Tibs felt the weave throughout the guildhall's walls, as he headed for his destination, but could only make out a small part of what it was made of, and he didn't know enough to be sure what those might even do, although he could hazard a guess at the basics.
There was a lot of Earth, and that would be to reinforce the building. Water and Air could be to deflect attacks. Darkness would....what would it do? Wouldn't it weaken the other essences within the weave? If it didn't, then did it weaken the attacks? Serve to make the building harder to find? I was the largest structure in the town; all an attacker had to do was look, and they saw it.
He simply didn't know enough about weaves and essence and the elements.
But he was hoping to fix that now.
He stepped into the training room, where Alistair waited for him.
"I'm glad I didn't have to send a reminder this time," the man said.
"I don't have a lot keeping me busy, now that Sebastian's dead," he replied flatly.
"Now that you killed him, you mean?" his teacher accused him.
"He killed Carina," Tibs snapped hotly, the ice cracking. "And I didn't hide that I'm the one who avenged her."
The man snorted. "Avenged?" He took a breath and his expression softened. "I am sorry that she was killed, Tibs. I truly am. But what you did, it goes beyond avenging her. What you did means you lied to me."
Tibs studied his teacher, trying to determine what he could have discovered. Had he left something behind of what he'd used to free himself from the sorcerers? Was there a residue showing more than one element had been used?
He had the excuses of having used his bracers; Alistair knew about them. If it came down to it, he could blame whatever his teacher had sensed on Sebastian. The man had covered himself in enchanted items; anything could be blamed on them.
"You aren't at the edge of Lambda," Alistair stated. "That's why you didn't want to be tested. Somehow, you've advanced beyond what you should know and you want to keep that from the guild; keep it from me." The pained expression was marred with anger. "Why, Tibs? I've been helping you. I postponed your test so your team would remain intact. Why didn't you trust me with this?"
There was no light on the words, so Alistair hadn't lied. But he'd also stated little of worth. Even if the pain was real, Tibs no longer trusted him. He was guild first and foremost, and like all of them, the only thing he cared about was the guild.
"Where were you when Sebastian raided the town?"
"I was away," Alistair replied confidently, but the words were bright.
"If you'd been here," Tibs continued in spite of knowing the lie, "would you have disobeyed the guild? Come to help us?"
"I..." the light built as Alistair hesitated, then he closed his mouth on the words he'd been about to speak and sighed. "Tibs. It isn't that simple." No light this time. Not that it mattered.
"No, of course it isn't," Tibs stated. "I'm sure it took the guild a long time to decide guarding the dungeon was more important than protecting the town that stood between it and Sebastian. That it was our job to protect it, that taking the noble's coins and protecting them was worth the sacrifice to the guilds so important principles... or does taking coins come before anything else for you? The way the gang leaders from my Street did? How long did it take them to decide protecting the guild mean letting the Everburn splash onto the town, when there were other ways to stop that? Well, you were away," he said mockingly, "so you didn't have to watch as your guild threw us and the townsfolk away." His expression hardened. "So don't ask me to be nice to them. To temper my word for yours and they comfort. I'm here to be trained, nothing else. So teach me about weaving essence."
"You aren't ready, Tibs," Alistair said dismissively.
"How do you know?" Tibs snorted. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."
"You can't do as much as you think you can." Alistair was amused. "What you did to that man tells me you've grown in power, Tibs. But what we do is about more than power. It's about control. That, I don't think you've gained since our last training session."
"You're one to talk about control and what I've gained. You didn't even know amulets could be used as reserves until I showed you."
"I never needed—"
"Exactly. You never needed anything, while I've had to fight for everything!" Tibs stopped himself, found the cracks his growing anger had caused, and filled them with ice. "Having more essence means you don't need control."
"That's a fighter's way of thinking, Tibs," Alistair said, disappointed. "We're rogues. We have to be cleverer than them, because they'll always have more power that us. You'll be hard pressed to find one fighter who does more with their essence than make themselves or their weapons harder and stronger. They're a reason they'll pick Earth and Metal. Even those who chose Crystal hardly do anything clever with it."
