Declan spent four hours skimming, not reading, searching of accounts of how arcanists had strengthened their mana channels, a process now better known as hardening. The theory was well researched and well understood compared to the arcsoul itself. The simplest was casting. Repeated stresses caused the soul to respond by reinforcing. The problem was that an arcanist had to be certain they did so equally.

  Treatments, be they pills, injections, lotions or sprays avoided that because they worked across the entire body. They were better in every way, ensuring an arcanist didn’t rupture a channel, lose the ability to cast and die. There was one lead, something that gave him hope. The second arcanist wars had been a time of vast progress, mostly attributed to humans desperate race for better ways to kill each other. Arc cannons were one such invention. Derived from Ray of Light or Harmonic Beam, a light modified continuous Strike, they produced a constant beam of burning power. That was the first war-changing weapon, countered by deflective shields that let some of the power through but shunted more of it away. The solution was terrifying and brilliant. Arcanists had harnessed mana arrestors to slice the beam by blocking and releasing it. What had been a continuous beam became a constant stream of tiny blows that seared away shields and then hammered the arcanist underneath. That wasn’t interesting.

  What was? The notes about how badly it hurt the arcanists using it. From Rune Forging, he understood the concept of harmonics. The arc cannons set up a terrible disharmony in the channels of the arcanist by cutting the flow so quickly. Some died during long battles, rupturing mana channels and losing the ability to power them. Those who survived, however, were called ‘veteran cannoneers.’ They could operate them longer and longer. That sounded a lot like mana channel hardening, a way to enforce the natural process. The bad way of doing it, but a way.

  He made long notes about it, drawing up points that would need to be addressed. The primary being that arc cannons were illegal to own outside the Crown. It was a problem he looked forward to solving. Sometimes, to get stronger, one had to manufacture long-banned weapons of destruction.

  Skinner’s guidance had been continual casting, but Declan couldn’t cast continually. He saw it as continuing to practice, and his efforts with Claw were yielding progress. He could make the downward stroke of all three every time, reach the bottom of the stroke every time, make the turn some of the time and close the imprint with his idealized Claw never.

  Instead, he soul-cast Gather. The key wasn’t rushing and it wasn’t going slow, it was going right, just right, to drag the imprint all the way around and seal it. Getting the right amount of mana to thicken the line was something he was learning to balance. More wasn’t better. It was definitely time to schedule another class with Instructor Brieze, and yet, he didn’t want to pay while Claw still gave him room to grow.

  Afternoon, Declan chose to get his obligation shift out of the way, serving at the Armory and draining three corrupted runes before his first true mistake. Maybe there had been a flaw in the rune, maybe he’d jostled the engraver, perhaps the stone was damaged. A chunk had flown instead of a chip.

  In the moment it took him to see it the violent purple light inside stretched out, probing—then traveling up the manipulation arm and latching onto Declan’s hand. His entire arm turned ice-cold in a split second, and terror sank a claw into his stomach as mana began to drain from him and the cold only grew.

  He sat, frozen as alarms blared and the warning light on his anklet flashed—then threw himself at the decon station grabbing the handhold with his functioning hand and triggering the vacuum. The cage slammed shut behind Declan and the mana vacuum activated, pulling his very soul. Unlike the test, it ran for moments, then minutes. The cold stopped growing but it kept pulling at his mana. Adrenaline made every moment an eternity, every surge of the corruption a spike of fear. But it lost the battle, and at last, the mana vacuum spun down. The light turned green. Declan fell back and lay there, staring up at the lights on the ceiling, gasping for breath.

  A crowd of researchers in protective gear stood around him, and many hands helped drag him away from the workstation, which no longer arced with purple light. Declan ripped his mask off, unable to catch his breath, and then rolled to his knees. The urge to flee was impossible to ignore, every fiber of his soul screamed.

  “Count to fifty for me,” said the supervisor for the day. “Just count. Everyone else, back to work. Declan, I don’t hear the numbers and I need to hear them.”

  Declan counted, his voice a whisper.

  It gave him moments for the terror to submerge, lurking just under his consciousness. “It was eating me from the inside out.”

  “That’s what corruption does.” She slid down to sit across from him. “Gladson’s on his way. First time with real corruption stays with you for a while. Your gear needs to be put through decon, the station will be. You remembered your training. You triggered the vacuum. We’ll have your arcsoul scanned—oh, never mind. We’ll have your channels scanned and then, all I want you to do is sit right there.”

  “I’m done.” Declan couldn’t see sitting at that station again. His hands trembled at the thought.

  “Don’t make that decision right now, in this moment. Why don’t you come with me, sort through some slug runes?” One step at a time, she coaxed him to move. Further away was better, and Declan rushed down the stairs to the storage room. It wasn’t logical, but logic wasn’t screaming the way fear did. Shutting the door made him feel better. Holding a slug rune, too. Corrosive Slime never tried to eat his soul, though it would eat his skin.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Wisteria Karmon was the third supervisor he’d met at the Armory and she was, like Anissa, a master distractor, demanding he not only identify but categorize by quality the slug runes. The conversation kept him from reliving that moment in a spiral.

  A knock at the door had him flinching, but a moment later Supervisor Gladson pushed open the door. He held a cake in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. “First real decon. You made it to the vacuum, we didn’t even have to stun you and chain you to it. That’s all I can ask.”

  “I don’t know what I did wrong. I can’t avoid doing it if I don’t know.” Declan began to pace in circles, a problem given the pile of runes and the available space. “I need more training.”

