The milky purple wine crested softly with every swirl of his cup, counting down the last minutes alongside the glaring red timer. Did he pick the color? Was the ability choosing it? The timer ticked without sound, but Elias supplied it on his own, the hand of the analogue clock, clown-faced and grinning above the classroom door, children who could read time eyeing its ponderous movement.

  “It’s not your fault.” Derek held a steaming mug of—something—Gareth dug out from a chest in the basement. One of the rooms off-limits to everyone else.

  Elias grunted.

  “It’s fun even if it doesn’t play music.” Forest struggled with one of the final prototypes, brow furrowed and delicate fingertips spinning the cube’s sections, like lightning. Like lightning. Directionless. “Even if you’re troubled by this skill issue, knowledge is never lost.”

  Less than one minute. Was it getting bigger?

  “Knowledge wasn’t even that important. Application. Application carried the day.” Derek thumped his mug against the table, the murky liquid spilling over his hand. He muffled a curse and blew on his hand.

  “You’re right.” Elias sighed and drew mana into tightening threads of array lines. Heat, energy, binding; he flipped through them while his other hand—blissfully free of cuts—balled into a fist.

  “I still get 10 percent. I may even allow you to sample some of my basement stock.” Forest was entitled to more as per the rules of the guild, but she seemed content with just hanging around. With Derek. Elias was still running errands for the inn, managing inventory and avoiding her shadowy, cloaked ‘associates’ appearing every evening just before closing. He’d suggested moving in with Derek, but she’d been reluctant, happier to have him sit under the Enforcer’s banner every evening and tell stories or toss him around the courtyard during the day.

  His eighth mana ring was almost solid.

  “You have wine better than this?” Elias was enjoying the smooth, velvety drink. The local wines were smoother than in Ward’s memories, and Varen had been too young to truly appreciate the heat. Elias offered an apology to Varen’s mother, but even with the averages of his ages he was 27, well beyond the 21 she ensured her children followed.

  By fist if necessary.

  Three.

  “If it’s a lobotomy, catch what gets lost.” Elias tried to grin. His lips felt dry.

  Derek snickered, but his fingers twitched with mana.

  Two.

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  “Make sure my notes are safe. In the same order.”

  One.

  “You won’t forget your notes.” Forest said, eyes squinting as a weight built in the room. His chest tightened sharply, like the time Annalise barreled into his gut at high speed and left him winded for half a day.

  Mana threads froze.

  Collapsed silently.

  Hollow. There was a cut—arrays were—arrays, a faint hint of thought skittered in the corner of his mind; grass—grass remained.

  The roots were gone.

  Elias sucked in a deep breath, hand falling to his side.

  An empty bookcase. Zero. In blue?

  It flickered. Spun, winding up, numbers rotating in his mind.

  10 days.

  “Oh.” Elias’ breath rattled, sharpening as he felt the bookcase bleed information. “I have to wait.”

  “You alright?” Derek was watching him carefully. Forest was staring at the sky, fingers resting on her necklace, the pendant dancing in the sunlight.

  “Yes,” Elias swallowed. “I am. I mean, I understand more. A bit. Another 10 days and then I can do it again.”

  “Memorize?” Derek handed him a cube. They’d planned the ideal testing routine.

  Elias frowned, instinct forcing him to send mana into the device, probing the threads. “Yes. It’s sort of there. Inaccessible. Here, I can’t tell what it means. I know the threads; this one’s for binding, I think.”

  They moved through the tests, Forest puzzled by their behavior. She opened her mouth once, when Elias looked up, but paused at something in his eyes. Elias shrugged, unsure how to explain. She excused herself. To guests. From her own courtyard. As always, a strange, if striking woman. If only Derek would notice her.

  “Close to a lobotomy after all.” Derek huffed, and they brought their heads together to review the results. “A lobotomy with a cooldown while the brain goo fuses back.”

  Elias winced at the image. “I do feel I’m picking it up faster, though.”

  “Probably. This is almost as bad as mine.”

  “Yours?”

  Derek shifted his eyes away. He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m trying to hide it, but I’m broke.”

  Elias blinked. “You need money for your skill?”

  “Plenty. It disassembles stuff. Into its raw materials.”

  “Sounds useful.” 9 days, the timer ticked in the corner of his mind.

  “If only. When we sell the cubes I’ll show you.”

  “Pinky promise.”

  Derek shoved him in the shoulder. Hard.

  Elias rose from the ground as Forest bounded back in, a slight flush on her cheeks. He brushed the dirt from his robes, angling a kick at Derek, avoided neatly with a slight shuffle on his chair.

  “I don’t quite get your talk of skills. Or why you trusted me.” Forest dropped her gaze, foot digging into the earth. All she needed was pigtails to complete the image.

  Elias raised an eyebrow at Derek.

  Why had they told her?

  “It’s nothing. You’ve given us a place to experiment.” He nudged Derek.

  “Away from the authorities. Elias draws them like flies to crap.” Derek smiled.

  “Not that we needed to hide from the authorities.” Elias interjected smoothly. “We’re not doing anything wrong. Or dangerous.”

  “You’re both far from home.” She said carefully. It wasn’t much of a secret. “And you’re also that age, where you need comfort. So here. I got it from a friend.”

  Elias took the book, leather-bound with no title, small and compact enough to fit in a robe’s pocket or sleeve. The inner vellum was inscribed in a faint silver leaf:

  ‘Thunder and Waves Volume 2: Anna’s Salty Sea Adventure.’

  There was an illustration on the first page. The pose was excellent, draped across a rocky shore with burly seamen standing guard.

  “Anna really knows how to dress for the ocean.” Elias commented drily, a dry heat in his heart. He handed the book to Derek. “Thank you for this thoughtful gesture.”

  “No way! Volume 2 is out. It’s even a signed copy.”

  Forest’s eyes shone brighter.