Page 97 of Grave Situation

~Yes~

Fleetingly, I wonder if the stone has lied to us already. We’re taking a lot of things on faith. What if it’s been blurring the truth all along?

In response to my thoughts, my mind fills with a series of dizzying images and concepts. They whiz past too quickly for me to grasp them individually, but the overall picture is clear: this mission is paramount, and the stone will do whatever is necessary to see it completed and the world safe.

The feeling of being a pawn is humbling and not one I particularly like.

“Just out of curiosity,” Jaimin begins, unaware of the revelation I’ve just been privy to, “is this something you couldactuallydo if Leicht and Talon weren’t bonded? Allow a temporary communication channel between them?”

~Yes~

Jaimin’s brows draw together, and he seems about to ask something else but then changes his mind. “Do you think this plan will work?”

~Yes~

There’s an edge of determination this time, and we all understand that it will work because the stone willmakeit work.

Gods help us all.

“That’s what we’ll do, then,” Master says. “The riders might still want to stay, just to ensure everything goes well, but I’ll take care of that.” He hesitates. “Talon, are you certain you feel up to continuing? If you wanted to take a few days to?—”

“We don’t have time for that.” I might not be happy with the stone right now, but I won’t abandon this task. “Every day we delay is another day our enemies get ahead. We need to talk about the archers now.” I turn to Jaimin. “They were the same as the other man I killed, you said.”

He spreads his hands. “No injuries at all that could have caused death. One had minor arthritis in his dominant arm—hewas probably going to have to retire soon. But otherwise, they were unhurt. Their brains were completely intact. They were just… dead.”

Master sighs. “Do you remember doinganything?” he asks me, and I shake my head.

“I wanted to get to Tia. She was falling,” I remind him, “and I wanted to catch her. They were shooting, and I was so furious that one stupid arrow that wasn’t even aimed at her, not truly, managed to kill her…. I know something happened. I felt my magic… surge, and then the arrows stopped. But I didn’t think anything or decide anything.”

“I don’t know what this could be,” he admits. “I’ve been haunting the archives, trying to find any mention of it, of anything that might help. There’s truly no cause of death?” he checks again with Jaimin, who shakes his head.

“If I’d had the chance to examine them before their deaths, I might be able to give more insight… but I’ve never seen a corpse I couldn’t pinpoint a cause of death for. Not someone so newly dead, anyway. There was no physical trauma whatsoever that could have caused death.”

“Am I a danger to my companions?” I ask bluntly. “I haven’t consciously chosen to do this either time—what if it happens again?”

They exchange glances. “There’s not enough evidence to rule that out,” Master admits.

~No~

“Or there is, but we just don’t know what it is,” he continues, looking at the stone in surprise. “Perhaps you could enlighten us?”

~No~

Of course not. “That’s not helpful,” I tell it.

“Maybe it is,” Jaimin muses thoughtfully. “Both times, you were under intense stress, essentially fighting for your life. Let’sassume your magic reacted to protect you, even though we don’t know how.”

“Magic doesn’tdothat,” I protest, then glance at Master. “Right?”

“To the best of modern knowledge, it does not.”

Jaimin grimaces. “It also doesn’t kill without leaving a mark, so let’s assume for the sake of argument that Talon’s special and his magic wants to protect him.”

I preen slightly. I have always considered myself to be an improvement on my colleagues.

Master rolls his eyes. “If we must.”

“But,” Jaimin continues before I can protest, “both times, his magic left others unharmed. On the first occasion, not only me and Tia but also the other attackers who weren’t directly threatening him. And this time, it only took down the archers—not the priests who were, without question, also a threat to us.” He pauses to let that sink in. “I don’t think this is an uncontrolled, nondirectional weapon. I think Talon’s magic is acting to protect him by killing only those who are the immediate threat, and only when he’s unable to otherwise protect himself.”

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