‘Ori, we need to talk.’

  Mana-nullification manacles dulled Seraphine’s voice, making her sound as if she were speaking through paper cups joined by a string. For each minute he was left to rot in walls too close together for him to lie prone, and with a ceiling too low for him to stand upright, he questioned his stubborn refusal to quit the trial.

  After refusing to sign any contracts or commit to any oaths, he’d been arrested and thrown into this cell. While his intentions had seemed noble and his resolve firm, Ori wondered how many days he could waste here for no personal benefit beyond his pride, while second-guessing pragmatic arguments for leaving as cowardice, or something darker.

  ‘Yeah? What about?’ Ori stretched his back as much as he could in the tight space. He would have welcomed Sera’s distraction from his thoughts, if not for those four ominous words every man dreaded to hear.

  ‘I would like to know more about whom I summoned. How you came to be a summons? How you comprehend your affinities? Why do you persist in this realm even though my people treat you like dirt? And are you even human?’ Seraphine listed with an exasperated huff.

  It was a pointed question, one that forced Ori back to the divination: his race, ‘Human’, but with an asterisk: ‘variant unknown’.

  Ori sighed before answering. ‘I guess I’ll start from the beginning. How I met Mel, or who I later came to know as the Greater Succubus, Melisandre the Wayward, and how she abducted me from my realm…’

  Ori left nothing out this time, going into detail about his escape, his subsequent familiar-bond with Freya, the Crucible, and the trials. He even described his previous and current summonings, relaying all he knew about his affinities and the divination that had taken place at House Searilian’s manor. After asking a string of specific questions about his character sheet, Seraphine fell silent for a long time before she responded.

  ‘So this Freya, you're familiar, you have known her for what, hours? Less than a day, and yet your connection with her is such?’

  “I mean, yeah. When we formed the connection, it was like we both lived each other’s lives. It was unreal. It’s like I know her better than anyone else I’ve ever met, know her likes, her dislikes, what drives her and…”

  ‘And what?’

  “How close to the edge she is... to giving up. And for some reason, that is simply unacceptable to me. It’s like I don’t want to live in a universe where people like her lose. Anyway, why you so interested in her?”

  Sera sighed, anger adding heat to her voice as she continued. ‘What she did… to call it simply “taking advantage” would be an understatement. She’s a parasite. Even now, she steals from you. It would be a simple solution if she died. You’d be able to awaken and grow…’

  “Not happening.”

  ‘Well, we shall put it aside for now. As they say, star by star, night ignites until darkness fades into dawn’s first light.’

  ‘They say that here, huh? Sounds kinda nice. What does it mean exactly?’ Ori asked.

  ‘Just a saying about taking problems one at a time, and how tomorrow is another day.’

  ‘Right. Well, I think that’s more or less everything since I was abducted.’

  ‘Yes, well, it seems my mother was spot on with her assessment. As a mortal, you already have too many unified characteristics and affinities, with accolades I’ve never even heard of before. If I had to speculate, you might not be able to awaken as a human, if you can awaken at all, which would be momentous in ways even I can’t fully fathom.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because humans, as a race, can’t evolve, not without becoming chimaeras,’ Seraphine replied quietly.

  ‘How do you mean? I know Freya needs to evolve, she’s a sprite, though. I mean, isn’t that just something everyone has to do to get stronger?’

  Humans and many half-breeds progress through the ranks via class evolutions, accolades, and divinity. With sufficient progress, they can increase their lifeforce, which is the determining characteristic for an individual’s rank. So far, there is no racial evolution path beyond human, unlike the elves, celestials, demons, or the fae. If it weren’t for the likelihood that you’re on the path, I might have written off this possibility, but…’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Do you know how many Awakened humans have tried over countless aeons to evolve?’

  ‘No?’

