Dance of Thieves

Prepare your hearts,

For we must not only be ready

for the enemy without,

but also the enemy within.

Prepare your hearts,

For we must not only be ready

for the enemy without,

but also the enemy within.

—Song of Jezelia

Gather close, my brothers and sisters.

We have touched the stars,

And the dust of possibility is ours.

But the work is never over.

Time circles. Repeats.

We must ever be watchful.

Though the Dragon rests for now,

He will wake again

And roam the earth,

His belly ripe with hunger.

And so shall it be,

For evermore.

—The Song of Jezelia

Gather close, my brothers and sisters.

We have touched the stars,

And the dust of possibility is ours.

But the work is never over.

Time circles. Repeats.

We must ever be watchful.

Though the Dragon rests for now,

He will wake again

And roam the earth,

His belly ripe with hunger.

And so shall it be,

For evermore.

—The Song of Jezelia

sometimes you can’t begin to know everything you’ve lost until someone shows you what you might have had.

“I love you, Jase Ballenger.”

“My tomorrows are yours, Jase. I want them all to be with you.”

But then he looked at me, and my mind became
a windstorm, memories whirling in a riotous tunnel, and I saw it all sweeping away, out of my reach.

“and I won’t take it back. I love you, Kazi of Brightmist, and I will never stop loving you, not through a thousand tomorrows. Come back with me. Please.”

Some said it began with the stars.

They brought a magic the world could not contain.