Letter XX (C.D. to F.M.)

Dear Foofri,

I have not yet received your letter, but hope that Muse will not linger overlong at his family reunion. Too much has happened here to delay writing it down, now that I have a moment.

As soon as I had dispatched Muse with my last letter and your munches, I slipped back over the wall to Winterfast. Although I had planned to snatch at least a couple of hours of sleep, I found myself far too keyed up to lie down. So instead I got dressed, patted a little invisibility powder on the shadows under my eyes, and dashed off to the Justicum to register my new house security. I had to move back home as soon as possible, and since Damorin’s stipulation was that I reinvent my wards, I hoped that Muse and I had been able to do just that. I got there fifteen minutes before the Imperial City Magic Patents office opened. (And frankly, it’s ridiculous that I’m not allowed to alter my own property spells without registering it! Bureaucracy!)

I practically pounced on the little old clerk when she made her appearance (two minutes late). And then I stood by the counter trying not to drum my fingers while she hung up her hat and pulled out her spectacles.

She began to read through the plans, and pretty soon she started making little interested noises like “Hmmm,” and “My, my,” and once “Ooh!” I hoped this was good, and as it turned out, it was. When she had at last finished reading, she was positively flushed with excitement. “Such an inventive use of the allowed security permutations!” she enthused. “Just between us, my dear, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. One of the best!” She actually patted my cheek before toddling off to get my file and her official seal.

I admit, I’d worried a little bit about some of Muse’s more original flourishes, but clearly I needn’t have. When this adventure is over, perhaps you could get rid of him by encouraging him to set up his own security firm.

The clerk came back looking anxious. “Oh dear, Magi, I’m afraid there’s been a hold placed on your file. I’m not authorized to allow any changes to your property.”

“Magi Ardaya?” I asked in resignation.

She nodded. “I’m afraid you need his signature. After that, I’ll process you right through. Priority.”

She looked so apologetic that I couldn’t show my frustration. Instead I smiled hopefully. “I don’t suppose you know whether he’s in the Justicum?” I knew that the Patent office must have access to the Justicum Locating System. It’s only supposed to be for official business, but she brightened immediately.

“Just between us, I’ll check,” she twittered, and darted away. A minute later she was back and beaming. “He’s in his office!” she chirped.

“Thank you!” I called, already running out of the office. If Damorin left his office before I could get there, finding him quickly would be impossible.

Despite my hurry, I took a moment to gather my composure. As I’m sure you can imagine, I felt a bit nervous about meeting him so soon after what had happened the night before at the ball. But I needed his approval of my new security before I could move back home, unless I wanted Justicum guards barging in again. With my luck, they would show up just as I was on the verge of figuring out how to use the Stones, and then I really would be under arrest instead of protective custody.

Reminding myself not to sound overly urgent lest my sudden and immediate desire to move home raise suspicion, I knocked firmly on the door. There was no answer.

Cursing my luck, I contemplated my options. I could take my best guess and try chasing after Damorin. I could go back to the office and beg the clerk to take another peek at the JLS. Or I could see whether the temporary password Damorin had given me when I was his apprentice still worked and slip into his office to check his appointment book.

It really wasn’t much of a choice. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and muttered the word. The lock clicked and the door swung open. Exhaling in relief, I stepped forward and froze. Damorin was there, and he was not alone. Ameliorene lifted her tear stained face from his chest and looked at me.

After a brief moment of shock (and I don’t know why I was so shocked), I overcame my first impulse to slam the door and run away and said brightly, “So sorry to interrupt, but if I could just get your signature, Master.” I waved my plans at them.

He gently pushed Ameliorene to one side as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “How can I help you, Magi?” he asked, coming forward.

I was suddenly blazingly angry. “Sign here,” I snapped jabbing at the appropriate line.

Of course he took the plans and flipped back to page one, leaning against the doorframe as he read. After a minute, Ameliorene slipped past us. For the first time in my life, I felt sorry for her as I watched her go. I wouldn’t have thought Damorin even noticed her departure, except that he swung the door shut behind her.

When he’d finished reading through the security plans, he looked at me and simply asked, “Underwear?”

“It’s innovative and highly effective,” I said stiffly. Actually, I think that spell must be a staple of Muse’s. I did try to talk him out of running it as a trip wire around the property, but he pointed out that no one would be prepared to guard against it, so I had to give in.

“You didn’t write all this yourself,” he stated, rather than asked.

“No, I had help from a Muse.”

“Your Muse?”

“My cousin’s,” I said coolly.

“So that’s how you’ve been communicating.” We locked gazes, and then he smiled. “And Valerian swore up and down he could handle a single schoolgirl. I wish I could see his face when he finally notices the wool over his eyes.”

I thought about the Suldan Stones at home and the wool that was hopefully in place over a certain sparkly somebody’s eyes. “You’re not angry that we’ve been writing letters?” I asked cautiously.

“Why should I be?”

“Well, you’ve been upset over everything else I’ve done,” I said frankly.

His smile faded, and he regarded me with an expression I couldn’t quite identify. “Cordelimaera—”

“Are you going to sign that or not?” I demanded, fairly sure I didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say.

He signed it without saying anything else. “Thank you,” I muttered, practically snatching it out of his hand, and then I hustled out the door and down the hall.

But I didn’t get very far. A door just in front of me was flung open, and I had to skid to a stop to avoid running into Ameliorene. At first I thought it was just an unhappy coincidence, that she’d ducked into an empty office to finish crying. But all traces of her tears had disappeared, and she looked as beautiful and composed as a marble statue. “May I have a word with you, Magi?”

There were about three billion things I would rather have done, but I wasn’t quite reckless enough (yet) to deliberately provoke a royal.

I followed her into the office and braced myself, but her first question was the last thing I would have expected. “Your mother died when you were very young, is that right?”

“Yes,” I said, momentarily bewildered.

“The reason I ask,” she began, turning from closing the door to face me, “is that there are things you should have learned from a woman’s guiding hand. Really, you’re hardly to blame.” She said it reassuringly, as though I’d come to her for advice.

“I don’t follow you,” I said, although I had a sudden suspicion about where she was taking this.

“When you throw yourself at a man, well, you only make yourself ridiculous.” Her voice was so sweet, that anyone not looking into her icy blue eyes would have thought she actually cared about me.

“You’re angry because Damorin kissed me last night,” I said. “Well I can tell you that it wasn’t my idea. If you don’t like it, take it up with him.” I tried to leave, but she wouldn’t step away from the door.

She’d lost her calm expression, though, and her voice shook a little as she accused, “You tricked him!”

“How?” I asked innocently. “Do you actually think he thought I was you?”

Her face went white, except for two blazing spots of color in her cheeks. “Stay away from him!”

This would have been a good point to tell her she was welcome to him. After all, why would I be interested in a man who comforted one woman in the privacy of his office less than twelve hours after passionately kissing another? But I was too blindingly furious to think straight. I sighed, affecting weariness. “If only he would let me.”

Her hand flew up, and I thought she was going to slap me. But she stopped it at the last second, and instead rested one finger on my cheek. I refused to flinch.

Her anger was gone, and she was simply cold as she said, “I want Damorin Ardaya. I will have him. And no disreputable little flirt is going to stand in my way.” She drew her finger suddenly down, and I felt her sharp nail slice my cheek.

I wish I could say the reason I didn’t punch her in the nose was because I refused to sink to her level. Actually, I happened to remember that assaulting a royal is grounds for banishment. “Excuse me,” I said with exaggerated politeness and stepped around her, then out the door.

After getting the official seal on my security plans, I took a taxi straight back to my house, not bothering to go to Winterfast to collect my things. I could have them sent over later. Right now, the only things that mattered were the Suldan Stones.

All alone in the house (I’d given the staff a holiday after I’d moved to Winterfast), I went into the workroom and pulled out the pouch that had been hanging around my neck, underneath my robes. Untying the drawstring, I took a deep breath and emptied the contents into a silver dish.

Five gray pebbles, just smaller than the tip of my little finger, rattled into the plate. I hadn’t had any definite picture in mind, but even after seeing the small size of the pouch, I couldn’t help expecting something more spectacular. I feared I’d fallen prey to another of the Masters’ decoys and that all the work (and accompanying drama) of the last twenty-four hours had been for naught.

I found I had absolutely no idea of what to do next. I’d been counting on the Stones themselves to give me a clue. Usually, a magical tool gives you a clue about what you’re supposed to do with it. You look into a magic mirror, you put a magic ring on your finger, you eat a magic mushroom. But what do you do with a handful of pebbles?

I picked one up and rolled it around in my palm. It looked and felt like an ordinary rock. “I wish Muse was here,” I muttered.

Suddenly, I smelled a hint of smoke. Alarmed, I replaced the Stone and turned to investigate, but the odor had disappeared completely. Feeling jumpy, I double checked the closest strands of my new security wards, but nothing had been disturbed.

I returned to the workroom and selected another of the Stones. If Muse were here, I thought ruefully, I would actually welcome his stream of endless information. Surely centuries of experience would have given him some ideas. And as if my wish had summoned him into being I heard his unmistakable voice say, “Not a position for publicity of course, but I still feel…” I spun around, still grasping the pebble but the room held no one but myself. “…brilliant young mind, she already holds a position of importance in the council,” Muse said, and I stared at the Stone in my hand with growing comprehension.

I reached into the basin and picked up the Stone I had held previously. Once again the smell smoke filled my nostrils, but this time it was chokingly thick and loaded with incense. A voice I did not know coughed and said irritably, “Where does Rasputin get off? That entrance was flashy
enough to set the room on fire!”

A third Stone was in my hand and I felt the tile beneath my feet fade to lushly piled carpet and my eyes began to water from invisible haze. With the fourth Stone your muse at last came into view, sipping from a long stemmed goblet and talking to another creature who might have been his twin if judged by noses. The unknown was glaring very hard at someone or
something across the decidedly foggy room. I picked up the last Stone and the tang of smoke and incense rested on my tongue.

Our muse’s voice once again made itself heard above the general hubbub of a room filled with his floating, eating, drinking, bragging relatives. “Magi Fofricianabelle has, of course, not yet finished her education, but she already exhibits amazing promise in talent, not to mention that she is practically engaged to one of the leading men in that magical revolution taking place in the Outskirts. And as far as personal charm goes, there’s really no comparison between the cousins. The younger is the most amiable and courteous…”

I laughed out loud, then froze, instinctively afraid I’d given my presence away, but no one so much as looked in my direction. Muse kept bragging about us to his bored looking relative, and I began to explore his family reunion.

It was like I was there, Foof! I couldn’t alter the appearance of anything, as I discovered after experimenting with a plate of honey tarts on the buffet, but I could lick them and enjoy the taste of the chocolate drizzle on the top. I could sink into a pile of luxurious cushions and appreciate their softness even though I made no indentation on their surface. (It was a bit awkward when one muse, so fat he found levitation a bother, sat right on top of me, but I wiggled out and he never knew the difference.)

I had been there perhaps ten minutes when I noticed the voices seemed to be getting shriller. Rapidly, before I quite realized what was happening, the room rushed in against my senses—I was blinded by the colors, drowning in the softness of the carpet, saturated in the sweetness of the smoke. I felt my mind expanding to take it all in, stretching unbearably. I was lost in a terrifying circus of awareness; I was becoming my sensations.

