Excerpt

Mavrin felt more and more that the Aspects didn't smile on magicians.

If they did, he wouldn't have found himself under a battered canvas tent, its patched surface trembling under tonight's heavy Winds. Acting troupes and artisans received enclosures, with actual walls, and windows that could keep out the smells of tanned hide and fermenting berrenfruit. They performed on a stage, instead of a patch of flattened ground set apart from a market square like an afterthought. Magicians never received such treatment.

Or maybe it was simply him.

The audience gathered around his "stage" filled the tent's available space, at least, ignoring the warm breeze and the pungent smells licking under the tent flaps while they watched his first trick, unaware that Mavrin always designed that first one to fail.

When he flourished his violet cloak and snapped his fingers, the patterned bag on the stool didn't so much as fidget. Nor did its hidden wire frame, mimicking the glass orb he'd pretended to slip inside, now stashed in one of his pockets. Murmuring spread through the audience, wondering what was wrong.

The next steps were easy: an exaggerated frown and a lie.

"Apologies. This is a new trick," he said, turning the bag in his hand, pretending to inspect it.

After that, Mavrin would crumple the empty cloth bag and toss it behind him. The children in the front would gasp, the adults would hum in approval, and Mavrin would flash his showman smile before moving on to the real tricks.

"Perhaps I'm coming to the end—"

A heavy tearing sound cut him off as a section of canvas near the entrance ripped free of its clamps. Mavrin's cloak billowed away from his body, almost tugging him across the enclosure. Two audience members hurried to secure the canvas while several others ducked outside, excitedly pointing at the sky.

Mavrin frowned for real. They wouldn't be back.

While the two audience members finished ministering to the canvas, he surveyed his stage. The cloth bag was gone, likely blown under the flaps behind him. Worse, the Winds blew away some of the dirt covering the cable running from the stool to his trunk. Even with the audience's attention broken, there were enough eyes on him that he couldn't fix it, so he needed to hope no one noticed.

Nearby, his garnills fluttered in their cage and pretended they weren't amused. Mavrin waggled his fingers to tsk them.

"Perhaps our Saviors wish to bless this lowly street performer," he said to the audience, faking humility enough to earn some appreciative nods and even one signaled prayer. He would have words with the passing Aspect later. "Right. I require a volunteer. Preferably someone young, or at least small. Who has the courage to join me onstage?"

People glanced at each other, but no one raised a hand. Mavrin's showman smile never wavered, as he imagined larger audiences in proper performing halls. Places with actual walls, to keep the Winds at bay and spare his voice.

"This can't be correct," he said. He pointed vaguely to the west. "Just a week ago, there were dozens of hands in Dirren." Technically correct, if he counted both hands on each audience member. "Do the people of Tanardell lack that same passion?"

For a moment, he worried there wouldn't be a single volunteer.

One more reason to retire, he thought.

A hand shot up to his right, from a child at the edge of the crowd. After the adult behind her nodded permission, she scurried forward.

"Ah, someone willing to assist a poor old man!" Mavrin crouched so they were almost eye-to-eye. "What's your name?"

"Ohanna."

"A pleasure." Mavrin held his hands up, palms out with the first two fingers of each intertwined, combining his pronouns and the universal sign that he didn't worship a specific Aspect. Ohanna enthusiastically did the same, confirming hers with the hand-over-hand sign of the Presence as Passage. She was tiny and willowy, with tawny brown skin and dark hair in a bun that she fiddled with while she faced him, unable to quite bring it under control. "Who is that you're with?"

"My sister. Aulina."

Mavrin looked over the girl's head. "Good evening, Aulina! Thank you for lending your sister. I hope you don't plan on charging a fee."

He winked at the audience, earning some scattered smiles. Aulina dipped her head and tucked her hair behind her ear, a growing smile matching the enthusiasm on her sister's face.

"Ohanna, I'd like to place you on that stool. Would you be all right with that?" When she nodded, he scooped her up gently under the armpits. She was just small enough to fit squarely on the stool, bare toes peeking over the edge. "My dear, your task tonight will be very simple."

