Cadence turned a page and had to blink to clear the grit out of her eyes.

  It had been two weeks since Allana’s plan and Shawe’s arrest, and in that time, Correntry had finally run out of experience to offer Cadence’s gift of the wanderer.

  [Gift of the Wanderer]

  Level: Novice

  Experience: 93%

  She didn’t sweat it too much, though. By all indications, they’d likely be moving on soon, and it wouldn’t take too much more activity to get her over the edge into Apprentice level at last. It did leave her a bit out of things to do for the moment, though.

  As Allana couldn’t continue the robberies she had been using for training thus far without the risk of getting caught up in the ongoing investigations, she had begun spending her days with Adeline and Olivia whenever she could, taking part in their freelance monster clearing for the Warden's Office. The work was easy, with only minor monsters and the occasional lesser, but even if it wasn’t much experience, Allana seemed to enjoy the work, and it gave the two most offensively-oriented members of the group the chance to work on their tactics together.

  Cadence had been invited, of course, but had decided against joining them. With the ranks of their usual targets, three of them would cut down the monsters far too quickly for them to work on their tactics, and Cadence had little need to practice with Olivia and Allana’s gifts anymore.

  Instead, she had started spending more time with Tenebres, relaxing in his study room while he worked and approaching her own studies with an eclectic energy that Tenebres seemed amused by. While the mage would spend hours or even days reading a thick tome cover-to-cover, Cadence picked through books more or less at random as her interest suited her. So, by the time a couple weeks had passed, Cadence still didn’t have anything close to Tenebres’s knowledge of magical workings–but she had expanded her knowledge on a smattering of different subjects, from history to geography to culture, building on the lessons Storyteller had begun months before.

  Cadence was about to open her mouth to tell Tenebres she had reached her limit for the night when she heard a dull thud, followed by an exclamation.

  “I did it!” Tenebres gasped.

  Cadence arched an eyebrow and turned to face the boy’s worktable.

  Once he saw her looking, Tenebres smiled proudly and swung his mallet at the dangling disc of copper. Cadence winced–but instead of the expected loud, echoing clang the instrument usually made, there was merely that same soft thud.

  Cadence blinked, and Tenebres’s smile got wider. “I’ve been stuck on that for weeks,” he said in a satisfied tone. Cadence had watched him work on the instrument with interest her first couple days, but had quickly come to the conclusion that her broad magical knowledge was completely insufficient to understand what he was trying to do.

  “And now… Yes!!!” Tenebres’s crimson eyes spaced out, and Cadence smiled. The boy was clearly reading a notification–he had finally reached Apprentice with his gift of the evoker.

  #

  “To Tenebres!”

  Everyone raised their glasses at Adeline’s toast. The knight herself had bought a bottle of blisswine in celebration, the deep red alcohol tinged by an odd shimmering blue hue, and she was sharing the potent drink with Tenebres and Olivia. Cadence had taken a delicate taste, found it far too overpowering, and ordered a mead instead (Tenebres had insisted she had to drink something besides her usual cider). Allana hadn’t even bothered trying it, just immediately ordering a glass of dull green liquor that made Cadence think of tarnished copper instead.

  “Don’t rest on these laurels,” Adeline cautioned them. “You should all be closing in on full Apprentice level at this point.”

  Cadence nodded. “I’m so close, I can taste it,” she said, sticking out her tongue briefly. “One more trip to somewhere new should do it.”

  “Me too,” Olivia claimed.

  “You haven’t even gotten one Apprentice gift yet, Oli,” Allana pointed out with a smirk.

  “But I’m close on both, and winter is almost here!”

  That was true. The Grime and Glory had begun lighting their evening fire and earlier and earlier of late, and with the second month of autumn half gone, everyone expected winter to bring its first frost any day. Already, the trips Adeline had led outside of the city had made clear that the swelling magic of the season was making more monsters, but winter would only increase that tide.

