Immanent Ascension

“What happened?” he said. “Shouldn’t you report it?”

“No,” Jad whispered. “We’ll get in trouble. Just go find Katayoun and bring her to Enusat’s tent. All she has to do is heal him, and we can forget about this.”

Xerxes was fully awake now. Throwing the blanket off, he said, “Why Kat? Why not….” he trailed off as he considered that their company only had three Balatu mages. Other than Katayoun, they were Kishar —Katayoun’s best friend from the Dumusi starisles— and Ningal, the stick-thin girl.

All of the mages of Black Jackal considered each other friends, but the Swordmasters weren’t close enough to Ningal to trust her with something like this. And if it came down to asking Kishar or Katayoun, it made sense for him to ask Katayoun.

“Never mind,” he said. “I get it.”

Jad reached over with his non-bloody hand and gripped Xerxes’ shoulder. “I knew I could trust you. Remember, Enusat’s tent. Hurry up, he’s in awful shape.”

Jad ducked out of his tent and was gone.

A moment later, Xerxes was out in the open as well. The moon had moved in the sky, and was now setting over the trees, causing most of the camp to be obscured in mottled shadows.

He glanced around to get his bearings, then made his way through the tents.

Weren’t there guards? Where were they? How did Jad and Enusat get past them?

He wasn’t sure, although given the guards were Unsighted it wasn’t that unusual of an accomplishment.

He reached Katayoun’s tent on the other side of the camp. Crouching a few cubits away, he picked up a pebble and prepared to toss it against the side of the tent. No, if she was dead asleep, it wouldn’t be loud enough to wake her. He dropped the pebble and inched up to her tent. There, he used mage touch to untie the flap.

Sticking his head inside, he first confirmed that he had the right tent by making sure the sleeping occupant had red hair, then whispered. “Kat. Kat!”

No response.

Fuck. I can’t go in the tent. Can I?

“Kat!” he said, as loud as possible while still whispering.

No response.

What would happen if he crawled into her tent and then she woke up screaming? It didn’t seem likely, but what if she were the kind of person who had nightmares or something?

He pulled his head out, found another pebble, then leaned halfway into her tent. He tossed the pebble, and it lodged in her hair.

Dammit.

He grabbed a few more pebbles. The second shot worked out better. The tiny pebble hit her cheek.

“Kat.”

He waited for a moment and threw another pebble. She stirred.

“Katayoun!”

Her eyes cracked open. “Wha…?”

“Kat, it’s me Xerk.”

She looked up, saw him, and at full volume said, “Xerk, what—”

“Shhh,” he said, putting his finger to his lips. Now that she was awake, he felt more comfortable slipping into the tent.

“What are you doing?” she said, sitting up.

“Someone’s hurt,” he said. “Enusat. Grab your component pouch.”

“Enusat’s hurt? How?”

“I don’t know. I just know they need help.”

“Did you tell the guards? Or—”

He shook his head curtly. “Kat, they snuck out of the camp. I don’t know what happened. Jad said a spell will fix everything.”

She sat up and shoved a mass of red hair away from her face. “Xerk….”

He could see the hesitation on her face.

“Kat, please. Consider it a favor.”

Her expression was turning from confusion mixed with sleep to something more like… anger.

“You’re asking me to break the rules? And waste melam?”

“Not break the rules,” he said. “Just keep this thing quiet for now.”

She shook her head, and the look in her eyes intensified. “We’re not supposed to cast outside of combat unless we have authorization. I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this.”

He opened his mouth, but the truth was that he was already regretting all of this. “I… it’s not like that….”

“Never mind,” she hissed. “Just get out of my tent. I’ll be out in a minute.”

He ducked out and then glanced around the camp. It seemed still and empty.

It was only then he noticed how cold it was. Wrapping his arms around each other, he rubbed his forearms to bring some warmth to them.

A moment later, Katayoun was out of her tent with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “Which way?”

“Follow me.”

Keeping crouched down as much as possible, he led the way through the tents to where Enusat’s tent was. Jad was crouching outside on his haunches. When he saw them approaching, he let loose a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, Katayoun,” he said. “We owe you big time.”

She didn’t respond.

He pulled open the tent. As Katayoun entered, Xerxes glanced over her shoulder and glimpsed Enusat sitting cross-legged. He had both arms wrapped around his midsection, and was moaning softly.

There was blood. A lot of blood.

How did they plan to clean that up?

The tent flapped closed, and Jad turned to Xerxes. “Thanks, Xerk-man.”

“What the fuck happened?” Xerxes asked.

Jad glanced around, lowered his voice even more and said, “We went to… get information. Some things happened. I’ll explain the details in the morning.”

They heard an indistinct sound from the tent, and Jad pulled aside the flap to look inside. Katayoun brushed past him, then started walking away. Xerxes followed her.

Halfway to her tent, she stopped in her tracks and turned to face him.

“I’m done,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“It was bad enough when you beat up your own best friend. Now you’re coming to me in the night asking me to break the rules? It’s stupid.”

“Kat….”

“Go back to your tent and go to sleep. And just hope that this blows over. Leave me alone from now on.”

Not waiting for him to say anything further, she turned and walked back to her tent.

He stood there in the moonlight for a minute or two as he considered going after her. In the end, he didn’t.

Did she just break up with me? he thought. Nah, she’s just pissed off. I’ll talk some sense to her in the morning.