-Summer-

  Since taking over Mari’s position as Moonfane Forge’s mage, summons from the town council arrive almost daily. How do the new heads of town expect me to accomplish all the things they ask of me at the same time as they are expecting me to be present for their many bickering sessions up in the Silversmith’s Council Building? I understand now why Marigold avoided those meetings whenever she could.

  Some of the heads have even started arguing that my pay should be reduced, given that I cannot yet cast the town Barrier, as Marigold could. But Marigold’s contract with Moonfane Forge stipulated that the agreement be transferred over to her apprentice if anything ever happened to her. It says nothing about me needing to be a master mage yet.

  Of course, I do hope to become that one day. I continue my studies, even absent a teacher, thanks to our town’s archivist recovering some of Mari’s books and writings from our burned house. It’s only a fraction of what had once been, and much of it damaged, but it is still a treasure trove of wisdom. I am eternally grateful to her for saving as much as she did.

  In the meantime, I am using my magic to aid our town in whatever ways I can. It keeps me very busy. There is still so much rebuilding to be done. Sometimes I wonder if Moonfane Forge will ever feel the same as it once did. Thankfully, there have been workers, funds, and supplies arriving regularly from the capital.

  There is still no word about Vetch’s friend, Ennric, nor the people who set off to the capital with him. Ennric’s wife and daughters have been constant fixtures at the Council Building, pressuring the new heads to find out about them. Vetch has even mused about going to the capital himself to search for them.

  Perhaps we will have news of them soon, though. The council has received notice that an advisor to the king will be arriving here in the coming days. Why he’s coming here is anyone’s guess. There are always so many rumors swirling around about what King Caiside might or mightn’t do. I’ve found it best not to put too much stock in them. There’s still so much for all of us to concern ourselves with here at home without having to worry about what the king might be deciding from his throne room at the capital.

  “That’s certainly true for me,” Lily muttered to herself.

  She looked at what she had written. She had found recently that recording her thoughts in this manner helped her to order her new responsibilities. Originally, she had planned to devote time to making new copies of the damaged writings that had been saved from Marigold’s bookshelves, restoring as much as she could from her recollections, and perhaps even adding to them with her own insights and observations about Barrier-Casting.

  But that had proved to be such a tall task, and one that brought on such strong emotions, that she kept putting it off. Besides, she was still much too preoccupied with immediate needs—both the town’s and her own—to focus on such an undertaking. So, for the present, she wrote only for herself, and only when she felt like it.

  Putting her quill away and stoppering the inkpot, Lily stood and went to lean out the open window of the inn room she shared with Vetch. The inn was newly built, one of many new buildings that had been springing up from the ruins of Moonfane Forge’s lower districts. The place still smelled of fresh timber and wood varnish. It was comfortable and welcoming and had a wonderful view of Mt. Moonfane out the window. But it still wasn’t quite home.

  She and Vetch were working on that.

  Lily savored the pleasant summer breeze a moment longer, then closed and latched the window. She gathered up her various writings and opened the drawer where she stored them. In it was also the letter Marigold had left for her back in Black Crux. Marigold had entrusted it to Vetch to give to her, before casting her master’s work of a Barrier around Black-Crux Manor. Lily had read it many times during their trek back home, and many more times since then. She pulled it from the drawer and unfolded the tear-dotted pages.

  Lily,

  There isn’t a way for me to describe how proud I am of you. It has been so incredibly rewarding having an apprentice as attentive as you, who has taken my lessons to heart as you have. It’s been my honor to have trained you. As a teacher of Barrier-Casting, I consider it my life’s greatest work.

  Why do we practice magic? What do we get out of it? Yes, for some it is power or status. For others, it pays well. For certain mages, however, it is their art. It is like practicing a musical instrument for the joy of it. I smile as I write this, because I know you understand exactly what I mean by that. Magic isn’t a means to an end, but a worthy pursuit of its own, both in its technique and its theory.

  It has been my greatest joy over the last five years to have watched you absorb my lessons and work hard at them. I see in you a deep passion for your craft, and for magic for magic’s sake. From our very first meetings, I always loved those moments when you’d latch onto the meaning behind one of my lessons. I would see that clever smile come to your face, and it let me know I was getting through. It’s always been clear to me that you feel the same way about magic as I did at your age. If you continue to apply yourself to it in the fashion you always have, then the rewards will be innumerable.

  Barrier-Casting is our art and our identity. But unlike me when I was younger, you don’t have to surrender the other important things in your life to devote yourself to it. Maintaining the other facets of your identity will only strengthen the magic you can wield. Practice your craft for yourself and the rest will follow. But remember to see to all those other things that matter to you besides magic. There is a balance to it, no different than the balance between Barrier and Slumber.

