The earliest recorded forms of magic after the Second Bane were through the use of alchemy, which is the process of combining various transmogrified herbs and other materials. The oils and powders this yields mimic very basic forms of spell patterns and thus produce limited magical effects. Later, when weaving became the more established form of practising magic, alchemy retained its place, serving as an amplifier or dampener of many spells or creating more permanent effects without the need for constant channelling.

  Excerpt from 'Introduction to the Workings of Magic'

  With a running jump Felt grabbed hold of the top of the outer wall and pulled herself up. Beyond lay a garden cloaked in darkness, where she had spent most of yesterday afternoon playing with Cassie. The Light Moon was nothing more than a small sickle in the sky, leaving only the smaller Dark Moon to cast its sparse light.

  She landed with a soft thud in a flowerbed, her feet sinking into the earth.

  That's going to leave a print, she thought. Can't be helped, though.

  She leaped forward like a cat and reached the lawn, where she rolled once before coming to a stop. Before her lay Cassie's haunt, all its windows dark except for the living room. It was past dusk and her half-sister would already be asleep in her bedroom.

  So far, so good, Felt thought as she patted the earth from her boots. Even in the middle of the lawn it was dark enough to render her invisible, so she knelt on one knee and bowed her head to listen.

  Apart from the rustling of leaves, she heard nothing.

  May the Nightsinger remain in silence.

  Unfortunately, the Nightsinger did not heed her thoughts, as a mere moment later she could hear his song: a faint melodious yet chaotic clamour that came from both far and near.

  She swallowed and tried to ignore him. Normally she would have turned and left upon hearing the Nightsinger's song, but this was different. Tomorrow morning Cassie would leave Rios and Madilla would go with her, which meant that if Felt wanted to get her hands on the tishe's notebook, she had to act now.

  The song lingered and hummed in her mind. She could hear it almost constantly now, even when she wasn't on a job.

  He's not singing to me, Felt tried to reassure herself. He's singing to everyone in the city, so I should be fine.

  With that, she pushed her doubt away and rose from her kneeling position. Compared to some of the other buildings she had infiltrated recently, this haunt's security was nothing. She had already surveyed the entire building the first time she had come here and found nothing out of the ordinary. There was a warning sigil on both the front and back door, but nothing more. The light was on in the living room where she believed Evelyn and Makan were; Madilla wasn't here at the moment. Felt had seen her leave just before dusk.

  As she wanted to confirm that both Evelyn and Makan were indeed in the living room, she crossed the lawn and rounded the corner of the house into the narrow plot of land between the garden wall and the house. The light coming from the living room window illuminated the spring growth that was yet to bloom.

  At the window, Felt glimpsed the scene inside. Both Evelyn and Makan were present. He was reading a book, and she was knitting.

  She breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. Good.

  The original plan that Felt had concocted had been somewhat different. She knew that Madilla was likely to take her notebook everywhere with her, so the only way to get it would be to wait until she was asleep.

  Unfortunately, the person who supplied Felt with the sedative powder she needed had fled the city, and she had been unable to find someone else in the time available.

  Going in without that powder would be too dangerous, as Felt couldn't risk discovery. Even if nobody saw her face, it wouldn't be hard for Hyna to figure out it was her. A regular thief wouldn't be hitting some house in the Quartz Quarter when there were so many empty town houses in the Amber Quarter. There was no telling what Hyna would do to Cassie if they found out.

  So instead Felt had opted to wait until the evening and sneak into the house while its residents were otherwise occupied, in the hope that there was more information to be found than just Madilla's notebook.

  She approached the back door and wove a scrying stone past it, which revealed nothing of interest.

  They haven't charged the sigil yet, Felt thought. If I hurry, I can be finished before they do.

  She carefully placed a hand on the door handle and pushed. The door swung open without a sound and she slipped inside.

  Before her lay the scullery with a single door in the right-hand wall. The kitchen lay beyond that, and from there any part of the house could be reached save the solar.

