“Ari.”

Ariana blinks, and looks up. She can tell by Finch’s voice that he’s already called her name a number of times. He does not sound frustrated; it’s only that his volume is up, and he’s a very soft-spoken man.

She turns in her chair and looks at him. He is waiting just outside the door, but when she smiles, he steps inside.

Finch doesn’t mind being bothered when he works. He always enjoys a visit from Ariana, a quick touch or conversation. But he knows that she can’t stand to be bothered while she’s creating. He will not so much as step into her workspace unless he’s been given a clear sign that he is welcome.

Ariana did not ask Finch to do that. He developed that system all on his own. It was one of the first things, after they married, that made her look at him with new eyes. Made her realize that maybe, even if she couldn’t love Finch the way she loved Will - she could still love him, after all.

Finch will leave her alone in her workshop for days, if she asks him to. He will sign up for subscriptions that are not offered to women, academic publications and journals, so she can read them. He will do his best to understand them, himself, and he will struggle hard to discuss the contents with her. She loves it when he does that.

He comes to her desk and bends to press a kiss onto her shoulder. Ariana leans back against him, and his eyes go to the arrangement on the table.

“Back to the blasted conduits? They give you so much trouble.”

“Mmm.” Ariana gets to her feet, then touches her fingers to her husband’s face. “I will get them yet.”

“I would never doubt you, Ari,” Finch says, smoothing his hands down her arms.

“Am I late for lunch?” she asks, rubbing her eyes. Finch chuckles, then turns her to face the window. She blinks at the pitch-black darkness outside.

“I’m afraid you missed every meal today. I left some offerings at your door, but they went unnoticed.”

Ariana shakes her head, dazed. The conduits are her toughest challenge yet, and they absorb her focus like nothing else.

“Is it time for bed?” She’s tired, and the idea doesn’t sound unappealing.

“I had thought so,” Finch answers, “But a friend of yours just turned up. She’s waiting downstairs.”

"A friend?" Ariana, who had been smiling, comfortable - tenses. “At this hour? Who?”

“She would not give her name,” Finch says. “But something about the eyes gave her away.”

When Ariana steps outside a minute later, she finds her visitor lounging rather casually on one of the porch chairs.

A woman with pale blonde hair, cut remarkably short. Between that, her brawny build, and the pair of trousers she’s wearing, you could easily mistake her for a working man from the docks, if not for the graceful femininity of her face.

She would cause an absolute uproar with this attire, could anyone see her. But the night is dark, and Ariana lives on the farthest edge of town.

Ariana understands Finch’s comment. Something about the eyes.

They’re a soft violet color, and they’re sparking with pale purple magic. They flit up to meet Ariana’s matching blue ones right away.

“For god’s sake,” Ariana says. “Must you make such a spectacle?”

“What sort of spectacle?” the visitor asks innocently. She finds a pipe in her pocket, extracts it, and polishes it on her shirt.

Ariana closes the door, then leans back against it. “Don’t be tiresome, Levi.”

Levi, who had her feet on the porch railing - swings them down and gets up.

“Don't you mean, Good evening, Lady Alice Levitt?” she asks, packing the pipe.

“You hate it when I call you that,” Ariana answers. “I daresay you hate it when anyone calls you that.”

Levi strikes a match on the railing, then puffs on the pipe. “You know, you’re the only one who calls me Levi without needing reminding.”

“What are you doing here? You would leave your people unprotected?”

“Only for one night. I... I had to see you.” Levi hesitates, then nods out at the darkness. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Yes.” Ariana pulls her shawl tighter, then points to the pipe. “But get rid of that, won’t you?”

Levi shrugs. She lets the pipe go, and it simply vanishes, smoke and all.

“What next?” she asks, her lips twisting. “How about my clothing, is it satisfactory?”

Ariana blinks, and suddenly Levi is wearing the exact outfit that Finch had on, when he came to get her upstairs.

“Is this more your taste?” she asks. “I think this color looks well on me.”

“Anything but that. I’ll not have you walking around impersonating my husband.”

Levi clicks her tongue, then makes some adjustments. She’s now dressed like a man who might work at the mill, alongside Finch. The trousers, the suspenders. But she forgoes a hat, leaving exposed her close-cropped hair.

“Come along,” she says, and Ariana steps off of the porch, following her into the darkness.

They walk together in silence, venturing far out into the woods. The path is hard to see, so Ariana summons a few orbs of light to float around them.

Levi’s violet gaze follows them with vague amusement.

“Little lights,” she says. “When I could build us a paradise to walk through. What do you want? A meadow? A mountaintop? I could give you anything.”

