Crystal Awakening by Andrew Rowe

Author:Andrew Rowe
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2022-11-29T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Nieve

Champion (mind mark), Citrine

“Careful, Emi, not too high!” Sage called up, visibly fretting by the way he fussed with his glasses and squinted at a distant object that was most certainly not Emiko.

“Ooh, I can see the traps!” Emiko called down from her puffy cloud. “You were right, Sage, it looks like a lightning net would zap anyone who tries going over the walls of the maze.”

“Okay, just—be careful!”

Nieve swung the back of her hand into Sage’s chest. Not hard, but it still made him huff in surprise, eyes blinking into sharp focus for a glare.

“She’s not a first-time climber, Sage, you know she’s being careful,” Nieve informed him tartly.

“I know that. I do.” Sage exhaled a breath as he ran a hand back through his hair. “This maze is littered with anti-Seeing runes. I’m not completely blind, but I’m afraid I won’t be very helpful in this challenge. I’m trying to See as much as I can to keep everyone safe.”

“We’re all seasoned climbers, Sage.” Lani said, giving him a steady look. “It’s not your job to protect us. We protect each other.”

Sage blushed as he ducked his head. “You’re right, Lani. I’ll just look ahead for traps for now.”

Nieve rolled her eyes and looked up to where Emiko hovered on her cloud. If Sage was going to make a move on Lani, could he hurry up and just do it already? It would be so much easier to consider Lani off-limits if she seemed even moderately interested in returning Sage’s affections. All the shy smiles and longing looks got on Nieve’s nerves. If Lani hadn’t noticed them by now, that was a pretty clear indicator of disinterest, wasn’t it? And the sooner Sage realized that for himself, the sooner Nieve could make Lani a different sort of offer.

Feelings and relationships were overrated; why not skip that part and jump right into the fun stuff?

Emiko’s cloud descended, looking a little darker for her drawn frown.

“I can’t get high enough to search for an exit,” she explained, pouting. “I can’t even see the edges of the maze, it looks like it just goes on and on in every direction forever.”

“It’s possible the exit is built into the maze, rather than the wall of the room,” Hane pointed out. “There’s also the strong possibility that there are multiple exits hidden in here. Normally, I’d say we might not want the first one we find, but with Aldis’s doorway trick, that’s not necessarily the case.”

Aldis’s smug face looked incredibly punchable just then, but Nieve couldn’t be angry for any trick that helped her climb the spire faster. She wished Wyle had thought to try it sooner, but then again, Wyle wasn’t really the type to study and tinker around with runes.

“Emiko, can you try using the spell Cloud Cover?” Hane continued. “I’ve seen it used to great effect in challenges like this one.”

“Er, that’s a Citrine-level spell.” Emi wrapped her arms around herself, looking abashed. Hane probably didn’t know she was only Sunstone level, but Nieve still resented the question on Emi’s behalf.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.