  She reached the stairs without any problems or unwanted sounds and swiftly ascended them, making sure to skip the steps that creaked.

  The upper hallway was pitch-black. The blinders of the nearby window were closed, and Felt had to move by touch, shuffling along the walls. She could feel the texture of the rough brick beneath her fingers.

  Cassie's room was opposite Madilla's, and Felt briefly listened at her door.

  She heard nothing.

  Maybe I should check on her? she thought before immediately mentally pinching herself. No! Focus on the job. Madilla could come back at any time.

  Madilla's room was large yet cramped as it was filled with furniture. Closets and bookshelves covered all the walls except for the two windows, and a wide desk was placed against the bed, ensuring it could be only entered from one side.

  Felt left the door slightly ajar so she would be able to hear or see anyone coming up the stairs.

  The desk was the obvious first target, and she reached for the top drawer to give it a pull.

  The drawer did not budge.

  Felt smiled in response. Locked. Excellent.

  To a bad thief, a locked drawer was a hindrance. To Felt, however, it was a time-saver as now she didn't have to go through the room trying to find some hidden stash. The drawer wouldn't be locked unless there was something valuable in it.

  Picking the lock turned out to be more difficult and time-consuming than she expected, but eventually it sprung open with a satisfying clacking sound. Inside lay a silver bracelet on top of a thin stack of papers.

  Felt ran her hand around the drawer, feeling all the edges. No hidden compartments. She twitched her nose. No notebook either. Madilla must have taken it with her, or left it somewhere else.

  She left the bracelet and used the light of the small moon sigils in her gloves to inspect the sheets of paper.

  Most of them only held rows and rows of numbers. Out of context, Felt had no idea what they meant. The rest of the pages contained various scribblings that Felt couldn't make out; they were filled with peculiar diagrams and words she didn't recognize.

  This looks like some kind of research, but is it Madilla's?

  She wiggled her nose in annoyance. Nobody must know she was here, so she couldn't take the papers with her, and trying to memorize it all was equally impossible as she didn't understand the content. Frustrated, she placed everything back and locked the drawer once more.

  Guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

  She pulled open the next drawer, which contained an assortment of small trinkets, marbles and buttons. Between a puzzle ring and a couple of dice, she also noted a brass key, which she immediately grabbed.

  That better not fit.

  The lock of the top drawer opened with another clack. Hearing it this time, though, did not make Felt feel satisfied.

  Spitting inaudible curses, Felt continued her search of the desk. The third drawer was empty and the last one contained several pairs of shoes.

  Who the blaze keeps shoes inside a desk?

  She tossed out the shoes and passed her hand around all the drawer's confines. Like the other three, there were no fake sides or bottom. She did, however, smell a particular odour she would rather not have discovered.

  After returning the shoes to the drawer, she started on the rest of the room, going through all the clothes, checking all the walls, and examining the dust on the edges of the bookshelves to see if any books had been moved recently. She even upturned the pillow and looked underneath the bed, where she was greeted by a piece of rolled-up carpet that spewed a massive cloud of dust when Felt pulled at it.

  Ugh, doesn't anyone clean in this house? Good thing Cassie will be gone tomorrow.

  With a sense of dejection, Felt stood beside the bed. Whatever secrets Madilla had, it was obvious by now she either kept them close or hid them very well.

  She probably only sleeps here, she thought, her eye catching a solitary book on the nightstand with a bookmark sticking out of it. What kind of stuff does she read, anyway?

  Felt picked up the book. The Blade of the Rose. Must be some cheap romance novel. She flipped open the book and gasped as the light from her sigils illuminated the pages and the bookmark.

  The bookmark was a page from a notebook, smaller than the novel with a torn edge on one side. Written on that page was a list of names, with the top one instantly recognizable.

  Vrikken fern.

  She felt a surge of excitement as she ran through the items and noted other familiar names. It's an ingredients list!