Somehow I knew that if I couldn’t stop this, I would never be myself again. In another moment I would lose my sanity. With a final defiance of will, the last particle of me that was still Cordelimaera, I remembered my own hand. Forcing open my fingers, I dropped the Stones.

I don’t know how much time passed before I regained consciousness. I couldn’t remember why I was lying on the floor or why my head hurt so much. I sat up and opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. The room swam sickeningly and I promptly passed out again.

I was lying chained hand and foot in the palace dungeon. Princess Ameliorene was repeatedly banging my head with a jar full of turquoise fireflies. Gradually I realized I was still lying on the floor of my workroom, somebody was knocking with great insistence on the front door and
the butler was on holiday. If I had been one whit more coherent I would have let whoever it was knock themselves into the Outskirts, but all I could think of was that I had to make that awful pounding stop. I had to answer the door.

The walls did their swirling act again as I staggered up, but steadied when I grasped the edge of the table. They remained still until I took a hesitant step toward the doorway. I made it as far as the hallway before the ripple of the floor grew to tossing waves, and I clutched the doorsill,
helpless to advance any further. The knocking, to my great relief, suddenly ceased. But it was only seconds before a violent snap and an acrid scent filled the air. I realized someone was breaking through the security spells, but stopping whoever-it-was was about as possible as walking in a straight line. Colorful swirls were dancing before my eyes when I heard the
final wards give way and slam the door open. I stood swaying and thought I heard a faint cry before I blacked out yet again.

This time when I came to, my surroundings were soft and warm. I opened my eyes and saw the well worn furnishings of Grandfather’s study lit by a comforting glow. I was lying on the broad sofa where Grandfather used to do his “deep thinking,” and a fire crackled cheerfully on the hearth. I lay quietly, until I remembered everything that had happened.

I was left with two impressions. In the first place I felt peeved that I’d wasted what might be my only chance with the Stones to watch the Muse and his obnoxious relatives. And second, I wondered just exactly how much trouble I was in and whether what I’d done actually qualified as a crime.

I wasn’t going to get any answers lying on the sofa. Moving carefully, I stood up and went to look for Damorin. (I could think of only two people who would break down my front door. The first was whoever was trying to kill me. Since I wasn’t dead, I supposed it had to be him.)

I found him in the kitchen, stirring a saucepan. I was leaning against the doorway, trying to catch my breath, when he saw me. “Cora!” With an expression of concern he crossed to take my arm. “You shouldn’t have gotten up.”

I leaned on him gratefully as we walked to the table. Although the floor was now steady (mostly) I felt very weak.

“How do you feel?”

“Awful but better,” I admitted.

He took my wrist and felt my pulse before going back to the stove. A minute or two later he set a bowl in front of me. “Here.”

With memories of a recently unfriendly stomach I eyed it doubtfully. “There are pieces of dead chicken floating in there.”

“Eat,” he ordered.

I forced down a few bites, and then it seemed to taste better and I realized I was hungry. “I didn’t know you could cook,” I said, when I had finished.

He smiled, a little wryly. “That’s the only thing I know how to make.”

“I almost flunked domestic magic,” I confessed. “I kept setting the kitchenette on fire.”

He laughed at that, and so did I. It was oddly serene moment, considering all that had happened.

“How are you feeling?” he asked again.

“Much better,” I declared, trying to sound cheerful.

“Tell me what happened.”

Too late, I wished I’d played up my lingering headache. “I picked up the Stones and—”

“From the beginning,” he interrupted. “Tell me how you got them out of the vault.”

“Foofri’s muse,” I sighed, and told him the whole story, beginning with my first trip to the vault to collect my jewelry and scan the catalogue. “And then I went back to the ball.” I stopped abruptly. He knew what had happened after that.

He had watched me intently during the recital, and now his gray gaze didn’t waver as he asked, “Before you met me, were you running away from someone?”

“Just Jamin,” I said hastily, relieved the question was no more awkward.

“Why?”

“Because … well …” It was harder to answer than I’d realized. “Because I didn’t want him to kiss me,” would have been the most truthful, but if I said that, then maybe Damorin would think his kiss had been a welcome exchange, which I wasn’t sure that I wanted him to think. But I wasn’t sure I didn’t want him to think it either. “Does it matter?” I temporized, avoiding his gaze.

To my relief, he didn’t pursue the issue, but took my empty bowl over to the sink. He didn’t return to his chair but stood by the window, looking out across the dark gardens. “What happened after I saw you this morning?”

“After I came home,” I began, censoring certain other events of that morning, “I took the Stones into the workroom. I emptied them out of their bag, and then … I didn’t know what to do. They were so utterly unlike anything I’d been expecting. I was wishing Muse—”

“The one who helped you steal them?”

“Who helped me borrow them,” I corrected. “And, well, that was all it took. It was incredible. I could see, hear, taste, smell, feel …” I trailed off, remembering the incredible vividness of the experience.

He was looking at me now, and not out the window. “How many of the Stones did you use?”

I shrugged. “All of them.”

He stared at me for a long moment, but it wasn’t until he spoke that I realized how angry he was. “You stupid girl, nobody is supposed to use all five at once.”

“I’m not stupid!” I flung back. “I let go of them as soon as I realized.” Well, that may have been a slight exaggeration, but in principle it was true.

“It’s a miracle you didn’t drive yourself mad.”

“I have a right to use the Stones.”

“You had no idea what you were doing!”

“And whose fault is that?” I demanded.

He ran both hands through his hair and took a deep breath, visibly forcing himself to calm down. “Stephanus made me promise not to tell you until I thought you were ready.”

I was too tired just then to realize the implications of that. “I am ready! I’ve been ready!”

“For Jalwa’s sake, Cora, you just lost your grandfather.”

I stood up too fast. “Don’t call me that! Nobody calls me that!” My words sounded too loud in my own ears, and the floor buckled beneath my feet. I vaguely remember grabbing the back of my chair and feeling it give way under my hand.

When I woke up it was morning. I lay in my own room on my own bed, feeling grubby in yesterday’s clothes. The first order of business was obviously a bath. As I carefully swung myself out of bed, the room remained blessedly stationary. I also seemed, with the exception of one side of my face, to have stopped aching.

As I passed my dressing table I caught sight of a note from Damorin propped against the
mirror. He said that he had had to go out, and for Jalwa’s sake, would I stay put until he got back. I looked up after I had finished reading, and was startled out of my miff by the vision in the
mirror. Quite aside from my braid which had frayed into a rat’s nest, the right half of my face sported an ugly black bruise from where I must have fallen against the worktable the first time I lost consciousness. (A much nicer term than fainting, don’t you think?) The other part of my face was shockingly white, except for the red line of the princess’s scratch.

I am sitting in the bath as I dictate this to my recording quill (I hope I have not splashed it too much.)

Now I have definitely splashed it too much. Muse appeared right in the middle of the bathroom, with no regard for my nerves or my modesty (thank goodness I have strong nerves and a lot of bubbles). He didn’t make any of his usual snide remarks as he handed over your letter, and he wanted to immediately take this one and be on his way! But I am making him wait until I have read your letter in case I have anything to add.

You were attacked by wraiths?! WRAITHS!! My water is still warm, but I’ve got cold chills all over. I’ve been having nightmares ever since we woke up that old memory, and the thought of you actually confronting the SAME WRAITHS AGAIN terrifies me, even though it’s already over, and you are safe. Is there any way at all to trace who has summoned a wraith? It’s one thing for them to come after me, but now they’ve put you in danger too, and I won’t stand for it!

You say you need advice about Sean, but I’m not certain I have anything to offer. On the one hand, he saved your life! On the other hand, he was the one who dragged you into the Pass in the first place! On the other hand, he is clearly strongly attracted to you. On the other hand (I’ve always wanted four hands), he lied about having to share a larat and took advantage of you! If he were standing in front of me, I don’t know whether I would hug him or slap him. Why are men so confusing? Couldn’t they be straightforward for once in their obnoxious little lives? Perhaps you should simply cut through the problem and demand an explanation. Don’t let him get away with vague hints and cryptic comments, but make him say it out loud! I wish I had enough courage to do the same.

Muse is getting very restless and keeps twitching the parchment. He promises to come back with a reply by this evening (I am not certain if I believe him) so I will save my reflections on our dubiously romantic problems for the next missive.

Ever most affectionately yours,
Cordy

Letter XIX (Foof to Cordy)

Dearest Cordy,

Last time I wrote, I essentially only cared about munches, but then nothing truly strange or truly perilous or truly romantic had happened to either of us yet. Now that we've both had a taste of all three, I, for one, find the perilous vastly over-rated (I do hope to remember this declaration in the future, but don't hold your breath).

The strange, well, I can't really complain about the strange which is just as well since I expect strange things to continue until our adventures come to a close, whenever that may be. Perhaps your experiments with the Stones will hasten the process.

Which brings us to the romantic. Flirting with Jamin is quite shameless of you, although after seeing his picture in the society papers you sent along with the munches and your letter, I can hardly blame you. He really is devilishly good-looking!

And then there is Damorin Ardaya. Damorin Ardaya, who kissed you quite soundly and then essentially branded you as his own, whether that was his intention or not! I am dying to know what is going on in his head!

Oh, dearest! It isn't right for us to be separated when we should be spending hours in your bedroom, drinking tea and analyzing all of our encounters with men! After you read what has been happening with me, you'll see you're not the only one who could use a little advice.

After I sent the muse off with my last letter, Sean was still asleep so I decided to get up and look around a bit.

Walking wasn't exactly easy, but I managed to scramble over the uneven ground to an overlook point. Further down the trail I could see where the terrain of the Pass ended and the forest began and I wondered how many hours it would take to get to that point. As the sun started its descent, I realized we didn't have very much time to travel before it got dark.

I was just about to climb down from my lookout point when I heard the sound of voices further down the trail and decided to stay put until I could see who it was. In a few moments, a group of six soldiers wearing handsome Fort Thunderhall uniforms came riding up the trail on larats. By Jalwa, it was an inspiring sight!

I jumped down from my place of concealment right into their midst. The horses whinnied and shied back as their riders fought to keep them under control. I threw myself back against the rocks and wished I had stayed where I was.

“Ho there!” shouted the captain as they all reined in their mounts.

“Hello,” I shouted (meekly). “I'm sorry about that.”

“It's quite all right,” the captain replied, soothing his horse enough to dismount. He came to me and bowed over my hand. “Good aftenoon, Miss,” he said.

“Good afternoon,” I said, searching for something to say. “Um, you must be the fort officers assigned to Pass patrol. Tell me, is there any news?”

They all looked at each other and back at me. The captain said, “Captain Philip Woodhouse at your service, Miss...? He waited expectantly for me to fill in the blank.

“Oh,” I stammered, “it's Magi Montphish.”

“Magi,” he repeated. “I apologize. You’re not in robes so I didn’t know.”

“My title doesn’t exactly matter here in the Pass, does it?”

“I suppose not, but I do like to show respect to a profession I admire very much. May I ask, Magi, out of duty, what brings you here?”

“I am traveling with a friend to the Outskirts.”

“Friend?” he asked, looking around.

