Chapter One
Everyone laughs.
Everyone laughs for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it's done because something is, well, funny. Sometimes it's done in mockery. Sometimes it's done as a surrender to absurdity. Sometimes it's done when the only alternative is to sob and one just refuses to give in to the misery. But one of the better reasons is in the midst of a lovely evening with friends, with good food and drink and the feeling of warmth that flowed to and from one another that came from mutual affection, respect, and the passage of time.
Such evenings happened with some regularity for Bryana Lia these days and it seemed that only now, after some years having passed in the normal world, was she beginning to get the hang of them. Mages had associates and acquaintances, but they had few friends because knowing who to trust was always a risk. Within a guild, the risk was usually in opening yourself to becoming part of someone's political play to raise their own position or diminish another's, perhaps even your own by the time it was all said and done. Some guilds thrived on such internal politics, believing that the strongest emerged victorious and all benefited in the end.
She even believed that once, but had long since abandoned the notion, as life and practical experience showed her that it weakened a guild more than helped. Some were so immersed in trying to emerge victorious within their own walls that they spent precious little time building wealth or, as Bryana believed as one of the most important functions of a guild; to pass on their knowledge to future generations and build upon it so knowledge could be gained and archived.
And they had fewer still when it came to mere mortal friends. Choosing to tell the wrong soul could mean that one would sway in the breeze with a rope around their neck one fine dawn. In some ways, for all their power, a mage's life was more fragile than almost any other. Sometimes the slightest mistake could shatter it. But these friends, while unskilled in the art of the forbidden magics, knew of her and were unafraid. It was so because they had all traveled together years before to face a sorceress that threatened the known world and beyond. They had traveled to it via magic, and, over the march of days, had seen it unchained, for good and ill.
They fought at Bryana's side along with their general, Neral Jaye, along with Neral's husband by law and Bryana's mate through love, Deres Valtise. The three of them were one, and together, along with the soldiers assembled, saved a world that didn't know it needed saving.
Bryana had sort of expected for them to go their separate ways afterward and was somewhat surprised when they not only reached out to her, but embraced her. For a soldier of Erette, one that they shed blood and tears with was not left behind or forgotten. Finally, after years, and sometimes conscious awareness and effort to lower her guard, she felt comfortable with them.
So tonight found her with three of those friends, Anna, Abren, and Dion. They met every few weeks for games, after dinner drinks, and just to talk. She often teased Neral about her similar gatherings with her sisters and Bryana had been a part of those too, occasionally, so she knew of what she spoke. Those could be raucous, probably, Bryana surmised, because their station demanded a certain strict propriety as part of their station in almost every other circumstance, so they took the opportunity to be loud and unrestrained.
Bryana's gathering with friends was usually a quieter affair even though it could tend toward the unrestrained, which was fine. It was closeness and familiarity. It was that sense of both that she basked in as they gathered in Dion's home. Ynesa stood as Neral Jaye's second and among the most trusted of her officers. They had seen much together in their years and found even more in common now with young children of the same age, both of them upstairs.
"That book was
awful
, Anna," Bryana chided, wincing at even the thought of some of the passages.
She was amused by Bryana's pain. "I told you."
"Why did you make me suffer a book like that? 'The night was so hot and wet, no one could remember a night so hot and wet?'"
Anna laughed at the line and the groans from the other women. "Why should I suffer alone? Besides, relax and embrace the badness, and it's hilarious. You laughed. You laughed your ass off. Try and tell me you didn't."
Bryana's deep blue eyes carried the humor before she lost the ability to maintain a straight face. "I did. It was deliciously awful. If the author was attempting humor, he succeeded spectacularly. Unfortunately, my sense was that it was supposed to be a serious effort. In that event, I pity him. Truly."
After another wave of laughter passed, Dion declared, "I must read this book."
"I shall be sure to give it to Neral to pass it to you."
"Start it after you've had a few and it's even better."
Dion raised her brow and smirked with Anna's comment, "I'll keep that in mind."
"But not too many because then the words blur."
"Understood."
Abren wanted to know, "Is there a drinking problem going on, Anna?"
"I polish off alcohol fine, it's not a problem at all."
"As long as you're sober for duty, no one cares."
Anna raised her glass with a smile, "And that's why Colonel Dion and General Jaye are so beloved."
The adults were reminded of the presence of children in the home when a thud emanated from the ceiling of the study, followed by a deafening silence.
"Sounds like they are asleep to me," Anna observed with wry amusement.
Dion's brown eyes mirrored that, her pale golden skin creating a striking contrast. "Did you ever actually sleep during a sleepover?"
"Not before dawn usually," she admitted. "Not going to do anything about that though, huh?"
Abren, mother of five children herself, still very fit for service, and proud of it, really only displaying her years through some gray on her temples and some fine lines, chimed in in equally good-natured defense. "Why should she? Unless you see blood, smell smoke, or hear screams, it's children being children. They will be ashamed of getting caught and be on their best behavior for one minute per year of age, which, in this case, means about five minutes, then they'll be back at it."
"You should check, Dion," Anna quipped, sipping her drink and folding her legs into herself as she relaxed her archer's sinewy frame into the plush antique chair. "Maybe Khylen blasted a hole through the side of the house." She shifted her gaze to Bryana with another sip and a playful smile. "Did you teach her that yet?"
Bryana blushed, "No, I have not taught her that."
"Going to?"
Bryana tried to defer. "Someday. If she chooses to know."
"How could she not? Her father and her second mother know all sorts of incredible things. How could a curious child not want to know?"
"Because she may not want to. Her path is hers to walk."
"I bet she does." Anna laughed, contemplating the possibilities, raising her arm an extending her fingers in her imitation of how she'd seen Deres and Bryana unleash mage fire in battle before creating her own appropriate sound effects. "You're it."
The women laughed at that, and even Bryana chuckled at the notion. She often considered how some of the bullying of her childhood might have gone differently if she knew then what she knew now. Also, if she'd had the confidence of now then, she would not have gone down the path of the bully herself and then maybe other things would have been different, too.
Abren sided with Bryana. "As much as we might like them to be little versions of us, so that maybe "we" really sort of go on and maybe we can watch them fix some of our mistakes or maybe take the roads we didn't, they're their own people and will make their own choices and own mistakes. By the Goddess, Anya is a scientist," she said, referring to her youngest. "She picks apart what makes the world work and all I've ever done is march and slash."
"But you do both with aplomb," Dion told her with sincerity.
