“Come in.”
Within was a room as familiar to her as her home back in Oparium.
A large desk was situated in the center, facing the door. Two chairs were positioned on one side, set up for conversations. Expansive windows provided breathtaking views of the jagged peaks that topped the mountains surrounding the capital of the Solaris Empire. All manner of worktables and storage were crammed around the windows. Something was always bubbling softly on their surfaces.
Behind the desk was a man with rich blue eyes and hair that matched Marcus’s. He was as much a fixture of this room in Eira’s mind as the beakers or cauldrons.
“Ah, hello, you two!” Fritz, the Minister of Sorcery, stood.
“Minister,” Eira said with a polite nod.
“Always so formal.” Fritz rounded the desk with a shake of his head. He scooped up Marcus in a bear hug, even though Marcus was head and shoulders taller. “It’s good to see you both.”
“Good to see you, too, Uncle,” Marcus said.
“You saw us two days ago.” Yet Eira relented to her eager uncle, giving him a gentle squeeze as he crushed her so hard her back popped.
“Oh, there you go, I heard that.” Fritz chuckled. “Feel better?”
“Yes, actually.” Eira stretched, forward and back.
“And just because I saw you two days ago doesn’t mean I don’t miss you. It feels like just yesterday you two arrived at the Tower, hand in hand, playing in my office—”
“Yes, we know, Uncle.” Eira gave him a smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Now, may we have our assignments?”
“Are you running off to meet Alyss?”
“If our assignments happen to coincide again,” Eira admitted.
“Happen to,” Marcus repeated with a snort and a chuckle.
“Here you go.” Fritz handed her a slip of paper and then one to Marcus…twice as long. “Now, off with you; it’s getting late already and there’s work to be done.”
“Thanks, Uncle.” Marcus gave a playful salute with his paper before heading out the door. Leaving Eira in his dust, yet again.
“What is it?” Fritz asked thoughtfully.
Eira looked down at her list. Five names were penned underneath the words, West Clinic. Her brother had at least ten—no, fifteen.
“He has a longer list than me again,” she murmured.
“I want to give you time to spend with Alyss.” The words sounded sincere. So why did they feel like a lie?
“I want to do more.”
“In time.” He said the two words she hated the most.
“When will it be my time?” Eira asked softly. “I want to—”
He didn’t give her an opportunity to finish. “Don’t rush. You’re young. There’s plenty of time to come into your own. It’s best to take things slowly, given how unique your magic is.” Eira pressed her lips into a hard line. When she didn’t say anything, he pressed, “All right?”
“All right,” she echoed, resigned, and slipped away before the conversation could continue. Instead of fighting, she pulled out her book once more, reading over pages she’d read so many times she could recite the words from memory.
Words of places Eira knew she’d never get the chance to go because she’d be stuck here her entire life, chaperoned and shepherded.
She wound once more down the tower, the whispers filling her ears. As a girl, she hadn’t understood the voices; she’d thought they were imaginary friends. Her parents had thought the same.
Then, her magic had begun to manifest in different ways and it became apparent that she was a sorcerer, like her brother and uncle. Eira knew from that day she was destined for the Tower of Sorcerers in Solarin, capital of the Empire. It was the place all sorcerers in the Empire were sent. She’d hoped that she’d find a solution, or even an explanation for the voices in the Tower. But she’d yet to have any leads. All she could show for her efforts was learning how to silence the voices—if she focused.
She’d arrived six years ago, young for an initiate, but not unheard of. Exceptions could also be made for the niece of the Minister of Sorcery…a fact her peers rarely let her forget.
At the base of the Tower of Sorcerers was the main entry—the only entrance non-sorcerers knew of and could access. There was a waiting area, tables and chairs, and sofas, usually vacant. No one came to visit sorcerers. Emperor Aldrik Solaris and Empress Vhalla Solaris had done a lot to push sorcerers toward being accepted in common society. But hatred and prejudice were self-feeding vines, constantly digging two new tendrils into the hearts of man for every one that was ripped out.
“I was just about to leave without you,” Alyss grumped as she jumped up from the seat she’d been occupying. She sent the clay she’d been magically sculpting back into the pouch on her hip with a thought.
“Sorry.”
“I saw your brother come by, so I knew you wouldn’t be far behind.”
Marcus’s shadow. That was all she ever was. Even Alyss, her best and truest friend, knew it.
“I just got delayed with Uncle. What were you making?” Eira quickly changed the topic.
“Nothing, just messing around.” Alyss grinned. Her fingertips were always stained by clay, or stone dust, from whatever project she was “messing around” with. “What you really should ask me is what I’m reading.”
“You find a new book?”
“Yes, and it’s a truly scandalous story.” Alyss spoke low and fast. “I found it in the back corner of the used bookstore on Flare Avenue. It has things you wouldn’t believe someone penned…much less committed to print!”
“You’re too smart to be filling your head with such things.” Eira rolled her eyes.
“And you’re too fun at heart to be so prudish and off-putting all the time.” Alyss braced her hands on her hips. Dozens of small, long, dark braids Eira had helped weave into her hair a week ago slipped over her shoulder. Beads Alyss’s mother had sent from the North clanked softly at the ends with every turn of her head.
For Eira, a trip home was a hard day’s travel. For Alyss, it was a week to the northernmost region of the Solaris Empire.
“You know nothing about me.” Eira mirrored her friend’s motion, putting her hands on her hips.
“Wh-me? Me? I know nothing about you?” Alyss scoffed loudly, her voice echoing around the iron chandelier overhead. “I am the only one in this whole Tower who knows you.”
Eira hummed but said nothing. A grin threatened to split her lips. Alyss dug her elbow into Eira’s side and freed the expression with a laugh.
“Now, we’re going to the West Clinic today, right?”
“Looks like.”
Together, they set off into the brisk spring dawn.
Ice still clustered around gutters and hung from awnings, sparkling like magic given form in the early morning light. Alyss’s breath plumed before her like a chimney in the cold. But Eira’s was invisible.
Eira closed her eyes, imagining for just a second that she was the spirit of winter itself. She was the crisp air. She lived in the snow banks. Her heart was buried deep, deep in the icy blue of the frost-covered peaks of the mountains that surrounded her.