Tarsa moved to the city of Almia when she was five years old, at her great-uncle's request. He could never explain what he saw in her, but he wanted her as his heir, not his daughter or nephew, and she's slowly taken over his businesses.

Almia is a city of superstitions and ghost stories, a place where every fifth person has a personal story of an encounter with Bigfoot or a roving pack of silent dogs that acted like a hydra or a will of the wisp that brought them smack into a gang fight. People who aren't local - she's been here two decades and counts - don't understand it, and mostly find the place off-putting, staying in business hotels downtown and maybe the Lantern district. Even locals stay out of the catacombs and the abandoned subways - the cryptozoological stories that come out of those are the most terrifying, and they get blamed for a lot of outright disappearances.

But Tarsa loves her city. The stories are usually of danger, because that's exciting, but the quieter stories exist too. Looking at the line of lanterns in the district and seeing a forgotten friend ten cities away - sitting, laughing, on the couch in his apartment - at the end of the line. Wishing out loud your mother could see you now, and feeling the ghost of a hug and her quiet laughter. Meeting exactly the kind of stranger you were thinking about on the footbridges.

Her life is ordinary. But in Almia, ordinary isn't.

She's on the sidewalk, mundane and bruised. The sun is long down and she's leaning against a streetlamp, looking as weak as she feels.

"Hello, young lady. Can you spare some time to help me?"

"There's always time to be a good neighbor," the black-clad woman says pleasantly. "Do you need my help walking?"

She nods. "Somewhere warm to sit would be welcome, too. I... just got kicked out of my home."

That's not entirely true. She can tell. But it's... close enough.

"My townhouse is just around the corner. We can sit downstairs a while. Here, lean on my shoulder."

And when she's sat down, in the light and near a radiator:

"I should apologize..."

"...I left some important details out of that description."

The woman's presence is massive, and yet Tarsa can feel a sense of sickness and injury. It's stronger than every superstition and unexplained ghost she's ever felt put together, and, for a moment, overwhelming.

But she recovers.

"I'll forgive you, if you start explaining. Who are you? How were you really hurt? Why are you revealing yourself to me?"

"I am Eleanora, the spirit of Almia. The city trusts you. And it's going to need that, because my watch is ending. Three hundred years of vigil on the last stronghold of magic in the world, as the Inquirium steadily pushed it back everywhere else. For fifty years I've had an agreement with them - I keep magic in check in Almia, especially the beast sealed beneath, and they leave their war against magic aside at the edge of the city limits."

"They didn't break it. The last Godiria did. He wants to rebind the beast - not sealed, but controlled, leashed to him as he fights back the Inquirium across the world. But he will surely fail to keep it leashed, and even if he does not, it would destroy my city. I attacked him. But I misjudged, and lost. I need a successor, urgently."

"How long do you have?"

"Midnight. Perhaps dawn, if I'm lucky. It doesn't have to be you, but there's not much time to find another if you turn me down."

"Then I will skip the thanks for making my city wonderful, as much as you deserve them. I have no training, no potential I know of unless that was what Uncle meant. What do I have to do?"

"There are a variety of methods to grant you power quickly, and the basic knowledge of how to use it. I can ignite your soul to give you enough energy for the basics of two or three disciplines or incomplete mastery of one. You will need much more than that, but everything else comes at the cost of losing portions of your humanity. In decades, you could repair the damage, but you will have to stop Godiria in - a fortnight at most. Every loss will bring a cost, and if you lose too much, your life force will fade - lose decades, or if we push it to the limits, die within the month. That would get you more than six times as much power as the 'safe' amount - each larger loss brings more power."

"I love this city. But I love life, too... And I would hate to see your killers beaten just for the magic-hunters to kill what I love about it. Is there a way I could... share the damage?"

"Elaborate."

"You said it doesn't have to be me. But if it is, does it have to be only me? Could the city have two defenders? Three? Twelve?"

"Perhaps three, but you'd all be weakened, and bound to each other - difficulty working magic while far apart. No more than that, not without the same catastrophic damage you want to avoid."