As he spoke, Mavrin made a show of wandering the performing area and searching his pockets, passing over the hidden wire twice so he could subtly brush dirt back over it. The top of the enclosure creaked ominously above him as the Winds picked up again outside.

"It should be somewhere . . . aha!" From one of his cloak's inner pockets, he produced a palm-sized crystal, its edges smooth and vaguely teardrop-shaped. "When I traveled the desolate Edgeplains, I saw many wondrous and awe-inspiring sights. But only one relic of the Time Before Unity crossed my path, and I show it to you now."

Anyone in the audience not paying attention received a hushed whisper or a jab to the ribs, until Mavrin had everyone's focus again. He held the crystal out in his palm, letting their minds do the work better than any scripted dialogue he could provide. People leaned forward to get a better look, to see whether the feeble light from the crackling salt lamps caught the crystal the right way. It wasn't a true Castoff, of course—just a scuffed piece of quartz, several shades lighter and more jagged than a scale from the Aspects—but people were willing to imagine all sorts of things from the Time Before Unity, especially in the hands of a magician.

"This relic, my friends, is unique in all of Aelda. I would be lying if I described its true origins, as I do not know them." He covered the crystal in both hands, not quite like a Requester would with a Castoff, but close. "It's the source of my power, which I share with you tonight. Under the watchful eye of the Aspects," he added, remembering to glance at the tent's ceiling.

He was about to give Ohanna her instructions when he noticed a figure at the back of the crowd, blending in with the darkened canvas. Though a hood masked most of their face, the broad shoulders and the way they clasped their hands over their belt looked familiar.

Mavrin caught himself from stumbling over his hidden wire, and a second later the figure was gone, quick enough that he didn't see anyone ducking out into the market. He put it out of his mind; the last thing this show needed was more distraction.

"When I introduce you properly, Ohanna, I will need you to perform an expert bow to incite the audience into thunderous applause." He glanced at the crowd, so they understood their role. "You know how to bow, of course?"

Ohanna nodded so rapidly she almost fell off the stool.

"Lovely!" He took a breath, letting his scripted lines center him, and called out, "Good people of Tanardell . . . I present to you . . . one of your very own . . . the radiant Ohanna!"

At the exact moment she bowed, Mavrin lifted the crystal in one hand and finally heard the audience gasp as it flickered under the lamps, seeming to generate its own light. At the same time, he tapped the hidden cord with his boot and the compartment on the stool burst open, casting glittering yellow petals into the air. The extra breeze from the Winds made them churn around Ohanna and over the audience's heads, earning more than one astonished cry.

"Thank you!" He crossed back to Ohanna and gently lowered her from the stool. Dropping his voice, he said, "Brilliant. I suppose you'll have quite the story to tell your parents tonight."

The delighted smile on Ohanna's face drooped and she looked at her feet. Mavrin hadn't thought anything of her lack of shoes, but now he noticed the extra stitches on her cotton dress and the discoloration in her cheeks. He glanced at Aulina, spotting premature age lines and dark circles under her eyes.

Mavrin crouched in front of Ohanna. "I'm sorry. Wherever they are, I'm sure they thought your performance was lovely."

"Aulina says the Presence guides them now."

"Of course," Mavrin said, managing to keep any sourness from his voice.

Every second he ignored the audience ticked through his head as he mentally ran through the tools and trinkets stashed in his pockets, determined to win back Ohanna's beaming smile. He would have given her the crystal, if possessing a glass simulacrum of a Castoff wasn't frowned upon in certain circles. His hand settled on his left pants pocket.

"Do you think Aulina would mind if I gave you something?"

Her eyes widened when he showed her the coin. For a moment, he worried she would think it was simply another allotment chit, possibly for something more luxurious than food or water. She'd likely never seen the particular dark blue of dariss before. Mavrin had only ever held three objects made from the crystal, and that was because this coin was part of a set. One always accompanied him when he performed, out of habit, but otherwise they'd never been separated. And a performance habit doesn't matter if you're retiring, does it?

