Kanin Fyre: Chapter 45 - Recalibrate

Okay, so, it’s a lot more stressful than I originally thought. But hey, no one hates me, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

A couple of the Travelers had Roles that activated right away, which was its own special kind of hell. One of them was pretty easy to handle; his Role was Tailor and Fyre set him up to apprentice with one of the city’s weavers. But the other two were trickier. I’m glad Fyre was here to help me deal with them; between herself, Ollie, and Sandro, it seems she’s got some experience with working around complex Role requirements.

A woman whose Role was The Guide needed to give people advice on how to pursue something they were looking for, but without anyone actually asking her for help, her Role Requirement was causing her Sanity Stat to decrease. We fixed that when Dizzi asked for help finding a tool she’d lost. Her Role actually sounds pretty useful, though the help she gives is abstract, and even she doesn’t seem to understand what it means half the time.

The final problematic Role was for an old man who had been labeled a Bard. The Fyrethians don’t have many instruments on hand, so we had to scramble to borrow a reed flute from a visitor in order to stop his Role requirement from doing too much damage. Unfortunately, gaining a Bard Role did not appear to also grant the Traveler any musical abilities. It’s been a rough few days for those who can’t arbitrarily choose to turn their hearing off.

The others have been more manageable, luckily. And Fyre is really good about picking the wording of a Role apart to find loopholes and work arounds in how the Roles are enforced—I’m not sure I would have thought of that. But day to day, the Traveler’s Roles are generally the least of their worries. Everyone is dealing with their death, rebirth, new bodies, and the existence of magic in their own ways. There’s a lot to learn and adjust to—especially the knowledge that they’re being targeted by gods.

Fyre sits back in her chair, rubbing a temple. Mirzayael is also reclining on an arachnoid seat, though as ever the tells for her weariness are far less obvious. I myself am leaning against a wall—mostly for appearances, since I don’t actually need to rest against anything.

I’ve started to jigsaw my body back together, but it’s been slow going, as most of my time has been spent working with the Travelers. I haven’t even bother with clothes these past few days—it seems a bit superfluous when my form is only humanoid in the most abstract of terms. I’ve Sculpted a few new rods to serve as arms or legs, but since I don’t have all the necessary parts to complete the body, yet, I haven’t bothered to Chain all the glass pieces together. As a result, I shift the glass around as needed for whatever the task at hand requires.

Sometimes I feel weird about being “naked,” but other times it feels… I don’t know. More authentic, I guess. Like I’m not trying to be something that I’m not.

But I’m not entirely without clothes. I’ve taken to wearing the red scarf that I got with Zyneth back in Starcove—it at least suggests where my head might be, which seems to help give people somewhere to look when talking to me.

“It’s obviously a trap,” Mirzayael says.

Fyre sighs. “Perhaps.”

“No, it’s definitely a trap,” I say. Mirzayael nods approvingly. “What do we stand to gain by speaking with her?”

“Peace,” Fyre says. “However unlikely. Isn’t it worth trying for that?”

“No,” Mirzayael and I say simultaneously.

“The second you’re vulnerable, Lorata will imprison you, at best,” Mirzayael says. “Why give her the chance?”

“We can’t keep this stalemate up forever,” Fyre says. “They haven’t attacked the barrier, yet, but what happens when they do? How long can it last off of the ambient magic of the Drifting Isles? Not forever, I suspect. And then what?”

Neither Mirzayael nor I have an answer.

Fyre shakes her head. “We have to do something before it reaches that point. And I still believe we can find a compromise if we talk it over.”

Mirzayael hisses at the suggestion. “We do not make deals with gods.”

“And what compromise would even work?” I add. “Lorata has made it very clear: this number of people with remnants in one location is not something she will abide by. I mean, I have no problem leaving, if that will help take the heat off of you, but that still leaves you and Sandro. Do you think she’ll simply agree to that?”

“It can’t hurt to plead our case,” Fyre says, kneading her forehead. I can’t even imagine the headache she’s dealing with. “There must be something we can offer that she’ll be willing to accept.”

Mirzayael narrows her eyes at Fyre. “You aren’t considering offering yourself, are you?”

