Siles noted several blue cloaks glancing his way, some taking his presence as a reassurance, others scowling and turning away. Siles knew that when they had opened their eyes that morning, the thought of a crown atop August's wavy locks had seemed much more attractive than it had before. He hoped it had, at least. The mind-controlling magician was more frugal with his abilities than Siles would have liked.

The excitement was infuriating. He wanted to do something, to release his pent-up energy, but he was a shadow. He lurked along the edges of society, like a predator stalking its prey. He couldn't pace the room and chat excitedly with every passerby as August had when Siles had visited him that morning. He had an image to maintain.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been excited about something. The rebellions were depressing, as were the occasional assassinations the late Queen had requested. His trips outside of the royal city were the highlight of his existence, but they didn't inspire the same surge of energy that he felt now. He finally had something to look forward to. Something that might never happen if August didn't make use of his abilities.

Siles made eye contact with August across the room, where he stood chatting with several other Councilmembers. His grin was childishly wide, but it was a step above the shark-like grimace that Samira had flashed whenever bloodlust had flooded her mind. August couldn't have known that Siles was looking at him, not with the colored glass tinting the mask's eyes. Yet the moment Siles looked his way, August waved and began to weave his way through the multicolored crowd.

"Isn't this wonderful? There's fruit vendors and pastries in the courtyard, and one of the event magicians set up a wind current from the bakery district to here. It smelled like cinnamon buns last time I went outside." August looped Siles' arm into his as he spoke, using the connection to pull him through the crowd. "Come on, we've already voted. We don't need to sit in this stuffy place."

Siles didn't respond, though he took his arm back when a purple-robed magician looked at them and smiled. August didn't notice.

The courtyard was just as packed as the throne room, and it felt even more so since the river of robes fell stagnant. The magicians waited in lines to buy from the vendors, or watched the performers as they spun illusions of great battles, or simply stood and talked, plucking drinks from the servants' trays. Nobody left; they would stay until they heard the results of the election.

August raised his nose into the air. "See? Cinnamon buns."

Siles was so overwhelmed by the crowd that he hadn't even noticed the smell. He nodded and smiled, then remembered that the mask covered his mouth. "Yeah. Smells great." A magician shoved past him. Siles' dark and brooding façade didn't incite the reverence he had come to expect in the loud, excited crowds. "Can we go somewhere else?" They would hear the announcement from any part of the castle, anyway.

August's smile fell as he looked away from the vendors. The busy crowd clearly brought him joy. He probably delighted in the fact that nobody cared who he was, what he was capable of. Siles glared as another magician shoved him to squeeze through the crowd. August shrugged. "Sure. Okay. Where?"

Where. Siles considered his options. The library was always empty, but he had only ever spent an extended period of time there as the book binder. The librarian wouldn't recognize his voice. He hoped. She wasn't there half of the time, anyway.

They avoided the masses by following the servants' halls. Siles stared straight ahead as he walked, but he saw blurred faces watching them in the corner of his eye. August wasn't king yet, and Siles was off duty. They could take whichever halls they wanted. Siles usually took the servants' passageways when he went to the library, anyway. He just didn't usually wear a mask when he did.

"Why do you know these passages so well?" August asked.

Siles lowered his voice, hoping that the servants wouldn't eavesdrop. "I don't wear a mask all the time, remember?"

"Right. You pretend to be a commoner. I forgot about that. I just assumed that you took the mask off after you left the castle walls. Why remove it early?" August hadn't lowered his voice, but they had reached the library at that point. No servant awaited there except Lucy, who had shifted to reshelving duty after the Queen's death. Siles trusted her not to tell the other magicians anything; she was too scared to speak at all most of the time. The much nosier librarian was thankfully absent.

"If I take off my mask outside the castle walls, I have to store it somewhere. If I keep it on my person, the commoners or the castle guards could search me and find it. If I store it somewhere else, I could lose it. I can't afford to lose it; I only have the one. It's a lucky find, not a commissioned piece."

August nodded, falling onto the sofa beside the library's largest stained-glass window. The glass formed a geometric woman in rainbow-colored robes: the magician who had created the kingdom and started the throne room tapestry those hundreds of years ago. Visitors to the library rarely noticed her, however, instead admiring the colored flecks of light that flowed from her glass robes and danced along the walls, highlighting different books in different colors depending on the position of the sun. Siles liked to select books based on the color that had fallen upon them. He followed the green light most of the time.

August wasn't watching the lights. He stared curiously at Siles' mask, reminding Siles of the calculating curiosity he had expressed in every Council meeting since they had first met. "So where did you get the mask? Nobody has seen you without it so you must have gotten it before you came here." He paused, then adjusted his statement. "I didn't ask around or anything. I just figured since nobody recognizes you outside the castle walls..." He trailed off. He didn't have the confidence of a king, that was for sure.

"Found it in a border town in the mountains. Not my border town, the one next to it. They had a play about the end of the world and the mask was for the demon." It fit him well. Siles had turned against his own, after all.

"So you lived in a border town? Did the Queen invade and notice your magic resistance when she tried to kill you?"

"Basically." Siles shifted uncomfortably. She wouldn't have noticed his resistance in the first place if he hadn't made himself noteworthy for other reasons.

"What happened to your family?"

He was investigating. Watching him, testing him like the castle scientists tested spells on their rats. Siles remembered why he hadn't liked August before. The helplessness could be an act. He couldn't be as awkward as he pretended to be.

