On the Verge (A Charmed Life Book 1) (26 page)

The broad white smile from Grandmaster Lee startled her, his stance shifting, his face, his very being radiating a fierce pride. “No,” he replied, his voice intent. “She figured it out herself.”

The hot retort by Grandmaster Yoshida was instantly cut off by the bark of laughter from Grandmaster Ito, who looked over at his fellow Grandmasters. “Well,” he exclaimed, “Our choice is obvious, isn't it? We'd best grant this young lady the dan before she decides we're just useless old men that she doesn't need anymore!”

Grandmaster Yoshida was not so easily mollified. “I suppose that's inevitable, when she's taken as long as she has to get to the test,” he grumbled. He turned to Tracy. “Why haven't you taken it before?”

Tracy stood up straight. “Sir!” she started, and her brain flailed for a half a second before she settled on her conversation with Grandmaster Lee last week. “I was afraid of the power that would come with advanced techniques. As a kyu, if I make a mistake, I break someone's arm. In the dan, if I make a mistake, I could very well kill someone.”

He snorted again. “So you no longer care if you kill someone?” he accused caustically.

Tracy felt that anger bubbling in her chest, and closed her eyes as she controlled it. “That's not it at all, Sir,” she replied, feeling something very close to the same gritting tone that Grandmaster Lee used every time he talked to Yoshida coming out of her own mouth. “It's just that I have come to realize I should more fear lacking the control that the dan will teach me.”

Grandmaster Yoshida made a noise as if he was spitting. “Ridiculous,” he said to his fellow grandmasters. “I will not approve of granting the dan to a little girl who's being ruled by her fears. My vote is decided - I say no.”

Tracy was crushed, but stood there, eyes closed, feeling the fierce emotion welling up, tears sparking in the corner of her eyes.

Grandmaster Ito immediately responded. “Well, I say she's the finest kyu I've seen before me in twenty years - while that may be because she had an extra two years to learn, I'd say that nonetheless, she's earned the right to move on to dan. It makes no sense, after all, to deny someone the dan just because they should have had it a long time ago.”

The other three grandmasters agreed, though the one sitting next to Grandmaster Yoshida sounded a little reluctant. Her heart swelled with joy just as much as she had felt the fierce pain welling not moments before, the tears in her eye now tears of pride that slipped down her cheeks as she stood there stock-straight while Grandmaster Lee removed her white belt and replaced it with a brand new, crisp, stiff black belt. She bowed to the grandmasters, and to the watching dan around her, and then her friends surrounded her, clapping her on the back while delivering enthusiastic congratulations, and she didn't care that she wept as she hugged them and laughed happily.

Congratulations were many as she found herself in the middle of her old circle of fellow students, all of them delighted for her. It was good to be back with them, she realized, and she had missed them a lot. It seemed a crowd even though it was only a few people, all their attention focused on her. She laughed, but sadly had to decline hanging out for a bit, or be able to go to a celebratory lunch.

“I'm sorry,” she said, backing towards the changing room, “But I really do have something already scheduled that I just don't have the option of missing… Next weekend, though!” she promised, “After practice!”

She rushed through the shower - no more than a quick rinse, really, as it wasn't going to matter soon enough - and got dressed. Loose jeans, t-shirt, a tough denim jacket, and leather gloves. She'd been starting to get into the tougher fabrics as she rode more on Jacob's bike, because there always lived the possibility of a tumble, and she preferred leaving her skin intact.

Her friends were first surprised, then laughed, at seeing her wearing something other than skirts as she came out. They followed her out to see Jacob waiting for her on his bike, and a few snide comments were made that Tracy laughed at and shook her head, but didn't bother dignifying with a formal rejection. She strapped her sports bag snug against her back, accepted the helmet from Jacob, slipped onto the bike behind him, and they were off.

“How'd you do?” he asked, cheerfully, as they drove down the street.

“I passed!” she cheered, giddy joy leaping up in her chest.

“Congratulations!” he replied merrily. “Let's hope that's a good omen for our fight!”

