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Elias thought he saw long fingers wrapped in shredded strips of black sackcloth.
The shadow figure drew closer, seeming to grow in height.
It didn't lean down"6"n't lea for the cast coins, and he heard no footfalls in its approach.
"Help!" Jeremy screamed. "Someone… guards! Help us!"
But Elias couldn't take his eyes off the figure towering over him.
Its cloak folds spread, seeming to climb the alley walls. He heard Jeremy pound on wood, maybe the back door of some shop. But he was shuddering even before the air turned frigid.
The smell of dust choked Elias, just as an overpowering scent of strange spices thickened in his head.
Chapter 1
Wy
A few sages came and went in yellow pools of light cast by hanging lanterns and the torches on the gatehouse's i
Wy
She was not exactly hiding. Rather, she called her recent tendencies a "preferred privacy."
But in the two seasons—summer and autumn—since her return, she'd shied away from her brethren more and more. At times she even wished she were still on the arduous long journey that had brought her home to the king's city in Malourné. And though the Farlands lay half a world away, her memories of the eastern continent were still so clear.
A plate of green grapes and a fluted tin mug of water sat on her bedside table. She sighed, deciding to do something more constructive than wallow in the past.
Wy
Nearly two years had passed since she'd first attempted a small thaumaturgical ritual. She'd tried to give herself mantic sight in order to see the element of Spirit in all things—an arrogant choice, considering she was no mage. Her companions at the time, Magiere and Leesil—and Chap—had been desperate to track an unfamiliar undead. And Wy
As a journeyor sage, but one with no new assignment and few duties, she had too much free time. She spent some evenings secretly working to expand the ever-present taint of the mantic sight still trapped within her. To date, she'd had very limited success—and one quite painful mishap.
Wy
In the form of a majay-hì, the rare breed of guardian wolf-dogs found in the Elven Territories of the Farlands, he had watched over Leesil and Magiere—and Wy
The only times she had sure control over her lingering mantic sight was in his presence. But tonight she wasn't seeking the element of Spirit.
With the image of Chap and that of Water lodged in her mind, Wy
Just her room, her little table-desk piled with scattered books, paper, and quills… and the plate of grapes and mug of water on the bedside stand. All of it was lit by the glow of her cold lamp's crystal.
Wy
Whenever she awakened her mantic sight to Spirit, that element showed as a blue-white mist permeating all things, strongest where life existed but thi
And a few times she'd seen black spaces amid that mist.
Places where there was no Spirit at all, or perhaps its unknown opposite. Permeating mist would shift ever so slightly, flowing into those voids—to be swallowed by the presence of a Noble Dead.
Wy
Wy
In a small i
Nausea welled in her stomach.
The room turned shadowy beneath the overlaid off-white mist just shy of blue.
Everything, even the stone walls, became doubled, as if variegated blue-white shapes of things overlaid and overwhelmed their real forms. She'd grown accustomed to the queasiness and the vertigo, but they were no less unpleasant for being familiar. Luckily she hadn't eaten yet, and she glanced at the bedside table.
Strongest in the grapes' small nodules, the mist waned within the table's wood and the bed's wool blanket. Only a thin trace showed within the stone walls and the tin of the fluted mug. When she glanced down at her own hands, Spirit glowed strongest within her living flesh.
To see the element of Spirit was part of her curse, if and when she could make it come at all. But if she had to accept this condition as more than just a malady, she needed more from it.
Wy
Nothing happened—then a flicker passed. Or had it?
Was that color shift real? Did the blue-white in the grapes melt for an instant… to blue-green… to a deep teal?
The mist's color surged into cascading shifts as vertigo swelled in Wy
Blue-white swirled to a yellow-white. She hadn't seen such a color before. Then it turned rapidly to dark amber-red.
Wy
The mug's shape overlaid with deep black, for the water it held chilled the tin vessel. A dim umber-red blotch covered the bed's blanket, showing the remnants of her body heat from kneeling upon it.
Once before Wy
She panicked, flinching away, and turned too quickly. Before she could shut her eyes, her gaze lit upon the desk—and the glow of her cold lamp's crystal.
Searing pain welled through nausea and vertigo, spiking through her eyes into her skull.
Light was a manifestation of Fire.
Wy
The last time she'd seen Fire, half the night passed before her altered sight faded on its own.
A knock sounded at her door.
Wy
She nearly fell over as she shifted. Her head ached so badly she found it hard even to think. A baritone voice called softly from beyond the door.
"Wy
"Oh, no," she whispered.
The one person in this place who even knew of her malady stood outside. And he was the last person who should see her in this state. He would know exactly what she had been up to.
"Wy