August wasn't paying attention. He leaned back on the sofa, tracing the slopes of the marble arches with his eyes. "My family's just a bunch of commoners. I lived with them until I was eight, you know. Then a soldier shoved me and I shoved him back. But I did it without touching him. So I got recruited. I didn't have a choice, but I would have chosen it anyway. The royal city is so much nicer than those hovels the commoners live in." His voice sloped down like the arches, not nearly as joyous as the words that accompanied it.

Siles didn't know how to read emotions, to tell if they were genuine. The Queen had been predictable, and Lucy's fear glimmered like tears in her eyes. August could be acting. But he could convince anyone to trust him; he didn't need to know how to fake emotions. Siles watched a glimmer of color slide along the spines of the books as the sun began to set. He didn't have any reason to keep secrets except his own pride. "My mother was a bookbinder. Dad was a farmer. The Queen killed them. The soldiers probably would have killed me - I'm not immune to swords. But I didn't know I was immune to magic, so I shoved a guy I didn't like into the hailstorm of rocks to distract them so I could escape."

August raised an eyebrow. "So the Queen was impressed."

For someone who had been a member of the Council for such a short period of time, August knew the Queen well. She treasured cruelty, especially in the men she kept by her side. Siles nodded. "She was impressed." He stared at the ground. "I do regret it, though. He didn't deserve it."

August watched him with the same calculating gaze. "How old are you?"

The question appeared to come out of nowhere, but Siles knew it related somehow. He just couldn't figure out how. "Twenty-seven. Don't share that number." Older magicians like Anna liked to flaunt their age as proof of wisdom and superiority. If the others knew Siles' age, he doubted they would treat him with the same amount of respect.

"And you've worked for the queen for ten years."

Siles nodded.

"So you were an angsty teenager and you grew out of it." August smiled. He had a lot of faith in Siles' morality for someone who knew everything he had done for the Queen. He didn't personally kill rebels, but he was responsible for their deaths. Then there were the magicians who had dared to attack the Queen; Siles had killed them without a second thought to protect her ruthless life.

Siles stared at August's childish smile. "You do realize I kill people for a living, right?"

August shrugged. "And I've cheated my way through life with mind control. It's still nice to pretend I'm a good person, though. And if I'm going to believe I'm a good person, then I should only associate with good people, which means you have to pretend to be good, too."

Siles thought about it. He didn't agree with August – he couldn't just believe that he was a good person. It wasn't true. With August as king, they might be able to change things. The violence would end, Siles knew that already. Samira's bloodlust didn't shine in August's gaze. But the commoners could gain something, too. Their lives could improve, even if they didn't gain full rights in his lifetime. He didn't dare voice his thoughts yet, though. August hadn't shown any sign that he wanted to change the structure of the kingdom. He just wanted to be king.

The walls rumbled, trembling with sound as if Samira had risen from the dead to toss the ground with one last earthquake. But the ground didn't shake, and Siles quickly recognized the rumbling as that of drums. The time of the announcement had come.

"Magicians, open your ears!" A voice echoed through the walls as the rumbling hushed. Siles imagined she was one of the audio-warping magicians, though he didn't know what other occasions her powers would prove useful. "The results are in, and our next ruler will soon ascend the throne." Siles had never seen a crowning ceremony, though he imagined he would have to guard it carefully.

August twirled a strand of his long hair. He wasn't concerned. He had to have rigged it. He had to be the next king. Siles still found himself tapping his foot nervously, finally free to express his agitation without other magicians present to observe the cracks in his persona.

"And the next ruler is..." The drums returned, but they didn't sound like drums when they echoed from the walls. "August Faustino!"

Siles released a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to deal with another cruel magician for the rest of his life or theirs. August plucked a speck of dust from his sleeve.

"I'm glad I have you." August almost sounded sad.

"I didn't do anything."

"But you actually care. You're not trying to stay on my good side because you're afraid of me or you want something from me." Once again, Siles struggled to understand how someone as powerful as August could be so desperate for friends.

Siles stared at a point beyond August's head. The library couches were beginning to fray, and a tear had formed in the material by August's ear. He didn't know how to respond to compliments. The Queen's compliments had always referred to aspects he disliked about himself – his violence, the brutal efficiency with which he collapsed rebellions. Those were easy to respond to, since he knew the Queen didn't expect a response. But he had known her for ten years. He had to get used to August eventually.

Someone cleared their throat behind him. A frightened little mouse, finished shelving her books. Lucy smiled weakly at Siles then looked at August. "Sir – your Highness, sorry, the paperwork for the transfer of power has been placed in your new quarters." She bowed her head and immediately began to retreat down one of the servants' passageways.

August raised his hand and she froze, despite the fact that she couldn't have seen the motion. He had begun to use his abilities more liberally. Lucy turned and August spoke, "Do you know when the crowning ceremony is supposed to be? Or who I'm supposed to ask about it?"

She had begun to shake, as she had when Queen Samira had made the ground tremble. "I- I don't know. I'm sorry. Your Highness."

The thought of guarding another Samira was unbearable. Siles leaned over to whisper, too quietly for Lucy to hear, "I would appreciate it if you didn't abuse the servants. It's fun to mock the powerful, not the powerless."

August glanced up in surprise. He waved his hand, releasing the servant from his invisible grip. "Thank you for your help," he said. Lucy glanced at Siles with relief and fled once again. August looked back to Siles, curiosity lighting his eyes once again. "She seems to think you're a good person. You don't even have to pretend."

Siles just shook his head. The servant girl knew nothing about him.