Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Tibs observed the crowd from next to the food table, sensing the essence among them. Two of the attendees had an element, a woman in a red silken shirt and pants had earth, while a somber man had an element Tibs didn't know, the tints was almost like metal, but he could tell it wasn't it, as if it had a sheen to it he couldn't quite perceive. Both were below Epsilon, in spite of looking at the others as if they were superior to anyone here.

Everyone at Epsilon or above worked for the guild. The guards against the walls and the servers walking among the attendees with trays. They offered food and drinks for those who were beneath walking to the long table with all the foods. Tibs had eaten some. They were okay. The drinks were too strong for his liking. There didn't seem to be one tankard anywhere, or ale.

Tirania had gathered these people because she considered them important and powerful. It was another reminder to Tibs that power didn't always work the way he thought it did. Too few of them had an element for that to make them powerful, and while he didn't know how many coins these people had, he'd been in enough noble's houses to know not all of them had as many coins as they acted like they did. Some of the merchants on the Row had more than a few in the noble's quarters, even if they still, somehow, had less power.

When living on his Street, Tibs had thought power meant physical strength. He hadn't had that, so cunning had been his strength, but it hadn't given him power. He'd known coins were a form of power because the nobles spent some on guards, the way those with enough slivers paid thugs to enforce their will.

Once he found out about elements and what essence did, he decided that was power. That it was how the guild could do everything it did. What the guild got away with certainly supported that belief.

But Sebastian had showed Tibs coins could bring more than physical strength. He had used his to get people to act to his advantage without ever using thugs. Coins could change people's minds, as if by magic.

The nobles of Kragle Rock had showed Tibs status was also a power in and of itself. Quite a few got their way purely with that, as they didn't have the coins they acted like they did.

All of it was strange, but he had to learn to see it so he could work out how to make use of it.

Tibs sensed the man with metal as his element approach before he became visible, and he tried to work out what was different in his essence that let Sto know Irdian was suffusing himself. He could sense how dense it was, above Gamma, but there were no details there. The essence was just throughout all his channels. He tried to remember if Don's essence had felt different once he'd suffused himself, but other than sensing it happen, Tibs had been more interested in the interactions between him and the representative.

Irdian came to a stop before Tibs and studied him. Tibs returned the look.

"Don't think any of this is about you," Irdian stated, then took a goblet of water from the table. There weren't many of them, no one else seemed interested in drinking water, and like every other goblet, they had a weave through them composed mainly of water essence that kept the liquid cold. "You're just her pawn."

"Why does that matter to you?"

"Just reminding you of your place." He sipped his goblet. "I don't want you to think you're more powerful than you are and reach so high your fall's going to pull down your friends with you."

"Don't threaten my friends," Tibs said casually. "Sebastian did."

"I don't make threats," the commander replied just as casually.

Tibs filled cracks in the ice. "Isn't it dangerous? Having all those powerful people in here?" He might as well see what useful information he could get from the man. "All in this one room in the building? What if one of their enemies finds out and gets an assassin among their retinue?" Tibs could tell quite a few of the people in attendance deferred to the same person.