SLIP

[quillsshadow]

Tueioh fixed the suddenly-stammering merchant with a sharp glare. "Would you care to repeat that?" she asked grimly, his fist full of shards from her fury overriding his caution.

The merchant fled. She rubbed his eyes, trying to recover from the instability in her identity caused by one fool's slip.

TIGER

[quillsshadow]

The creature had striped fur, amber eyes, sharp fangs and claws. The creature was feline, but far too large to be a cat. The creature could melt into the jungle shadows to hunt its prey.

But. It left unnaturally few marks of its presence. No tiger. Something less mortal, this.

PAINT

[quillsshadow]

He kept his eyes focused on the pot. Making the dyes and paints himself gave him a deeper connection, made the spells he drew more potent.

He needed that. His master had gone from amused to calculating.

He was running out of time.

STEAM

[quillsshadow]

Creschendra wiped the sweat off her palms as she stared in awe. From this angle, the great clouds of steam formed a deceptively placid lake of mist, eerily tranquil.

Such a shame that pretty mist held the bones of far too many workers boiled alive by the Great Machine.

HOMUNCULUS

[quillsshadow]

Suspicious eyes followed him every time he left the Tower on some errand, along with dark whispers.

"Too ill-shaped to be human."

"Too poorly made."

Hovathe's grace and beauty won it admirers as it pretended sympathy.

As if it had made him.

UNION

[quillsshadow]

"What is the difference between union and unison?" the student asked, tone making clear that he wouldn't listen to any answer that disagreed with his own opinion.

Nineteen other bodies looked at him, all piloted by a single will.

"You'd know if you'd joined us."

Clueless, he walked away.

QUIT

[quillsshadow]

"Quit it!" Jem hissed as her annoying little sister poked her again. She'd let the little brat into her bed because it was their first night in this creepy place, but she was really regretting it now.

"Jem?" asked her little sister.

From the doorway.

ACCIDENT

[quillsshadow]

It was an accident. Unintentional.

Hir wand just happened to slip, misenchanting chains to hold the godchosen child meant to end the king's tyranny. Accidentally.

Just like the smith's hammer didn't strike right, and the lock didn't quite catch fast.

Accidents. Unintentional.

CLUE

[quillsshadow]

The first hint was the impossibility of an anonymous donation to the library. Who could afford such a book, and who would waste it on some noble's whims? How could this book just appear?

Boenth watched in silence.

Too silent. By the time she knew, it was far too late.

WEAR

[quillsshadow]

"Only a bit of wear. Is still good!" Doyetsi insisted shakily, the foreign language still strange on her tongue.

"Nah, nah," her mark said, brushing her off easily.

She glared at the scarf with its half-unpicked knotspells. Drawing bad luck to enemies, pah! Useless superstition. It just made it unsellable.