"There aren't two other people I'd be willing to be bound to. But there is one."

She reaches for her phone.

And Eleanora reaches into the city, peering along its streets and phone lines to find the person on the other end...

Tseonur Corby was born in Almia, rich enough not to have to learn its back streets and foolhardy enough to do so anyway. He knows almost no one individually, but he knows them all collectively. The gangs which all call themselves things like Werewolves of Westhaven and Vampires of Vallen Place. The artists who leave out cigarettes for the faeries they thank for inspiration. The native businessmen, who rarely spare a dollar for the street's bums but never pass a shrine without leaving a twenty. The homeless, who never dare take from a shrine unless they first clean it or do one of the unofficial rites they know better than anyone.

He argues with Tarsa, constantly. But on this point they agree. He loves his city.

"Ah. Yes, he'll do nicely."

The phone wakes him up just as he was falling asleep, and he's almost annoyed enough to silence it and go back to sleep, but he thinks better of it.

"What the hell do you want?", he says groggily.

"Tseo, I need you over at my place as soon as you can possibly manage. Like both our lives depended on being here by eleven."

"Tar? This better not be... anything I would list if I was more awake."

"It is not a joke, it is not a trick, it is not a booty call. It is important. Trust me. Please."

"...Okay. I'll call a car. You're paying for it. Should be... fifteen minutes."

"Thank you. See you soon."

And then, after she's hung up.

"So, there's magic to discuss, and probably other things, but most of that should wait for Tseonur to get here. So tell me about the people. This 'last Godiria' and whoever else he has available. I've heard the name as an old city family in Uncle's day, but not that there was anyone left."

"The Godirias were the masters of soul magic - changing the properties of people's souls, including research into immortality. They'd be much better at what I'm doing for you than I am, and for a long time their family were some of my closest allies. They were force multipliers, able to hold back the Inquirium with themselves and a few allies. But twenty-five years ago, they all disappeared in a single night, except the youngest, Rai Godiria, who had barely begun magic training and, I thought, knew nothing at all of their secret arts. Probably I was incorrect."

"Rai refused to become my ward, and dodged the Inquirium - who wanted the last scion of their chief enemy dead very much indeed - for the whole quarter-century. From what I've observed, he is driven - some need to prove himself worthy of his family, or quixotic quest to restore them, I'd guess."

"The Godirias created the three seals that hold Gojira beneath the city and siphon its power, and only a Godiria can break them, at least without centuries of research no one would do, least of all me. He's very personally powerful - a master of aura magic, which confers immense toughness and close-combat ability - but if he dies, the city is safe no matter what the other two do. But they know that, and he's very charismatic - they are very loyal to him and will almost certainly defend him with their lives."

"Traumatized, probably, but maybe in a way that led to fanaticism? That often makes for a very compelling leader... I'll have to needle him in person to see if I can learn anything that could crack his confidence, most likely. His followers?"

"Two. Maren Prellea, also the last of a family, and Rafe Lannin, also the survivor of one of the Inquirium's greatest enemies."

"The Prelleas have carried the embers of a True Fire through their family for many generations - short ones, since it burns through their souls just like any other kindling. He's mastered fire magic and has enormous range and power with it. And he is utterly devoted to Rai. I don't know whether their bond is romantic, but they are as close as a married couple. It would be sweet, if it wasn't for what Rai's doing with his support. He may have some personal stake in their goal as well, but I know nothing about it."

"Maren's mother died of premature aging about ten years ago. His younger brother Ninno may still live, and I sensed something like him in the city recently. He is unlikely to be healthy, with his family's magic at such a young age."

"I see. I'm not sure it would help to confront the elder with the younger... Worth considering. Lannin?"

"Ambitious. Ruthless. He was one of the leaders of the Oro Conglomerate, a huge alliance of mages banding together for protection. But his boss dissolved the group, and Rafe wasn't able to convince enough members to stick together to keep it going or make a successor organization. I assume he's with Rai to rebuild something like it, or out of hatred for the Inquirium."

