Chapter 60: The Wrong Sky

“No, it doesn't make sense to put it there!”

I turned toward the raised voice. A group of teenagers, two boys and three girls, stood beneath a section of ceiling that was being painted. They looked a few years older than me, dressed in finely tailored clothes without a stain on them. Above their heads, several small demons clung upside down to the stone, holding brushes in their long, hooked fingers. Their flattened bodies and wide hands reminded me of geckos. One carried little paint containers strapped to its back, while another waited patiently with its brush raised as the teenagers argued over what it should paint next.

The ceiling was covered in different shades of blue, purple, orange, and red. Some colors blended together, while others ended abruptly where someone had apparently changed their mind. White dots stretched across the darker sections in perfectly straight rows, and near the center stood a painted mountain with something resembling an enormous lantern perched on its summit.

“It's supposed to light everything,” one of the girls insisted, pointing upward. “Putting it on top of the mountain makes sense.”

“But couldn't it roll down the mountain if you put it up there?” a boy in a burgundy coat argued. He stepped beneath the painting and pointed toward the bottom of the mountain. “Wouldn't it make more sense to put it down here, where people could actually use it?”

“Because then the mountain would block the light!”

“Yeah, the people on the other side wouldn't be able to see,” a girl with a silver hairpin agreed, following his finger with her own.

“It's supposed to be dark sometimes,” he countered.

“They would just turn it off,” the first girl said.

The demon holding the brush looked between their pointing fingers, apparently unsure which instruction to follow. Above it, another demon continued painting white dots, adding them one after another in a perfectly straight line.

The second boy sighed loudly. “Can we please finish the stars before arguing about the sun again?”

I looked from one teenager to the next, then back at their painting. They really were arguing about where to put the sun, as though it were something they could simply pick up and move around.

Splendith stepped closer, tilting her head back to admire the ceiling. “Oh, how lovely! They've even included the sun we were talking about.”

Indolyn joined her, studying the mountain and its enormous lantern. “Is that what it looks like?”

I followed their gaze. It looked like a lantern, a really big one the size of a house. The mountain beneath it wasn't much better. For something that was supposed to be the sky, there seemed to be an awful lot of things sitting in the middle of it.

“Not really,” I answered. “Well, the colors are nice, but there are way too many different ones at once.”

Splendith moved a little closer to me, still looking upward. “Where does it sit, then?”

“It doesn't sit anywhere. It's a big ball of light, really far away. Beyond the sky, actually.” I pointed toward the lantern, tracing a circle in the air with my finger. “It's just round.”

Splendith tilted her head. “Then how does it stay up there?”

I opened my mouth, then stopped. That was actually a pretty good question. I knew the sun moved across the sky, but I'd never really thought about what kept it up there. Lumisiel, obviously, but that wasn't going to help explain anything.

“I'm not sure,” I admitted. “It just is.”

Splendith looked back at the lantern, apparently considering my explanation. Indolyn was still examining the painting, her gaze traveling along the rows of white dots. Above us, the demons continued working. One dipped its brush into a container while another carefully filled in a patch of blue. The teenagers had resumed their debate, pointing toward different parts of the ceiling as though they could settle the matter by arguing loudly enough.

We stayed and watched them paint.

The actual sun was shining through the trees above Emma and me. I could feel its warmth against Olive's face as we walked, though most of my attention had been on the rather unfortunate painting Lucarion had discovered. The forest was much prettier than anything those teenagers had managed to paint, even if I wasn't paying it much attention. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, shifting across the path as the branches moved overhead. Emma walked beside me, her hand comfortably settled in mine.

She gave my hand a small squeeze.

“Olive?”

“Hmm?”

“Were you listening?”

“Of course!”

She raised an eyebrow.

I thought back over what she'd said. Something about the capital. No, the ceremony!

“The ceremony,” she repeated, smiling before I could speak. “The Godsworn ceremony is going to be held in Stillwater, remember? It's getting pretty close.”

Of course I remembered. That was when Lumisiel would choose me and many others as one of her own. Then, as the Next Answer, I would lead the Hero and establish peace between us and the demons. I'd better get a cool name out of it.

“I was just wondering whether we'll be done with the tournament in time,” Emma continued. “Has your dad said anything?”

