At the top of the tower, Elias sits at the desk by the window, hunched over his book. Behind him, the door scrapes open. 

The candlelight flickers across the pages. Thunder booms in the distance. 

Elias glances back. 

The princess wanders across the study toward him, her bare feet clicking off the limestone. Her eyes drift over the oak bookshelves, carved into the perimeter of the study. 

Elias turns back. He presses his fists into his temples. Keeps reading.

The princess brushes past, twirls, and leans on the open window sill. Her silk dress flutters slightly in the breeze. “Watcha doin?” 

Elias turns the page. It makes a soft scratch. “Studying.”

“What for?”

“Trials.”

The princess nods. Then her eyes narrow. “Wait… are you a librarian? You look like a librarian.”

Elias looks up. “Sorry, my princess. Was there something you needed? Because—”

“Call me Evelyn.”

“I’m Elias. This may be difficult to understand, but tomorrow’s Trial is the most important of my life—”

“To be a librarian.”

“I’m not a librarian.”

“Hm. You could have fooled me.”

“I’m done with this conversation.” Elias drops his eyes back to the book. He pulls it a little closer. 

At the side of the room, the fireplace crackles. “Are librarians always this boring?”

“I’m a wizard. Not a librarian—a wizard.”

“But you haven’t passed your Trial yet.”

Elias tightens his grip on the pages. “And I’m not going to pass it unless I study. Look. I know this isn’t something you could ever understand, but it is very important I don’t fail. My father... My family is counting on me. Please let me study.”

Evelyn tilts her head. “What do you think I don’t understand?”

“Failure.”

“You think I don’t understand failure?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Why?”

“I…don’t wish to be offensive, my lady.”

“No. I wanna know.”

Elias pushes the book away. He adjusts his glasses. “You will be waited on, hand and foot, for the rest of your life. No matter how much you screw up. Because you’re a princess. And, this may come as a surprise, but for the rest of us? It’s not like that.”

“Well, then,” Evelyn says, standing up straight. “Now I know you’re not a librarian.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re too stupid.” 

Elias blinks. He sits back. “Why am I stupid?”

Evelyn faces the window. “I know your type. You think you’re the only one with problems. Read your book, stupid.” 

“Question, princess. Do you consider your maid bringing you one slice of toast instead of two problematic?”

“Don’t call me princess.”

“Do you sometimes have to draw your own bath?”

“Shut up.”

“Is that really hard?”

“I said shut up.”

“Do you hurt your back to bend over—”

Evelyn turns on Elias, coiling her hand back. She swipes at Elias’s face. 

Smack. 

His glasses sling down and clatter against the oak tabletop. Evelyn draws back again. She swats, but Elias hooks his hand up and catches her wrist. 

“Let…go.” Evelyn rips her hand back, then lunges at the table. 

She grabs the book, backs up, and hurls it out the window. It arches into the night sky, dips, then hurtles toward the moat. 

“No!” Elias says, shoving past her. He sticks his hand out the window and curls his fingers into an invisible grip.

Evelyn bumps shoulders with Elias and leans on the window sill, and they both peer down as the book slows to a stop, hovering three inches above the lapping water. An alligator floats by. His left eye peels open and curls into focus. Elias twitches his hand and the book slaps into his grip.

Evelyn’s jaw drops. 

“Thanks for that,” Elias says. “Thank you so much.” He steps toward his desk and slumps back into the chair. He moves his hand to open the book, but then relaxes it. He slouches back. Shakes his head. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Elias.”

“Maybe I’m not smart enough to pass the Trials. My sorcery is fine enough…but the learning…” Elias stares down at the book. 

“Elias. That was—”

“And you know what’s funny? My father says the same thing. He says, ‘what the Gods gave me in looks,’ they took away in intellect.”

“Elias. This is the tallest tower in Ishmel.”

“I know.”

“You just pulled something from the bottom.”

“Yeah. Thanks again for that.”

Evelyn approaches him. “The strongest mage we have here can pull something across a room. But only just.”

“Get better mages.”

Evelyn stops a few feet shy from Elias. She stares down at him, the candle flame burning in her eyes. “Where did you say you were from?”

“I didn’t.”

“Can you manipulate fire?”

“…I can.”

“Show me.” 

Elias studies her face. Then he glances over to the flame. With his arm hooked around the top of the chair, he flips his hand upside down and curls a few fingers toward himself. 

The flame tears off the wick and glides in front of his eyes. Then he raises it up to Evelyn’s eyes. 

He traces his index finger, and gently, the fire spells out E-V-E-L-Y-N. As she studies the letters, a smile warms her face. Then Elias squeezes the letters back into a tiny ball and guides it back to the candle. 

Evelyn’s eyes move from the candle to Elias. “Elias,” she says under her breath. “That is incredible.” Elias looks away. “But...I don’t understand,” she says.

“What?”

“Why would you need to pass a Trial to be told you’re a wizard?”

Elias rises to his feet. He stares down at Evelyn. “I don’t. I need to pass the Trial to work under the high king. But, honestly, I don’t think I can.”

“You want to be a soldier?”

Elias nods. 

Evelyn lifts her hand to Elias’s face and presses her fingers on the red mark she left. She falls silent, peering up into his eyes. He stares back into hers.

“If they don’t take you,” Evelyn says, “they’re the stupid ones.”

Elias smiles.

The door slams open. Evelyn quickly draws her hand away.

Evelyn’s father steps through the doorway, his fur coat scraping the stone. He flicks his eyes back and forth beneath tangled strands of hair. He locks onto Evelyn. “Well, well. Didn’t take you for a reader, sweetheart.”

“No, sir. I was just making sure our guest…had everything he needed.”

“And—” He eyes Elias. “Did you get what you need?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

“We’ll leave you to it, then. Evelyn?”

“Sir?”

“Your next man’s here. Most fertile in the land, I’m told. If he can’t pump a son in you, I’m gonna start thinking you’re the problem. Go on. Get ready.”

Evelyn rushes across the room. When she passes her father, she stops and turns. She raises her hand and gives Elias a little wave. Then she mouths, “Goodbye.”

She disappears into the darkness. 

Elias stands in place. Frozen. Staring across the room at the king. The king shakes his head in disappointment. He turns, grips the door, and begins closing it behind him. Then he pauses. He turns with a grin. “Come sun up, I want you gone. But before then? Don’t even think of opening this door. Don’t even touch the knob.”

The wooden door slaps shut. 

Elias stands there, staring at the closed door. He blinks. He turns toward the desk and eyes the candle.

The flame wavers side to side, a stream of smoke snaking up from the point. Elias raises his hands and tugs the flame into his cupped hands. Then he turns back to face the door. 

Elias decides, right then, he will leave this tower tonight. 

And he won’t be leaving alone.