My attempt to cover was in vain, because Intense Man zeroes in on me immediately. “Do you recognize the scales?”
Ah! Easy sidestep. “No. But I saw a lot of charcoal ones, and I thought maybe they were scorched. People tend to be hurt if there have been fires around.”
“Have there been fires here?” he asks.
Uh. You could say that.
“Is that why you’re here?” I ask in a determinedly light tone. “Do the priests think a dragon is responsible for what happened? Because I can tell you there weren’t any scales when I first came up after the shockwave.”
The priest looks startled again, like I’ve bopped him on the nose. Surprisingly endearing.
But then alarm fills me as he visibly deflates.
Worried he’s about to fall over, I rush over to support him and walk him backwards to the nearest chair, which he drops into with a profoundly shocked expression.
Oh shit I just nullified a priest. It’s not permanent on people, but still—
“Oh gods, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have touched you without permission—”
“It’s fine,” he cuts me off.
I freeze.
That in no way sounds fine.
And I know better. I do. Especially now, when magic is a limited resource—
“I’m sorry,” I say again, and this time my voice is a whisper.
I hate that I’m like this, that I can’t seem to help it.
The man frowns up at me. “I said it’s fine. I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
Now it’s my turn to blink.
“I can see that you believe that,” I say slowly, “but that does... not match my experience of people. If you’ll forgive me the observation, Learned.”
“I’m not a priest,” he says. “I’m a sage.”
...Excuse me.
Excuse me,what?!
Oh gods. The golden eyes. They’reactualgold, it wasn’t just a trick of the light—
That’s how a person who isn’t a null can be here—he’s not just a priest, he’sworse—
“I apologize for intruding on your home,” the sage—thesage!!—says, “and I have a deeply unfair favor to ask of you.”
Oh no. He wants to take my cottage after all.
Where will I go now?
I mean, yes, I can build another cottage in Crystal Hollow, but the thought of living under the weight of that judgment again after my few weeks of freedom—of seeing their reaction to the build I am so proud of—makes me want to shrivel up and cry.
And then as if from a long distance, I hear the sage say stiffly, “I would like to ask if I might stay with you here for a time.”
I stare at him.
