Chapter 83: Unbound…

Rain was awake before the Daily Quest pinged. He’d barely slept, but for once it had nothing to do with fear. He lay in the grey light of C-12 and went over all of it one more time. The annex. The panel. The clerk. Corwin at six.

Then he got up and did the push-ups.

He did the whole thing on the dark track behind the C-dorms, a hundred of each and five kilometers in the cold, and the notification came up as he slowed on the last stretch.

[Daily Quest: Complete!]

[Rewards Applied: +1 Strength, +1 Endurance]

He stopped by the bleachers, breathing hard, and pulled up his status. It had been days since he’d looked at the whole thing properly.

[STAT PANEL]

Name: Rain

Level: 12

XP: 786 / 1,100

HP: 160 / 160

Mana: 20 / 20

Attributes

Strength: 39

Agility: 20

Endurance: 37

Intelligence: 25

Equipped Gear

Hardened Ridgeback Plate Vambrace: +3 Defense (Forearm Contact Only)

Bonewretch-Bone Reinforced Blade: +4 Physical Damage (Melee, Scaling with Strength)

Bound Skills

Flash Step: Zero Drag (Rank SSS): Slot 1

[Empty]: Slot 2

Synthesis Credits: 37

’Thirty-nine,’ he thought. ’And thirty-seven credits to my name.’

He almost laughed. On paper, he’d never been stronger in his life, or poorer.

At ten past eight, showered and dressed, he sat on the edge of his bed with his boots laced and opened his storage.

[Resonance Shroud (Rank D, Consumable)]

[Use? Y/N]

The annex was a forty-minute ride. Testing started at nine. Twelve hours would carry him well past the evening.

He chose yes.

[Resonance Shroud Activated]

[Bound skill signature concealed from external detection.]

[Duration: 12:00:00]

He waited to feel something and felt nothing at all. No warmth, no tingling, no pressure anywhere. He sat there checking the inside of himself like a pocket, looking for something he might have lost. Then he reached for Flash Step the way he always did, just far enough to brush the edge of it, and it was right where it always was.

’Hidden,’ he thought. ’Not gone.’

He stood up, put his phone in his pocket, and went to catch the train.

The Red Dragon testing annex in Sector Three was a wide, low building of grey stone and tinted glass, set back from the street behind a courtyard of trimmed hedges. The red dragon crest hung over the entrance on a banner two stories tall. Rain had come through Sector Three twice before, on his way to Gideon’s, and had never once looked at this building.

The rest of the party was already outside.

Nyra leaned against the courtyard wall with her arms folded and her dark hair tied back, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else. Theo stood beside her with his hands in his jacket pockets, staring up at the banner as if he were sizing it up for a fight. Peter stood a little apart from them, holding his leather folder against his chest with both hands.

Abby came out through the glass doors as Rain crossed the courtyard. She was in her dark grey coat today, braid neat, a Red Dragon cadet pass clipped to her lapel. She looked like she belonged here. Her eyes went once, quickly, to his hands.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning."

"We’re checked in. They’ll call us one at a time." She lowered her voice. "Are you..."

"I’m fine."

She held his eyes a second longer, then nodded and turned to the others.

"It’s quick," she told them. "Rank plate first, then the skill panel. A technician reads the results, and the clerk adds them to the manifest. Twenty minutes, tops."

"I’ve done this before," Theo said. "Twice. I don’t need a tour."

"Then you can go first," Abby said.

Theo looked at her for a moment, then grinned. "Fine by me."

The waiting room was long and cool, with a polished stone floor and benches against one wall. Through a glass partition at the far end, Rain could see the testing room: a raised metal plate about a meter wide set into the floor, and beside it a waist-high pedestal with a flat black panel on top. A screen on the wall above them was dark. Two technicians in grey Red Dragon uniforms moved around the room, checking cables. A third, an older woman with short iron-grey hair and reading glasses pushed up on her head, sat at a desk in the corner with a tablet and never looked up.

A clerk came out with a clipboard. Young, efficient, tired around the eyes.

"Ratchford party," she said. "Theo?"

"Here."

"This way."

Theo went in through the glass door. The others sat down on the bench to watch through the partition.

Rain noticed Peter wasn’t watching.

He was sitting at the far end of the bench with the folder in his lap. He’d opened and closed it three times since they sat down. Now he was staring at the floor between his shoes.

Rain moved down the bench and sat beside him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Peter."

Peter kept his eyes on the floor. "It’s stupid."

"Tell me anyway."

Peter opened the folder again. Rain caught a glimpse of a single sheet with an academy stamp at the top and the word REGISTRATION before Peter closed it.

"They’re going to read it out," Peter said quietly. "In there. Out loud. In front of everybody."

"Your skill."

"Yeah." Peter turned the folder over in his hands. "I’ve never told anybody what it is. Not even you. Did you notice? You never asked, and I never said. And I was so happy you never asked."

