Chapter 74: The Key to Your Heart

We All Sleep Alone, Cher

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She didn’t trust her anymore. Truth be told, she’d never trusted her in the first place. Aine was dangerous, and Sitkamose had never believed otherwise. The question at the moment was simply what exactly it was that Aine was up to.

Sitkamose hadn’t figured that out yet, though not for lack of trying. She had to give the woman this much, she was trickier than Sitkamose had been expecting. She was a worthy enough opponent, to be fair, if one Sitkamose wished she could skip.

More disturbing was how Ra didn’t seem to be concerned about this. Aine could do just about anything, and still be decent enough in Ra’s eyes, like he wasn’t considering her movements or actions much anymore. That was concerning, because if it turned out that Aine had ulterior motives, Sitkamose wasn’t sure how she was going to convince Ra of that. It was fully possible he wouldn’t believe her, and Sitkamose had no idea what she’d do in that situation.

Sitkamose needed to know if she could depend on him or not. She unfortunately had no allies besides him, and if he wasn’t on her side anymore, she needed to adjust her plans.

She spent some time thinking all of this over before deciding what to do with it. She hoped that she could convince Ra to stay on her side and not suddenly switch to Aine, but it was possible it was too late for that, and she would simply have to make do with what she had. She didn’t like thinking about this. However, if she ignored this too long, it could easily get out of hand and Aine would gain the advantage before Sitkamose was aware she had one.

In situations like this one, it was best not to underestimate your enemy. This was especially true when you were quite aware there were things your enemy was capable of that they had not deigned to share with you. Sitkamose held no love for Aine, but she did have to admit that she was more intelligent than Sitkamose had originally assumed. Aine could become rather dangerous if she chose to. That was why Sitkamose was assuming she already was. It was better to over-prepare than to under-prepare.

Sitkamose made her way down the hallway, towards the room she knew Ra would be in. They had only seen one another a few hours ago, but had not had the opportunity to speak about anything that was important. Sitkamose wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. It was possible that when presented with the subject itself, Ra would react quite badly.

Sitkamose was not interested in getting into a fight with Ra, and if she could keep him from becoming defensive early, she might manage to prevent that.

When she found him, he seemed to be reading something. Sitkamose didn’t really want to interrupt him, but this conversation was more important than whatever Ra was reading. She settled down beside him, leaning over to one side to read the cover of the book in his hand.

“What?” Ra asked.

“We were just curious what you are reading,” Sitkamose said. “We didn’t know you could read in these new languages.”

“I’ve had some practice,” Ra said. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Sitkamose said. “Ra, we need to talk.”

“That’s never a good sign,” Ra said with a laugh in his tone.

Sitkamose looked away. “It’s important,” she said.

Ra put his bookmark into place, and then set the book down on the table. “What’s this about?” he asked.

“Aine,” Sitkamose said. “We don’t trust her.”

Ra laughed. “Neither do I,” he said. “But she is useful for right now, and when she isn’t we’ll deal with it then. Don’t worry so much.”

And it was that attitude that caused Sitkamose’s worry. It seemed perhaps Aine had done something to him, to make him not think about her too hard. He always seemed half aware of what she was doing or where she was at any time.

Sitkamose was insane, and no one ever took the insane one seriously. Half the time, Sitkamose didn’t take herself too seriously, either. But she knew what her gut was telling her, and Sitkamose had never ignored that before.

“Yes, for now,” Sitkamose said. “What about later? We both have different goals and aims than she does. What will happen when our goals and aims do not align to hers?”

“We will go our separate ways,” Ra said. “It won’t be that difficult. Sitkamose, you worry too much.”

“And you do not worry enough,” Sitkamose said. “She is not as benevolent as she seems like she is.”

“What is with this?” Ra asked. “You are the one that trusted her first.”

“No,” Sitkamose said. “We have never trusted her before. We do not intend to start now. But you have already decided that you do. Your trust is misplaced. We are working with her, but we do not trust her.”

“I don’t see how the two are unrelated,” Ra said. “If nothing else, she hasn’t betrayed you by now, there’s no reason to think that she would.”