"Aren't there fighters for all the elements? Harry's Light."
"I said you'll be hard pressed, Tibs. Not that you'll never find one. How does the fighter on your team use his element?"
Wastefully, Tibs thought. "That doesn't change things. More power means I don't need as much control."
"What do you think weaving is, Tibs?" Alistair demanded. "You think it's just about pouring more and more essence into something? It's called weaving because of the fabric weavers. Have you looked at the clothes you wear? Those designs at the cuffs, are they just more and more threads pushed together?"
"Teach me, and I'll make it happen," Tibs demanded.
"No." The shake of the head was sad. "I don't care how much you've increased your reserve. How quickly you can pull essence into it as you use it, or how many amulets you have secreted on yourself. If you don't have control, I'll be wasting my time."
"I can have control!" Tibs snarled, the ice cracking.
Alistair's smile was filled with satisfaction. "Then show me. Land one strike against me." He crossed his arms over his chest. "And I'll teach you essence weaving."
Tibs forced more ice in the cracks as he placed a hand on the pommel of his knife. "What can I use? An essence attack? Does it have to be my fists?"
Alistair shrugged. "Either, or your sword, or something else."
Tibs flicked his knife and the jet of water flew at the other rogue without him having to think about it, only for it to deflect to the side at the raising of Alistair's eyebrow.
"Really?" the man asked.
Tibs formed his sword and the jaggers spikes grew, with the cracking of ice, into an uneven edge. Alistair shook his head, the disappointment clear on his face. Tibs recalled his teacher's talk of anger, and how it caused his sword to look like this, instead of it being because Tibs like the fear it engendered. Tibs smiled, tapped the tip on the floor, and with more crackling, the jagged pieces fell off, leaving a smooth and straight blade.
"I'm glad you've at least gained that much control, Tibs. But you haven't landed a blow yet."
Tibs ran, swung, and was shoved aside, barely remaining on his feet. All that registered was a flash of Alistair's knife and essence, but neither had come close to him. He hadn't noticed the details of what the man had done.
He rushed again, and this time Alistair stepped aside as casually as if Tibs was passerby he disliked.
With a snarl, Tibs send a wave of essence, the water forming a wall that distorted the man, who drew his knife and, with a few flourishes trailing essence, parted the wall before it was close to him. Tibs send another, then another, and each parted to a slice of that knife.
With the next one, Tibs threw a knife and smiled as Alistair reflexively moved his arm to block it. All he needed was to make contact, and that would—
The air behind the parting water crystalized before the arm into clear ice as intricate as any gems the nobles wore. It shattered as the knife impacted it, but also sent it careening aside.
Tibs stared, then attacked. Waves of water mixed with shards of ice. He even tried to encase the man in ice, but he stepped aside before it formed, or shattered what Tibs formed with a flick of his knife that trailed essence.
Tibs gritted his teeth, but in annoyance and at the strain of having to fill the constantly appearing cracks.
Etching. His teacher was stopping Tibs strongest attack with simple etchings. From talks with Carina, he'd gotten the sense that etching was weak, something Runners did until they learned weaving; not something to depend on, the way Alistair was right now.
He sent a wave and ran behind it, sword high. When Alistair parted it, Tibs brought the blade down hard. His teacher smiled and barely moved. The blade slid aside just before making contact. Tibs reversed the attack, but Alistair was landing out of reach.
Tibs formed water on the floor around Alistair and he flicked jet after jet to force the man to split his focus. He iced the patches as he ran, but Alistair kept his footing on the ice. He formed a patch of ice and dropped to his knee, sliding under the last of the jets, sword extended, ready to cut his teacher's legs out from—
The abrupt stop sent Tibs face first on the stone floor and the pain was followed by water falling on him. He groaned and pushed himself up, only to drop. He hadn't realized how tired he'd become. He had ample essence, but all he could do for the moment was keep the ice within him from cracking.
A few seconds to catch his breath. Channel Purity only long enough to get his stamina back and—
"This is what control lets you do, Tibs."
He looked at his teacher, who stood well out of reach.