Rain stayed quiet.

"At the ceremony," Peter said, "when they bound it, the woman who read out my result laughed. She wasn’t being mean. She was just surprised, like she’d never seen anyone get one that bad." He swallowed. "And then I walked outside, and three guys found out I was F-rank and decided I was the easiest person on campus to take money from."

Through the glass, Theo stepped up onto the rank plate. The screen above it lit up, and a pale bar began climbing.

"In twenty minutes," Peter said, "Theo’s going to know. And Nyra. And Abby." His voice cracked a little on her name. "Abby, who blows things up with her fists. And they’ll all look at me the way that woman did."

Rain watched him for a moment.

He thought about the Shroud sitting inside him, quiet and invisible, and about how badly he didn’t want anyone in this building to see what he had.

’He’s hiding because his is too small,’ he thought. ’And I’m hiding because mine’s too big.’

He couldn’t tell Peter that. He couldn’t tell anyone in this building that. So he said something else.

"You remember what Abby said on the train?"

Peter frowned. "Which part?"

"About carriers. What a good one’s worth on a real run."

"She was being nice."

"She doesn’t do nice," Rain said. "You’ve met her."

That got a short, surprised laugh out of Peter. He wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"Whatever it is," Rain said, "it’s yours. Nobody in that room gets to decide what it’s worth. Not Theo. Not the technician. Not some lady at a ceremony who laughed."

Peter looked at him for a long time.

"Easy for you to say," he said finally, but quietly. "Nobody’s ever going to laugh at yours."

Rain looked at the glass partition.

"I wouldn’t be so sure," he said.

Inside, the screen above the plate settled. A large green D sat in the middle of it. The technician nodded and waved Theo over to the panel. Theo slapped his palm flat on it like he was ringing a bell.

The screen changed. Text scrolled up.

The technician leaned in and read aloud, loud enough to carry through the glass.

"Rank D. Bound skill: Forward Momentum. Active. Strength and impact resistance scale with continuous forward movement toward a target. Effect decays on retreat."

Theo turned around and grinned through the glass at all of them as if he’d just won something.

Nyra rolled her eyes. "Of course it does," she muttered. "Of course his skill punishes him for backing up."

"That explains so much," Abby said.

"It explains everything," Nyra said.

Theo came back out swaggering, and the clerk called Nyra in. She walked through the door without hurrying, stepped onto the plate, and waited. Another green D. She put her hand on the panel as if she were touching a stove.

"Rank D. Bound skill: Silent Edge. Passive. Suppresses sound produced by the user’s movement and bladed strikes."

Theo turned his head sharply toward the glass. "Passive?"

"You never noticed?" Abby asked him.

"I noticed she was quiet. I thought she just..." He stopped. "Huh. That’s why I never hear her coming up behind me."

"She’s going to enjoy that you just said that," Rain said.

Nyra came out looking exactly as bored as when she went in. Theo opened his mouth, and she held up a finger at him without looking, and he closed it again.

"Abigail Ratchford," the clerk said.

Abby stood up, smoothed her coat, and went in.

Rain watched the technicians change when she walked through the door. The two by the cables straightened up. The older woman in the corner lifted her eyes from her tablet for the first time all morning.

Abby stepped onto the plate. The bar on the screen climbed past where it had stopped for Theo and Nyra, kept climbing, and settled on a deep, bright blue B. One of the technicians let out a small breath.

She put her hand on the panel. The screen flickered once before the text came up, as if it had taken a moment to decide.

"Rank B," the technician read, more carefully now. "Bound skill: Detonation. Active. Kinetic energy released as concussive explosive force upon contact. Contact surface selectable."

Theo stared at the glass. Then he turned his head slowly and looked at Rain.

"You knew," Theo said.

"I’ve seen it."

"You’ve seen it. When?"

"She saved your rift fee last week," Rain said. "Indirectly."

Theo kept staring at him. Then he looked back at Abby, and for the first time since Rain had met him, he didn’t seem to have anything to say.

Abby came out of the testing room with her face perfectly calm. She sat back down without a word. Her hand brushed Rain’s sleeve on the way past, very lightly.

"Peter Lindell," the clerk called.

Peter went still on the bench.

Then he stood up, holding his folder. He looked at Rain once. Rain nodded at him. Peter went in.

He stepped onto the plate. The bar barely moved, a short white stub at the bottom of the screen, and a white F settled beside it. The technician waved him to the panel without looking up.

Peter put his hand on it.

"Rank F. Bound skill: Featherload. Passive utility. Reduces the effective weight of objects carried by the user by approximately one third."

Theo snorted.

It was loud enough to carry through the glass. Rain saw Peter hear it. His shoulders came up an inch, and his hand stayed flat on the panel a second too long.