  “I’ll walk you through it again next time, that’s standard. But we wear the gear for a reason. An accident with fully charged rune is the worst. If the rune was already draining, the corruption wouldn’t have reached you. You would still follow protocol and hit the decon but it wouldn’t have taken a bite.” Gladson leaned against the door. “And I haven’t heard anyone say it, but I’m sure you quit. We all do. If that doesn’t scare you you’re broken, and I don’t mean in the ‘regular arcanist’ broken or even ‘ArCore’ broken. You need to be afraid.”

  “Talk about slug runes,” Wisteria prodded. “This one isn’t.”

  That brought Declan’s attention. “Yes, it is. It’s an average Corrosive Slime. Did you know that last night’s shift, Supervisor North gave me a Pierce to try and induce me to change shifts? Isn’t that theft?”

  “House Rush bought the Grasp rune sight unseen for a hundred thousand rin. The Academy doesn’t give a shit. This is not your personal bank but bonuses happen,” Gladson pronounced. “You should work on making more of them happen.”

  That tied in to another idea he’d had. “Say I wanted a loan. Say I knew a market for a thousand slug runes that gave a minor shard advantage. I’m not saying it’s real, haven’t confirmed that. But I brokered a deal that gave the Academy a shard advantage. What would I get out of it?”

  ###

  When the week had passed, Declan was eager to head to Taylor Keep, eager to meet Ava Taylor. Joining him the rush of Arcanists heading home for a night visit was Rohan Taylor, still on ArCore duty but escorting a delivery personally. He fell into step beside Declan as they approached the glint, a heavy pack on his back. Four new ArCore members stood beside him, one of them Jackson, the other three men were ones Declan didn’t know. They stood close to Rohan, eyes scanning the halls like there might actually be a threat.

  “You expecting another swarm?” Declan asked.

  Rohan spared him a glance. “Do me a huge favor. Stay fifty feet back and don’t come through the glint for twenty minutes. This is a hydrion situation except you’re not unlucky. I don’t want you to be collateral damage. The keep array is down and we’re glinting to a cargo array five miles from it. It smells like sabotage.”

  Declan let the procession pass. He carried his sword, though if it came down to it, everything else had gone to shit, and his mana bearing and three fully charged runes were in his pack, a Protect, a Claw and a Pierce. It was better than nothing.

  The ArCore went first, and minutes ground by before at last the rest of the group were cleared. Declan sprinted through the array, cursing and crying as he landed on the other side, but this time, staying on his feet and not even kneeling. He recognized the rolling farm lands and a grain silo so large it would be an tower at the academy. The Arcore stood thirty feet away, surrounded by soldiers and men on horseback.

  A tension still hung over the air, but as the rest of the travelers arrived, it gradually sank, not gone but dissolving. When the entire band was done, the array deactivated and Declan could at least breathe easier. All the other arcanists resummoned runes, even though the group together probably wasn’t worth one arcore or the House Taylor soldiers.

  Two men on horseback circled, scanning the horizon. This was a shitty place for an ambush, and probably the reason the Taylors had chosen it, if the keep array wasn’t available.

  “Move out, we’ve got an hour walk,” the expedition leader called. “Stay with the ArCore. Academy, if we are attacked, standard rules: First, scatter. Second, pick one target. Focus until they’re down. Monsters will be drawn to this.”

  The Arcore were made for this moment, and soldiers probably close to that, though for a different kind of monster.

  Runes were so much easier. Runes were so much better. Declan let the others take the lead, there was no reason to rush. He had an entire day and Ava wouldn’t let him learn all day. He wandered, watching the other runes and picking apart the House Taylor’s choices. Storm and Light really were their favorites, though he was puzzling through one man’s cluster of Gather based runes. Probably an arcanist who specialized in battle boosts that would increase strength, agility. Some even gathered mana for others. Any time he used Insight like this, it was hard to focus with so many runes. And somewhere, one kept flashing for an instant, like it couldn’t be cast correctly.

  Declan was hardly one to talk. Using the time to practice a difficult rune was smart and he was orbiting a mana stone and working on Claw no different. The rune really was hard. No wonder it was taking time, and he was fairly sure he knew which arcanist was attempting it. The root Strike rune had a light modifer, and it wasn’t meant to hit at all. No, it was more like deflect, except elegant, smooth, beatiful, a concert of modifiers that Declan couldn’t identify from split second flashes that were more after-images. Had to be fourth tier at least.

  The same certainty slowly developed, an idea that took root as the road turned south and the flash didn’t move with the arcanist Declan expected. No, it was travelling parallel to them. Light. Bend. Warp. Insight was trying and just not capable, but he’d learned to trust it and sprinted forward, screaming “Someone’s using stealth runes! We’re being stalked!”

  The soldiers spun, weapons drawn, some staring at Declan, others watching the horizon. The ArCore didn’t doubt, encircling Rohan, who had drawn his sword. “ArCore, lock and engage!”

  The ground between the soldiers exploded, a piller of rock bursting between them. All around the travelers, light shimmered and warped.

  Warping Way: Bend space between two points to move instantly between them. Passage in both directions is possible for as long as the warp is open and you may not close the warp while it is obstructed. Mana Cost: Extreme, Continual. Tier Four Rune, insight told him.

  The others were Warped View.

  Warped View: Bend Light around you so that you are obscured when moving. When not moving,this rune will not function as well. Does not obscure sound, smell or mana senses. Mana Cost: Moderate, Continual. Tier Three Rune,

  It had been the constant cast Declan saw.

  These were mercenaries, and among them, three arcanists. All wore masks, all wore hoods, but the swords they drew were easy enough to identify, and the runes a clear threat. They struck without mercy, and battle was joined.