"He's a master of puppet animation, and can animate enormous numbers of simple puppets at once, rather than the usual maximum of a handful. In the past he could also animate the dead, and his zombies could act almost independently of his direction, but he didn't use that capacity when they fought me."

"Also not promising. I doubt we can offer him more of what he wants than Godiria. Is there anyone else I should know about?"

"In the city? Several definitely present, and some more who might be. None of them reliable allies, and most of them could be convinced to work with Godiria instead. If he knows they're present to ask. Oskar Pelfroi is a coward, but he has space-folding magic from an old family deal with something like a devil and he may be loyal to Almia. Lyn is an escaped Inquirium conscript who can puppet liquids, and will likely jump whichever way better promises her revenge. Luci Neila is an Almia native who can manipulate wandering souls, but she is possessed and that soul is unpredictable. Halam Jouen is a businessman who can accomplish impressive feats of animation in his own territory. He wants control of the city, and has been fighting me for it constantly. And Tamara Merudio is my most recent anchor for the city, confined to Almia in order to keep it from losing contact with the mundane world. She understnds the necessity but she may resent it enough to sacrifice the city for her freedom."

"I know of Jouen, he cuts deals with Uncle every so often. 'Neila' is familiar, too... Tseo may know Luci."

Keys rattle in the front door's lock.

"I might know who?"

"Luci Neila. Apparently she can do real magic, and might help us protect the city if I approach her right."

"Real... magic..."

Eleanora again drops her mundane disguise and lets her aura of power flow outward and over him.

"Almia is in danger from someone reckless, who would sacrifice the whole city for a chance at power to fight the mage-hunters. I failed to stop him, and won't live long. I need your help."

He looks at Tarsa. She nods.

"Okay. What do you want us to do, ma'am?"

"Before I fade, I can ignite your souls, and apply some further transformations to give you significantly more power and knowledge, but none of them are healthy for your soul. You'll lose pieces of your humanity. And because you're being ignited together, one of those pieces will be ability to separate - your magic will be weaker when you're apart, and if you tried to live on opposite sides of the city for long, you'd both become sickly. I could perhaps do that with a third person, but Tarsa said she'd only be willing to trust it with one other."

"Stuck to her, huh? Not my favorite idea."

"Call it enforced trust."

"...Good point. Okay. I'm in."

"There are a few different procedures I could carry out to strengthen you. Igniting both of you together will cut your natural reserves roughly in half, and the smallest sacrifice, splicing small soul fragments of past mages into your own, would merely restore that loss. Each successively more dangerous ritual would give a larger boost, and the higher the danger the better the ratio of power to loss; the most powerful basically-safe change would cut about four times as much from your soul and bestow about five and a half times as much power - that would be injecting you with the diluted blood of an ancient beast. I also know two rituals which would give drastically less raw power, but bestow other lasting magical advantages - one would make you regain your spent magical energy rapidly, and the other would call the spirits of long-dead experts to guide your learning rapidly, so that every spell and battle leaves you stronger. Difficult to arrange in the short time you'll have to fight the Godiria and his backup, though."

"Those do sound very useful. But I have no scale. Can we get some numbers here?"

She concentrates, and looks more human for a moment as she does. "...There are no units for this. The old Godiria family might have had something like it, but few have done anything similar. I've done a lesser rite a few times... But I've never tried to put it in human terms."

"It doesn't have to be precise, Eleanora. Just close enough."

"...Right. A normal soul with minor potential, ignited, could stretch to about seven chunks - call them 'alms' - of magic. Igniting you together will reduce that to three each. The beast-blood ritual would add four sacrifices and twenty-two alms, ending with twenty-five. Each of the special rituals would add a sacrifice and only two alms. If you took both of those and the strongest other treatment I could give you, you'd end with sixteen alms. If you chose one of the two specials and then the strongest I could give you, twenty alms."

"The discipline most mages begin with, Aura, would take fifteen alms to fully learn. The most complex of those I could gift you with, Animation, Illusion, or Life, nineteen. True mastery can't be attained with this rapid process, and probably not in the fortnight you have, but will be over time."