Abby turned her head and looked at Theo.

"Do you know," she said quietly, "what a Red Dragon party pays a good carrier on a B-rank run?"

Theo blinked. "What?"

"More than you." She turned back toward the glass. "On hour six, when everybody’s tired and the potions have to be where somebody can reach them, a carrier who’s carrying a third more than anyone else keeps the whole party alive. You’ll be very happy he’s there."

Theo opened his mouth, closed it, and looked away.

Peter came out a minute later with his face red and his folder pressed against his chest. He sat down at the end of the bench without looking at anyone.

Nyra leaned across and bumped her knee against his.

"Featherload," she said. "You know how many times I’ve had to drop gear in a rift because I couldn’t carry it out? I’m stuffing you with cores."

Peter stared at her. Then, very slightly, he smiled.

"Rain," the clerk called.

Rain stood up.

He walked through the glass door into the cool air of the testing room. The plate was colder than he expected under his boots. The technician by the screen, a thin man with a patchy beard, didn’t look at him. The older woman at the desk in the corner did, briefly, over the top of her tablet.

The bar climbed a short white stub and stopped. A white F.

"F," the technician said, and pointed at the panel.

Rain walked to the pedestal and laid his hand flat on the black surface. It was smooth and slightly warm, like glass that had been sitting in the sun.

He felt nothing.

The screen above flickered. Then it went on flickering, the empty space where text should be blinking, and blinking. Then a single line came up.

[NO BOUND SKILL DETECTED]

The thin technician frowned at it. "Huh."

He tapped something on his console. "Take your hand off. Put it back on."

Rain did. The screen flickered again.

[NO BOUND SKILL DETECTED]

Through the glass, Rain saw Nyra sit up straight on the bench. Theo leaned forward.

"Clerk," the technician called. "This one’s blank."

The clerk came in with her clipboard and frowned up at the screen. She flipped through her pages until she found the manifest.

"His academy record says he’s bound," she said. "Unspecified hybrid, F-rank base origin. It’s right here."

"Well, the panel’s not reading it."

"Is the panel broken?"

"It read the other four fine." The technician scratched his beard. "Low-output hybrids sometimes sit under the detection floor. It happens with F-ranks now and then. The signal’s too weak to register."

The clerk looked at Rain. Rain looked back at her with the most ordinary, mildly embarrassed expression he could manage.

"Did you know your skill doesn’t register?" she asked.

"Nobody’s ever tested it," Rain said. "I always figured it was weak."

The clerk sighed and wrote something on her clipboard. "Mark it unclassified. Below detection."

"Unclassified, below detection," the technician repeated, typing.

Behind him, at the desk in the corner, the older woman with the iron-grey hair had stopped looking at her tablet. She was looking at the screen above the panel. Then she looked at Rain.

He kept his face exactly where it was.

"You’re done," the clerk said. "Go on out."

He went out.

Nyra was on her feet before he’d closed the glass door behind him.

"You never told me you didn’t have a skill," she said.

"I have one," Rain said. "It just doesn’t show up."

"You told me you were fast."

"I am fast."

"That’s not a skill, Rain, that’s legs."

Theo had his elbows on his knees, staring at him. "So let me get this straight. We’re walking a blank into a B-rank."

"He’s not a blank," Abby said.

"The machine says he is."

"The machine," Abby said, turning to look at Theo, "doesn’t know anything about him. I do. I’ve seen him work. He’s on my manifest, and that’s the end of it."

Theo held her gaze a moment. Then he put his hands up.

"It’s your career," he said.

"Yes," Abby said. "It is."

The clerk came out a few minutes later and handed Abby a stamped sheet.

"Manifest accepted," she said. "Five members, ranks and skills on record. Red Dragon assigns the gate. Coordinates and a date will go straight to you, Cadet Ratchford. Usually within the week."

"Thank you."

The clerk nodded and went back through the glass door.

The five of them stood in the waiting room for a moment, looking at the sheet in Abby’s hands.

"Well," Nyra said finally. "Guess we’re really doing this."

"Guess we are," Abby said.

They walked out toward the courtyard together. At the door, Rain stopped and glanced back once through the glass partition.

The thin technician had moved on to the next file. But the older woman with the iron-grey hair was still at her desk in the corner. She’d pulled her reading glasses down onto her nose. On her tablet, Rain could just make out a long, jagged line, some kind of graph, with one section that dipped flat where everything else rose and fell.

She tapped it twice. Then she pulled a small drive out of her coat pocket, plugged it into the tablet, and waited while something copied across.

She looked up.

Through the glass, across the length of the empty testing room, her eyes found his.

Rain turned around and walked out into the courtyard.

’That,’ he thought, ’is not nothing.’

His phone buzzed in his pocket before he reached the street.

**Corwin:** 6pm. Don’t be late, smart boy.