‘A douserant.’ Asmara replied, quite cheerfully considering. ‘They like music.’

  ‘Why didn’t you sing?’ Julietta asked crossly, rubbing her throat.

  ‘Oh, I can’t sing. I tried once and a douserant nearly took my head off. No, they only like nice music.’ and she grinned. ‘Dore isn’t much of a singer either.’

  ‘My magic wasn’t working on it.’

  Dorian shook his head. ‘They’re very powerful. It’s got more in common with spirits than with regular cats. You wouldn’t want to fight one of them. If you did though, a sword would probably be more useful than magic.’

  ‘So if you didn’t know that they like singing...’ Julietta said, alarmed at the prospect of simply being eaten because you didn’t have the right information.

  ‘You’d probably get eaten.’ Asmara replied happily.

  ‘But you’re a shadow mage, the other creatures...’

  ‘It wasn’t going to suck up my magic like the sparkle wasps, it would have just eaten me. Things that are just hungry for meat don’t care that I’m a shadow mage. You know, you should probably save your voice in case we run into any others. I’m all bruised, I don’t fancy being jumped on again.’

  That shut Julietta up instantly.

  Early the next day they reached the lake. Though it was still early, they decided to take a break. In the brighter light, Julietta inspected Asmara’s shoulder. Her light armour was scratched and Julietta could tell Dorian’s inscriptions had broken. Underneath the armour her shoulder was covered in ugly bruises, but the douserant’s claws had not broken her skin. The bruises were bad enough though, and Asmara only moved her shoulder with some pain. The beast had also stood on her leg and other arm, which were in no better condition. Once Julietta finished her healing magic, the pain disappeared and the bruises faded.

  Asmara rotated her shoulder, smiling, ‘ah, that’s a relief. Thank you.’

  After, Julietta watched for a moment as Dorian discussed inscriptions with Asmara. Deciding to check on Bo’s inscriptions, she was annoyed to find them far weaker than expected.

  ‘They’re fine for now.’ She told him, ‘but I will have to redo them in a week or so. I can’t imagine the sparkle wasps could have taken so much power from them!’

  ‘They lasted longer than I expected.’ Bo replied. ‘Sontmor is full of spirits, and the trees like stealing power too.’

  Irritated, and thinking that he and Dorian must have thought her an idiot for suggesting the inscription would last a few months, Julietta said, ‘well, I suppose this gives me an opportunity to work on the durability of my inscribing.’ Still, it had lasted much longer than any of Dorian’s inscriptions.

  Thinking that, Julietta walked over to where Asmara and Dorian were talking quietly together. Julietta’s brows rose as she saw what Dorian was drawing on the blade of Asmara’s sword near the sword point.

  ‘Is that a smiley face?’ she demanded.

  Asmara looked up but before she could say anything Dorian said in irritation, ‘yes, it is.’

  ‘A smiley face-’

  ‘This is what helps Asmara focus, Julietta, if you’ll excuse me-’

  ‘If you use proper symbols!’

  ‘You can use whatever symbols you like!’

  ‘Certainly! But the sword has its own idea of itself as well, if you use the symbol it thinks of, the power of the inscription will be far greater!’

  ‘I know what I’m doing, Julietta! And the smiley face isn’t the only symbol I’m doing!’

  Julietta could see other, more standard symbols surrounding the smiley face, which was the center of the inscription. There was another collection of symbols in the middle of the blade, and Julietta could see that these were for the sticky spell.

  ‘The length altering spell always makes me smile.’ Asmara said calmly, with a friendly smile. ‘My regular magic is pretty weak, as you’ve noticed and I have a lot of trouble using it. This is what helps me activate Dorian’s spells.’

  Dorian glared at Julietta.

  Julietta ignored Dorian’s glower, ‘perhaps you’ll let me try sometime, Asmara. Dorian, if you need help discerning the symbols of objects, I can always help you if you like.’

  ‘I don’t need any help!’

  Julietta gave him a mildly offended glance, there was really no need for his attitude, she thought, and walked off to leave them alone. Not long after, the group left the lake. A couple of days later they arrived back at Anseville, without further incident.

