Page 85 of The Tribes of Magic
“A Polymage needs to know a lot about every kind of magic.”
Kato brushed his fingertip across one of his books. Its spine was not perfectly aligned with the others, but he corrected that mistake now. I smiled. His OCD was adorable.
“A Polymage also needs to stay perfectly organized, or you get buried by all the things you need to do. Come on. I want to show you something.” He waved me closer.
I followed him past a canopy bed fit for a prince, past an opening in the bookshelves, to a walk-in closet. Or maybe it was more of a walk-in armory closet. Suits of armor hung from various racks. Kato headed to one of those racks now.
He grabbed a suit off a hanger and handed it to me. “What do you think?”
I looked it over. “It isn’t metal. Or leather.” I turned the suit over in my hands, and it seemed to change color as the light and shadows shifted. “Conner has a suit a lot like it. His is made from dragon scales.”
“This one is not made of dragon scales. It’s made of a material I developed myself. It doesn’t have a name yet.”
“In that case, I vote for calling it ‘unicorn armor’. People will be throwing money at you to get a suit of unicorn armor.”
Kato’s face grew serious. “I didn’t make this armor to share with anyone. It’s…special.”
“How many of them did you make?”
“Three.”
He pointed out two similar suits still hanging on the rack. All three suits were flexible unitards.
“Very cool.” I tried to hand the suit back to him.
He stopped my hands, closing my fingers around the suit. “That one is for you.”
“I thought you didn’t make the armor to share with anyone.”
“You aren’t just anyone,” he told me seriously. “You are my Tribe.”
I gawked at him.
“Say something, Seven.”
It took me a few moments to get my jaw unstuck. “I’m not sure what to say,” I admitted. “I’ve never been part of anything bigger. I’ve never fit in anywhere before.”
“Neither have I. It’s nice not being alone anymore. A Tribe of two is much nicer than a Tribe of one.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
A Tribe of three would be even better yet, but Conner wasn’t coming back as long as the Government refused to let the Knights look for the missing Apprentices.
“A Tribe of two, it is. Two friends.” I smiled at him.
He returned the gesture. “So you’ve forgiven me for being so hard on you at training this morning?”
“No,” I said lightly. “But I’m still your friend. Fair warning, though: the next time you make me do something that humiliating, I am going to throw snowballs at you.”
“Fireballs would be more effective.”
I laughed. “I think I have to work my way up to that.” I glanced at the suit in my hands. “So, will wearing this give me any special powers? Like hopefully make me fireproof, since apparently I’ll soon be dodging fireballs.”
“Come on. I’ll show you what it does.”
I followed Kato out of the armory closet, across the room, and into a changing area. It looked like an actual changing room. Except instead of a tight cabin with only a flimsy curtain, this changing room was luxury class, decked out in marble and gold. There were mirrors on all the walls. And Kato showed me which button to press to make the door go from mirror, to transparent glass, to completely black. Then he left me there alone to get changed.
The unitard suit fit me perfectly. The material was snug but flexible, stretching with me as I moved. It glittered like black scales, but it was smooth and soft.