I nodded. “Yes, perhaps you know him. Sean Valerian?” The soldiers all looked at each other, again, in surprise.

“Sean Valerian?” Captain Woodhouse questioned. “You’re traveling with Sean Valerian?”

“Yes, I am. Is that so odd?”

Captain Woodhouse looked slightly bemused for a moment before he answered, “Yes, it is. It's very odd, indeed.” He didn’t offer any explanation as to why it was so strange, but continued his questioning. “Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s asleep. I was just exploring a bit while I wait for him to wake up.”

“Asleep?” He laughed. “Let’s go wake him up, shall we?” He held his arm out to me and I had no choice but to take it. As we approached Sean's resting place, I could see he was smiling and murmuring something in his sleep. Before I could do anything, another officer jumped from his mount and knelt down by Sean, listening. After a moment, the soldier’s face split into a wide grin.

“Foofri?” he asked. “Who’s Foofri?” I hoped no once noticed the color I’m sure my faced changed while they all laughed and nudged each other (what is it with laughing and nudging in the Pass? It seems an epidemic!). The commotion woke up Sean, of course, who immediately jumped up and looked around in a panic until his eyes rested on me.

“Foofri,” he said, the relief evident in his voice. This only made all the men began laugh even harder. I closed my eyes and winced, wishing I could just disappear.

Captain Woodhouse leaned over and clapped a confused Sean on the back. “I suppose there’s no hope of you ever rejoining the Fort now, Valerian. We only allow single men, you know. General Derslot won’t be pleased at all.”

Sean looked around at the merry lot with a rather disgruntled look on his face. “You all know I never had any intention of coming back.”

“Yes, and now we know the real reason why.” More laughing. More nudging. Wisely, Sean ignored their comments and changed the subject.

“You’re obviously on patrol, Woodhouse. What news can you give me of goings on within the Pass?” The men continued smiling as they heard Sean echo my earlier inquiry, but quickly sobered as Captain Woodhouse spoke up.

“Actually, I’m glad we’ve come across you. We found a wraith carcass last night at the far side of the Pass.”

“A wraith carcass. So it’s true then.” When Captain Woodhouse gave him a questioning glance he explained, “We met Gavin Farnswall at the Fort and he said there were only rumors of wraith sightings.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, it’s true. I saw the remains myself. I wish we could accompany you Sean, but we’re already two days late getting back. Plus I don’t think you’ll need our help should you come across one. My only fear is for Magi Montphish here. Would you like us to escort her back to the Realm?”

Sean brushed him off quickly. “We’ll be all right.”

The captain nodded as he signaled all the men to remount. “It was a pleasure to meet you Magi Foofri Montphish,” he said, with emphasis on the Foofri. “I hope we meet again.” He took my hand and placed a light kiss on it, then, looking at Sean, said only, “Good-bye Valerian. Do take care.” Sean nodded glaringly.

“Thank you, Woodhouse. The same to you and your men.” Their parting shots didn’t sound at all as friendly as I’m sure they were meant. The soldiers mounted and began taking their leave. Just as they passed where our larat was tied up and were about to turn the bend, Captain Woodhouse reigned in and turned around, gesturing to the animal.

“Where’s your other mount?”

Sean looked slightly embarrassed. “We only have the one,” he said.

“Why didn’t you borrow one from the Fort?”

“I…I thought you’d be needing them for patrol,” he said lamely.

“You're the one who procured them for us, Valerian. You know you can use them any time you come through.”

Very enlightening, this piece of news. I looked at Sean, who most certainly did not look back at me, and decided to save him from any embarrassment in front of the other men. Of course I had every intention of making him pay privately. Donning my most dim-witted look, I spoke up.

“He offered, actually, but I was afraid of handling the mount all by myself. I’m not very good around animals, you see.”

The captain nodded with a slightly amused look. “All right then. Farewell, Magi. Valerian.” He turned and his little company disappeared around the bend leaving Sean and me to look at each other in silence.

“Well, well,” I began, speaking slowly and distinctly. “So I could have had my own mount after all. ‘The others are needed for patrol, Foofri. Let’s toss a coin, Foofri. Do you want to put your arms around me or do you want me to put my arms around you, Foofri.’ I wonder what my father would think of all this, Sean Valerian. Oh, trusted colleague.”

“Foofri, I-”

I cut him off and continued, doing the best imitation of the conversation I'd heard between him and my father (with maybe a little exaggeration). “‘You don't have any intentions towards my daughter, do you. Sean Valerian?' 'Why no, Mr. Montphish, that isn't why I came back to the Realm!'” Oh, and here’s my personal favorite. ‘Why does this have to be so complicated?'” At this final remark, Sean lost his temper.

“Why, you little sneak! I can see why your father so readily agreed to send you to the Outskirts. He was right, you know, you cannot be trusted!”

“Trust?” I exclaimed, outraged. “Oh, that's rich, you talking about trust! If either you or my father ever thought of sharing information with me, I wouldn’t have to stoop to spying!”

“Well maybe we would,” he countered, “if we knew you wouldn’t go traipsing off, taking matters into your own hands and completely ignoring instructions.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not nearly as good at following instructions as you are. Tell me, what exactly were my father’s instructions about flirting with me so shamelessly?”

“I am not flirting with you.”

“No? You mean you treat every girl you meet like this? How very sincere of you.”

“That isn’t what I meant, Foofri. And besides, I’m not the one telling patrol soldiers that we’re involved.”

“Oh! I didn’t say anything to them about us!”

“Really? Then why were they making such insinuations? You must have said something to cause all that teasing.”

I slowly folded my arms and turned a cold, evil smile on him. “I. Didn’t. Say. Anything! You, my presumptuous friend, were murmuring my name in your sleep! And, of course, you had to be smiling. What were they supposed to think after that, hmmm?”

Now it was Sean’s turn to close his eyes and wince. “Please tell me I didn’t do that.”

“Oh, you most certainly did.”

Sean groaned before looking skywards and, shaking his hands, exclaiming, “Why? Why me?”

“I must be rubbing off on you. These sorts of things happen to me all the time.”

“Yes, but you make them happen.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t even try telling me that tripping act you pulled at the council meeting where we first saw each other was only accidental. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I would just be careful to whom you do it.”

I gasped. “How dare you suggest-”

“I’m not suggesting anything. When I see a spade, I call it a spade.”

“You are wretched, you know that? I don’t know why I always feel so sympathetic towards you. I’m obviously an extremely poor judge of character.”

“Sympathy? Really? And pity, no doubt, as well. I can't say that's something I've ever wanted from you. Thanks but no, thanks!” He turned and began packing up the bedding and refastening it to the larat, who rolled her eyes and shook her head. Sean gave her a glare before he mounted and came to me, speaking abruptly. “Let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, especially if we have to ride...like that,” I nodded towards the saddle where we had ridden pressed together, his arms around me, his lips practically at my ear.

“Fine, you can walk.” He stared at me pointedly, then held out his hand. I thought for a moment, then accepted it and allowed him to assist me to the front of the huge saddle.

“Just don’t get too close, if you don’t mind,” I hissed over my shoulder.

“Don’t you worry about that,” he replied hotly.

We rode for a few hours in silence, each of us awkwardly trying not to relax against each other, when my stomach began growling quite loudly. Although we had eaten an enormous breakfast, we hadn't eaten since then and my stomach felt no shame in issuing a complaint. I tried to ignore it, but it was rather persistent. Sean finally spoke up after a particularly ear-shattering one.

“Oh, are we speaking now?”

I gasped and turned to glare at him, but the amused look on his face combined with his absurd comment made me realize how ridiculous we had been. We both burst out laughing, which certainly helped to ease the tension that had formed between us.

“I’m hungry too,” he said, still grinning. “Do you mind eating en route? I want to get some distance behind us while it’s still light.”

“Not at all,” I replied. “Do you have any leftovers from tea?” He did. Quite a lot, in fact, and it was marvelous! We weren’t able to talk much since both our mouths were full, but once we finished our lavish meal and had a drink to wash it down, I attempted conversation.

“Sean, what did Captain Woodhouse mean when he said ‘re-join’ the Fort. You were once a soldier?”

“Briefly, yes.”

“What happened?”

He was silent for so long, I turned around to see what was wrong. “I've never really told anyone about his before.”

“You don't have to tell me,” I said, even though I was dying to know at this point.

“No, it's all right,” he replied. “I…I did train to be a soldier at Fort Thunderhall. I admit, I had always dreamed of being one of those dashing uniformed men, ever since I was young. When I turned eighteen, my father reluctantly allowed me and my brother to enlist.”

“Brother? I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“Ben is my stepbrother. After my father and I moved to the Outskirts, Father met a woman who had had grown up in the Realm and had a child out of wedlock from some jerk magi noble. Not having any family of her own and being shunned by all her acquaintances, she ran away to the Outskirts.

“She had been living there for a while by the time we got to the Outskirts and after a few years, Father married her. She's the closest thing to a mother I’ve ever had. And Ben became my brother, except we didn’t get along. He seemed to have a giant grudge against the world.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, we both enlisted, as I said. I think he did it just to get away from home since he'd never really had an interest in soldiering. We each passed all the requirements and began our duties. Everything seemed to be going fine until our regiment was given an unusual assignment. We were to carry a package from the Outskirts and deliver it to the Justicum. Nobody was told what it was, but we all assumed it must be extremely valuable or the Fort wouldn’t have been assigned to deliver it.” He let out a big sigh. “We were about half-way through the pass when the package was stolen during the night. I didn’t say anything, but I could tell Ben knew something about it, and he knew I could tell.”

“Then what?”

“He implicated me. He implied it could only have been done using magic and since I was the only magi among us, everyone suspected me.”

“But…but you were in the Pass! That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know. Believe me, I know! I tried to explain that and some of the men came around to my side, but once word got to General Derslot, it was too late. I was dismissed without even a trial.”

“From what Captain Woodhouse said about the General, I assumed he would be on your side.”

“Oh, that. No, Woodhouse was being sarcastic, I’m afraid. The General didn’t like me from the start. He thinks magi have no place at the Fort.”

“Well of all the-”

“No, it’s all right. The work didn’t really suit me anyway.”

“What did your…parents think about what happened?”

“They believed me. They weren’t surprised actually.”

“And Ben?”

“Well, he left the Fort shortly after that. I think the men who were on my side made it difficult for him and he was less suited for the job than I was anyway. I don’t know what he’s doing now and, but I'm sure that it can't be good.”

“Doesn’t he write your parents or anything?”

“Nope. Not once. Which isn’t surprising, considering not much mail goes between the Realm and the Outskirts. However, I do think he likes to keep track of what I’m doing.”

“How do you know that?”

“You remember Lt. Farnswall? He and Ben were cronies and I think every time I pass through the Fort, Gavin sends off a little report about what I’m up to and when I’m coming back through and such.”

“Thinking back, he did seem rather inquisitive, but I thought it was because you two were friends.”

Sean laughed mirthlessly. “No, that’s not why.”

“That explains why you were so abrupt with him.”

“Yes, partly.” His voiced sounded funny, and when I turned again to look at him, he met my gaze unflinchingly.

We continued talking as we traveled. He told me stories about the Pass, some true, some sounded not so true. And of course we talked about magic. We were enjoying ourselves so much, we didn’t notice that the sun had gone down behind the tall cliffs of the Pass and the light was quickly fading.

