All The Skills

After a moment of consideration, Arthur placed the Wind Release card in his card anchor.

"That's not going to do you any good," Echo said and for good measure added, "Dummy."

"Uh, it needs to go in your heart to unlock the mana," Marion added, slightly kinder.

"Not unless you want that spell to eat away at your life force every time you use it," Penn added, smirking.

Arthur looked at him. "What does that mean, exactly? My life force."

"What do you mean?" Echo asked. "It's your life. Duh."

Arthur forcefully reminded himself that she was a twelve-year-old girl, and a princess. It was not appropriate to snap back at her. "If I do this--"

"Aim towards the bushes!" Marion yelped, seeing what Arthur was about to do.

Arthur held out his palm away from the others, toward the bushes, and concentrated a small amount onto his palm.

At least, he thought it was a small amount.

It felt like the air was punched out of him. At the same time, something invisible yet indefinable shot out of his palm. A bush a half dozen yards away bent over sideways before springing back, minus a few loose leaves.

Penn and Marion both yelled -- voices overlapping with one another.

Marion wanted him to be careful of damaging the bounds of the arcane spell. Penn just called him an idiot.

Shaking his hand out, Arthur ignored them. He felt out of breath, like he had just run up three flights of stairs. A cold sensation on his forehead and his pits told him he had worked up an instant sweat, too.

Other than that, he wasn't worse for wear.

"So?" His voice had a bit of a pant to it as he turned back to the others. "Did that just shorten my overall life by a few minutes?"

Penn slapped him upside the head. "How are you this dumb?"

"No... I think he has a point." Marion frowned at Arthur. "I've never thought about it before. Is life force a single well someone can draw from, or is it temporary and renewable?"

"Why does it matter?" Echo asked. "Everyone has a card to unlock mana so you don't have to worry about that." She wrinkled her nose at Arthur. "What kind of a household lets their scions leave their estates without one?"

Penn answered that for her. "Kane's from a small border barony. Gets most of his wealth off the backs of condemned families. It's a miracle they could even afford one Legendary card, much less two."

"Two?" Marion asked.

Arthur shrugged, though he wondered at the distaste he'd heard in Penn's voice. Did he know that his uncle and cousin had been sent to one of those towns. Did he care?

"My family had an incident some years back--bandits stole a Legendary card from my father. Trust me, the one I had came at a price." He darkened his voice and hoped no one would ask further.

"Oh, you're that Kane... uh, ahem." Marion hastily cleared his throat and then shook his head. "In any case, how do you feel now?"

Arthur paused a second to check himself. "Fine."

"I suspect using that card is a temporary draw from your vitality, rather from you... uh... borrowing time from your future," Marion said. "But best not to push it."

"Or you can just stick it in your heart," Penn said. "What's the problem?"

"It doesn't fit any of my other cards," Arthur said. "I can use it as a temporary surprise. Then when I get back, I can trade it for something better." A real mana card, or better yet, a combat card.

"When are we going back?" Echo asked.

Arthur looked to the sky. The only dragons in sight were small, far-off silhouettes flying around the other side of the eruption point.

Weren't there usually hundreds in the sky during an eruption? Then again, he wasn't seeing new scourglings thrown from the top of the cone. Perhaps the excitement was dying down and the remaining dragons were flying low on mop-up duty.

But that didn't feel right.

Where were the rips in the sky? He looked up and realized for the first time that they, and the high shimmer dragons who manned them, were closed.

"Where are the dragons?" he asked, interrupting Penn and Marion who were batting back and forth the idea of returning to the city or not.

Everyone looked at him and he pointed upward. "Right, I forgot you guys only see the fog. The hives have stopped bringing dragons in. No, wait..." He turned and peered back to the cone.

The dragons he thought were darting around the sharp top of the cone had even smaller silhouettes to his eye.

They were flying away. Directly away.

"They're running," Arthur said. "They've all gone."

"No, that can't be right. If the dragons were gone, we'd be drowning in scourglings" Penn said.

"Uh, we just fought a whole bunch of them a few minutes ago," Echo said.

Arthur shook his head. "Those were just the dregs. I've seen more at one time before, at a different eruption. I thought they were just the ones that escaped the dragons, but...There's more. The eruption has stopped."

Penn stared toward the direction of the cone, one hand clutching his sword hilt. "When does a scourge eruption just... stop? They aren't supposed to do that, are they?"

Everyone looked to Arthur, who shrugged. "I didn't stick around for the last one."