The giddy joy settled itself into a wary nervousness as she remembered that the black belt test was the easiest thing she had to look forward to today. She took a deep breath and nodded solemnly, gathering her mind together for the match ahead.

Even after the week of practice and the exhilaration of the bike ride, that niggling worry still hit Tracy right in the stomach as they pulled into the parking lot of the arena.  “Um … Jacob?” she asked, nervously, “Why are there so many more cars here than last week?”  Every time she'd seen the parking lot, it had been nearly empty.  Today, if they hadn't been riding a bike, she'd have been worried about where they were going to park.

“Well … ” Jacob said, a little hesitantly, “Last week there weren't as many cars because we came after the busiest time, but … also, word got out that Lord Pax challenged a newbie.”

Tracy's niggling worry detonated into a churning mass in her stomach.  “We're going to have an
audience
?” she gasped.  “I'm nervous enough as it is!”

“Don't worry!” Jacob reassured her, “This is actually win / win for you.  If you win, you come out looking awesome, and if you lose, it looks like Pax is just being a bully.  Both of which are true.”

It took a moment for Tracy to realize she'd been complimented, and she squeezed Jacob in a warm hug.  “Awwww…  thank you!” she chirped, the hollow feeling less scary, but not disappearing entirely.

As Jacob settled the bike into its place, Tracy was struck anew by how busy the place seemed.  All week long, the place had been practically deserted, but now there were hundreds of people here.  At first, the pressure of all of them on her mind seemed like it would give her a migraine, but instead there was a feeling as if a brief overwhelming panic, and then it all faded away from her impression.  Oddly enough, it left her feeling calmer than she had been - she couldn't even feel Jacob right next to her, and that final release of pressure let her feel as if her mind was finally her own for the first time in over a week.

Tracy noticed a woman hurrying towards them.  She was wearing black slacks and a trim charcoal woman's suit coat over a burgundy blouse, and her long black hair was tied up in a professional bun with enough brass decorations to escape the librarian look.  She was carrying a notepad and looked very excited.

“Jacob?” she asked.

Jacob heard the question in her voice and looked up, then gave a resigned sigh as he took Tracy's helmet and shoved it into a shadow up to his wrist, depositing it in that far-away storage shed.  “I should have expected that,” he sighed.  “Our resident reporter-”

“Tina Krowski, Midshadow Times!” Tina interrupted as she came up before them.  “Tracy, right? Do you have time for a quick interview?”

Tracy took a glance at Jacob, and he nodded and gestured encouragingly.  “Your call, but might as well let her get your story,” he reassured her.

Tracy nodded uncertainly back to Tina, who pulled out a dictaphone and clipped it to the front of her suit coat.  With an attempt at a professional expression just barely repressing the excitement bubbling inside her, Tina took a pen from an inside pocket.  She quietly stated the date and time into the dictaphone as she wrote them at the top of the page, then took on a louder, 'show' tone as if she was speaking to a camera.  “Today is an unusual day - we've never had a High Lord challenge a newbie before,” Tina started.  “It's an unexpected occurrence which has surprised the community and inflamed their imaginations.  Lord Pax has refused comment, so we're here, Tracy, hoping that you can give us a little more information.”

Tracy noted that Tina was using the 'royal we' of the press.  She smiled back and laughed, deciding to put on just as much of a show.  Just an impromptu theater skit, like in high school.  “I'm sure I wouldn't know, Tina, it's the first formal challenge I've really ever seen, so it's as normal as any other match violating the laws of physics and disrupting my entire view of reality.” She gave a soft little laugh again, realized that the laughter sounded a bit nervous, and hurriedly continued, “But I'd love to give you a bit of the story! What would you like to know?”

“Well,” Tina brightly replied, “Just for starters, do you have any idea why Lord Pax is so interested in you that he'd put aside tradition and push the boundaries of the law just to challenge you?”

Tracy shook her head.  “I'm sure he didn't give two thoughts to me, Tina.  He just went through me to get to Jacob.  That's his real target.”

Tina's eyes, already excited, sparkled brilliantly.  Tracy suspected she'd just won a wager or something.  “And why would he want to get to Jacob?”