“Oh no!” Sean groaned in dismay. “I thought we would make it farther before dark.”

“Can’t we keep going?”

He considered for a moment. “No, I don’t dare risk it. The few times I’ve stayed on the trail at night, I’ve always regretted it.”

I knew we were both thinking the same thing, but each was trying not to say it aloud. Finally, I asked. “What about the wraith, Sean? This is the far side of the Pass.”

“I know, but we really need to get off the trail now. I think we'll be better off if we find a good place to camp.” He didn’t sound as though he had even convinced himself with this speech.

“Sean, I’m kind of scared.”

He moved a little closer and tightened his arms around me. “I’m a little scared too, but I think it’s just because you’re here and I feel extremely responsible for your safety. If it was just me, I think I would feel fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

After scouting around for a little while, we found a little cave far enough off the trail for Sean to feel safe. It was too small for us and the larat, but for some reason, she indicated preference to stay outside anyway. We didn’t dare have a fire, but Sean produced a small candle so we would have some light by which to eat our cold dinner and prepare for bed.

We had been settled down for quite a while, chit-chatting a bit, when I remembered it was the night of the Anniversary Ball. I had completely forgotten about it until that moment and a huge sigh escaped my lips as I thought of you and what might be happening at that very moment.

“What is it, Foofri?”

“Tonight was to be my first year at the Emperor’s Ball.”

“I’m sorry. I wish you could be there.”

“So do I. Do they have any balls or dances or anything like that in the Outskirts?”

He smiled, amused. “Of course. We're not primitives, Foofri. Though I’m sure the Emperor’s Ball is far beyond anything we have.” He turned onto his side from where he had been laying on his back and propped his head up with his elbow. “I have a little charcoal portrait of my mother, my real mother, the night of her first dance. She was very pretty.”

“Do you look like her or your father? I can’t remember what he looks like.”

“I look a lot like my father, but he says I have my mother’s smile. And her magic, of course.”

“Oh yes, she was a magi, wasn’t she?”

“That’s right.”

“Tell me about her.”

“I don’t really know that much. She died in childbirth, so I never actually met her.”

“I remember your father saying that on the night you…well, that night with the wraiths. What happened to her? I don’t mean to pry, but I’ve wondered about her.”

He laughed softly at that. “You sound just like me, talking to my father. I don’t mind talking about her. She was really special, from what little I know.” He lay back again and stared up at the ceiling of the cave, which danced with the dim shadows from the candle. “She was born and raised in the Outskirts, but she didn’t stay because she had magic, but refused to stop using it. No one threatened her outright or anything, but she was shunned. So she left and ended up in the village by Seven Oaks where she met and married my father.”

“He didn’t mind that she was magic? It seemed like he was quite against it, if I remember correctly.”

“No, he didn’t mind. Not then, anyway.”

“What happened to her to make him hate it so?”

He looked away. “She had a difficult birth. There were complications. She used magic to try and help and it killed her.” He looked up and saw my stunned expression. “That's how my father tells it, anyway, but I think there's more to the story. I can't know this for sure,” he continued, “but from what he's told me about the complications, there wasn't anything she could do for herself. Magic can't cure everything. It can't save everyone in every situation, but I think she knew it could save me. And it did.”

After a few moments of silence he added, “I think he's really just angry that it wasn't strong enough to save us both.”

“I can see why he would be angry, but, Sean?” I hesitated, wondering if I should even ask the next question. “Was it...was it very meaningful when you discovered you had her magic? That you had something from her, something she loved? That she had passed on such a significant part of herself?”

He stared at me in surprise. “Yes, Foofri,” he said quietly. “No one has ever understood that before. I mean, I've never told anyone, but that's exactly how I feel.”

We looked at each other a little bit longer before he noticed the candle had all but died. He blew it out and we both laid down. I lay there listening to his breathing, waiting for it to get slower. After what seemed like a long time, he whispered to me.

“Still awake?”

“No,” I said and we both laughed, softly.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“That night,” I asnwered. “You know the one.”

“It was horrible, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Sean, it was horrible. The worst night of my life, in fact. Did you know Cordy and I used a spell to make us forget?”

“I wondered about that. When you saw me for the first time and didn’t recognize me, I thought it was strange. I had grown up quite a lot, but I still looked like me. I could sense a sort of magical cloud around your awareness of me, but I didn’t think we would ever forget each other, not after what we’d been through.”

“I’m sorry, but when we found the spell, we both jumped at the chance to erase the nightmare. The spell worked so well, we almost forgot everything about you, which was strange considering what a big crush I had on you before that night.”

“What? You hated me! No, that’s not true. You felt pity for me, which is worse.”

“No it isn’t, and besides, that isn’t what I felt.”

He sighed, then uttered a bitter laugh. “But you forgot all about me. What made you remember? A seal breaking charm?”

“Yes. I used it the night after I followed you and my father for the first time. It was a very potent spell and the after affects were staggering. I couldn’t even get off of my bed for hours. The memory came back as though it was yesterday and…I felt horrible, Sean. Truly, I did. And I wondered about you a lot after that. What had happened to you and why were you doing this thing with my father and what you thought about everything. And your magic.”

“I wondered about you a lot, too. I knew you were all right, but I still wondered.”

It took me a minute to answer, I was feeling a little choked up. Finally, I whispered, “I’ll never forget you again, Sean.”

Within a few minutes, he was asleep and a little while after that, I was too.

I awoke later to complete darkness and felt something of a panic. I reached out to Sean, but he was gone. I pulled on my boots and crawled to the entrance of the cave where the larat stood shifting her feet nervously.

“Where’s Sean?” She shook her head.

“Is he all right?” Her eyes widened as she shook her head again. I jumped onto a nearby rock and vaulted onto the saddle, clutching the reins as I shouted, “Let’s go!”

We rode down the trail for what seemed like forever. He couldn’t possible have gone this far, I thought to myself, but the larat kept going, seemingly confident of her destination. All sorts of horrible images ran through my mind, but the worst of them was of two evil creatures laughing as they circled around us. I pushed it to the back of my mind and concentrated on finding Sean. At this point, the boulders began to appear smaller in size and there were patches of soil and trees peppering the landscape. I knew we must be getting close to where the Pass merged with the forest, but couldn’t see very far ahead in the darkness. Finally, we came to a sort of clearing with stubby trees surrounding it and a palpable aura of evil. It wasn’t until I dismounted that I saw Sean's body sprawled on the ground, his face in shadow.

“Sean!” I yelled as I shook him. My hands burned where I touched him and I drew back, gasping in pain. My vision seemed blurred for a bit as Sean’s figure rippled in the air in front of me before it once again became solid. It rolled over and looked up at me. Then it began to laugh. It was a laugh I had hoped never to hear again.

Stumbling backwards, I turned to the larat, intending to remount and run, but before I could reach her, her body also began to ripple and waver in the air. Instead of returning to shape, she seemed to melt down in size until I stood before another replica of Sean. The two wraiths began to circle slowly around me.

“We meet again,” the first one said. “We’ve been waiting for this day a long time.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening. Every part of me wanted to run away, but I was frozen to the spot. “Sh-sh-Sean.” I managed to squeak out in protest. “Sean killed you.”

The second one stepped behind me and spoke slowly into my ear, the skin burning where it touched me. “We do not die,” it said slowly. “We can be banished, and it is very painful, but we cannot be destroyed. We have long hungered for your souls, and finally, a summons has provided us this exquisite pleasure.” I felt a searing grip on my shoulders as the first wraith held me in place while the second one stood in front of me. It looked so exactly like Sean, but for the yellow eyes, I would have sworn it was really him.

A million thoughts swirled in my mind, but uppermost was this: Where was Sean? The real Sean? He was probably already dead. They had torn the life from his body and now he was gone forever.

The thought filled me with such fury that it brought to my mind, with shocking clarity, the memory of that night of our first encounter with the wraiths. I could see Sean standing before me as the wraith sought to take my life. I could hear the words he spoke as he called upon his magic to condemn the wraiths to banishment.

Then the memory burst and I was again conscious of the excruciating grip of the wraith. But the spell was clear in my mind and I spoke the words.

Now, dearest, you know that magic doesn’t work the same in the Pass as it does elsewhere. I knew that too, but I had no choice. I had to try anything to save myself. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the wraith and I both screamed as blue light, liquid in form, spilled all around and began swirling us in a whirlpool of magic. The warped atmosphere in the Pass had morphed the spell and it was running out of control. The other wraith tried to back away, but was swept up beside us into the eddy of magic, unable to do anything but writhe in pain like we already were. I could feel the magic trying to melt the substance of my body so it could banish my soul into oblivion, when, all of a sudden, it disappeared. It was gone!

I immediately fell to the ground, but before I could hit, the magic reappeared and swallowed all of us up again, pulling at us with its violent grip. It went on like this for I don’t know how long, disappearing and reappearing, as we were tossed about at the mercy of its power.

While we were caught up in the tumult of magic gone awry, I noticed something pulling at us, a force that attracted the magic. The maelstrom whipped through the landscape to where the Pass ended. At the edge of the forest, standing on a thick carpet of moss, was the real Sean, his eyes closed in concentration. He was surrounded by a halo of pure magic, which, without actually projecting any magic towards us, pulled us towards him.

As we crossed the boundary of the Pass, there was an explosion and the two wraiths and I were thrown apart as the whirlpool vanished, leaving each of us surrounded by our own blue liquid flame, still flickering with indecision. Within seconds, Sean banished the two wraiths, then came to stand before me. He didn’t stop to analyze the spell I was caught in, but stepped forward to enfold me in his arms. The force that had been pulling me apart began to disintegrate as Sean’s magic mingled with mine and I could feel my body immediately regain its total structure and settle firmly around me. The blue flame flickered out and, shortly after, Sean’s halo died down. He pulled back from our embrace to look at me and, as you can imagine, I promptly fainted.

I awoke in a soft bed covered with a cheery quilt. The sun was peeking through the breezy curtains at the window and Sean sat in a chair next to my bed, holding my hand against his cheek.

“Good morning.” He spoke softly, soberly. I tried to smile, but couldn’t quite manage.

“Where are we?” I whispered.

“Myy parents home. Right after you fainted, I transported us here.” I nodded and closed my eyes again. “Foofri?” he prodded, “I need to know how you’re feeling.”

“I’m all right,” I said. “I’m not in pain or anything if that’s what you mean. I’m just trying to grasp what happened last night. It seems so unreal and yet, I’m still so frightened.”

We sat for a moment before I had the courage to voice my thoughts.

“Sean, why did you leave me? At the cave? Where did you go?”

“During the night, I awoke, sensing something lurking outside our cave and when I looked out, I saw the wraiths over by the brook, sniffing us out. I immediately jumped on the larat and rode straight for the forest hoping to draw them away.”

“Well, when they didn’t follow you, why didn’t you come back?”

“They did follow me, Foofri. I made sure of that. There were just more wraiths than I thought, which is strange. They never group together like that. I thought there were only the two and that the farther I went, the farther I was leading them away from you. I’m so sorry.”

I felt sick. “There were more wraiths?” I sat up, searching his face and, for the first time, noticed the welts on his face and neck.

