Too bad for Eric, my shield had recovered. It drained the strength from Eric’s body, weakening him just enough for me to slip out of his grasp.
“Just once,” he groaned as I helped him to his feet, “can you not do that?”
While I knew my abilities weren’t exactly fair when it came to sparring with my friend, I also knew it wouldn’t do either of us any favors if we didn’t use every trick at our disposal. The only way I could challenge Eric to his utmost was to use all my skills, and the same was true for him. I patted him on the shoulder and shook his hand.
“No,” I said, “I don’t think I will.”
He chuckled and raked his fingers through his blond hair. There were shadows in his eyes when he looked at me, but they vanished so fast I almost missed them. He gestured toward the short row of bleachers at the end of the classroom, and we walked over to take a seat while he caught his breath.
“You ever think about what happens after?” he asked quietly. “I mean, let’s say we pull this off. Will anyone even know what we did?”
I hadn’t spared much thought for questions like that. It had never really mattered to me whether anyone knew what I did or not. I’d been briefly famous as the School’s champion. I’d been infamous since the fight in Kyoto. Neither of those had brought me any satisfaction. What mattered was that the job was done, not whether we got any credit for doing it.
“Whether anyone knows it was us or not,” I said, “this has to be done.”
Eric shrugged. He watched the other students sparring with one another. None of them was anywhere near our level, not even Clem or Abi. Some of them were still clumsy and tentative, unwilling to hurt themselves or their opponents during practice. They threw half-strength punches that were deflected by sloppy arm sweeps. It was hard to watch, sometimes, knowing that if these “advanced” students were ever in a real fight, they’d be down before they knew what happened.
“I guess that’s true,” Eric said. “Maybe it’s for the best. I’ve got a career to think about. I’m not sure how the federation would feel if everyone knew I ran around fighting monsters with an Eclipse Warrior.”
I’d seen the pain my reputation had caused my friends, and hoped Eric wasn’t sacrificing too much for me. He was a gifted fighter, and his prospects as a prizefighter were bright. He was already stronger than most of the circuit in his weight class. In a couple more years he’d be a holy terror. But that was a long way away, and there were so many dangers between us and the finish line.
“If there was any other way,” I said quietly, then shook my head and sighed. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think I can finish this without the rest of you. There are too many fours on that map, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence it wouldn’t open without all of us being there.”
Eric nodded without looking at me. His knuckles popped as his fists tightened. He started to say something, caught himself, then pointed at a couple of students whose sparring match had devolved into a clumsy wrestling bout.
“Look at that,” he said sadly. “It’s like they don’t care if they can fight. They’re fourth years, for crying out loud. You’d think they’d give it their all.”
I’d thought the same thing myself, more than once. The School’s students were not as driven as they’d been my first year. Sure, they went to their classes and studied, but the competition between students wasn’t as fierce as it had been when I’d joined the School. The end of interclan duels had taken the fire out of them.
“Most of them will never be fighters,” I said. “They’ll work in the church or government. The PDF will take a lot of them as technicians or engineers. A few might make it into the Guardians. Even fewer will become scholars.”
“Like you?” Eric said with a wolfish grin. “You know what I mean, Jace. We’ve been given gifts, but too many people let their edges rust away.”
There was no denying the truth of that. Long ago, cultivators were all that stood between their people and horrors from beyond the world. For a shining moment in history, heroes had been the bright line that protected mortals from death and destruction.
Then the Compact had come, and Empyreal society took root behind its shield. Small tribes became small nations, which became continent-spanning kingdoms, then empires. Most people never needed even a tenth of the strength they’d been born with. They didn’t use it, and, like Eric said, it rusted within them.
In return, though, we’d been given something that was even more precious than the ability to fight off demons and dragons. Art and culture had flourished during times of peace. When sacred artists could focus on something other than destroying their enemies, they’d learned deeper mysteries that unlocked even more power. Technology had given us electricity and fusion power, medicines to heal all but the most horrific of diseases.
“I know it doesn’t seem like it, especially after hanging out with me, but there’s more to life, more to being an Empyreal, than combat.” I sighed as the wrestlers helped each other back to their feet. “When this is over, all of us deserve a chance to find out just what that is.”
“I already know,” Eric said. “My destiny’s already laid out in the federation. I’m with you all the way on this, Jace, don’t ever doubt that. But I want a life when we’re done. A good one.”
Eric had never opened up to me like that. I’d known he wanted to be a fighter, but I hadn’t thought about what that meant.
My
