Bonus Story: Jeryn Plans a CelebrationJeryn de Machaut woke with apprentice magician Talisman Morning in his arms, and thought for a moment that this must be perfection: that no aria or story or quick light art of sword-motion could be better than the autumn red of Talis’s curling hair in his face, and the slow steady sensation of Talis breathing sleep-soft against his collarbone.
He lay without moving, arm around the man he loved. Outside, beyond their upstairs room’s wide windows, the city began to wake: the Isle of Averene, the center of the kingdom, stirring. Market-calls. Ship’s docks, loading and unloading along the river. The bells of the Church, greeting the dawn.
Jer was not particularly religious—his family was, and occasionally asked about his Church-going in the city, a quest
