Callum catches up to me in the hall, having to double his steps to keep up with my long stride. At first, he says nothing but as we exit the palace, he looks at me out the corner of his eye and says, "I told her to stay away from the player's village for tonight. I can hardly believe she would make such a threat, nevertheless MEAN it."

I merely nod, acknowledging how difficult that was for him to admit. He loves her and she loves him but they had tempered that love in the snows of feigned indifference for too long. When it came down to it, their love survived on a simple truth. No matter how much Callum disliked the consequences, he would play his sparrowling's games.

"Are you frightened?" he asks after another long moment.

"I would be lying if I said I was not. I am sure Inar would have received his own black robe if he had attended the University. If he really wants my power, he will find a way to get it and there is not a damn thing I can do to stop him."

"If you had your magic do you think you could beat him?"

"Honestly? No. My magic is rather unpredictable which is detrimental in a duel. At this point, my only hope is that Vala will keep up her end of the bargain and Inar will leave the people here alone once he's finished with me."

Clapping me on the shoulder, Callum lets out a long breath, "You're a good man, Numair."

"Much to my possible demise."

"Yes, well, if that comes to pass, go to the Peaceful Lands knowing that I will be living like a king after I sell off that golden heart of yours."

Despite my decidedly dour mood, a chuckle escapes me and Callum grins victoriously, "There, that's better. Now, I think I'm going to get horribly drunk. Will you join me?"

I shake my head, a slight smile pulling at the corners of my mouth, "That would be a terrible idea. I wouldn't want to make things too easy on Inar by adding a head-splitting hangover to the mix."

"Right, then I'll get drunk and you can watch. It'll be fun."

"As you say," I reply rather sarcastically and Callum laughs.

The moment we enter the player's section of the city, I hear my name and a small body collides with my waist. I look down into the bright eyes of Evin, who is grinning up at me with so much happiness it's impossible not to smile in return.

"You came back!"

"Of course I did," I tell him with mock arrogance, "The scholar in me would never allow me to miss a lesson."

Taking my hand, he practically drags me to the small camp where the rest of our player family is gathered around the fire. They all smile at me in greeting and I become lost in their welcoming warmth.

As night descends, I let the rest of the city fall away playing sleight-of-hand games with Evin and listening to Callum sing bawdy songs off-beat from Rian's lilting flute. Unfortunately, duty descends just as quickly as the darkness.

Callum stands, swaying slightly and speaking in what is supposed to be a whisper but ends up as a slurring speech, "Well, family. Tomorrow waits for no man and it shall not wait for us. Gather your things and I will lead you from the city!"

"Why?" Evin asks, "Where are we going?"

Callum stumbles forth to clap his son on the shoulder, "Pirate's Swoop. I have decided we shall winter on the coast this year!"

"I thought we were gonna winter here?" Onua asks, suspicious, "The Swoop ain't got enough people to see us through to spring."

Callum agrees, "True, but we will not need to worry for the Baron and his Lady have decided to host us this year. We shall live in comfort within the Swoop's walls!"

"You're drunk," Rian accuses him, so I speak up.

"While that is true, what he says is valid. You all need to leave for this Pirate's Swoop before sunrise."

"Why?" asks Jarra and I can tell by the way she reaches for Rian's hand that she is not nearly as composed as she seems.

I duck my head, "The mage hunters are coming for me."

"Then we can't leave!" Onua tells Callum, her eyes wide, "We can't leave the boy to fend for himself. He's one of us!"

I capture her wise gaze, "Please, Onua. I would never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to any of you."

"We can take care of ourselves," Onua argues but Jarra places a hand on her arm.

"If Numair would feel better without us here, we should listen. Not because we are incapable but because we trust him to do things on his own." She smiles at me, "We will leave if you think it is best but only if you promise that you will meet us Pirate's Swoop."

I sigh, averting my gaze, "I cannot promise that."

Rian squeezes his wife's hand, "We are not looking for a guarantee, Numair. We are only looking for reassurance. If you promise to meet us, we will know that you did everything you could because you would never break a promise if you could help it."

Running my hands through my hair, I reluctantly say, "When you put it that way, then I suppose I cannot argue."

"You have to say the words," Evin quietly demands, his head bowed in sadness and his shaggy hair falling to obscure his features, "If you don't say the words then it's not a promise."

My focus is entirely on him as I say, "I promise."

"Good," the boy says and pushes himself to his feet to begin breaking down the camp.

