NOVEL NEXT 11 - You Have to Keep This Secret
Ellen and I had argued as the timer ticked down.
It had gotten…heated.
She'd raised some good points; a lot of A and S-Rankers had familiars, but they were all Earth animals, and while they helped, they always played a supporting role. A mage might gain access to a smaller reserve Mana pool, or a tank's familiar could assist with taunting monsters onto them.
But, according to Ellen—who'd done the research for her own build—people had used monsters as familiars before. The mechanics were similar to animal familiars, too. And while the Serpentkin Broodwatcher had been E-Rank, and whatever hatched from the eggs would probably be E as well, familiars leveled. It was possible that the monsters that hatched from these eggs could scale with us and act more like combat allies than non-combat support pets. How likely was it? No one knew. But Ellen thought it would work, and I believed her.
There was just one problem.
Technically, any live monsters needed to be killed before they were removed from a portal; if they weren't, it was considered a portal break. I'd wanted to smash them both, or just leave them. They were a threat—a danger to both Jessie and to the rest of Phoenix. And if we brought them through, we'd be contributing to a possible portal break, depending on whether eggs counted as monsters.
That was the kind of thing that could get you thrown in jail—and Ellen didn't have a good answer for that. She said she was working on one, though. If other delvers had done it before, there had to be evidence somewhere. She'd hit the archives and get back to me when she knew more. I was planning on doing my own digging if I could find the time.
Ellen also said we had at least a month and a half before the eggs hatched. That meant we had plenty of time to figure this out.
And there was something tempting about it. Ellen had a point about the portal monster familiar. It'd be complicated, and it'd require an adjustment to my build—if it was even possible. I'd need to change out Stormfeather Scriptologist for…something else. I didn't know what yet, because the dark gray egg sitting under my sink was brand new, and until I got a chance to visit the Governing Council's archives and talk to Ellen, I couldn't possibly know how my build would change.
Just that it would.
I grabbed my old notebook and scribbled out Stormfeather Scriptologist. Then I looked at the two open skills in my final build. There was no point in trying to merge two skills; their possible cap wouldn't improve, and it added unnecessary complexity to an already-difficult path. I took my pen and added Brendan's Hymnal and Energy Font to the two open slots for now. Then I wrote 'Familiar Merge' next to the open, B-Rank merge.
Ellen and I had been texting. We were co-conspirators now, and as co-conspirators, we'd gone from sparring partners to ad-hoc teammates to, at least to her, close friends in less than three days. When Jessie came home, I'd had to ask Ellen to stop. It had been way too much going on, and I needed to keep this secret.
So, now I had this gigantic, gunmetal-gray egg wrapped in towels under the sink in a studio apartment. With my sister. Who was inevitably going to find it at some point.
I thought I'd thought this through in the E-Rank dungeon a handful of hours ago, but I hadn't. I really, really hadn't.
And I couldn't do that thinking now, because Jessie had a sheet of paper and wouldn't stop waving it in my face. "This is the field trip permission slip. It's to S'edav Va'aki. That's not that far from here. You could take your own bus, or come to school with me. I'd rather you go separately."
I carefully wrestled the paper from her and set it on the counter while he practically bounced out of his shoes. Then I nodded slowly. "What do you mean, 'take my own bus?' Wait. Now you want to go? You're suddenly interested in ancient history?"
"Yeesss?" Jessie stopped for a second. She looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, that's definitely it. But my teacher wants you around in case, you know…"
"In case you have a flare-up?" It wasn't the first time Mom or Dad had been asked to be there, but it would be mine.
"Yeah."
"I'll go," I said. Jessie broke into a grin, and I held up a hand. "Under two conditions. First, I need help around here. This place never recovered from my hospital trip. I don't blame you—you had a lot on your mind and more going on—but I need your help to get it back in shape. Chores help."
Her face, which had started looking hopeful, collapsed into despair. Then she steeled her face and nodded. "If you agree to chaperone my trip…I'll clean the bathroom and kitchen area for a week."