  There were numbers as well, and Felt realized that she might have found what she was looking for. Could this be the recipe?

  In the back of her mind, the Nightsinger's song became louder, adding a sharp-toned hymn to the existing melody.

  Felt immediately ducked down, recipe list in hand, and dispelled her moon sigils.

  Her heartbeat accelerated as she listened, both for sounds in the house and changes in the song.

  A faint murmur drifted to her ears and she immediately knew what it was. Voices.

  Madilla's room was above the living room, so it could just be Evelyn and Makan, but Felt wasn't going to dismiss the Nightsinger's warning as easily as that.

  Then came the sound of an opening door, and someone ascending the stairway.

  Someone's coming.

  With a swift motion she folded the recipe and stuffed it into a pocket, before starting to channel ?ther into the blackshift rune on her back. Felt did not know for certain if the person coming up the stairs was Madilla, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

  A light moved along the walls, and Felt could hear footsteps coming from around the corner.

  The feedback pulse of the spell signalled it was ready and Felt cast the spell.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Nothing happened.

  Felt blinked once to make certain, yet the view remained unchanged. She was still in Madilla's room rather than the neighbour's garden where she had set up the shift anchor.

  The footsteps drew closer and the light grew brighter as its carrier rounded the corner.

  No, no, no! This can't be happening!

  She desperately tried to cast the spell again, but she did not shift.

  The light stopped and so did the footsteps. Then with a sudden surge, the light became much brighter. The sun sigil in the wall of the hallway had been lit.

  Why can't I shift? Felt thought as her third cast failed as well. Did something happen to the anchor?

  The footsteps resumed and out of pure instinct Felt jumped up and positioned herself behind the door.

  A moment after she positioned herself, the door swung open, softly bumping into Felt's toe at the end of its swing.

  The person holding the light passed Felt, who instantly recognized her.

  Just keep looking straight ahead, Madilla.

  Madilla walked towards the light standard on her nightstand and reached out to it. She had not seen Felt, who immediately slid around the open door and entered the now lit hallway.

  Where do I go now?

  Her body was trembling and the walls seemed to close in on her. Without the ability to shift, the entire house suddenly seemed as solid as a fortress.

  She advanced towards the stairs. Leaving the way she came was the best option.

  Follow the known route.

  The hallway around the corner ran adjacent to the stairway. As Felt walked beside it, the kitchen door below opened.

  Felt halted and leaned sideways to look down the stairs. It was Evelyn, who began to ascend them.

  Felt backed up immediately as she watched the back of Evelyn's head coming towards the landing.

  Feeling frantic now, she looked around for a way out. She could see three doors from here, and knew what was behind each from her first visit to the house. One was a storage room that was likely locked to prevent Cassie from entering. The other two were the master bedroom and the bathroom. I can't hide in either of those. Evelyn is bound to visit both.

  As fast as she dared, she dashed back around the corner towards the end of the corridor, hoping that Madilla would still be in her room. There was only one room that Felt could possibly hide in. The only one where they wouldn't enter with a light.

  The light from Madilla's room illuminated the door to the guest room where Cassie slept.

  If Madilla's looking out the door...

  Yet with Evelyn coming from behind, Felt had no time to be cautious. She afforded herself a single glance into Madilla's room and, on seeing nothing, opened Cassie's door as fast as she dared.

  The handle made a dull sound when she pushed it down, though the door itself did not creak as it opened. Behind her, Evelyn had reached the top of the stairs and was coming down the hallway. Felt slipped through the narrow gap and spun around to close the door behind her.

  She slowly slid her hand from the handle then waited and listened in the dark.

  The footsteps drew closer and Felt subconsciously backed away from the door.

  “Madilla?” Evelyn's voice came through the door.

  “Yes?”

  “You are not going out again tonight, are you? Because Makan already locked the doors.”

  “No, I'm done for the day.”

  “I thought so, but I just wanted to ask.”

  The door to Cassie's room slowly opened, allowing a beam of light to enter the room.

