Lineage (Book 3 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Nine: Invisible Ink

Through teleportation and a fair bit of ingenuity, Katerin and her companions were able to find their way onto Luminya, without ships travel, or the teleportation wards to haze them. Lugaria had offered them the location, and following his directions, they were not far from the city. Fykes' magical cloak had horses, of course, but the four of them had opted to remain on foot for most of their short journey so far.

Katerin could not explain the feeling as she, Arjiah, Fykes, and Brazen traveled down the muddy stretch of Crimson Way toward Hearth-Home. Its tall walls with their elegant crenelations invoked the memory of her departure of the city, and if she had not been preoccupied, she may have cried. Seeing the tower peeking above the walls in the distance warmed her heart, even while Lugaria's words echoed somewhere in the back of her mind.

Stay out of it, Katerin.

"Perhaps it's a good time to disguise yourself?" Arjiah gave her a sympathetic look.

Katerin sighed and paused in her stride to pull a stick of charcoal from her bag. She drew several lines across her face and her collarbone, and her she even smudged some into her hair. She spoke under her breath with her eyes closed and when she opened them she felt the magic fall over her like mist. Her hair was now a soft blonde instead of raven black, her eyes were a darker blue, her lips thicker. Her ears no longer held a soft point, and her stature was thicker, while her skin was tanned and freckled, instead of pale and marked with the mark of the Storm Bearer. "Think it'll fool them?" It was only an illusion, but that was as far as she wanted to go with such magics.

Some had the ability to change themselves completely, but she knew that such magic took time to master, and though she was confidant in her ability to pull off an illusion, she had no desire to be anybody else.

Arjiah looked her over and nodded without hesitation. "You look worlds different."

"We're likely to lose you in the crowd," Fykes said, with a reassuring grin. "How long will it stay?"

"Most of the day, if I focus." She looked to the soft gray cloak about her shoulders and grimaced. She missed the thicker enchanted fabric of her Sahn-Raidar cloak and not wearing it almost felt like a crime.

Despite the amiable relationship between Sahn-Raidar and the city of Hearth-Home, she knew her cloak would only find her trouble. She was posing as her neighbors daughter, after all. A sweet tempered herbalist, by the name of Nessia De'vrin, who had left the city near to the same time she had, bound for the Elves of Uhm'bantha to study religion and ceremony.

And Nessia De'vrin had no love or knowledge of Sahn-Raidar.

"We have to call you Nessia?" Brazen asked, looking at her with visible discomfort.

"Only for a little while," she tried to reassure him.

"What if the spell fades while you're in the street? Or if someone rids you of it. You told me yourself there's a lot of magic in this city and—"

"All will be alright, Brazen. We don't have to worry." Arjiah said, patting his shoulder.

Brazen sighed heavily, but shrugged with one last disdainful look to his clothes. Since they had returned from Alkyrindaun, Brazen had taken a liking to bright and strange fashions, but Katerin had asked him to change them, for the sake of attention within the city. "I can get a weapon if I need one, but I don't like these clothes."

"Our weapons are still with us, and they will be back in our hands once we find somewhere safe in the city," Katerin said. "This is only a show for the guards, and they won't question simple travelers such as ourselves. Besides, you look too young to be a guard."