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Around me, the voices were too loud, even though I was sure they were whispering.

“Is he dead?”

“Are you sure he was the one?”

“You saw the magic he came to us with, who else could he be?”

“Perhaps we should have gone slower. A human has never contained all of this.”

“Do you truly believe he is human? Do you not see what he is?”

Slowly, my heartbeat faded from my ears, my vision began to clear until I could see my fingers, pressing white into the stone. I moved back from the puddle of my own vomit, wiping the backs of my hands on my pants.

I sat up slowly, feeling each of the bones in my back straighten, feeling my shoulders and the tension in my neck.

“What did you do?” I asked, my voice flat, because I knew. I knew exactly what they had done.

“You are the one who can know all the types of magic in the world. But we do not have time to teach you. It would take longer than your lifetime to learn.” Owl stepped out of her position, floating toward me as though her wings were carrying her across the dark night.

“Why?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure which why I was asking. Why me? Why now? Why bother?

“Because you will become our guardian. We will have no more need for these goblins and their petty complaints, their petty lives. With you to protect us, we can finally be rid of them,” Swan said. She turned away when Owl glared at her. “I’m only saying what we all think.”

“Let us perhaps put it more delicately,” Fox said. She crouched in front of me, sniffing me again, and I didn’t have the energy to push her away. “You were the prophecy we were waiting for. And we were afraid. Before that depraved king killed the One Dragon, none of us had died. If the One Dragon could be killed, then so could the rest of us. And we are a greedy, selfish lot. We will use every weapon provided to us. Including you.”

That, I understood. I understood greed. I understood selfishness. And, after so long of watching the Imperium, I understood what powerful people would do to maintain their lives and their power.

“Take me back. I want to see Tallu.” It was the only thing I could think of, the only truth I knew. I had to see Tallu, because I needed him to wrap his arms around me and protect me as only he could.

“Not yet,” Owl said.

“First show us that you have learned,” Sea Serpent said. She cradled the tear of the world in her hands, holding the silver ball against her chest. Her eyes were softer than I thought they would be.

My brain felt sluggish, each thought taking too long, and I said, “Do sea serpents truly take souls to the afterlife?”

She inhaled deeply, her eyes becoming a familiar black. I recognized her image; it was a reflection of every sea serpent that had riled the waters when I threw in the pirate bodies.

“Yes,” she said. “And Owl once stole the moon from the sky to eat it. And Ox once plowed the fields of Forsaith, granting them fertility. Spider taught the dwarves of Krustau how to build guilds instead of war. All of it is true. Now show us that our gift has not been in vain.”

I closed my eyes and thought of ice magic. My desire built a castle around me, the cold leeching warmth and making my flesh and bones ache from the intensity of it. The hair on my arms stood on end, as the walls grew tall and more complicated, layers of fractal patterns protecting me.

Then I let the anger at what the animalia had done to me burn through it, fire exploding out so fast that the base of the castle melted first, the roof of it crashing down, water slapping the stone floor with the boom of a tsunami. I sacrificed that anger to sprout flowers, soft petals shaped like hearts and ovals, curved and wondrous, their sweet scents rising into the air. My head buzzed, and Owl’s knowledge poured into me.

I tore through the ground, cracking the stone with the strength of Ox, the flowers flying into the air in a rainbow of chaos. I drew a whirlwind around me, the spiral of light and air whipping flower petals, dust, and small bits of gravel up, tearing across my skin, shoving back the animalia closest to me.

My hands closed, the whirlwind dropping down to nothing, leaving a circle of debris around me. Opening my palms, I felt a cold burn on my skin, something between ice and fire, both at the same time. Throwing my hands up, I released stars into the sky, where they hovered and gleamed. Then I pulled them back down, feeling them scream as the heat crashed back to earth. Closing my hands, I made them disappear.

“It worked,” Ox said.

“It worked,” Owl agreed, but I could hear the frown in her voice, and I knew what it meant. Owl’s magic, now contained in me, let me see ten thousand outcomes, her experience telling me which was the most likely. They were going to keep me here, force me to protect them from the Imperium and also the goblins. They would finally close their doors as they had wanted to when the One Dragon was killed.

There was one way for me to protect myself. I wrapped Fox’s magic around me and disappeared.

Thirty

Tallu was in the middle of shouting. His Dogs were tense around him, blades drawn, one goblin already lying at their feet, although he looked stunned instead of dead. Saxu stood in front of the Dogs, ordering his men to attack. I saw it all in a moment, and Owl’s knowledge let me see a way through the mess, but then her magic left me.