The adults are frozen for a moment, staring after the boy who had broken their hearts with his ability to be both mature and innocent. It was then that I knew I had to do my best to survive the sunrise, if for no other reason than to make myself worthy of Evin's respect.

I watch my family disappear into the night, Rian and Evin half-carry a stumbling Callum while Jarra helps an only slightly less drunk Onua. It is only after I settle next to fire again that the weight of the impending sunrise weighs on me.

"Don't worry, Numair. Everything will work out alright."

I grimace at Vala as she passes into the circle of light surrounding the still-roaring fire. I wish I could mirror the confidence in her expression but that is beyond my reach at the moment.

"You are not supposed to be here."

She frowns at my sneering tone, "I know you will not make good on your threat. Besides, they are my family too; I wanted to say goodbye."

I scoff, "Really? I find that hard to believe. Did you even think about them before you put together this great conspiracy? About how they would feel?"

"Of course I did," she says and I can see the hurt in her expression before she hides it from me, "I love them."

"If you did, you would have explained this all weeks ago. Not left Callum and I to do it on the eve of destruction." Vala does not bother arguing with me and a long moment goes by in silence before I ask, in a much more even tone, "What are you really doing here, Vala?"

"My name is not Vala," she tells me, "Not right now."

"You're not Preet either. That only leaves one persona and I'd prefer not to spend what could be my last moments with the Mistress of Sparrows."

"Then who would you like to spend them with?" she asks me, curious more than anything.

I shrug, not seeing the point in lying, "I would want to spend it with Preet. The sweet little sunbird I used to know but I'm afraid she is truly lost to me."

Slowly, she moves to settle by my side and pats her lap like a mother urging her child to lay down. I shake my head.

"Lay down, my fool," she says softly and reaches over to skim her fingers down my temple, "I may not be Preet right now but I can help you find some peace before the storm."

For reasons I can't even begin to comprehend, I do as she asks. Resting my head on her lap, I look up at the stars. There are fewer here in the city than in the countryside, their nebulous beauty obscured by the lights glowing from thousands of windows.

Vala begins to hum, her beautiful voice rising and falling in a melody that I recognize as the same song she had sung to me in the days before she became trapped in human form. Her soft hands comb through my hair, gently detangling my curls and arranging them in a fan around my head. It is the first time I realize I have not cut my hair in months, falling back into the habit of tying it back with whatever I could find without knowing I had.

"It's almost back to its old length." Vala echoes my thoughts, lifting the tendrils so I can see them before they slide through her fingers to fall back across her legs. "I like that Numair has long hair now. It reminds me of Arram and I think you'll need Arram more then you'll need Numair tomorrow."

"I'll need them both," I tell her, "Arram knows magic but Numair knows how to survive."

Her voice goes distant and I look up to see her head has fallen back, staring at the sky above, "You must survive. Otherwise, we will all end up at the mercy of Chaos."

"I thought you were supposed to be taking care of that?"

She looks back down at me and I become lost in the void of her infinite eyes. Set against the universe above, they make me feel small. Another spoke in the wheel of time. "No one can save the world alone."

Waving away her prophetic words, I say, "It's hardly the world at stake."

"You don't know that," she says, "not even the gods know how each battle, big or small, might affect the path of the world. All they can do is place the pieces and hope for the best."

"This isn't a game, Preet," my voice remains soft, instructing rather than admonishing.

"I know. You might not think I do, but I do. Sometimes it's easier to think about things like a game though, that the pieces will go back to normal once it's all over but they don't. When the sun sets tomorrow, everything will be different."

That brings a question to my lips before I can stop it, "How are you going to manage to send ALL the mage hunters away? It nearly killed you just to stop those three in the alley."

"I cannot die, my fool. I'm an immortal." Her confidence is fool-hearted, she is not a sunbird anymore and therefore no longer immortal, but that is hardly the point.

"You aren't planning to live through tomorrow, are you?"

She shrugs as if the answer she gives is of little importance, "My life is not what matters in the end."

Despite the residual anger I feel toward her, I reach up to let my fingers brush the skin beneath her eye, "It matters to me. I won't let you die for me."

"You cannot stop me. I will keep up my end of the deal. You must keep yours."

"I thought only tricksters used deals?" I ask her, my voice empty of the light that would have made the words into a jest.

"Yep. I am a trickster. You are not."

I want to tell her that she is wrong. Then a thought occurs to me and I don't let myself think about the potential consequences, if I do I might talk myself out of it. Slowly, I sit up and take her hand into mine. My magic rises to the surface of my skin. "I'm sorry, pretty bird."

