And with all of them together, they might have enough magic to be a problem for a sage who can’t do anything big here in the Quiet.
“Choose wisely, Sage Kovan,” Learned Muka says. “Out of my great respect for you, I would prefer to avoid a fight. But I must have the dragon in exchange. If not the dragon, then I will return with you. You know one of you must be sacrificed.”
I nearly fall over when Kovan replies, “Why?”
He’s not giving up yet!
Learned Muka stares at him. “Youknowwhy—”
Aaand that’s my cue.
Kovan isn’t fighting alone. Not while I’m here.
I duck under Kovan’s arm and plant myself in front of him. “Hi! I don’t, though,” I say brightly. “And on behalf of Crystal Hollow, I can absolutely confirm there is no dragon here. But even if there were, we do not do human sacrifices, so no! I’m afraid if that’s all you’re here for—not to help with the villagethat collapsed after your priests came to town? no?—then I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Learned Muka barely glances at me. “It was not priests who created the Quieting. It was a sage.” She looks back at Kovan. “A sage could undo it.”
“Oh, but sages have tried, haven’t they?” I continue with a big old smile. “We’ve seen several delegations come to the border and not come to check on us. Maybe this is the will of the gods, you know? Oh, yes, I knowyou’rethe experts on magic, but I assumed since no priests had been by to look, it was because it was outside of your field—”
“What are youdoing,” Learned Muka hisses at me. “Get out of the way—”
“No,” I tell her calmly as my heart thumps. “Crystal Hollow is my home, and we do not sacrifice people. It’s that simple. If that’s a problem for you, then leave.”
“I am trying to save your village, foolish girl,” she snaps at me.
“I’m not any less valuable than anyone else, and neither is anyone else in Crystal Hollow.”
Kovan has me trying to believe that.
“Not priests,” I continue. “Not dragons.” I look over my shoulder. “And not sages.”
Kovan kept trying to gift me resolve, but I don’t need resolve to know that.
What he gifted me washimself. And in seeing him—and seeing him, by himself, trying, and changing so much with so little—
Then I can try, too.
Even someone as ordinary and magic-less as me can do something.
If I try, and keep trying.
If I take a stand, like I challenged him to.
Now it’s my turn.
I look at Learned Muka’s apoplectic expression—leaning into my skills here—and reach out to her.
She jerks back, but inexorably, I place my hand on her shoulder.
I don’t feel anything happen when I nullify someone’s magic. I never do.
But Learned Muka’s face drains of color as she looks at me in horror.
“If you want the sage, you’ll have to go through me,” I tell her. “And I don’t think you want to go through me.”
Kovan
I’mreelinginaweof Tasa.
