Chapter 25: AEGIS

Chapter 25

AEGIS

Arch’s eyes passed over Vise where the door had thrown him and went straight to Sio. He crossed the room before Mira had fully processed that he was really there, dropped beside the platform and pressed two fingers against Sio’s neck.

"Arch?" Mira strained toward them as far as the restraints allowed, searching his face before he could even answer. "I couldn’t see him breathing after he used his Claim. He just went limp."

Arch shifted his fingers slightly, then leaned closer to Sio’s mouth while his other hand rested against the edge of the platform. The few seconds he spent checking felt endless to Mira, but some of the tension finally left his face.

"He’s alive." Arch kept his voice steady for her even though his fingers remained at Sio’s neck a little longer than necessary. "His pulse is weak and his breathing is worse, but he’s still here."

Mira shut her eyes as relief hit her hard enough to leave her shaking. When she opened them again, she looked only at Sio and forced herself to believe Arch instead of the terrifying stillness in front of her.

Arch rose immediately and put his palm against the wall beside the platform. A rectangular seam began forming beneath his hand, but the moment the first side of the doorway appeared, the stone rippled and swallowed it.

His brows pulled together as he moved several steps sideways and tried another wall. The outline appeared faster this time, only for the forming handle to twist back into the surface before his fingers could reach it.

"That’s what I was afraid of." Arch withdrew his hand and studied the room instead of wasting strength on a third attempt. "I tried reaching this place again and again after they took Sio, but every door I opened toward him was pushed away before it could fully form."

Stone scraped behind him as Vise began forcing himself upright beside the cracked table. Arch heard it and stepped sideways just as a narrow pillar tore upward from the floor where his ankle had been.

"Something changed a few moments ago." Arch ducked when a slab burst from the wall beside him, letting it pass over his shoulder while he kept talking. "Whatever was blocking me weakened just enough for one path to reach Sio, so I came through before it corrected itself."

Vise straightened slowly, one hand rubbing the shoulder the door had smashed into. Surprise mattered far more to him than pain, and his eyes moved immediately from Arch toward Sio’s motionless body.

"That punch did it." Vise swept one hand upward, sending three stone ridges racing across the floor toward Arch while fascination crept into his expression. "The boy hit me, something passed through me beneath the physical impact, and my room lost control for a moment."

Arch stepped between the first two ridges and planted one foot against the third as it rose. He pushed off before Vise could close the stone around his leg, landing several feet away while a fourth attack tore through the space he had just abandoned.

Vise gave a quiet laugh as the pieces came together in his head. "That was when you entered. His punch weakened my Claim long enough for yours to force a door through."

"Looks that way, and I’d thank him for opening the door if he were conscious enough to complain about it." Arch leaned backward as a stone spike passed close enough to scrape the front of his coat, then twisted aside before another could follow.

Vise’s attention flicked toward Sio again, and the curiosity in his face sharpened rather than softening at the sight of him. He had nearly killed the boy discovering that reaction, yet all Mira could see in him was excitement over what the discovery implied.

"I checked him." Vise drove one fist forward, and the wall behind Arch answered by shooting a thick stone column toward his spine. "They checked him too. There was no key anywhere on that boy, and anything carrying your resonance should have been found before he ever entered this room."

Arch dropped almost flat beneath the column and rolled as another slab slammed down where his chest had been. He came back onto one knee and immediately reached toward the floor, making a small door outline flash there before Vise’s Claim crushed it into nothing.

"You’re still thinking about the keys." Arch pushed back to his feet as stone curled around the place his hand had touched. "That explains why you were so confident."

Vise sent the floor surging upward beneath him, forcing Arch to jump before it could trap his legs. A wall section attacked him in midair, and he twisted enough to take the edge of the blow against his shoulder instead of his ribs.

"You carried those brass keys everywhere." Vise advanced while the room attacked for him, his eyes never leaving Arch. "I watched you use them."

"That was rather the point." Arch ducked beneath another strike, caught the edge of a smaller stone projection and used it to swing himself around the larger column following behind it. "People see a key enter a lock often enough and eventually stop asking whether the key actually matters."

Vise’s expression changed as half a dozen spikes erupted from the floor. Arch backed between them, one tearing his sleeve as he barely cleared the last, while Vise continued closing the distance without personally throwing a single strike.

