Dangers on the Path

Warden Dart wasn’t ready to make the expedition to the Steel Perilous the next watch or the watch after. Bertran passed the word that the harvest guard would be escorting Trick to the place he arrived on the third watch after his first harvesting expedition. Sari did her best to give him a crash course on lumicraft before then.

After the first hour she wished she hadn’t agreed to do it.

Not that she didn’t enjoy teaching, although she didn’t feel like she was particularly good at that either. It was more a matter of what she realized as she was teaching. Namely that Trick understood lumi pretty well for a person who claimed he came from a sphere where lumi was not a regular part of life. He’d already worked out the colors, the order they typically appeared in, their uses and more. Pretty much the only foundational thing he hadn’t worked out was the particulars of formulating the higher colors of lumi from the base colors.

Trick claimed he’d just been paying attention to things happening around him and figured it all out but she wasn’t sure how that could be the case. She’d practically explained how colors formulated to him once already, when talking about wells!

Then again, Trick didn’t seem like the kind of person who learned by listening. She’d explain how to do something simple, like tapping lumi from one crystal to another, and he wouldn’t understand. Yet once he’d done it himself he suddenly transformed into a master of the skill. Maybe the problem was that she’d been teaching him wrong.

Yet even if he was just a savant, uniquely capable of understanding the properties and applications of lumicraft it was still a bit disheartening. She’d spent years learning the art and he was fixing to master it in a couple of months. The only rationale he gave for it involved something called a ‘computer’ that he’d mentioned before. He tried to explain it but half the words didn’t make sense.

No matter how quickly he learned the craft it was impossible for him to master it by the time Warden Dart wanted to depart for the Steel Perilous. Most lensmen and harvest guards were not great craftsmen either. That was to be expected. The art of lumicraft wasn’t shared much with those outside those chosen as apprentices by masters of the craft. Given that, Dart sent out a call for at least one craftsmen to accompany them on the trip, to see if there was anything there worth taking beyond the reservoir crystals Trick said were plentiful there.

After some deliberation, Sari volunteered to go.

So, in spite of her parents objections and the warden’s quiet complaints to the other elders, when the appointed watch began she joined Bertran, Trick and Dart by Harbek’s main gate, warder’s staff in hand. When he spotted her Trick’s eyebrows rose a half inch. For a brief moment he stared at her with nervewracking intensity, as if he saw right through her, then Dart said something and he looked away.

For as long as she could remember Sari’s veil had made her invisible. The fate of the brightest was to seek what was dim and most people in Harbek knew that. They let themselves stop at the veil and turn elsewhere. There were exceptions, of course, Gemma had always been a treasure and Bertran had come around to her eventually. However no one had ever paid her attention in the way Trick did. He ignored the trappings of the brightest and spoke to her as if she was just someone to learn from. To understand. To spend time with.

One of the few upsides of being brightest was that no one could really tell her not to do something. How could you send away someone you were supposed to pretend wasn’t there? So she fell in beside Bertran and Trick and started the long trek out of Harbek towards the Steel Perilous. She expected it to be an uneventful trip.

For the first hour or two it was. Eventually, Trick seemed to grow impatient and struck up a conversation. “First time going to the Steel?”

Sari saw the warden flinch slightly at the question even from her vantage point, some twenty feet ahead. She ignored him for the moment. “I’m not a braver, no. I knew someone who braved the Steel, once, but he left Harbek years ago, before I was fully grown.”

“Oh?” Trick cocked his head to one side, studying her again with that piercing stare. “How was it a child knew someone who braved the Steel?”

“My father is a recorder. He spent a great deal of time with Franz, recording his expeditions below. Franz spent time with many bands of bravers, exploring different openings into the Steel Perilous, and father felt it was important to have their journeys added to the hall.”

“Patrick Gallagher,” Dart called. “The wells where you were found are just ahead. Which way next?”

With a sour look on his face Trick moved off towards the front of the group. Bertran watched him go then said, “The warden isn’t happy that you’re here with us. Does Brossius have some new crackpot scheme in mind?”

“He’s the chief armillamancer. He always has a scheme in mind. I don’t think Trick’s a part of whatever he’s up to right now, though.” She rubbed the bracelet of her channeling glove, wondering how much Bertran had guessed already. It wasn’t like he didn’t know about the tensions between the town elders. “Brossius wants me to watch Trick. Obviously. Is that what you wanted to know?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, eyes half closed. “No. I guessed that part already, Sari. I’m not stupid and Gemma knows you better than anyone in town. There’s something bothering you and I think there’s more to it than a town elder asking you to keep an eye on someone. You never wanted anything to do with the Steel Perilous. Now, here you are.”

“I…” She stared at the back of Trick’s head, watching him point out landmarks to Dart. “There’s something I don’t understand about him, Bertran. I just need to figure it out.”

For a long moment he didn’t say anything, just watched her from half lidded eyes. Then he said, “Well, be careful. There’s more dangerous things than the Steel Perilous out here. I met Gemma on my first harvest.”

She blinked, rolling that over in her mind. “What’s that got to do with it?”

Bertran just chuckled and started forward, ignoring her further questions.