“When your guard falls is the best time to do it,” Sitkamose said. “Have you ever heard of a false sense of security?”

“Now you sound like Sarnai,” Ra said. “Are you sure she’s as weak as you think she is? It sounds like she might be muddling your mind.”

“She is not,” Sitkamose said. This was as clear as she’d been able to think in quite some time.

“That doesn’t sound very confident,” Ra said.

“Forget it,” Sitkamose said, standing up. “We’re going out.”

“I don’t think going anywhere is a good idea right now,” Ra said.

“And you are not our master,” Sitkamose said with a snarl.

“I might remind you,” Ra said, tone low, “that I am why you are still alive.”

“And we suppose we’re meant to be grateful for that?” Sitkamose asked. Ra had meant well. Sitkamose never questioned that. It was difficult to keep that in mind when being alive right now was such a mixed blessing, when being alive meant being reduced to this scrambling between bodies, snatching at any shred of life she could hold onto for as long as she could.

He meant well. But she wasn’t so sure that she would call what she had now something to be grateful for.

She should’ve died a long time ago.

Ra didn’t say anything. Sitkamose turned away and went out the door and down the stairs. It’d seem that Aine had already gotten to Ra, and Sitkamose was in fact on her own.

It was a good thing she was used to that.

* * *

She wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. Truthfully, it didn’t matter where she went at all, so long as she stayed within range of somewhere safe. It wasn’t as if Sitkamose didn’t know how to make herself disappear when it was necessary. She wasn’t too concerned about it. Instead, she let her feet lead her where they so decided to.

Since she’d apparently already lost Ra, Sitkamose could only depend on herself in this situation. Aine was planning something, and that something was quite eventful, and perhaps had nothing to do with them at all. It was very likely that they’d simply been caught up in her machinations.

It was possible they were simply useful or beneficial to her plans without intending to be so, and that was why she’d chosen to approach them. They needed her help, and she needed theirs.

Sitkamose rubbed her arms as she walked along the pathway. The woman barely saw it, but it didn’t matter where she went. Enough so that she looked up and found herself somewhere around Forgotten Hollow. She shouldn’t get too close to this place. The people here didn’t tend to like her very much.

Heh, she wondered why.

Her path diverged, and she went in a different direction, veering away from the Hollow. Soon enough, she found herself staring at a vaguely familiar house, smoke pouring from the chimney, flickers of light shimmering in the windows. The outside clapboard was a beautiful shade of blue, almost like sapphire. Sitkamose loved that colour. The brick on one side acted as a nice break in the unending sapphire hue.

As Sitkamose stared at the house, she realised this was Sarnai’s sister’s house. Lakshmi had tried to help Sitkamose in the beginning, but Sitkamose had pushed her away, not knowing what else to do. She was alone now, and it was likely her own fault. Everyone else that had tried to help, she’d pushed them away too.

Against her better judgement, Sitkamose wandered up to the porch and sat down. It was warm right there in the window’s light, though Sitkamose could barely feel it. She wondered if this was what eternity would be like, if she lived so long. Did she want to live that long? Maybe not.

She still thought she should’ve stayed dead. Things would’ve turned out much better if she had. Maybe she’d have a different life now. Maybe she wouldn’t have done so many terrible things.

As she sat there, she was vaguely aware of the door opening. Purple eyes flicked back to almost look at the person that opened it, but she didn’t turn her head. Instead, she turned away, going back to watching the leaves swirl about on the stone. Whoever opened the door sat down beside her, and Sitkamose was suddenly aware it was Lakshmi.

Neither said anything for a long moment. Sitkamose broke the silence. “We are sorry.”

“What for?” Lakshmi asked.

“Everything,” Sitkamose said. “Nothing. We don’t know. Maybe because none of this can ever turn out right.”

“What do you mean?” Lakshmi asked.

Sitkamose looked over at her, though she felt more like Sarnai right now than she had in a while. Maybe that was why she came here. It wasn’t like Sitkamose was unaware Sarnai missed her sister, and of course she did. Lakshmi was all Sarnai had left. For all that Surya loved her, he had still left her behind in the end.

