Page 19 of Cast in Conflict

But the Academia didn’t exist on the maps. Something about its existence didn’t give it predictable, sensible geography. Kaylin, who had never considered maps to be friends, was fine with this.

“Come to the Tower,” Tiamaris said, turning. “We can discuss other possible changes.”

The Tower had become characterized by the gardeners who worked in the gardens that now surrounded it. Those gardens had, to Kaylin’s eyes, grown, but a stone path cut across the field directly in front of Tara’s doors. Tara paused here and there as the people working stopped to greet her or ask her questions, but forward momentum was preserved.

“It is Tiamaris,” Tara said, with open affection. “For some reason, they are more anxious when he is present.”

“He’s a Dragon.”

“Yes?”

“He could breathe on them or bite them in two if they anger him.”

“She is the greater danger here,” Tiamaris pointed out.

This was true. “She just doesn’t look all that dangerous when she’s in her gardening clothing.” Which she was.

“Ah, no, perhaps not.”

The doors, untouched, retracted, which was new. The fact that Kaylin didn’t have to touch them at all wasn’t. Tara led them to the wide, long hall in which Tiamaris could fully go Dragon and still have room; this hall ended at the pool of liquid that served as Tiamaris’s mirror.

It was already active when they reached it.

Kaylin exhaled. “We’re here to ask a few questions about Bellusdeo. Have you talked to her recently?”

Tiamaris nodded. His eyes remained orange, but no red darkened the shade.

“The Dragon Court is worried. She’s been a bit strange since the former Arkon became the chancellor. She liked him,” Kaylin added, which was probably unnecessary. “But he’s here.”

“There,” Tara corrected her. “But yes.” She paused, glancing at Tiamaris; he nodded.

A bead of light began to glow in the center of the still pool; it split into hundreds of pieces that then began to travel across the surface of the water, or perhaps just beneath it. A map emerged from those lines of light. It traced the boundaries of the fiefs—all of them, including the one in the center the Towers had been created to watch.

“As you are aware,” Tara said, “the border zones between the lines drawn on the map were not fixed or solid; they existed between the space defined by the Towers. It was not clear to us why, and it was not our primary concern.”

Kaylin nodded.

“Those border zones have disappeared. The streets that could be perceived in them have also disappeared. You are aware that the cohort and Lord Bellusdeo’s Ascendant did not perceive what you or Lord Severn did.”

“Teela saw what we saw,” Severn said quietly.

Tara nodded again.

“Are the streets now as solid as they look?”

The Tower and her lord exchanged a glance. “Not entirely.”

“Which is no.”

“They are much more solid. Maggaron saw what Bellusdeo saw when they left our fief, and continued to see the same buildings when they approached the Academia. The actual roads from here to the Academia are solid, structural roads. The buildings outside of the Academia are not always in the best repair.”

“But?”

“But, as you say. Bellusdeo has confirmed that one or two of the fiefs have borders that are more elastic. They are not what they were, but they are not what Tiamaris and the Academia have become.”

“The streets to the Academia from Nightshade are solid?”

Lights brightened. “Yes.”

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