“Eric,” I shouted. “Hit the lights!”
Fire blazed again, and Abi’s serpents speared toward the panel above us. A trickle of jinsei flowed from his core, up through the serpents of light, and wove itself into the connection point on the panel. Silver threads crawled across the rectangle until every swirl and spike of the scrivenings was filled.
“The challenge of aura,” a deep voice boomed through the room. “All for one. Defeat the elements. Banish the darkness.”
Five musical chimes rang out at the end of the announcement. With each crystalline sound, silver circles appeared in the air between the pillars I’d detected earlier. The argent light surrounded clouds of purest darkness and faded away with the last note.
“That’s what these aspects are for,” Clem called out. “I sensed wood and metal not far from me, but I thought it was a trap. We can use them to get rid of those darkness aspects we just saw.”
“How?” Eric asked. “Just throw the fire at the dark?”
“It can’t be that simple. Remember the first challenge?” It had seemed straightforward on its surface, but there were greater rewards for deciphering its cryptic instructions. The same thing had to be true here. “Before we do anything, let’s make absolutely sure we understand what’s expected.”
“Banish the darkness seems simple enough,” Hagar said. “You’re good at separating aspects, Jace. Just pull the darkness into your aura, and we win.”
“That’s only one of the instructions,” Abi said. “And it’s the last one. Clem, you found wood and metal aspects. Eric, you’ve got fire by you. Anyone else?”
“I’ve got earth over here,” Hagar called.
“And there’s some water off to my right,” I finished. “That’s all five of the sacred elements. Somehow, we have to defeat them.”
“Eric,” Clem said. “Can I get some light again?”
“Your wish is my command.” The Resplendent Sun lit up the arena, and Clem clapped her hands.
“There are pillars on either side of the darkness aspects,” Clem called. “They have containers on top of them.”
Suddenly, it all made perfect sense.
“Fire melts metal.” In alchemy, every element could generate or destroy another.
“Metal cuts wood,” Abi continued, excitement growing in his voice. “Woods splits earth, earth absorbs water, and water quenches fire. That’s it.”
“Awesome! Now we know how to defeat the elements. That’s still only two of the rules,” Hagar called. “What does all for one mean?”
We fell silent and struggled to understand the first of the instructions. I mentally walked through each step of the process we’d follow to complete the challenge. I understood what had to be done.
“I think one person has to carry all the elemental aspects in their aura,” I said.
“There are dozens of darkness aspects in each pocket,” Clem said. “You’d have to have dozens of elemental aspects in your aura to cancel them out.”
And that was the problem. Most people couldn’t hold more than ten or so different aspects in their aura before they lost control of them. As they added new aspects beyond their capacity, the first aspects they’d absorbed would be pushed out. Powerful sacred artists used this to their advantage, moving weak aspects like exhaustion or hunger out of their aura with more beneficial aspects like strength or courage. It was a tricky balancing act, and one most students struggled with.
Except for me.
My unique core had given me the ability to manipulate aspects with far greater ease and speed than anyone I’d ever met. Even as a hollow, I’d been able to purify jinsei by stripping away corrupted aspects. This challenge would be a piece of cake.
Or, it would’ve been, if it wasn’t built to exploit my personal weakness.
Filtering aspects through my core and into my aura might speed up the delamination process. I could win the challenge only to split my core in half. That would knock me right out of the Gauntlet.
There might be another way, though. I had to try.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said. “It might not work, but I think it’s the best shot we’ve got.”
“Don’t strain yourself,” Hagar warned me.
“I won’t,” I promised. “Abi, I need your help.”
“Anything,” Abi said. “Tell me what to do.”
“Can you sense the water aspects I mentioned earlier?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Perfect,” I said. “Pull a few of them into your aura.”
The key to this challenge was cooperation. None of the other teams would have someone with my unique abilities. They’d have to rely on more traditional means of manipulating the aspects. The simplest solution would be for each teammate to gather one of the elemental aspects and then pass it to their leader using their serpents. The stronger the leader’s core was, the more aspects they’d be able to hold in their aura, and the more quickly they’d complete the challenge. Other than me, the strongest of the contenders only had an adept-level core. Assuming everything went smoothly, it would still take them a long time to unravel this puzzle.
We could do it much more quickly.
“Okay,” Abi said. “I’m loaded up with water aspects.”
It was possible to transfer aspects from one aura to another, if both participants were willing. That was how jinsei medicine and sacred energy surgery worked. The physician would harness beneficial aspects, overlap their aura with the patient’s, and then exchange healing aspects with illness or injury aspects. It was slow and tedious work, and it could be dangerous if the doctor didn’t have a stronger core than the patient.
“Brace yourself,” I said. “This might get a little rough.”
The rat that had guided Abi to me scampered over and perched on his foot. I was still tied to the little rodent through the Army of a Thousand Eyes. When its aura overlapped my friend’s, I felt the water aspects like they were splashing over my own hands. My excitement grew. This was going to work.
The medallion on my chest that held the Borrowed Core technique wasn’t the only one I’d stitched to my channels. A charm on my forearm held the Thief’s Shield technique, and