"The key is fake." Vise sounded surprised and fascinated at the same time, and another section of wall lunged toward Arch before the older man could settle his footing. "All those years, you were carrying props."

"Facade is a kinder word." Arch planted one foot against the approaching slab and sprang off it just before it slammed into the opposite wall. "The brass key was never the important part. The symbol engraved on it was."

Vise’s eyes narrowed as he extended one hand toward Arch. The floor folded upward like a closing jaw, but Arch dived through the narrowing gap, tore his coat free when the hem caught and rolled across the stone.

"You put the same symbol on Sio." Vise turned to keep Arch in sight while a narrow stone spear grew beside his shoulder. His gaze snapped toward Sio’s left forearm as the realization completed itself.

"Exactly the same one." Arch rose as the spear launched and turned sideways so it passed beneath his arm. "The mark engraved on every one of my keys and the mark I painted on Sio’s arm are identical."

Vise drove another attack toward him before Arch could settle. Arch caught the wall projection with both hands and was shoved backward several feet, his shoes grinding across the floor until he released it before stone could curl around his wrists.

"That little symbol was enough for you to reach him from another city." Vise sent another blunt projection toward Arch’s ribs as he spoke. "No physical key at all."

"Nearby, I don’t need either." Arch ducked beneath the projection and twisted away from another strike coming from the opposite side. "I can make doors within my own range without a key or a mark."

Vise attacked again, forcing Arch to step across a moving section of floor while stone snapped shut behind his heel. Arch barely cleared it before a second section rose in front of him.

"For long-distance travel, the exact symbol engraved on my keys has to already exist at the destination." Arch slapped one hand against the nearby wall while moving, and another doorway outline flashed beneath his palm before Vise’s Claim crushed it. "That is exactly what I painted on Sio’s arm."

Vise gave a short laugh as he realised how thoroughly he had misunderstood the ability. He swept his hand sideways, causing the floor beneath Arch to tilt violently enough to send him sliding toward the wall.

Arch caught himself against a rising column, pushed away from it and narrowly avoided being crushed when the wall folded inward. "The brass key gives people something obvious to search for, steal or confiscate, while most of them never bother asking what the little mark on it actually does."

"That is remarkably dishonest." Vise sounded delighted rather than offended as three blunt stone arms formed around Arch at once. "I almost respect it."

"I’ll try to survive the compliment." Arch ducked the first arm, redirected the second with his forearm and took the third against his side hard enough to send him staggering. "Though I’m beginning to regret explaining any of this to you."

Vise closed the distance while Arch recovered and finally attacked with his own fist. Arch shifted outside the strike and tried to drive one into Vise’s ribs, but a thin distortion flashed between them and stopped his knuckles before they could connect.

Arch’s eyebrows rose as Vise swung again. He slipped beneath it, tried a palm strike toward Vise’s throat and met the same transparent barrier, which appeared only where the attack threatened to connect before disappearing when Arch pulled away.

"So that’s another one." Arch backed away while the floor immediately resumed attacking his legs. "You’ve been hiding more than the room."

Vise followed him with growing amusement and sent another ridge racing beneath his feet. "You’re hardly in a position to complain about hidden Claims."

"Fair enough, but it’s still irritating." Arch hopped over the ridge and drove his heel against a pillar as it formed, knocking himself sideways before another section of wall could pin him.

Arch landed beside the wall and put his palm against it again. A doorway formed quickly enough that Mira could almost see the darkness beyond it before Vise’s room surged around the frame and erased it.

Arch tried again without stopping his movement, dragging his fingers across another section of wall while ducking beneath a stone arm. The second doorway died even faster, leaving nothing behind except a fading line.

Vise noticed both attempts and laughed as he sent another column toward Arch. "Still trying to run?"

"I prefer leaving with my bones arranged approximately where I found them." Arch stepped around the column, grabbed its edge and pulled himself past another strike before Vise could redirect it. "Unfortunately, your room seems to have recovered from whatever Sio did to it."

The walls tightened around him while Vise advanced. Arch slipped through the last opening before they closed, only for Vise to meet him personally on the other side with a fist aimed at his stomach.