Fyre’s face immediately flushes. “No!”

“You’re a terrible liar,” I say.

Fyre sinks guiltily into her seat. “I did consider it. But,” she adds, raising her voice as Mirzayael goes rigid with anger, “I quickly dismissed the notion. Ollie’s Role is dependent upon my safety, and I can’t risk triggering its effects if I am taken away. I promise, I have no intention of being captured by Lorata.”

I hold up my hands in defeat. “It’s your city. I can’t stop you. But I still think it’s a bad idea.”

“Agreed,” Mirzayael says.

“Well, we still have five days to decide,” Fyre says. “Then…”

Then, who knows what will happen? The correspondence we received from Lorata’s champions was very clear; we are to treat with Lorata in a week’s time, or we’ll face “consequences.” I’ve tried to reach out to Shirasil and Blair for more information, but my messages aren’t going through. They both must still be in the Heavens. Which makes sense—a week out here has only been a couple hours in there. They might even still be discussing what happened.

Which seems extremely inefficient. Why spend so much time in a bubble while the rest of the world is speeding ahead? I don’t get it.

Fyre perks up. “Oh! Ollie says we have some visitors. We should go meet them.”

It’s obvious Fyre wants to drop the current subject, and I’m not going to stop her. All this is stressful enough for me, and I don’t have a city to run on top of everything else.

“Sure,” I say. “I’ll grab Noli—she likes walking around the docks.”

Mirzayael wordlessly follows us out, though I know better than to assume she isn’t speaking with Fyre. The two fall astride each other, and I feel a pang of envy. I wish Zyneth were here. He’d make all of this feel easier.

As we leave the palace, I stop at the house Noli is staying at and flash a Lightbeam through her window. At least the gods haven’t stopped anyone from coming or going from the city—that is, as long as they’re not Travelers. I suspect this is more because they’re still scrambling to shore up the Heavens and sort through the situation rather than out of any goodwill. But I doubt it will continue for much longer.

Rezira opens the door. “To what do I owe this displeasure?” She smiles teasingly.

“Wonderful to see you, too.” I slip some glass into the room as she fails to bat it away. “Is Noli home? We were taking a break and were going to head down to the docks. Some new visitors just came in.”

Noli catches sight of my glass from her seat at the kitchen table. “Kanin! Come in! We’re just finishing up.”

Rezira pushes the door open for me, though I stay near the entrance as Rezira goes to sit back down with her wife. Noli has her hand splayed over a bloody rag, and I wince at the sight. There are no visible wounds, so I must have just missed Rezira closing her skin back up. For the past couple of days she’s been working on repairing the tendons in Noli’s hand; they didn’t heal right the first time, which Rezira hasn’t stopped complaining about. Apparently, fixing an improperly healed wound is much more intrusive than healing it right and slowly the first time. Not that you’d ever hear Noli complain.

“Feeling up for a walk?” Rezira asks, sitting back down to take hold of Noli’s injured hand and turn it carefully over in her own, examining things too subtle for me to notice. Light glows briefly beneath one of her fingertips as she touches a spot on the back of Noli’s hand.

“Of course!” Noli signs with her good hand. “Nothing’s wrong with my legs.”

I sent a letter to Rezira the moment I could, and Sandro promised his wyverns could get to orc the same day. Sure enough, Rezira showed up at the Drifting Isles two days later, and she hasn’t left Noli’s side since then. I feel a sting of guilt every time I see her.

Rezira finishes up with Noli’s hand and the women join us at the door. Fyre signs a greeting to them, and Noli lights up like it’s her birthday.

“Are you learning to sign?” she asks Fyre, falling astride the harpy as they walk.

“Ah, not really,” Fyre admits. She’s wearing a translator I saw frequently used back in Simora, which projects an illusion of hands and arms that interpret her speech into sign language. “That’s about all I’ve manage to pick up. I’ve been too busy to spend much time on language studies, though I’d really like to learn Coastal Signs and Valenian, at some point.”

Noli laughs. “Well, everyone has to start somewhere! I can teach you a couple while we walk, if you like.”

Fyre smiles. “Please do.”