  Cadence frowned, her thoughts turning to Felisen. Her mother and the other hunters would be preparing even now for the long, dangerous cold season. Every year, at least one hunter would be badly hurt, or even killed, by the dangerous frost monsters that were born in the heart of the vicious blizzards common to the heartlands. Cadence could only hope that the time Storyteller had spent in the village had better armed them to get through the coming months, even without Cadence there. Even so, the thought left the celestial far more somber than usual.

  “First blizzard that blows through should make something strong enough to get both of my gifts over the line,” Olivia was busy claiming.

  “Or to get you killed,” Adeline pointed out, a sly smile dancing in her eyes.

  “My other gift needs the same,” Tenebres said. “It’s not enough to invoke my imps–I need to give them something to do. That scene at the market was the only experience I’ve gotten since we got here.”

  Allana and Olivia nodded, and Cadence belatedly joined in, trying to turn her mind from thoughts of snow-coated forests and the things that stalked through them. “Any idea what we’ll be doing for the winter?” Cadence asked Adeline.

  “Valley Hearth, right?” Olivia guessed. “It has to be!”

  “What happened to not trying to pick more fights with hags?” Tenebres interjected.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Adeline lifted a hand to interrupt both of them. “I received word from one of the other adventurers I’ve been waiting on. They’re close. By the end of the week, everyone should be here, and we can start planning our next steps.”

  The four young adventurers traded looks of mingled excitement and anxiety, each no doubt caught up in their own flurry of emotions as they considered going back into the field for the first time since the fight with Hellesa.

  “And on that note,” Adeline announced, “I will leave you to plot and discuss and enjoy the fruits of my kindness.” The knight touched the side of the wine bottle in explanation.

  “Where are you off too?” Olivia asked suspiciously.

  “Fancy knight-gallant things,” Adeline claimed with a haughty superiority that completely failed to smooth away any suspicion.

  “Sooo, a date,” Allana said.

  “I never said that. I just said that I had to go.” Adeline winked at the group and stood, slipping away without another word.

  Cadence watched her go–and watched the path she took on the way out. Adeline slipped out the door, and Cadence nodded, turning back to the table.

  Unsurprisingly, Olivia had slipped into a morose expression, angsting down at her wine glass.

  “I was kidding, Oli,” Allana tried to reassure her. “I’m sure it’s not a date.”

  “It’s not,” Cadence said with certainty. Tenebres arched an eyebrow, and Olivia looked up, surprised. “She was avoiding looking at this couple in one corner all night. They got up and left a minute ago–and then Adeline made her excuses to leave, through the same door.”

  “A couple?” Olivia asked.

  “I’ll bet gold they were some of those other adventurers we’ve been waiting on.”

  Olivia watched Cadence through narrowed green eyes, and the celestial just bobbed her eyebrows in return.

  The squire snorted a small huff of laughter, and some of her morose air disappeared as she took another sip of wine.

  “Rogue, you’re predictable,” Allana observed dryly.

  “Look who’s talking,” Olivia shot back. “Piss off any more of the most powerful men in the city today?”

  After a moment, Caden interrupted their friendly bickering. “Are you still good to go to that alchemist tomorrow, Oli?”

  The eclipsed squire flashed Caden a nervous look, and both Allana and Tenebres showed their curiosity.

  “Alchemist?” Tenebres echoed. “What for?”

  “I… Well,” Olivia flushed an incandescent red. “Before we left Jellis, Farris told me about a few alchemists in the city who help eclipsed people with their transformations. I guess that’s how she did it. And Caden said he found one during his walk the other day so…”

  “So we’re gonna go check it out,” Caden finished for Olivia, putting a reassuring hand on the squire’s shoulder.

  Allana turned to Tenebres, who immediately nodded. “Okay,” the wraith girl said, “we’re in too, then.”

  Olivia flushed even brighter. “N-no, you really don’t need to–”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Tenebres said, giving the girl a reassuring smile. “We’re your friends. Of course we’re coming for something like this.”

  “Have you told Adeline yet?” Caden asked.

  Olivia shook her head, still practically radiating embarrassment. “No. I kinda… I don’t know, I wanted to surprise her.”

