Chapter 79: The Other Route

Chapter 79: The Other Route

The academy’s training directory was a sprawling list that nobody read for pleasure. Silas worked through it in bed the next morning, with Nim asleep across his feet.

Searching for escort gave him field placements guarding supply wagons. Construct produced forty listings, most of them laboratory courses. He narrowed the results to combat facilities accepting supervised bookings and tried to remember the shape of the hall from the game.

Pale floor. Moving walls. The irritating little constructs he had failed to keep alive on his first attempt.

He remembered swearing at one for walking straight into an attack. Now, after carrying Perrin out of the sanctuary, the design seemed considerably less unfair.

Halfway down the results, his thumb stopped.

Carrow Hall, East Grounds. Construct Escort Exercise. Supervised bookings through field instruction staff. Participants must escort designated charge constructs across a variable course under changing attack patterns. Loss of a charge constitutes failure. Repeat attempts permitted at the supervisor’s discretion.

The listing included a photograph of a long gray building with tall windows. A note beneath it recorded fourteen bookings during the previous year.

It was still being used.

Silas sat up, disturbing Nim, and opened the listing properly. Nothing mentioned an awakening. Of course it didn’t. To whoever maintained this directory, Carrow Hall was an old training facility that needed an instructor present, no more remarkable than the archery ranges listed above it.

He saved the page before he could accidentally lose it among the other results.

Nim lifted his head. "Are we getting up?"

"I am," Silas said. "You can stay."

The spirit immediately settled into the warm space his legs had left. Silas would have liked another hour there himself, but Ferrow might be teaching later. He dressed and took his communicator with him.

Instructor Ferrow was eating an apple over a stack of reports when Silas knocked. He pointed toward the chair opposite his desk.

"Rooke. You look well. Voss mentioned the Trait."

"It’s helped," Silas said, sitting down.

"Good. What brings you here?"

Silas showed him the listing. "I’d like to try this. Is it still available?"

Ferrow glanced at the screen. "Carrow Hall? Yes. We don’t get many requests for that one."

"I saw the bookings. Fourteen in a year," Silas said.

"Mostly the same three fourth-years." Ferrow set down his apple. "What do you know about it?"

"You protect the charge constructs while they cross the course. If you lose one, you fail. Even if you’ve destroyed everything attacking it."

"Which is where most students get annoyed," Ferrow said. "They’re used to winning once the opponent goes down. Here they chase an attacker across the floor and leave a charge unprotected behind them. Then they want to argue about the result."

Silas could remember wanting to argue with his monitor for much the same reason. He kept that to himself.

Ferrow pulled the communicator closer to read the description. "The charges move slowly. You have to work around them. The attacking constructs approach from changing angles, and their targets are the charges, so drawing their attention isn’t enough. You’ll need to reach them or stop their attacks."

"Can we try again straight after a failure?" Silas asked.

"After I stop the exercise and check you’re fit to continue. They’re training constructs, but they can still knock you flat. Don’t arrive expecting moving practice dummies."

"I wasn’t," Silas said.

Ferrow studied him. "What are you hoping to improve?"

Silas had been ready for questions about access. This one made him take a moment. He couldn’t say that he needed to put Alden in the right place and hope the game still knew what it was doing.

"Moving while I use Remote Grasp," he said. "I can aim the dart when I’ve got time to set myself. In the courtyard, I nearly lost my footing making that shot for Veyris. I want to be able to protect someone without needing everyone else to keep things away from me."

Ferrow nodded. "I read Solvain’s account. Good shot. Poor place to make it from."

"It felt poor at the time," Silas said.

The instructor almost smiled. "Will you be bringing the dart?"

"I’d like to. It’s what I actually carry."

"Bring it. I’ll look at the equipment before we start. And bring a partner. The escort exercise is intended for at least two."

"I have someone in mind," Silas said. "I haven’t asked him yet."

Ferrow reached for his schedule. "The hall’s free the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon. I can supervise then. Send both names tonight if he agrees. I’ll hold the time until then."

Silas thanked him and stood, pleased enough that Ferrow’s next question caught him by surprise.

"How’s your reserve?"

"Recovering well. I’ve been resting," Silas said.

"Keep doing that. Being healed doesn’t mean you’ve rested." Ferrow picked up the apple again. "And don’t use that Trait as an excuse to stand in every attack. You might get back up. The charge behind you won’t."

"Understood," Silas said.

He left with a time, a supervisor, and a much better explanation to give Alden than I remember this working once. Ferrow had treated it as an ordinary training request. Silas hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted it to be that straightforward.

Carrow Hall stood beyond the newer practice buildings. Silas took the longer route back so he could see it, walking past students coming out of an ordinary morning class. Two were arguing about a missed block. One carried both their bags while the other demonstrated with a rolled towel.

Silas stepped around them, almost smiling. He’d spent so much time thinking about future disasters that it was easy to forget most people were worrying about their next assessment.

The hall’s doors were locked. He went to a window and shaded the glass with his hands.

Beyond it stretched a pale floor divided by low walls. Rails beneath the walls allowed them to be moved into different arrangements. At the far end, squat constructs stood in racks, waiting to be brought out. One had a dark repair patch across its shoulder.

He recognized the room now. From inside, the game had placed the starting view near the opposite wall. He had looked through these windows without ever considering what lay outside them.

There you are.

He wanted that recognition to mean he had found the answer. It certainly made him want to hurry back and tell Alden.

But in that playthrough, Alden had arrived here after a different sequence of events. Silas could recall the awakening and the attempts before it. He couldn’t honestly claim to know which parts had mattered most. Copying the location wouldn’t necessarily copy the result.

He lowered his hands from the glass. At least the exercise itself was useful. Ferrow’s warning had stayed with him: healing would do nothing for a charge he let an attack reach. He would have to learn to move, aim, and notice trouble beyond his own body. That was worth an afternoon regardless of what happened to Alden.

Silas saved Ferrow’s available time beside the listing, then opened his messages.

Found the exercise. I’ve checked with Ferrow. Can you meet after dinner?

Alden’s answer came while Silas was still on the path.

Practice yard. Tell me then.

He put away the communicator and headed back. He finally had something he could offer.