It had been several hours since the sun had set and the festivities begun. For the Farken family proper’s youngest child was being welcomed back amongst them, to walk the road and be declared free of irregularity. At first there had been attempts to remain civil about it all, to act in accordance with the initial error. But once the party had started, it had become a thing unto itself.

  The Farken’s specialized in ale, good ale well made and much enjoyed. With Bestat being the city on the road, probably the most recognizable ale in all the world. Now that they themselves were celebrating, it was generous pours all round. Which is to say, Naeris’ parents were drunk beyond all measure.

  Her mother kept pinching her cheeks and mussing up her hair.

  “You’ve gotta stop growin”, her Mom pulled her in by the horns and gave her a little shake, “You’re the best size for hugs right now.” Then, as if to demonstrate, she pulled Naeris in for a bone crushing squeeze.

  Naeris grumbled, and glared over her mothers shoulder at Ecan and her Dad, both watching the scene with amusement. Her mother laughed brightly at her no doubt thunderous face.

  The Crag woman looked down at Naeris, “I know, I know, I’m embarrassing ya .” the older Crag hummed, “Mmmmmm,yeah, I jus worry. You ‘ave talet me worry.” Her mother shook her again as if to drive the message home, “No more growing, mkay?” She pointed from her eyes to Naeris’ own, “love you.”

  Standing to the side, Naeris’ father coughed pointedly, and grudgingly Naeris grumbled a bitten off “love you too”, back to her mother. Her father smiled at this, before turning to Ecan with a wider grin.

  “So, yes,” he was hard to hear over the noise of the party, “Evidently, I need to be taking your mother home.” He spoke in his usual soft controlled manner, trying to maintain formal speech as he did, but his words were undermined by the way he was swaying as he spoke.

  Her dad pointed at Ecan and spoke a little more gruffly, “Keep your sister out of trouble.” Ecan nodded solemnly, and Naeris tried her best to look innocent and un-troublesome as her mom stroked her hair and sang soft lullabies under her breath.

  Her dad didn’t seem to wholly buy it, as he looked at Naeris and gave a heavy sigh. But he pulled their mom away nonetheless, and with a goodbye wave the two began to stumblingly make their way back to the Farken homestead.

  Naeris watched them go with a twisted smile, two down and one to go. Her brother gave her a sideways glance.

  “No.” he grunted.

  “Hmm?” Naeris looked at him innocently, “No what?”

  “No to whatever's on your mind, whatever you’ve been planning that’s, made you decide to slip mom extra drinks all evening,” Damn, she hadn’t thought he’d catch that, “It’s not happening, not while I’m in charge of watching you.”

  She rolled her eyes, still smiling “Dunno what you’re talking about, wanna grab some pints an’a table?”

  “Don’t know, want to, and a.”

  “But mom-”

  “Is headed home because she’s too drunk to speak properly, do you want to follow?”

  Naeris groaned theatrically, “Fine. Do you want to find a table and grab a pint?”

  Ecan gave her a measured look, “Sure ‘Ris.” He spoke slowly, clearly still distrustful, “Let’s grab a pint. Where did you want to-”

  “Fantastic, I think I saw some of your crowd, Taurin and them, over by the ivory. C’mon.” She tugged his hand, playing up the eager act, and behind her, Ecan laughed.

  “Ohhhh, sure yes, Taurin and them. You just happened to spot him?”

  Naeris kept her face pointed away from Ecan as she failed to conceal a smug grin. “What, yeah?” She let her tone shift towards nervousness, though her expression didn’t match the sound, “Stop being weird.”

  Her brother chuckled, smug now that he thought he understood her. Ecan talked a big game, but when push came to shove he was easy to figure out. Her brother assumed she was just interested in Taurin. Sure, he’d figured out she was planning something for the evening, but as long as he could draw his own conclusions about just what she was planning, he was satisfied.

  Naeris really didn’t give a fuck about Taurin Vaeric right now. Now that she was officially absolved of suspicion, and regular check ins, and scans…

  She had other plans.

  Naeris found Ecan’s friends exactly where they’d been when she’d looped by earlier in the day, drinking themselves into oblivion in front of the Ivory. They practically shook the town with their greetings when they spotted her brother, which he accepted magnanimously. Naeris, who normally hated enduring the crowds of Ecan’s hangers on, felt her grin sharpen further. Her brother shot her a wary look, but the pull of his friends was too strong, and he clearly thought he knew what she was up to anyways. Ecan began to relax into the celebration, sitting down and drowning three drinks in quick succession so that formalities might be dropped.

