The top of Warcry’s head bumped the lockers. He bucked his hips. The sudden move flung the Ylef off-balance, but she held onto his leather jacket and got her knee in his chest to throw him. Warcry broke her grip, and they spun away from each other.
In a blink, they were on their feet, huffing and puffing and glaring bloody murder at each other.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded between breaths.
“That’s what I want to bleedin’ know!” he snapped.
She put a hand on her hip. “You want to know what you’re doing here?”
“Don’t take the piss, you know what I mean!” Warcry jacked a flaming elbow backward into one of the undamaged lockers. The door dented in, cracking the latch, and clothes and makeup and stuff spilled out the bottom around his boots.
The Ylef’s catlike green eyes flicked down to the stuff littering the floor, then locked on his.
“I’m putting on a title run,” she said, raising her hands to indicate that the venue should’ve been Warcry’s first clue. “A fair strong one, too. Cost me every credit Ma Thompson paid me to get this far, so I don’t intend to squander it. Unlike some redheaded prats I could mention.”
Warcry took a step toward her, fists clenched. “How much did she give you? What’d it cost to trash everything you could’ve had? Name, home...”
“Oh, it’s fair lucrative,” she said, flashing a cold smile. “But once I’ve got the title, I won’t be Nameless for long, will I? Then I can buy as many angry redheads who want to piss off their wealthy parents as I can stand.”
Warcry’s Burning Hatred flames ratcheted up to a screaming white-hot. It looked like he was going to launch into another round of beatdown, but after a long second, Warcry just spat at the Ylef’s feet.
She didn’t even blink. “How was Van Diemann? I heard Ma disowned you. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“You stupid lash. You’re on a run now, but what’re you gonna do when your Jianjiao bosses tell you it’s time to take a dive?”
Her cat eyes went cold and dead. “My deepest apologies, gentlemen, but I have a prior engagement tonight and cannot entertain you further. If you wouldn’t mind pounding concrete so that I can shower and make myself presentable?”
“Hope you choke on him,” Warcry growled. He shoved me toward the door. “Let’s go, grav.”
She gave us a sarcastic wave, twiddling her fingers, then bent to pick up the stuff that had fallen out of the locker like we were already gone. Barely visible micro-threads of green Spirit stretched from her fingertips to the farthest-away makeup brushes and break-and-shake ice packs, zipping items into her hands.
A long thin rectangle of teal silk caught my eye.
“Wait,” I said, dragging my heels.
“What’re you on about now?” Warcry snapped like he wanted to rip my head off.
I nodded at her. “Just look.”
He glared over his shoulder just in time to see the Ylef girl jam a teal silk fan back in the locker. It was the one Warcry had sent her from Van Diemann with the Air construct etched into the sticks.
Warcry’s face twisted into an ugly scowl, and he dragged me out into the hall, slamming the locker room door behind us.
Proving Forge
BACK AT THE PAGODA, Warcry headed upstairs to his room, stomping and slamming everything along the way. Once he made it to his room, it sounded like he was tearing the place apart.
“Hope the Emperor likes demolition,” I muttered.
Purple and white scales shimmered as Sushi appeared.
“Grady’s home.” She bumped her nose against my forehead like a cat, then swam back a little so she could look at me. “Lost Mirror Spirit surrounds Warcry?”
“Yeah, I think he ran into the ex you were showing him,” I said, smoothing her flowing dorsal fins down with my thumb.
The little fish’s mismatched eyes glanced up at the ceiling, then back at me.
“Sushi cultivates Lost Mirror?” she asked.
“You mean right now? I guess. Just don’t let him see you.”
She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Sushi sneaks.”
Then she disappeared.
I grabbed some fruit from the basket and fed the script tattoo, looking out through the bug-covered mosquito netting over the front door. It was well past midnight, but after the craziness with Warcry’s ex-girlfriend and seeing Ripper so close I could’ve grabbed him with Dead Man’s Hand, there was no way I was getting to sleep.
So instead, I got the little snake oil bottle of Proving Forge from my room, then headed out by the pool. Its aquamarine underwater lights were the only illumination, casting dancing water reflections around the courtyard. I’d only ever seen that kind of thing on TV. Staring down at the glowing water in real life was almost hypnotic, like looking into some kind of magic fountain of life.
The temperature had dropped a little since sundown, but the humidity remained, making it feel like soaking in a cup of lukewarm coffee.
According to what I’d read on the hyperweb earlier, it was important to center your Spirit sea before trying to incorporate any elixir, even the expensive ones. It made the elixir more effective and cut down on potential harmful side effects, plus it helped you concentrate on integrating it.
I needed the Proving Forge to be as effective as possible, so I spent a while doing taiji moving meditation. I got kind of lost in that, flowing through the moves while staring at that water until it almost felt like I was moving in time with the reflections. Or like they were moving me, and I was just drifting along on their current.
The spell broke when Sushi chomped a mosquito in half an inch from my nose. I flinched, heart racing, then shook my head to clear some of the hypnosis.
“Get your fill of Lost Mirror for the night?” I asked her. My voice sounded loud after the calming silence of the taiji.
“Sushi ate lots of Lost Mirror while Warcry is awake,” she
