Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 38 - Isn’t That What You Expected to Happen?

The walls to The Collector’s city were absurdly large. Xavier craned his neck all the way back and peered up at the top. The battlements above were so high he couldn’t see them with his Farscope lens.

Xavier’s spiritual sense washed over everything. He ceased the cycling of his eight energies and narrowed his focus to Reality, Celestial, and Spirit Energy—all of which increased the power of his spiritual sense with the appropriate cycling patterns.

He’d burned a good amount of Reality Energy during his sword fight with Palini Damascus when he’d dragged the men into the Roving Seed Base. He’d managed to regain some of what he’d lost, but he still only had a little over half of his normal reserve.

A problem for later.

As his spiritual sense expanded, Xavier drew in a deep breath. The number of details he was able to feel with his spiritual sense had increased dramatically over his years of using it.

It wasn’t only the Denizens high up on the battlements he could sense, nor the Denizens on the other side of the wall going about their daily lives—whatever those lives might entail—he also sensed the protections etched into those walls.

Perceiving runes normally wasn’t a function of spiritual sense. At least, not according to any of the literature on the subject he’d been able to find. They were generally considered two separate states of perception, as Denizens without the ability to inscribe typically weren’t able to sense runes and a rune’s connection to the universe.

Xavier was able to slip into his normal spiritual sense with ease, and he could do the same for what he’d began calling his “rune sense.” But as his rune sense didn’t stretch as far as his spiritual sense, he’d spent time learning how to sense runes with his normal spiritual sense.

So he felt the runes in the very walls of the city and was able to identify every single one and what their function were.

“There’s a portal lock on the city,” Xavier said. “We wouldn’t have been able to make a portal directly inside.”

“How did you…” Palini frowned. “That’s not something we had intelligence on.”

Xavier inclined his head. There was so much that he could feel in those runes. Runes, the longer he worked with them, the more he experimented with them, the more he attained a sense for what they did, especially what different combinations did.

In the containment room, he’d needed all his focus to handle the problem of being suppressed, so he hadn’t spent time examining the runes in the walls.

Here, he could put his full concentration toward the task.

Xavier and Palini were standing fifty feet away from the main gate to the city. Thousands of people were lined up awaiting entry, and there were several dozen guards checking every person before they went through. When they’d first arrived here, inside their time dilation field, Palini had been shifting from foot-to-foot, clearly not used to the feeling of being surrounded by potential enemies yet at the same time being completely apart from them.

The shifting had stopped after less than a minute, but the man still looked wary, his gaze moving from one gate guard to another.

After a thorough examination of the runes, Xavier pointed at a spot five feet ahead of them. To his spiritual sense, there was a curved barrier there, one that stretched upward over the tall walls and rounded the entirety of the city inside a huge dome.

To the naked eye, there was nothing unusual there at all.

“That’s where the city’s protections start,” Xavier said. “We pass that spot, the time dilation field disintegrates, the guards become aware of our presence.”

“Then The Collector becomes aware.” Palini stared at the spot Xavier pointed to, clearly wanting to ask how he knew the protections started there. “So how do we get in without tripping it?”

Xavier tilted his head to one side. “Well…” He peered at Palini. The man was under his Time Alteration spell, but not the one using it. If Xavier pushed the spell forward across that line, Palini should be able to step over… shouldn’t he?

He analysed the runes in the walls again. His spiritual sense wasn’t hindered by the protections, but that didn’t mean this would work.

The longer Xavier analysed the runes, the more unsure he became. He strongly suspected that if he pushed the time dilation field across that barrier it would have the same effect as if he’d stepped over it himself.

A strong part of him advocated not worrying about this problem. So what if he alerted his enemy of his presence? Xavier came here to kill The Collector. The man was going to know he was here soon enough.

But that kind of impatience didn’t serve him. There was no need taking the easy, reckless way when he had all the time in the Greater Universe to consider his options. Besides, this problem was nothing more than a puzzle that needed solving.

Xavier found he liked puzzles.

“Well… What?” Palini asked. “You kind of drifted off there.”

Xavier waved a hand at the man and continued his train of thought.

There were several ways he could test what he needed to test. With thousands of Denizens lining up to get inside the city, he could easily control one of their minds and have them cast a spell across the barrier to see how it affected them, and taking them into the time dilation field would mean it wouldn’t take any longer to test…

He rejected that idea. These people didn’t deserve the violation that was him using Willpower Infusion on them.

The second option was drawing up a Time Alteration spell pattern and having that encompass him and Palini. He could step over the line without any of his cooldowns being affected, then activate Time Alteration again on the other side.

