It had been nearly a year since Rosa and Nana left home. The time they had spent walking and sleeping out in the open had been just enough to get them to Delphinad. It was a very long journey. From a place where snow lay waist-deep in winter to one where something resembling snow might fall once a year: they had crossed half the continent. Both were a year older now. Nana, once like a mischievous attic sprite, had become a slender girl. Rosa’s face was tanned, and her eyes had grown harder.
She had not expected an easy journey. Rosa had never been gentle by nature. Her uncle, who had raised her in place of her absent parents, called her a “beastly child.” He wondered how a girl could be so cold and taciturn. Yet even Rosa had faced more than a few difficulties once she left home. Protecting a little sister who was both willful and pretty had not been easy.
Nevertheless, Rosa had kept moving south without rest. She had lost her way for three days in the Giant’s Forest and nearly had to cut off a frostbitten toe. She had run across the plains of Mea for two days to recover their stolen belongings. Three times they had been caught by bands of robbers, and three times they escaped. Unwanted blood had stained her hands as well. When they encountered the surging Nemi River, she had thought the continent itself was being split in two. After a year like that, Rosa had become as fierce and keen as those who roamed the fir forests. Strangely, she had also developed a peculiar sense of humor she had never possessed back home.
As the night deepened, a pale mist thickened around them. Delphinad lay beside both the mouth of the Nemi River and the sea, and its nights were always wet.
After leaving General Nikephoros’s mansion, where they had caused such a disturbance, they turned onto Helos Avenue and rode for some time. When the fog grew so thick that they could scarcely see ten paces ahead, Tahyang signaled to Gene. Gene nodded and slowed.
The party turned into an alley. Riding in front, Gene stopped before a house with a water jar and dismounted. A single unlit lamp hung between its low roofs. Dim light leaked from within the doorway, but in every respect it looked like an ordinary home. Gene knocked three times and called, “Loben, are you in?”
The door opened without an answer. A woman in her forties bowed and beckoned them quickly inside. They entered, bringing Huka and Gene’s horse with them. The little yard had just enough room to tether one horse. While the woman opened the inner door, Gene tied his horse himself. Tahyang greeted the owner and led Huka inside. The owner showed no surprise, apparently used to him. Rosa and Nana followed.
There were five tables in what looked like a converted sitting room, all empty. As Rosa and Nana sat at one of them, the owner, Loben, looked at Gene and scratched her head.
“The authorities are cracking down tonight, so I closed early.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No, I’m sorry. I’ve used up all the ingredients. There’s nothing I can offer you.”
“That’s fine. We only needed somewhere to sit for a while. Just bring us some water.”
The four sat around the table while Huka wandered about the shop, sniffing here and there. Nana looked the calmest of them all. The other three had fought together and ridden all the way here, but in truth they had barely exchanged a proper conversation. The atmosphere was a little uncomfortable. There was no real reason to toast, congratulating themselves on their efforts felt awkward, and they could not quite ask whether the others were all right. They simply looked blankly at one another until the owner brought four cups of water, which they all emptied in a single swallow.
Presently, Huka came to crouch beside the table. Nana reached out and played with the fur beside his ear. Gene saw and spoke.
“Hey, roommate. Isn’t that a little unfair?”
Gene often called Huka his roommate, remembering when they had all shared a room. It was half a joke, but it also meant that they were not friends. Gene and Tahyang had been friends for almost two years, yet Huka still treated Gene with unmistakable discrimination. To some degree, that was natural, since a Firran and his snowlion were said to be as close as brothers. Still, Gene, who had liked Huka quite a lot from the start, found it a little hurtful. He grumbled.
“He wouldn’t even let me touch him for a whole year.”
“But he does now.”
At Tahyang’s gentle reply, Gene wrinkled his nose. They were close friends, but in truth Tahyang was old enough to be Gene’s father. As a result, Gene sometimes behaved like a younger brother. Having grown up an only son, accustomed to being the object of expectation, Gene found the role rather novel. Tahyang, by contrast, was very used to being an older brother. He was the eldest of five, and when he had lived on the Great Plains, he had been like an eldest brother to his whole tribe.
“I thought he was like that out of loyalty to you. So I gave him some credit. But that wasn’t it at all. Letting a little lady ride him the moment they meet. Lecherous cat.”
Tahyang roared with laughter.
“You’re sulking because he didn’t let you ride.”
“I won’t deny it.”
Then Gene looked away from Nana and toward Rosa. She was lost in thought, turning the empty cup in her hands. Seen that way, she was a woman difficult to approach. Remembering what had happened a little earlier, Gene asked abruptly, “You used magic back there. Are you a mage?”
“Not to a level where I could call myself one.”
Even the people who trained birds to fetch numbered cards in the corners of squares called themselves mages. Delphinad did have more real mages than anywhere else on the continent, but ordinary residents seldom had the chance to see magic. People said mages gathered in Delphinad because of the library, yet even if one went there, there were not many mages to be seen. Only groups of students hoping to become mages someday. So there was no need for someone who could cast even a minor spell to be modest and insist she was not a mage.
Gene did not take it for modesty either. Though they had met only briefly, Rosa seemed to have little connection with that quality.
“You must have studied under a strict teacher.”
For a moment, Rosa looked at a corner of the ceiling, as though considering the past. Then she said, “In some ways.”
“Well, you looked like a mage to me. Pulling a sparrow out from under a carpet is magic too.”
Rosa stared at Gene in bewilderment.
