An abandoned boy, a grieving prince, and a reclusive sorcerer find themselves caught in a web of peril and mystery...
Domi, a young thief abandoned on the street at birth, just wants to save his dying foster mother. But first, he must survive the m...
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Sometimes Domi wished he were a less principled person. If only Merula had not raised him as a believer in the Eternal Radiance. Were he burdened with less of a sense of decency, he would be rich. The New Year's Observance offered the perfect opportunity to strip Urbs Hostiae of much of its wealth.
The whole city glittered and gleamed like a pocket turned inside out. Every single person capable of getting out of bed poured out into the streets. Best of all, most wore their observance finery.
Everywhere Domi turned, his eyes landed on something worth snatching: A hand-painted sash. Silver and gold ear cuffs. A belt of fine, colorful glass beads. Strands of necklaces, dripping with glittering jewels. Leather-bound or hand-illustrated copies of the Holy Ovidiana, with intricate cover art. Hairpins, broaches, tunica cufflinks, and paenula clasps. Not to mention the goblets, crystalware, and painted porcelain cups many people brought with them.
Domi would have brought his own dented but sturdy tankard for the ceremony. If he hadn't pawned it.
He elbowed his way between two youths, earning a curse, and grinned over his shoulder at his ma, wondering if the same thoughts crossed her mind.
But Merula did not pay attention to the fine trinkets all around them. She wavered on her feet, hunched with her hands on her knees and coughing between wheezing gasps. Like Domi feared, the short walk from the slums to the streets outside Urbs Hostiae's amphitheater had been too much for her.
He hurried near and rubbed her back, helplessness making his belly churn. "Let me take you home."
"N-no." She swatted his hand away and managed to lever herself halfway upright. She squinted at him in the crimson evening light, her face so glossy her skin reflected the sullen red sunlight more than her hair did. "And miss the f-feast?"
"But—"
"Boy, leave me be. Look, it's starting."
In the cloudless sky above, the Trellis's gentle evening glow dimmed until only the faintest golden threads crisscrossed the heavens in a delicate net.
A hush fell over the crowd, and despite his worry, Domi's heart swelled with awe. There was something magnificent about knowing everyone around the world saw the same thing he did now. They were all watching magic, the real magic upholding heaven and earth, together.
Hunters watched in the night-side borderlands. Farmers stood in their fields, gazing at the sky. City dwellers here and in the faraway world capital of Vola Apertus, where the Rex and Princepses led the planet in these yearly devotions, witnessed the magic together.
Some people needed to travel from deep in the night-side to watch beneath the light of a Trellis Isle. Others gathered under the day-side lattice. Yet all shared the same experience. Pullati, commoners, and middle-class folk in the streets beheld the same splendor as rich people and Promethidae in city amphitheaters. All around Aquarius, everyone witnessed this miraculous gift of light and beauty as one.