  Once the group arrived at the Anseville guild hall Julietta had the opportunity to see the strange sight of Dorian and the Red Mushroom interviewing prospective buyers. Dorian sat at a table with the container open. The mushroom stood at the edge, and Julietta had the distinct feeling it was paying very close attention. Dorian had become very protective of the mushroom, and Bo and Asmara let him handle the interviews and make the decision. Despite her surprise, the prospective buyers treated this as a matter of course. They discussed their aims for the mushroom, and how much they would pay.

  ‘I’m surprised it isn’t upset we’re getting paid for this.’ Julietta said quietly as she watched Dorian from her position next to Asmara and Bo.

  ‘Dorian would have explained it all already. The mushroom understands we had to take an arduous journey to gather it.’

  ‘The mushroom understands...’

  ‘Perhaps you should go speak with it.’ Asmara suggested.

  ‘Have you ever...?’

  ‘I’m not much of a mage, really.’ and she smiled.

  ‘Dorian’s really very useful.’ Julietta murmured. ‘It seems an experienced sorcerer is a must in Sontmor.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, you could survive in Sontmor without one, but a good mage is really valuable down here.’ Asmara agreed.

  ‘We wouldn’t come down here if we didn’t have a decent mage with us.’ Bo added. ‘And you might survive, Asme, but I wouldn’t go into the forests of Sontmor without a mage.’

  ‘I suppose that depends how you mean ‘survive’.’ she said thoughtfully. ‘You’d probably get lost and wander around the forests for years, but you could probably stay alive, providing you didn’t piss anything off and had a good dose of luck.’

  ‘Those aren’t odds I would take.’ Bo shook his head.

  Asmara only grinned in response.

  ‘This is quite an unusual profession for a shadow mage.’ Julietta said suddenly. ‘Why would you choose something so dangerous? You could earn much more working as a shadow mage from the safety of a big city.’

  ‘There’s nothing safe about working as a shadow mage.’ Asmara replied, her good humour fading, ‘but this is the only thing I’m really good at and enjoy. Besides, it’s not good for a shadow mage to get bored.’

  ‘Yes, but you could get killed by so many things down here.’

  ‘It’s not the same as... just losing hold of your body one day and drifting away... if I have to die, I’d rather it be by a bandit or a douserant than shadow magic.’

  A silence fell over the group. Julietta, uncomfortable, decided to go and speak with the mushroom. She sat down next to Dorian, who glanced at her briefly before turning his attention back to the current buyer.

  Closing her eyes, she focussed on the mushroom. It did not so much speak, but Julietta got a sense of emotions and desires. When she opened her eyes she felt a twinge of sorrow. The mushroom was quietly preparing for its own death. It knew it was going to die and was now choosing the way in which it would occur. It was such a little creature, so out of place in this common room full of the sounds and smells of humans. It could not hurt them, and if they chose to ignore its wishes the best it could do would be to keep itself from being useful, thereby making its death a waste. Looking at Dorian, she felt she understood why he was so protective of the mushroom. She did not think she would like to collect Red Mushrooms again anytime soon.

  Not long after, a buyer was selected. He was a middle-aged man who made medicines and had worked with Red Mushrooms before. Most importantly, he had been the kindest to the mushroom. The mushroom was exchanged for a pile of gold coins. Julietta did not take much interest in the money, nevertheless, it was split up between the group and Bo and Asmara soon departed to add their share to their account with the guild. Julietta looked down at her pile, wondering what to do with it all. She looked up and saw Dorian was counting out coins.

  ‘What are you going to do with it?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ll send some back to my family.’ he muttered after a moment, his voice tight.

  ‘Oh, that’s very nice of you.’

  He shrugged. ‘There’s not a whole lot to spend it on here in Sontmor, Julietta, though you could certainly try. I’m sure you could drink it all away if you put in the effort.’ Julietta made a face at that as Dorian continued, ‘I would suggest saving it until we return to civilization.’

