The Magician

Chapter I

I slipped through the door of the shop, barely concealing a smile. Closing it behind me, I breathed a happy sigh and battled to suppress an excited squeak. In an attempt to pass through unnoticed, I headed for the stairs. However, Asra, never one to miss a thing, appeared in the doorway to the shrouded back room where customers have their fortunes read through the cards.

"Pleasant evening?" My master asked, with a lopsided smirk.

"I guess you could say so." I practically tripped over every word that tumbled from my mouth, grinning sheepishly.

"Did you eat?" he asked, choosing to ignore my awkward demeanour. He's forever asking after my well-being like that.

I assured him that I had, and that I could really do with some rest. With an odd expression, Asra bid me goodnight and retreated back into the dimly lit room.

Upstairs, I leapt onto my small but blissfully soft bed. Struggling to contain my excited, adrenaline-fuelled energy burst, I allowed myself one more high-pitched squeak into my balled hands. The same giddy smile I'd been wearing all evening cracked my face once again. In my minds eye, I was replaying the night's events over and over on a loop.

—

Under the guise of going out to meet a visiting cousin near the marketplace, I left Asra tending to a fragrant soup and headed out into the dusky twilight. After walking for a while, a tall figure cloaked in heavy black fabric appeared from an alley to my right. I started before realising, this was who I had come to see.

Julian offered me his arm and we continued our walk in comfortable silence. Although nothing was official between us as such, we both knew our affections were reciprocated. We were headed for the evening markets, where we would eat delicious street food and simply enjoy each other's company.

"So what did you say you were doing tomorrow?" Julian's question brought me back to the present.

"Oh, I'll just be working in the shop again, maybe practicing with the cards later."

"The shop? The magic shop down that little side street back there?"

"That's the one," I replied. "Why?"

A flicker of some emotion I couldn't place danced across Julian's eyes, but he recovered composure in a split second and smiled.

"I think I knew the owner of that shop once."

It occurred to me then that I had no idea how the shop had come to be, or really anything about Asra's past. It also dawned on me that Julian felt awfully familiar, and that it had been him who had apparently broken into the shop a few weeks ago.

"Who, Asra?" I asked.

"Yes, the magician and I were once..." his sentence trailed off.

I decided not to press the matter further, and when I spoke again, Julian jumped, seemingly jolted from a deep daydream.

"Shall we dance?" I asked.

A small group of musicians had started up a merry tune in a somewhat open area. Julian smiled down at me, bowed deeply, and offered me his hand.

Much of the rest of the night passed as a blur, as Julian whirled me around the cobbled courtyard. Eventually, though, the air grew chilly and the crowd thinned, and we walked back in the direction of the shop. We walked slower and slower as we grew closer to the shop, but finally we approached the familiar oak door.

"Until we meet again, then." Julian breathed, bending down to brush my cheek with a kiss.

I blushed, fumbling to open the door. When I looked up again, Julian had vanished into the moonless night.