  As you go from apprentice to Journeyer, keep this knowledge in mind. When you run into a situation where a new technique feels impossible, or the travel becomes tiresome, remember what it is that drives your love for Barrier-Casting. There will be that moment when the practice pays off and you cast a difficult spell precisely as intended. For mages like us, the satisfaction lies not in the pay or the power, but in creating the astounding.

  I know that you already know this, but having a little reminder you can read when the road is difficult never hurts.

  Now, enough of that lofty stuff. Here is some practical advice for you on your travels: Bring extra smallclothes. I cannot stress that enough. A covered wagon is ideal for travel (maybe Fae can be taught to pull one), but failing that, a good tent is your next best bet. Sometimes you cannot reach a town in time to get an inn room, and being caught out in the rain is no picnic.

  You will certainly want to bring a mage’s attendant with you. I know you already have someone picked out, and I applaud your choice. Vetch will make a fine attendant, but from what I’ve seen from him these last few weeks, he’s an even better man. You made a good choice there, girl, in both respects.

  Don’t pass up opportunities to practice Barrier-Casting in small villages for people who could benefit from it. If someone can’t pay with coin, trade a spell for dinner or a place to sleep. Mages have made their way in this fashion for as long as there’ve been mages. Even routine spells represent opportunities for practice.

  Barrier-Casters are rare, as you well know, but you may find some to train with in the southern holds if you ask around. Mostly, though, you will be learning from other types of mages. While they cannot teach you Barrier-Casting, I think you will find it surprising how effectively a battle mage can teach casting precision, or what a Clear-Sight mage can impart about sensing your surroundings.

  Whoever you find elsewhere in the kingdom to continue your training with will be a fortunate person, and you can tell them that. If they don’t believe you, show them this letter. They may consider it your introduction and my endorsement.

  Of course, it is up to you where you decide to go and how you travel your own Journeyer’s Path. It is different for every mage. But, if I may, I would suggest starting in the King’s Capital City.

  There, it ended, presumably to continue in the still-sealed note. Folding the letter and laying it back in its drawer, Lily looked also at that additional note Marigold had left her. It had been left with instructions that Lily not open it until she was ready to leave for her Journeyer’s travels.

  Lily no longer felt the apprehension she once had about traveling the Journeyer’s Path. She looked forward to it, in fact. But it would be some time before she made the preparations to set off on the road, for however many years, to pursue her further studies in magic. She was enjoying being home too much now to want to turn right back around and leave again. She was rebuilding her life here, a new life with Vetch. Not to mention, she had an obligation to be Moonfane Forge’s mage, at the very least until the town was recovered enough it could spare her.

  So, the other note remained wax-sealed and unread. Lily couldn’t imagine why Marigold wanted her to wait to read it, but she had apparently made that quite clear to Vetch. If that was Mari’s wish, then Lily would honor it. At least until she woke from her Slumber and Lily could pester her about it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Thinking of Marigold, Lily closed the drawer and left her inn room. She would go and visit her before joining Vetch outside town.

  Outside, the streets were bustling with activity. The recovering population of Moonfane Forge seemed always to be busy, working to bring the town back to life. The sounds of hammers and saws were so ubiquitous that Lily hardly noticed them anymore. She had even started to become accustomed to seeing people leading livestock through the streets, beasts that had not been able to enter Moonfane Forge back when Marigold’s Barrier surrounded it.

  As Lily turned up one of the winding streets leading through the markets and into the Residential District, a young girl stepped into her path.

  “Mage Lily!” she said, almost as if surprised to find Lily walking around town. The girl paused briefly to catch her breath, gulped, then said, “The heads of town require your presence at the Silversmith’s Council Building right away.” Her message delivered, the girl stood looking anxiously at Lily.

  “Right now?” Lily asked. “But I spoke with them just yesterday. What else could they want?” The girl only shook her head, at a loss. Of course, Lily thought to herself. She had so been looking forward to helping Vetch out in the pastures today, one of the rare days she was not scheduled to meet someone or cast a Barrier someplace. She sighed. “Tell them I’ll be along in ...”

  She stopped herself. No. If she allowed them to keep pulling her away from things at every whim, she’d never get anything done. How would Marigold handle this? Lily reached into the purse on her belt and fished out a coin. She held it up so the girl could see. “Tell them ... tell them that you couldn’t find me.” She placed the coin in the girl’s eager hand. The girl grinned conspiratorially, nodded, and ran off.