“Quite simply, Jacob has his first charm, his heart stone, his core rune, whatever you want to call it.  Jacob's mind charm used to be Lord Pax's, and Lord Pax decided to challenge Jacob to win it back in a convoluted and roundabout manner rather than try to trade for it.”

“Through you, because he's your mentor,” Tina stated, which Tracy confirmed.  “Which brings us to our next question - Jacob hasn't acted normally towards you, either.  There are dozens of us that Jacob turned in for a year of service to Lord Brin's ersatz little shadow government.  Why did he let you become one of our few free newbies?  What makes you so different?”

Tracy shook her head.  “Merely timing, nothing special about me,” she assured Tina.  “I was the first newbie he encountered after leaving Lord Brin's required year of service.  This may seem to all center around me, but I assure you I'm pretty much just caught up in politics between other people and am mainly an observer.”

“That's not entirely true,” Jacob interrupted.  “Well, the timing part is true – it was just pure luck I ran into Tracy in the circumstances that I did.  I never liked my job; that was just my own year's requirement.  But Tracy is not just an observer.  There were several times she could have chosen to take an easier way, but didn't.  Instead, she did the right thing.  Tracy is an incredible person with a quick mind, genuinely qualified to join our community by more than just her possession of a token.  She's got a real sense for how we do things.”

Tracy laughed.  “Aw, thank you, Jacob! But no, I'm just a book nerd,” she assured Tina.  “If any of this stuff seems normal to me, it's because I'm still half-convinced it's a dream made from falling asleep reading one of my fantasy novels.”

From there, Tina went on to more community-interest questions, looking over Tracy's charm bracelet, asking after the first time she used her powers.  Tracy found herself recounting the entire story of Craig's attack on them, including the revelation that Craig had been blackmailing Lord Pax, though she left out Lord Brin's comments on what that blackmail was.  She really didn't need Lord Pax hating her even more.  Tina looked like it was Christmas all over again as she asked a series of questions about Craig's exile and tried to get more information about what the blackmail might be.  As Tracy refused to comment, Tina started suggesting a couple mild conspiracy theories.

“I really don't have anything more for you,” Tracy assured Tina.  “You're really asking me to get into guessing, and my guesses wouldn't make for a good story.”

Tina laughed and nodded, pulling out her dictaphone to turn it off.  “Thank you so much for your time,” she happily chirped, “And I really do hope you kick Pax's butt.  He's a jerk.”

Tracy laughed and nodded, and she and Jacob headed into the arena as Tina stood there taking a few final notes in her notebook, obviously trying to catch some inspired phrases before she forgot them, the reporter oblivious to the half-dozen people stepping around her to enter the arena.

Ilsa looked up and gave Tracy a wan smile that didn't translate over to Jacob, her harried expression returning rapidly.  She was wearing a low-cut off-white blouse with some sort of interesting double-fold over the breasts and a loose maroon jacket, today, looking more professional than usual.  Tracy signed in and gave her an apologetic grin.  “Sorry about all this fuss,” she said softly.

Ilsa shook her head.  “Not your fault,” she responded calmly, “This happens, sometimes.  Just part of the job.”

Tracy suddenly realized that Ilsa had been there every day she'd come by, weekday or weekend.  “Don't you get any days off?” she asked suddenly, a worried crease in her forehead.

With a laugh, Ilsa nodded.  “I've been working more lately cause one of the girls is on vacation, we're covering for her.”

Tracy nodded, smiled, and handed the sign-in sheet back to Ilsa.  She hadn't seen Lord Pax's name on there.  “What next?” she asked Jacob.

“I always like to get a look over the arena, first,” he replied.  “Get an impression of how it's laid out today.”

Tracy followed Jacob.  She was getting used to the layout, but there was still plenty of the building she hadn't been to yet.  He led her up the stairs, forgoing the elevators, to the very top.  As they walked along the fifth floor corridor, he gestured to a row of double-doors stretching along one side.  “That's the auditorium,” he said lightly.  “It looks out over the arena, protected from the fight by three-inch-thick transparent aluminum.”

“Transparent what?” Tracy asked, perplexed.  “They have such stuff?”

