Diamantine (Weapons and Wielders, #2)

by Andrew Rowe

Sure, I’d told myself, “I’ll be more careful”, but it turns out that saying that when you’re under the effect of something influencing your mind, just saying “I’ll be more careful” alone is pretty useless. In fact, it’s probably pretty useless even outside of that situation, unless you actually take steps to reinforce it. Words without action behind them are about as useful as an empty cup in the hands of a man dying of thirst.

As much as I loathed admitting it, the best option I could think of was one that I normally avoided at all costs— Relying on other people. Don’t get me wrong, I love people. It’s working with them that tended to grate on me.

<Did you hear that? It’s an honor to fight against me.> Combat now, preening later, Dawn. <There’s always time for preening. It’s much like banter.>

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked. Reika shook her head silently. “Do you want ‘cheering you up cake’?” Reika stared downward for another moment, then gave the world’s slightest nod. I ordered cake. Then, over the course of the night, I ordered many more cakes.

<Who names a phoenix ‘Flamewing’? Every phoenix has flame wings. That’s like naming a human ‘Bob Fingeredhands’.> I snorted. Hey, don’t make fun of Bob, he’s a good guy. Now, Jimmy Grippingthumb, on the other hand...

He’s noting the ways each statue rotates. Ninety degrees for those two when he hits that button, one hundred and eighty degrees from that…. Boring. <I’m sure if you were there, you’d just murder the statues into position. They’re stone, after all.> How dare you, Dawn. I would obviously murder the doors.

There’s an important lesson to be had here — whenever someone is hidden by the smoke from a seemingly unstoppable attack, always assume they’re alive. You’ll regret it otherwise.

<Sure, but that’d be cheating, Keras. And we don’t all like cheating as much as you do.> It’s not cheating, it’s expedited non-linear puzzle completion. <That is a shockingly detailed term for cheating.>

See? Everyone likes a good expedited non-linear problem solution. <No, Keras. They simply like violence.> That’s the same thing like ninety-nine percent of the time. <Only because you only know one ‘non-linear’ way to solve problems.> It’s not the only one, but it’s usually the fastest.

Consciousness has its disadvantages. The most obvious of these is that when you’re awake, you can remember all the problems you’d managed to forget about