spoke offhandedly of adept’s refreshments and archmagical meditations, who
routinely transported his spirit into a mystical realm and was accustomed to
meeting another spirit there. He said at last:” I do not read it ill that your
friend waits there. Why is it bad, unless you make it so? Maat, if you have had
it, you will find again. With him, you are bound in spirit, not just in flesh.
He would be hurt to hurt you, and to see that you are afraid of what once you
loved. His spirit will depart your place of relaxation when we put it formally
to rest. Yet you must make a better peace with him, and surmount your fear. It
is well to have a friendly soul waiting at the gate when your time comes around.
Surely, you love him still?”
That broke the young Stepson, and Tempus left him curled upon his bed, so that
his sobs need not be silent, and he could heal upon his own.
Outside, leaning against the doorjamb, the planked door carefully closed, Tempus
put his fingers to the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. He had surprised
himself, as well as the boy, offering Niko such far-reaching support. He was not
sure he dared to mean it, but he had said it. Niko’s team had functioned as the
Stepsons’ ad hoc liaisons, coordinating (but more usually arbitrating disputes
among) the mercenaries and the Hell-Hounds (the Rankan Imperial Elite Guards),
the Ilsig regular army and the militia Tempus was trying to covertly make out of
some carefully-chosen street urchins, slit purses, and sleeves-the real rulers
of this overblown slum and the only people who ever knew what was going on in