Chapter 34
Heat
By Monday the duel had become a story, and stories at the Academy moved
the way stories moved anywhere people lived in close proximity with
strong opinions â€" fast, fragmenting, each retelling adding and losing
detail until the event and the account of the event had the same
relationship as a river and its reflection.
He heard five different versions of what had happened in three days.
In one version, he was secretly a Crimson-rank mage hiding his ability â€"
the null result a deliberate misdirection, the Mark a specialized
technique. In another, he was a foreign-trained mage from outside the
kingdom's school system entirely. In a third, he'd been carrying a mana
artefact that had done the work and he'd take his next duel and get
destroyed. The fourth version was closest to accurate but added details
about the duel's duration and damage output that were exaggerated in
ways that served whoever was telling it. The fifth version, circulating
among the Umbros Society, was accurate and quiet and not being told to
anyone outside that circle.
The practical effects were varied.
In his classes, the distance that had surrounded him since the first
week â€" the respectful or contemptuous space that General Cohort
maintained around provisional students â€" had been replaced by something
more complicated. Not respect, exactly. More like recalibration in
progress. Students who had looked past him now looked at him and weren't
sure what they were looking at, and people who weren't sure what they
were looking at tended to watch carefully until they figured it out.
He let them watch.
The combat assessment class was more interesting. The instructor â€" a
no-nonsense Silver-rank woman named Hale who Cyan respected for her
complete indifference to social calculation â€" pulled him aside before
the session.
'Duel result came through this morning,' she said. 'Committee recorded
the technique as Absorption-Type, unclassified. It'll stand in the
record.' She looked at him. 'I want to be straightforward with you. What
you did in that duel is not something I know how to train. I've never
worked with absorption-type abilities. What I can teach you is combat
structure â€" positioning, reading an opponent, knowing when you're in
trouble before you're actually in trouble. The specific application is
yours.'
'That's useful,' he said.
'Good.' She looked at his covered hand. 'Keep the glove on in class.
Less discussion that way.'
He kept the glove on.
The less comfortable effect was the Gold students.
They hadn't confronted him. They hadn't filed anything. They had done
something more precise: they had begun paying attention. He could feel
it â€" the specific quality of Gold-rank attention, which was different
from Silver or Bronze attention in a way he was learning to identify.
More controlled. More patient. The attention of people who had resources
and time and were accustomed to gathering information before acting.
Particularly, Sera Voss's attention.
She hadn't spoken to him since the duel. She had been present at the
edges of several spaces he occupied â€" the library, the main courtyard,
one of the general lecture halls â€" at times that could be coincidence
and probably weren't. She was watching and he knew she was watching and
she knew he knew and neither of them addressed it.
This was fine. He was watching her too.
On Thursday, Dain caught up with him between classes and fell into step
with the particular energy of someone who had information and had been
waiting to deliver it.
'House Valken,' Dain said without preamble.
Cyan looked at him.
'Junior heir is apparently in the city. Not at the Academy â€" in
Valdren's Rest. He's been asking about you.' Dain's tone was
matter-of-fact but his eyes were doing something more careful. 'I have a
contact in the city â€" guild network, someone I know from the Reaches. He
heard through a merchant connection.' He paused. 'I don't know what
House Valken wants with a provisional null-result student, but people
from major noble houses don't ask questions about specific Academy
students without a reason.'
Cyan thought about this.
'How recent?' he asked.
'Questions started about a week before your duel. Which means they were
asking about you before you were notable.'
Which meant they already knew something. Or thought they did.
He filed it. 'Let me know if you hear more.'
'Obviously,' Dain said, and split off toward his next class.
Cyan kept walking and thought about a junior noble heir asking questions
about an errand boy, and how far back the questions might go, and
whether the heat of the Academy's attention was the only heat he was
currently generating.