"Wielding all that power comes at the cost of exhaustion. Control lets you find ways around that."
"You used etching," Tibs accused him, panting.
Alistair smiled. "I used all the tools I needed to teach you this lesson. It doesn't matter how powerful you are, Tibs; how vast an adventurer's reserve is. Control and cleverness will always come up with a way to get the upper hand."
"I want," Tibs said, painting angrily, no longer able to keep the cracks filled, "to learn to etch."
His teacher crouched before him. "Yes, I think you've reached the point where I can teach you that. But there will be rules, Tibs. No more lying to me about what you can do. I know you don't like the guild, and I understand why, but I am your ally here."
Alistair's words were without light, but that didn't mean Tibs had to believe him. "Fine. I'll tell you everything I've figured out how to do," Tibs lied.
* * * * *
Tibs frowned as he watched tents being put up behind where the townsfolk were still working on the buildings.
"Tibs," Sto asked. "What's going on?"
The tents were of various sizes, reminding him of what Kragle Rock had looked like before buildings went up there.
He made sure no was close and whispered, "I think the new runners are going to arrive soon."
"Yes! That means you'll be doing runs soon."
"Why? Are you getting hungry?"
"What? No, of course not. That isn't how—oh, right." Tibs heard the smile. "Because you all refer to me absorbing those who fail the tests as eating them. No, that's still fine. So long as I don't do too much work, I don't 'get hungry'. I'm just bored. Ganny says that by this point, dungeons have so many runners there's always people in them."
"You mean they don't all close their doors at night?"
"Ganny?" Sto called. "Do I have to close my door like I've been doing?"
"Don't you want some time to rest?" she answered, her voice gaining strength. "Hi Tibs."
"Don't you think I've gotten enough rest at this point?" Sto replied.
"Okay, then, are you done making adjustments to the floors?"
Sto snorted.
"There you go. You can't do that when people are inside."
"Of course I can. All I have to do is block off the parts where... Okay, I see how not having anyone inside makes things simpler. Still, I could leave it open when I don't have anything to do."
"People like things to be regular," Ganny said. "If they can't tell when you're going to let them in or not, they're going to get irritable."
Runners wouldn't care, but Tibs saw how it would make scheduling the runs more difficult for the guild.
"So that's why you insisted I did it for the same length of time each time."
"That and in an attempt to get you to understand how time works. I can't believe anyone else is having this hard of a time getting their dungeon to understand such a simple concept."
"Do you understand time, Tibs?" Sto asked.
He waited until those walking by were far enough and whispered. "I know how to count it, well, how to tell it by where the sun is. Or where Claria and Torus are at night. I think void essence has something to do with it."
"That's...interesting," Sto said. "The sun, Claria, and Torus aren't within my area of senses, Ganny, so don't bother bringing them up. What about time is part of void? I have plenty of that and never noticed it doing anything with time."
"Like you'd know if it did," Ganny mumbled.
"You'd have told me, and tried to get me to match with how people do it."
"I'm not sure," Tibs whispered. "Carina said that adventurers who have void as their elements sometime end up being aware of time in different order."
"I wonder how that happens," Sto mused.
"And I'm going to say we wait until you have a better handle on that essence before you try anything."
"Why are you making such a big deal of me losing a room?" Sto asked.
"I'm not making a big deal of you losing the room," she replied. "I'm making a big deal of what's there in its place."
"How do you lose a room?" Tibs asked.
"Go on," Ganny urged in the silence. "Tell him."
Sto sighed. "I don't know how I did it. I was experimenting with doorways, seeing if I could build a puzzle like those Ganny made on the third floor, but with them instead. I set them inside a room because, unlike what someone thinks, I'm not stupid enough to do that in the open and... Well, when I activated the whole thing, the room just wasn't there anymore." Ganny sighed in exasperation. "Fine, there was something else in its place and we had to make changes to that part of the fourth floor because I couldn't make it go away. Happy now?"
"How can part of something inside the mountain, inside you, be something you don't know or can't move?"
"And," Ganny said, "That's why I say we aren't experimenting with void anymore."