  Naeris did the same, before squeezing herself onto a bench next to Taurin. This got a smirk from her brother, and a few snickers from around the table. Technically, the fact that Naeris had an arranged marriage to Taurin was a secret, even to her. It had been an abysmally kept secret however, and had been the talk of the town for several years now. The older smith boy grinned at Naeris, and across the table Ecan rolled his eyes.

  Which Taurin caught, rolling his eyes in return.

  Naeris watched the two of them smugly, they were weird these days, friends one moment and pissed at each other the next. The two boys often took turns supporting or opposing the eventual marriage based on what the other’s opinion seemed to be at the moment. Since Ecan had abruptly decided to play protective older brother this evening, that meant that Taurin was sliding closer to Naeris, leaning into her and flirting as he shot sideways glares at Ecan across the table.

  Naeris played along, prompting a confused glance from Taurin, and a few more eye rolls from Ecan. The meathead friends of his made exaggerated winks and nudges across the table.

  “Oh! Taurin! I just remembered something.” Naeris stared at the smith boy with a doe eyed smile, “I saw some trinkets I wanted to look at earlier. Would you mind taking a walk with me to check them out?”

  The smith's boy blinked, clearly wondering what she was up to, and across the table Ecan’s eyes narrowed as he began to do the same. At this point though, Ecan’s suspicion was almost irrelevant, as Naeris had brought the matter to the court of public opinion.

  “Oh yes Taurin,” some Crag boy, whose name Naeris could never remember, piped up with saccharine sweetness, “You should go with her. You two can take a nice long walk together.”

  “Shut it Keche.” Taurin and Ecan barked almost simultaneously, before shooting each other glares.

  “I don’t know ‘Ris…” Ecan began, but was quickly silenced by a chorus of booing from around the table.

  Taurin glared at Ecan as well, abruptly standing up and holding his hand out to Naeris, “I’d be happy to escort you.” He kept his eyes on Ecan as he spoke, and Naeris gave a smug little smile as she took the older boy's hand and stood up from the bench. Around her brother his meathead friends laughed, Keche going so far as to sling an arm over Ecan’s shoulder to keep him seated at the bench.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Enjoy your walk!” Keche gave a cheer and a toast, the other boys laughing as they echoed it around the table.

  “Enjoy your drinks!” Naeris returned, uncharacteristically cheerful as Taurin went to lead her away from the table. She smirked, unable to resist a mocking curtsy in brother’s direction. She thought about mouthing something along the lines of ‘I win’, but decided it would be a bit gauche to revel in her victory this early.

  Her brother sighed, something dark passing across his expression, as grimly he raised a glass to toast her along with the rest of his friends. Ecan really was not half so good at keeping an eye on her as he thought he was.

  ***

  She parted ways with Taurin almost as soon as they were out of sight of the table. Right as they rounded towards the edge of the road, a good spot with nobody around and no one to see or overhear.

  “Sorry,” she said, at the prompting of Taurin's skeptical eyebrow, “I just needed to get my brother off my back.”

  “I figured it was something along those lines,” he sighed, “You’re not doing anything too crazy right?”

  “Not at all,” she lied, “just heading out to visit Nadia while everyone’s distracted.”

  “Ah.” Taurin paused, “well in that case…”

  Naeris waved magnanimously, “You’re free to go, no need to torture yourself with visits to Nadia.”

  The smith’s boy shuddered, “I really don’t think she likes me.”

  “Yeah, no,” Naeris laughed brightly, “She hates you.”

  “Right, yeah,” Taurin made a face, “Well, since I have no desire to piss her off...” Awkwardly, he started backing away.

  Smiling Naeris waved him off, waiting till he was a few paces away before shouting, “Enjoy the festivities!”

  “Enjoy lurking in the fields with your creepy monster friend!” The older boy responded brightly. Naeris laughed, smiling brightly. Everything was working, almost too perfectly.

  With that, one bright shining thought she turned towards the Road before her and stopped. She’d caught sight of the stopheri as she was turning, and her steps came to a stumbling halt.

  Because, on this most perfect day a real, genuine Stopheri, stood there like the night sky fallen to earth on the streets of Bestat.

  ***

  The Stopheri were singular amongst all people in the lands. Untouchable and made of magic.