  Julietta saw he was not in the mood to talk anymore about his family, and for once she was not in the mood to press him. Then a thought suddenly occurred to her. ‘Do you have children?’ she asked.

  ‘What?’ he looked up, stunned, ‘no, nothing like that! I’m sending it to my parents and sister.’ he shook his head. ‘Why would you think that?’

  ‘Oh, just asking. Do they need the money?’

  ‘Do you have no sense of what’s private business? It doesn’t matter why I’m sending it back!’

  ‘Oh, ok.’ she was not terribly offended, as that was not an unusual response to her questions. ‘Excuse me, I think I will leave some with the guild, as you suggested.’

  CHAPTER 8

  28 Fevror, 1352

  After selling the Red Mushroom, the night in Anseville went as usual, with Asmara flirting with any man with a pulse, Bo telling jokes, and occasionally drawing a smile from Dorian, while Julietta listened and watched. It was not until a few months later that Asmara suddenly became interested in Dorian. Without any trace of embarrassment, and within hearing distance of Julietta and Bo, she suggested to Dorian that perhaps she should have been paying more attention to him the entire time. Julietta, hearing Asmara’s proposition, had looked up in shock. Dorian’s reaction had been much the same as Julietta’s.

  ‘I’ve heard you use that line a thousand times before, Asmara! How could you think I’d fall for that?’ he demanded, his voice rising in the cool night air. They were travelling south, a long way from the forest that had been Julietta’s initiation to Sontmor, heading towards the Sea of Storms. It was only autumn, but Julietta was colder than she’d ever been. She wondered how she would survive a winter in Sontmor.

  ‘It’s true every time.’ Asmara replied, unbothered, ‘I don’t know how things will go, I’m just suggesting we try and see.’

  Dorian stormed off. When Asmara returned to the camp, Bo had a long, private discussion with her. Julietta couldn’t hear, but she guessed at the content.

  The next few days were tense. Dorian would not speak with Asmara, even about things such as the direction they were heading in, and stormed off whenever she approached. Eventually, she cornered him while he was cooking, which of course was in full view of both Julietta and Bo.

  ‘Come on, Dore, why are you so mad?’

  ‘I’m cooking, Asmara, leave me alone.’

  ‘If you’re not interested, fine, but why can’t we stay friends?’

  ‘Friends?’ he responded icily. ‘That’s hard to believe when you say the same things to people you barely know-’

  ‘Dore, I told you, I’m just trying to find-’

  ‘I don’t care, I have no intention of being another of your conquests, just leave me be, Asmara.’

  ‘If I’d known I was going to upset you so much, I might have kept my feelings to myself.’ she said after a moment.

  ‘Feelings? You don’t have feelings for me! At best you have... pre-feelings!’

  ‘Ok, sure,’ and she suddenly smiled, ‘I have pretty good pre-feelings about you!’ And she stood and left him be.

  Julietta found the whole ordeal quite embarrassing to witness, and she pretended she hadn’t seen or heard anything. Asmara did not proceed to ignore Dorian. She carefully approached him over the next few days and was generally polite and not the least bit inappropriate. The travels of the group were accompanied by Dorian demanding that Asmara stop looking at him like that, to which she would close her eyes and grin, to Dorian’s annoyance. But his anger and irritation settled down over the weeks until he would for brief moments behave as usual with Asmara, and then suddenly a look or a smile from her would remind him and he would tense up and grumble. Despite what Julietta took to be a very clear refusal, Asmara did not seem disheartened. While she only rarely spoke of her desires, Dorian seemed to read it in her body language often enough that neither of them forgot it.

  Then there were the times when they returned to town. Asmara’s behaviour, to perhaps no ones real surprise, did not change. That first night Julietta saw Dorian looking confused and perhaps even hurt for a brief moment, but it was quickly hidden by a veil of indifference. When they left the town on their next job and Asmara again propositioned Dorian, he was stunned into silence. At least for a moment or two anyway, after which he launched into a tirade:

  ‘How can you say that after how you’ve behaved?!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ she responded in infuriating ignorance.

