Galina would have loved it so much. She would think it was magic.

“Impressed?” a voice behind me said softly.

I swiveled around.

Vanya smiled at me from the stairway. Along with the clothes the priestess had brought him, he wore a mink fur ushanka and had a dark brown outercoat folded over his arm.

“It’s amazing,” I said as he walked over. “There’s nothing like this back home. It’s like fire, but it’s in a glass and it doesn’t flicker.”

“Some people are afraid of technology, but I think it’s a beautiful thing,” he said, tracing his fingertips over the lamp’s glass orb. “The nobles have their magic, so the proletariat should have machines.”

I blushed, becoming aware of how close we stood to each other. I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to, trace the fine curve of his cheekbones, or run my fingers through his thick burgundy hair. And his skin would be warm.

“It’s different in other countries,” Vanya said. “In Yezmirny, I’ve heard that nobody outside of the priestly class uses magic. Anyone who shows an affinity for it is cloistered, even nobility. They’re the ones who invented these lights in the first place.”

He went on to explain how despite being a powerful and wealthy kingdom, Yezmirny had so far remained a neutral observer in the civil war. Their wealth of natural resources and diverse climate, ranging from the acrid northern steppes to fertile coastland in the west and vast deserts in the south, had contributed to their prosperity.

Although Yezmirny lacked the same magical might as Kosa, they were renowned for their technological advances, and many of the war machines used by both Otzvuk and Fraktsiya forces were derived directly from Yezmirskiy design. Due to the buffer zone created by the Steppe, past conflicts between Kosa and Yezmirny had been mainly limited to skirmishes along the major trade routes.

“You seem to really admire Yezmirny,” I said, once he had finished telling me about how the latest advances in Yezmirskiy naval steam-engines and their invention of the rigid-framed airship had renewed interest in attempting to cross the Western Sea.

“They have the right idea,” he said. “Technology can be an equalizing force.”

“Is that why you didn’t use your power at the market? Because you thought your gun would be an equalizing force?”

“No. I’ve never used my powers to fight before, and I was afraid that I might hurt innocent people.” He crossed his arms, frowning at the floor. “We’ve been anticipating something like this for a while now, but not with bogatyri. Usually, when tensions flare up, it’s with the other villagers, the ones who aren’t Strannik. Farmers, workers, not trained soldiers or bogatyri. We thought arranging a self-defense squad would be enough. I don’t think anyone expected it to...to be what it was yesterday.”

It took me a moment to fully process his words, and the vague pleasure I’d felt at our closeness vanished into shock. “Are you saying that some of those people were your neighbors?”