"That's helpful, thank you Eleanora. Are those the only choices to be made about how you imbue us with power?"

"No, not quite. In addition to the rituals I described and the two other relatively-safe ones - overcharging your soul with direct energy for the smaller, opening the veil to the afterworld for the larger -  there are two others. In one, I simply do as much as I possibly can to fill your soul with power until it's full to bursting. It would not leave you with long to live - a fortnight, maybe a week - but it would leave you with forty-seven alms altogether. Combining that with anything else would almost certainly cause you to die tonight. The last is to give you my power directly. If we had a week, I could embed it in you firmly, but as it is, it would leak away slowly starting the moment I pass away, and take anything else you have with it. In twenty years at most, you would no longer be a mage. But for three sacrifices, you'd receive twenty-five alms instead of fifteen."

"Could you give us both your personal power?"

"Yes. The time is more of a restriction than the total - you'd still be each getting about half of what I could handle personally."

"My instinct here, before we've looked at the disciplines of magic, is that we plan by default to each take one of the special rituals - I take power regeneration and you skill, probably - and opening the veil, and end with twenty alms each. And if we think that's not enough to deal with Mister Godiria and friends, we take Eleanora's power and hope we can put together people to defend the city once we lose our magic."

"Aww, but I want both."

"So do I, but having the power to beat them comes first. If we see clever tricks to win with less power, we can switch to both taking both the regeneration and the skills."

"Oh, fine, be responsible."

"Let's hear the disciplines there are, in slightly more detail?"

"Aura - strengthens your body with your soul, in the basic form enough to win any physical fight with a non-mage almost trivially. The rests let you shape it further from your body in various ways, all limited in distance."

"Fire - throw and then manipulate fire of higher intensity. Can be used cleverly, but overwhelmingly destructive, often self-destructive. Some explosive infusions and force-multipliers exist."

"Wind - versatile generalist magic. Motion, defense, razors, sound control. Excels at speed, can usually be beaten by specialist schools in other respects."

"Void - subtle support magic, rarely with direct combat applications. See in darkness, then move rapidly through shadows, store objects, sap senses with an extended touch, plant hidden bombs, or create additional limbs."

"Questions?"

"It sounds like anyone who might come near an enemy mage is advised to know the basics of Aura? Oh, also, under what conditions are we likely to have to fight them? Stealth? Open confrontation?"

"I'd advise that, yes. Unless you plan to hang back entirely like some illusionists and puppeteers. For a confrontation, there are fifteen primary nodes in the structure of the bindings. The three seals you will need to protect could be at any of those nodes, and you and they will likely have to investigate all of them. They range from the deep abyssal catacombs to the wind farm to the upper reaches of Horizon Towers to the middle of the Lantern District."

"Make sure we get that list before you start to - lose consciousness? Can you tell us which in advance? Oh, does wind allow flight?"

"I will. They move, and my death will likely move them again. I should be able to share with you what the sensation of a nearby seal feels like, and with the appropriate magical skills with Life, that would let you sense them at range. The same wind skill that allows rapid movement allows a controlled glide, but true flight is a master's skill, either a wind master or mixed study with fire."

"Let's hear the other disciplines, then."

"Animation - principally puppeting a handful of humanoid shapes, but advanced skills allow flexibility of shape, use of the self, and manipulating and enlarging terrain. Range of control is limited, and its strength is principally limited by mental focus; beginners rarely can manage two, let alone five."

"Illusion - another which requires mental focus. Disguising small areas or the self is the basic technique; large areas, impenetrable darkness, and disguising others are advanced ones. Direct attacks on emotional state, and implanted orders into non-mages, are also possible."

"Life - both bolstering what exists, and sensing it. The basic technique removes bodily needs while active, and healing is a common specialty. Sensing large areas and distinguishing mages and non- is the technique I mentioned before; a sixth sense for immediate danger is also possible."

"Those are the true disciplines I can impart. But I also have old relics, drained of power but still shaped, which I could re-empower with the magical potential you are developing. Several are one-use-only; a key which leads to my home through any door, a ring which stores a single spell that will need no focus. Others will last - a sword that channels aura and an artificial arm that does so on its own. An expert puppet. Some other things."