It was probably because his sister was in her body. That tended to complicate things a little. What had she done?

“Aine is up to something,” Sitkamose said. “We don’t know what, but it can’t end well. Lakshmi, this won’t end well at all, and we don’t know what the cost will be before it’s over. Be careful.”

“I always figured you didn’t really care what happened to me,” Lakshmi said.

“Of course we do,” Sitkamose said. “Or she does. But I care because she does. These battles are not yours to fight, that’s all.”

“If you are in them,” Lakshmi said, “then they are mine to fight.”

“In a perfect world,” Sitkamose said, “that might be true, but this world is not perfect. It is not.”

Lakshmi frowned. “You will come back, right?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Sitkamose said. “Aine said that if we controlled the All, then maybe we could gain a body of our own and stop needing to jump between bodies. But even when we controlled the All, we didn’t know how to command it. Aine never told us that.”

“You think she didn’t want you to get it to help yourself?” Lakshmi asked. “I don’t just want to help my sister, you know. I want to help you too, whoever you are.”

Sitkamose looked over at Lakshmi, and smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re the first to care about us. But if she loses you, Sarnai won’t be able to keep going. Stay here. Stay safe.”

“What is your name?” Lakshmi asked.

“Sitkamose,” she said. “It means daughter of Kamose. I was born to a farming family that lived along the Nile river many, many years ago. So long ago that they use letters to denote our years.”

Sitkamose stood up, taking a few steps away before stopping again. She looked up at the sky, watched the stars twinkle and shimmer. “But this world is not mine,” she said. “I was not meant to be here. That I am, it feels like it is messing something up. Breaking something, perhaps.”

Lakshmi frowned, standing too. “Maybe,” she said. “I don’t quite understand how the fabric of reality works, or even how life and death work. Spellcasters mess with that a lot, that line between living and dying, so much so that the Grim Reaper doesn’t much like us. Maybe it is possible to break it.”

“Something is out of balance,” Sitkamose said. “Someone must put it right, but we don’t think we can. We are only in the way.”

“No you’re not,” Lakshmi said. “Don’t say that.”

“Thank you,” Sitkamose said, “for caring. It’s been a while since someone has cared.” Sitkamose gave one last smile before turning, and disappearing in a burst of blackness.

* * *

Caleb wasn’t saying anything. Morgyn was afraid to ask what he was thinking.

Instead of asking, or saying anything either, Morgyn simply focused on reading through the menu. If Caleb needed a moment to think about that, Morgyn supposed that the time could be spared. There was a reason they were having this conversation right now, so that if Caleb needed to, he could have some time to think about it.

Most would think that Morgyn still needed to think about it too, and maybe the ginger did. Mostly, Morgyn was trying to focus on the things that were right now. Ezio was getting into something dangerous, and then had gone and gotten himself severely injured. Magic realm was down two sages, and Morgyn was now the only one left. Liberty was still trying to figure out how to use magic, but she was learning a kind of magic that Morgyn didn’t quite understand. Aine was up to something, and apparently had been trying for a very long time to kill Ezio.

Now there was this. Morgyn didn’t know what to do with it. It would just have to wait, or at least that was what Morgyn figured. Given the ginger had told Caleb about it, it was very likely that the two would talk about it at least to some extent. One didn’t generally get something like that dropped in their lap and then not say anything.

Or at least, they didn’t normally, unless your name was Caleb, Morgyn supposed.

The waiter came by. Morgyn looked up long enough to order a drink, just a sparkling juice, and then requested some more time to think about what to eat. There were so many things on the menu, most of which sounded good, but Morgyn was guessing it would be a better idea to go with something easy on the stomach.

Morgyn had spent all last week getting sick off and on, and wasn’t terribly interested in repeating the experience.

Caleb ordered his drink as well, then decided to wait until Morgyn had decided on something before ordering anything else. The waiter went to pass on the drink orders, leaving them in the quiet chatter of the other diners, and the soft melody from the piano.

