“I will be leaving in the early morning, but if you are here on my return we will perform the ritual then. In the meantime, be well.” She rose, then touched her heart, mouth and forehead. Leiard returned the gesture, and saw in the corner of his eye Jayim hastily following suit.

As Olameer left the room Leiard rose and looked expectantly at Jayim.

“What does your friend do for a living?”

The boy glanced up, then stood. “His father is a tailor, so he’s learning to be one too.”

“Will his family protest if I come to their house?”

Jayim hesitated, obviously considering this opportunity to be rid of Leiard, then shook his head.

“No. They won’t mind. My teacher helped them since Vin was a baby. That’s how I met him. I’ll just get my bag.”

Leiard waited as Jayim fetched a small bag from his room. Once outside, the boy set a rapid pace. The street was dark and quiet. The windows of the houses on either side were bright squares of light and Leiard could hear the sound of voices and movement inside.

“Why did you decide to become a Dreamweaver, Jayim?” Leiard asked quietly.

Jayim glanced at him, but it was too dark to read his expression.

“I don’t know. I liked Calem, my teacher. He made it sound so noble. I’d be helping people in ways the Circlians never can. And I hated the Circlians.”

“You no longer hate them, then?”

“I do, but…”

“But?”

“Not like I did then.”

“What has changed, do you think?”

Jayim sighed. “I don’t know.”

Sensing that the boy was thinking hard, Leiard remained silent. They turned into a narrower street.

“Maybe it isn’t all the Circlians I hate. Maybe it’s just a few of them.”

“Hate for a person is different than hate for a group of people. Usually it is harder to hate a group of people once you have realized you like an individual from that group.”

“Like Auraya?”

Leiard felt a strange thrill at the name. He had met with Auraya twice since her initial visit. They had talked of people they both knew in the village, and of events that had happened since she had left. She had told stories of her time as an initiate and then as a priestess. At one point she had admitted she was still surprised that the gods had chosen her. “I didn’t always agree with my fellow Circlians,” she had said. “I guess that’s your fault. If I had grown up in Jarime I’d probably have turned out as narrow-minded as everyone else.”

“Yes,” he said. “Auraya is different.”

“But it’s the other way around for me,” Jayim continued. “I can see now that I don’t hate all Circlians just because some of them are bad.”