“Sorry, I’m just… trying… to…,” she says between grunts as she shoves two ends together, “get this thing to work.”

I flip, searching, reading for anything on restoring spells. I turn another few pages and drown out the sounds of chatter, the burning stares I know I’m getting, and focus on the words on the page.

“Come on, help me. There’s bound to be something in here about restoring magic.”

Skepticism twists her brows.

“Listen, I know…”

Bang! A blade slaps a table and heads turn in that direction.

“Mordit’z aka,” a man shouts, the body of the fallen Macazi hanging over his shoulder. The burial. I’d almost forgotten. Fists pound the table and a few hands go up. Bri and I glance at each other.

“What’s going on?” she whispers to me.

“I don’t know,” I admit, and bite my lip in shame, the thought that I should know needling at me.

“Mordit’z aka!”

“Innocence slain,” everyone answers in unison. A few more hands go up, including Zora’s, but Kai sits back in her seat.

They’re volunteering for something… but what?

“Mordit’z aka,” he shouts once more, with a growl under his voice this time, and I spot Jhamal nodding in my direction, gesturing for me to raise my hand. The burial.

“They’re volunteering to help with the burial, I bet,” I say to Bri, my hand shooting in the air. It’s my fault we even have a man to bury. I have to help. What kind of Ghizoni would I be if I didn’t? The spell can wait a moment longer.

I shoot my arm in the air, hoping I’m not too late to help. “Innocence slain!” Please let me help, I want to say, but no one else is talking. There are silent hands only, and I want to respect the tradition if that’s what it is.

“Rue, this book is a bust too.” Bri folds it closed.

“I need a minute. I have to do this with them.”

“You do?”

“Yes, I just have to. I can’t explain it.”

“Keshkech m’bwan!” The Beerchi counts the eleven hands raised. “Ya ya lo nizka. Na lo’misha!” He pounds his staff made of jpango on the ground. “Mordit’z aka!”

“Innocence slain!”

One last hand goes up and he seems satisfied.

“The burial will begin in ten minutes,” he says before departing through the doorway. Those with raised hands rush to the door.

“Listen,” I say, turning to Bri. “While we’re doing the burial, can you flip through the rest of these books and see if they have anything at all about restoring magic? There has to be a way written down somewhere.”

“Sure, I’ll look. But I’ve read tons and there’s not much on it.”

“Bri, you don’t know everything, remember.”

She blushes. “Yes, sorry.”

“There are books here you’ve never seen.”