  ‘All of us, and none have been successful. There are tales of those who have found chimeric evolutions such as Fae-blooded, Dragonid, Nephilim, and others. But do you have any idea what might happen if word of even the possibility of an evolved human reaches the library?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Neither do I. Not truly, but I can imagine: immortal human warlords scouring the realms for the evolution method, fragile political arrangements between humans and the high elves disrupted, and divinities descending into the lower realms to tilt the balance of power in their favour, and that’s just for starters. This… Crucible, whether for reasons of pride, vanity, or madness, means to fashion you into something that can break the realms.’

  Ori sighed, massaging his scalp. All he wanted was enough strength to escape and go home, and now, just when that tiny seed of possibility had started to germinate into hope, the future he’d fought for seemed less certain than ever.

  ‘Well, one step at a time, I guess. Still got to save this city, then go home. Does this change anything between us? I mean, knowing what you do now, I’d understand if you want to unbind with me or something?’

  ‘No,’ Seraphine sighed. ‘In a way, I’m flattered.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘I gave my life to summon you, after all. It’s as if the very fates themselves deemed that too high a price for just a normal summons.’ Ori chuckled at Seraphine’s mock-prideful tone. ‘No, I guess we’re stuck with each other. Besides, breaking soul bonds, as far as I’m aware, is always damaging, if not highly painful for both parties.’

  ‘Aren’t most break-ups, though?’ Ori chuckled. “By the way, what happens to you if I die?”

  ‘Well, I suppose if you reincarnate, then you’ll be reborn with the ability to summon a soul-bound artefact that also has an artefact spirit, a spirit that was once an aspiring White Lich. I have no idea if I’ll keep my memories in that scenario. If your soul passes on to the ethereal or underworld, I suppose I’ll follow you there too.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘This is a soul bond after all, not a mere life bond. It’s one of the few things in Fate that can transcend the boundaries of time and realms. And as your summoner who deliberately chose an item that might be soul-bound to a summons as my phylactery, such an adventure was one I keenly embraced. Which brings me to another subject.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Ori’s thoughts were a jumble, split between the existential realities of the afterlife or reincarnation and the whole ‘humanity has yet to evolve’ plotline he’d seemingly walked straight into. Seraphine took his absent-minded hum as a signal to continue, and did.

  ‘As the one who summoned you here and contrived such a situation that we… that our souls are now in union, I will take responsibility… for your happiness,’ Seraphine continued haltingly.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘I am prepared to be your… wife,’ Seraphine continued, almost whispering the last word. ‘Should you wish it, of course.’

  ‘Wait, what!? I… don’t understand. Are you proposing to me? Why?’

  ‘I know that right now I am an inanimate object, but with a little time and some help, I intend to fashion a new, living, breathing…’

  ‘No, that’s not it. Seraphine, why are you offering this?’

  ‘Because we’re soul-bound. Oh, you really don’t understand, do you? Well, I assume you’re aware of the concept of marriage. A union between two souls, “until death do us part.’ Ori had a sinking feeling as she continued. ‘In a way, regardless of my noble intentions, I tricked you into a union far more profound than marriage, one even more intrusive than your familiar bond, if I understand the circumstances correctly. I have wronged you, Ori. Without your full awareness and consent, I have tied my soul to you, and as my penance, my honour demands that I make amends, including… offering myself to you.’

  ‘Yeah, no,’ Ori said by reflex, trying to play it cool even as his heart raced at the prospect, despite how much the situation appalled him. A beautiful, smart, older, capital-L lady had just proposed to him out of nowhere, a guy who couldn’t even buy a date. Part of him wanted to say, ‘Okay,’ out of desperation and a sense of emotional scarcity. Ori sighed. He did not need to be dealing with this right now. “I’ve got just enough pride to turn down a proposal made out of obligation. Not going to lie, a big part of me wants to say yes. You’re smart, you’re pretty, even as a wand,” Ori chuckled. ‘But right now, there’s something I need even more than a wife.’

  ‘And what would that be?’

  ‘A friend.’