Jacob grinned.  “It's something one of our own geeks whipped up … takes a little 'oomph' from a tech and a metal token to make it work.  You'll see a lot of stuff like that, actually.  Of the non-elemental tokens, tech's the most common by far.  Almost as common as the elementals, actually, and more common than many of the dual runes.  We get some of the best toys, stuff most people would think of as only sci-fi.”

Tracy laughed in return.  “Heck, even without tech charms, we're getting a lot of sci-fi stuff out there.”  Jacob nodded in agreement.  They slipped into the auditorium, where people were already starting to gather, and walked down to the front to look down through the windows.

Tracy touched over the window in wonder - it was clear, like glass, though with just a slightly different gleam to it, but the cool touch under her finger was unmistakably metallic, as was the slight metallic tang to its smell.  She noticed some white streaks here and there along it, and realized it was scratches that hadn't been buffed out yet - it scratched very whitely.  Perhaps it was oxidization? She'd have to find out.

She looked past the transparent metal, then, into the arena itself.  From how they'd been talking, she'd been half-expecting fake grass and trees - or possibly real ones, grown quickly through some charm or another.  Instead, it was many geometric shapes, all varying shades of dull gray.  There was a pool of water to one side, a few open-topped barrels scattered around, and the ground was hard-packed earth.  “Where's the traps?” Tracy asked.

“Concealed,” Jacob said, amusement in his voice as he teased, “otherwise they wouldn't be very good traps.  A few of them will have accidental triggers, some of them have activation triggers hidden around down there, and still others just happen on a regular or random basis, whether or not there's someone there to be caught.  Of course, someone with a tech token can trigger any of them at will.”

Tracy nodded, trying to fix the layout in her mind.  “Lots of cover down there,” she said quietly.  “But I guess some of that cover is trapped.” Jacob nodded.  “Well, we'll manage,” she continued confidently.

After a few more minutes in silence, looking down over the arena, Jacob nodded and Tracy followed him back out.  They slipped through the corridors down to the more familiar halls leading to the locker rooms.  Three men were there, waiting for them - Slate and the other two from the weight room.  They'd been with Slate when she'd met with him on Thursday, too.  She wondered if they went everywhere with him, then suppressed a giggle as she pictured them calmly holding the soap and shampoo for him in the shower, his nice suit sopping wet.

“Slate,” she greeted him, and met each of his companion's eyes for a couple moments.

“Rose,” he replied, his easy grin on his face.  “I just wanted to wish you good fortune in today's match.” She remembered his words on the phone, when she'd asked him for help.  “Earth body against Metal body?” he'd asked, “There's no way I could miss that fight.  Of course I'll help.” It seemed that a lot of the community thought of metal body as an 'upgrade' of earth body, as being superior to it, and Slate and his friends were rather insulted by the attitude.

Tracy smiled in return.  “I'll do my best,” she assured him.

“You won't let me down,” he replied.  His eyes briefly flicked to Jacob, and then he walked past, and away, and Tracy could almost feel the chill between them.

“What did you do to him?” she asked, surprised at the depth of the animosity.

Jacob sighed, and walked again towards the locker rooms.  “Pretended to join his group,” he admitted, “To learn how to use earth better.  When I left a month later, it … didn't go over well.  He feels very strongly about betrayal.”

Tracy gave her own sigh.  “He probably would have taught you just as well if you'd come to him and straight-out asked him for training,” she pointed out.  Jacob nodded with a glum look, his expression telling her that he'd already figured that out in hindsight.  “And he wouldn't accept your apology?”

Jacob shrugged noncommittally.

Tracy looked at him with a furrowed brow.  “You did apologize, right?” she pushed a little harder.

Jacob let out a soft noise.  “Well, I tried to explain,” he said.  “He wouldn't listen.  It wouldn't matter; I've already pissed him off.  Everyone hates me, one more doesn't matter.”

Tracy sighed.  “Jacob, don't give yourself a martyr complex.  If you want to start being a little less hated, the first thing you'll want to do is learn to say you're sorry.  You've already learned everything else about these charms.”