“Gotta admit, I’m looking forward to when she does return,” Furt said. “We saw her go west in that weird rainbow thing.”
“Huh? ‘Weird rainbow thing’?”
“Well, we were curious. We wanted to know what Lady Rozemyne was gonna do next, so we moored at a nearby city and spoke to some of the farmers there. They told us she was staying in a huge rainbow house.” He pointed, so I turned to look with a mouthful of cooked fish. “It was twice the size of that granary over there but had the head and tail of a feybeast. A creation of the gods, if ever I’ve seen one. Though it was pretty weird.”
A rainbow granary with an animal head...? That just doesn’t make sense.
“And get this—it flew.”
“Furt, are ya losin’ it?” I asked. “I get that you wanna make it sound cool, but enough already. Somethin’ that big could never leave the ground.”
“I’m being serious! You’re gonna eat your words when she comes back this way.”
“Yeah, whatever. Sure hope we see her again soon.”
We were trying to calm Furt when we heard some banging. Someone—from the soldiery or maybe one of the guilds—must have had an announcement to make. It usually meant the nobles had made some kind of unreasonable demand. Last time, it was a message to the fishermen telling us to leave the port before the foreigners arrived. It hadn’t even been the usual trade period.
“What’s goin’ on?” I wondered. “Lady Rozemyne’s still up north, ain’t she?”
Were the nobles trying to do something while the new aub was away? We all stood, feeling anxious, and went to the plaza. Others stepped outside their homes to hear what the person causing the racket had to say.
“Urgent news from the castle,” one of several soldiers announced. “Tonight, between sixth and seventh bell, the new aub plans to cast a large-scale spell to fill the entire duchy with mana at once. Do not be alarmed if the sky starts to light up. I repeat...”
In other words, we didn’t need to do anything. I could see why the soldiers had warned us, but a spell wasn’t really something to get worked up about. We went back to sitting by the port, feeling a little disappointed.
“Wonder what he meant by the sky lightin’ up...” I said. “Is rainbow light gonna start rainin’ down on us or somethin’?”
“He was probably referring to the rainbow thing I saw,” Furt said. “You know, the big one with the face? Bet we’re gonna see it.”
“There you go again...” I sighed. “You’re not gonna fool us.”
“Gah! Just you wait! It’s seriously the weirdest thing ever!”
We drank more and continued to chat before going our separate ways to watch whatever Lady Rozemyne’s spell was gonna do. It was late enough that I’d normally be in bed—I rose before dawn on days I went fishing—but instead, I stood outside with my wife, Fina.
“If it’d stop you drinking so much, I’d want the aub to cast this spell every night,” she said.
“Instead of goin’ to the well, how ’bout we wait by the port? Furt told us a story ’bout this other province’s ocean changin’ color. I wanna see if ours changes too.”
“Doubt you’d even notice when it’s this dark out, but sure.”
We passed the plaza where our neighbors were waiting and soon reached the street. Most people we saw were staring up at the sky in anticipation, while others headed to the mountains near the Noble’s Quarter. It was like a festival. We heard a buzz of excitement everywhere we went.
“Jiffy! Fina! Had the same idea, did ya?”
We arrived at the port to find a bunch of people gathered already. Fina saw the beer in their hands as they sat around the fire and pulled a face like she’d just swallowed dirt.
“What’s with you men?” she snapped. “Is drinking all you’re good at?”
“Now, now, Fina. Don’t get so mad,” Ank said. “It’s not every night that the aub does somethin’ for us. Come have a beer, why don’t ya? Jiffy—grab your wife a box to sit on.”
I nodded to Ank, who was waving his bottle around while trying to cheer up Fina, and went to fetch two boxes. We all drank and ate whatever food people brought from their homes while waiting for the spell to begin.
“Oh, I think it’s starting. There’s something bright over there.”
Fina pointed, and everyone followed her finger. Pale light stretched out from the castle, which sat much higher than the port and the rest of the city. I was starting to think it was larger than anything Furt had described when a burst of green shot up into the sky.
“Green light?!” I cried. “Furt, you said it was rainbow!”
We all turned and saw him frowning up at the sky. “Yeah, this ain’t what I saw...” he muttered. “I don’t see Lady Rozemyne or her knights...”
The green light moved as though it were alive. It went from the sky above the castle to the Noble’s Quarter and the lower city before shooting straight over our heads, drawing a stripe as it went.
“It’s goin’ toward the gate, right?”
“Is rainbow light gonna fall outta the green line?”
We watched and waited as the line headed west. A complex pattern soon started sprouting from it.
“It looks... kinda like lacework,” one of the women said.
“Mm-hmm,” another agreed. “Like one of those decorative fans them rich girls use.”
The other women seemed just as moved, and they kept saying how wonderful the design looked. We men were seeing exactly the same thing from exactly the same place, but we had something else on our minds.
“It’s impressive, but... it ain’t rainbow-colored.”
“This ain’t that big weird thing that you were tellin’ us about, right? It is pretty huge, though.”
“I never said anything about a pattern!” Furt protested. “It was a huge granary-sized thing! It could move, soar through the air, and even had a strange head, remember?!”
“Furt, the heck did you even see?”
“That’s what I wanna know!” he shouted. “What was she doing in Kannawitz?!”
His confusion aside, the magic actually was kinda crazy. It continued west, then went north, and the pattern kept spreading. The announcement had told us to expect a large-scale spell, but this was even greater than any of us had imagined. We stared up at the green lines in awe.
“Attention citizens of Ahrensbach, soon to be called Alexandria. Can you hear me?”
“What the...?!” I almost jumped out of my skin. “Where’s that voice comin’ from?!” It belonged to a young man but seemed to be coming from some kinda device nearby. I’d never seen anything like it.
“I serve Lady Rozemyne, this duchy’s new aub,” the voice continued. “My lady created the magic circle now stretching across the sky to fill this barren duchy with mana. You are bearing witness to a spell dating back to the era of myth—one that can be performed only by the Divine Avatar of Mestionora. To receive the gods’ blessings, one must pray. And to best serve Alexandria, one must pray to Lady Rozemyne. Praise be to the gods!”
“Um... What?”
“It matters not whether you are a commoner or a noble,” the voice continued. “Everyone is taught to pray during their baptism and coming-of-age ceremony. Your zeal will determine the strength of the blessing that enriches this land. Pray to better your lives and to enrich the barren earth with mana. I shall say it again—praise be to the gods!”