The Teacher Behind the Curtain
Haruto's question hung in the chamber for several seconds.
Ryu stood beside him, the little orange T-rex staring up expectantly at the machine they had just spent hours repairing. Shun remained crouched near Cipheron, hands blackened slightly from dust and scorched circuitry, while Renji sat back on his heels with the tired satisfaction of someone who had just performed several hours of work for what he assumed was a worthwhile reason. The others waited too. Even Caelan, who had remained near the entrance throughout most of the repairs, had turned his attention fully toward Cipheron.
Haruto swallowed.
"What do I have to do to make sure Ryu evolves the right way?"
Cipheron's remaining eye brightened.
His repaired jaw moved.
And in a harsh mechanical voice entirely unlike the cryptic scholar who had been sending them carefully worded messages, he said:
"How the hell would I know something like that?"
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Airi's mouth dropped open.
Shun blinked.
Renji slowly turned his head toward Cipheron as though wondering whether several hours of rewiring had somehow connected the machine's mouth incorrectly.
Haruto simply stared.
"What?"
Cipheron's eye pulsed red.
A dry metallic chuckle rattled from his speaker.
Caelan straightened.
The change was subtle, but immediate.
The strange little machine's posture had altered. So had the feeling behind his words.
Caelan knew very little about machines, networks or whatever Shun had done to reach this place.
Intent was easier.
Something was wrong.
Wind stirred faintly around his fingers.
Haruto stepped closer.
"What do you mean? Elder Kairo sent us here. You said you could help us."
"Heh. Heh. Heh."
Cipheron pushed himself completely upright, the repaired motors inside his body whining softly.
"I lied."
Nobody moved.
Cipheron lifted both arms experimentally.
"I required a tool capable of repairing my physical shell. You were convenient."
Shun's face went pale.
"You called us here just to repair you?"
"Correct."
Daichi stared.
"You tricked us?"
"Obviously."
Airi's expression hardened.
"What about the Virtue Sigil?"
Cipheron's mechanical head tilted.
"What about it?"
"You said you had one!"
"I do."
Hope flickered briefly across Airi's face.
Cipheron continued.
"I simply never said I intended to give it to you."
The hope vanished.
Renji rose slowly.
"What exactly are you planning now?"
Cipheron's single eye turned toward him.
"I have already answered that question."
"No, you said you wanted your body repaired." Renji's fists tightened. "What do you want your body repaired for?"
Cipheron became very still.
Then:
"To rule this world."
Even Caelan raised an eyebrow.
Airi stared at the machine.
"You're serious."
"Entirely."
Cipheron walked toward the nearest glowing wall. His movements were still slightly stiff, but with every step his repaired body seemed to remember itself. Symbols shifted across the walls around him as though responding to his presence.
"What keeps civilizations functioning?" he asked. "Strength? Weapons? Armies?"
Nobody answered.
Cipheron tapped one metal finger against the transparent dome surrounding his damaged head.
Clink.
"Information."
Shun's expression sharpened.
Cipheron continued.
"You believe Eidon is powerful because he commands armies. Because he is individually strong. Because creatures fear him."
His eye brightened.
"Primitive."
The walls around them changed.
Lines appeared between settlements, underground conduits and moving signals.
"Know where every enemy sleeps and strength becomes irrelevant. Know what they fear. Know where their food comes from. Know their communications, their alliances, their weaknesses, their movements, their ambitions."
He turned.
"Control information, and eventually you control everything information touches."
Caelan folded his arms.
"And you think that makes you different from Eidon?"
Cipheron looked at him.
Caelan's expression remained flat.
"He wants to rule because he's stronger than everyone around him. You want to rule because you think you're smarter."
Cipheron's eye narrowed.
"An oversimplification."
"Sounds accurate."
Shun looked uneasily between them.
Cipheron ignored Caelan.
"I made an error once. Eidon nearly destroyed me. Afterward, he forced me into his network. I maintained his systems. Managed his surveillance. Built programs for him."
The machine's voice became colder.
"I even constructed systems intended to destabilize the existing order of this world."
Shun frowned.
"You've been helping him?"
Cipheron's eye snapped toward him.
"No."
"But you just said—"
"I said I created systems to destroy order."
He tapped his head again.
"I did not say I wished to replace that order with Eidon's."
Nobody spoke.
Cipheron spread his hands.
"Replacing one ruler with another is tedious."
The lights in the chamber flickered.
"What I want is much more interesting."
Caelan's eyes narrowed.
Cipheron's mechanical voice lowered.
"Chaos."
The word seemed to linger inside the pyramid.
"If everyone understands the rules of the world, they can learn how to manipulate them. Organize. Resist. Build structures of power."
