Janine winced as Evelyn dabbed a syrupy orange substance onto the deep cut in her shoulder with a sponge. “Why do all the healing elixirs sting so much?”

  “Well, when dad makes them, the main ingredient he uses comes from the ‘Stinging Daggerleaf’, so... I guess we’ll never know.” Evelyn chuckled to herself as she coated the entirety of Janine’s wound. “At least the other guy didn’t chop your arm off or anything. I heard that the reattachment spells can be so painful, patients rip their limbs off again for relief.”

  The Passguard-to-be gnced over her shoulder to squint at her grinning cousin and her morbid cims. “Now you’re just making stuff up.”

  In the years after the Py’riel attack, Evelyn had grown from a little rambling gremlin to a taller, more articute gremlin—but unlike her cousin, Evelyn embraced her magical heritage. She didn’t leave the safety of the shop for weeks after the Py’riel came. Denholm’s Magical Outfitters had been one of the only buildings spared from any trace of the Py’riel’s fire while the town outside its windows rebuilt into something new, so I couldn’t bme her for wanting to stay somewhere familiar. During the hours where Tobias tended to the shop and Janine mended buildings around town, Evelyn would flip through the pages of books on spells and supernatural theory—mostly for the illustrations at first—and soaked up facts about all sorts of magics and magicians, reciting her most obscure findings to baffled customers.

  Evelyn filled in for Nadia’s absence at the magic shop, helping her father keep everything running smoothly. When she wasn’t reading Crimson Archer books and trying her hand at actual archery with a bow Janine got her for her birthday a year ago, she studied hard and practiced basic wizardry and potioncraft skills with Tobias.

  “Okay, just one more step.” Evelyn reached into her apron pocket, pulling out a bottle with a clear liquid inside. She poured a few drops onto the orange substance, which began to smoke and bubble in response. Moments ter, the healing elixir dissolved away, revealing a reddish scar as the st remnants of her wound. “Wow, I didn’t think the scar would be so big still. At least it comes with a good story about beating up a bully, you can impress everyone at the Alehorse.”

  Janine lifted her arm up, brushing her opposite hand over the healed skin. “It’s good enough, at least it doesn’t hurt anymore. Thanks, Evie.”

  “No problem, just don’t make a habit of that, okay?” Evelyn said, corking the elixir bottles, walking to a far shelf to restock the remaining liquid. “I used the expensive stuff.”

  “I definitely won’t, trust me. I guess I got a little overconfident today, but I won’t take any more chances around Rufel.” Janine sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, pondering whether to reveal anything more. “Viridian did something again, too.”

  In an instant, Evelyn bolted back to Janine, her eyes wide with excitement. “What did they do? Did they shoot at Rufel with beams of arcana or something?” She looked down at me, grinning wider. “Did you scramble his brains? Turn him into a donkey? Make his shadow fight him?”

  Janine rolled her eyes, but she smiled at the thought of each alternate scenario. “None of those. Rufel’s brain is already scrambled, anyway.” She pinched me between her fingertips, holding me up between the two girls. “It wasn’t something they did to Rufel, they did it to me. It was like... I don’t know. It was like my sword moved itself, I didn’t even know I was defending against him until it happened.”

  “So Viridian can control your sword?” Evelyn said. “Hey Viridian, show us some tricks!”

  Janine sat still, narrowing her eyes at her cousin. I stayed dormant as well, but this time, it was by choice. She seemed to think I’d only caused her sword to move, and it was probably better for her to think that instead of knowing I’d influenced her decisions. Whether this link between us allowed me to compel Janine’s actions or merely suggest them, I had no intention of betraying her trust to appease her cousin. She could easily choose to stop wearing me, and after years of freely roaming the town, I didn’t want to end up back in the magic shop window again.

  Carrying a box with a new shipment of wands, Tobias entered the shop from the back door. He set the box on the counter, before turning to Evelyn. “Falderon’s Conservation Law?”

  Evelyn blinked, her thoughts derailed by the sudden quiz. “Um, which one was that... the mass of a shrinking transfigured object isn’t destroyed, it’s moved to an adjacent supernatural realm and can be used for growing other transfigured objects.”

  “Good,” Tobias said. “And how about the cardinal rule for applying magic seals?”

  “Don’t cast a seal on a surface that has seams or cracks that go beyond the boundaries of the embedded magic, that leaves openings for countermagic to dispel them.”

  Tobias smiled at his daughter. “Full marks, good job. By the time you’re ready for the academy, you’ll be teaching the professors instead of the other way around!” He frowned and stroked his beard when he noticed the scar on Janine’s shoulder. “Oh dear. I thought you said it was a ‘little cut’? That looks far more serious. What in the world are they having you do on those training grounds? Fighting to the death?”

  “The captain doesn’t like that I’m carrying a relic around.” Janine picked up her dark blue tabard, examining the cut in the fabric. “He was just trying to scare me into following his orders like I’m some soldier he’s used to leading, but the Passguards aren’t an army.”

  Tobias grunted as he opened the box, pulling out one of the wands to examine. “I’m not so sure about that these days. I don’t think you’re joining the same organization your father belonged to anymore. Nadia certainly wouldn’t have wanted you to put yourself in harm’s way like this, but I don’t think your dad would have, either.”

  “Well, the Py’riel are still out there, so we’re all still in harm’s way anyway. I didn’t help put the town back together to let it all burn down again.” Janine dug around in the drawers behind the counter, finding a box of needles and thread, its contents untouched ever since the magic shop started to stock magical mending pastes. “And it’s bad enough that the mercenaries make a mess of everything around here, but I really don’t trust them to stick around and fight for Quinn’s Peak if things get bad again.”

  “Then trust the wall to do it’s job, Janine! That’s why it’s there, after all. You don’t have to work here with me and Evelyn, that’s fine, but you’re talented with woodworking, why not the carpentry guild? It’s safer work and you’d be—”

  In a moment of unexpected wisdom, Evelyn pced a hand on Tobias’ shoulder, prompting the old magician to fall silent. “Dad, it’s her choice. It’s been her choice forever, you know that.”

  I’d known for a long time that the Passguards meant something more to Janine than a mere job. After losing so much, Janine wanted to preserve what remained of her family and home, and only the Passguards guaranteed that opportunity. I wanted her to succeed not just for her own happiness, as it meant I’d also get opportunities to redeem myself for my failure to do more in the first Py’riel attack. After this morning’s revetions, it seemed like we had a chance to achieve everything we wanted.

  Tobias sighed and nodded. “Just please, stay safe.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Janine said, pulling a needle through her damaged tabard. “Whatever happens, as long as I’ve got the Viridian Sphere with me, I can handle it.”