“People like that are mages? In Delphinad? Isn’t this where real mages gather?”
Instead of laughing, Gene merely lifted one corner of his mouth. Outsiders arriving in Delphinad for the first time often had such fantasies. The farther away they came from, the worse it was. Believing traveling braggarts who said that everyone in Delphinad dressed like royalty, never ate barley bread, quoted the classics whenever they opened their mouths, and even perfumed their horses’ hooves was mild enough. Some were astonished to learn that people in Delphinad built houses and plowed fields, while others thought all Delphinad’s inhabitants spent their entire lives studying in the library. Gene himself had held a mistaken idea before coming: the number of books in the Delphinad library.
“Real mages, eh? I’m sure there are some somewhere, but even here they aren’t scattered about everywhere.”
“Have you studied magic?”
At Rosa’s sudden question, Gene shook his head. Rosa nodded.
“Then of course you haven’t seen them. They’re in Ayanad.”
“Aya… what?”
“Ayanad.”
A crease formed between Gene’s brows. He had spent a year and a half roaming Delphinad’s streets and thought he had visited most places. But he had never heard that name. If it was somewhere advanced mages gathered to eat, live, and study, surely it could not be the name of a café no bigger than the palm of his hand?
He also could not understand why he had never heard a native of Delphinad mention such an interesting place. At most, people said, “Even in Delphinad, mages don’t repair your roof,” or, “Mages must all go about in invisible cloaks.” It was not pleasant to admit to an outsider who had just arrived that there was something in Delphinad he did not know.
Noticing Gene’s discomfort, Tahyang spoke.
“I see. But where is this place called Ayanad?”
Rosa looked at Tahyang, then shook her head.
“You don’t know magic either. There’s no use explaining it to someone who isn’t a mage.”
“We don’t mean to go there. We’d simply like to know more about Delphinad, where we live.”
“That isn’t what I mean. There’s no use explaining. If you don’t know magic, you can’t find it.”
“I understand. As I said, we aren’t looking for it. If you don’t want to tell us, that’s fine.”
“That isn’t it. As I also said, there’s no way to explain. To people who don’t know magic, it simply isn’t a place that exists.”
Gene scoffed.
“Oh, I see. All the mages gather in a mysterious place called Ayanad, but they keep their mouths so tightly shut that ordinary people like us never hear so much as a rumor? And the reason is that curious flies buzzing in would be a nuisance. So you have to guard their secret too.”
Rosa tilted her head slightly and looked at Gene with defiance in her eyes.
“Believe that if you want. How would I know whether Ayanad is a secret place? It never occurred to me that you wouldn’t know it. You know I only arrived in Delphinad today, no, yesterday, don’t you? Do you think I’ve seen Ayanad? I only know because someone told me.”
“Look. I’ve met quite a lot of people here, and this is the first I’ve heard of a place like that. Is it easy for anyone to believe it just like that?”
“Oh, really? So you’re saying I dreamed it up last night and am talking in my sleep?”
Gene was no gentle soul, but Rosa, standing up to him, had no ordinary temper either. Their voices were low, yet an edge had crept into their words. Just as Gene was about to reply, Tahyang tapped the table.
“Both of you, that’s enough. Let what we cannot see remain unseen. We don’t even know everything about what we can see yet, do we?”
Gene nodded with a wry smile, but Rosa stared at Tahyang.
“What does that mean? What can you see?”
“All of us. The four of us sitting at one table, sharing this precious water, though we know nothing of one another beyond our names. What do you say? Will you explain who you are, and why you were kidnapped earlier?”
Tahyang was right. Rosa owed them an explanation. After a brief, awkward silence, she spoke.
“I don’t know why I was kidnapped. I’d never met that man Hoan before the tavern earlier. After the library refused us entry, someone introduced him as a man who knew a back way in. He told me a very elaborate set of lies. Then, when the disturbance broke out, he snatched Nana and vanished in an instant. That place where Nana was locked up earlier was some general’s manor, wasn’t it? I’d never even heard his name before. To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on. Is Delphinad usually like this?”
Gene and Tahyang exchanged glances. Gene spoke.
“If you ask whether it’s usual, I can’t exactly deny it. Kidnapping is fairly common.”
Tahyang continued.
“But what happened to you is a little suspicious. Kidnapping is usually part of the slave trade. A man like General Nikephoros doesn’t seem likely to commit a kidnapping in broad daylight merely to make the price of one girl.”
“Do you know anyone at all in Delphinad?” Gene asked.
Rosa shook her head.
“No.”
“No letter of introduction either? You seem to come from the north. Isn’t it rather far to come with no plan? Where are you from?”
“You wouldn’t know it even if I told you. It’s very remote countryside.”
During the brief pause, Gene turned their conversation over in his mind and tilted his head.
“But you say you were refused entry to the library? Even though it’s your first visit?”
“I don’t know why that happened either. They just said my name was on the prohibited list. Perhaps it’s someone with the same name.”
“You said your name was Rosa? Your family name?”
Rosa pursed her lips and hesitated for a moment.
“I’d rather not say.”
Gene understood immediately.
“Rosa isn’t your real name either, is it?”
Without confirming or denying it, Rosa merely gazed steadily at him. Gene returned her look, then smiled bitterly.
“Mine isn’t my real name either, for that matter. Fine. Call yourself whatever you like. More than a few things about today are suspicious. I’m curious about what connection you have with General Nikephoros too. But you seem to have a great deal you want to hide, so there’s no need for me to pry.”
“Thank you.”
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