The Rifts of Psyche by Kyle West (popular e readers txt) 📗

this reason?” Fergus asked. “I mean no disrespect, Elder Jalisa, but the Orbs are a child’s fable. No one believes they truly exist.”

“Then how do you explain the magic Lucian streamed?” Cleon asked, his voice somewhat shaky. “No one should be able to do what he did, pulling down the mountainside like that! Even you have to believe he killed those wyverns up in the Snake Pass by now.”

Fergus looked from Cleon, and then back to the Elders. From the relaxation of his features, Lucian could see that he was at last starting to accept Lucian’s abilities with Binding.

“It’s true I’ve never seen magic of the like,” he said. “If any other Binder streamed to that degree, it would have either killed or frayed them.”

“I’m glad you see that much sense,” Elder Jalisa said. “If you sensed the purity of his stream, then you would know the truth, Fergus. No poison taints his Binding. He can stream as much as he wishes without ill-effect. That is in accordance with the prophecies of Arian, with the powers accorded to the Orbs of the Manifold.”

“Not exactly,” Lucian said, his face reddening. He knew he shouldn’t interrupt an Elder, or contradict one, but honesty was important. “Using that much magic still exhausted me, even if the amount of ether was still unlimited.”

“Mental load,” Elder Ytrib said. “Yes, that takes training, strengthening your Focus to handle multiple streams of varying strength. That only comes with experience.”

“So, I will always be limited in that way,” Lucian said. “Unless someone can teach me to stream more efficiently.”

“Maybe so,” Fergus admitted. “I could feel the strength of your Binding Magic. Imagine what you could do if you had a modicum of expertise.”

Even if it had been Fergus’s aim to insult him, Lucian found himself agreeing. “I need to learn more. I don’t deny that. I’m the last person who should be holding the Orb of Binding.”

“Then why not relinquish it to one of your betters?” Fergus asked.

At this, there was a stark silence. Lucian would have thought that any of them would jump at the chance to have it, just like all those Ancients back in the days of Starsea. Indeed, he did see greed in the Elders’ eyes. And fear. Which would win out, he couldn’t say.

“I will not give up the Orb,” Lucian said. “First of all, I don’t know how to do it. The Orb isn’t a physical object. It’s something that fuses inside you. Getting rid of it might kill me, for all I know. Besides, I can’t be sure of anyone else’s plans for it.”

“And what are your plans for it, Off-Worlder?”

“My name is Lucian, Captain Fergus. Please learn my name and treat me with respect. We fought side-by-side today.”

“Why, you little . . .” Fergus clenched his jaw, but under the scrutiny of the Elders, he relented. “Well, is it not an important question? What does this young man plan to do with such a powerful artifact? What does the Orb of Binding even do? Where did it come from?”

Lucian saw that he would not only have to catch Fergus up, but Cleon, too. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, but when Elder Ytrib nodded his assent, Lucian saw that it was necessary. Even Elder Jalisa would have gaps in her knowledge, because he hadn’t mentioned every detail about his meeting with the Oracle of Binding. Not even Arian’s words would speak to everything she had said.

“I still don’t see what this has to do with me,” Cleon said. “I came to Kiro to escape trouble, not find it.”

“This concerns you,” Elder Sina said. “Remain seated.”

Cleon crossed his arms. It looked like he might bolt, even with Elder Sina’s warning.

“I guess I’ll start at the beginning,” Lucian said.

“Let’s hear it,” Elder Jalisa said. Her dark eyes seemed hungry for knowledge.

So, Lucian started at the very beginning, with the day he found out he was a mage at the League Health Authority. He didn’t understand why he started there, but they didn’t stop him, even as he related details he believed to be extraneous. They seemed surprised that he had met Vera, when he told her about how she was the teacher of Xara Mallis, though none of them made any comment about it. He told them of his short tenure at the Volsung Academy, his quick progress, and how the Transcends had stabbed him in the back, leading to his exile on the Isle of Madness. And there, he told them of his dreams, how he had come across the Orb of Binding, as well as his meeting with the Oracle.

And he told them everything the Oracle had said – about the rise and fall of Starsea. He talked about how the Orbs were there from the beginning, and how wars were fought for them. And that if all of them were held by a single being, it would stop the fraying from rotting the minds and bodies of mages, while making the being that held them immortal.

It was only here that he was interrupted by Fergus. “Impossible.”

Lucian swallowed his anger. He had to be prepared for dealing with objections, because others might be thinking the same thing. “I thought so too, at first. But then she gave the Orb to me, and everything I’ve been able to do since then confirms that I have it. If I didn’t have it, then how is my Binding stream so pure? How can I do these things that would otherwise be impossible? And why would the Sorceress-Queen be so set on finding me?”

Fergus didn’t have an answer for all that, though Lucian wished he did.

Lucian continued his story. He told them about the Vigilants and their ambitions to hold all Seven Orbs, to become the Immortal Emperor, to rebuild Starsea after it had been destroyed by the Swarmers – called by them the Alkasen. There were only two options to stop the fraying and the Alkasen, the cycle of destruction foretold by