  Often referred to as cloth people, they were tall figures draped in dark layers of living gossamer that shone with bright spots mimicking stars in the sky. The gossamer was in fact wings that would trail behind them as they soared through the sky. With as much as the Crag hated weavers and wizards, particularly amongst their own, they understood the Stoph to be a particularly abhorrent sort of threat, only barely tolerated.

  It did help that they held themselves apart. The Stoph stayed in their mountains, they didn’t teach others unless specifically sought out, and they didn’t usually engage in the sort of horrific magical crimes wizards were usually responsible for. Still, this only earned them tolerance. They were not well loved by the crag, and they did not usually stay in Bestat when, if ever, they travelled past on the road.

  Naeris had never expected to see one in person.

  ***

  The Stoph was staring out at the city as she walked up to him. He’d barely stepped off the road, likely just stopping in for a peek as he headed off somewhere else.

  In his hands a haunting blue light flickered between his fingers as he almost absently played with it.

  Fascinating.

  She cleared her throat, loudly, and the cloth man startled visibly, looking down to where she stood.

  The Stopheri gave her an unimpressed look, “ Are you the welcome committee then?”

  She grinned, with fangs on display, “Aye’ suppose I am. Name’s Naeris.”

  The cloth man paused for a while before responding, glancing back at the road before apparently deciding to engage with the tiny Crag, “Laireel Kelioth, he who has been a saviour to the realm in its entirety.”

  The wizard held out a hand and Naeris shook it without hesitation. Stopheri skin was weird, very soft.

  Also, wow, what an introduction if it was true.

  “You got a proper introduction, Naeris?” Laireel asked with a side eyed glance.

  Right, yeah, she always forgot about that, or, well, tried to forget.

  The Crag girl gave an overtly casual shrug, “I ain’t got anything so grand as the saving realm,” she looked away, “but, uh, I’m Naeris Farken… she who has returned the unending avalanche.”

  The wizard gave a surprised snort, “That was you?”

  She huffed irritably, “it’s the only thing I’ve got on my written record.” Being on probation with the Authors for doing magicks as a child wasn’t exactly a positive.

  Laireel grinned brightly, before pausing abruptly in his merriment, “Wait did I hear you say you’re Farken folk? As in-”

  “Farken Family Ales, yes.” She gave him a condescending smirk.

  “Oh great,” the wizard groaned, “I’m going to get in trouble for corrupting a wealthy infant.”

  “Don’t worry,” Naeris waved aside his concern, “They’ll assume I’m the one causing any sorta problem.”

  The wizard raised an eyebrow, “Perks of infamy I assume.” He trailed off, looking down the road, somewhere else that Naeris could not see.

  After a few seconds of silent staring, the Stoph began, again, to gesture strangely with his fingers. She recognized the movements from when she’d first approached. There was magic in the gestures, and as the cloth twisted his fingers a strange blue flame began, once again, to dance across his palm.

  Naeris watched with grim fascination.

  In so many of the stories, it was fire that did it. It ate wizards alive, or it burned towns down to cinders. Yet this flame didn’t seem to burn like regular fire, didn’t even seem to obey the same laws. The Stoph rolled it across his hands like it had weight, even as it passed through his fingers like smoke.

  Abruptly, Laireel clenched his fist and the flame blinked out of existence, causing Naeris to frown in disappointment. She was only left wanting for a moment, with a few more delicate finger movements, the flame was back, rolling across Laireel’s palm. Naeris leant forward, fascinated despite herself.

  Her parents had told her so many terrible, dark, stories of wizards' fae flames, before they decided Naeris fascination with the dark tales was unhealthy. She’d never thought to see one in person. It was…

  “Caught you.” Laireel spoke suddenly, and Naeris jolted back as she realized he was watching her. Tracking the way she’d watched his gestures- watched the magic.

  She flicked her ears back, irritated by the stranger’s smug grin.

  The cloth-man smirked. “I don’t think respectable Crag are supposed to be interested in magic. Especially,” The man was way too happy about this, “baby Crag from well-to do proper folk.”

  Oh no, they definitely were not.

  “S’not a big deal,” Naeris shrugged irritably.

  “Neither is this” The wizard flicked the light on again, and Naeris found her eyes drawn to it instantly. “It’s just a little parlor trick. Something to do while the mind wanders.” Laireel gave a smug, crooked smile,“Now if you’re looking to see some real magic...”

  “I ain’t about to fawn over ya,” Naeris scowled at the cocky wizard, “So you can pull yer’ head out yer’ arse.”

