“I’m proud of you,” I said, wrapping an arm around her once more. My gaze wandered over the titles on the shelves. “I thought you were going to get rid of all these, Mama.”
“Well, after I pulled out his journal for you, I also tucked away some for myself, for Kelara, and eventually… none left the house.”
I laughed. “So I see.”
“But ever since you performed that water magic at dinner, I’ve been scavenging more textbooks for you. I’ve asked around, and Master Carter’s expressed interest in tutoring you for a reduced price, since he’s been a customer of mine for so long.”
“I suppose he wants a discount on potion ingredients?”
She smiled. “Herbalists are a mage’s best friend.”
We chuckled together, and I let my fingers run along the spines Papa had left behind, considered important enough to keep and pass on. Although his body was in the ground, his spirit lingeredhere, in our memories and in our hearts as we reminisced about his impact on our lives, his genes in our appearances, his knowledge in our minds.
And I knew: he would be proud of us all indeed.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Thank you,” I said with a curtsey. The small crowd in front of Master Carter’s mage tower burst into applause. Snow lay beneath our feet, our breaths fine mist blowing away in the harsh wind.
Despite the cold, heat crept up my neck. I had never expected to reach this point, to be standing before an audience who watched my every move with rapt attention.
The fire dragon in the air above us, a feat of fog and illumined air magic, drifted higher into the sky, breaking apart and joining the clouds that stayed stagnant above. The crowd craned their necks, whistles and applause filling the air. Children screamed and squealed.
I beamed.
Tossed coins clinked into the bucket I’d set beside me.
“Happy birthday,” I said, bending down to shake the hand of a young boy with brand new black robes. It was only a costume—the mayor’s family hadn’t a drop of magic in their blood. “How lucky for you to be born at Snowfest.”
His grin was absent a tooth. “I want to be a master when I grow up.”
I shrugged. “You never know what can happen. Believing is halfthe battle.”
He moved to examine my cauldron, now steaming a purple smoke into the wintry air. Others shook my hand and offered compliments before dispersing, leaving me all alone with Master Carter’s proud stare.
“You’ve grown impeccably, Lyra,” he told me.
“Thank you, Master,” I responded, picking up the bucket which was certain to cover my expenses for a few more weeks.
“I’m running out of things to teach you.”
“NowthatI don’t believe.”
He smirked.
“Any letter yet?” I asked, hope tinging my voice.
He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.”
A few months after Master Carter took me on, I confided in him about my premonitions, and about my family’s fortune-teller history. It was a skill he was unfamiliar with beyond the rare scam artist, but after my insistence, he vowed to write to colleagues in Junira about my case.
They’d responded with a promise to look into local cases and historical records to search for similar mage giftings, but after months of no reply, my optimism was starting to fade.
Perhaps it was all a fluke. But even if it was, no one could deny my propensity for magery. It made me question how far Papa would’ve been able to go if he too received proper training instead of rushing into blacksmithing, like his father before him. He’d been desperate to support a family from the tidal wave of poverty that surrounded us.
He’d always told me to reach for the stars. That to make change, you don’t have to overhaul the system. You just have to push it further and further. And eventually, justice will build like a summerstorm, its thunder echoing across the land.
As much as I wanted to believe I was breaking the chain, the truth was more complicated. Papa had pushed beyond barriers of his own and set me on the path to where I was. Without him, I wouldn’t be here, performing impossible feats for others. Perhaps his father had done the same, and my great grandmother before him. Perhaps that was why my ancestors had moved from the Wild Lands in the first place: in hopes of a better life for their children.
