Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 53

Did weaves thin with time? Was that what happened here? Or was it the result of poor work? He didn't know enough about weaves to tell, and he had no one to ask...

And whose fault was it? Who had alienated Don, again?

He'd been trying to go talk to him, Tibs reminded himself, but that didn't help him now. The one thing he could hope was that since Don hadn't told on him to Tirania, he might not do it by the time he returned to Kragle Rock. Not that the delay would make Don more amicable to a conversation.

He focused on the floor below, and it had the same wear, the one below that wasn't as...deep. The one below that one had no wear to its weave. Was something leeching the weave downward? Was that a thing?

He rubbed his temple and added finding that out to the list.

Why ever it happened, It meant that all he'd have to worry about, when he reached the roof, were the...

Where were the guards?

He'd been so focused on the weaves he hadn't noticed there was no life essence on the roof. That confirmed it was where he'd get onto the building. Now to work out how to get in.

He couldn't see the window, but knew it was there by how the water hit and dripped along it. It had a different feel than what hit the stone wall or the wooden beams. He knew there was a lantern of sort inside the room even if he didn't see its light through the rain; he sensed the fire essence in it. The impression of the shapes in the room from how the essence stopped on the things in it, made him think it was a bedroom.

Using his sense of the rain, he made out the windowsill. It was large enough he would be able to hold on to the one above and rest his toes on the one below.

If he could touch them without the weave reacting.

He expected the weave in the roof wouldn't react to being walked on. Unless the lack of guards was how it always was, instead of them not bothering because of the weather. But would the windowsill be the same? Why would it? It wasn't like guards had a reason to hang from them.

How could he go about checking if that weave would trigger, without it sounding the alarm? What could he do to a weave to keep it from reacting to his presence?

Why did everything seem to always come down to questions he couldn't get the answer to? Couldn't he get something easy to figure out once in a while?

And no, it wasn't like even if he was on good term with Don, he'd be of help here.

What he needed was information. Since he only knew one person here, and it was his fault Tibs had to deal with this forming headache, he might as well start providing answers.

* * * * *

The archer stared at Tibs. "What do you take me for? A scholar? You're the one with the magic. You should know all that stuff."

"I'm not even officially Lambda. I shouldn't know anything about weaves, and I haven't been able to ask my teacher a lot, because that would make him suspicious. And the one person I might have been able to convince to answer these kinds of question, you were adamant we didn't have the time for me to talk with him. You're the one who wants this done. How come you don't know anything about what's needed to get in that building?"

"I know plenty, just not about that. What I know about magic is to not mess with it, or people who have it."

"Unless you can force one of them to do your bidding."

The man sighed. "This is going to help you as much as me; tell me you see that? Tell me you aren't going to change your mind in the middle of this and hand me over to—"