“I almost didn’t make it to the forest,” he said, “but I did somehow, and after I disposed of the first set, I felt a surge of magic coming from the Pass and knew that you must be close by, trying to use magic to defend yourself against something. I didn’t know that it was more wraiths. All I knew was that the quickest way to get to you was to draw your magic to me. So I did.” He clasped my hand tighter. “I’m just glad it's over.”

“Yes,” I agreed solemnly as I gripped his hand in return. Then I remembered something. “Sean, it was the same wraiths as before. They’ve been waiting to come back and they told me they were summoned. Sean, they were summoned back by someone. Did you know that? Someone’s tried to kill us!”

“Yes, and they don’t know they failed. Yet. When I get my hands-”

“Sean, no! Don’t go running off tryi-”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere to do anything until I do some investigating. I have a few suspicions I need to explore while I’m here. Your father will have to wait a bit longer for me to return.”

We talked a little more before he went home for some rest (I’m staying with his parents, who live next door). I slept most of the day too, waking up only for Marilea, his step-mother, to check on me and bring me food, and make sure I don't do anything strenuous.

Muse came, too, of course, with your letter and the munches and the gossip papers. What a welcome sight he was, loaded down with goodies, and he wasn't even (very) grouchy. I think he just really disliked being in the Pass for some reason and now that we're through it, he can be his usual jovial, bossy, and demanding self. He informed me I had some spell-learning to make up now that we were done traveling, but that he was going to be oh-so-generous and give me a few more days off to recuperate. Never mind that there's a huge muse family reunion (I shudder to think of it) that he wants to attend!

It’s evening now and I’ve just finished preparing for bed. I have a clean nightgown to wear and even a dressing gown and slippers! I’ll never take such wonderful things for granted again! Sean mentioned that he took the liberty to send a letter on my behalf to both you and my father informing you that I am well. He said he just conjured my handwriting and that I didn’t need to worry about it. I wondered at his nerve of writing for me, but he only said that he had felt a certain urgency to inform Father of what had happened and that he hadn’t wanted to wait until I could do it myself. And he thought that since he was writing Father, he might as well write you too. So, if a letter arrives from me and it isn’t through your friendly neighborhood muse delivery service, know that it’s from Sean. And please tell me what it says and how it got there!

Your letter frightened me very much as I’m sure this one will frighten you. There is no need to worry about me as I believe I am through the worst of it. However, you are still in grave danger. Please, just concentrate on protecting yourself.

With great affection and longing,
Foofri

P.S. I can’t even think about my memoirs for now, but, hopefully, after things settle down, I will be able to write my gripping tale of adventure!

P.P.S. Thank you for the munches! You cannot imagine how much they have helped! And I so appreciate you sending me the gossip papers. I'm sure they'll be in tatters within the week as they are my only connection to the Realm besides your letters.

Letter XVIII (C.D. to F.M.)

My Dear Foofri,

I hope you are enjoying your Munches. I had to go to three bakeries before I found one that would special order a batch using entirely non-magical procedures. Hopefully, the bakery was honest and they have not exploded on their way through the Pass (and the muse jolly well better not have smashed them either). You will need all of them to fortify you for this exceedingly long (as you could no doubt tell from the weight of the envelope) tale.

Although I suppose fashion is least of my news, I’ll start there anyway. I fulfilled my intention of visiting Madame Schacter the morning after I last wrote. Jamin offered to drive me, and even though I insisted I could take one of the carpets, he refused to be put off.

“I’m perfectly capable of taking myself,” I told him. “As a member of the Imperial Council, I do not need an escort.”

“You’re staying with us because it’s not safe at your estate,” he said stubbornly. “And you were almost killed by a chandelier yesterday. Besides,” here he looked shy and I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, “I like being with you.”

Jamin and I have been flirting with each other since we met, of course, but on my part, it’s been completely lighthearted, more in a spirit of camaraderie than anything. I had thought he felt the same (certainly I am not the only girl in the City on whom he has turned his golden charm), but there was an unsettling note of sincerity in that simple statement.

“I like being with you too, of course. I always wondered what it would be like to have a brother,” I said, perhaps a trifle disingenuously.

Thankfully, he didn’t look cast down by this statement, and we drove to the dressmaker’s without any awkwardness.

Jamin let me off at the door and drove down the street to leave the curricle while I went inside. There were two other ladies waiting and sipping tea. Neither of them were magii, for their escorts were also apparent, expressions of longsuffering written across their features. (Before Damorin started locking me up and Jamin attached himself to my heels, I am afraid I took the liberty granted by the status of magi for granted. No more!)

No sooner had I taken my seat than the door opened and Damorin entered the waiting room. Ordinary gentlemen are amusing enough in this situation, but one in Master’s robes looks so utterly out of place, that I couldn’t help smiling as I greeted him.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing at the chair next to me.

“Of course.”

“How is your head?” he asked, sitting down.

“Healed, thank you.”

“We examined the chandelier. One edge of the support spell had given way. It looks like an unfortunate maintenance accident.”

“I could have told you that yesterday,” I said pertly. “And I don’t know why you made me go home. I missed the second half of the buffet! Clearly, your new duties do not keep you very busy, since you have plenty of time to examine chandeliers and arrest innocent citizens.”

“Not arrest,” he said mildly. “Protective custody.”

“Oh yes, and now I’ve more custodians than I know what to do with.”

On cue, Jamin pushed open the door and came to sit down on my other side.

“Behold, my faithful watchdog,” I announced.

Jamin smiled sweetly. “At least I don’t slobber on your robes. Hello, Master.”

“Mr. Winterfast,” Damorin said, sounding bored.

Just then, Lady Ardaya came out of the fitting rooms, with Madame right behind her. “They are wrapping my gown now, Damorin,” she said, nodding coolly at me. I nodded coolly back. I once thought she might like me better after I graduated and she wasn’t obliged to invite me to tea anymore, but it doesn’t seem to have made any difference in our relationship. “Hurry, please,” she said to the shop assistant who staggered out a moment later beneath the weight of an enormous pasteboard box. “I must finish my appointments before our luncheon appointment at the Residency. I should hate to keep dear Ameliorene waiting.”

Fortunately, I was distracted from rolling my eyes by Madame Schacter. “Cordeleemaera, you naughtee girl. Zee ball ees tomorrow!”

I looked my most repentant. “I’m sorry, Madame, it’s just …” I gestured helplessly. “So many awful things … Can you help me?”

She relented almost immediately. “Did I not know you would come? Of course I have zee gown for you. Come. Celestine,” she snapped her fingers at the poor assistant who had just come back in from placing Lady A’s box in her carriage. “Bring out Magi Demestheln’s dress at once.”

“Not black,” I pleaded.

“Of course not, poor child, Stephanus, he hated zee black. You,” she jabbed a finger at Jamin who was trying to follow us. “Seet down. Marguerite will bring you tea.”And she whisked me away to the back rooms.

I am lucky that Madame has made dresses for me all my life, and my mother and grandmother before me. The dress she had designed was deep violet, and in the very latest fashion. It needed only a few minor alterations, so I arranged to pick it up the next morning.

Jamin and I returned to Winterfast just as a footman carried over a handful of mail from my house next door. I flipped through the letters as I walked to my room, and was more than a little surprised to see your handwriting! The short note read:

Cordy, I have been trying to contact you for days. Meet me near the Unicorn Rock by the edge of the fire circle at eleven tonight. Do not fail me, dearest.

Obviously, I knew the letter was a fake. For one thing, you had not been trying to contact me for days, and for another, you would have sent any message through the Muse. I briefly considered contacting Damorin, but I was fairly certain any action he would take would involve me staying at Winterfast or perhaps being locked up in the Justicum again. But if someone was trying to hurt me, I wanted to look that person in the face and besides, I was perfectly capable of defending myself.

So, at 10:30 that evening, I tucked the small carpet I had borrowed from the garage under my arm and climbed out my bedroom window. I landed about a five minute walk from the statue and hid the carpet in a bush before continuing on. I put up a shield, of course, but I didn’t bother with invisibility, since that is generally only useful when no one is expecting you.

Deciding it would be best to act as though I expected to see you, I tiptoed over to the statue and whispered, “Foofri?”

There was no answer, so I began walking around the base, looking for company. When I was beneath the upraised forelegs I stumbled and placed a hand against the rock to steady myself. The stone cracked and flashed, and even as I thought “Fire!” I was sailing through the air, driven by the thrust of raw power against my shield. I landed face first in the ceremonial fire pit and came up choking, just in time to see the last flicker of flame fade from the unicorn.

I sat there coughing for a while, trying to look helpless and lure my would-be assassin out of hiding, but I suppose whoever it was, was far away, creating an air-tight alibi. That is part of the point of a booby trap, and I certainly played the part of the booby. I realize now that it was rather stupid of me to go alone when I suspected trouble, but on the other hand, I did take care of myself, so I think that evens things out on the stupidity scale.

I’m not sure how long I gazed at the unicorn before I realized that one of the forelegs was too short. The lowest hoof had apparently been blasted into powder by the heat. I abruptly decided that I had had enough of the fire pit and all but ran for my carpet. I made it home without incident and went for a quick swim to get rid of the ash. I put the carpet back in the garage and walked through the front door, not in the mood to climb in through the window.

Winterfast and Jamin were in the hall putting their evening cloaks on, and they both regarded me with surprise. “Sorry for the drips!” I said, and breezed past before they could ask any awkward questions, like why I’d been swimming in my petticoats.

I can’t deny it anymore, Foofri. Somebody wants me dead.

Once I’d accepted that fact, I began to think about the chandelier accident of the day before. I remembered that something had snapped under my foot, that I’d been thrown against the wall, and that Damorin had said one side of the support spell had given way.

I took the shoes I had worn to the funeral down to Winterfast’s workroom and looked at them under the magiscope. Just as I suspected, I found a thread of a loose stabilizing spell. When I’d stepped beneath the chandelier, the two severed spells had been attracted to each other. The crack was their binding, the force that threw me to the wall and set the chandelier swinging was the reaction of that binding.

I think what unsettles me most is that someone actually cursed my shoes. They would have had to touch them to put that spell on. It probably happened at the funeral, in the crowd. But now that I know to be watchful, it won’t happen again.

I slept surprisingly well, considering, and was up early the next morning to begin my Anniversary-Day errands before the parades started at noon. I was not early enough to elude Jamin, so he had the pleasure of sitting in Madame’s waiting room again while she double checked the alterations. Then, the box safely in the curricle, we were off to the Justicum, to collect my jewelry from the vault. Jamin had to wait outside again, since he doesn’t have clearance, and after I collected the cameo set (more about this later), I took my time recording it in the inventory book, making certain to scan all recent entries as I did so.

I supposed that the Masters wouldn’t have written “Suldan Stones, Row Three, Shelf Four,” in the inventory book, but since there haven’t been very many entries lately, it wasn’t hard to pick out the suspicious ones. There were only two of them, actually, both for antique chamber pots, both deposited a week before Grandfather’s death. Since neither Grandfather nor I have ever had an interest in collecting potterie, I thought I detected the fine hand of Lastra. I memorized the locations while pretending I was having trouble with the pen, and then hurried out to order Jamin back home. Ostensibly this was so I could prepare for that evening’s festivities, and that was true. The difference was that I was scheming with the Muse instead of trying out hairstyles.