That was tempting. Perhaps the most promising of his options.

He was a moment away from doing just that when he stopped himself. Runes, though an incredibly huge part of Xavier’s path, weren’t his main focus. And, despite being creative in other ways, he wasn’t nearly as creative with them as Rebecca and Miranda.

He tapped his foot on the cobblestones that surrounded the area outside the city walls and wondered what they would say if they were here right now—especially Rebecca. That girl—woman, now—always saw these things in interesting ways.

What if the runes aren’t the problem? he heard Rebbeca’s voice say, as though she were standing beside him staring at the same wall. What if they’re the solution?

A slow smile spread across Xavier’s face.

“A puzzle indeed,” he muttered.

Palini just stared at him with curiosity.

Two things occurred to Xavier as he began thinking outside the box. While drawing a Time Alteration spell pattern up would work, he might not be able to push the spell’s presence over the line—the runes, he was almost certainly sure, would interrupt them.

I suppose I don’t need mind control to test the spell-stripping ability of the barrier…

There was an option before him he’d been neglecting. An option he wasn’t used to having in situations like this.

Xavier looked to his new companion. “Palini, can you do something for me?”

“A request, or an order?”

“A request. Your Strike-Out spell, can you have it reach over the spot I pointed out?”

Palini’s face showed his understanding immediately. He didn’t use his sword, nor his hands. Instead, he took a rock from the ground and cast his spell on that. “In case something unexpected happens,” the man muttered. “This spell being interrupted can have… consequences.”

The rock glowed. At the exact same time as the rock began to glow, a twin of that rock—which was actually the rock—appeared on the other side of the barrier.

Where it remained, floating in the air.

Like it’s forgotten what gravity is.

“Huh.” Xavier frowned. “I was sure that would interrupt the spell.”

“Oh, it did.” Palini raised his hand—the glowing rock was gone. It should have appeared in both spaces at once but was only visible on the other side. He shut his eyes. “I can feel the cooldown delayed. An hour.”

Xavier continued to peer at the glowing rock. The glow, he imagined, would disappear soon—that was delayed by the power of the time dilation field. But the rock materialising outside the time dilation field’s barrier hadn’t been delayed.

“Interesting.”

“Interesting? Isn’t that what you expected to happen?”

Xavier shook his head. “No. I mean, yes—I did except your spell to be interrupted. But that’s not what I meant. That Strike-Out spell of yours. I believe it has a utility I hadn’t anticipated.” He faced the man. “Whatever you use it on, that then occupies a different space instantaneously, but you can control it from where you are.”

“Yes…”

“Then that means—”

Palini’s eyes widened. “Ah. I see.” He stared outward, through the time dilation field’s barrier. “From inside a time dilation field, you’re thinking I could move something at the speed I’m in within the field, outside of it?”

Xavier nodded. “I think so.”

“What if that rock touched someone—would they be enveloped in the field, like I was when I touched you during our fight? Or… was that a clone? I still haven’t figured out how you managed that.”

Xavier waved a hand, dismissing the man’s question. “I think it would envelop whoever it touched, yes.” Xavier tilted his head to the side. “Which means I almost made a grave mistake. That rock of yours was under the influence of the time dilation field. Fortunately, your spell must have been instantly stripped when it appeared there. The connection you held with it being cut must have cut the connection to the time dilation field. Otherwise, my field would have gone over the barrier, and it would have stripped my active spells as well as yours.”

Palini blinked. “That sounds overly complicated.”

Xavier laughed. “You’re not wrong about that.”

“While I’m glad you figured this out, one of my most powerful spells is now in cooldown for an hour. Something tells me you don’t want to turn that time dilation field of yours off so it can cooldown, do you?”

Xavier waved a hand. “Oh, don’t worry about that. That won’t be a problem.”

Palini grunted.

Xavier rubbed his hands together. “All right, let’s see how this goes…” He withdrew something from his Storage Ring. A small seed, which now rested in on palm. He infused it with enough Spirit Energy that it was charged enough to self-activate.

He was about to toss it over the spell-stripping barrier when he paused, curling his fingers around the seed and making a fist instead.

The runes aren’t the problem…

He’d already figured out a plan around those, but the first part of the plan still felt a little messy. A second or two would pass. A portal would be activated. In that time, The Collector—or his security—would be alerted to two unauthorised portal activations near his capital city. A fearful man like that would react quickly to such a security breath.

It wouldn’t be… Perfect.

I can do better than that.

Xavier faced Palini again. “I suppose it’s time you learn a little more about what I can do.” He extended his arm forward and opened his fist. The seed fell to the ground. The Roving Seed Base swiftly grew into existence. A large, standing stone protruding from the cobbles.