  Lily sniggered to herself. Handsomely done, girl, she could almost hear in Marigold’s voice. She was finding lately that sometimes the best lessons she had learned from her Mage-Matron had nothing to do with magic at all. Let any of the heads of town trudge down all those stairs to find her themselves if it was really so important. She’d be well away from town by the time they did.

  Up in the Residential District, the street Lily had once lived on with Mage Marigold looked much improved compared to how it had looked in the days after the attack. The houses that had escaped the worst of the fires had been repaired and repainted. The rubble of those that had burned had been cleared away and the spaces readied for rebuilding. Lily still felt a pang of sadness at all the gaps left where peoples’s homes had once stood. But from some of those gaps, new frameworks were rising.

  Where her old house had been, an entirely new one now stood completed and inhabited. It had been made different from the original house, smaller and built out of brick and stone rather than wood. No fire would take this mage’s respite again.

  The garrison soldier guarding the front door nodded to Lily as she went in. It was pleasantly cool inside the home. The front room and hallway Lily passed through contained a couple more armed soldiers. These were some of the Moonfane Forge garrison soldiers who had been injured in the attack on their town. Along with Vetch, they made up the entirety of the garrison now. They were few, but they were as devoted to their stations as ever they had been.

  When Lily and Vetch had returned to Moonfane Forge with Mage Marigold, these remaining soldiers had been quick to take up their original appointment guarding the revered master mage. To a man and woman, they took much pride in the fact that Vetch had revenged them upon the commander of the raiders, and returned to them their charge. They still wore the silver and black surcoats of Moonfane Forge, but these days, a new crest adorned the fronts of the uniforms—a bright, orange-yellow marigold bloom.

  In the back of the new house was the master bedchamber. It was dim and quiet here. Lily had taken pains to decorate it as closely to the original as she could, with soft rugs on the floor, a bookshelf and little writing desk, and paintings of the neighboring mountains and pastures on the walls. In the center of the room, in a large, cushiony bed, Slumbered Mage Marigold. She looked, as ever, peaceful—like a beloved grandmother napping.

  The soldiers who attended to her saw to her every comfort and need, exactly as Lily had taught them. They had taken up this new duty as mage’s attendants with zeal. There was always someone at Marigold’s side. The soldier presently watching over her stood up from her chair when Lily entered the room.

  “Mage Lily,” she said pleasantly. “I’m surprised to see you today. Thought you’d be out helping Cap’n Vetch.”

  “I’m on my way there,” replied Lily, leaning over the bed to smile down at Marigold. “But I thought I’d take a detour and see how things are here. Is there anything you need?”

  The soldier shook her head. “We’re all fine here, ma’am. One of those council folk came around earlier, though. Was lookin’ for you. We sent ‘im away grumbling.”

  “Good,” said Lily, rolling her eyes. “They have no business being here. Anyway, I thought I’d sit with Mari for a few minutes, if you’d like a break.”

  “I could stretch my legs,” the soldier agreed. She closed the door behind her on her way out, leaving Lily alone in the room with her Mage-Matron.

  Lily took the soldier’s seat and for a few minutes merely sat in quiet reflection. This place, this new sanctuary for the Slumbering master mage, had come together so quickly. After she and Vetch had returned home—and word had spread that Marigold was with them, but in indeterminate Slumber—workers all over town had dropped everything in order to construct this new house for her in the place of her old one. Maiden’s Rest, people had taken to calling it. The gesture had overwhelmed Lily at the time. She saw firsthand how she and Vetch weren’t the only ones who viewed Marigold’s return as a symbol of hope that their town could recover.

  In the same fashion, Moonfane Forge’s remaining soldiers had rallied around Vetch as their new captain. He had taken on the mantle readily, reestablishing their regular drills and patrols. While the garrison were much fewer in numbers than they had been, they were never short on young men and women volunteering to join their ranks.

  For those first few weeks back, Lily and Vetch had both been busier than either imagined they could be. Much of the dust had settled since then, but even now, Lily was thankful when she could steal a quiet moment like this with her teacher.

  Studying the old woman’s placid features and listening to the steady rhythm of her breathing, Lily felt a familiar tug-of-war of emotions. She was grateful for all that her Mage-Matron had done for her. She looked happily on the years she had spent as Marigold’s student and friend. At the same time, she teetered between sadness and frustration that her teacher had left her on her own with so many questions. There were things unearthed in Black Crux that Lily still wanted to ask her about, and so much more she wished she could learn from her.

  There was also the regret, no matter how irrational, Lily felt at having been in Slumber herself when Marigold had cast her greatest spell, unable to help, or talk her out of it, or even say goodbye. ...