I have to admit, he is rather good at, well, brilliant really, and so clever at all sorts of enchantments and complex plans that I would never have been able to accomplish on my own. (Sorry, he was looking over my shoulder when I wrote that bit. He’s floated back to work now, stroking his beard and looking unbearably smug.) What I was going to say is that he’s good at being sneaky, a quality I admire in any being, no matter how insufferable they are in other ways. It was his idea to stowaway as a piece of my jewelry, for example. He went as a comb, and gave himself a cameo face right next to my ear so that he could whisper into it if necessary. And I warned that it had only better be when necessary.

At any rate, I didn’t know whether I’d actually be able to take the Stones into my own custody that night, since I didn’t even know how big they were, but Muse and I finalized a plan for getting into the vault without arousing suspicions, and then for making it look like we spent a good deal less time in there than we actually planned to.

That night, I arranged my hair in a fancy pile that looked well with the cameo combs, or at least, as well as anything can look with what are undoubtedly the ugliest pieces of jewelry I’ve inherited. They are, however, very historical with their profiles of famous heroes, and I hoped that would explain my wearing them to the Anniversary Ball. The one of Jalwa, which is on the choker, is particularly bad since it renders his nose in all its enormous glory. However, every one of the outsized cameos hides a secret compartment. Traditionally, they hold messages or poison. I believe Grandmother used them to smuggle chocolate into tedious Council meetings. Of course, there isn’t much I can sneak into the Residency without triggering the alarms, but I put a few forgetme pellets in the choker and various other handy odds in ends in the earrings and one true comb.

And then we were off to the Ball. I admit that ugly jewelry or not, I felt very splendid as Jamin and Winterfast escorted me into the Imperial ballroom. Although I’ve seen it before, it still takes my breath away, with the crystal pillars refracting a blaze of light, and dark green moonflower vines spilling out of troughs set in the floor and climbing up the columns. The sweet scent of moonflowers filled the air, and the crystal floor was already filled with dancers. We were, naturally, fashionably late.

I danced the first one with Jamin and only stepped on his foot once. I will confess to vanity and admit that I knew we made a dashing couple. As soon as we finished, young (and not so young) ladies besieged him, and I drifted off to talk to old friends from the Academy.

I saw your father, who looked very dapper in a new suit with a cranberry waistcoat, as well as a number of our other mutual acquaintances. But nothing really interesting happened until I spotted Madam Dorthwany standing by a champagne fountain, looking prim and discreetly taking notes for the next day’s gossip columns.

I filled a glass and approached my target with a smile. “Happy Anniversary Eve, Madam Dorthwany.”

She nodded with her habitually solemn expression. “Good evening.” Madame makes me laugh. One would never guess by looking at her conservative demeanor that she is the publisher of the most sensational serials in the Realm.

“I apologize for bringing up business on such an evening, but I wondered if I could ask you a question.”

“Yes?” She wasn’t helping to break the ice, but I plunged ahead anyway.

“I have a friend who wishes to publish a dramatized version of her memoirs. She has selected your publications as being the most appropriate opportunity. I wished to inquire about the process of submitting a serial for publication.”

Suddenly, her frosty attitude melted and she slipped a chummy arm through mine. “Mmmm, yes I see. Memoirs often benefit from a touch of drama. Precisely what sort of story does your friend have?”

“Exotic adventure combined with passionate romance,” I improvised, since I really didn’t know what you were planning.

“And where does this exotic adventure take place?”

“The Outskirts.”

“We haven’t published any stories taking place in a barren and magicless wasteland recently. And who is this friend?” she asked, watching me intently.

“She wishes to remain anonymous,” I said smoothly, “and also she is not living in the Imperial City at this time. Preliminary contact may be made through me, and after that she has a muse who can make deliveries directly to and from your offices.”

She tapped her lips knowingly. “Anonymous, yes I see. Very well, Magi. Inform your friend that she may send the first chapter of her serial to the Daily offices. If we like it, we’ll send her messenger back with a contract of terms.”

I was surprised and pleased. “Thank you very much, Madam Dorthwany.”

She gave me one of those pointed glances people seem to be getting so fond of. “It is always my pleasure to give an aspiring young woman of talent a boost up the literary ladder.”

It took me a moment to realize that she thought I was the one who wished to remain anonymous, and that my “friend” was entirely fictitious. “That is very good of you,” I said, trying not to laugh.

She pressed my arm closer. “While we’re on the topic of business, may I gather a few quotes from you for tomorrow’s reports?”

“Certainly,” I agreed, wanting to help your chances as much as possible.

“What, exactly, is the status of your relationship with Master Ardaya?”

I blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“Are you betrothed? And will his sudden promotion push back the wedding?”

“No!” I exclaimed.

“The wedding will proceed on schedule, how lovely.”

“No!” I said more desperately. “I mean, we’re not betrothed, so there is no wedding to push back. We’re not even … even …” The word to describe what Damorin and I were not eluded me, so I concluded, “I don’t know where you could possibly have picked up such a ridiculous idea.”

“Magi! There’s no need to be so discreet with me. I am your friend. I always champion the underdog. You must know everyone is talking about how you’ve defied the princess in daring to love the man she has all but claimed for herself.”

Instinctively, my eyes scanned the ballroom for the people we were talking about. I’d spotted Ameliorene earlier, waltzing with a duke. Now I found her rose colored gown again, and this time she was (unsurprisingly) attached to the arm of a shimmering blue robe. She wasn’t looking our way, but Damorin was, and his expression was furious.

“Madam, you must see how ridiculous it is all is,” I said, and then the ridiculousness of it hit me, and I threw back my head and laughed. “It’s really too funny,” I gasped. “To think that Ameliorene and I would fight over …” I trailed off, trying not to spill my champagne.

Madam Dorthwany looked smug. “Methinks thou dost protest too much, my dear.”

And then I was seized with an inspiration worthy of you, dearest. “Madam, can I trust you? I mean, really?”

“Of course,” she promised patting my hand.

“The truth is,” I paused, gulped, and tried to appear distraught instead of hysterical, “I am terribly in love, but not with Damorin. The man I love is … he’s so worthy. So good and kind, and oh, so handsome. But, you see, he’s poor and none of his family are magii. And worse than that, they think magic is evil. They’ve sworn never to use it, and they hate me and everything my family stands for!”

I fumbled in my tiny reticule for a handkerchief, as Madam Dorthwany patted my arm again. “It’s a touching story, Cordelimaera, but I don’t believe a word.”

I stared at her in dismay. “You don’t?”

“Not a word,” she repeated. “But it’s most interesting, nonetheless.” And she finally pulled her arm out of mine and sailed away.

I really thought I was a better liar, but I suppose we all have these little misconceptions about ourselves.

“Well, that was interesting,” Muse whispered. I flicked him, hard. That was not a necessary remark.

Fortunately, it was nearly midnight. I had only to make certain I was near none of my close acquaintances when the lights went out as the clock began to toll. As soon as the ballroom went dark, I pulled my mask and cloak out of my magically stretched reticule and put them on, drawing the hood over my head. With my dark colored gown and a bit of luck, I hoped to escape the ballroom without being recognized.

As soon as they released the colored fireflies and lit the lanterns, I sidled my way through the crowd and out the door. Luck, or something, was with me, for the Muse and I traveled all the way to the lowest level of the Residency, where the tunnel connects to the Justicum, without being stopped. We did have to duck out of the way of several amorous couples already swarmed by music motes (they reprogrammed them this year with bleeding heart renditions of recent love songs, which were all dreadful. I’ve never understood the thinking behind music motes, anyway, since the whole point of the masking and the sneaking around to romantic assignations is secrecy).

The tunnel was as heavily guarded as always, but as soon I pulled off my mask and showed them the damage on my earring (which I’d paused around the corner to inflict) and explained I only wanted to put it back in the jewelry box, they let me pass. On the other side, I passed through more guards and then, of course, I had to sign in at the entrance to the vault.

And then we were in. Muse popped out of my hair and back into his own shape, and I counted down the rows to the first one noted in the book as the location of the new chamber pot. The first pot was shaped like a war elephant (I suppose to inspire one to mighty efforts), and I could just reach it when I stood on tiptoe. I grasped the heavy base, and the next moment, fell forward against the shelf, as it evaporated in my hands.

I hastily righted the bottles of crystals that I had knocked over. “It disappeared,” I told Muse, rather obviously. “What do we do now?”

“There were two locations mentioned?” he asked pointedly.

“Of course.” I nearly slapped myself for being so dimwitted, and then we hastened to the other location specified in the catalogue.

The elephant was there, on a higher shelf this time. “You try and pick it up,” I told Muse, and he gave me a condescending look before floating up to the level of the shelf.

“Human magic is simply no good in a crisis,” he said snidely, and I couldn’t help a momentary feeling of smugness when the chamber pot disappeared beneath his pudgy hands with a faint pop.

“It must be back on the other shelf.”

“Obviously,” he sniffed.

“When we touch it, we push it into the other location,” I said slowly, thinking it through. “But if someone were already there, waiting to catch it …” It seemed too simple, but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced I was right. “It takes two people to get the Stones out. But there aren’t many people allowed into this vault, and of those that are, Foofri is the only one who would conceivably help me steal the Stones, and they’ve taken care of her. They were counting on my being alone.”

“But you are hardly alone,” Muse said, puffing out his chest a little.

“Muse, I could kiss you!” I said, almost meaning it.

He pulled at his beard with both hands. “There’s enough of that going on in this place already. Go and push the snigger thing back at me.”

I hurried back down to the right shelf and found the elephant perched in its old spot. “Ready?” I called.

“I am always ready!” he bellowed back.

I took a deep breath, stood on tiptoe, and grabbed the base of the pot. The moment I did, it quivered under my hands, and then I felt Muse’s hands on top of mine. The elephant recoiled, caught between two places, and exploded into a thousand shards.

I staggered back from the shelf, my hands flying up to protect my face. Happily, most of the pieces flew into the Muse’s space, and of course they couldn’t hurt him. When I’d caught my breath, I looked down at the mess. At my feet lay a velvet bag, about the size and shape of my little finger. “That’s it?” I asked out loud, astonished that the Suldan Stones could possibly be so small. But I didn’t have time to investigate. We’d already spent several minutes in the vault, and now we had a mess to clean up.

“Muse, can you fix it?” I called hopefully.

He floated around the corner, brushing bits of pottery out of his beard. “Nobody could fix that,” he said sourly. “Do you have any idea of the kinds of germs that are probably lingering—”

“Let’s not think about that,” I interrupted. “Can you make it look like it’s fixed?”

Muse humphed and picked up the largest piece of pottery. “Of course I can.” He created an illusion anchored on the shard, while I stirred up a draft to blow the rest of the wreckage beneath the tall shelf.

At the last moment, I remembered my excuse for being here in the first place, so I threw the earrings in the jewel chest and ran for the door. A forgetme pellet for the vault book guard, a moment of fiddling with the recording quill to alter my exit time, a few sweet words to the new set of guards at the tunnel, and Muse and I were back in the Residency, he disguised as a turquoise firefly, and I with the Suldan Stones in the cameo that hung around my neck.