He gestured toward the coded walls.
"So information must be divided. Hidden. Contradicted. Changed."
His red eye glowed.
"Let everyone act without understanding the whole."
Shun stared at him.
"And you would understand it."
"Precisely."
"Then that's not chaos," Shun said quietly.
Cipheron looked at him.
"That's control."
A pause.
Then Cipheron laughed.
Perhaps that was answer enough.
Misaki stepped forward.
By now the others had largely stopped caring about the machine's grand philosophy. Whether Cipheron wanted to conquer the world, confuse it or reorganize it into carefully catalogued boxes made very little difference to the people currently trapped inside his pyramid.
She looked directly at him.
"Then answer something simple."
Cipheron turned.
"What are you to us?"
Misaki's eyes hardened.
"An ally or an enemy?"
Cipheron's body remained motionless.
"For the present?"
His eye dimmed slightly.
"Neither."
Nobody relaxed.
"You are useful variables. Unpredictable ones. Your continued existence complicates Eidon's calculations, disrupts his forces and introduces information he cannot control."
Airi frowned.
"So you're using us."
"Yes."
Cipheron said it without the slightest embarrassment.
"As long as you remain troublesome to Eidon, I have reason to permit your continued interference."
Renji's jaw tightened.
"Permit?"
"But," Cipheron continued, "it would become inconvenient if your actions began interfering with mine."
His arm moved.
Too quickly.
The repaired limb shot toward Misaki.
She barely had time to widen her eyes.
Caelan was already there.
Silver-blue light flashed around his forearm as part of the Azure armour formed instinctively over it, and the white-and-silver edge of his lance appeared in the same movement.
Metal struck metal.
CLANG!
Cipheron's arm was knocked violently aside.
Caelan stepped between him and Misaki.
Wind twisted around the lance.
His golden eyes had lost all amusement.
"Don't."
Cipheron looked at the deep slash across his freshly repaired arm.
Smoke curled from one damaged joint.
For perhaps half a second nobody moved.
Then Cipheron's eye blazed scarlet.
"You miserable piece of legendary scrap."
Caelan's grip tightened.
"Try it again."
Cipheron's other hand slammed onto a control panel.
The floor vanished.
There was no warning.
No opening mechanism.
One moment stone existed beneath their feet.
The next it did not.
Everyone dropped.
Airi screamed.
Yuto grabbed at the air.
Shun nearly lost his laptop.
Caelan could have stopped himself.
Wind gathered automatically beneath his boots.
He could have returned to the chamber.
He could have launched himself upward and attacked Cipheron before the machine managed to close the opening.
Then he saw everyone else falling.
His wind changed direction.
"Together!"
Air caught the nearest children first, slowing their descent enough to prevent them from colliding with the sides of the disposal shaft. Caelan dropped with them rather than rising back toward Cipheron.
The machine disappeared above.
A section of the pyramid opened beneath them.
They were expelled into daylight.
Sand rushed upward.
Caelan spread both arms.
Wind exploded outward beneath the group.
Their fall slowed abruptly.
They landed in the desert in an untidy collection of bodies, bags, complaints and offended dignity rather than becoming a collection of broken bones.
Airi sat up.
"I hate that machine."
Renji spat sand from his mouth.
"Get in line."
Shun stared back at the pyramid.
His face had gone pale.
"It's my fault."
Misaki looked at him.
"No."
"I connected to his network. I brought us here. We repaired him."
"I told you to do it," she replied. "If anyone—"
"Enough."
Caelan's voice cut through both.
They looked at him.
He dismissed the partial armour around his arm.
"We were tricked."
Shun lowered his eyes.
"That doesn't mean we sit here arguing over who was tricked most."
Misaki glanced toward the pyramid.
"So what do we do?"
Haruto stood.
His frustration had returned, though now it had found a much more convenient target.
"We stop him."
Renji nodded.
"Agreed."
Shun closed his laptop.
"He controls too much of Eidon's network. If he starts altering it deliberately—"
"Then we destroy his access," Misaki finished.
Caelan looked toward the pyramid.
Something strange stirred inside him.
Not anger.
Not exactly.
He could sense Cipheron somewhere within the structure.
His presence.
His energy.
His essence.
And for one brief, deeply unsettling moment, Caelan wanted it.
Not merely to defeat him.
To take what remained afterward.
To absorb it.
The same instinct that had seemed entirely ordinary when the Barkmaws and Cyclodrake dissolved now sharpened into something far more conscious.
Caelan frowned.
What was that?
The feeling disappeared almost immediately.
He said nothing.
Renji looked toward him.
"We can't leave all of this to you."
Caelan glanced over.
Renji continued.