Rezira and I are left walking behind the other two. It’s a comfortable silence—I can’t detect any hostility in Rezira’s body language. But my guilt only deepens.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, sticking to spoken language. “I know this is exactly what you were trying to avoid.”

Rezira lets out a long, labored sigh. “I don’t blame you. It was Noli’s choice to come. I know she only stayed behind for my benefit in the first place. It was just a matter of time before her wanderlust kicked in again.”

I chuckle halfheartedly. “She certainly does what she wants.”

Rezira huffs out a tired laugh. “Sometimes that stubbornness kills me. But it’s also why I love her; when she sets her mind to something, she won’t let anything get in her way. Not even the Heavens, it seems.”

Probably not far from how Zyneth feels about me. But seeing how it’s affected Rezira is providing some perspective on our own relationship I hadn’t considered before. “Did she tell you about…”

“She told me everything,” Rezira says. “You guys are connected somehow, right?”

“Yeah,” I admit. “Though I’m not sure exactly what it means.” It’s not like Ink, where its tether forces it to stay close to me. Noli and I have tested the distance we can travel apart, and there doesn’t seem to be a limit. “So far, all it really seems to do is give Noli access to my mana.”

Rezira nods along to my explanation. “That’s something.” We walk for another minute in silence, and I idly watch Fyre and Noli chatting. Both of them are able to stay so hopeful in the face of so much tension and uncertainty. I bet it helps ground their partners. I doubt I’m that for Zyneth—if anything, I’m certainly the biggest source of chaos in his life. Then again, maybe that’s why he likes me. He seems to thrive on danger and adventure, and I’ve certainly provided him that, if nothing else.

Fuck, I miss him.

As we approach the docks, I notice Noli and Fyre have leaned in to speak conspiratorially. “Any idea what that’s about?” I ask Rezira.

She shakes her head. “No idea. But knowing Noli, probably planning your birthday party, or something.”

I laugh. “Actually…” I do some quick mental math. “Huh, my birthday was probably a month or two ago. I didn’t even notice.”

That makes me twenty-nine. Less than a year away from thirty—the age, I had decided in my teens, when my life would be over. The goal was to become a movie star before thirty or resign myself to a life of mediocrity.

I was pretty stupid, in retrospect.

Alright, I’m no genius now, but I’ve got some perspective, at least.

As we approach the dock, I automatically start scanning the crowd, Checking for anyone with a Role. It’ll be my job to go through orientation with them, and it’s even something I’ve started to feel comfortable with. Turns out, very few people are upset with me for giving them a second life—probably helps that no one ended up in the kind of body I did.

But there are still some who are understandably frustrated with their Roles, which luckily they’ve decided to blame on the gods rather than me. Though I’m not even sure if that’s the right place to lay the blame; Shirasil indicated the gods didn’t have much control over their Roles, either. It seems like this System is responsible—and where that came from is yet another mystery to uncover.

The current arrivals are a gruff group of traders who Fyre seems to be familiar with. They seem to be the only ones willing to chance a visit now that champions have started to amass outside the city’s barrier. As I glance through the group, I’m surprised to catch sight of a familiar face. Ink perks up. I lift some of my glass higher to get a better look. “Zyneth?”

He glances around until he catches sight of me, then his face splits into a wide grin, and it’s like his body’s natural warmth has gone straight to my soul.

I weave through the crowd, abandoning a humanoid form so I can dart around and between the slow-moving throng of visitors. When I reach Zyneth I wrap him in a hug, and he laughs, stumbling back.

“That’s quite the welcome,” he says, managing to extract an arm to wrap around my back. Or, I guess, where my back might have been. I shuffle my glass around to something more human-ish as I let him go.

“I’m glad you’re back,” I tell him.

He leans his head in to tap mine. “Glad to be back.”

“Oh, no!” Noli exclaims, pursing her lips in disappointment. “It was supposed to be a surprise!”

“You knew?” I ask, keeping an arm wrapped around Zyneth as we head back over to them.

“Ollie saw him first,” Fyre admits, nodding to a platform that’s a safe (tail’s length) away from the dock, where the dragon is wiggling in excitement. “I confirmed through the Dungeon Core’s interface. Ollie wants you to know he’d love to go flying with you again sometime.”