“You squander your power on such things.”

Levi shrugs her wide shoulders.

“Do I? I find it helpful, sometimes. To get lost in your own world. Is that not what you do, when you sit in your workshop?”

Ariana can’t find a way to argue with that, so she merely purses her lips.

They walk deeper into the woods. Levi puts her hands in the pockets of her trousers, tipping her head back to look at the moon.

“How have you been, Blue?” she asks. “The boys are well, I presume?”

“They’re well, yes, but I know you did not travel all this way to ask after the state of my children.”

Levi is silent for a moment.

“I’ve been to visit Isaiah,” she says.

Ariana’s heart twists. “And?”

“And…” Levi is playing with her appearance; she does so when she needs distraction. The suspenders she wears turn grey, then blue, then black. “He’s seen again. Far into the future, this time. He has seen your William rescued.”

Ariana comes to an abrupt stop. She grabs Levi’s arm.

“Will I do it?” she asks, her voice trembling.

Levi’s violet eyes reveal a flash of sympathy, but only for a second. “No.”

Ariana’s hopes fall, but not completely.

“My son, then. Nathaniel. The Guardian Tree has chosen him.”

“Not Nathaniel,” Levi says, more softly. “Far into the future, Blue. Very far.”

Ariana’s chest fills with sharp, agonizing pain - and then releases.

“He will be saved,” she repeats. “He will be saved, even if not by me.”

“Yes. You understand now why I had to see you? I could not put it down on paper.”

“Oh, Levi, you treasure! What a gift you’ve given me!” She releases Levi’s arm. She must have gripped it hard, because Levi lifts her hand to rub the spot. “What else did Isaiah say?”

“You know that what he sees is not clear.” Levi frowns. “I don’t know why he would choose such a skill to focus his efforts upon. One that he can use so rarely, and with such clouded results. I can’t imagine it’s helped him save anyone.”

They begin to walk again.

“And your skills?” Ariana asks. “These tricks on the eye you like to play? Why hone those?”

Levi doesn’t answer for a moment. Something catches Ariana’s attention, and she turns her head.

Beyond the craggy tops of the mountains that surround Ketterbridge, the sun is rising. The trees glow with the oncoming light, their boughs heavy under their green weight. The entire sky is a stunning violet color, kissed with soft, pale blue clouds.

Levi drops the illusion. Ariana blinks, and it is night again, as it should be.

“At least,” Levi says, “When I fail to save someone, I can make sure the last thing they see is something beautiful. Like that.”

They come to the creek. They step over its surface, walk on air for a few steps, and descend.

“How fares your Tree?” Levi asks.

Ariana tilts her head to the side. “You already know it is well. If one of my descendents saves Will, the Tree must stand at least that long.”

Levi nods, her hands back in the pockets of her trousers.

“Isaiah says that in the future, there will be few of our kind left.”

“There are but few of us, now.”

“He says there will be very few,” Levi answers, pointedly. “He sees the Trees coming down. Not yours, but... he has seen his own Tree fall. And mine.”

Ariana’s heart constricts. She reaches for Levi’s hand. It’s still in her pocket, so Ariana takes it by the wrist, draws it out, and laces their fingers together.

Levi pulls her hand away at once, as if Ariana had burned it.

“Don’t do that, Blue,” she says, very softly.

“But I am sorry,” Ariana says, confused. “Are you vexed that my Tree should endure, while yours will come down?”

“No.” Levi stretches out her broad shoulders. “I cannot fathom how the blame for that might lie with you.”

Ariana shakes her head. “Then I don’t understand you, Levi.”

“No, you don’t,” she answers.

They walk on. Moonlight filters down through the trees, like it did on that night, years and years ago, when Ariana took a knife to her own Guardian Tree.

“Does Isaiah know,” Ariana asks presently, “What sort of specialization they will choose? The descendent of mine, the one who saves William.”

“Heliomancy.” Levi’s forehead furrows. “I was surprised to hear it. Heat and light. I can’t imagine one could do much with that.”

But Ariana is an inventor. “Oh, I think one could do very much, with that.”

Levi looks down at her, but does not respond.

“I’m working on something new,” Ariana says, after a moment. “A system, for the locket. A method of leaving instructions for opening it.”

She knows that Levi likes to hear about her inventions, and her words instantly bring about a smile.

“What sort of system?”

They speak of it until they have come all the way back to Ariana’s house. Their visits together are very rare, and always short. Neither of them can stray far from their towns, and never for long, or they leave people’s lives at risk. If someone were to fall from a horse or down a flight of stairs back in Levi’s town tonight, she will not be there to prevent it.