"Every time something powerful appears, you jump in first."
Haruto nodded.
"This is our fight too."
Caelan studied them for a moment.
Then nodded once.
"Fine."
Airi raised her Resonance Linker.
The others followed.
Their partners gathered around them.
"We go together," Misaki said.
Light began gathering.
Sakura evolved.
Flora followed.
Frostfang appeared beside Renji.
Tesla's body expanded into his Adult form in a brilliant flash.
Others changed around them.
Ryu remained small beside Haruto.
Haruto looked down at him.
For a moment, fear returned.
Ryu looked back.
Neither said anything.
Not yet.
Caelan started toward the pyramid.
The others followed.
They had barely crossed half the distance when the structure responded.
Sections of the coloured exterior slid apart.
Turrets emerged.
Shun stopped.
"Oh."
The first beam fired.
Caelan threw himself sideways.
White light ripped through the place where he had been standing and struck a dune behind him.
Sand became glass.
More turrets unfolded.
Then more.
A barrage followed.
"BACK!"
Everyone scattered.
Emberwing climbed.
Cactara raised both gloves.
Frostfang darted behind a ridge.
Caelan swept both arms outward and formed a wall of compressed wind, but the first energy blast that struck it punched deeply enough into the barrier to force him backward through the sand.
His eyes narrowed.
"Strong."
Another volley followed.
The group retreated beyond effective range.
Haruto stared at the pyramid.
"We need another plan."
Daichi looked alarmed.
"Preferably one that doesn't involve running into that."
Airi lowered her Linker.
"Does anyone even know how strong Cipheron is?"
Silence.
Shun slowly looked at everyone.
Nobody had scanned him.
They had been too busy repairing him.
Daichi's face lost colour.
"That's... not ideal."
Haruto clenched his fists.
For one terrible moment, the determination that had returned to him threatened to collapse beneath another impossible problem.
Then a familiar voice drifted down from above.
"Hoh. You really do find trouble quickly."
Everyone looked up.
A small figure hovered lazily in the air.
Shining wings blurred behind him.
A pointed helm covered his head.
A long narrow spear rested over one shoulder.
Caelan recognized him instantly.
"Luminel."
The tiny warrior descended until he hovered only a little above eye level.
Airi pointed.
"You're alive!"
Luminel looked offended.
"Of course I'm alive."
"You were fighting Eidon!"
"Yes."
"He's stronger than Caelan!"
Luminel glanced at Caelan.
"So?"
Caelan stared back.
Luminel gave him a tiny nod.
Caelan returned it.
Haruto suddenly stepped forward.
"Elder Kairo."
Luminel looked at him.
"What?"
"He said he was sending us a trainer. The connection broke while he was saying the name."
Shun's eyes widened.
"He said 'Lumin—'"
Everyone turned.
Luminel smiled.
"Finally."
Haruto stared.
"You're the trainer?"
"Unfortunately for you."
Airi brightened.
"For us?"
"For me."
He pointed his spear toward the pyramid.
"And judging from what I saw while approaching, you've already managed to repair a dangerous lunatic and get yourselves thrown out of his house."
Renji folded his arms.
"In our defence—"
"You repaired him."
"Yes."
"He admitted he lied."
"Afterward."
"And now you want to charge through automated defences without knowing how strong he is."
Renji paused.
"That sounds worse when you organize it like that."
Luminel sighed.
"Children."
Caelan coughed.
Luminel looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The tiny warrior's eyes narrowed.
"You're included."
Caelan smiled.
Haruto stepped closer.
"We don't have time to train. Cipheron's going to do something with the network."
"You have time."
Haruto frowned.
"What?"
Luminel turned away from the pyramid.
"Come."
Nobody moved.
Airi looked toward the fortress.
"Where?"
"My home."
Misaki stared at him.
"We just told you Cipheron is planning to destabilize the entire world."
"I heard you."
"And you want us to leave?"
"Yes."
Luminel pointed toward the distant dunes with his spear.
"Time does not behave normally where I live. You can spend far longer inside than passes out here."
Shun immediately opened his mouth.
Luminel pointed the spear at him.
"No."
Shun stopped.
"No what?"
"No questions about temporal ratios until we've eaten."
Shun looked genuinely wounded.
Luminel flew away.
"Follow."
Haruto glanced toward the pyramid.
Then toward Ryu.
Finally he nodded.
"We go."
The journey lasted longer than anyone particularly enjoyed.
Luminel led them away from the pyramid, across several dunes and toward a towering wall of rock that rose from the desert like the edge of another world. There was no obvious doorway. No cave. No trail.
Luminel flew directly toward the cliff.
Daichi stopped.
