Page 11 of Shardless

She found Josiah sitting alone in the back corner of the deserted hall, his small booth almost devoid of any mentionable wares. Random pieces of obscure mortal tech hung here and there, but, overall, the scattered array of worthless junk made the little booth easy to ignore. At least for those that didn’t know to look closer. No, Josiah’s choice stock was only available to those that knew to ask.

Sunken eyes peered out from a haggard, wrinkled face, and Josiah scowled when he saw Taly approach. Though he was technically fey, Josiah, like Taly, was shardless. He still had the characteristic pointed ears of the fey, but his body couldn’t absorb enough aether to cast even the most basic of spells. Too many generations of breeding with humans had stripped away the two things the fey valued most—magic and immortality.

“Hey Josie,” Taly said, sidling up to the trader.

Josiah’s voice, graveled with age, carried a note of annoyance. “Taly. What do you want?”

“Good morning to you too,” Taly remarked, unfazed by his surly attitude.

“Don’t give me any of your lip, Caro,” Josiahgrowled. Lifting a splotched and wrinkled hand, he scratched at what was left of his hair. “Not after what I did for you.”

Taly scoffed, burying her hands in her pockets as she leaned forward. “Don’t act like you did me any favors, old man. I’m paying you far more than I need to.”

“You’re paying me because I’m discreet.” The trader reached behind him and pulled out a small, nondescript parcel wrapped in brown paper. “What do you think the Marquess would say if he found out his precious little girl was messing around with hyaline?”

“He’d probably send me to my room,” Taly replied with a confident smirk. While hyaline, or dead crystal as it was more commonly called, was highly regulated by an almost absurdly extensive set of laws, she hadn’ttechnicallybroken any of them. “After all, there’s nothing that says I can’t take a bunch of crystals that are just lying on the ground. How was I even supposed to know what they were? Without the proper tools, hyaline is almost indistinguishable from quartz. If questioned, I could easily argue that I’m innocent—a victim of my own ignorance.”

Taly batted her eyelashes, all sweetness and light. “I can’t say the same for you, however. I mean, you did test the crystals for purity before you agreed to smuggle them to Ebondrift. And you’re also the one that paid the crafters, both for their services and their silence. Face it, Josie. You’re as culpable in this little joint venture as I am at this point. Maybe more so. Your threats are empty.”

Josiah’s low chuckle sounded like sandpaper scraping against stone. “You’ve got teeth, kid.” Hehanded her the parcel. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

Taly took the package and quickly stuffed it into her pack. “By the way,” she whispered, eyeing the door to the main room nervously, “I heard a rumor someone was trying to get rid of some time crystals.”

Josiah’s eyes widened in surprise. “And now you’ve gone and lost it… I didn’t take you for stupid.”

Taly shrugged. “Last I heard, the Genesis Lords in the mortal realm were trying to gather up the remaining time crystals. If there were someone with a stash, they’d stand to make some good coin when the Aion Gate opens.”

“If they managed to survive that long. Especially with the Sanctorum in town. Those butchers are edgy—you can tell just by lookin’ at ‘em. I swear to the Shards, if they break the treaty and try to hunt in the mortal realm, we’ll find ourselves in a full-scale war. The High Lord of Water is just lookin’ for a reason to break ties with the Dawn Court.”

“True,” Taly conceded. The Genesis Lords in the mortal realm had taken a hardline stance against the Sanctorum’s fearmongering. “But c’mon Josie, coin is coin.” And information was information, regardless of what she decided to do with it.

“Even so, I draw the line at peddling time crystals,” Josiah grunted. And with that, the surly trader turned back to his wares.

Taking that as her signal to leave, Taly started to walk away, back towards the crowd in the main room. “Hey Taly,” Josiah called, just loud enough for her to hear above the noise trickling in from the doorway.

Taly turned back to the old trader, noting the unusual expression on his face. He almost looked… concerned? She didn’t know the old man was capable of something so sentimental.

“Don’t go gettin’ mixed up in that time crystal shit. Hyaline is one thing, but time crystals? You ask the wrong person the wrong question… that’s how people disappear.”

Taly nodded in reply, pulling her hood up to hide her hair and face as she re-entered the main room. She didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention with such precious cargo on her person.

As she headed back towards the light flooding in from the entrance, she gingerly fingered the brown package. A slow smile curled her lips, revealing the dimples in her cheeks.

“Happy birthday to me...” she sang, almost feeling optimistic.

Taly was halfway to the city gates, wondering if the two coppers she’d found on the street outside the Swap might be enough for a day-old loaf of bread, when an unexpected hand clamped down on her shoulder. She barely had time to cry out before she found herself pulled into a familiar embrace.

“Talya Caro, as I live and breathe. It’s beenalmost a month. I was starting to worry about you.”

Smiling softly, Taly wrapped her arms around the woman and returned her embrace. Sarina Castaro was not put off easily, and truthfully, Taly was surprised she had managed to elude the persistent noblewoman for as long as she had.

“That’s not my fault,” Taly mumbled into the freshly laundered shoulder of her old governess’ shirt. She smelled like soap and perfume, things that still made her think of bedtime stories and goodnight kisses. To Taly, Sarina would always smell like home. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply before responding. “I’ve been where I’ve always been.”

Sarina pulled back and studied the younger woman, her bright blue eyes shaded by a wide, floppy-brimmed hat. Highborn eyes could be disconcerting to those who weren’t used to seeing the vivid, almost dreamlike colors. Their irises were surreal, like pure unadulterated pigment against a stark white canvas. Any hues that may have overlapped with mortals were so much more intense that it made human eyes look like mud in comparison.

Leaning down so she could look Taly in the eye, Sarina asked, “And where is that? Getting into trouble?”

Taly just shrugged, fiddling with the twine on the concealed package. She couldn’t really deny it.

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