"She doesn't like wizards huh?" said Nikolas. Then, struggling to find something to say that was remotely intelligent he settled on, "So she is not sending you to any academy?"

"No!" Jozin looked insulted by the suggestion, "Why would she? What could they teach me that she and the others can't?"

"It must be nice then," Nikolas agreed, "to go with your mother. I never went, my father always took Brytha." He looked away, blinking back his frustration.

"Well, your sister can't be good at everything!" Jozin said, moving to sit closer to Nikolas and squeezing his shoulder. "You'll find something you can do and I'm sure your parents would be proud of you."

Nikolas gave a soft laugh, "I have a lot of siblings and they are all good at everything."

"I don't have siblings," Jozin said quietly, "all I really know is," he glanced at Valdi, softly snoring on the bed next to them, "well, magic, I guess. Witch magic, and the first thing my mother taught me is that you can't do everything." He let out a breath, "The grandmothers, they all thought I was special, and that I could do so many things and they were all fighting to see who could teach me the most and well, there was an incident ."

"Incident?" Nikolas raised an eyebrow.

Jozin gave him a wry look, "What do you do all the time here in Icfeld? Riding horses maybe? It's like one day I woke up and I couldn't saddle my horse. I couldn't even get up on her. Couldn't even bring myself to whistle. My mother said I need to take time away from Skapina so here we are." He gave Nikolas a grin, "So where is your mother? What kind of magic does she do?"

"I don't know," Nikolas admitted. "She doesn't like to talk about what she did." Or where she went to, Nikolas knew very well that his mother could simply say she was visiting the Tsaritsa but the muddy state of her cloak and boots spoke otherwise. The gardens of the palace were simply pristine, it was impossible to get even a speck of mud there.

"Do you want to do magic as well?"

"Me? No! I mean, I don't think I can and well," magic required reading, and academy training and Nikolas knew very well he wasn't academy material.

"You know—"

"Not everyone can do magic," Nikolas snapped, then said, quickly, "sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Jozin tilted his head to one side, bit his lip and then said, "My mother was right. I really did need a break from Skapina." Then he smiled widely, "Did you notice? I helped us climbed up the roof."

Nikolas had a strong suspicion that Jozin could do a whole lot more than give a lift, "How did you do it without throwing me too far?" He wasn't a complete fool, "Is it like cooking then, you have a taste for whatever it is you do?"

"Exactly!" Jozin nodded excitedly, "Exactly like that."

So he wasn't too stupid about things, Nikolas smiled, impressed he was able to make such a connection without his father's corrections and stern frown. "Can you show me what Skapina's like?" He thought of the canvases that lined the palace walls, all depicting scenes from Icfeld, the Queens and their Consorts and children.

Jozin frowned, "I have never done something like that before." Then he brightened, his cheeks flushed, "But I want to try. Can I?" He held out his hands to Nikolas who took it, wondering what exactly Jozin intended to do.

He felt a shiver run down his spine, even as he knew they were in a warm room, and felt the wind blowing past his ear. In front of him stood a stone castle on top of a mountain, its towers capped with snow, and as he rose higher and higher, as if carried up on wings he could sense that there was something off-kilter about the whole thing. Like how the stones that made up the walls were too oval, too even, like scales, and how the roar of the wind sounded oddly alive.

"Something magical?" he thought aloud, and he heard Jozin's answering laugh.

He opened his eyes, and grinning, "That was wonderful. Did you just do that?"

"I think so!"

"You are even better than the painters in the palaces."

"Really?" then a smile, "Thank you!"

---

The next morning he was woken up by angry knocks on his door and before Nikolas could fully shake the sleep from his body, Brytha came striding in. She pulled the blankets away with deft hands.

"The Masteritsa wants to see you!" She was smiling too widely for Nikolas's comfort, and she pulled him out of bed, chattering all the while. "She must really like you! And that's good, did you know the Masteritsa is really really well connected?" Brytha lowered her voice, "She knows everyone! And if you marry Jozina, we'll know everyone too!"

When he didn't respond Brytha reached out to tug at the necklace he wore since birth, a present from his mother to all her children. Nikolas choked and slapped her face. She responded by throwing his clothes at his head. Nikolas narrowed his eyes, struggling to pull the long woolen tunic over his head. Brytha was a fledgling schemer at best but she had to stop hitching her horses to her wagons before they were properly loaded. He wondered if he ought to enlighten Brytha of what Jozin told him but decided against it. It was nice knowing something Brytha didn't. "What makes you think Jozina likes me?"

"You're not the only one that listens to people! I heard their guard Valden—"

"Valdi," Nikolas corrected.

Brytha shrugged and continued, "Valdi, then, he said it to one of the stable boys that came with them. Well, he didn't say Jozina liked you, he just told the boy off for wanting to play with her, and said that it was a privilege, not a right, to accompany the Masteritsa." Brytha crossed her arms, and pouted, "He was a rude boy that one, Suro or whatever his name is, nearly ran into me and didn't even apologize!" Then she threw up her arms and gestured towards Nikolas's clothes, "Well, get on with it, we don't want to keep the Masteritsa waiting!"