“Is it mine?” Caleb asked.

Morgyn looked up at him, almost startled at the sound of his voice, and then looked back down at the menu and flipped the page. “I don’t know,” Morgyn said. It was true. Morgyn had no idea. That incident and the first time Morgyn and Caleb were intimate were too close together, and Morgyn had no idea which one had resulted in the pregnancy.

“I see,” Caleb said.

Morgyn fidgeted. Morgyn had never mentioned the incident. It turned out, between everything else going on, Morgyn would much rather pretend it’d never happened. “I wasn’t still…” Morgyn paused, and then the ginger’s head shook. “Ezio had just disappeared, and you weren’t there. I felt the most alone I had ever felt in my entire life. I talked to Aine, I shouldn’t have, and then I made some more bad choices, got a little too drunk and…”

“It’s okay,” Caleb said. “I pieced that together a long time ago.”

Oh. “You’re not mad about that?” Morgyn asked. He had to be.

“No,” Caleb said. “At least, I’m not angry at you.”

“Okay,” Morgyn said.

The two went silent again. Morgyn was afraid of saying anything in general, and Caleb didn’t seem to know what to say.

This was honestly one of the most awkward conversations Morgyn had ever had.

“Are you keeping it?” Caleb asked.

Somehow, that question stung. Morgyn didn’t want to admit it. It was a valid question, anyway, and Morgyn was likely just being touchy. “I don’t know that, either,” Morgyn said, head shaking.

“Okay,” Caleb said. “There’s time to decide, I suppose.”

Maybe there was. Morgyn hadn’t put much thought into that, if only because the sage had only just learned about the pregnancy anyway. Then, there were other things on Morgyn’s mind right now, starting with the strained relationship Morgyn had with Caleb.

“I’m not sure if we can support a baby right now,” Caleb said. “You may want to put some thought to that.”

Morgyn looked down at the table again. “I guess so,” Morgyn said softly. This baby was half Morgyn, too, but it wasn’t as if Morgyn was expecting this particular news to be good news. Caleb didn’t seem terribly excited about the idea of being a father, and that likely shouldn’t have been surprising. Caleb said he wasn’t angry at Morgyn, but the ginger had a hard time believing that.

Considering they’d broken up the last time Morgyn had been screwing around with someone else, and they hadn’t been dating at the time, of course Caleb would be upset about this. He could say he wasn’t, but Morgyn could see that he was.

“Hey,” Caleb said, “no matter what you end up deciding, I’ll stand behind it. I just want to make sure that you’re not making any rash decisions.”

“I’m not making any decisions at all right now,” Morgyn said. “I don’t think I’m in the right mindset to do it.” Morgyn was awfully terrible at making decisions when stressed out. Besides, Morgyn kind of wanted to talk to Ezio first. Maybe it was unfair of the sage to lean on Ezio so much, but there would never be a time when Morgyn didn’t need him, and maybe right now, Morgyn needed him even more than usual.

“We should talk about us,” Caleb said. “Things are a little awkward right now, and I’d like to fix that.”

“I know,” Morgyn said, “but I don’t know what to tell you except that I’m sorry. I’ve said that so many times it sounds more like a reflex than something I mean, and I can’t help that either.”

“Maybe,” Caleb said. “Look, Morgyn, I just want to know that you want to be with me. That you want to build a life together.”

“If I didn’t,” Morgyn said, “why would I be here? I would’ve stayed in magic realm. It feels like you’re the one that doesn’t want to build a life together because you’re the one always changing your mind and suddenly not being sure about us anymore. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not good at this, at dating someone, at being engaged to someone, and I’m not perfect Caleb, I can’t be. I will keep messing up, and if you can’t keep forgiving me when I do, then maybe the problem isn’t me.”

“I never expected you to be,” Caleb said. “I just want you to think about me more often.”

“Okay.” Morgyn’s head nodded slightly, the sage chewing on the ginger’s bottom lip. “I am trying, as much as I can. I guess trying isn’t enough.”

Caleb started to say something, but fell silent as Morgyn stood up, and walked out.