“I have something for you,” Ariana tells her, as they reach the porch. “Will you wait a moment?”

Levi puts her sizeable hands back in her pockets. “Of course.”

Ariana returns to her workshop and finds the cane. She brings it downstairs.

Levi is standing in the open doorway, one hefty shoulder against the frame. She never stands like the lady of noble breeding that she is.

She backs up onto the porch when Ariana returns.

Ariana offers her the cane. It’s a handsome thing, of fine wood and fine making. Designed to assist with walking, but Ariana has repurposed it. Levi takes it, and turns it over in her hands.

“Is something amiss with my gait?” she jokes, then pauses, sensing the energy. “What is it, really?”

“Point it at something, and wish that something away,” Ariana says.

Levi frowns, but raises the cane and points it at the treeline. Her eyes narrow in focus, and a blast of air silently explodes from the cane. It batters into the trees, sending them whipping wildly.

Levi stares, then looks back to Ariana.

“For all those bothersome suitors you told me of,” Ariana explains. “In case one of them makes a fool of himself and tries to steal a kiss.”

Levi blinks her violet eyes at Ariana, then breaks into a grin.

“This ought to keep them back,” she says, and they both laugh quietly. “They still come thick and fast, Blue. Odious men, of all stations and degrees. I am hounded.”

“I thought it might be so.”

The black sky overhead is sparsely populated with stars. Soon enough the edges will begin to lighten. Levi and Ariana both look up, thinking the same thing.

“I must go,” Levi concedes. “Even walking at my pace, I have a long journey back.”

“Your walk! You stalk about in the dark like some great prowling cat,” Ariana teases. “That’s why I picked this cane.”

It has a carved lion’s head at the top. Levi lifts it to her face for a better look, smiles, and lowers it again.

“Levi,” Ariana says, leaning closer. “You have no idea what happiness you’ve given me, bringing this news. I’m not sure I could ever fully be at peace with myself without - without knowing.”

Levi looks at her for a long moment. She opens her mouth to answer, then seems to change her mind. She shrugs her shoulders, like she’s casting something aside, and straightens up.

“Well. I’d better be off, then.”

“What - but you cannot go like this!” Ariana gestures to the trousers, the shirtsleeves, the work boots. “I know you like to be - ambiguous, and I know that it’s late, but - suppose someone in town sees you? Suppose you meet a draycart on the road, or-?”

“Ah.” Levi falters by the porch steps. “I forgot.”

She lets the illusion fall away, slowly, like she’s loath to let it go.

There she is, in her real form. Now a few inches shorter than Ariana, rather than a few inches taller; her broad shoulders turn narrow, and her waist grows slender. The outfit turns to a dress, one made for traveling, but showing the expense of its making. Her short, cropped hair is long again, falling down her shoulders in gentle blonde waves. A white ribbon tied into a bow holds half of her tresses back.

Ariana waits, expecting her to say her goodnight, but Levi hesitates.

“I would stay longer,” she says. “If I could.”

Ariana, too, wishes she could keep another of her kind as a friend. But they can’t write to each other, can’t visit regularly. The risk is too great.

“You cannot stay,” she says, and Levi sighs.

“I know. Damnation, I know.” She looks down at her hands, which are back to being soft and small. “It's unfair, isn’t it? All these things that are chosen for us?” And then, without waiting for an answer, “Farewell, Blue.”

Ariana watches her go. Just before Levi disappears, she tries to put her hand in her pocket, but there are none in the skirts of her dress. She puts both hands around the cane, instead.

The night swallows her up. Ariana goes back inside. She goes to her bedroom and stops in the doorway.

Finch is curled up in bed. Nathaniel, their youngest, is at his side, tucked beneath his arm. They are both sleeping peacefully, their heads tipped together.

Ariana wants to get into bed with them, but she finds herself back in her workshop, adding oil to the lamps, cracking the joints in her fingers. She sets out the conduit she was working on, and bends over it.

Her visitor has brought her sublime relief. Ariana can scarcely wrap her head around it. One day, somehow, one of her descendents will save him.

William Clarke can be free again.

But Ariana is not about to sit on her hands. Whoever it is that saves him, they still need the right tools. This will remain her life’s work, only now she knows that it will ultimately be successful.

Thank you, Levi.

When Ariana next looks up, the sun is rising, spilling brilliant gold down onto the treetops beyond the window.

“I make these for you, heliomancer,” she whispers, touching her fingers to the conduits. “I hope you will use them well.”