Chapter 256: Instructor Hart, Stage Five

The door opened, and Selene Hart stepped out.

Her white hair was tied back as usual, and at first glance she looked exactly the same as when she’d gone in. Ren’s eyes went over her automatically, checking for injuries.

He couldn’t find any.

Then Selene smiled.

Ren had seen the small version before — the slight lift at one corner of her mouth when somebody finally understood a lesson. This wasn’t that.

She was actually smiling.

Yuelan stared at her with her mouth open, so apparently Ren wasn’t the only one seeing it for the first time.

"You’re all still here," Selene said.

"You said you’d know if we slacked," Yuelan said.

Her voice came out tight. She didn’t bother pretending otherwise.

Selene’s eyes dropped to the threshold.

Two things had been sitting there for a long time: an arena badge and a small twist of paper.

She picked up the badge first.

Tower Nine, seventh tier.

Yuelan had bled for that climb, then left the badge at Selene’s door with two words and walked away.

Hold my place.

Selene turned the badge over once before stepping down.

She placed it in Yuelan’s palm and folded Yuelan’s fingers around it.

"Your place is held," she said. "Go earn the next tier."

Yuelan lasted about two seconds.

Then she started crying.

Loudly.

She still didn’t let go of Selene’s hand, and Selene didn’t pull away.

After a while, Selene looked past her at the rest of them.

Iris was holding an empty cup. Lyra stood beside her. Yueying was somehow even straighter than usual. Vesper and Eira had come together. Cassian was still there through the slate, his face propped against somebody’s shoe.

Selene looked at him the same way she looked at everyone else.

Then her eyes reached Ren.

"You outgrew my fear," she said. "I decided to catch up."

She waited a moment.

"Don’t make me do it again."

— • —

The hall attendant came out carrying a registration slate.

Ren had passed the man plenty of times before and barely remembered his face. He had always seemed like part of the building — there when needed, invisible the rest of the time.

He wasn’t invisible now.

He looked at Selene, then at the people who had spent the night outside her door.

"I’ve stood at this door for a lot of these," he said. "Most of them I open myself. After."

He looked down at the slate.

"Attempt closed. Outcome —"

He stopped.

His eyes went back to Selene.

"Congratulations, Instructor Hart."

"Thank you."

There was nothing formal about the way she said it.

The attendant nodded and went back inside.

Ren finally gave in to the urge to check.

[SCAN: SELENE HART — STAGE FIVE, WORLD CREATION. TIER TWO.]

[INNER WORLD: FORMED. FIRST FORMATION: 46 SQ MI. BAND: UPPER.]

[CORE PLANT: FROST PINE.]

Upper band.

Holt’s lecture and every Guild chart Ren had seen made the meaning clear. Most people who survived the Third Test didn’t start with much. An upper-band first formation was different.

Forty-six square miles was worth remembering.

Ren thought briefly about his own world — the sea, the islands, the Worldroot — then pushed the comparison away.

This wasn’t his morning.

— • —

Selene picked up the twist of paper last.

There was no message written on it.

Ren hadn’t known what to say when he’d left it there, so he’d simply wrapped the contents and walked away.

She opened it.

A handful of dark seeds rested inside.

Nothing impressive to look at. Just seeds from the flower field beneath the Worldroot.

Selene looked at them, then at Ren.

"I have somewhere to put these now," she said.

Ren stepped closer.

"Yeah."

He reached into his jacket and took out a clear bead about the size of his fingertip. It looked like a drop of water that had somehow decided not to fall apart.

He placed it beside the seeds.

"Plant those wherever you want. They’re not picky." He nodded toward the bead. "Drink that inside your world. It’ll help with Water law comprehension."

Selene looked down at it.

"A lot," Ren added.

Her eyes came back to him.

"It’s not much use to me."

She clearly had questions.

She asked none of them.

Selene folded the paper closed around the seeds and the bead, then slipped it inside her coat.

Ren had discovered the drops after bringing the sunken sea home.

The old sea’s core — the last clear water left in that dying world — hadn’t disappeared after the Worldroot absorbed it. Some of it had settled deep among the roots beneath the calmest part of the sea.

Eventually, two clear beads had formed there.

The System had identified them immediately.

[CLEARWATER DROP.]

[INITIAL YIELD: 2.]

[FUTURE YIELD: ONE PER MONTH.]

[EFFECT: WATER LAW COMPREHENSION ACCELERATED.]

[FOR THE HOST: MINOR. FOR OTHERS: FAR BEYOND A STAGE-FIVE WATER CHAMBER.]

Ren had tested the first one.

His Water law was already too developed for the effect to matter much. It had helped, but not enough to justify keeping something that useful to himself.

For somebody who had just formed an inner world and hadn’t started building its laws yet, the difference would be much larger.

There had been two drops from the initial yield.

Ren had known where the second one was going almost immediately.

Selene waited until Yuelan had become everybody else’s problem before speaking to him again.

"I never asked you what you are," she said.

"I know."

"I’m still not asking."

Ren gave a small nod.

"Thank you," Selene said. "For everything since Orien."

Then she held out her hand.

Ren took it.

He could only remember shaking her hand once before.

This time, she held on a little longer.

— • —

Ren slept through most of the day in his mother’s flowers.

He’d been awake far too long, and for once there was nothing demanding his attention.

When he woke that afternoon, his slate was full of messages from Yuelan.

SHE WENT TO CLASS.

SHE JUST WALKED INTO THE FIRST-YEAR WING AND TAUGHT HER AFTERNOON LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED. A FIRST-YEAR ASKED HER A QUESTION ABOUT ROOT CHANNELS AND SHE ANSWERED IT. LIKE A NORMAL DAY.

THE WHOLE WING IS SAYING REMARKABLE. SOME INSTRUCTOR SAID IT AND NOW THEY’RE ALL SAYING IT. REMARKABLE. ABOUT HER WORLD.

SHE SAID THERE’S ONE TREE IN THERE. A PINE. WHITE BARK. ON SNOW. NOTHING ELSE YET. SHE SAID SHE LIKES IT.

Under that was a message from Iris.

She taught for three hours. Students first.

And then Cassian.

I called it. Ask Vesper.

Ren put the slate down beside him and covered his eyes with one arm.

"You should sleep more," Kaia said from somewhere above him. "Watching is tiring."

"Noted."

— • —

He slept in the flower field again that night.

The sea was quiet below the hill, and Ren had been asleep long enough to forget where he was when the System woke him.

[SEARCH COMPLETE]

[FRAGMENT LOCATED: A BURNING SEA]

Ren opened his eyes.

Then he sat up.

Out on the dark water, all Fifteen keepers had turned toward the northern shore.

The grey arch stood there.

It had remained dark since the sunken sea came home.

Now every creature in the water was staring at it.

"Finally," Kaia said.