Clem had banged on my door a dozen times since our last class together. Every time I’d pretended I wasn’t home, because I couldn’t face my friends after our discussion in sorcery class showed me how selfish I’d been. I worried that if I saw them again, I’d beg Clem, Eric, and Abi to come back and finish the quest with me. That wouldn’t be fair. It was better for us all if I avoided them until after I was free of the Flame’s mission. My friends didn’t deserve to be dragged into my mess of a life.
“Tell them I’m fine,” I said to Hahen when a knock came.
“Tell them yourself,” the rat spirit said, and unlocked the door.
My friends crowded around in the hall. Lines of worry creased Clem’s face, and Eric and Abi looked like a pair of kicked dogs. They hesitated for a second, and then Clem lifted her chin and marched right into my room. She planted herself in front of where I sat on my bed, hands on her hips, and scowled at me.
“Enough pouting,” she scolded. “You can’t hide from us forever.”
Eric and Abi took up positions behind Clem, their arms crossed over their chests. They looked down at me like a pair of disapproving fight coaches.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Until Librarian Tanoki gets back to me, all I can do is meditate on my advancement. Nothing else matters.”
Clem put two fingers under my chin to lift my eyes to meet hers. “I told you I was in this to the end. Don’t shut me out.”
My arms wanted to pull Clem into a hug and hang on tight. I wasn’t strong enough to push my friends away a second time, and I knew the guilt of pulling them back in would haunt me for the rest of my life. If one of them got hurt, I’d never be able to live with myself. It was so much easier to go on alone, even if my odds of success were lower without allies.
“I can’t keep dragging you three into danger,” I said. “Let me finish this.”
Abi chuckled and clapped his hands together. “We’re worried, Jace, not afraid. I do not like what has happened, and my heart is heavy with the weight of deaths I helped to cause. If I suffered such guilt about the fates of strangers, how much worse will I feel if something happens to one of my dearest friends?”
“Besides,” Eric added, “did you think I’d let you hog all the glory for this adventure? Come on, man. I got rattled, but I’m the only chance you have to do this thing.”
It was hard to see my friends through my unshed tears. My heart ached at the thought of leaving them behind, but my fear of losing them urged me to push them away. They weren’t Eclipse Warriors. The Flame hadn’t chosen them to suffer.
“Shhh.” Clem pushed her finger against my lips before I said another word. “That letter wouldn’t open until all four of us were there to read it. Only Abi could activate the scrivenings that revealed Saito’s tomb. Without Eric and me, those heretics would have shot us all to pieces. You need us, Jace. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
All three of them piled onto my bed and buried me in a group hug. Clem wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips to my ear. “If you ever shut me out like that again, I’ll kick your door down.”
Hahen cleared his throat and stamped his foot on my desk. “If you children are finished with this unseemly display, I believe Clem has something she wishes to share.”
The four of us laughed and untangled from the pile. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d needed that moment of human contact. The loneliness and desperation that had crouched on my shoulders these past days flew away. My allies were with me again, and I’d move heaven and earth to keep us together. They were stronger than I gave them credit for. We’d guard each other against whatever fate threw our way.
“Here it is,” Clem announced. She produced a small disk from a pouch on her belt and held it up for all to see. “One filter designed to keep exhaustion aspects at bay.”
Hahen beamed as my friend showed me her scrivening. She’d executed the loops and whorls with amazing skill, and the bridges were so small and perfect I had to strain my eyes to see them.
“I’m not sure it’ll work,” Clem said with a shrug. “Hahen showed me which aspects to exclude, but I have no idea how the talisman will keep exhaustion out of your aura.”
“Nor do I,” Hahen said. “The aspects will be in your aura before they reach the talisman on your body. Still, this is what Jace believes will help him cheat his way around learning the Sleepless technique.”
“It isn’t cheating,” I said. “Though I’m not sure it will work, either. It’s worth a try, though.”
Clem dropped the medallion into my hand. “Have at it.”
“Can you make one change to it?” I asked, then described what I needed.
“Do you think I bring my scrivening tools with me everywhere I go?” Clem asked.
“Um, yes,” Eric said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you have most of your textbooks hidden in your robes, too.”
Clem flopped down at my desk and produced a leather-wrapped bundle of scrivening tools. “Fine, you’re right. This’ll just take a minute.”
When she finished her work, I clutched the talisman in my hand and went to work. It took me a handful of seconds to find the thread of fate that floated out of my aura, and a few more to drop into a meditative state that let me focus all my attention on the delicate task I’d planned. Soul scrivening was difficult even when used as intended. What I was trying might be impossible.
I took one more deep