Blessed Mother help her children, thought Nikolas, irritatedly, Brytha didn't even run her own household yet and she was already planning on who was marrying who. She probably already had a man she wanted to marry, no doubt narrowing down all the candidates on a precise scale.

"Father isn't joining us?"

"No," Brytha looked very solemn, her eyes wide, "You must be on your best behavior! The Masteritsa wants to have breakfast with only you!"

Brytha accompanied him to the guestrooms and curtseyed to the Masteritsa. As the older woman motioned for Nikolas to come sit next to her, and her back was momentarily turned as she took a chair for Nikolas to sit, Brytha made a motion with her hands. It clearly meant behave and Nikolas rolled his eyes, waving his sister away. He waited until there was a click at the door and footsteps receding before sitting down on the plush chair next to the Masteritsa.

Up close she was less intimidating than when he had first seen her. Perhaps it was because she had discarded all her finery, and no doubt her furs had given her a more intimidating stature. She looked very much like Jozin, Nikolas thought, down to the way she held herself and the delicate features of her face. The Masteritsa's breakfast was simple, he noticed, some bread, eggs, and a jar of preserved fruit. The tea was different though, her cup had some sort of purple tint to it, and he shook his head politely when she offered to pour him a cup.

"You are not going to any academy, Jozin mentioned."

"No, Masteritsa."

"Lady Mira," said the Masteritsa, "you can call me Lady Mira, if you like."

"Mira," said Nikolas experimentally, "like… the flower?" Plants were one of the few things illustrated in his father's books, and it was a boon that there were so many books on them in his father's study.

Lady Mira and Jozin had the same smile, Nikolas noted, but the corners of her eyes had more wrinkles to them.

"Precisely," she took a sip from her cup, "what do you think of Jozin?"

He could imagine the rage that would no doubt be thrown at him if he failed this particular question. From his experience, it was best to redirect the question, "My mother doesn't do the same magic as he does, well, she doesn't do it at all when I'm around," said Nikolas. "So maybe she does the same magic, I don't know."

"Did you like the magic?"

"It was different," said Nikolas. Which was true, there were runes that kept the house warm and magic words to say to keep the food from spoiling but he had never experienced a vision before. But it wasn't a vision, because visions were what soothsayers send to you and everyone knew they like to exaggerate for theatrics.

"Are you interested in doing magic yourself?" There was something so warm and earnest in her gaze that Nikolas opened his mouth to answer before he could stop himself.

"No, well… I don't know. I… Brytha said that Diasa and Felie were the ones with magic and not me and well, I don't think I should…" He trailed off, staring at the carpet.

"I find that the cold air always clears my head," said the Masteritsa, motioning for Nikolas to stand up and follow her to the window. She placed her teacup on the windowsill and motioned to the courtyard below where Nikolas could see Jozin sparring with the stableboy. The rude boy that Brytha mentioned, and seeing the delighted whoops and shouts of the two, Nikolas had to agree.

The Masteritsa chuckled, "Jozin does have that effect on people hm? They always seem to want his time."

Nikolas blinked. Her face gave nothing away and he stammered out, desperately hoping he was saying the right things, "I don't, I mean, well, I would like his company but I don't want his time if he doesn't want to—"

"Please," she shook her head, "there is no need to explain yourself, Nikolas, your intentions are quite honest." She nodded, as if it all made sense to her, and raised her teacup to her lips. Then she held out the cup to him and motioned for Nikolas to look at the dregs. "Don't worry," she chuckled, "I am not doing any soothsaying. I just thought it was an interesting pattern." The pattern could very well be anything, thought Nikolas, but it looked like a table to the Masteritsa, for she continued, using a finger to trace what she was seeing, "One of the things I was taught, Nikolas, was to visualize a person's mind like a table. A steady mind has four points of focus," here she pointed towards the table's legs, "family, community, trade and friendship," she gave a half-smile. "You can, of course, have only three, or, in the very rare cases, balance with only two."

"Begging your pardon, Masteritsa, but I don't understand what you mean," it felt like listening into Brytha's classes with his father again, but this time he had no idea what he ought to commit to memorizing.

"Do you feel very unbalanced Nikolas?"

As she said it, Nikolas felt an odd clenching in his gut, like the time he stared down into a large ravine. "No," he shook his head stubbornly.

"It is not everyday someone melds so well with Jozin," the Masteritsa glanced at the window again. "Someone who asked him what he wanted," she smiled at him again, warm like the fire crackling behind her. "If you ever find yourself… feeling off-kilter Nikolas, you are always welcomed to find your feet again in Skapina." She reached out to brush his hair away from his face, gently cupping his chin, "remember that."

Her hand brushed against Nikolas's necklace, and he thought he felt a vibration in the metal, like a beating heart, before the sensation vanished entirely.