Free Bone, Fog, Ash & Star by Catherine Egan

interested. “The separation of the worlds is slowing down.”
“The Mancers are weakening,” murmured Foss. “Perhaps. Perhaps.”
“Perhaps what?” asked Eliza.
Foss shook his head. “I do not know. Something different is needed. But to know what, I must see the Original Spell. I will speak to Aysu.”
Eliza tried to be diplomatic. “I can see how this might be important, aye, but it could be a wild goose chase, too. And we dinnay have time for a wild goose chase. Have you done any reading at all about the Thanatosi?”
“Indeed I have, Eliza. My research on calling off the Thanatosi has turned up nothing, I regret to say. But do not be discouraged! It is too soon to give up hope, Eliza Tok! It is much too soon!”
“Thank you for helping me, Foss. I hope you’re nay putting yourself in danger.”
“It is my nature, I suppose,” he replied cheerfully. “All the books on the Thanatosi are there on the floor. Look through them if you like. I will take this to Aysu.”
He gathered up the loops of paper in his arms. Eliza fondly watched him go before settling down to read. ~~~
Aysu was staring at her hands on the desk as if they did not belong to her. A knock came and she started. She could not remember what she had been thinking, what she had been doing, how long she had been sitting here. She looked at the wall, full of trepidation. She was troubled by her trance this morning. The black crab that should have led her to a vision had been washing listlessly against the shore, as if lifeless on the waves. The knock came again. What could she do? She drew a symbol in the air with one shaking finger and the door appeared and opened. It was Foss. She felt a mixture of anger and relief.
“Spellmaster,” she greeted him, as civilly as she could.
He bowed. He was holding something in his hand. A long scroll. Perhaps this one would speak to her.
“Pardon my intrusion,” he said very formally. “If your Eminence would look at this?”
She nodded. With a flourish he unrolled the scroll across her desk. As she looked at it she felt a shadow around her heart, a frightening constriction in her throat. It made no sense to her at all, these marks and scratches on paper. She could not focus her eyes, she could not read it. It meant nothing.
“What is this?” she asked angrily.
“I have been charting the progress of the separation of the worlds,” explained Foss, very animated. “Do you know it has never been done? I thought…”
“Kyreth is right about you!” cried Aysu, pushing the scroll off her desk so it tumbled looping to the floor. Foss took a step back, amazed. Aysu strode around the desk, walking over the scroll so she was eye to eye with him.
“You seek trouble,” she hissed. “We Mancers have always worked together, worked as a group, and yet you are always off on some investigation of your own. We brought writing to the One World! We collected all the knowledge of the past and recorded it for posterity! We have been the protectors of humankind for thousands of years! The keepers of the Sorceress! Why do you seek always to undermine, to sow discontent? Why did you come to me with tales of Kyreth’s misdeeds, why did you let the Sorceress leave at all? All might have been well had you not chosen to interfere. Oh, Foss!” She was breathing heavily.
Foss put his large hands on either side of her face. He began to murmur and she felt the ocean rocking beneath them, she felt the rains pouring down from above. She felt a deep thirst, felt how she was scorched to the skin, dried out, full of hot flame. She let herself soak in his words; she drank her fill of them. She let the deep, dark oceans hold her for a time.
The next thing she knew, she was seated in her chair. Foss knelt at her side and his hand was on hers.
“Aysu?” he said.
“Yes, Foss,” she replied. She took a deep breath.
He smiled at her. “It is you,” he said.
She nodded. “I am sorry.”
“No need to apologize. You have always been a