  ‘Oh. I see. So you would have your irrevocably soul-bonded companion for all eternity relegated to the status of a platonic acquaintance, then?’ Seraphine laughed. ‘I would love to see how that goes down with your future spouse.’

  “Hey—” Ori started.

  ‘It’s alright, Ori. I can be your friend. Just know that I, too, have my pride. I will not beg, and I will only ever ask once.’

  ‘You made that sound way more ominous for some reason.’

  ‘As I said, I am a lady of Astor, second in line to House Searilian, C-rank White Magi, and summoner of a champion. I know my worth. I believe I have done what honour demands, and now I shall leave the rest to fate,’ Seraphine said, a smile in her voice.

  ‘Right. Well, you don’t have to sound so relieved.’

  ‘On the contrary, I found your appearance quite dashing, and those eyes…’

  ‘My eyes? They’re kinda boring,’ Ori replied, momentarily forgetting his appearance the last time he’d caught his reflection.

  ‘Ha. Boring, they are certainly not. Ignoring the fact that they glow, there was a moody intensity in them. Empathy, apathy, and wrath all rolled into one. And that ring of light around your iris, is that a common aspect of eyes from your realm? Or perhaps you’ve not seen yourself since the beginning of your trials? Your eyes, I remember them vividly, as they were literally the last thing I saw. Glowing flecks ringed by a burning halo. Oh yes, I could spend hours lost in them.’ Seraphine was almost gushing. Perhaps she did find him attractive after all.

  ‘Really?’ Ori asked dumbly.

  ‘Ori, even if you never awaken and little else beyond a quiet life comes to pass, you’ll have plenty of women swooning over you and I, as your loyal soul-bound companion, wholly devoid of amorous intentions, shall have to fend them off, lest you be engulfed in a deluge of adoration.’

  ‘Engulfed? Right. Laying it on a bit thick, but I definitely needed that, so thanks.’

  ‘You’re forever welcome.’

  ‘So, question, can I call you Sera?’

  ‘Hmm. I suppose Seraphine can be quite a mouthful. Mother did often use Pheeney as a nickname, more to annoy me than anything else. Any name that is not that will be a vast improvement. So Sera, yes. Sera shall do.’

  ‘Great. Well, I’ve told you all about me, seems like we’ve got time to kill—’

  Ori paused as he caught movement from the corner of his eye. He was about to ignore it when a tiny patch of darkness shifted again.

  ‘What is it?’ Sera whispered internally.

  A widow spider resolved itself in the shadows, except it was rather large for an insect, with an abdomen the size of Ori’s thumbnail, and it moved with disquieting speed. Worse, another, and then another, slipped through the gap beneath the door, each advancing in a straight line towards him. In the cramped cell, they would be on him in a moment. Instinctively, Ori rose, ready to stomp the nearest, when he felt Sera gasp.

  ‘Stygian Widows! Ori, stay away!’

  ‘You can see them? What are they?’

  ‘Very difficult for a mortal to kill. If you had tried just now, it would have disappeared beneath your boot, only to fall into your shadow, a sub-realm from which you could never reach it before it paralysed you and… and… merely contemplating the rest sends a shiver down my spine.’

  ‘Then what do I do? Dodge them forever? There’s almost no space to move in here.’ Ori jinked and ducked as four spiders shifted with him. One climbed the wall, then leapt a good metre towards where he’d been standing. He glanced around. There was nothing in his cell, not even a toilet or bucket, just the smell of stale urine and mould. Worse, the confines of the room, combined with his still-bound manacles, made his movements clumsy and sluggish.

  ‘Would my aura work?’

  ‘Maybe, but it’s unlikely to do much beyond weakening them. There is one other thing you can try, though I had hoped to have you practise this in less trying circumstances.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘How tired do you feel right now, Ori?’

  ‘I…’ Ori started, trying to assess his state. There was panic, and he was breathing harder, but he wasn’t out of breath, not even close.