Zyneth chuckles. “Far be it from me to disappoint a child. Come, let’s go say hi to him now.”

“Did everything go alright?” I ask him as we make our way over to Ollie’s platform.

“It did,” he says. His voice sounds warmer and more confident than I can remember it sounding in… well, a while. He rolls up one of sleeves, revealing a single tattoo, the ouroboros already eaten two thirds the way around its tail. “Only one more job, I think. And then I’m done. I’m out.”

My soul swells with affection. “Good! I’m glad. I know it’s been a long time coming.”

He sighs out a content breath. “I can almost taste it. The last job can’t come soon enough.” He glances my way, a pinch of concern coloring his ease smile. “And what about you? From the state of your glass, I’m guessing I missed some things in my absence.”

“You could say that.”

We reach the platform, and Ollie leans down to muzzle Zyneth, who happily scratches him back. “I TOLD FYRE I SAW YOU!” Ollie says. “DO YOU WANT TO GO FLYING AGAIN? MAYBE KANIN CAN GIVE YOU A GRAVITY SPELL, TOO! OH MY GOSH, GUESS WHAT I DID? GUESS!” Zyneth opens his mouth. “I PUNCHED A GOD!”

Zyneth blinks, turning to look at me.

“I’ll explain later,” I tell him. “There’s a lot to catch you up on.”

If that’s not an understatement, I don’t know what is.

#

Although all meals tend to take place in the meal hall in Fyre’s palace, a couple entrepreneurial merchants have moved into empty buildings in the lower city, offering food and drink foreign to the Fyrethians. Noli has taken a fancy to one called Floating Inn, so it’s there we decide to break bread and catch up. For old time’s sake.

Noli and I go through everything that happened while he was away. It takes a while to cover it all, and it’s clear some of the stuff I say is the first time Rezira has heard it as well. The champions—the jailbreak—Lorata. Rezira and Zyneth both appear very concerned about that last one.

“You made an enemy of the head of the pantheon?” Rezira asks, looking at Noli.

Noli hunches her shoulders with a guilty smile. “Well I wouldn’t say I made an enemy of her.”

“I doubt Lorata even remembers her,” I quickly jump in. “She’s only concerned about Travelers. Noli blocked the refiner from hitting me head-on—she saved my soul—but that was the only interaction the two of them ever had.”

“Only,” Rezira says under her breath.

I decide not to mention the part where Noli shot Rinviu into a wall. She can be the one to break that to Rezira.

Zyneth combs his fingers across his scalp. “I’m glad you all made it out, but this is a lot to process. I should have been there.”

“There’s nothing you could have done,” I tell him.

“Well, I suppose he could have done the Core Bond thing with you like you did with me,” Noli says thoughtfully.

“I’m in no hurry to do that with anyone ever again,” I say. “At least until I can figure out the extent of the connection, and how to sever it.”

Zyneth rubs his chin with a frown. “You said Shirasil didn’t even know what it meant?”

“I’m pretty sure he knows more than he’s saying,” I grumble. “But he didn’t know what was up with my Role prompt, at least.”

The notification [Role: STATUS=NULL. Establish new parameters?] still persists in the corner of my vision.

“Although,” I add, “I might find something with his notes.”

Zyneth raises an eyebrow. “Notes?”

“Oh!” I say. “Right.” I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Noli about this yet. The Travelers have been eating up all my time. Not to mention, planning for Lorata’s arrival next week.

“I got her,” I tell Zyneth, a note of excitement rising within me. “I have Anika. And Shirasil said he had notes in the mortal realm for how I might be able to free her from the refiner.”

I haven’t removed her from my Inventory, yet, too afraid I’d mess something up, or alert the gods (more than they already are), or something. But I Check the contents of my Inventory every day, just to remind myself that she’s really there. I really got her out.

Zyneth looks surprised. “You do? He does?” Then he frowns. “Why couldn’t he have simply removed her from the refiner and saved you the trouble?”

“He doesn’t know how,” I admit. “But he thinks my void magic might be the final piece of the puzzle.” Though, admittedly, I’m skeptical of that explanation. If Shirasil really only needed a void user, he could have sought out someone like Siqi. I suspect, rather, that Ink in the missing component of the equation, some way or another.

