Lindon leaned away, turning to see her expression. “Yes, we should do whatever we can. We just need to be…careful.”

She turned to him and the blades on her shoulders shifted. He had to withdraw his arm or risk getting cut.

“You’re in this with me, true?”

“Of course,” he said without hesitation. “But we should have a plan.”

She nodded, her eyes focused intensely on some point beyond him. “Yeah…we have to track down a Truegold, don’t we? Cassias could tell us where it is. He points it out on the map, and we slip in like a shadow’s whisper. Maybe we could get Orthos in, too, that would ease the fight somewhat.”

Lindon cleared his throat. “That could certainly work, but I’d like to propose an alternative. We could push Eithan to make us Truegolds. He must know a way to do it, don’t you think? If the Ancestor’s Spear could take Jai Long from Highgold to Truegold so quickly, there has to be some solution for us.”

His new arm might be exactly that solution, but there was no telling until the construct was completed.

She backed away, turning to face him head-on. “You want me to sit around on my hands until I advance again? If Eithan can make me a Truegold tomorrow, sure, I’m not going to spit on that. Short of that, I’m not waiting. I’m going with whoever’s raising their swords against Redmoon Hall.”

“But who is that?” he countered. “Who’s going to take us? Who can use us? What can we even do? We have to know what we can do before we—”

“The Skysworn,” she interrupted, folding her arms. “They’ll jump to take us.”

Lindon wasn’t sure they would jump to take him, but he had to admit he was tempted by the facilities he’d seen in Starsweep Tower.

Then again…what did the Skysworn have that Eithan wasn’t already giving him for free?

“Let’s not rush into anything,” he said in a reasonable tone. “We can wait until Eithan gets back, at least.”

“Eithan’s out there fighting Underlords and emissaries and heavens-know-what right now,” she said fiercely. “When he gets back, we’re out of time.”

A bearded man in hooded green robes slid open the door, peeking his head inside. “Excuse me, I'm here to see the patient?”

Yerin gave Lindon a razor-sharp stare, but she took a breath. “Turn over what I said, see if it looks any better to you. I’m going to see Cassias tonight. If I don’t hear what I like, I’m gone. The door’s open for you to join me.”

After Lindon left, he continued turning her words over in his mind. She was rushing to a decision too quickly. There was no reason to take this fight personally; Redmoon Hall wasn’t after them. At least they could weigh out their options, they didn’t have to dive straight in.

No matter how he thought of it, there was nothing to gain from going after Redmoon Hall. It would be a foolish move.

Maybe Cassias could talk Yerin around.

Chapter 11

Cassias sat on his mat, covered in bandages, with a frog's tongue stuck onto his wrist. The fat, blood-red bullfrog sat on a little dais, an ornately carved platform the size of Lindon's hand, and pumped blood through its tongue with every exhale.

It was one of the most fascinating sacred beasts Lindon had ever seen, and he couldn't help wondering what sort of blood Path had produced it. The healer had said that it would slowly replace the blood Cassias had lost, as well as purging any remaining influence from the bloodspawn, but that he had to rest. And, if possible, he should avoid strenuous activity or stressful conversation.

They were putting that last advice to the test.

“I'll be fighting Redmoon Hall if it's just me and my sword,” Yerin said, arms crossed. To Lindon's eye, she still looked odd without the red belt, as that had been the brightest splash of color about her. “Don’t have the legs to go very far if I’m not Truegold, but I’d go if I were Copper. You get me to Truegold, you’d be lending me a hand up.”

Lindon recognized his opportunity. “The sooner we reach Truegold, the sooner we’ll be ready to contribute to the Empire. And the more useful we would be to you.”

Cassias glanced at the frog and took a deep breath. “I don't have the full list of training materials you've used in the time since you've been with us, but it's extensive. Running the Blackflame Trials alone cost the equivalent of two top-grade scales a day, not to mention my own time. That's more than the training budget for all our other students combined. And then there are those Four Corners Rotation Pills we provided. We could have hired five new workers for the same price. Yerin, you've been using our sword aura cycling room so extensively that we had to replace some of the aura sources and upgrade the scripts.”

“That's a fair point, but most of those decisions were made by Eithan,” Lindon pointed out. “He obviously thought we were worth the expense.”

“He did, which is why Eithan paid for most of that personally,” Cassias responded. “If he spent his time doing nothing else, he could generate three or four top-grade scales a day, which is absolutely stunning. Most Underlords could not do the same. So additionally, we have the cost of his time when he went to the Desolate Wilds to retrieve you. Every day he spent on you has cost this family a sizeable amount of income.”

Yerin turned as though to leave. “I've heard my fill. I need to track down Eithan, not you. Is he on the battlefield yet?”

“Eithan has been recalled to a secret location by order of the Emperor,” Cassias said, carefully watching the frog. The frog croaked and gave him a stern look, so Cassias settled back against the wall. “If you want help before he returns, you'll have to go through the family system.”

“System?” Lindon asked, intrigued.

“Workers are paid for their living expenses, of course, but anyone who contributes to the family beyond the scope of their job receives additional resources. We invest in those who provide a benefit to us.”

“And how are those benefits measured?”

“There's an extensive chart in any of our facilities,” Cassias said, and Lindon perked up. A clear-cut list of tasks and rewards sounded perfect. “Essentially, we want you to advance as quickly as possible if you're serving the family.”

“Sounds like a load of fetching and carrying for nothing, if we're already getting the same from Eithan for free,” Yerin said.

Cassias looked to Lindon. “Yerin has already earned several rewards from the Arelius family, for tasks she performed while you were…isolated. She earned a set of pills that condensed several months' worth of sword aura, five thousand sword scales, quite a bit of time in our highest-level sword cycling room, and time with our most experienced sword Path instructor. Which so happens to be me.”

Lindon looked to Yerin, astonished. He imagined that she spent all her time cycling and training alone. That was most of what he'd seen her do, when she had the choice. “What did she do for the family?”

Yerin gave an impatient sigh. “Killed a Remnant, killed another Remnant, pushed away some guy who was needling the cleaning crews a little, stopped a big lizard from running through the sewers...Probably more, I don't know, it slips through my mind.”