* * *

He’d been up and moving around for a while now, just not with any form of grace. Morgyn stood off to one side, watching Ezio with the bars. He wasn’t very steady on his feet, and put a little more weight on the bars than Morgyn had been hoping for, but he was doing notably better than Morgyn was afraid of all the same.

He took it one step at a time. Ezio paused frequently in his steps to regain his balance, and give his arms a rest from supporting so much of his weight. Morgyn was trying not to worry too much, but it was difficult. Ezio was a very independent person. If he had to rely on someone else’s help too much, well, Morgyn didn’t think that would be a good thing.

As Ezio made his way down the bars, Morgyn followed from the other side, just in case he needed Morgyn’s help. Morgyn didn’t expect him to, but it was better to be present when he didn’t need anyone, than to be missing when he did. That was another reason Morgyn had come back from magic realm. As important as figuring out what Ezio was getting into was, Ezio was more important.

“How long do they think this is going to take you?” Morgyn asked.

“I’ve been doing pretty well so far,” Ezio said. “This is in the hospital, though. Controlled situations usually aren’t much like real-world ones. It’s no telling what this’ll be like at home, especially since we won’t even be going back to Spire.”

“Well, from what I hear,” Morgyn said, “the new house is pretty well equipped with accessibility functionality, things that’ll make your life a bit easier, and hopefully enable you to get around without needing someone too much. It may be easier there than it is here.”

“I guess we’ll find out when we get there,” Ezio said. “How are you doing, anyway?”

“Me?” Morgyn asked. “I’m doing fine.”

“You can say that,” Ezio answered, “but I know you better than that. You’re upset about something. Maybe a few things.”

“Is that really surprising?” Morgyn asked. “You did die on me, you know that, right?”

“Nope,” Ezio said. “I totally missed that.”

“I guess that was kind of silly, wasn’t it,” Morgyn said. “But for the record, you’re not allowed to do that to me again.”

“Just a bit silly, yes,” Ezio said. “So, what’s going on?”

Well, Morgyn had meant to talk to Ezio about this before making any real decisions, anyway. It just seemed like a bad time to dump it in his lap. Of course, this was Ezio, and he wasn’t going to let it go now that he’d noticed it.

Morgyn released a sigh. “It’s just that I realised I was nauseous a lot,” Morgyn said. “After spending half a day fighting the urge to throw up, I decided to figure out what was wrong. And, it turns out, I’m pregnant.”

Ezio paused, looking up at Morgyn with an expression that wasn’t displeased. “That’s good, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I think Caleb’s not quite ready to be a father,” Morgyn said, looking down at the floor.

“Well, he doesn’t have to be,” Ezio said. “You know I’m not going anywhere, and if you need anything, you can always ask me. Are you okay? Have you seen a doctor? You’ve managed to work around it and eat something, right? You are actually eating proper meals?”

“Slow down,” Morgyn said, laughing quietly. “I have managed to eat, at least, but I’ve not seen a doctor yet. There’s too much to worry about with you and your treatments, and getting you home. And I don’t know if we can afford it. I don’t really want to think about it right now, either.”

“Oh Morgyn, honey, you don’t have to worry about me so much,” Ezio said.

“Don’t I?” Morgyn asked. “You’re pretty bad about worrying about yourself, you know.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Ezio said. Then, he started walking again. He was getting the hang of the brace at least. Maybe he wouldn’t need the wheelchair as much as he was afraid of.

Morgyn hated seeing him like this. But, the sage was well aware Morgyn would’ve hated not seeing him at all even more.

“I don’t know if we can handle a baby right now,” Morgyn said, going back to following him. “There’s a lot going on, a lot of expenses we weren’t expecting, and I don’t know how much the house is going to cost.”

“I think we can make it work,” Ezio said. “Provided they let me sit my exams late, I’ll be making a lot of money at work. But it’s up to you. I’m not going to make you do one thing or the other, you know that.”

“I just don’t know what I want,” Morgyn said. “And I don’t know what Caleb wants, either.”