“However,” I add, “I don’t think you’ll like where the notes are hidden.”

Zyneth narrows his eyes. “Where are they—wait. No, you can’t be serious.”

I call up the Location of Interest map that Shirasil gave me through the System. “Unfortunately so.”

“Where?” Noli asks, unable to contain herself. “Stop teasing!”

“Mount Shale,” I say.

Zyneth groans, burying his face in his hands. “Of course it is.”

Rezira barks out a laugh, watching the cambion. “Home can’t be that bad, can it?”

Zyneth drags his fingers far enough down his face so he can glare at her.

Noli reaches across the table to give his arm a sympathetic pat. “Family.” She doesn’t elaborate.

“Well, that’s a problem to deal with later,” I say, trying to salvage the mood. “And you don’t even have to—”

“Don’t say I don’t have to come,” Zyneth grumbles. He signals for the barkeep to bring over a drink. “Of course I’m coming. They’d eat you alive if you showed up like this.”

“Like what?” I ask, looking down at myself. Okay, I’m still a mostly amorphous amalgamation of shadow and glass, but I can fix that before we leave. “Like what, Zyneth?”

He waves the question off. “So you think these notes can help with this bond you have with Noli, too?”

“Don’t think I don’t see that you’re changing the subject,” I tease. But all I can do is shrug. “I don’t know. The remnants, the System, the refiners—they’re all connected. I feel like I’m on the cusp of seeing how they all fit together. Maybe I just need one last hint to figure it all out. Maybe there will be something that helps me figure out all this Role nonsense, too.”

Zyneth considers this. “Does Echo say anything else about what she means by ‘new parameters?’”

I try asking her.

[NULL parameters will be repopulated upon Role reset,] Echo says. [Establish new parameters?]

Yeah, that tells me nothing.

“For now, I think I’ll just leave it alone,” I tell the others. “I mean, my Role was definitely shitty, but now that it can no longer be used against me, I don’t want to risk getting a new Role or something that I’ll have to be tied to.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Zyneth agrees.

For not the first time, I try to hide my Role from my default displayed stats. And once again, Echo refuses to do so. That “Role: STATUS=NULL” notification blinking in my vision every time I look over my Stats is starting to get pretty annoying.

Echo, can you hide that or something? I ask.

[Negative. The NULL STATUS must be resolved. Schedule time to resolve later?]

No, I think with a mental sigh.

[Confirmed,] Echo says. [Resolving now.]

“Wait, what?” I say aloud.

[Updating Stats. NULL field found. Resetting default parameters.]

“No wait, cancel!” I cry. “Don’t reset parameters! Schedule time to resolve later! Shit.”

The Stat interface has already finished updating—and to my immense relief, my Role just goes back to reading ‘Homunculus.’

“What is it?” Zyneth asks, worried. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” I grumble. “Echo was just being cheeky. I told her not to resolve my status later, so she decided that meant I wanted to resolve it now. It fixed whatever that NULL field was in my Role. Looks like nothing changed, though.”

“That’s a relief,” Noli signs.

And then Echo says [New Master designated.]

My soul goes cold. “Oh, no.”

Who? I ask, dread soaking into my mind.

“What is it, now?” Noli asks, brow wrinkled in concern.

[Command received,] Echo says. And for the first time in a year, I feel the staticky influence of a Role Requirement creep back into my mind. Ink recoils from it, hissing, and I have to fight down my own swell of instinctive panic.

“It assigned me a new Master,” I tell Noli. The Role Requirement recedes, satisfied that I’ve fulfilled my command. “You.”

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Author's Note: And, that's the end of book 4! (Though technically I still have 1 epilogue chapter for you on Wednesday.) Not TOTALLY happy with how this last chapter came out, and I will certainly be editing this ending portion a bit to smooth things out with regards to Lorata, Kanin's Role, and Noli's bond, so things are bit more clearer heading into next book.

Also, I've decided that the Kanin series will be 6 books long, which means with the end of Kanin Fyre (Book 4) we are 2/3rds the way through the series. Only two books to go!