“But Sinna must have hunnerds of ’em. They’re so tightly packed I couldn’t even count ’em.”

“She’s been around a while, first as a Forsworn and now here. But yes, her power is beyond our comprehension. But that doesn’t mean we can’t achieve what she has! We just have to work hard and never give up.”

“Lemme git all this straight. The gold leaves show how powerful ye are. An’ Mirac has six an’ ye only have four…”

Jereb’s eyes narrowed. “Mirac has never even used his Ability, so his gold leaves mean little.” There was a defensiveness in his tone. He clearly didn’t like the insinuation that another novice was more powerful than him.

“If he don’ ever use his Ability, then why is he ’ere?” She glanced in the boy’s direction, finding him no longer kicking the stones but staring right at her in a most disconcerting way. She stared right back, fighting the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

“That’s a question for Sinna, but I’d say she must’ve had a good reason to bring him here. She always does. What about you?”

The question drew her attention back to Jereb. “Whut ’bout me?”

“Do you want to try?”

“Try whut? My Ability—”

“Airwalking.”

“Whut are ye goin’ on ’bout?”

“I think you should call it Airwalking. Has a nice ring to it, no?”

It did have a nice ring to it, except for one problem. “I cain’t walk on air. I’ve only stopped myself from fallin’ a coupla times. That’s it.”

Jereb was seemingly nonplussed by her rebuttal. “It’s something to aspire to.”

“I ain’t never gonna do that.”

“Don’t you mean you’re not ever going to do that?” Jereb said with raised eyebrows.

“Did ye unnerstand whut I meant?”

“Well, yes.”

“An’ so did I, so whut’s the arse-lickin’ prollem? I never unnerstood why sum folks need to speak all fancy an’ proper jest to make ’emselves feel like they’re smarter’n ever’one else.”

“That’s…fair,” Jereb said. “And I’m sorry. I guess some things were just drilled into me so deeply its hard to pull them back out.” There was something in his tone—a bit of sadness maybe?—that made Perfidy feel a little bad for coming at him so hard.

“It’s alright, I can unnerstand that, I s’pose. Now do ye really think I’ll be able to…walk…on the air one day?”

“Sure, why not? You just saw what the others can do. You’ve seen what I can do. Once we get you on a daily training regimen as well as help you harvest some power surges, you’ll improve rapidly. You’ll earn your first gold leaf, maybe even two. Then it will get slower, like you’re trudging through mud. But little by little you’ll get there.”

“’Til I’m airwalkin’?” Perfidy couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity of it all. She was never going to walk on air. Never. And yet it was sort of nice thinking for a second that maybe she could.