"Life - does that include sleep? I think we clearly want that ranged sensory technique. Maybe combined with the large-area illusion trick?"

"Hell yes, I want those. And probably disguising others and healing. What would that cost me?"

"It includes sleep," she confirms, "And that would be nineteen of your twenty alms, as you presently plan it. With only the wakening ritual, not the mana-absorption core. If you wanted both you'd have to drop mending or disguise, and would have no room for aura."

"That's not necessarily prohibitive if I can do a good ambush composition. Let's see, speed and sound from Wind, Aura basics and protection, and whatever is the best burst weapon from those two. What's that look like?"

"Seventeen alms if you choose the Vacuum technique from Wind - it's a highly destructive ball of compressed wind, hard to deliver much further than arm's reach but extremely destructive."

"Assume we stick with those ideas. What else could be done with the extra power?"

"With a single alm, basic Aura Awakening or one of my relics. With the three you have, Tseonur - the basics of anything. Dangerous fire manipulation, sight in darkness plus a relic, basic puppeteering, basic illusions, or life's Abstinence. Or you could learn the air-scythe close combat technique or the cloak of wind projectile defense."

"Going with basics of something they have a master in seems unwise. I guess it's a matter of whether learning the basics of Void is enough of an advantage long-term, or whether I'd prefer to pick up a duplicate."

"If we both lose the need for sleep, we can be working half again as much for the time we're in conflict."

"You cannot forestall sleep, food, or drink forever. But two weeks should be well within your limits."

"We're going to need to hear the details of everything before we finalize anything. But that does seem like a strong argument."

"Also this way I won't wear you out after we win."

"Certainly I can give you details," Eleanora says, ignoring the byplay.

"Aura Awakening reinforces strength, speed, and toughness; a child with aura could beat the strongest mundane in the world. Carapace wraps you in armor, stronger with more energy cost, possible to switch on and off with good reaction time."

"Breeze is the basic Wind magic, and creates gusts which can push people around at a few meters distance. Gale can accelerate massively from a cold start, and at its limits can be used to glide. Vacuum creates an extremely destructive wind bomb. It can be thrown short distances but slows to a stop, and hangs in the air until it explodes. All-Noise creates silence, amplifies sound to deafening levels, or at its limits shatters bones with ultrasound pulses."

"Trick fools any senses, change your appearance and voice, and the immediate area. Needs great concentration for complex illusions. Greater trick is similar but could change a whole building at once with perfect focus. Best with a teammate taking advantage or luring someone into a trap. Disguise lets you disguise living beings other than the caster. Many targets can be affected at once, with the same face and voice or with enough focus different ones."

"Abstinence replaces the need for sleep, food, and water, though this is imperfect and unstable in the long run. Mend allows your natural healing to speed up drastically, and with skill can affect others slowly. Brutal enough wounds like my own can't be mended. Wave Tracking sends energy in all directions and returns the souls present, like radar. Mages look different to this sense, but detected mages can notice they've been detected by a wave tracker, though they will not know who or from where."

"Mend sounds underwhelming in the short term. What else is there in Life and Illusion I could get with the same alms?"

"In Life, there are three other specialties. Self-Suggestion creates a state of intense focus that tunes out distractions and interference and thinks faster. Prolonged use creates backlash which is exhausting and impairs logical reasoning, or brain damage in dire cases. Vital Exceeding lets you trigger your body's self-destructive capacities on demand, much like stories of mothers lifting cars to free their children and then both being in the hospital for weeks. Difficult to use without lasting damage but possible. And Outward Awareness is a sixth sense for personal danger, feasible but expensive to keep running constantly. Any of those would leave you one spare alm for a relic."

"Probably self-suggestion, but let's hear the others."

