Page 118 of The Only Way Out Is Up

“To a place your talents can find their fullest expression! I promise you will live in luxury beyond anything you can dream of. Whatever you desire—things you don’t even yet know you desire—you can attain.”

“I have family—”

“They will be provided for,” he says dismissively. “I will leave instructions with the Hod Council that they be kept in comfort for the rest of their lives. A direct edict from Above.” He chuckles again. “Is that sufficient?”

“I don’t understand,” I say again.

“Only natural!” He does the shoulder pat a second time. “Just say yes, and you will come to understand everything.”

“But why? Why me?”

He leans close, as though afraid of being overheard. “Because you are a sigilist, boy! You think it’s a small thing you’ve done, inventing your own sigils, but in all the world there are only a handful who can accomplish it. And the world is so much larger than you can possibly imagine.”

Sigilist. I’ve never heard the word before. Alzimyth’s eyes are shining, and for a moment my suspicion collapses. I want to trust him. I want to go Above, and find out what the Keter Apex is, and what being a Hesed Knight means. Most of all, I want to find out what I can really do.

“Ky. My sponsor. She needs the money from the tournament to—”

“She’ll have it. Double the grand prize.”

“And my family.” I hesitate. “It’s… very generous, what you’ve offered. But the thought that I’d never see them again…”

“In time, you can bring them to live with you,” Alzimyth says, waving a hand as though the matter is of little importance. “Once you’ve completed your training. Sigilists have a great deal of influence.”

My mouth is dry, my heart beating fast. “And Star will come along, I assume?”

“Ah.” Alzimyth withdraws a fraction, his expression hardening. “It will. But it will become the property of your tutors, at least for a time.” Watching me, he adds, “It’s for everyone’s safety. A sigilist’s creations are powerful, but they can also be extremely dangerous. Eventually, you will learn enough that your control of Star will be unbreakable, and then it will be returned to you. By then, of course, you’ll have crafted far more powerful runics of your own.”

I pause and go quiet for a while. Alzimyth regards me sidelong, a complicated expression on his face.

“Speaking of Star,” he says with forced casualness. “I had a question for you. Just a matter of curiosity. I can normally guess at a runic’s foundation sigil from their behavior; OBEY is different from PROTECT, and so on. But Star is… unusual, and I find myself at a loss. Can you tell me what it is?”

All my distrust comes roaring back. There’s something wrong here, something nakedly avaricious in the knight’s expression. It’s not just that he’s lying, although I think he is; it’s that he’s lying badly, and he doesn’t care. As though, for all his praise, I’m beneath contempt. A child who’ll believe anything.

[Query: are you all right?]

Strong emotion sometimes leaks through my link to Star, and the last few minutes have been a whirlwind of it. I’m okay, I reassure him.

[Query: what are you doing out there?]

I close my eyes.

Right now, I’m about to tell the representative from Above to go fuck himself.

“I am obviously… very flattered,” I say after a few moments of silence. “But everything you’ve described sounds a little too good to be true.”

“It is too good to be true, for anyone else,” Alzimyth says. “Believe me. I could come here for generations and only find one or two with your talent.”

“Be that as it may. I think I’d prefer to ascend on my own merits.”

“You… what?” He stares at me, uncomprehending. “You… refuse?”

“I do.”

He chuckles weakly. “But that’s absurd.”

“Nevertheless.”

“I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you.”