  The cloth man chuckled good naturedly, “Ah, my mistake, you’re not impressed of course.” He cocked his head, “You ran over here, bold as brass talking to a stranger who’s scant stepped out of the night...” Naeris scowled, and Laireel grinned, “Why I’d wager that you’re half magic struck already, and I haven’t even done anything complicated.”

  Naeris scowled, not knowing what magic struck meant, but definitely not liking whatever the elder was implying. It sounded like an insult. It sounded like the sort of thing you said about someone seconds before their hands were branded red.

  Laireel chuckled darkly, “You’re so funny, all you little mundane Crag. Repulsed, fearful, and still so fascinated.”

  He crouched a little, so they were more easily able to see eye to eye, “What do you want, baby Crag?” the wizard’s silver, pupil-less, eyes seemed to swirl as he turned the full force of his undistracted gaze on Naeris. “Are you here to confirm that I’m a monster? Or,” he leant forward, “that I’m not?” His wings rippled with thinly veiled tension. “Are you here to be my saviour little Crag? Don’t believe the stories? Think you’re different?”

  Blue light twisted out of the cloth wizards’ hands, and this time it came from a different gesture, this time the air around it rippled.

  Naeris stared at it, before the question burst out of her, “How’d you learn it?”

  The light blinked out, and Naeris blushed, her skin mottling a dark black, “I mean, erm, did you, uh, learn it? Magic?”

  Laireel frowned, “What?”

  “What, what?” Naeris parrotted, falling back into a more comfortable irritation, “Did you learn magic or not? Were you born with it? What’s the deal?”

  “Oh.” The Stopheri was back to smiling, “Understood.”

  She scowled, “Being cryptic and smug ain’t actually an answer.”

  Laireel turned away, “Apologies baby Crag, but I can’t teach you.”

  Her eyes narrowed, “So it isn’t learned?”

  “I didn’t say that.” He waved a languid hand, “I just can’t teach you.” He looked down at her, “Go find another way to disappoint mother and father.”

  “I’m ain't asking ya’to.” She bared a fang, “I just want to ask a few questions.”

  “Yes, of course, I believe that.” Laireel gazed skyward with a sigh, “Sorry kid, but as far as wizards go, all positions are filled.”

  “Seems like there’s an easy fix for that one...”

  “Oooh, threatening to murder a powerful mage when you’re completely alone with him,” Laireel did a little shoulder shimmy, “love the gumption.”

  She scowled, biting her tongue before spitting out abruptly, “78.”

  “Pardon?”

  “That’s how many there are. It’s always exactly that, there’s 78, always. Thirteen from each recognized major ancestry.”

  “...yes.” The wizard cocked his head, “Where’d you pick up that little tidbit?”

  “Must have read it somewhere.” She lied blithely, “but it doesn’t make sense.”

  Laireel was looking at her with a mixture of wariness and grim amusement, and she continued on with narrowed eyes, “When we tell stories about wizards-”

  “Nasty little tales those.”

  “When we tell stories about wizards it’s always something they chose, and learn, and it’s their own fault when they succumb to madness, it’s deliberate. But how could there only ever be 78 at any time all the time, that doesn’t imply choice, that implies- something, some sort of… a destiny.”

  The wizard snorted, “Does seem a bit suspicious doesn’t it?” He took another drink from his flask, “Can’t say, who knows.”

  Naeris snorted, “Then give me your best guest.”

  Laireel shrugged looking somewhere else, “Magic’s complicated. Works in mysterious ways and all that.”

  “Okay so…” she took a deep breath, “something, say, sealing it in, limiting it to 78 casters, in like, a mystical sort of glyph carving… that wouldn’t be possible then? You wouldn’t know anything about that sort of thing?”

  And now the wizard turned to her, and his joviality was gone, his unthreatening demeanor changed. Suddenly the tinge of his drunkenness seemed wilder, and the constant flitting of his fingers stranger.

  “Tell me little Crag.” and Laireel drew a sharp line across his palm with his thumb, something about the gesture deeply and truly threatening “What are you doing out here, so alone and late at night? Happening upon me just as my steps lead me astray into a city I dare not vist?” There was a heavy pause as the wizard let fire fill his hands, his eyes on hers alien and intense, “Have you found where the old road leads?”

  He was a lot more observant than Ecan, or her parents, anyone she knew besides Nadia really.

  Not that she’d been being particularly careful in their conversation. Still, though.

  Most people didn’t realize that Naeris had walked the road long ago, and they certainly didn’t realize where it had led her.