"Two."
Until the field trip?" she asked, looking for any out she could find.
I nodded. "And the other condition is…who's the lucky guy?"
Jessie blushed. "It's not like—"
"Jessie, I'm not that much older than you. I remember being the lucky guy a few times. You can't bullshit me." She flushed even redder, and I backed off—a little. "I'm happy for you. You've been pretty lonely ever since…"
"Yeah." Then the floodgates opened. "He's a good guy, so please, please, please don't pull any of that protective-older-brother-threatens-boy stuff, and we're not even dating, we've just been talking a little, but he wants to go slow, and he seems really interested in me, not just doing the pity party routine. No one's ever been really interested before, and—"
I raised a hand to cut her off. "I'm not gonna do any of that. I just want to know who he is so I can say hi."
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She relaxed. Not much, but a little. "His name's Stephen. He's into computers, too."
"Okay." I stuck out my hand, wincing a little as the bandages pulled on my scabs. Delvers healed fast, but not that fast. "You can tell them I'll go. I'll even give you some space while we're there. I ordered a treat for dinner. Pizza. Today's delve went well."
"Sounds good," Jessie said. She collapsed onto her bed and opened her laptop, and before long, she was typing away. I sat on the edge of her mattress and turned on the TV.
After my system awakened, I'd gotten much more interested in the news. S-Rank delvers were like superheroes, but even the guild leaders hadn't caught my interest before then, and most of the news had at least a little about the Carlsbad portal break, or the Iron Falcons out of Tucson causing trouble, or some sort of guild-related drama. And the big S-Ranks were usually in the middle of it.
But over the last year, I'd developed an interest in what was happening, and with my build starting to click a little better, I could see myself hitting A-Rank. My build had the potential to reach S, but according to every S-Ranker, the skill breakthrough from A to S was brutally slow. But A-Rank? That was possible. And so I needed to know about the conflicts between the Portal Dragons and the Roadrunners, or who the Governing Council was leaning on for more support.
And that meant watching the news for half an hour a day, when I could. So, as Jessie started complaining about her English homework, I did exactly that.
The pizza would take about half an hour, anyway.
The pizza arrived just as Jessie complained for the fourth time about being hungry. Sometimes, she could be an insatiable machine that turned all our food into way too much energy with no way to burn it off, but even so, I understood. I'd been there when I was her age, before Dad died.
After I grabbed the pizza and we sat down at the counter to eat, I let myself relax. The egg was hidden, my sister was distracted with food, and I'd finally managed to contribute more than a couple of buffs to a portal team. I had money in the bank. Not much, but some. Things were looking up for the first time since my system had come to life. I was on track.
I folded the thin pepperoni slice in half like Dad had taught me and took a bite. The tomato sauce was still hot enough to be uncomfortable. Jessie was ripping into her slice, not worrying about the mess.
I'd been a senior—about to graduate, in fact—and Jessie had nearly finished eighth grade. Almost a year ago, just before her fifteenth birthday. The portal had been in a gap between the Tyrants' territory and the Governing Council's. No one had even realized it was there. And it had broken so quickly, spilling centipedes the size of crocodiles out onto the street right across from our house.
We'd only had a minute's warning.
And when it was all over and teams from the Coyotes, the Portal Dragons, and the Governing Council had cleared the portal, only three people were dead.
Dad was one of them. Stormbreak had killed the other two.
He hadn't even been my real dad—just Jessie's. But he'd been treating me like his own son, and over the fifteen years we'd known each other, he'd stepped up enough to earn the title. He was better than my real one had ever been.
And Jessie…
Jessie had seen it all. She'd been in her bed, at home. She'd seen the bugs. She'd seen Dad try to fight them with his C-Ranked skills. And she'd seen me use Stormbreak. What it had done to me, and to other people. The aftermath. It hadn't hit her, thank god. She'd been shielded from the worst of it, but…
I took another bite of pizza, chewing hard enough for my jaw to hurt. It was cool; how long had I been sitting there?
