#sots update

Back at the Easy Rest, Crystin and I sat down to count up the money we’d earned.

“Fifty copper and a few silvers over here,” Crystin said. Away from the audience, her voice was soft; even in the near-silence of the inn’s common room, I could barely hear her, and I knew that the woman behind the bar couldn’t. I’d been astonished the first time I’d heard her sing. I hadn’t thought her gently lilting voice could be so powerful.

“I’ve got thirty-five c,” I replied. “Not bad. Enough for a couple nights and plenty of food, I’d say.” I stretched and felt the tight undershirt I’d put on to hide the small swell of my breasts ride up over my stomach and refuse to ride back down. “Oh, hell,” I said, laughing. “Give me a second, Crystin. I’ve got to get this stupid shirt off.”

I didn’t enjoy playing men, given that I’d gone through quite a bit to find out I wasn’t one, but Crystin’s voice (although it could admittedly get quite low) didn’t quite reach the depths of the range Madoc required, and the combination of the changes in my body as I’d transitioned over the past few years and my general disinterest remembering to shave meant that I looked far more androgynous than she. We did switch up when a male role was either fully spoken or had a high enough range, but Madoc was a baritone and so was I.

Crystin waved a hand in acknowledgement and turned her attention to our food supplies as I walked away.

Peig, the lady who ran the inn, passed me as I headed for the bathroom. “Afternoon, dear,” she said. “You two have a good show?”

"Earned enough to feed ourselves,” I replied. “You ought to try hosting a show or two in here. Might drum up a bit of business, I think.”

“You may be onto something there,” Peig replied. She smiled. “I’ll see about that. You and Crystin may get a few gigs before you leave town.”

"We’d accept,” I told her. “Just so you know.”

Peig laughed. “Good,” she said. “I’ll think about it. Now go let the girls loose.”

“Peig!”

She laughed again. I pushed through the bathroom door, blushing. Peig was far too pretty to talk about my breasts without flustering me.

A few minutes later, free at last, I grabbed some of our newly earned money and set off to buy us some food. There was a market that usually sprang up near the temple of Ygga; with any luck, they’d have some food for a pair of hungry minstrels. As I walked that way, a tall, muscular man passed too close to me and collided with my shoulder.

“Oi, watch it,” I said, and then stopped.

The man had wings.

He’d stopped when I’d spoken to him, and his eyes had gone wide. But he didn’t say anything. He was holding completely still, like he hoped I would lose sight of him if he didn’t move. The longer I looked at him, the more uncomfortable he seemed.

“You’re a Guardian,” I said quietly.

“Impossible,” the man said. “You can see me? You are a mortal.”

“Which one?” I asked. “You, I mean. Irfan or Taic?”

His eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair. “I do not… How are you able to see me?”

"If I knew, I’d tell you,” I said wryly. And quietly. I’d learned by this point in my life that when you wandered around town talking to invisible people, you usually left escorted by a guard. “So? I’m guessing you’re Irfan. I’m almost certain Taic is a woman’s name, though I’m the last person who ought to assume on those terms.”

When he didn’t answer, I snorted. “Seems to me that if a mortal saw a Guardian, she ought to be the one freaking out, not the guy with a pair of wings.”

The Guardian pursed his lips. “I am Irfan,” he said. “And I would advise you not to be so flippant to one so many years your elder. Particularly when that one is an Astrian, a being charged with overseeing your foolish race.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Sorry, mate,” I said, making no effort to hide the sarcasm in my tone. “Didn’t mean to push your buttons.”

Irfan glared at me coldly, but I decided to ignore him and stalk off to the market. The encounter would rattle him more than it would me. This wasn’t the first time I’d run into beings which no mortal should be able to see.

That night, Crystin and I enjoyed a peaceful dinner at the Easy Rest. The place was practically dead – aside from the staff, we were the only people there. Peig had drifted over to chat with us.

“But girls,” she was saying, “this place really used to bustle. If you’d seen it fifteen years ago, before Domhnall left! You wouldn’t even recognize it. But after he took off, well… I was new and young, and he was the best there was. Things went downhill.” She shook her head and sighed. “That’s why I’m taking off tomorrow. Domhnall went to Easanna with his daughter. She was a sickly little thing; he hoped the air and the water there would help her. I need to find him and ask him to come back. This place was his life’s work – he can’t just let it die on us like this.”

She brushed her hair back over her shoulder and sighed. Gods, but she was pretty. I was starting to think I was a little bit in love with her.

"Good luck,” Crystin said. With her quiet, pretty voice, you couldn’t doubt her sincerity. “This place is lovely. I’d hate to see it go.”

“I would too,” I said. “Speaking of – do you want me to go put that sign on the town board? I’m done eating.”

“That’d be grand,” Peig said. “Thanks, dear.”

“Sure,” I said. “Back in a moment.”

I grabbed the notice off the inn’s check-in counter and headed out into the Glas Linn twilight. As I crossed the square on my way to the board, I noticed a glow across the way. In the cemetery, the ghost of an old man stood by a grave.

I sighed. I had no idea why I saw stuff like this. Every so often, I’d come across another person who could see spirits to some extent, but none of them had ever seen a Guardian – Astrians, Irfan had called them. Sometimes I spoke to the ghosts and helped them to move on, but there were times it didn’t work. And even when I managed it, as the ghost passed on, the emotions which had tied them to the earth stayed behind, and they found their way directly into my head. Sometimes I would be useless for days. One time the girl I’d helped to move on had been so sad that I had spent a week crying at the slightest provocation.

Crystin knew; we’d been travelling together for four years, and by now she understood when I went into depressions or whatever else after I helped one on. I’d never told her about the Guardians, though. She believed in them, but I thought expecting her to believe I could chat with them would be a bit of a stretch.

I shook my head to clear it and continued on. Last thing I needed was to get so wrapped up thinking about myself that I forgot what I’d left the inn to do. I’d wander til sunup.

As I pinned up the paper, I felt something strange beneath my feet. I paused. The feeling was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.

It came again, a little stronger, and then again and again. As it strengthened, I recognized it for what it was: an earthquake.

The shaking grew stronger, and I felt myself start to panic. It had been almost five years since I’d been caught in an quake, but I knew this was different. It felt wrong. There was something unnatural about it.

Screams rang out all around me. I scrambled on the cobbles, trying to keep my footing on the unstable ground and block out the sounds of terror pounding into my head. The air itself seemed to shake, and the clouds which had been blocking the stars lit up in flashes of cold blue lightning.

Then there was another source of light. This one, however, was coming from the east, and it looked entirely different. Half a dozen bright comets streaked down from the sky, shooting off in all different directions. They flew south, none closer than what I thought must be five miles, but their passage was still followed by a bone-rattling whoosh which nearly blew me off my feet.

Slowly, the wild shaking of the earth began to steady and then stopped altogether. I let go of the notice board and took a few unsteady steps; then I took off running for the Easy Rest. I needed to make sure the others were all okay.

But my mind was only half on that. The earthquake had changed something. And the comets meant something big.

And I had a funny feeling that I was going to be involved.