  Felt held her breath as the beam illuminated the foot of Cassie's bed. There were no sounds apart from the soft breathing of the child.

  The door closed again and Felt let her breath escape through her teeth.

  That was close.

  With the curtains closed, Cassie's room was pitch-black. Felt shuffled slightly until her back touched the wall. She had not been found out, but now she was trapped here.

  If the doors are locked, then the warning sigils will be active as well.

  If she wanted to leave the way she came, she would have to wait until everyone was asleep and then sneak out, but she knew that she couldn't do that. If she drained the warning sigil, there was a good chance that Makan would notice the following day, and she had snatched the recipe from Madilla's book as well. She's definitely going to miss that.

  The most urgent matter, however, was Cassie's presence in the room. Her half-sister was a restless sleeper and often woke up several times during the night.

  And if she realizes that someone is here...

  Felt pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. I need to think straight. I can't blackshift and I can't leave through the doors. So that means...

  She opened her eyes and turned her head towards the curtains, which had a nearly invisible line of light surrounding them.

  The window.

  In the other rooms, both Evelyn and Madilla were rummaging around. It didn't appear that either was going to leave their rooms or sleep soon.

  Felt gave up on the idea of waiting here until everyone was asleep. The Nightsinger's song continued unabated in her head, urging her to leave as soon as possible.

  The Nightsinger does not look favourably upon those who do not heed his warning. Leaving now is the only option.

  Taking careful steps on the balls of her feet, she moved towards the window where she slid behind the curtain.

  The window was locked with a single metal latch that Felt carefully prised open.

  A soft breeze of fresh air entered the room, making the curtain billow slightly, and for a moment Cassie's regular breathing stopped.

  Felt tensed up until her breathing resumed.

  Good. Stay asleep, Cassie, until your foolish sister has left.

  The window was part of a dormer that protruded from the thatch roof. Felt ran her hand over the thatch, feeling its consistency.

  This is going to make a racket, for sure.

  The window was too high to make a safe jump, especially in the dark. If she sprained her ankle, or worse, broke something, she wouldn't even make it out of the garden.

  Before she climbed through the window, she attempted once more to blackshift, and again failed.

  Something happened to the anchor, Felt thought. That has to be it. Maybe an animal knocked over one of the runestones.

  With one foot out of the window, she tested the strength of the thatch. To her relief, it made much less sound than she had feared. Bringing out her other leg too, she balanced herself on the edge of the window, looking for an underlying roof beam.

  Felt stared nervously at the dark lawn below. How do I manage to get myself into these situations?

  She knew the answer, of course. It was because she tried to do everything by herself. She had not told Hans she was going, though he wouldn't have had time anyway as he had some important meeting to attend. This is why most thieves work in pairs.

  She twitched her nose and leaned back into the room to close the window.

  I can't close the latch like this, but that can't be helped. I just have to hope they won't think anything of it.

  She squatted down on a single leg, extending the other down the sloped roof, looking for the next support beam. When she found it, she lowered herself along the roof, sliding down slowly. If she slipped it would be a hard and loud fall.

  Luckily, Felt reached the edge of the roof without incident, and there she balanced for a moment before hopping off into the darkness below.

  The impact shook her body before she rolled forward once and then sat frozen for a moment. There was no sharp pain in her feet or her legs. Thank the ?ther. It seemed she was unhurt, so she wasted no time getting up and moving towards the back of the garden. Her fall had still made a loud thud that someone might have heard.

  As she crested the garden wall, her leg muscles protested; they had not come out of the fall entirely unscathed, it seemed.

  With another soft thud she landed in the garden of the neighbour's house. Slightly to the left, behind a rickety building that might be a shed, was where Felt had set up the anchor point for the blackshift.

  She carefully advanced through the darkness, listening for anything out of the ordinary. If something had indeed disturbed the anchor point, that something might still be around.

  But there was no sound to be heard, either from the shed or the house the garden belonged to.

