Unfortunately, Fenris wasn’t available to tutor me in Loranian in the afternoon—he had an appointment somewhere. So I found myself in my rooms, studying my primer and getting bored out of my mind that I wasn’t doing any actual spellcraft.

“Screw this,” I said, closing the book and tossing it onto my side table. I wanted to practice some magic! Closing my eyes, I tried to recall some of the spells I’d recently seen, figuring if I could remember the Words well enough, I could recreate them.

The image of a glowing ether pigeon popped into my head, and I opened my eyes with a grin. That was perfect. I’d seen both Elnos and Iannis use magic to create the glowing magical birds that could be used to send messages. They seemed really useful and fun, and I wanted to try my hand at making one.

Grabbing a piece of paper and pen, I sat cross-legged for a moment and tried to recall the exact Words. I checked them against the primer, but unfortunately, at least half of the incantation’s Words weren’t in there, so I had to guess at those as best I could. Oh well, if I didn’t get the spell right, then it just wouldn’t work. It wasn’t like I would blow up the Palace.

Would I?

“Whatever,” I grumbled, scanning the Words again. Iannis had safeguards set up around the Palace to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Besides, I was ninety-nine point nine percent certain that I had the incantation right.

Taking a deep breath, I focused in on the glowing ball of energy in my center that was the source of my magic. Since Iannis had taken the seal off it completely—a seal I now knew had been set by Ballos, not my father—it was much bigger, and I had to be careful not to draw too much too fast.

Once I was certain I had a good hold on it, I held up a palm and spoke the incantation.

Wisps of magic floated up from my palm, twisting together to form a glowing blue ball. The ball rose higher and higher into the air as it slowly shaped itself into a bird, and I grinned. Yes, it was slower than the other times I’d seen the spell performed, but it was working! My grin faded as the shape kept changing, the feathers growing longer, the beak becoming much bigger and more hooked than that of a pigeon…

“Oh shit,” I breathed as it fully formed into not a pigeon, but a parrot. An honest-to-Magorah fucking parrot.