Her eyes widen in betrayal for only a moment before they soften into a smile, "You really are a clever fool."

The barrier cannot contain both the sunbird magic and my gift, cracking like glass under pressure before rupturing completely. The overwhelming power ignites my blood and threatens to turn me to ash from the inside out. Then Vala's hand falls from mine and the pain stops, leaving me caught in a state of cold fusion as my magic and Vala's dance freely around me.

Her eyes roll back in her head and I catch her as she falls. Lifting her into my arms, carry her through the city.

With her magic running through me, I can feel the hearts of every person and I touch each one, finding the those blackened by chaos and silently whispering a command. Vala's magic forces them to obey, taking control of their limbs and sending them running from the city.

Not really knowing where I am going, I find myself at the palace standing in the room where Alanna and George are sleeping, fit together like two puzzle pieces. As the magic reaches out to them, they wake with a start and pull weapons from secret places around their bed.

Alanna is the first to blink me into focus, lowering her dagger and furrowing her brow, "Numair? What in Oblivion?"

Turning, I gently lay Vala down in an overstuffed chair, "Will you watch over her? When she wakes, she will not be happy about what I have done." I don't like hearing my voice distorted in that same chorus Vala had used to send away the mage hunters in the alley.

"Wat 'R ya doin', mate?" asks George, rubbing a hand down his face.

I pass Vala one last plea for forgiveness before pinning Alanna and George with a look that would brook no argument, "I have sent all the mage hunters away from the city. Now there is only Inar to deal with. I am going to face him. Alone."

"You think that's a good idea?" Alanna asks.

My shrug comes off as absent, "I think it is the right thing to do."

Alanna flips back her covers, "I'll help."

"I'd prefer if you didn't," I tell her, and she becomes still as Vala's magic arrests her. If glares could kill, I would have been dead at that moment.

"Release me," she sneers and I do, my head hanging sadly.

"Forgive me. I have never used this type of magic before."

"Ya took de birdie's magic," says George.

I nod, "I could not let her sacrifice herself for my sake. She has much more to live for than I do."

"You shouldn't be so ready to discount your own life," Alanna growls, tossing her feet over the side of the bed and struggling to stand around her large belly, "You sound just like my brother. He was a damned fool too, forgetting about the people who care about him."

"I do not plan to die," I say and step backward toward the threshold of the room, "but if I do, it means I won't be anyone's pawn anymore."

Alanna moves to stand before me, narrowing her eyes at me in command, "If you die, you fool, I'll drag you back from the Black God to kill you myself."

George chuckled but it rang partially sad, "I'd listen ta her, mate. She don't make such threats easily."

Despite myself, I smile at her, "I will do my best."

Waving me off, she says, "Then go, dolt. I'll make sure your damned songbird doesn't interfere."

I force down the platitudes that stick in my throat. There is nothing I can say that would not be a lie. Instead, I say, "Thank you, Alanna."

She turns away from me, "You'd best hurry before I change my mind."

A familiar face awaits me outside the palace, leaning against one of the guard walls as if she has not a care in the world. Seeing the elderly goddess, I can almost believe it is all a dream but I know it's not. "I told you to follow the sparrow. Did you forget?"

"Of course not," I tell the Graveyard Hag, not looking at her but toward the sun ascending over the walls and continuing on my path toward it, "but I cannot continue to do so. Not with so many lives at stake."

Pushing away from the wall, the Hag falls into step beside me, smiling her knowing smile, "I know, my clever boy. I'm glad you chose not to. You've opened up a whole new world of possibilities."

Forgetting myself, I say, "At least someone doesn't think I'm a complete idiot."

For a mere moment, the perpetual grin flickers from her face, "I wouldn't say that. You might have just made things worse, depending on how things turn out, but I've done all I can for you. Things I shouldn't have done but that I'll gladly pay the price for."

"Why?" I ask, not surprised, merely curious.

She smirks, "I already told you. Clever fools are my weakness."

"That's good to know. I still owe you for what you did to Preet."

She scoffs and waves away my words, an admission without truth falling from her lips, "We'll fight about that later. Just know I'm bettin' on you..."

A set of dice, carved from diamond and faced with rubies, drops from the Graveyard Hag's hand to roll across my path. I step over the three and six that look up at me, the magic number three multiplied by itself.

Though the Graveyard Hag has disappeared from my side, I hear her cackle echo through my mind, "...So you'd best stay alive, my boy. I don't like to lose."