And she laughed. Her hand flew to her face as if to trap the laugh before it snuck out into the night. The quality of the air changed. I felt her eyes slide over the planes of my face; I felt a knot form between us. Emboldened by the careless honesty I’d already indulged in, I grinned and I caught her eye. Sorcha placed the pipe in my hand, kissed me on the cheek, and took his leave. Shayat tried and failed to look away from me. I felt…I believe in that moment I felt something like a pure shaper’s instinct, a desire and a will to draw her to me. A confidence that I could. It scared me. I broke the eye contact and lit the pipe.

She watched me draw on the pipe. Smoke curled up and blended with the sparks from the campfire. Shayat sat down next to me. “Can I ask you something personal?”

I nodded. I could feel her looking at me.

“The City, Vilahna. Are you running from the gift?”

Now, there are times when a shock knocks the gift back, just like there are times where a shock forces the gift into play. Her question was so direct, so incredibly personal, that I lost the thread of everyone else’s moods. Suddenly I was very much alone in my own mind. I looked over at her, eyebrows raised. “I don’t know,” I said.

“You don’t know?” She was skeptical. She looked at me like I was leading her into a trap.

“I don’t. Yes? Well, no, I didn’t…the City was different. And Vilahna, it was for training, so no? I wasn’t running from it, not in that sense, I…” I laughed. I felt my face burn, and I laughed again. “I can’t believe you asked that.”

“Well, you don’t have to answer.”

“I want to, though. The way you ask makes me want to answer.” I felt that knot again, and it scared me. I didn’t know what it meant, what it entailed, if I knew something to which she had not yet admitted and might never. I smoked the pipe. I smoked until I was well and truly stoned; I smoked the magic into a deep slumber so I would not be able to eavesdrop. “It’s late,” I said. “We should sleep.”

“I don’t sleep well out here,” Shayat said. “The drain.”

“This is a terrible place.”