  Upon reaching the anchor point, Felt squatted down and briefly activated one of the moon sigils in her gloves.

  In the small flash of light she saw that all the runestones stood exactly as she had left them.

  The anchor is fine. How can that be?

  The Nightsinger still sang, his distant clamour now more of a rowdy song, with the sound of people banging on empty barrels. Felt looked around in the blackness, expecting something to happen, but nothing did.

  A flash of insight hit her.

  What if the anchor point wasn't the problem? What if it's the runestone itself? It wasn't her own, after all. It was one that Hyna had given to her as a replacement.

  Felt rushed ?ther through her shoulders and into the blackshift stone once more, as the stone didn't have a sigil and the previous charge had already dissipated.

  Now then.

  In the blink of an eye, her view changed. She was now looking directly at a nearby streetlight that had been behind her before. Reaching down towards the runestones confirmed that she was now sitting inside the anchor point.

  She had shifted without incident.

  Felt raged in silence. Damn them to the void, she thought as she snatched up the runestones. Giving me spells that don't work in their own haunts.

  After stuffing the last stone into her pouch, she prepared herself for the final scaling of a garden wall. From there it was still a long walk back to her own haunt.

  “Felt, where have you been?” Hans exclaimed when Felt entered the room. “Did something happen?” he added, noting her difficult walking.

  Felt grunted and flopped onto a nearby sofa. Thank the ?ther we are staying in a town house like this now. Beats staying in a cellar.

  “It's nothing.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I just need to rest my eyes a bit,” she said, kicking off her boots.

  Felt closed her eyes. The muscles in her calves hurt and her mind was a mess. During the walk back to the haunt she had had plenty of time to think about her situation and she had reached a conclusion.

  I need help.

  Up until now, she had always believed she could get out of her situation given enough time, clinging to the thought that once things at the White Candle were resolved, she could find a way to resume the life she had before this entire mess started.

  After the evasiveness of both Gerro and Madilla, however, she changed her mind. There were obviously things at play they weren't telling her about, and the incident with the blackshift made it clear how strong Hyna's grip on her really was.

  But who can I trust?

  She knew plenty of people. Old friends from her rat pack days and a ton of acquaintances she had interacted with over the years. The problem with all of them, however, was that she could never know for certain if they weren't somehow affiliated with Hyna, which left her with only one possibility. The one group of people she knew weren't part of Hyna.

  She lifted her head to look at Hans, who was still watching her with a worried look on his face. “I need my runestones back. The ones that the Whisper took when they arrested me.”

  Hans cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “Why? Is there something wrong with the ones you have now?”

  “Yes.”

  Hans inclined his head some more, waiting for her to elaborate.

  Blood rushed to her cheeks. What am I doing? It was my own idea to turn to the Whisper, so start talking. “The blackshift stone didn't work at the haunt where Cassie is staying. I think they might be rigged with hidden spell effects.”

  “Why would Hyna do that?” Hans asked, before staring into the distance for a moment. “No wait, why did you need to blackshift from Cassie's haunt?”

  Felt did not answer, raising her legs and staring at her feet.

  “Felt, what did you do?” Hans said urgently.

  “Not much,” Felt said with a shrug. “I snuck into the haunt to go through Madilla's stuff.”

  “What?! Why?”

  “To find this,” Felt said, retrieving the recipe from her pocket and holding it up. “The recipe for the salve that Cassie needs.” She stared at the paper. “Or at least I hope that's what this is.”

  “Okay, stop,” Hans said. “Tell me everything, and start from the beginning.”

  Felt told him what had happened.

  “Well,” Hans said after she finished, “I understand now why you want your own runestones back. But I'm disappointed to see that you are as reckless as ever.”

  Felt shrugged. She felt empty, but it was a good kind of empty. As if something that had weighed her down had been removed.

  They spent some time in silence until Hans sighed. “Did you at least get something of value from this break-in of yours?” He looked at the paper that Felt still held in her hand.