“I don’t think what Caleb wants is very important right now,” Ezio said. “First, you need to decide what you want, so don’t worry about him so much.”

“We’re kind of engaged, Ezio,” Morgyn said. “Of course I’m considering him. He’s stuck with my decisions.”

“Are you engaged? Hard to tell anymore,” Ezio said. “I mean sure, maybe you are, that’s fair. But he can walk away. He’s not stuck with this like you are. This is your baby, that’s coming out of you, not him.”

Well, maybe Ezio had a point. Morgyn sighed. “The first thing he asked me when I told him is if it’s his.”

“Is it possible that it isn’t?” Ezio asked.

Morgyn glanced up at him, then looked back down at the floor. “Yes.”

Ezio sighed, turning to the side. One hand let go of one of the bars, moving to the other bar, and then he reached over it to take Morgyn’s hand.

“Look,” he said, “that just means it’s maybe even more not his business what you do with this. If he wants to help you, that’s fair and he can, but this may not even be his problem.”

Morgyn’s head shook, green eyes blinking back tears. “I don’t want to think about this,” Morgyn said, voice thick. “I’d rather focus on helping you get better. I don’t want to lose you again, Ezio, I can’t.”

“I know,” Ezio said, gently squeezing Morgyn’s hand. “But do you remember, what I told you? I will always be with you, even if you can’t see me anymore. And I’m behind you no matter what you decide to do with this baby. If you want to keep it, I will be right here beside you. If you don’t, I’ll still be right here beside you. There isn’t much you can do to make me turn away from you.”

Morgyn went to say something, but all that came out was a little squeak, and then Morgyn couldn’t fight the tears anymore. Ezio moved and wrapped his arms around the ginger, murmuring that everything would be okay, and for once, Morgyn believed him.

* * *

Ezio was trying not to think about this.

That was easier said than done. He’d been under the impression Morgyn wasn’t working in the same industry as before. Caleb had already gotten upset about that once, and given how upset Morgyn was about them breaking up, Ezio didn’t think Morgyn would do that on purpose.

Which led him to think, this wasn’t on purpose.

Of course, people didn’t view violence against sex workers in the same way as they did others. Some didn’t consider it a bad thing at all, but at minimum, it wasn’t seen as the same thing as grabbing a random person off the street and assaulting them. It seemed people only really cared about that kind of thing when it was someone important, and sex workers were generally not considered important.

Ezio had found that ideology sickening to begin with, but had only found even more hatred for it since learning Morgyn was a sex worker. But, since Morgyn had admitted it was possible the baby wasn’t Caleb’s, and it was unlikely Morgyn had done it on purpose, that meant Caleb had that kind of reaction to…

The idea was for him to calm down, not to get worked up.

“There aren’t many ghosts anymore,” Cassandra said.

“Yeah,” Ezio said, looking up at her. There was a small chessboard sitting in his lap that he was playing with. Cassandra was off to one side, sitting next to Drake.

Ezio should’ve been working on walking again, but he’d fallen and Drake was worried he was going to hurt himself if he pushed it. Ezio thought he was being overly cautious, but then, maybe there was no such thing as too cautious when it came to Ezio of all people.

“I haven’t sensed too many, either,” Ezio said.

“Did they go away?” Cassandra asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ezio said. “Sometimes I get a little flicker of them. They’re out there somewhere. Spirits don’t tend to like hospitals any more than living people do, though. That’s probably the difference.”

“Oh, ah, that’s fair,” Cassandra said.

“You haven’t been walking again today, have you?” Drake asked.

“No,” Ezio said, moving one of the chess pieces. It was basically a pegboard. The chess pieces pulled out and pushed into holes in the board. It was to prevent them from falling off, and it made this set a good travel set.

“Troi came in earlier,” Ezio went on, “and told me to take a break. She’s afraid of me pulling a muscle or something, I think.”

“I told you the concern was warranted,” Drake said.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” Ezio said. “I just said I thought you were being overly cautious.”

“That tends to imply you think I’m being cautious to an unwarranted extent,” Drake said.