I paused in front of the mirror to make certain I’d put the necklace on straight, and I was about to replace my mask, when a man appeared behind me.

“Maera!” he exclaimed, so I knew it was Jamin. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said as he came closer. “I hope you haven’t exchanged masks yet.”

Mine was very clearly dangling from my hand. “But you’ve exchanged by this time, surely,” I said, hastily tying the satin mask back over my eyes.

“No, this is the original,” he said, tapping his gold glitter mask. “There’s only one lady here tonight that I have any interest in kissing.” He spoke lightly, so I’m not certain how serious he really was.

“Well, you’d better go and find her,” I said brightly, and darted off down the passageway.

I know it was cowardly of me. I ought to have stayed and had the whole matter out with him, but I had the Suldan Stones around my neck, and I panicked.

I ran through a salon and exited into the gardens, rounded a shrub manicured to resemble the emperor, and darted into the hedge maze. I had stopped just before the first intersection, trying to find the secret sign that points the way to the center, when a very angry voice around the corner demanded, “What do you mean you’ve lost her?”

“She slipped away during the masking. I’ve been looking ever since.”

“You were supposed to be guarding her,” the first voice hissed.

“I’m sorry,” voice number two said humbly. “Should we alert the Residency guards?”

At this point, I found the sign and it pointed toward the voices, so I started tiptoeing back to the entrance. It was entirely possible that those voices were looking for me, and I didn’t want to be found, no matter who they were. But when I got to the end of the hedge, I spotted a man in a gold glitter mask standing on the lawn.

Ready to scream with nerves, I started back down the hedgeway, determined to take my chances with the other path, but when I got to the intersection, the voices were gone. Exhaling in relief, I hurried around the corner of the right path and ran solidly into a tall figure, dressed in very recognizable, shimmering robes.

Damorin had me by both shoulders and his shadowed gaze was very cold. “Why were you sneaking behind that hedge?” he demanded.

My only chance was to brazen it out. In a somewhat forlorn hope I would escape recognition, I answered in a coquettish whisper, “What is any girl doing tonight? I’ve still got my own mask, and I’m running out of time. Excuse me,” and I tried to twist away.

His hands tightened. “Perhaps I can be of service,” he said, and then he pulled me close and kissed me.

I don’t think it was what the experts term a triple crown, but it must have been at least an eagle.* Whatever its official rating, my knees had all the firmness of custard, and I could have sworn we were surrounded by a cloud of music motes. Which, when he finally stopped kissing me, we were.

Oh Jalwa, was all I could think at first, I was so flummoxed. Then I realized that my arms had somehow wound their way around his neck, so I dropped them quickly and stepped back.

“Thank you, Happy Anniversary,” I stammered and tried to dart away through the cloud of music motes (playing a really awful violin version of “My Helpless Heart Has Been Magicked Away by You,” which, for the record, is the worst love song ever written), but he caught my arm. “A moment, Magi. I believe this belongs to me.”

I stepped aside as he reached for my mask. “But you haven’t got one to exchange,” I protested. “You’ve already given it away, so I don’t owe you anything.”

“I did not,” he said unexpectedly. “I didn’t wear one. I didn’t see the point.”

“You do stand out in a crowd,” I conceded, observing the way his robes glimmered in the darkness of the maze, “but you can’t expect to get something for nothing.”

He pulled a glittering strand from his sleeve. In a moment, it wove itself into a delicate eye mask. “Will this do?”

“I suppose.” I pulled off my own mask, feeling oddly vulnerable without it, and exchanged it for the shining one. “Goodbye,” I said, and he finally let me go.

I had to stop in the center of the maze, to catch my breath and gather my composure. “You were getting pretty hot back there, Magi,” a little voice buzzed in my ear. “What’s the matter, fan the flames a little too hard?”

“Oh, Shut Up,” I snapped, tying on my new mask, and surprised to find that my cheeks were wet.

Fortunately, I found my way out of the maze without getting lost, and I went back inside, where they’d turned the proper lights back on, to look for Winterfast. I was more than ready to go home.

I found Winterfast. He was with Uncle, who was talking to Lady Ardaya, who was accompanied by her new best friend, the princess. I tried to back away, but they had all already seen me.

Uncle looked very relieved when he saw me. “Cordy! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I was just asking Lady Ardaya if perhaps you’d been cornered by the Master for some theoretical discussion. You Council members never seem to stop working.”

“No,” I said, “no theoretical discussion for me tonight.”

Lady Ardaya was looking at me with narrowed eyes. “What an unusual mask.”

And then they were all staring at me. Ameliorene’s eyes went wide, Uncle looked suddenly suspicious, and Winterfast appeared amused.

I snatched off the mask and realized what I had missed in my earlier fluster. The mask didn’t just sparkle. It sparkled blue. Damorin may as well have scrawled his name across my face. Jalwa and his war band take all Masters and their stuck up ways! Why can’t they wear ordinary party clothes like the rest of us?

I can’t bear to think of the rest of that awkward conversation, so I shall skip over to coming home and going to bed. As soon as I’d given Winterfast and Jamin enough time to slip into sweet dreams, the Muse and I hopped the wall to my estate and spent the rest of the night setting up the new security system we’d invented. Or rather, the Muse tolerated what he called my “amusing human bumbling” for a few minutes, and then took over, so I’ve been writing to you.

I haven’t opened the pouch with the Stones in it yet. I want to be in my own house, behind my own safety wards before I do that. But the next time you hear from me, I will at last have unraveled the secrets of the Suldan Stones.

Ever Affectionately,

Cordy

P.S. I don’t understand what Sean means by maintaining a balance between being able to do things with and without magic. Perhaps we should also all practice walking on our hands, in case something happens to our feet!

P.P.S. I can’t believe he kissed me. I can’t believe he gave me that mask. And I can’t believe you’re not here to help me make sense of all this! I’ve been trying not to think about it, but it’s proving more difficult than I thought.

* The tradition of the masked Anniversary Ball and the Anniversary kiss is one that goes back to the first days of the empire. After Martaluk I ascended the throne and created the Imperial Realm, the crown prince (later Mukaluk I) fell passionately in love with a Nirabian princess. Although the girl returned his regard, she was already betrothed to another. She accompanied her royal father to a grand celebration given by the emperor to celebrate the first anniversary of his rule, and she the prince arranged an assignation during the grand ball. They wore masks to conceal their identity, which they exchanged during the rendezvous as pledges of undying affection. Fortunately, they were spied upon by both Imperial and Nirabian agents. Once the king learned his daughter had won the heart of the Imperial prince, he threw over the minor landowner to whom he had first engaged her and pledged her hand to the prince. Thus, a happy trade alliance between the Realm and Nirabia was born, and it endured until the disaster of the Shazar Pass. At that time, there was some discussion as to whether the Anniversary traditions honoring their memory ought to be abandoned, but public outcry was so great, and the merchandizing power of the manufacturers of masks and hooded cloaks (to say nothing of the Imperial Guide to Kissing franchise) so massive, that the traditions of the Ball remained intact.

Letter XVII (Foof to Cordy)

Dear Cordy,

By the time I finished your letter, this is what I gleaned from it: Blah blah blah, chandelier spike narrowly missing head, blah blah blah, bleeding, blah blah blah, and munches. You were nearly killed, dearest, I hope you realize that! Small wonder Damorin was so adamant about getting you out of there. How ironic if you were to be killed by something as random as a swinging chandelier, after all the safety precautions taken on your behalf!

Still, what better way to recover from near-death than by stuffing one's face with munches? It would almost be worth it! I haven’t had a munch in so long I think I would actually eat a certain person’s hat resembling one (remember how my stomach growled that entire council session?). Please tell me you ate a few (dozen) on my behalf. But listen to how cruel and unfeeling I am, bemoaning the funeral food I'm missing out on!

I'm glad the affair turned out well. He deserved at least that, even if he was not well liked. And at least the following installation ceremony wasn't long and drawn-out in traditional Imperial style. It wouldn't be appropriate following a funeral.

I do admire your self control in not goading my father more when you saw him. I admit I would not have been able to help myself, it's so satisfying to see him sweat. I'm glad he seems to be doing well. I do miss him even though I haven't completely forgiven him. Oh, and I'm completely thrilled you've decided to use my idea about whisking the Stones out of your vault. I can't wait to see how that turns out.

As for what I've been up to, after I sent the muse off with my last letter, I set about to trying to build a non-magical fire. After rubbing two sticks together unsuccessfully for what seemed an extremely long time (and a lot of what appeared to be silent laughter from the larat), Sean returned with several wild rucs in tow.

He got the fire started within minutes and had the little beasts roasting on a spit while I sat there trying not to look like a giant, useless lump.

“Sorry I'm not more help,” I said.

“It's fine,” he said affably, reclining against a log. “It's not as though I was expecting you to be an expert in woodlore.”

“But I am useless right now.”

“I wouldn't say that,” he said, but he followed it with that little disapproving noise he'd made the day before when we were having tea, and he ended his sentence with an unspoken “but”.

So I spoke it for him. “But what?”

“But,” he paused, obviously reluctant to speak, and then all at once, “but don't you think it would be beneficial to learn to do more things without relying on magic?”

I shrugged. “I've never had the need.

“Yes, I know,” he mused. “It's so odd!”

“Why?” I laughed. “What's so strange about that?”

“Nothing, if you've grown up that way,” he explained. “But considering that I grew up in the Outskirts--a place where magic was forbidden for years, where people who'd had horrible experiences with magic went to escape—considering that I spent a lot of the last ten years in such a stringent society, well, it's always quite jarring to immerse myself in a culture where even the non-magical people are dependant upon magic. It seems like it's always one extreme or the other.”

“All right, but don't you use magic a lot?”

He considered. “I love magic,” he said. “I love how it works. The theoretical side of it fascinates me like nothing else. But I think it's important to have a sense of balance between doing things with magic and being able to do them without.”

“But aren't you a Seventh Skillhouse magi?”

“No.”

“You're Sixth?” I asked, skeptical.

“No,” he repeated.

“Ha!” I said as I took a turn at the spit. “I've seen you transport. You've even transported me! With that much ability, you can't be anything but Seventh.”

He reached out and tested one of the rucs with a finger. Sitting back, he asked. “Foofri, what does being a certain Skillhouse have to do with anything?”

“The higher the Skillhouse, the more magic you can do.”

“Can do?” he replied, giving me a pointed look. “Or are allowed to do?”

“Both, I guess,” I said, feeling a little confused. “I mean they go hand in hand, right?”

“Sure,” he said. “If you're a student at the Imperial Academy of Magic.” Which he said in a certain tone.

“What do you mean by that?” I demanded.

He sighed, shaking his head. “I shouldn't have said anything.”

“Too late now.”

“Fine. I just don't agree with everything the Academy does, that's all.”

“And you're suggesting it should be a magical free-for-all?”

“No, just that the students should be a little more prepared. They learn the same old spells that have been taught for I don't know how long. They don't even begin learning theoretics until they've graduated and started apprenticeship. Experimentation should be included right from the start.”

“Isn't that a little...extreme?” I asked, throwing his word back at him. Because even though what he said actually made sense, I felt like I had to defend the Academy. It's my school, after all, and I'm pretty grateful to even be going there.

“Extreme?” he repeated. “No, not if you're careful.”

