The food is unusual, or at least it is to me. It’s some kind of spongy flatbread with different dishes served directly on it, but it has a pleasant, tangy taste to it, and the company is good as well.
There’s a freedom to having only one night with someone. I find myself telling Soren about my sister—without using her name, of course. I tell him about how she commands the attention in a room, about how she’s always been the best at everything. I tell him how much I envy her and how I can never seem to measure up to the mark she sets, throwing in some made-up details about her prowess in aerial tumbling.
He asks about my parents and other siblings. I tell him a bit about Seth, but there’s not much to tell there, really. He’s somehow even more Adria than Adria. I imagine when they talk about the family, they focus primarily on their rivalry, and I’m not even part of the conversation.
And I tell him simply that my parents are dead. He doesn’t ask how, and I don’t tell him.
His parents are dead too, but that’s not unusual. He tells me about his father, a man he both greatly admired and feared. He inherited the business from him, but his father ran things with an iron fist. He’s trying to do things differently, and mostly it’s working, but some of the people his father paid to cooperate aren’t happy with his refusal to do the same.
We don’t talk about the war at all. I don’t ask him about the scars on his face, and he doesn’t ask me whether I fought on the other side.
After dinner and a couple of beers, he suggests we try our luck at cards. I’ve never played the game before, so I keep my bets low. It’s a game of strategy more than chance, and Soren is excellent at it. He sweeps a large pile of coin from the table: some of it Selaran, much of it not. When he goes to put the coin in his pocket, something falls from his sleeve.
A card.
I see it, but I’m not the only one. I hear the drawing of steel before I see the blade. A man with round glasses stands and shouts, accusing Soren of cheating. The man is right, of course, and he’s lost a fair bit of coin to Soren.
There are many differences between Selara and Nithyria, but it turns out how card cheats are handled isn’t one of them.
The man challenges Soren to a duel.
The color drains from my face. I know what’s coming next. Duels are a matter of honor and can’t be declined. There’s nothing for Soren to do except agree to the terms and…
He grabs my hand under the table. “Run!” he yells.
He pulls me up and out of the chair before I realize what’s happening.
Shit shit shit…
I darken the shadows in the room as I leap over an overturned barstool. All the lying today has given my magic a bit of an edge. It’s not enough to stop a shadow-born from seeing, if there are any in the room, but the darkness is near total.
Of course, the problem with that is that Soren is nature-born. He can’t see a damn thing either.
He collides with a buxom woman before slowing down enough to allow me to lead. I guide him the best I can as I dodge through the tables of confused and frightened patrons, turning back to see a fire-born cut through some of the shadow with flame.
It's a weak effort, though, compared to mine, and no one seems to be pursuing us with more than just a guess at where we are.
I keep the shadow on us when we’re out the door. Night has fallen, so I don’t need to do as much as we run through the city streets.
When we make it a few blocks over, I turn into an alley and let the shadow go. The moonlight is dim, but I can see the look on Soren’s face: he’s highly amused.
I’m not.
“Cheating at cards?” I say, panting from exertion and poking him in the chest. “I thought your business was doing well.”
“It is,” he says. He can barely talk for laughing and trying to catch his breath. “Believe me, those guys deserve it. And it’s just really fun to win.”
“It’s dishonest.”
“Says the shadow-born. Isn’t that kind of your whole thing?”
“I’m not a liar,” I say. Although I’ve lied a lot today, I don’t typically make a habit of it. “I just…don’t tell the whole truth.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is.”
