Jason looked up from his fascination with the fabric, his attention drawn by the intensity of Cal’s tone.

“You think there’s something I can do with this fabric, Cal?” he asked.

Cal glanced about the busy little restaurant. The low buzz of confidential conversation mingled with the clink of cutlery and the calls of the servers. The deeper sound of the busy bustle from the kitchens added its own note to the noise every time the servers entered or exited the kitchen, carrying full plates out, or empty plates and customer orders in.

Cal glanced around. No one was seated near them. No one was paying them any attention at all. Tomorrow’s was as discreet and confidential a spot as one could wish for the discussing of sensitive commercial matters, but still, Cal wanted to make sure no one could overhear.

“I think you can add color to the fabric, Jason,” Cal whispered. “I think you could use your magic to dye the spiderweb.”

Jason’s eyes went wide. “Of course!” he said. “Why, yes, of course I could color the fabric. I can almost feel how I would do so just by looking at it. I hadn’t thought of that when you mentioned the problems with coloring it before, but why not? If Maddie can’t get dye into this fabric using traditional methods, why shouldn’t we try magical means to make it happen?”

Jason looked about the restaurant, then back at the fabric. He drew a breath and gazed closely at the little sample, and Cal reached out a hand to grab Jason’s arm as he realized what his friend was about to do.

“Not here,” Cal said, urgently. “Don’t start weaving color into the fabric here!”

Jason blinked. “Ah, no, I suppose not,” he said with a laugh. “That wouldn’t do at all, would it. Can’t be casting magic in a restaurant. We might draw more attention to ourselves than we want to. This is still a commercial secret for you.”

“And we don’t know what’ll happen,” Cal added. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my recent experiments with magic, it’s that you need to be wary when trying out new things. This isn’t normal fabric – it’s created from the webbing of enchanted spiders that are enchanted in a way I don’t understand. It might have a strange effect on your magic, too.”

Jason stood. “Makes sense,” he said. Moving briskly and purposefully, he pocketed the sample. He drained the last of the beer from his mug, wiped up the last of the sun dried tomato oil with the last morsel of bread, and popped it into his mouth. “I’ll pay the tab,” he said, wiping his lips on his napkin, “then let’s go find somewhere quiet where we can try this out.”

“Really? Right now?” Cal asked. Even though he could see Jason was excited, he hadn’t expected his friend to want to drop everything and do the color experiment straight away.

Jason grinned. “I won’t be able to settle until we know whether this is going to work or not,” he said. “And if it does, it’ll be the most exciting new application of color weaving to happen in years. Come on, grab your coat.”

Cal smiled as he did so, allowing his own excitement to come to the fore as he pulled his jacket on and finished his own drink. Jason went to the bar and paid their bill. Cal visited the bathroom then headed outside. A moment later, Jason joined him.

“Where’ll we go?” Jason asked.

“Hey, what about your auction?” Cal suddenly remembered. “You were going to try for that bound edition of Saga of the Setting Sun. You might miss it!”

Jason waved the protest away. “If I miss it, I miss it,” he said. “I’m more interested in seeing if I can color this fabric now. Come on, where’s somewhere discreet that we can go to experiment with this material?”

“If you’re sure,” Cal said.

“Definitely,” Jason replied.

Cal glanced around. The little lane where Tomorrow’s was located was busy with people, and Blinkset Street itself was even busier. Cal thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

“Mullinor’s Park,” he said. “Just on the other side of Elm Street. That’s big enough that we can find a secluded spot, and the park will be quiet enough that we won’t attract too much attention, even if there are some unexpected results of the magic.”

Jason said nothing. Instead he just nodded and set off at a rapid pace, turning into Blinkset street and heading toward the park. Cal grinned, excited by his friend’s excitement, and jogged a few steps to catch up with Jason’s determined stride.

Mullinor’s Park wasn’t quite as quiet as they’d expected, but it would do. The newly improved weather had drawn people out into the city for the evening, and many of them had found their way to the park. The visitors were milling about in the light of the spirit lamps; couples walking arm-in-arm, groups laughing and talking loudly as they took up space on the wide, tree-lined avenues, and individual people walking quickly as they made their way from one part of the city to another.

Still, the park was expansive, and despite the many visitors it didn’t take Cal and Jason long to find their way to a spot where there were less people. They found a little sheltered garden surrounded by a high, thick hedge where, in summer, there would be a beautiful display of roses. A winding path ran between trellises and dark, stone-lined flower beds, all tangled with the dark, twisted forms of dormant rose bushes.

