Startled laughs and the sounds of offended drake teams could be heard throughout the room.
‘I mean therealrace. I want a woman to win the big one.’
Flávia was flustered. ‘We wish good luck toallof our competitors. Congratulations again, Tess Curie.’ She pointed the honoree back the way she had come. ‘You may return to your seat now.’
Tess went on her way, her lips still moving. Asta would have given anything to hear what she was saying. When she reached the steps, Tess put a hand on one railing and attempted the stairs, but she couldn’t manage it one-handed. Without hesitating, she chucked her award down to the floor of the ballroom and grabbed the other rail with her now free hand. The award landed with a loud crack. Either the award or the floor had been gravely injured, but Tess did not seem to notice or care.
Asta had not known that she could love Tess Curie any more than she already did, but that did it. She was a goddess.
‘And finally,’ Flávia said, taking a deep breath of relief, ‘a few words from last year’s Standard Western Class champion, a man who has grown from a son of racing to its absolute paragon. Felix Seraphin.’ The cheers for Felix were almost as loud as the cheers for Tess had been, which Asta found ridiculous. She turned to her salad. No one else was eating yet, but she didn’t let that stop her. She grabbed her fork and stabbed a few leaves of lettuce as Felix took his place in front of the room.
‘Thank you, Ms. Gameiro,’ he said. Asta glanced up to see Flávia shaking a finger at him. Felix bowed his head in a show of contrition. ‘She keeps telling me to call her Flávia, but she was always Ms. Gameiro to me and always will be.’ He took her hand and kissed it.
‘Gross,’ Asta muttered to Gem around her mouthful of salad. He gave her a warning look.
Felix looked down at the table where Tess sat. ‘What an honor to take the stage after the incredible Tess Curie. How about another round of applause for a living legend?’
Asta begrudgingly joined in. Tess washerhero, not Felix’s. But she would always clap for that woman, no matter whose idea it was.
‘I will be brief,’ Felix said. ‘I know we’re all eager to dig into this wonderful food.’
Asta shoved a cherry tomato into her mouth and bit defiantly, barely able to contain the jet of seeds that burst from inside. Gem shook his head at her.
‘I want to extend my congratulations to all my fellow riders in this year’s Silverscale Grand Prix– you are the best of the best. No matter what happens this week, remember, everyone here is already a champion.’ Applause and cheers followed this.
Asta held firmly to her fork and glared at the remaining leaves of lettuce on her plate. He could take his pandering and shove it. It was easy enough for him to say they were all champions. He already had a Silverscale trophy sitting on his shelf at home and that prize money in his pocket.
Felix gripped the sides of the podium and looked out over the ballroom. ‘We often talk about the accomplishments that bring us to a day like today– the wins that paved the way. We are proud of those stepping stones. And rightly so. But tonight I want us to reflect on our failures, our setbacks.’
Asta put her fork down. She had the sinking feeling she knew where this speech was going.
‘Several years ago, in a terrible racing accident, I shattered my femur and suffered extensive damage to the tendons and ligaments in my left knee and leg. It wasn’t clear, for a while, if I would ever be able to race again. Hearing that news was the worst moment of my life.’
Gem nudged Asta under the table. ‘You okay?’
Asta set her jaw and nodded curtly. Was he going to stop there, or would he go ahead and tell the entire room that it was her fault? It wasn’t exactly a secret. Everyone from Pillar already knew.
But Felix kept the focus on himself. ‘I’m a Seraphin. And you can bet I didn’t let a little thing like that keep me from my destiny.’ He extended his hands as if to say,And here I am. I made it.
The audience chuckled.
‘That accident changed how I ride. It has changed how I understand myself. I will never forget what happened that day.’
Asta’s heart was pounding. She couldn’t forget either. The ambulance. The fear-stricken faces of her classmates. Her broken heart.
Felix was still talking. ‘Now, you might ask me, “Felix, how do you find a path to victory after a setback like that?” And I’m here to tell you that all it took was a little touch of magic.’
Asta lifted her eyes in surprise. His parents wouldn’t be happy to hear those words come out of his mouth. The Seraphins lumped magicians, illusionists, and enchanters into the category of servicepeople. It wasn’t that the Seraphins didn’t use magical services. Everyone who could afford to did. But a Seraphin would never credit their success to magic.
‘Magic, as I’m sure you know, is the manipulation of perception,’ Felix said. ‘The illusion stimulates the nervous system, creating an image or sensation, which, rather than being a response to an external stimulus, is evoked within the mind of the perceiver by means of magic.’
Asta felt a perverse enjoyment watching perplexed looks cross the faces of the people around her. Finally, people would believe her when she told them what a colossal nerd Felix Seraphin was.
Ever since they were kids, Felix had been this way about magic. He used to work up illusions for their little obstacle courses in the paddock, making the fences look like razor-toothed goblins, the water trenches like lava flows. He even devised magic notepads– a cruder, simpler version of the magic-charged message boards throughout the Seraphins’ house– that he and Asta used to send notes back and forth across the valley between their homes.
He had tried explaining to Asta how the notepads worked once, but she didn’t understand and didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to her was waking up in the morning and finding a message from Felix waiting for her, whether it was a stupid joke, a question about what they were going to do that day, or just a little doodle of the view out his window.
Peter and Sofia Seraphin had never praised Felix for his magic inventions. If anything, they had seemed embarrassed by his enthusiasm for this workman’s trade, always changing the subject whenever he tried to tell them about his latest creation. That might be why Felix usually kept this incredibly dorky part of himself hidden away. Asta wondered how Felix’s parents were reacting to this speech. She thought she could see the backs of their heads at one of the tables up front. Peter held himself rigid and still.
