Chapter 374: The Test of Silence

They left the counting loft before dawn stretched truly over the city.

Varn Thal had lingering nerves from the fight on the bridge. Patrols were heavier on the main terraces and an inordinate number of doors kept streets that usually opened before morning secured against intrusion. Lucian made good use of the service cuts and maintenance alleys while Istra watched the city for tails and Sera walked closely enough that no one could take her without taking Lucian at the same time. There was not much conversation. The invitation to meet Captain Rhel had taken a different shape than the men and women of Varn Thal would have preferred.

By the time they reached the city’s east ward boundary the sky above the mid plane buildings was still only just beginning to turn. The old aqueduct cut a desolate channel of dry stone away from the city toward nothing in particular and Rhel waited at the edge of it along with two others, both dressed in the same unadorned traveling gear, both unmarked by the display colors of any house.

"You came," Rhel said. "You did not have many opportunities to do otherwise."

Sera’s voice was edged when she answered. "Then you should be glad that is the case."

"Perhaps." Rhel’s gaze went past her to settle on Lucian. "Once the city boundary is crossed the test proper begins. You will not be given leave the use of weapons or outside assistance, but your companions may stand in judgment of you should they choose unless they count as interference in which case the sealed ground will decide the matter for you."

Istra’s jaw set. "If your test proves the weapon useless?"

"Then it breaks," Rhel said, "better at the hand of those who would kill it than those who would take advantage of the damage."

Lucian nodded once. _"When I walk among the dead I hear the voices of those who have come before."_ "Let’s get it done."

They followed the dried out channel until the city’s sounds got fainter and the ground beneath them changed from the carefully worked surface of civilization to something that looked ancient in comparison. At a bend in the land Rhel knelt before a marking cut into the rock in the shape of a circle. Marks ran along each edge in a script that Lucian could not read but felt rather than understood. WhereRhEl placed a hand against one of them the air within the circle thickened and the sounds of the outside world disappeared into silence.

"Enter," she invited.

Lucian went first and the silence pressed in against him until even his own breathing seemed out of place. Sera and Istra followed to the space inside the circle only to halt at its boundary whenRhEl raised a single hand.

"That is far enough for you. As for you, stand in the center of the markings and be prepared to give no answer the ground cannot understand."

In the middle of the ring of stone Lucian paused.

There was nothing for a space, then the silence itself took on weight. It ceased to be something around him and became something like pressure, as if the sealed ground was listening for something inside him. Lucian felt Infinity press against his ribs, unbidden, as a reaction to the threat of the unknown force testing him and forced it back down.

A voice not belonging to Rhel moved soundlessly through the press of the silence, something alien in its tones that shaped themselves not with words but intent. They pressed against the places inside him he had taken to using as anchors, the places that had sealed the broken channels, thrown men onto the river below and refused the hands that had reached for him without hesitation.

Did the weapon hidden within this flesh have any use beyond being broken? It demanded, something like an accusation without heat in it.

Lucian did not move.

The bridge. The lattice. The hands of Ash Vale on Sera’s skin turned to ash and bone and dust. The scroll bearing Cael’s vacant throne place in unburnt script. Images rose unbidden and he did not give them power.

The pressure pressed harder against him, seeking weakness. Infinity rose again, a careless offer of power to break whatever had entered his mind. He did not want it.

"I am more than what you would use," he said to the weight pressing his spine.

It recoiled, curiosity warring with purpose, then pressed against him yet again, this time drawing on places deeper in him, the place where Cael’s presence always seemed strongest in the middle of battle, the places where the boy still lived buried under years of soldiering and survival. The sealed ground made one final request, one final demand of him. A choice between weapon and man would decide the test. He had been offered a moment to answer.

Lucian thought of Evelyn, of Lucy telling him keep a life, of Sera deciding to stay, of Istra’s debt and the demands made of him by each faction under the sky. He did not reach for Infinity as a blade. He held it back as one man guards a single fact about himself that he intends to die with.

The silence fractured suddenly, the pressure breaking entirely, and he went down on one knee, not due to any pain but the sudden relief of exhaustion. Outside the ring Sera went to move forward again but Istra caught her by the elbow before she could reach Lucian

Rhel looked at him, clearly surprised

"you answered as a man rather than a weapon."

Lucian pushed himself to his feet again. "Was that the nature of your test?"

"That will suffice," she said, looking past him and at his companions. She seemed as shaken by the turn of events as he seemed to be. "Will you understand what this means?"

"Explain it to us."

She came closer to the circle’s edge "The breach of Caesar’s power usually wakes ravenous, taking the pressure given rather than refusing it. They may be fired on direction or restrained but they answer regardless. You rejected the impulse of the ground as a possible answer, which means the Infinity coursing through you is not given to you alone. You are directing it to some degree."

Cael’s voice, distant within Lucian’s own mind surfaced, shaking slightly in a way that should not have been possible at all "That should not have happened. The test condition was never meant to preserve the possibility of a separate will as strongly as it has in you."

"You may tell your masters that their test is finished."

My test is done, Lucian. My uncertainty remains. Should you be able to command what you carry Caesar’s legacy is not the only power that stands to lose what it has."

Sera freed herself from Istra’s grasp and came to the edge of the circle to regard him. "In layman’s terms, does that mean he passed or are we expected to run interference?"

"He answered in the manner of a will. That is to say the tests of the sealed ground do not intend to take his life. That also means the next greater power to take interest in him stands to gain more if he survives than he likely expects."

"This is an unacceptable complication."

"As long as he stands he stands," said Lucian, already stepping back out of the marking circle. The world around him seemed distant and unreal after the test but his body felt right and the sensation of Infinity behind his ribs was no longer the same as it had just after defeating the warlord in Varn Thal.

"Then we will make use of the time," Lucian said, "if I exist in any meaningful sense beyond weapon this is no longer acceptable either."

Rhel studied him for another long moment. "There is more you need to know about the legacy of Caesar beyond this test, not least because the test attracted attention you are not likely to lose by staying here."

Sera looked past Rhel towards the distance, where Varn Thal’s soldiers now stretched their gazes to meet the strange sight of a group of soldiers on the far edge of the sealed ground. "If the noise of this test could draw the attention of the city the powers of Varn Thal will not hesitate to deal with the disturbance."

Nor will they have reason to hesitate with us now Lucian knew by the sound of Istra’s voice.

He looked again at the ring marking in the rock, the ground that had asked him who he was rather than how useful he might be, and turned towards the narrow path leading back only long enough to make one statement certain.

We do not return to the city under the nose of a predator, but if he wishes to examine the result of the test he may be certain that we will not do so at his leisure in judgment of what he demands.