“Yes, he says that thanks to the dungeon, we should be able to make it to Stillwater after the tournament without any trouble.”

“Good. I know how hard you've been training, and I know you'd be disappointed if we had to postpone it.” Emma stepped around a root crossing the path. It was so adorable how careful she had to be. “Do you think Olivander's excited?” she asked.

“About the ceremony? Of course. He's already sure he's the Hero.”

Emma laughed. “I meant the tournament.”

“Oh.” I considered that. “Probably. Though I think he's only interested in fighting Jorren.”

“Not you?”

“You know what everyone's been saying,” I answered. “They're saying it was a fluke, or that Jorren went easy on me.” I groaned. “I don't know why they would think that.”

Emma smiled at that, one of those annoying smiles people get when they think they know more than you. She didn't say anything, though, which somehow made it worse.

“Besides, I think he only wants to impress Talla,” I added.

“Like you don't want to impress anyone,” Emma teased.

I looked away, failing to hide my blush as I watched the path ahead. Corsie shifted around my wrist, his little tendrils curling against the back of my hand. He had been rather quiet during our walk, content to remain wrapped around my arm. One of his leaves brushed Emma's fingers, and she glanced down at him before returning her attention to me.

I was looking forward to fighting both Olivander and Jorren, which felt really strange. Not long ago, I wouldn't have considered myself someone interested in fighting. I'd spent most of my time studying animals and wandering through the forest. I still did those things, but things had changed. Now I spent most of Lucarion's time training, and enough of Olive's as well. I'd even managed to beat Jorren, and regardless of what they said about my secret second cast or my use of knives, I'd earned that victory. I'd earn the rest as well.

“You've been working awfully hard,” Emma said. “I don't think I've ever seen anyone train as much as you do.”

“Well, I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Is that all?”

I glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” She smiled. “It's just that you seem much more excited about fighting than you used to.”

I supposed I was. Though it wasn't exactly the fighting itself that excited me. It was the purpose. This was just a start, a small start on my way to becoming the Next Answer.

“I want to do well,” I told her. “Even if I don't win.”

“I think you will...” Emma nodded thoughtfully. “Win, that is.”

We continued along the path, and neither of us said anything more about the tournament. I didn't particularly mind. Emma was still holding my hand, the sun was warm, and I had a whole forest around me. There wasn't much more I needed at the moment.

Before long, the trees opened into a familiar clearing, and Arbolive came into view. She towered above the surrounding forest, her enormous trunk rising into branches that spread high overhead. I smiled at the sight of her. No matter how many times I came here, I never got tired of seeing her.

I led Emma toward the trunk, stepping over the familiar roots until we reached a comfortable spot beneath the branches. We sat down together, leaning against Arbolive's warm bark. Corsie loosened himself around my wrist, stretching a few of his tendrils before settling again. I pressed my hand against Arbolive and used my first cast of the day on growth. Arbolive didn't seem to get bigger anymore, but I knew she liked it.

Emma rested beside me, close enough that our shoulders touched. Above us, Arbolive's leaves rustled in the breeze, and somewhere farther into the forest, birds called to one another. I turned my hand in hers, letting our fingers settle together again.

For a while, we simply sat there, enjoying each other's company.

“And the stars?” Indolyn asked, as she had about practically everything, directing my attention toward the neat rows of white dots.

“Oh, those are wrong too. They don't line up like that. They're scattered all over the sky, and some form patterns we call constellations.” I looked up again. One of the painting demons was carefully adding another white dot to the end of a row, while another waited beside it with a container of paint. “Though I suppose it would be easier to draw them in straight lines.”

The girl with a silver hairpin turned toward us. “Excuse me?”

I looked at her. “Yes?”

“You've spent the last few minutes insulting our painting.”

Oh. They'd heard me.

She stared at me for a moment, then glanced toward her friends. The boy who had been arguing about the sun stopped pointing at the ceiling and turned to listen.

“And what exactly makes you an expert on the sky?” she asked.

“Uh, well...” I faltered, unable to answer. What was I supposed to tell her? That I'd seen it myself?

That earned a laugh from the boy in the burgundy coat. “Stop talking out of your ass. You're not impressing anyone,” he said, pointedly looking at my sword.

“Right, I'm sorry,” I stammered.