Arch twisted away and caught Vise’s wrist, but the defensive barrier flashed against his hand before he could exploit the grip. Stone struck Arch across the back at the same time and knocked him to the floor.

He rolled away before another attack shattered the spot beside his head and returned to his feet more slowly than before. His breathing had become noticeably heavier, and Vise saw it.

Vise smiled as he sent another stone arm toward Arch’s head while following with a physical punch of his own. "You came in expecting to open another door and simply walk away."

"That was the plan." Arch slipped beneath the stone arm, blocked Vise’s fist with his forearm and tried to drive an elbow into his chest. "Come in, grab them, leave before the psychopath realizes what happened. Efficient, civilized and very little damage to my spine."

The defensive barrier caught Arch’s elbow and forced him to break away before the floor could trap his feet. Vise drove both hands downward immediately afterward, and the entire floor erupted beneath Arch.

Arch jumped onto one rising slab, ran two steps along its angled surface and leapt away before it smashed into the ceiling. He landed near Sio’s platform but did not stop because stone was already reaching for him again.

Another door outline flashed under Arch’s palm as he passed the wall. It collapsed instantly, and Arch exhaled sharply as the final trace disappeared.

"That settles that." Arch stepped away from the wall while Vise sent another stone fist toward his ribs. He caught the edge of the attack on his forearm and was still shoved several feet sideways.

Vise followed without giving him room to recover. "Settles what?"

Arch ducked beneath the next strike, blocked Vise’s physical punch and tried to answer with an elbow that the barrier caught before it reached him. He broke away as another stone ridge chased him across the floor.

"Apparently I have to give your little ass a proper beating before we leave." Arch rolled his aching shoulder while avoiding another spike. "I was hoping to skip that part."

Vise stopped for barely half a heartbeat before laughter escaped him. The sound carried genuine excitement, and the room around them seemed to become more aggressive with it.

"You forced your way into my Claim, explained one of your secrets and now you think you’re going to beat me here." Vise thrust his hand forward, sending a forest of stone spikes tearing toward Arch. "You really haven’t changed."

"I apparently changed enough for you to become forgettable." Arch stepped between two spikes, twisted around another and took a shallow cut across his cheek from the last. "Which is impressive considering how hard you’re currently trying to be memorable."

The smile disappeared from Vise’s face, and the room attacked harder with him. Stone surged from both walls while the floor broke into moving sections beneath Arch’s feet.

Arch sprinted across one rising slab, jumped to another and barely cleared the closing walls before they smashed together behind him. He landed and immediately tried another door, but the frame vanished before it had properly formed.

Vise attacked before Arch could move again, and a stone fist drove into his side hard enough to throw him several feet across the floor. Arch caught himself on one hand, rolled through the impact and returned to his feet with more stiffness than before.

Mira could see the accumulating damage now, and Vise clearly could too. The older man was still moving, but each recovery took a little more effort than the one before it.

"Your doors were always the impressive part." Vise approached while stone crawled beside him in restless shapes. "Without them, you’re just an old man trapped inside someone else’s Claim."

Arch avoided the next stone strike by barely a step, but another slammed into his shoulder before he could fully recover. He staggered sideways, caught himself against the wall and remained there for half a second while Vise watched him with growing amusement.

"I really wanted to do this the easy way." Arch straightened slowly and rolled the shoulder that had taken the hit. "Come in, open a door, take those two home and complain about my back afterward."

Vise raised one hand, and several thick stone projections formed around Arch at once. His smile returned as he watched the older man surrounded inside a room where every surface answered to him.

Arch looked toward Sio first and then toward Mira. Whatever reluctance remained in his expression disappeared as he flexed his fingers and the stone formations began closing around him.

"Damn." Arch let out a tired breath as something bright ignited beneath his clothes. "I really am too old for this."

Pale light traced the shape of his body, spreading from his chest across both shoulders before travelling down his arms. The glow intensified until even Vise stopped attacking, his amusement giving way to immediate curiosity as the brightness gathered around Arch’s right hand.

Arch lowered his gaze toward the light wrapping around his fingers before looking back at Vise. His posture changed as he raised the glowing hand, and the brightness around his body flared hard enough to wash across the stone walls.

"Claim Two." Arch closed his illuminated fingers into a fist while Vise watched with widening interest. "Siphon Aegis Gauntlet, activate."