Which was too easy an answer for me. “Tell me,” I went on, “what is your experience in life that you can pass such harsh judgement?”

“Two things,” he replied. “First, before I started training for work in the Underground with your father, I traveled a lot. I've seen a lot of different cultures and a lot of different magic systems.”

“Second?”

“Second...I teach magic.”

“Oh, you teach magic,” I said, “and are all of your magic students equally proficient in building fires by hand and in sewing buttons on with a needle and thread?”

“Condering that I instruct in the Outskirts, yes they are.”

Drat him, he had an answer for everything. I wasn't finished with the discussion, but before I could think of anything else to say, he handed me a smoking hot ruc, dripping with juices. While devouring the little beast, I made a mental note of things I wanted to ask once we got back on the trail.

But once we were moving up the Pass again, conversation was a little difficult since it took all of Sean’s concentration to lead the larat over the rough terrain. The higher reaches of the Pass were much different than the lower portions, which were much like any other forest. There were beautiful tall trees covered with thick green moss, a cheery brook that ambled close to our path, and wildflowers that grew randomly throughout the landscape.

As we traveled higher and higher, there was a marked change in the landscape. The soft dirt of the forest floor gave way to shimmering gray rock smattered with grapefruit sized bumps, which the larat seized in her claws to propel us forward. Trees become more scarce as the dirt disappeared, and the rocks grew increasingly bigger until we were surrounded on either side by varying sizes of boulders. The only thing that remained the same was the bubbling brook which continued to accompany us on our way and which flowed across the rock, smoothing out the rough spots and eroding its path deeper into the ground.

Sean gestured to the brook when he noticed me staring at it. “It comes from a natural spring found at the summit. We should reach it by nightfall. There are some beautiful pools I’d like to show you in the morning and you can have a bath if you like.”

We continued on our way for a few hours, speaking very little, until the sun began to disappear and Sean turned the larat off the trail into a small smooth-floored cave with enough room for the three of us to sleep around a little fire. The riding had been exhausting, although once my body became accustomed to the rhythmic stride of our faithful animal, it had been fairly enjoyable. Now, I was given the task of preparing our beds, while Sean built up the little fire with wood he had brought from the lower region.

Once we both finished, Sean, sitting on his sleeping pallet, opened one of his packs and pulled out some apples, a loaf of bread, and some dried meat for our dinner. I was almost too tired to eat, but I managed to choke down a chunk of bread while Sean and the larat devoured the rest.

“Sean?” I asked as we all settled down to sleep in the fire lit cave.

“Mmmm?”

“You mentioned that magic was forbidden in the Outskirts for years. As in, past tense. And now you're teaching magic there. How did that happen? I thought the Outskirts were-”

“A barren, desolate wastland where no magic of any kind is allowed?” he finished for me.

“Well, yes.”

“Oh, it was. Believe me, it was. That's one extreme I never want to live in again,” he said urgently.

“So what happened?”

He laid back and put his arms behind his head. “It's not surprising what an isolated society will turn to when drought threatens their existence.”

I waited for him to continue.

“When it became obvious that it wasn't going away any time soon, a few of us went out and created a new weather pattern.”

“And the land rejoiced?”

“Hardly,” he said, wryly. “But when the river and stream beds filled up and the crops started growing, the town council could see the benefit of magical assistance 'in emergency situations'.”

“So then you started a magic school?”

“No, but I proposed adding some classes at the regular school. The other magi skilled enough to create spells like the ones involving weather patterns have other work and, like I said, I travel a lot. But we take turns instructing the students.”

“Weather patterns are my cousin Cordy's specialty,” I offered, suddenly.

“I know, I've read her work. It's brilliant. When we get to the Outskirts, I'm going to use some of her equations to re-enforce our rain regulating spells.”

“Oh, so you're actually going to use the work of someone who's been Academy trained? Isn't that interesting.”

He laughed softly. “The Academy is very good at what it does,” he admitted. “It produces some powerful magii. I only said I disagree with some aspects of what they do.”

“Like not teaching more variation in spell components.”

“Yes, among other things. But aside from those, it's probably the best institution for learning magic I've seen.”

“Earlier you made it sound like, during all your travels, you'd found your perfect society somewhere else.”

“I once thought I had.”

“Where?”

He rolled off his back and propped himself up on his side with one elbow. “Me. A society of one. Traveling wherever I wanted to go, learning languages, studying various magics, carrying important information between borders...” He picked at the edge of his sleeping pallet absentmindedly. “And going back to the Outskirts to teach when I could...” he trailed off again, reminiscing.

“That sounds pretty perfect.”

“It was...until now.” He lifted his eyes from the edge of his pallet to look directly into mine. “Turns out traveling with a companion is much more enjoyable.” He held my gaze for a moment longer before he laid back down and closed his eyes. “We should get some sleep.”

I laid down as well, hoping the firelight hid the blush I could feel creeping over my face, and went to sleep.

When I awoke, Sean was gone, but the muse was sitting in his place, your letter in hand. I don’t need to tell you how greatly I appreciated it just then. I didn’t write back just then since I didn’t know when Sean would return, plus the muse was considerably worn out and asked to be excused for a few hours rest.

Sean returned only seconds after the muse disappeared, his face freshly shaved and his hair still wet, an effect that was not lost on my female sensitivities. “If you'd like to bathe, I can show you where the pools are now.”

“Yes, thank you,” I said, running my hand through my dirty hair. “Do you by chance have soap or anything like that?”

“It’s already up there.” He turned and walked out of the cave, leaving me with nothing to do but grab a few things from my bundle and follow. He led me up a little path, through an archway of rock, and into what may be one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen.

It appeared to be the very summit of the pass. On one side, a sheer drop-off, on the other, a high cliff, and in the middle, an array of multi-leveled pools fed by water from the enormous waterfall that gushed down the cliff wall. Water spilled into each pool from the one just above it making a smooth slide downward where it ran over the rock.

“Oh, Sean.” I gasped, and he smiled for just a moment.

“Here’s the soap and a few other bath accoutrements I never go without. I’m going to sit on this rock here, facing out so you’ll have both your privacy and protection.”

“Protection from what?” I asked nervously.

“Nothing. It’s just in case. But I am feeling slightly uneasy, so if you don’t mind hurrying a little...I’m sorry I didn’t wake you earlier, but I thought you should rest.” He turned and scrambled onto a rock overlooking the wild vista below while I undressed to my underthings.

The water was deliciously warm and soothing and I truly wished you could be there to experience it. When I finished, I stepped behind a tall rock to dry off with the cloth he had left for me and stepped into some clean undergarments and some clean clothes, which he had also left. I was just about to rejoin Sean when two huge and hairy arms grabbed me from behind and dragged me out anyway.

Once we were out in the open again, I was released, but one huge hand with long fingers stayed at my shoulder. It was the same troll I had seen in the woods the first night I followed my father to his meeting place with Sean. At least, it looked like the same one, but I couldn't tell for sure because it had been so dark that night. Also, the two other trolls with him looked very similar. When he said something in troll, Sean spun around, leaping from the rock as he heard the voice.

“Let her go, Arturo,” he said in Realm as he approached us and pulled me away. “She’s with me.”

I don't know what I thought they would do, but I didn't expect them to start laughing and nudging each other as they gestured at me and Sean. I couldn't help noticing things I hadn't been able to see in the woods on my first encounter. Like how ostentatiously they were dressed, their clothes sewn in wild patterns and garrish colors.

“My apologies,” said Arturo back in heavily accented Realm, “I thought she was spying on you.” He turned and gave me a look that said very clearly that he remembered me from the woods. I knew he had seen me! “I didn't know she was your woman,” he said, speaking the word ‘woman’ with a raise of his eyebrows, followed by a wink in our direction. The other two laughed even harder, bobbing their heads.

“She’s not my woman, she’s Montphish’s daughter,” Sean explained, “and I’m escorting her to the Outskirts. May I present Magi Foofribelle Montphish? Magi Montphish, I would like you to meet Arturo, Vincenzo, and Pilukio.”

“This is Foofribelle?” exclaimed Arturo with surprise. “And all this time I’ve pictured a little girl. Well, no matter. Let’s have us a spot of tea and get acquainted. Old Montphish is a good friend of ours and I’d like him to know we gave you the royal treatment…with all the trimmings!” He turned and all three of them began pulling interesting things out of their brightly colored packs.

“We’re actually on a fairly tight schedule, my friends,” Sean interceded. “Perhaps some other time.”

Arturo and the other two continued setting up as though Sean hadn’t spoken. “Now, now,” he said, “you’ve not even had your breakfast yet, I’m sure. You can sit down for a few minutes and let your bathing beauty here have some sustenance. Besides, we’ve just stocked up and there are loads of good things to eat.”

“Do you, by chance, have any munches?” I asked. I had just read your letter and when they mentioned good things to eat, it just popped out. They looked at me in surprise and started their raucous laughter all over again. Sean released me and glared, but gave in. I shrugged my shoulders somewhat guiltily at him.

“We don’t have any munches, Magi Montphish, but I think you’ll be satisfied with what we do have.”

I was. No munches, but it was a splendid tea, set out on the rocks, and there was plenty to eat. Even the larat indulged. I won’t repeat the conversation since most of it was teasing remarks regarding Sean’s and my supposed relationship, something that embarrassed us both deeply. The trolls were still eating (and drinking, and talking, and laughing) when we took our leave and packed up our things.

Sean waited patiently for me to try and do something with my hair and his non-enchanted comb, but after a few minutes and some of my less than lady-like grunting, he took the comb and ordered me to turn around.

“No, Sean. I’ll do it myself. I want to.” I held out my hand expectantly, but he ignored it and began combing through the tangles.

“Hold still,” he commanded as I squirmed and yelped, “you’re only making it worse…” I clenched my teeth and tried not to fidget. He seemed to take a little longer than I would have thought necessary, but his hands were gentle as they tugged through the tangles. Finally he said, “There, isn’t that better? Now braid it and tie the ends with this cord.”

We loaded up and began our descent down the other side of the Pass. Once we were well of out hearing range of the trolls, I said, “That was…interesting. Until now, I never completely understood why we’re always cautioned never to take tea with trolls.”

“This is one of the more tame experiences I’ve had,” he replied. “Amazing, considering there was a woman present. I believe it was out of respect for your father that nothing worse was said.”

I let out a big sigh. “Father. He becomes more of a mystery every day.”

“I’m sorry about that, Foofri. Really, I am.”

“I know.”

Hours later, we were making good progress when I noticed Sean’s head bumping into mine and looked back to find him falling asleep in the saddle. I wondered if he'd even slept last night.

“Sean,” I said, nudging his ribs with my elbow, “I can’t go on anymore right now. Let's stop for a little while and rest.”

“Mmmm? Rest? All right, if you think you need it,” he mumbled. We pulled off the trail and into a little alcove in the shade. He had scarcely lain down when I heard soft snoring.

So, here I sit, writing you, dearest. Once I finish, I hope the muse can get back to you before the ball. He's still acting rather anxious.

Good luck with your thieving! Also, I do hope your Anniversary gown turns out lovely, and that you receive at least one decent Anniversary kiss! Please write me all the wonderful details so I might attend vicariously!

Your faithful Foofri