The boy looked me up and down, his eyebrows rising. His attention shifted toward Indolyn and Splendith, who were standing on either side of me. “You're a little young to be around girls like these. Maybe we should take them off your hands.”

What did my age have to do with it?

Indolyn stepped between us, diplomatically raising her hands. “He was answering our questions. There's no need to take offense.”

“We aren't offended,” the boy replied, sounding rather offended. He gestured toward the ceiling, where the demons had continued painting despite the argument beneath them. “It's simply irritating when someone who clearly hasn't studied the subject decides to criticize our work.”

They weren't even the ones doing it! Were they really taking pride in the demons doing their work for them?

I looked up at the painting again, wondering if there was something I could point out that would convince them. One of the demons was spreading fresh blue paint along the edge of the ceiling, carefully working around a supporting arch. That was when I noticed something beneath its brush.

Near the arch, the new blue paint hadn't completely covered an older image. A patch of green peeked through beneath the orange, and farther along, a darker blue had been covered by a much lighter shade.

“Wait, are you painting over another painting?”

The other boy looked up, following my gaze toward the arch. “Of course. We aren't going to leave the old thing there when we're making something better.”

“But what if the old painting was more accurate?”

He frowned. “What?”

“If you're trying to paint what Eclipsera looked like, wouldn't it be better to keep the older paintings? They might have been made by people who...”

The boy stared at me as though I'd suggested they stop painting altogether.

“Are you serious?” he interrupted. “Those were already painted over dozens of times this week.”

“Really?” I asked, astonished. I looked back toward the patch of green. How many different paintings were underneath that blue? The demon continued working, gradually covering what little remained visible.

“And I'm saying we know what we're doing,” the boy in the burgundy coat insisted. He stepped forward, gesturing toward the ceiling. “We've studied the subject, chosen the colors, and planned the entire composition. We don't need some little boy walking past and telling us how to do it.”

Little boy?

I was about to remind him that he wasn't exactly an adult himself when Indolyn stepped forward.

“We were simply admiring your work,” she said, smiling apologetically. “Perhaps we should leave you to finish.”

“That would be appreciated,” the girl with the silver hairpin answered, turning her attention back toward the demons. She pointed toward an unfinished section of the painting, and one of them moved its brush to follow her instructions.

Good. That was settled.

Splendith turned away first, and I started to follow her when the boy in the burgundy coat spoke again.

What he said next was a word I had only heard once before, and Reed had been grounded for a month for it.

I stopped. My hand settled on my sword's hilt, and I glanced at Flicker. He was still there.

Indolyn whirled beside me, furious. “You're making rather a lot of assumptions for someone who doesn't know who they're dealing with.”

The boy's expression tightened. He looked toward his friends, several of whom were watching with hesitant smiles, then turned back to me. Splendith had stopped walking and was staring at him.

The world around me went red and purple.

My summoning circle had formed beneath my feet. I hadn't meant to summon anything, but I pushed aside my surprise.

“Apologize to her,” I said.

He looked at me. “What?”

“Apologize.”

The boy's gaze dropped to my summoning circle, then moved to the hand resting on my sword. He laughed. “Fine. If you're so confident in yourself, perhaps you'd like to prove it.” He straightened his jacket, raising his chin. “I challenge you to a duel.”

Another summoning circle spread across the stone from beneath the teenager's feet. Its outer ring struck mine, and I stumbled backward as the two circles pressed against each other, their markings twisting and shifting.

What?

My circle was moving. The symbols I'd formed were being pushed aside, breaking apart as the other circle advanced. For a moment, the markings seemed to struggle against one another, until his circle stopped advancing, stuck against mine.

Then both circles shattered.

I stared at the empty stone between us. What had just happened?

The teenager pulled out his book of contracts. Ashes rose around him, and a scaled figure emerged beside him. It had a strange, swollen head, a long tongue, and arms ending in curved, scythe-like appendages.

A Cyntheris.

My stomach tightened, and I took an involuntary step backward.

The teenager grinned. “Well? Let's see what you've got.”

Behind him, the other teenagers began talking excitedly. One of the girls leaned toward her friend, whispering something I couldn't hear.

“He doesn't look like he has anything good.”

“Maybe an imp?”

“He's probably never even summoned anything worth fighting.”