"He's going to hit it."
He did not.
The air shimmered.
A doorway appeared.
One moment there had been solid stone.
The next there was an opening large enough for them to walk through.
Luminel disappeared inside.
Airi stared.
"Of course."
Caelan examined the entrance.
"A concealment formation."
Shun glanced at him.
"You recognize it?"
"Not this type."
Caelan looked more closely.
"But the principle."
That was good enough for everyone.
They entered.
The desert vanished.
Cool forest air washed over them.
After days surrounded by sand, the sudden sight of green felt almost unreal. Tall trees climbed toward a dense canopy overhead. Leaves whispered softly in a breeze carrying the scent of damp earth, flowers and running water. Grass replaced burning sand beneath their feet.
Airi inhaled deeply.
"Oh, this is wonderful."
Flora immediately agreed.
Even Renji relaxed.
Behind them, the entrance remained open.
Through it they could still see the desert.
And someone standing outside.
Haruto froze.
"Eidon."
Everyone turned.
Far beyond the entrance, a distant figure stood upon one of the dunes.
Golden-brown fur.
Long coat.
Dark glasses.
Eidon.
Several partners immediately tensed.
Luminel laughed.
"Relax."
Haruto looked at him.
"He can see us!"
"No."
Luminel hovered beside the doorway.
"He sees a cliff."
Misaki looked back.
Eidon appeared to be staring directly toward them.
"He looks like he can see us."
"He can't."
Caelan extended his senses toward the entrance.
The distortion was sophisticated.
Very sophisticated.
Even knowing the doorway existed did not make its structure obvious.
Luminel noticed him examining it.
"Good formation."
Caelan nodded reluctantly.
"Very."
"Mine."
Caelan looked at him.
Luminel smiled smugly.
Caelan decided he might like him.
The doorway vanished.
Eidon disappeared with it.
"You're safe here," Luminel said.
Nobody entirely believed anyone who said that anymore.
But they followed.
The path wound upward through the forest. What initially appeared to be a gentle hill eventually revealed itself as an increasingly offensive climb. The trees thinned gradually with altitude while the children grew quieter with every step.
Airi stopped twice.
Daichi stopped six times.
Shun attempted to calculate the hill's incline until Renji threatened to throw his laptop downhill.
Caelan could have reached the top easily.
He stayed with the group.
At last they emerged onto a broad plateau.
Luminel's home stood near the centre.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Daichi finally adjusted his glasses.
"That's it?"
Luminel turned.
A simple wooden building stood before them.
Traditional in design.
Wide sliding doors.
A raised veranda.
Dark wooden beams.
Nothing grand.
Nothing particularly magical from the outside.
It looked more like an old martial arts dojo than the home of someone capable of fighting Eidon and hiding an entire forest from him.
"It's enough," Luminel said.
He opened the doors.
The interior immediately changed several opinions.
Training equipment occupied much of the enormous central room. Wooden practice dummies stood along one wall. Heavy weights of varying sizes rested against another. Ropes hung from reinforced ceiling beams. Weapon racks contained staffs, spears and unfamiliar tools. Shelves overflowed with books, scrolls and handwritten notes.
Caelan's eyes moved across the equipment.
Now he was interested.
Luminel noticed.
"Later."
Caelan looked at him.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking loudly."
Airi laughed.
Food waited in an adjoining room.
That ended all serious conversation.
Nobody needed to be invited twice.
Rice.
Vegetables.
Fish.
Soup.
Simple food.
After days of travelling through the desert, it might as well have been a royal banquet.
Even Caelan ate considerably more than usual.
Sparky ate beside him until his stomach looked slightly rounder.
Once everyone had finished and the immediate possibility of starvation had been defeated, Luminel brought them back into the central training room.
He hovered before them.
This time there was no joking in his expression.
Haruto sat with Ryu beside him.
Misaki and Sakura settled nearby.
Airi rested beside Flora.
Shun sat cross-legged with Tesla.
The others gathered around.
Caelan remained toward the back.
Luminel looked across them.
"You've spent most of your time in this world reacting."
Nobody contradicted him.
"You arrive somewhere. Something attacks. You survive. You move. Something else attacks."
His spear rested across his lap.
"That isn't enough anymore."
Haruto's expression tightened.
Luminel continued.
"Eidon isn't the end of your problems."
Several faces changed.
"Cipheron certainly isn't."
Shun looked down.
"You were brought into something larger than either of them."
Misaki frowned.
"What?"
Luminel's gaze moved over the group.
"That is what we're going to discuss."
Haruto straightened.
"We're ready."
Luminel's expression softened slightly.
"No."
Haruto blinked.
Luminel smiled.
"That's why I'm here."