“In here again?” Palini asked.

Xavier nodded with a grin. “Indeed.” With his connection to the base, he changed the security so Palini could enter. When he’d dragged Palini into the base back in the containment room, he’d been able to do it because he’d been holding the man. Otherwise, Palini would have crashed straight into the stone.

Xavier walked confidently toward the large stone. No matter how many times he entered the Roving Seed Base this way there was a primitive part of his mind that warned him he would slam straight into the rock.

Must be what first-years feel when heading onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters to the Hogwarts’ Express…

Xavier entered the base, felt the green grass underfoot, and let out a sigh.

Home.

He’d worried that with the others gone, this place wouldn’t feel like home anymore. In a way, that was true—it felt different, empty. There was a hollowness and a deep silence to the place without his found family around.

But even so, it was… It was as though two things were true. It didn’t feel like home anymore, and yet it was his home. A different home, perhaps, without the others, but looking at their houses he knew that they would be back. Knew that one day this place would be filled with their voices and thoughts and dreams.

And though Xavier loved having them here, there was a peace in the deep silence. A sense of rightness in the solitude he gained from being alone there—and yet that solitude felt even more right knowing it wouldn’t be permanent.

Xavier was already halfway to the main hall when Palini finally entered, his solitude disrupted. The man ran to catch up to him. He looked like he had a hundred questions filling up behind his eyes, waiting to overflow until they burst out of him. But in this moment, all he did was walk beside the Denizen he’d left his sector to follow.

Inside the main hall—which was far larger when he’d first created the Roving Seed Base—Xavier ignored the training area and headed straight for the tavern’s large table.

“You have a tavern in here?” Palini muttered.

“I have a lot of things in here.”

Palini stood in the middle of the hall, gazing around the place.

“Come on,” Xavier said. “Why don’t you take a seat.” He nodded at the table. “This is going to take a bit of time.”

~

Palini felt very entirely of place, and more than a little uncomfortable.

He sat on a seat at the large table, facing outward onto the rest of the strange hall. A dozen feelings swirled through him and a hundred conflicted thoughts fought to be heard.

His wife had reacted exactly as he’d imagined. Frustrated he’d made a huge decision without giving her all the details first or even asking her opinion, but ultimately supportive because she completely understood why he did what he did, even if she wouldn’t have done the same.

When he’d asked the sovereign for him and his family to keep their citizenship, he hadn’t known how the man would react. Before that… meeting, he would have fully expected Sovereign Rewke Fouran to grant such a request.

But the man wasn’t all Palini had thought he was.

I’m lucky he still granted it. I wonder if he only did it because he expects me to die…

There was a part of Palini that deeply regretted his decision. In the span of less than two hours, his entire life, his entire world, had been upended. This Xavier Collins kept taking him by surprise. The moment he’d asked for him, for his boon to be Palini, Palini had—like the sovereign—expected it was for another reason.

But it wasn’t. He wanted my service, despite that I would have killed him.

When Xavier had asked his question, Palini instantly agreed in his head. He wanted all his conditions to be assured… But watching Sovereign Rewke Fouran speak as though he wasn’t there, as though his mistake was bad enough that he was now merely a bargaining chip…

Gods, it had infuriated him! A deep anger had burned in his chest. He’d worshipped his ruler, had only acted how he acted because he feared disappointing the man so much.

Of course he jumped ship!

But what the hell did I jump toward? And… did I only do it out of pride? The sovereign may be a different man than the one I held on a pedestal in my head, but does that make him a bad man to follow?

Palini watched as Xavier Collins stood in an empty, clear part of the large hall and drew his sword. He wasn’t facing Palini, and so he knew it wasn’t a threat. It was just strange. They were in the middle of a mission, standing on an enemy planet, and Palini was… Sitting in a tavern? Watching a man, what, about to train?

Is this what I left my sector, my ruler, for? Did I just make the biggest mistake of my life?

Then the sword transformed. He’d seen that happen before, only this time it didn’t turn into a scythe-staff—it turned into a… Stylus?

Xavier Collins—just Xavier, Palini reminded himself—extended his wings and flew upward until he was hovering, rocksteady, roughly halfway between the floor and the ceiling. There, he began to draw a rune. Then another rune. And another…

He’s an Inscriber, too? What else can this man do?

Palini didn’t know a thing about inscribing. Well, that wasn’t the whole truth. He knew, in basic terms, what an Inscriber’s runes might be capable of. They were what powered the containment rooms back in the Sovereign’s Satellite Fortress, for starters. His own armour, too, was riddled with them. He distinctly remembered what the blacksmith who’d handed him the armour had said about each of the runes and what they did.

