Infinity Blade 01- Awakening

were all around out here. Had he smelled some on the march here from the river?
    Dared he leave Isa with this thing? “I command you not to harm her,” he said to TEL.
    “I wouldn’t have anyway.”
    “Stay here. Watch over her.”
    “As you command.”
    He almost ordered the thing away. But what good would that do? If it went to report, Siris would be discovered. If it remained here, he might find a way to control it.
    Siris turned back the way they’d gone, and started jogging. It was a difficult run. They’d walked some four hours since the river. He’d noticed the scent somewhere about halfway through that time.
    It grew dark. He ran on, pushing through patches of bamboo and across open meadows. Was he going the right way? What if . . .
    There !
    He found the vents tucked up against the side of a rockfall beside a hill. These ones were slim, and didn’t give off much heat—certainly less than he’d hoped. Still, the cracks seemed deep, and the scent of sulfur was strong.
    He dropped the metal disc down the one that seemed the deepest, then turned and ran back the way he’d come. A half hour later, puffing—wheezing—he reached the camp, though he’d had to call out to TEL to find it. The sky was nearly pitch black.
    Siris ducked under the damp blanket stretched between stands of bamboo. He knelt beside the firepit, pushing the ring farther onto his finger. He held out his hand, palm forward, trying to summon the heat.
    He felt nothing at first. Then, with relief, he felt a faint warmth around his finger. The ring made a clicking sound, then buzzed.
    A blast of flame erupted from his palm. Its coming was so sudden, he almost jerked back. The fire blazed forward and covered the entire firepit. Steam hissed, wood popped. Siris had to turn his face away.
    With focus, he took the heat down from an inferno to a careful bake; better to dry the wood than turn everything in the camp to ash. The heat continued for a good count of a hundred before the ring buzzed, its energy expended.
    Siris lowered his hand and looked at what he’d done. The wood was singed, and some of it smoldered, flames growing. He nurtured these, and in minutes he had a satisfying fire. He positioned Isa beside it with the blanket over her back, her head resting on some wadded-up clothing.
    Finally, Siris sat back against the rocks, rain falling lightly on his head. There wasn’t room under the blanket for him, with the fire and Isa. He exhaled softly.
    “Where did you did find a source of such heat?” TEL asked. The golem sat in the rain as well.
    “Some cracks in the ground,” Siris said. “Isa said they were common in this area.”
    “Ah . . .” TEL said. “Yes, yes. Very clever. Hopefully you didn’t melt the transmittance disc by tossing it into lava! But I suppose those can be replaced.”
    Siris wrapped his cloak around himself, the one Isa had given him on that first day. “You’ll now tell me everything you know about . . . what was it you said? The Patterns of True Swordsmanship?”
    “They are of ancient date,” TEL said. “The most accomplished art of a warrior, a unity between sword and body. Some Deathless claim it took them centuries of practice to master them. Mortals aren’t supposed to be able to grasp them in their short lifetimes.”
    For some reason, Siris felt colder.
    “They are intended,” TEL continued, “to be used in fighting multiple opponents of inferior skill. The Deathless developed them so that one of them could stand against many; indeed, they are next to useless in a formal two-combatant duel. One could argue that the formal duel rose out of so many Deathless being accomplished at the True Patterns.”
    “So how do I know them?” Siris asked.
    “I cannot answer that.”
    Siris was quiet for a time, listening the rain beat softly against the leaves. “I’m a descendant of one of the Deathless, aren’t I?”
    TEL gave no reply.
    “I can use their machinery. That’s what Isa meant—she can’t use the rings because her soul, her Q.I.P., doesn’t connect her to the Deathless. Mine does. I can do things I shouldn’t be able to because of my lineage. That’s why the God King was hunting us, because of our heritage.”
    Again, TEL gave no reply.
    “Can you answer any questions on this topic?” Siris asked.
    “No,” TEL said. “I am forbidden.”
    “Well, it doesn’t matter. I won’t hold myself accountable, just because one of my ancestors might have been a