"The person who taught me the ways of magic gave me this," Mavrin said, his voice solemn. "For luck. I'd like you to have it."

Mavrin pivoted his shoulder to hide his hands from the audience, not wanting anyone to cause a fuss. Dariss was nothing extraordinary, really, other than it being rare in this part of Aelda. The last thing he wanted was someone pilfering Ohanna because they thought she had something truly valuable. Although maybe the previous owner's good luck would pass to her, even though it skipped him.

To his surprise, she didn't take it right away. "Don't you still need it?"

That question brought the first genuine smile to Mavrin's face that night.

He folded her fingers around the coin. "All I need is the promise you'll take good care of this for me."

Ohanna's eyes lingered on the coin for long enough that he thought she might hand it back to him. Then she shook off whatever had come over her and nodded with the earnestness of a child who understood when to be serious.

Sparse applause led her offstage. Mavrin waited to see the look of shock on Aulina's face before spreading his arms out and facing the audience again.

"Thank you! Now, you may have noticed my feathered friends to the side here . . . "

~

The rest of the show went as well as Mavrin could have expected. Rope tricks and kaleidoscope projectors were hardly everyday sights, and his not-so-serious attempts at sleight of hand and levitation made the children laugh. After finding and passing around his patterned bag, it jingled with more chits than he expected when he saw the stage he had to work with. Enough for meals, provisions and, depending on the count of luxury tokens in there, possibly a bottle of brandy or cordial. Each was stamped as part of the city of Renhollow's allotment system, which meant they were usable at any town under their authority.

As he towed his trunk and garnill cage down Tanardell's main avenue, the Winds pressed heavily against the back of his cloak and whistled against his ears. Small knots of people clustered in almost every doorway, braving the warmer night air to watch the sky and whisper prayers to each other. A trio of truly brave—or foolish—individuals stood on a flat roof to scream their life stories at the top of their lungs, even though it wasn't the Hidden passing overhead tonight. That Aspect was likely somewhere on the other side of the world, while Their sibling the Catalyst soared above Tanardell.

Mavrin didn't look. He should have double checked the rotational calendar before he booked this performance, even though he had been promised a properly enclosed space. The Aspects passed by at regular intervals, but Their orbit deviated a few kilometers each time; one coasting directly over a community was said to be a blessing, especially when They dipped lower in Aelda's atmosphere. At his age he'd seen every Aspect pass overhead enough times that he could count the spots on the Catalyst's massive underbelly without looking, and he stopped believing in blessings a long time ago.

Between the Catalyst and humanity, the Lifesphere glimmered as always, translucent sheen a constant reminder of how his world depended on the Aspects, and the atmosphere They generated by orbiting Aelda. As long as They kept that intact, Mavrin had no other business with Them.

A large crowd of onlookers stood outside the Wayward Waystop, sharing their liquor allowance in tight metal capsules. A broad-shouldered woman in an engineer's apron held the door open for Mavrin, murmuring, "Success through Salvation," as he passed inside.

Mavrin nodded politely but kept silent.

Like many of Tanardell's buildings, the front staircase led down into a sunken main room, in this case filled with round stone tables and polished stools. Josef, the owner's son, waved at him from a ladder, which he used to secure shutters over the room's narrow windows. He must have started early, since the interior was already toasty from the hearth in the center, its meager smoke curling into the ceiling's pneumatic fan and the vent above. The floral scent of whatever natural oils boiled alongside the hearth's coals soaked the humid air, covering the market stenches Mavrin imagined coating his cloak.

The second-floor hallway was lit only by a candle at each end, so Mavrin collected an averblossom lantern from Josef and descended further underground, carefully balancing his possessions in his hands. His garnill cage bounced against the walls enough times to make the birds tap an angry rhythm with their talons.

"Please, I'm as careful as I can be," he grumbled back. At the end of the hall, he set the lantern down so he could search for the key to his room.

"Quite the performance tonight, my friend."

