something with some subtlety to it, some creativity.

But it did offer him exactly what he was lacking: the ability to break through Jai Long's techniques. And it didn't demand expertise, just a basic competence in Striker techniques.

It appeared to be exactly what he needed.

“There have to be some disadvantages,” he said.

“Oh, of course there are. There's a reason why the family lost the Empire and all but died out: this madra eats away at your body as you use it. Blackflames tended to lose their reason in their later years, or else they ended up twisted husks. Their bodies couldn't keep up with their power.”

Eithan waited expectantly, and Lindon soon caught on. “But mine...”

“The Bloodforged Iron body is tailor-made to resist corrosive breakdown like this, though it will burn through your madra like a bonfire through dry leaves. So you won’t be able to rely on that for long.”

“Didn’t the Blackflame family have bodies like mine?” The resources for Lindon’s Bloodforged Iron body had come from a cave in the Desolate Wilds; he had to assume a rich clan from an empire would have the means to do even better.

“They chose their bodies to maximize combat potential, but you? You just need to survive. A real Blackflame disciple might tear you apart head-to-head, but you won’t lose control of your limbs by the age of sixty. You also have the advantage of a second core, and switching to Blackflame only as needed will minimize the strain. So long as you take the time to cleanse your channels after using Blackflame madra extensively, it shouldn’t eat into your lifespan at all.”

Then it was perfect for him. “Why did you show me those other Paths, if you were going to lead me to this one all along?”

Eithan put on a shocked look. “I am a man of my word. If you decide you want to learn another of these fine Paths, then by all means, I will accept your decision.”

Lindon stood, considering. The Grasping Sky was eliminated because of its political implications, the Crawling Shade because it would make Lindon look too sinister to trust. The Last Oath was purely defensive, which wasn't what he needed to win a duel. Broken Star would take too long to find.

“What about Jade Rivers?” Lindon asked.

“Oh, absolutely! Absolutely. As long as you think you can perfectly master a combination Ruler, Striker, Forger technique in the next ten months. And if you think you can evade a Truegold's attacks while taking five seconds to prepare that technique, yes. A fine choice.”

Lindon rubbed his forehead and gave in. “The Path of Black Flame, is it?”

“Since the only family ever to use it was the Blackflames, that's what we commonly call it. Either the Blackflame Path or the Path of Black,” he exaggerated the pause, “Flame. We like our names simple here.”

“Is that family going to come after me for using it?”

“Who cares what they think? They're dead. Mostly.”

“…mostly?”

“And I doubt the Imperial clan will be incredibly happy about us demonstrating the powers of their predecessor in public, so we're left with that little problem, but that's a minor detail. It isn't illegal to practice the Blackflame Path, unlike the Path of Grasping Sky.”

“That was illegal?”

“There are only a few places to harvest Blackflame aura in the entire Empire, but to our spectacular good fortune, the Path was created right here in Serpent's Grave!”

Lindon looked around the room. “We can practice here?”

“Not in this exact spot, no. What you're looking for is a location that naturally flows with the aura you'd like to practice. In this case, something that resonates with both fire and destruction. Destruction is one of the most difficult aspects of aura to find and cultivate, but fortunately for us, dragons radiate just as much of that as they do heat.”

Seeing the bones of a dragon was one thing, but Eithan seemed to be implying something entirely different.

“Pardon, but it sounds like we’re going to see a real dragon.” It was like learning he was about to feed a lion by hand: a unique experience, but far more terrifying than anything else.

“There's a cave in this very city where the Arelius family has sealed a descendant of the ancient dragons, and that cave is filled with such madra! What luck!”

Lindon finally caught on. “By chance, does that cave happen to be Underground Chamber Number Three?”

Eithan beamed and clapped him on the back. “By now, my servants should have the seals undone and a medical team standing by. After you!”