  Lily caught herself and stood up from her chair before her eyes could mist over. She’d had enough visits like that. Not today. She would not torment herself yet again with the question of whether Marigold would eventually wake, or if she had knowingly bought their escape from that place with a Slumber that would never lift.

  There was too much Lily still didn’t know about magic and it’s effects to say for certain, so she would not assume anything. There was so much more she had to learn. For the time being, she would watch over her Mage-Matron and hope that maybe, just maybe, by the time she was ready to set out on her Mage’s Journey, Marigold would be awake to see her off.

  As she always did before leaving, Lily touched Marigold’s shoulder and offered silent thanks and her hope that one day Moonfane Forge’s Maiden would return to them in spirit as well as body.

  In the front room, Lily shared a departing nod with the attending soldier and went on her way. A few steps down the cobbled street, she suddenly grinned broadly. Vetch was waiting for her! What was she doing coming here and getting all sentimental? Marigold would have been shooing her back out the door from the start. Lily laughed to herself. The old mage was still teaching her. She only just had to remember the lessons.

  The newly rebuilt wing of the stables smelled of sawdust and hay and horses. Upon Lily’s approach, Fae chuffed a greeting and pushed against the door of her new stall. Lily had to rush to unlatch it before the panthegrunn could shoulder it off its hinges.

  “Okay, okay, move back, you great silly thing,” Lily grunted, taking hold of Fae’s horns and pushing while Fae enthusiastically butted her soft nose against Lily’s face. “I’m happy to see you, too!” she laughed. “And, yes, I know you haven’t been out for a while and I’m sorry for that, girl. We’re going out for a ride today. How would you like that? Now ... move ... back and allow me to reach your reins.”

  Once Fae was saddled, Lily led her out onto the path before the stables and mounted up. Sitting tall atop the powerful charge-beast, Lily surveyed the rolling hills and pastures stretching out before them. She could feel through Fae’s muscles how the panthegrunn anticipated running across the open span. Lily scratched her between her horns, feeling the same way.

  “That stall is too small for you, I know,” she said. “But don’t worry, you’ll have a much more fitting home soon. We both will. Shall we go see it?” Lily tapped Fae’s flanks with her heels. “Let’s go then, girl. Let’s run!”

  No matter how many times Lily experienced it, the way Fae surged into a full run was exhilarating. Lily whooped as they ran down the path and out into the pastures as fast as any racing horse. She let go of the reins and gripped Fae’s shaggy fur. Closing her eyes, she felt the sense of incredible speed, the wind whipping through her hair, the rhythm of Fae’s pounding hooves.

  They tore across the acres, passing farms and herds of grunting Moonfane yaks in their new enclosures. Lily allowed Fae to run as long and as fast as she wished, until she finally slowed on her own to a casual walk, panting contentedly. The panthegrunn gave her great head a shake and Lily patted her shoulder before taking up the reins again and turning them onto the path running west to east.

  The sound of hammering reached her ears as they neared the end of the path—their destination. Lily dismounted next to the stone of remembrance she’d had raised for her parents and brother by where their dairy had once stood.

  Not far along from there, a new house was taking shape. Her house, she kept reminding herself. Her’s and Vetch’s. No matter how used to the idea she’d become, it still sent a little thrill through her thinking of it. It was only the framework at present, but it was finally beginning to look like the little farm house it would become. Lily could already see how the rooms would be laid out and imagine how she and Vetch would furnish them. There was a section of soil where they planned on planting a garden, and not far from there, stakes were set in the ground indicating where a new corral would be constructed, and stables specifically for Fae and Revenge.

  No matter that it was still all in its early stages, Lily could envision it all, could see the years—a lifetime—she would spend here with her love.

  Vetch was at the top of a ladder, just finishing hammering a board into place. He was shirtless and eye-pleasingly tanned, his auburn hair caught in the sweat of his brow. He pushed it back out of his eyes and so spotted her from his perch. Grinning, he came down smartly, bounding over to her like he used to do when they were kids.

  “Ready to dive in?” he asked her.

  “Mhm. Where do you need me?”

  “Beside me. Always.”

  Lily smiled. “You have that already, good sir. What else?”

  “What more could I ask for?”

  They looked at one another. Lily was the first to crack and start giggling, then Vetch was laughing, too. When they both could compose themselves, Lily gazed up at what would be their future home. Vetch put his arm around her and for a moment they shared in the vision. Then, Lily held out her hand. Vetch placed the hammer in it and then went to heft the next freshly sawn board.

  They got to work, building their future together.

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