I tried to ignore them. The Cyntheris remained beside its summoner, its strange head turned toward him as though awaiting instructions. It hadn't raised its arms or taken any sort of fighting stance. It was simply waiting.

I turned my head. Flicker had already vanished.

My heart was still beating faster than I liked.

Emma had been talking, but I was having trouble following her. Most of my attention was on the Cyntheris standing beside the teenager, its curved arms hanging loosely at its sides.

“Come on, just let him go,” the other boy said. “This isn't worth it.”

“After he insulted our work and threatened me?” the boy in the burgundy coat demanded, glancing toward my sword. “You expect me to just let him walk away?”

“He's just a kid!” one of the girls said.

“So what? He thinks he can do whatever he wants?” the girl with the silver hairpin replied.

I took a deep breath, Emma was sitting beside me beneath Arbolive, her shoulder resting comfortably against mine. Her fingers were still intertwined with mine, and I could feel her thumb moving gently over the back of my hand.

I concentrated on those feelings for a moment. Everything was peaceful here. There was nothing I needed to worry about. I held on to that feeling until my breathing began to settle. The Cyntheris was still there, and I was still frightened of it, but I could think again.

I needed to think.

Focused Thoughts.

I gathered my awareness, drawing everything I normally divided between Olive and Lucarion into one place. Emma's warmth and the rustling leaves receded as the marketplace became clearer. The teenagers were still arguing, their lips moving more slowly as I concentrated. I could see the Cyntheris shifting its weight beside its summoner and feel the sword resting against my hip.

Raven had told me to fight with everything I had. My sword, my summons, anything that could help me win. Against him, I'd needed every advantage I could find, and even then, I'd barely managed to trouble him.

But this wasn't Raven.

The Cyntheris wasn't even looking at me. Its strange head was turned toward its summoner, who was still arguing with his friends. That was what they expected. They wanted to see what demon I would summon, and then watch our summons fight. Even the teenager who had challenged me seemed more interested in proving himself right than in what I was doing.

I looked at the creature's exposed neck, then at the distance between us.

I could reach it.

My stomach tightened again. If it noticed me approaching, those curved arms could do some serious damage. I'd seen enough of Raven's sword to know how quickly a fight could turn against me. Even with all my training, I wasn't confident I could defend myself if the Cyntheris attacked first.

But it wasn't watching me.

I didn't need them. I could do this myself.

“Olive?” a distant and muffled voice said.

I sensed more than saw Emma smile. “You've been saying how much you've improved, and I've seen you practicing. So I wanted to ask...”

I could feel Lucarion's fingers settling around the hilt of his sword.

“Are you confident?”

The teenagers were still arguing about whether the duel was worth having when I stepped forward. The Cyntheris turned its head slightly toward its summoner, paying no attention to me.

I drew.

One step brought me close enough. I planted my foot, turned my hips, and swung the blade across its exposed neck.

The sword passed cleanly through.

For a moment, the Cyntheris remained upright. Then its head slipped from its shoulders, and its body collapsed into ash.

Silence.

I stood there with my sword extended, staring at the empty space where the demon had been. The teenagers had stopped arguing, and even the boy who had challenged me seemed unable to understand what had just happened.

My heart was pounding, but this time it wasn't from fear. I could barely keep the smile off my face as I lowered the blade. The teenager stared at the ash. His friends stared at me. Even Splendith seemed to have forgotten how to speak.

I wanted to laugh.

I turned my attention toward Emma and squeezed her hand.

“Yes,” I said, unable to keep the smile off my face.

Emma smiled back, looking rather pleased with my answer.

I quickly sheathed my sword, turned toward Indolyn and Splendith, and grabbed one of their hands in each of mine.

“Run!”

Neither had time to answer before I pulled them along, heading straight for the passage we'd come through. Splendith let out a startled squeak, and Indolyn stumbled before catching her footing.

The marketplace was still crowded, and we had to weave between shoppers and stalls as we hurried past the painted walls. Behind us, the teenagers had finally recovered enough to start shouting, but I didn't bother looking back.

I couldn't stop grinning. Splendith was still trying to understand why we were running, and Indolyn had to hurry to keep up, but I barely noticed.

I'd done it.

I'd actually done it!

I defeated a real demon.

Next was Raven, and I’m going to give him everything I have!