  ‘In town, you-’

  ‘Dorian, you keep turning me down.’ she replied with a slight frown. ‘What am I supposed to do? But you know, if it bothers you so much I won’t -’

  ‘It doesn’t bother me.’ he shot back icily and stalked away to set a fierce pace at the head of the group.

  Not a whole lot had changed since then- Asmara had continued pursuing Dorian, and his annoyance eventually faded, only to flare up every now and then.

  CHAPTER 9

  1 Fevror, 1353

  Julietta glanced up at Dorian, sitting across the table, his arms crossed and his eyes focussed resolutely on some point to the side and above her head, so that he was looking at no one. Today, she felt she had finally proved herself, and she was anticipating an evening where she would be the center of attention.

  They had just finished dealing with a gnome-dragon lurking near one of the few settlements in Sontmor. The gnome-dragon was so named as it only came up to a grown man’s knee, and liked to dig tunnels underground, particularly under people’s houses. It’s favourite activity was digging large networks of caves that would collapse and bring houses and people down with them. They had captured it and left it with the local baron. If he could negotiate a deal with it and tame it, it could become a very useful creature, particularly for mining. Julietta hoped it would cooperate, otherwise the locals would likely kill the creature to protect their homes.

  On their way back to Anseville they had come across a group of bandits, which had included a sorcerer. Dorian had become uncharacteristically unsure, and withdrew to the back of the company as they spied the man ahead of them. They had faced all manner of magical beasts in Sontmor, and Dorian had not shown the least qualms in dealing with them. And then this sorcerer. She had asked how they would deal with him, looking pointedly at Dorian. ‘You deal with all the other magical threats we come across, after all.’ She had reminded him.

  ‘Those are beasts,’ he had snarled at her, always easy to irritate, but this anger surprised her. ‘You’re the damned prodigy, Julietta, you go duel him!’

  Despite her shock, she had not really been afraid or troubled, and had declared her intention to take care of the sorcerer while the others dealt with the rest of the bandits lying in wait for them.

  And she had dealt with him. It had been wonderfully restoring and exhilarating. She had not used her magic so skilfully in months, had not proved her superiority in such a long time. Her companions had been impressed by her display as well, and Bo had complimented her at the time.

  Remembering that feeling she felt a little better sitting silently in the horrible tavern. Suddenly, she did not feel like waiting for Dorian who was waiting for Asmara who would certainly leave with another man, no matter what she said when there were no other men around (aside from Bo, who apparently didn’t count). Julietta was special, after all, superior and rare and she would not spend this night, at least, waiting.

  She stood and informed her companions of her plans to go to bed, not that they likely heard. She headed for the stairs and made her way to her room on the second floor. The window in her room was open, and it was lovely and refreshing after the closeness of downstairs. She slipped her shoes off, the stone floor cool on her feet. The entire inn was built from stone and brick. It would have been terribly expensive to construct for a small inn in a small town on the edge of nowhere (ducal residence or not, there was no denying that Anseville was small). After nearly a year in Sontmor, she’d learnt why the town was built of stone and why some parts of the buildings had an odd, melted look to them: it had taken the founders of the city some time to learn how to live with the fire spirits.

  Julietta did not go to sleep right away. Alone in her room, old nightmares crowded at the edges of her thoughts. Irritated, she rolled over several times, as if the act of moving would banish them. The face of the sorcerer she had fought swam before her. Two now. I’ve killed two people now.

  It was a heavy thought, that did not sit well wherever she tried to hide it. His face swam before her eyes. I didn’t mean to kill them, it wasn’t my intention. Her face drawn in a tense frown, she could not help remembering her first fight. She’d panicked then. That was why her attacker had died, rather than being merely injured. But this time? Did she panic again? No, she’d had more control. How had he ended up dead, rather than hurt?

  No one had been concerned she’d killed the sorcerer. The group wasn’t particularly bloodthirsty. The jobs they took never involved hunting down criminals or cleaning up bandits. They didn’t pursue their attackers if they fled or surrendered. Yet still, Julietta had built up quite a toll. Two men. I killed two men. It was a fact that defied understanding.