  ‘Even though your abilities may exceed mortal limits, they remain tethered to your perception of yourself. To harness this burgeoning strength, you must exert considerable will. Ori, your evolved traits surpass those of mere mortals, perhaps even the Awakened. With proper concentration, your perception and reflexes can be significantly higher than they are.’

  Ori could barely focus on Seraphine’s words as he evaded one spider after another.

  ‘So how does that help me now?’

  ‘You need to will yourself to think faster, to move faster, and with more control than a mortal. It takes conscious effort to move with speed that exceeds your rank.’

  Ori wasn’t arachnophobic. That is, he had a perfectly normal, rational fear response to black widow spiders that could move through shadows, bite with paralytic venom, and who knew what else. One spider he could handle. Four, each moving erratically, made every corner a threat, every stray sound a potential omen. Part of him registered what Sera had said, but a larger part of him just wanted to stomp them and be done with it.

  It was that fear that saved him. Those unseen corners beyond his vision sparked a sense beyond any he’d known, yet somehow innate and natural. Like a perverse spidey sense warning of imminent doom, Ori’s head snapped around just in time to catch a spider flying at his face. Time slowed as a deep, primal need forced either the world to slow, or Ori’s mind to catch up.

  Seraphine, the wand, appeared in his hand as if it had always been there, despite having been confiscated during his arrest. With the contact, Sera’s presence sharpened in a way only his heightened awareness could sense. There was a link between them, not quite thoughts or feelings, but something more subtle, something that let him stop second-guessing and move as if in sync with a practised dance partner.

  The artefact’s calm glow cast a profane contrast against the cell. The panic remained, but the new instinct, as if encouraged by his link with Sera, let him tap into his Awakened mind.

  Ori’s thoughts became fluid, new possibilities opening to him as his mind grew clearer and faster, even as the world around him seemed to move at a tenth of its normal speed.

  If the spiders used a person’s shadows to attack, Ori reasoned, what would happen if there were no shadows beyond the ones the spiders created? He had no mana to cast light magic due to the manacles, even if he knew how, which he didn’t, but his wand had its own glow. With Aura Amplification, perhaps he could use its light to wipe out shadows.

  The cell flooded with a pink glow, as if the walls themselves emitted light. By the time a widow crossed the gap to within an inch of Ori’s face, his body felt sluggish, as if he could see in real time the consequences of a physique that still relied on electrochemical impulses rather than magic. But while there was a delay, he’d willed a degree of control into his movements that let him stab down at a spider as it entered range.

  The two-foot length of glowing crystal pierced the arachnid’s abdomen with a disquieting crunch. Ori was already turning, arm drawing back for another stab.

  At that moment, the cell door opened.

  ‘Cordi?’ Ori heard Sera say through the soul-link as a tall woman, at least six feet, with striking silver eyes and raven-black hair, stooped to enter. Smile lines and battle scars criss-crossed her face. In her mid-forties, she seemed a formidable blend of shield-maiden and mage, bruised skin, split lip, and battered leathers supporting a general aura of ‘fuck around and find out’.

  Her already forbidding expression darkened as she assessed the scene. In an instant, translucent domes encased each spider before floating up to her like bubbles.

  ‘What’s she doing? Were those her spiders?’ Ori asked as his concentration slipped. He felt heavy, his thoughts dropping back to mortal, far-too-sluggish norms.

  “They said that you would fight for us?” she asked.

  “I would,” Ori answered, mind catching up, as she stared into his eyes with unnerving intensity. “Was that a test?” He gestured to the encapsulated widows beside her, even the fourth, very dead one, floating in her orbit.

  “If it was, it certainly wasn’t mine.” Her expression twisted with disgust. “That you managed to kill one without being bitten suggests you might be of some use after all.”

  “Thanks, I guess. Who are you again? And, yeah, what will you do to those things?” Ori said, eyes still fixed on the agitated arachnids.

  “I’m Lady Cordelia of House Searilian, and this is evidence. Come with me.”