Echo spoke up. "What if the scourgelings are hiding?"

Penn huffed a dismissive laugh and Arthur half-smiled. That smile faded as he thought more about it. Marion looked disturbed, too.

"Something's wrong," Arthur said.

"We knew that already, Kane," Penn snapped.

"I mean, really, really wrong."

"Yes," he growled. "The only thing half of us can see is fog, and either you're under some new delusion or the dragons have left us. Something is wrong but whining about it isn't going to help!"

Arthur opened his mouth to object he wasn't whining.

Echo interrupted him by striding over and touching Marion's arm. "Could you...?"

Marion rubbed his mouth. "I don't know if it's a good idea. I'll be useless afterward."

"What are you two talking about?" Penn demanded.

Marion and Echo exchanged a glance that seemed to contain an entire conversation. They might only be half siblings, and possibly rivals to the throne, but they were close.

Finally, Marion sighed. "I have a card that might be useful."

He paused.

Everyone stared at him.

"And?" Penn demanded.

"It... enhances other cards to the power of five," Marion said. "It's a once-a-day Rare, but I'll be dead on my feet afterward. The headache is abominable," he added. "You might have to literally carry me."

"I can do that, with your permission," Arthur said. "It's a storage power. But what is the point..." he trailed off. "How many seconds can you see ahead? You are going to use it on your Legendary, right?"

Marion smiled though it came out a little sickly looking. "I always knew you were smart. I can see about five seconds ahead."

"Five to the power of five..." He bent, grabbed a stick and started working the math. "Five times five times five times five times five... that's 3125 seconds. Divide by 60... About 52 minutes ahead. Roughly. Wow." He looked at Marion. "You can see a little under an hour ahead if you use this?"

Only then did he realize everyone was staring at him. "What?"

"Tell me you have a math card," Echo muttered.

He had an arithmetic skill. One that didn't even level for that easy work. "I like math," Arthur said, defensively.

Marion snorted. "Yeah, you're right. It'll give me an hour to look ahead. But I can't promise I'll see anything interesting. We might just be standing here for the next hour under this camouflage charm. And... the further away I move from the future, the less stable it is."

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked.

"The future splits if someone makes a different choice," Marion said. "Most of the time what I see is accurate. I'm only a few seconds ahead, so when there's a split, I pick the most likely choice. But I can be wrong. An hour ahead?" he shrugged. "The future isn't set in stone."

"Huh." Arthur eyed him. "Normally, I'd say that's a good thing. I don't like the idea of a future set in stone--"

Penn made a chopping gesture between them as if to physically cut the conversation. "You two can talk about time and philosophy later. Marion, use the card. Anything is better than sitting here navel gazing. Kane will take care of you if you faint afterward."

"Who made you leader?" Echo demanded.

Penn glared at the girl. "Anyone have a better idea?"

They looked at each other, but no one offered up anything. Arthur didn't appreciate Penn's high-handedness, but he didn't disagree.

He also didn't want to order Marion. It was his card in his deck. He should be the one to know when to use it.

"Fine." Marion took a deep breath then another, closing his eyes.

Arthur half expected... something. More arcane gestures, glittering lights, or for Marion to whip a card dramatically out of his anchor tattoo and yell out its power...

But since both cards were apparently in his heart deck, Marion could access them at a thought.

So he stood there, and the only indication something was happening was that his eyes tracked back and forth under his lids.

"Oh shit," Marion said. "Oh SHIT." He threw his arm up as if to stop something.

"What?" Penn demanded. "What is it?"

"Bad split. But I don't think it's likely. Let me try. Oh... Oh shit!"

His eyes flew open. He seemed to stare at them and past them at the same time. "We need to run. We need to go. Now! And don't listen to it!" He slapped his hands over his ears. "Lalalalala!"

"He's gone mad," Penn breathed.

But Arthur had a very bad feeling about this. Barlow had said the escaped scourgelings had captured those scholars... by singing.

"He's not mad, he's still in the future." Echo stepped up to her brother. "Marion! Marion, come back!" She shook him, which had quite the effect considering she was still in her fighting form.

Marion stopped. "That was a bad split..."

"Are there anymore?" Arthur asked, anxiously. "Do you see bat-looking scourglings?"

Marion didn't answer. "The third... but it's brightening by the second." His skin looked paler by the second. Arthur couldn't tell if it was fear or usage of the card catching up to him. "It's my father, the king. If he comes... he'll raze this whole place to the ground."