Four dimes shiny enough to be newly minted, sat in the center of the table.
“Easy to carry, not valuable enough to steal, and common. Sometimes the most important things are the most ordinary.” He smiled softly, and I had a moment to wonder how many lives he must have seen pass by to sound nostalgic over a dime.
Abbi reached for one, but paused, her hand hovering over the coins. “Is there a trick?”
“In how the dimes work?” he asked.
Her wide eyes darted to me, then to Lu. She withdrew her hand. “I…no. Not how they work. Power. Your power makes them work. But if I have one….” She looked down at her lap. “Should I have one? I’m not like them,” she mumbled.
“Like them how?”
One shoulder bobbed. “Family.”
“Aren’t you though?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to answer that, wanting to say yes, but wanting to keep Abbi safe by saying no. I was relieved from my decision by Lula.
“Is this another contract?” Lu asked. “Are these dimes another binding?”
“No, this is a promise. From me.” He nodded to the coins. “I will hear you. I will come to you if you call. If you’re run off the road again, or in danger, think of me. Or you can literally drop a dime.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I’ll come to you.”
Lu was the first of us to pick up the coin. She inspected it, then dropped it in her pocket. I, not being an idiot, followed suit, and Abbi picked up the last two and handed one to Hado.
“Good,” the god said. “Don’t be shy about using them. Anything you need, I’m here.”
“Which brings me to my question,” I said. “Why are you here now?”
“I wanted to meet Abbi and Hado. To know they are well.”
Abbi had her mouth open, poised to drop the coin into it and swallow. She caught my look and instead squirmed to bring her backpack to her lap. She fiddled with a zipper and put the coin into a pocket.
“I’m well,” she said. “We found Hado, and saved him, and most of the time he’s a fluffy cat, and sometimes I can make him purr and I’m happy.” Then, a little quieter, “I like Brogan and Lula. I won’t leave them if you try to make me.”
“I wouldn’t tell you to leave them if you’re happy.”
“You do that, though. Put people together and take them apart.”
“I do.”
She busied herself with her backpack. “You know I’m not a little girl.”
“I do.”
“You know I have powers.” Here she looked up at him. It was a much older and more powerful being behind her gaze. Her magic was easy to see, the strength of it, different from a god’s power, a reflected light instead of a boiling source. But that reflected light came from everywhere, from everything, endless and flowing.
“I do.”
She nodded. “I won’t let you hurt them.”
“Good,” he said. “You belong here. But there is another reason I came to speak with you all. Fate is fickle. She’s other things too: determined, thoughtful, devious. She is a constant reminder that very few things happen through chance.
“There is a change in the wind. A restless force kicking stones down this old road. I thought I felt it here, in this place, near you. I thought I would arrive and see it in the shadows. I thought it would take you, change you.”
He frowned, and I found that I did not enjoy the feeling of knowing a god was troubled, and that those troubles involved me and mine.
“The seer?” Lu asked. “Eunice?”
“No. I know her. I know her music and the songs she won’t sing.”
