The world reversed itself. I was upside down, but everything looked right side up, so I no longer felt upside down.

“This is boring,” said the blue-haired man who had tasted my blood. “I must tell my brother so.”

“I need to ask you something,” I said.

“The flying was fun. But this ballroom is blah. I didn’t come here to feel normal.”

“Do you remember me?”

He squinted at me. “Did I bed you? Was it on Illim Beach where we flew kites until they tangled together and everyone slept in an enormous magic sand castle with little crabbies that pinched our feet until we squeaked but it also felt good?”

“No. When you met me, I was disguised as a Middling.”

“Slumming it, were you?” He grinned. “I see, I see.” But his eyes were still vacant. He didn’t know me, and probably wouldn’t remember me tomorrow morning.

“I asked whether you knew where I could find Lady Sidarine.”

His gaze went over my shoulder. His eyes widened. “That is some good magic. You made her appear! Is she an illusion, or the real thing? May I try your elixir? I want to make people come to me, too. This party is already so old! It needs more floating.”

Sid was just gaining her feet beside me.

“You do know the right people to have a good time,” he said conspiratorially to me. “The foreign lord-lady from the country no one knows! She can stay awake for days. Eat pleasure dust until dawn. Always sweet-talking her way into the sheets. Her list of conquests! As long as my arm!”

“He’s exaggerating,” Sid said to me.

“Did you see her fight with Lord Tibrin? She pulled a knife on him.”

“Dagger,” Sid corrected.

“She killed him dead.”

“A mere scratch,” said Sid. “He’s fine.”

“They say she’s cousin to the Herrani king.”

“That’s not true,” Sid said to me. “This is all gossip.”

“Including the bits about your conquests?” I asked.

“Well, I suppose there are seeds of truth to any rumor.” She saw my face and said, “I’m joking! Mostly. I like pleasing women. What is so wrong with that?”

I turned back to the man, who was excitedly wrapping a blue braid around one finger. “You met me in the night market in the Middling quarter,” I said. “I was dressed as a Middling. For fun. For a break from being so bored and so High.”

He nodded understandingly.

I said, “You tasted my blood.”

“Oh.” He released the braid. It unspun from his fingers. “That was not fun. Not fun at all. Why did you do that to me?” Tears welled in his eyes.

“You did it to me. You insisted. You said you would help me if I gave you three drops of blood.”