Chapter 36

Christopher crawled forward, taking something from his belt, another torch just like Brontus had. “Both of you, I need your torches.”

Sarah and I looked at each other before shaking our heads and responding with, “Uh, I didn’t bring a torch,” and “We were supposed to bring torches?”

Christopher groaned. “Unprepared, the both of you,” he grumbled. “Alright, anything you have that’s burnable.” He took the last quarter of a bread roll from his rations and tore it in half, popping part into his mouth and handing the other to Sarah. He placed the bag in the centre of the small cave along with the second torch. I followed suit, adding my empty bag, and Sarah tossed in the top part of hers. “Sleeves,” he said, and I didn’t know what he was talking about until he tore one of his off. The thread broke cleanly with his effort, and he tossed the looped cloth into the pile. “Come on, you guys, too,” he told us as he did the same for the other side.

I tugged, but either it was a technique I had yet to learn or I simply lacked the strength to do it. I chose to believe the former. Beside me, Sarah grunted with effort as she failed to do it as well. Then I realized that I was already channeling mana. “Hold on, Sarah,” I told her as I held my hands to opposite shoulders. I focused on the clothing, the material, the thread, the binding that held it all together. In my mind’s eye, and in reality, it loosed, falling away and releasing the sleeves, letting them slide down my arms. I passed them to Christopher who wrapped them into the growing setup for a fire.

Then I shuffled over to Sarah. Just the sleeves, I thought, really not wanting to cause a wardrobe malfunction. I put my hands on her shoulders and repeated the process, and felt them fall away, loose in my hands. She sniffled, thanking me for the help, and I felt that the sleeves had little damp spots where she had seemingly wiped her eyes on them. She took them from her arms and tossed them into the pile.

Christopher wasn’t able to perform fire magic, even just to get a flicker like Brontus had. But he did have some flint and steel, which he rapped together to ignite the torch on top. The flame lit up the cave, letting us all see our faces clearly. “There, that should last us for a little while, hopefully,” he commented as the fire burned slowly into the cloth.

We sat around, quiet, just resting, waiting; for what, I wasn’t sure, but it was an uneasy peace.

I looked between the two of them. Christopher stared at the fire, as if trying to evaluate how long it would last. Sarah sat huddled, knees to her chest. We couldn’t have been more different; a career child soldier, an outskirts nobody, and a rich noble. Other than just being here, I couldn’t think of what we had in common. Other than one thing. “Why don’t you take the Soulsleep?” I asked Christopher.

He looked up at me, probably surprised I broke the silence with such an unusual question. “Well, I don’t get the usual nightmares,” he answered. “I miss my brother. And in my dreams… I get to see him again.”

I looked at Christopher, who himself seemed to look past me. It was not ‘I have to’ or ‘I’m forced to’ or even just ‘I see him again’.

‘I get to’.

I hesitated to ask. “What happened?”

He didn’t move his eyes or head but all the same it felt as if he turned back to me, his gaze refocusing on the here and now. “We were trained since we were young,” he began. “You’ll find that’s not too uncommon here; others I know from my group make up most of us. If anything, you and Sarah are anomalies, but I digress. We were trained in weapons combat, military tactics, and mana channeling at a compound probably about a day or two’s long ride from here. My brother and I were both orphaned when we were younger. Apparently he showed some aptitude for mana control? I don’t really know the details, it was a long time ago, but they took him in for training, and as his younger brother, they said I may have some promise as well,” he explained. “But the truth is because magic is… stronger, the closer you are to the person you take as your magisoul. Their mistake was underestimating how close we really were.”

There was a pained look in his eyes, and even as he was telling me, it was as if he wasn’t there at all, but back somewhere else.

“For our final exam,” he continued, “it was our… graduation, in a manner of speaking. The test that itself would grant us our magic.”

My eyes widened slightly. “You mean they had you—”

“Yes,” he cut me off, “we were paired up, given a weapon of our choice, and unable to leave until only one of us remained. And to get the best result for my brother, to make him the strongest mage he could possibly be… Well, I realized in that moment why I was there at all.”

Sarah shifted in her seat. “But you’re the one here, so…?”

Christopher barked a raw chuckle as he looked down. “Yeah… The rules were simple. One hour, one survivor, or no survivors. So he attacked me. Gave me this,” he said, pointing at the scar that ran the length of his forearm. “He was an animal; I barely survived. He pushed me to the edge, and nearly got my throat more than once.”

Sarah and I both realized we had our hands to our necks as we just listened.

“I still don’t know how he missed. He shouldn’t have. And then I attacked back, slicing at him with my dagger. He parried every swing, so I lunged. I was desperate, leaving myself wide open. He could have dodged it. Could have blocked. His hand moved in time!” Christopher shouted. “He was able to stop it and—! And he—!” He stopped, breathing heavily, collecting his thoughts before calming and continuing. “…and he didn’t. His sword stayed where it was, right beside mine. And as I sunk my blade into his chest, he smiled at me. It was pure relief.”

“Ah… so is that why you were chained to your desk at first?” Sarah asked with a playful smirk.

Read the room! I wanted to scream at her.

Christopher actually chuckled and nodded though. “I… didn’t take it too well.”

I felt a camaraderie that I realized I had missed out on. Maybe if I had been more upfront, things would have played out differently. But ‘what if’s weren’t a great thing to dwell on. “So you miss him?” I asked.

“Mhm.” He nodded. “I would never take the Soulsleep pill because I didn’t need to; my partner doesn’t hate me for killing him. I could have pretended, but… well, I might have just wanted to be petty and flaunt it.” He sounded a bit embarrassed by that, the immaturity of the action, but at our age I could hardly blame him. “Only thing is that I should have given mine to you.” He dipped his head apologetically to me. “I’m sorry for that.”

“Oh, what?” I looked at him in confusion. “No… I mean, it’s been a bit rough at first, but I’m on pretty good terms with my magisoul. It’s my sister. She’s actually been listening in this whole time.”