Zev drew his hand back in to himself. “I can hurt myself doing this?”

He handed over the request he’d written, then summed it up for her. “I’d like to take my nephew Zev for my apprentice.”

“I came as soon as I heard the good news!” Masorno exclaimed between gasps for air.

Princess Nita’s fifteenth birthday fast approached

How had they started glowing? He hadn’t cast any kind of spell for it.

“So what society changing decision has the Gathering made?”

“I’ve come to exercise my right to bother you whenever I please,” Tajor said

“There’s no law that says a woman cannot be a ruling queen,” Terrance said.

Tajor smirked. “When do I ever give advice?”

“None of these kids are old enough to be an apprentice,” Jerryck said.

Jerryck blurted. “You both look kind of stupid.”

“A little paranoia has kept a lot of people alive.” Garret’s grin widened. “More people should be paranoid. It’s a healthy state of mind!”

The front of their procession reached the closed gates in the walls surrounding the palace, and stopped.

A portal would have been faster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t reasonable.

“You just took everything from me!” Keniv shouted in Jerryck’s face.

"We need to put together a delegation to go and bring the condolences of Brend to Prince Sanbralio.”

“Andreno is far too interested in our water and our current relations with the Chemwanitz.”

The last time he had tried to magically heat coals for a bedpan, he’d ended up setting the bed and the entire room on fire.

“You won’t be able to work at all if you’re dead,” Cade said.

“Not all face sketches are well done. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they won’t think it’s you.”