Page 212 of The Ascended
"It's alright," I said, though I wasn't entirely sure it was. I looked to Xül, raising an eyebrow in silent question.
He considered for a moment, then nodded almost imperceptibly.
I set down my spoon and concentrated, cupping my hands together. Drawing on the well of power within me—easier now after months of training—I coaxed a tiny point of light into existence above my palms. No larger than a firefly, it hovered and pulsed silver-blue.
Gasps and murmurs rippled around the tables. Davi's eyes were wide as saucers.
"It's beautiful," Layla breathed, her baby reaching toward the light with tiny fingers.
"Starfire," Nuri said, her voice carrying across the room.
I closed my hands, extinguishing the light before it could grow. "Just a parlor trick," I said, uncomfortable with the attention.
"Hardly that," Teller commented, raising his cup in a toast. "To talents both old and new!"
After dinner, when the youngest children had been put to bed,the adults gathered in a smaller room adjoining the main living area. Teller produced a set of carved wooden dice and a board marked with intricate patterns.
"Tashara," he announced. "The oldest game in our village. Do you play anything similar in Saltcrest, Thais?"
"We have dice games, and cards," I said, watching as he arranged small carved tokens on specific points of the board. "But nothing that looks quite like this."
"It's simple enough," Layla explained. "The dice determine how many spaces you can move. The goal is to capture your opponent's tokens while protecting your own."
"Strategy and luck," Amara added, settling beside her husband. "Much like life."
Xül took a seat to my left. "Careful," he murmured. "Teller cheats."
"I heard that!" Teller protested. "Just because you lose every time doesn't mean I cheat, Prince."
"Every time?" I raised an eyebrow at Xül. "The mighty Prince of Death, bested by a simple dice game?"
"Strategy was never his strong suit," Nuri cackled, lowering herself onto a cushion with Layla's help. "Too impulsive, this one."
"I am not impulsive," Xül objected, though he was laughing.
"Oh?" Amara's eyes danced with mischief. "Shall we remind everyone of the incident with the fishing boat?"
Xül raised an eyebrow. "Must you?"
"I’m afraid so,” Amara countered with a grin. "Thais deserves to know what kind of man she's attached herself to."
"Now this I have to hear," I said, leaning forward with interest.
Teller laughed. "It was many summers ago. What were you, twelve? Xül was determined to prove he could catch more fish than anyone in the village."
"A reasonable ambition," Xül interjected.
"So, he 'borrowed' old Tomar's boat," Amara continued, making air quotes with herfingers.
"Without permission," Layla added.
"A minor detail," Xül said with a dismissive wave.
"He sailed it out to the deep channel," Teller continued, taking over the story, his hands gesturing expansively, "where the big river fish run. But he'd never actually sailed those waters before."
"I had observed it many times," Xül protested.
"Observing and doing are very different things," Nuri said wisely, wagging a finger at him. "As he discovered when the current caught the boat and carried him straight into the weeping willows on the far bank."