“Hmm, not quite,” Ezio said, smiling. “How are you guys?”

“We’re doing okay,” Cassandra said. Drake nodded. “Mostly we’ve been focusing on getting everything moved over from Spire. That way, when you’re released, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“That’s nice,” Ezio said. “They have a such thing as movers now.”

“Yes,” Cassandra said. “That’s why we hired some.”

“Ah,” Ezio said, “well, that works out doesn’t it…”

“Maybe not right now,” Cassie said, “but later, can you teach me some more necromancy?”

“Yeah, sure,” Ezio said. “Sorry, that did just kind of get put on hold, didn’t it?”

“I understand why,” Cassandra said. “And you did still teach me sort of, while you were in a coma. I was just kind of excited to be making some progress.”

“I can see that,” Ezio said.

“Strange question I guess,” Cassie said, “and I know you’re not supposed to, but how easy exactly is it to raise people from the dead?”

“Oh very,” Ezio said. “For something you’re not supposed to do, it is very easy to do it. All you need is the body, really. Technically, you can raise bones, too. I wouldn’t recommend that, but the Omiscan peoples used to and somehow they got decent functionality out of them. If I wanted, I could raise that fish over there.”

As Ezio explained, he gestured at the plate from his dinner. There were fish bones on it.

“Why is it so easy?” Cassandra asked. “You’d think something you weren’t supposed to do would be difficult.”

“Well, living creatures are very fragile,” Ezio said. “They are very easy to break. But they are also quite easy to repair, at least, if you know how.” He moved another chess piece. “Of course, raising someone from the dead isn’t always the wrong thing to do, either, and I’m not entirely sure I’d call raising something from the dead necromancy anyway. The term means death divination. Not exactly what you think of when you hear the word necromancy.”

“That’s weird,” Cassandra said. “Why?”

“Some older cultures didn’t have a concept of magic that wasn’t a kind of divination,” Ezio said. “But if you break the word apart into necro and mancy, you get death and divination. Of course, there’s also the implied meaning of the word divination, that is knowledge, and I believe mancy may also mean ‘by means of.’ But in many ancient cultures, the honoured magician was a seer, blessed with visions from the gods. It was also very common for the honoured seer magician to be the same person as the honored priest. In any case, raising the dead doesn’t manipulate death energy, but imbues life energy, but then we get into the semantics of whether the two are different to begin with-“

“Wait,” Cassie said, frowning, “religion and magic are opposites. Why would the priest and the magician be the same person?”

“Oh, no, my dear,” Ezio said, laughing. “No, they’ve been deeply entwined with one another since the dawn of both. Even in Jacoban traditions, which will be very quick to tell you magic is evil, if you look at their rites, they do magic, simply they don’t call it that. Or at least, a very good mimicry of it.”

“Huh,” Cassandra said. “Magical history is weird.”

Ezio laughed. “Yes,” he said. “Even for us, it sure is.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Drake said, “but I think your little bone friend is moving.”

Ezio looked up. Some of the fish bones had moved themselves across the plate. “Shoot,” Ezio said. “I did not mean to do that. Well I guess you get a crash course in raising a fish.”

Ezio set his chess pegboard aside on the table, then took the plate, and set it in his lap. He raised his hands, gathering the energy and completing the ritual that he’d accidentally begun. The bones pulled together, back into the proper shape, and then began to flop about on the plate.

“Oh shit,” Cassie said, “those can only swim, can’t they?”

“Unfortunately,” Ezio said. “It’s okay, hand me that vase right there.”

Cassandra looked behind her, and then handed Ezio the vase of flowers he’d asked for.

Ezio pulled the flowers out, setting them on the table. Then, he gently got a hold of the flopping bonefish, and dropped it into the vase. There was just enough water in it for it to begin swimming around.

“On the bright side,” Ezio said, “since it is not actually alive, it won’t have trouble living in a small space.

“He says, like he didn’t just raise the fish on accident,” Drake said.

“Hey,” Ezio said, smiling, “nothing like a little hands-on experience, right?”

But he would have to make a note not to do that again.

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