Refocusing took effort. The egg kept weighing on my mind. According to Ellen, the egg under the counter wasn't due to hatch for a while. She said she'd dig into how long it took snake and lizard eggs to hatch, and we could do some testing to figure out how far along the monster inside was. She was going to look into build options when she could, too. But until then, it was a dagger pointed at my sister.
But it was also an opportunity to get stronger, and I'd been playing with dangerous powers for a long time. And a dagger could cut both ways. It all depended on the wielder's skill. Or their skills.
Waiting for Ellen wasn't an option; I needed to take the initiative myself. I grabbed my phone.
Kade: Let's meet at the library on Monday. We need to figure this out.
Ellen: Agreed. 9:15? Peoria?
Kade: 9:30. I'm 45 away.
Ellen: See you then.
With that weight off of me, I finished my three slices before Jessie could get her hands on them.
My phone buzzed.
Jeff: Kade, are you available tomorrow? Carlos's family is having his funeral, and I thought you might want to be there. I think Sophia's going to be there as well. It's at one, at his old community center.
Jeff: I could use some help.
I wasn't sure I wanted to be there. After all, I was the one who'd killed Carlos. Stormbreak had started the collapse that had crushed him, and the skill's damage had only made his death quicker. I didn't want to have to explain what happened to his mom and dad…or his wife.
But it wasn't about me. Jeff needed someone there he knew, and who knew what had happened. And it looked like it'd be me.
Kade: Okay. I'll be there.
Jeff: Great. I'll send you the address.
Jessie was staring at the cabinet under the sink, a can of counter-cleaner in her hand, with the door open.
"Shit," I mumbled.
"Hey, Kade, what's this?" she asked.
I walked over, trying to think. I really, really hadn't thought this through. I was better than this—except, apparently, when I wasn't.
And there it was.
The egg. Gunmetal gray—a mix of black and blue swirls—tucked in between light pastel towels. It was tucked under the U-bend in the pipes, right where I'd left it.
Jessie stared at it, then at me. Her head cocked to the side like it did when she was about to ask a question.
"You can know about it," I said, "but no one else can. You have to keep this secret, because I did something dumb, but I think it'll pay off."
Jessie nodded seriously, then reached out and shut the cabinet door. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah. Okay." She smiled. "I trust you, Kade."
And I tried to relax—but that was tough, knowing that the egg's safety, and mine, now rested in the hands of my sister. And it was tougher with the knowledge that if she got hurt, it'd be my fault, and that it would be because she trusted me.
"But I want two days off the chores I owe you!"
Carter Richards was on the fast track to A-Rank, and life in the Roadrunners guild was good.
Sure, he was only E-Rank, but the build he'd gotten from Terrance Reed, the Roadrunners' A-Rank build specialist and fighter, was a doozy. A full four merges, and with guild support? Unbelievable, and it was all thanks to his lucky Unique skill, Frostburn Volley. It let him be both an archer and a part-time support for his team.
And the other three were definitely his team. He'd hand-picked them to complement what he brought to the table, made sure they got cores at the same rate he did, and checked up on them even when they weren't running portals together. There'd been a little conflict with Lizzie, the team's mage. But that was behind them now.
They were a team.
And Deborah had just texted him with a way to accelerate his team's growth. It wasn't, strictly speaking, by the book, but the A-Rank Roadrunner ran A Team One, and Carter wasn't anywhere near stupid enough to turn down a chance at faster power.
He might be E-Rank now, but Carter would do anything to get to A. That was where the power was. Where the real luxury was.
All he had to do to realize that was look at Deborah and Terrance. He was on his way to her place—and her private A-Rank gym—to figure out the details of what she wanted him to do. It wasn't the kind of thing you shared by text, but it was the kind of thing that'd get Carter to A-Rank.
And that was what was important.