"Blackout creates a dense, dark fog across an area, affecting everyone nearby. It is less sophisticated, but also much easier to create quickly without focus. Decaying spirit is a direct attack on the mind of the target, needing close proximity. It damages morale, worsens mental response to trauma, and can with extended effect cause severe mental illness, but short of that will fade when the caster is no longer close. Astray Whisper is magic I'd forbid under other circumstances. It implants a simple order into a non-mage which they will carry out as best they can, realizing why only after they are done. Minutes to implant. Whisper would take all four alms; the other two would leave a leftover alm."

"No, Tarsa."

"I wasn't going to. No playing games with these stakes. And besides, I'm going to be stuck with you."

"Okay. As long as we're agreed that we're not messing with civilians like that."

"We are. I promise. Illusion doesn't seem worthwhile. Hmm. I could pick up a little Puppeteering or Void?"

"You could. Basic Puppets would be three alms of your four. In void, you could pick up the basic dark-sight for two, and could add Quagmire for the other two. That creates traps on placed surfaces, which suck in whatever touches them with great force, needing great strength or external assistance. Base fire-calling is also three, as is the aura carapace that Tseonur is planning to select. You might also consider adding a permanent shaping to your aura - for four alms, you could make it permanently greatly improved at defense with a small reduction to offense or make it behave much like a spider's web at close range to entangle enemies. Or two offensive properties, but neither seems useful for your other choices of specialty."

"Oh, I like Quagmire too. Especially if we can predict where the puppeteer will be."

"Is that the Godiria guy, or the backup?"

"Backup number two, Rafe Lannin. Massive numbers of simple puppets, historically also did necromancy. Rai Godiria is an aura master who's probably enhanced the souls of himself and his two followers and is the only one who can remove a seal. Maren Prellea is extremely skilled with fire and can use it at greater range than normal. There are also some other mages we could rope in, but so could they."

"It's likely that reaching out to them will draw Godiria's attention to the others. Once your presence is felt, he will likely try to 'pick teams', so to speak. Five significant mages I know about, and four I suspect may be present."

"I'm leaning toward Quagmire. If we're trying to keep the war secret from the mundanes, dark-sight should be useful itself. But possibly we should be considering the potential allies?"

"The two we may already know are Luci Neila and Halam Jouen. Luci is a ghost-whisperer and can use them for scouting and to attack people's souls directly. Halam is an ambitious mage who wants to run the city, and within his territory he's a scary-good animator - makes the floor and tables attack, I think."

"There were also a cowardly space-folder, a liquid-animator with a grudge against the mage hunters, and the anchor of the city, who can do... something. What can Tamara do, Eleanora?"

"She is protected by various means she won't be able to replace if they break, and can use Wave Tracking across the entire city with remarkable precision.

The specialties of those who I'm unsure of are a Maren's younger likewise-fire-mage brother, a master illusionist who sent himself into a coma with wireheading, a manufactured bodyguard who obeys any mage who claims him as master, and a devoted family man with magic-copying power and a long string of serial killing."

"Well, aren't those delightful."

"I think most of the good people died fighting the war against the mage-hunters that left Almia the last place in the world with magic."

"I would say less 'good people' and more 'people who work nicely with others'. The Oro Corporation which made Arthur, and formerly employed Lannin, were not nice people, but they were civilized ones who worked together. Many of them died fighting the Inquirium, and the rest largely got picked off when Oro fell apart. And the Godirias were good people - Rai probably still thinks he is one - and they didn't even die to the war, as best as anyone knows."

"I barely know anything about them and I already want to murder the shit out of the Inquirium. I assume that is going to be very difficult."

"Yes. The best I could manage was forcing them to negotiate a truce protecting Almia. They have massive advantages in numbers, and modern weaponry has made magic a much smaller force multiplier than it used to be."

"We'll protect it for another fifty years and see what alliances we can build."

"I know you will."

"Okay, I think Quagmire sounds even better assuming we pull in Luci. Jouen sounds like a potential long-term ally but unless his territory is near the seals I think not worth enlisting in this round. Cowardly space-folder, though, maybe him."

"Oskar Pelfroi. Family made a deal with a devil, but it wasn't enough to protect them from the Inquirium."

"...Yeah, still worth finding him. Being able to split apart the fire and aura guys to hit them individually could be a big deal."