But it had never been something he found interesting on more than a surface level. That was something for other minds to ponder, for people walking different paths to figure out.

Gods, how many paths does this man, this dragonkin, walk?

Palini watched in silence as more and more runes appeared in the air. He had always been surprised by Xavier’s speed but now, watching that stylus move through the air with such swiftness and precision, he was enamoured by it.

I didn’t know Inscribers could work this fast…

He kept expecting the man to finish. That the next rune he drew would be the last. He knew that different runes could be combined to do certain things, but he’d never seen this many in one place. Even the containment rooms didn’t have this many runes, not as far as he knew.

There are hundreds… He must almost be done, surely?

But it wasn’t until there were thousands of runes drawn straight into the air in the middle of the large hall that the dragonkin gently floated to the ground and alighted without a sound on the wood floorboards.

That was when Palini looked at the runes in their entirety and saw that they all connected together, creating some sort of…

Pattern?

“What is that?” Palini asked, no longer able to hold in his curiosity.

“It’s called a spell pattern,” the young dragonkin said—and the man was young; a gods’ damned child compared to Palini, even if he didn’t seem it. Xavier still faced the runes he’d drawn, his head turned upward to gaze at them.

Palini still had trouble reconciling the truth about this man, this dragonkin—that his world had been integrated less than five years ago.

“A spell pattern? I don’t know much about inscribing and runes, so I can’t say I’ve ever heard of whatever”—Palini gestured at the thousands of runes intricately woven into the air—”this spell pattern is.” He paused. “Even so, I have to say I’m impressed. I didn’t expect you to be able to do something like this. How many paths do you walk, exactly?”

The dragonkin turned to face Palini. “A very good question.”

Palini gave the man a thin smile. “That isn’t an answer.” He held back a sigh. “While it is rather beautiful, how, exactly, does this help us?”

Xavier turned to face the spell pattern again. He raised his stylus and drew another line on one of the bottom runes. The instant he did, the entire pattern glowed with a brilliant light.

Palini’s eyes widened at the sight. He stood up from the table. “What… what exactly did you just do?”

“I completed the pattern. It’s ready to be used now.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Palini said. “How does this help us?”

“Sometimes it’s better to show than tell. Now…” The dragonkin inclined his head. “There’s more to be done. I’m going to need you to cast your Strike-Out spell again.”

Palini sighed. “You recall it’s in a heavily delayed cooldown and we are currently inside a time dilation field that makes that cooldown impossible to move forward?” Once the words had flowed from his mouth, Palini wondered if they’d been a mistake. He’d signed on to follow this man.

Xavier Collins was his sovereign now.

I never would have spoken to Sovereign Fouran, or to any of my former superiors, like that. Nor would I countenance those I command speaking to me that way.

He waited with bated breath for Xavier to respond.

 “You recall I told you that wouldn’t be a problem?”

Palini blinked. He did recall that. He’d thought the man was telling him Palini wouldn’t need to use his Strike-Out spell again, which he’d found a bit insulting but hadn’t commented on.

Now, he was just confused.

“But how…” Palini frowned. The glow of the spell pattern the dragonkin had drawn changed. Now, six different colours were all mixed together, swirling around the runes, flowing from one to another in a constant stream. He recognised each of those colours as the colours of the different attribute energies. “What’s it doing? Wait…”

Palini’s Strike-Out cooldown hit its end almost instantly. He panicked. “You didn’t make an hour go by outside, did you?” He couldn’t think of another explanation for what happened. “We’re behind enemy lines! This rock isn’t going to protect us when The Collector comes knocking!”

Xavier stared at him, the dragonkin completely calm.

Palini took a breath and slowly let it out. “You aren’t panicking.”

“No.”

“So that isn’t what you did?”

“I’m no fool.” Xavier smiled. “You wouldn’t have followed a fool here, would you, Palini Damascus?”

Palini forced a smile. “No. I wouldn’t have followed a fool. That is, assuming I knew they were a fool. Though I rely on my judgement, that doesn’t always mean it holds true.” He blinked. Again, he hadn’t intended to speak that way to the other man.

But the man had said he wanted Palini’s honestly.

Xavier chuckled. “Well, let me reassure you. It’s true that at times I can be rather reckless, but a fool?” He shook his head. “No. That isn’t a word I’d use.” He tilted his head to one side. “Now, have you ever heard of a spell called Pocket Time Stream?”

Palini slowly shook his head, then he listened in wonder to the man’s explanation of what had just happened.

And what was about to happen next.