Chapter 177: After Lunch

Arthur walked straight into Training Room Two after lunch, carrying Whisperwind by his side.

Mira was already there, adjusting the distance on a row of heavy target dummies. The door shut behind Arthur while she finished dragging one of them into place.

"Bow," Mira said.

Arthur walked over and handed it to her.

Mira turned Whisperwind over in her hands, checked the string, then handed it back. "You had a good day."

"Depends who you ask. Felix got run over by a rock cow and a pack of dogs tried to eat us."

"Sounds like a shit show. Stand on the line."

Mira pointed at the targets.

"Center. Thirty yards."

Arthur drew Whisperwind, formed a Mana Quiver arrow, and fired. Dead center.

"Left. Forty yards."

He drew and fired again. Another clean hit.

Mira started calling them faster. Arthur had to form the arrows quickly, shifting his stance and pulling mana to the string without thinking about it. He settled into the rhythm and kept hitting whatever she called.

Then Mira pointed at a heavily reinforced dummy near the back wall.

"Right. Sixty yards. Armored."

Arthur pivoted, drew the bowstring back, and naturally poured more mana into the arrow to compensate for the armor. He released. The arrow slammed into the dummy with a heavy, cracking impact, tearing a chunk out of the plating.

"Again," Mira said immediately.

Arthur formed another heavy arrow and fired. It hit an inch from the first.

"Less," Mira said.

Arthur pulled a third arrow, this time holding back the extra mana. He fired.

The arrow sparked off the heavy armor plate and snapped.

"That one barely scratched the motherfucker," Arthur pointed out.

"Exactly," Mira said. "Again."

Arthur sighed and pulled the string back.

After several more shots, Arthur finally got what she was after.

Every time the target looked tougher, he answered by shoving more mana into the arrow. Same thing when she rushed him.

Mira tapped the armored dummy. "You keep solving everything by throwing more mana at it."

"It works."

"Until you need that mana later."

"Your bow is getting better faster than your shitty habits are," Mira said.

Arthur lowered Whisperwind. "That sounded insulting."

"It was. The bow hits hard enough to cover for sloppy mana control. Stop making it do that. Again."

Arthur raised the bow again. This time he kept the extra mana out of it and focused on the shot itself.

He fired five shots. The first hit a little high. The next four punched into the plating without the usual burst of wasted mana around them.

Mira checked a mana-reading crystal on the table next to her.

"Better," she said.

Arthur dropped his bow arm, rolling his shoulder. "That’s it?"

"Do it again tomorrow."

Arthur went to raise the bow for another set, but his left arm trembled slightly before he even got the string fully drawn.

"Enough," Mira said.

"I can keep going."

"Your left arm is shaking."

Arthur looked down at it.

It was.

Apparently yesterday had fucked his shoulders more than he thought.

"Fine," Arthur muttered.

Arthur lowered the bow, packed the rest of his gear, and left for Elena’s lab.

He expected to walk into the lab and immediately get dragged into whatever game Elena was playing for the week, but when Arthur pushed the door open, she was actually working.

Notes and loose parchment were spread across three different desks. Several glass slides and containment crystals were glowing faintly under a brass magnification lens. Elena was sitting on a high stool, looking tired but completely focused as she recorded something in a ledger.

Arthur walked up behind her. "You found something?"

"Several things," Elena said, not looking up from the page. "None of them useful enough."

She set the pen down and leaned back, stretching her neck.

She had spent the morning heating, freezing, and running different kinds of mana through the black crust sample Arthur had brought back from Rauk.

The results were messy.

Elena tapped one of the slides. "Whatever this is, it isn’t normal monster tissue. The mana inside it has been changed somehow."

"Changed how?"

"That’s the problem." She pushed another slide toward him. "It reacts when it touches living tissue, but once it’s away from where it formed, the effect starts breaking down. I still can’t tell if something made it like this or if it’s a side effect of something else."

"Nothing in Bracken looked anything like it," Arthur said, leaning against the edge of the desk.

"You’re sure?"

"Yeah. We got mud, dogs, and Felix getting bullied by a rock cow."

"Stoneback."

"Rock cow."

Elena rolled her eyes, but wrote something down anyway. Hati was what really had her attention.

"If I can get a fresh sample from Hati—saliva, blood, anything—I might figure out why he resisted it."

"I’m not going back to the grove just to ask a giant wolf to spit in a cup for you," Arthur said.

"We’ll see." Elena handed him a heavy clear crystal. "Hold this. Keep the mana steady while I watch what happens inside."

Arthur fed a slow stream of mana into it while Elena leaned over the lens.

For a while, that was his entire job. Hold crystal. Move slide. Label container. Hand Elena whatever she asked for.

It was incredibly boring.

He started looking around her cluttered desk while she wrote down another set of numbers.

That was when he saw the box.

It was a plain cardboard box shoved under a stack of heavy reference books. One corner of the lid was crushed, with black fabric and a thin strip of silver sticking through the gap.

Arthur kept looking at it.

Elena kept writing for a while before reaching over and sliding one of the books farther across the box.

"Don’t."

Arthur leaned against the desk. "What’s in there?"

"Something you’re not opening."

That only made him more curious. He hooked a finger under the edge of the fabric, and Elena smacked the back of his hand with the rolled parchment she was holding.

Arthur pulled his hand away. "Ow."

"Good."

She went straight back to the lens.

Arthur stood there looking at the box, then at Elena. She was already pretending he wasn’t there again.

Fine.

He put the crystal down, walked around behind her chair, and rested both hands on her shoulders. Elena kept reading her notes even when Arthur leaned down and kissed the side of her neck.

Arthur kissed the same spot again. Elena’s shoulders loosened and she leaned back against him before catching his jaw with one hand and pushing his face away.

"Finish helping me first."

Arthur looked toward the box again.

Elena noticed, pulled it out from under the books, shoved it into a lower drawer, and locked it.

"Funny how observant you get when you’re being annoying."

Arthur picked the crystal back up. "I’ve been doing your boring shit all afternoon. What am I getting out of this?"

Elena looked at him through the lens. "Research experience."

"That’s fucking bullshit."

Elena laughed and glanced toward the locked drawer.

Arthur followed her eyes.

She tapped the crystal with her pen. "Keep it steady."

Arthur sighed and went back to feeding mana into it.

Elena finished the test, made her last few notes, and started packing up the slides.

Arthur had almost reached the door when Elena caught the front of his shirt and pulled him back.

She kissed him properly this time. Arthur’s hands went straight to her hips, and when he tried to push her back against the desk, Elena slipped one hand between them and gave him a slow squeeze through his trousers.

Then she let go.

Arthur stared at her. "You’re doing that on purpose."

"Obviously." Elena pushed him toward the door. "Keep it in your pants until tomorrow. I have a department meeting."

Arthur grabbed his bag and walked out into the corridor.

He was halfway to the stairwell when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He pulled it out. He had one new message from Elena.

Come back tomorrow night. Don’t make plans.

Arthur read it once, shoved the phone back into his pocket, and kept walking.