Mavrin squeaked and jumped, jostling the lantern as he raised his arms in some sort of frantic defense. In its wobbling blue light, Mavrin recognized the broad, hooded figure from his show, and wondered if the ditch his mother predicted as his final resting place was somewhere nearby.

When the figure stepped forward and pushed back the hood, images of a grisly death stopped flashing through Mavrin's mind—but if anything, he wanted to flee even more.

He almost didn't recognize the wide, ocher face. The wrinkles around the eyes were new but not surprising. The vicious scar on the man's bald scalp was something else, though. It looked like a multi-ended weapon had raked across his skull, but Mavrin couldn't imagine any weapon swinging in this person's direction. For all the years they knew each other, Eyasu Temergon had been a non-violent man.

Eyasu bowed at the waist to gently tap a finger against the garnills' cage. They shied away from him, tiny black eyes twinkling in their crimson faces.

"I enjoyed your trick with these little ones. Have you ever done the same with a rabbit?"

His gloves were dark leather, like the ones Mavrin sometimes used, but with rectangular plates sewn into the knuckles and wrist. A heavy cloak covered most of his frame, weighted tassels hanging from the bottom to hold it against the Winds, instead of tied along the front. Mavrin thought he saw armor underneath made of a muted metal he didn't recognize in the dim light.

When he found his voice, he could only come up with, "Rabbits are for amateurs."

Eyasu rumbled a low hmm as he straightened. "How have you been, my friend?"

"How have I . . . " Mavrin blinked at him, bemused. After so long—more than ten, but less than twenty years, perhaps—he couldn't imagine being asked a stranger question. "What in the name of the Four are you doing here?"

"I was on the Jesper Windroute near Renhollow and heard your name. Someone from Dirren."

"How convenient for you." Skepticism replaced his confusion. No one whispered his name from town to town anymore. In fact, he doubted anyone ever had.

They stood there in silence, Eyasu still as a granite pillar.

Two heartbeats were all Mavrin could tolerate before he went back to looking for his key. "Well, this was a lovely chat. If you'll excuse me . . . "

"You didn't answer my question."

He hung his head, one hand on the doorframe; that direct manner of speaking was too familiar. "How am I? Older, with less patience for being accosted by strangers on my way to bed. Does that satisfy you?"

Mavrin risked a glance in time to see the light dim in Eyasu's eyes. That's right, we're strangers now, he thought, hoping the other man felt it, too.

Except Eyasu stayed in place. "I shouldn't lie to you," he said. "I did hear about you performing, but I came here . . . to speak with you about something specific." He took a breath. "About the Raw."

Mavrin's hand dropped. "You can't be serious." Door and key forgotten, he took a step closer to Eyasu, so he could ignore the sudden cold weight in his diaphragm. "You've materialized out of the sky because of that?"

Eyasu straightened a little. "I didn't come here to argue. You need to let me explain . . . "

"I don't need to do anything." Mavrin glanced down the corridor and dropped his voice a couple registers. "Please don't tell me you're still trying to prove that theory of yours."

"It was our theory, once."

He shook his head. Eyasu looked different but was still chasing the same demons. "You should've let this go. Let me make something clear: you're wrong about the Time Before. Your beliefs about the Fracture are foolish. And before you ask, I haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise. Thank you and goodnight."

"Age hasn't made you any wiser, then."

"Hidden's fetid breath . . . "

"You shouldn't say things like that."

"I'm sure the Aspects have more important concerns than my language." Mavrin finally found his key and scooped up the lantern. "We're done here. We were done back then, too, but thank you for the reminder of why I was right to leave."

He unlocked the stone dial on his door and opened it wide enough to slide his trunk inside.

"The Raw exist," Eyasu insisted. "I can prove it."

Mavrin schooled his expression as that cold feeling reached into his chest. "We don't need monsters to explain the world. Anything beyond the mundane is the Aspects' doing, whether we like it or not."

He tugged the garnill cage through the door.

Which was when he noticed the two dariss coins floating in the center of his room.