  Felt glanced at the names and numbers. “You take a look at it.”

  She did not want to get up from the comfortable sofa, so she folded the paper and flicked it towards Hans, who dove down to grab it.

  He studied the list for a while as Felt rubbed her calves and feet.

  “Felt,” Hans eventually said, with concern in his voice. “This isn't a recipe.”

  She jerked upright on the sofa. “What do you mean? It has ingredients and amounts, what else could it be?”

  “It's a shopping list.”

  Her mouth fell open. “What?”

  “You were right that the names are ingredients and other components, but the amounts listed are all wrong for it to be a recipe.” He approached Felt and pointed at the paper. “This second column of numbers lists the price in florins.”

  Felt did not say anything. I should have known that Madilla wouldn't use her secret recipe as a bookmark.

  “Here it lists paster,” Hans continued, “which I happen to know costs around two florins per bushel. The price written here is six florins, so the three here has to be in bushels. Far too much just to create a small amount of salve.”

  “I see,” Felt said, taking the list from Hans, “but at least we know the prices now.”

  “There are several ingredients that don't have a price listed,” Hans pointed out. “Which ingredients did Madilla claim were the expensive ones?”

  “Vrikken fern, Choronia, Tempystus,” Felt recited, running her finger across each ingredient in turn.

  None of them mentioned a price.

  She sighed and closed her eyes. I just wasted my time.

  “I could ask around to see what the going prices for those items are,” Hans said, noting Felt's dejection.

  “Don't bother,” Felt said, her eyes still closed. “I already did so myself yesterday, and the few people I could find who actually knew what the things were had no idea what the current rate for them was. It seems that Hyna is indeed the one controlling the entire supply.”

  “I'll ask around at the Whisper, then,” Hans replied with determination. “Most of these items are transmogrifs, so someone from ?ther division is bound to know something.”

  “Thanks,” Felt said with a faint smile. “I can't do this by myself.”

  Hans sighed. “You should have told me about this earlier,” he said, shaking his head. “Now there is little I can do for you anymore. Though I will try to get you your runestones back at least.”

  Felt frowned. “What do you mean, little you can do anymore?”

  “I have been reassigned.”

  “So? I thought you wanted to go back to Sewer division?”

  Hans did not respond and simply looked at Felt with a pained expression.

  A cold hand seemed to grip Felt's throat and her voice was hoarse when she spoke. “They didn't reassign you to Sewer division.”

  “They didn't,” Hans said. “I'm now part of the outfit in Tasselhane. I will be leaving tomorrow morning.”

  There goes the last person I could really trust, Felt thought, feeling numb inside.

  “Why Tasselhane?”

  “Remember that guy who owned the warehouse? Apparently he is involved with a whole lot more than just that, so combining my desire to be reassigned with the fact there is little more that we can do in Rios...” He waved his hand in a weak gesture. “This is the result.”

  “And what happens to me?”

  “Raviel will be your contact from now on. Your situation will remain unchanged apart from that.”

  Felt wiggled her nose. She didn't like Raviel. He was too pushy, too eager to reach conclusions.

  But then again, am I not the same? She stared at the list in her hand.

  “I'm sorry, Felt; it looks like you have to ride it out until the end.”

  “And how much longer will that be?” she asked bitterly.

  “Well,” Hans said, “not as long as you might think, although I can't say anything more about that.”

  More secrets.

  Felt pulled her knees up and buried her face in them. What do I do now? I need the Whisper to help me out, but without Hans they will just use me to get to Hyna. Why should they care about me, after all? For all I know they will throw me back into the Stockade as soon as I stop being useful.

  She gritted her teeth. No, that won't do. No matter what happens to me or what I have to do, Cassie's health and freedom is what's important. If I'm throwing in my lot with the Whisper, I might as well go all the way.

  “Hans,” Felt said as she raised her head, her eyes burning with determination. “Before you leave, I want you to help me meet with Grandmaster Lakrin.”