  The rest of the group nodded understanding. All three of them had quickly come to the conclusion that Olivia carried a torch approximately the size of a bonfire for her mentor, even if it was one way, and Caden didn’t need to dig any deeper to understand why Oli wouldn’t want Adeline to come on such an already intimidating trip.

  “Okay,” Allana decided. “Another round, then! On me! To celebrate!”

  Olivia tried to lift a hand. “Please, that’s really not necessary–”

  “Oli,” Caden asked softly, “do you really want to just spend the whole night worrying about tomorrow?”

  The squire hesitated–then lowered her hand. “Okay, fine. Just one more round though!”

  #

  As Alyssia had promised on that moonlit night months before, after a lifetime of feeling different, Cadence had found many more people like herself amongst Correntry’s populace. Eclipsed, like Oli, who identified as a different gender than the one they were given at birth, and who embodied those differing identities in myriad ways, weren’t hard to find, even if they were a minority even smaller than wraiths in the trade city. Celestials were only slightly less common.

  In the half dozen weeks since she had arrived in Correntry, Cadence had met what felt like a score of different celestials, all of whom found different ways to present themselves and their identity. Some, like Cadence, were fluid and mercurial, their gender shifting by the day or the week or even the hour. Others refused to wholly identify with either the sun nor the moon for any length of time, using neutral words to refer to themselves. Yet others had disregarded the sun and moon dichotomy altogether and came up with xir own words for xemselves.

  It was from those fellow celestials and eclipsed that Cadence learned about transitional alchemists, those few artisans who specialized in making elixirs to help those who refused the gender assigned to them to have bodies that better matched their souls. Olivia had, apparently, been told about them by Farris weeks before, but, in typical Oli fashion, had spent the time angsting over what to do with the information until Cadence approached her about it.

  So finally, they were on their way to Correntry’s most well-regarded transitional alchemist, despite the late start their mutual hangovers had enforced.

  “I’m pretty sure I said one round,” Oli moaned. “I remember that quite specifically.”

  “I know,” Allana said sympathetically, “but you’ve clearly forgotten the three additional times you decided on ‘just one more.’”

  “Why aren’t the rest of you this dead?” Olivia asked.

  “I Surged my resilience to get through it,” Cadence explained.

  “I actually stopped drinking after the second round,” Tenebres replied.

  “I’m not a whiner,” Allana answered.

  “I hate all of you.”

  While they walked, Cadence studied her eclipsed friend thoughtfully. She shared some of Olivia’s anxiety, and hoped dearly that this visit would go well for her.

  In the time since Olivia had returned to Correntry, now at least slightly more open with her identity around those close to her (even if she was reluctant to reveal it to strangers or the wardens she worked with), the squire had changed a little bit. She was still tall, still strong, still had the strong noble features of a knight in a painting, with a chiseled chin, a proud nose, and intense eyes. But something in her bearing had changed, something in the way she held herself. And, if nothing else, she had kept growing her hair out, her wavy brown tresses now curling around her shoulders.

  Still, Cadence couldn’t blame the squire for wanting some assistance on a full transition before she’d be comfortable being open with her gender. As Oli had pointed out on one of their first nights traveling together, Cadence was lucky in many ways, with her body not leaning particularly solar or lunar. It was easy enough to add an extra layer or two to mute what little curves she had, or to adjust the ties on her outfit when she wanted to be more feminine. While powerfully built women were far from unheard of–even Allana was far more muscular than the norm–Olivia’s towering frame was lunar enough that there was no easy way for her to hide her assigned gender.

  “That’s the place,” Cadence said, pointing at a nearby storefront. A sign overhead named it Robin’s Apothecary, with a painted image of an overlaid crescent moon and sunburst making their specialty clear.

  “Are you ready?” Tenebres asked Oli. For once, Allana resisted making a jibe, just giving the squire a reassuring look.

  “Ready as I’m going to be,” Olivia said. Cadence decided not to comment on the fact that she had sounded more prepared to fight Hellesa than to do this, and instead just stood by her friend, waiting for her to take the first step.