The rose garden was empty of visitors since the path didn’t lead anywhere. With the high hedge all around, it was ideal for their purposes. Cal and Jason headed in and walked a few twists of the path until they were a little way from the main path.

There was a spirit light on a lamp post at the entrance to the rose garden, but no lights actually in the garden itself. It was dark, and they had the place to themselves.

“This is as private as we’re going to get,” Jason said.

“Yeah, I think this’ll be fine,” Cal said. “I’ll keep an eye on the main path.”

Jason took the fabric from his pocket and Cal glanced toward the entrance, making sure there was no one near.

“Go on,” Cal urged. “Let’s see if it works.”

Jason held the sample on his upright palms and then stopped. “What color d’you want it?”

Cal laughed. “I don’t care, Jason, whatever you fancy!”

“Okay,” Jason said with a grin. He took a deep breath and began to work the magic.

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Weaving magics were more varied than singing magics, but most of the time, weaving incorporated a singing element. As Jason began the magic, a low, barely audible hum began in the little secluded rose garden. Cal knew that the sound came from Jason, though it didn’t seem to. Rather, it was as if the sound rose up from the ground at Jason’s feet.

Jason held the little square of cloth in his hand, and Cal gasped as flickering lines of different colored light flowed out from Jason’s fingers, running through the fabric and illuminating the details of Jason’s intent, concentrated expression as he leaned over the spell.

Blue light and red light, yellow light and green; like tiny bolts of lightning, they flickered out from Jason’s hands and flowed through the spider web material. The light twisted and turned within the fabric, the lines overlapping each other as if they really were being woven together.

The song got louder, filling the little space where they stood.

The colors settled at the corners of the fabric, flickering as if with an internal fire as they wove together and ran back toward Jason’s wrists. Jason was holding both his hands out flat, close together, with the fabric lying flat on his upraised palms.

Even as the light settled and became still, it still didn’t stay one color. The light kept changing hue, and Cal saw that Jason’s expression had taken on a concentrated frown as if the process wasn’t going quite as smoothly as he’d expected.

Jason’s mouth twitched. The colors flowed toward the center of the fabric, and then they joined in the middle. Suddenly, the note of Jason’s weaving music changed, increasing in volume and becoming discordant. The light flashed more brightly from the fabric sample. It looked as if Jason was holding a little square of pure illumination in his hands, a tiny window through which flowed the bizarre, multicolored lights of some other world.

Cal stepped involuntarily back as the light grew more intense and the discordant note of the weaving became louder. Jason’s expression was set in a look of determination, and Cal saw sweat gleaming on his brow.

Then Jason grinned unexpectedly. The note changed, the discord vanished, the light eased, then flickered, then went out.

Abruptly, the note of the weaving music stopped, leaving a ringing in Cal’s ears. Cal reached a finger up and prodded his left ear, trying to dislodge the ringing noise. After staring into the bright light of the magic, the little rose garden was very dark. Flickering after-images danced across his vision.

“Come on,” was all that Jason said. He strode past Cal, heading for the main path, and Cal followed in silence.

When they got back to the main path, they stood under the illumination of the spirit lamp and Jason held out his hand, the fingers closed tight around the result of their experiment. Cal held his breath as Jason opened his fist and revealed the fabric sample.

From end to end, the little square of fabric was colored a deep, vivid, beautiful blue.

The magic had worked.

Cal let out a whoop of triumph, jumped up into the air, then grabbed Jason in a bear hug and slapped him enthusiastically on the back. Laughing, Jason returned the hug and then stepped away, dancing a little jig around the spirit lamp post with the dyed fabric in his hand.

“You did it!” Cal exclaimed.

“I sure did,” Jason said, breathless after his dance. “And look at the color! It’s so vivid and rich! I don’t think I’ve ever managed to use my color singing to create quite so rich a shade. It’s a pity this spirit light is so yellow, you can’t see the color as well as you would in daylight. I can’t wait to see it in a better light, but even like this it looks fantastic!”

“The magic went a bit strange at the end, didn’t it?” Cal asked. “You seemed to be struggling with something, and the note of the song became kind of discordant.”

“You noticed that, did you?” Jason said, glancing at Cal with interest. “Yeah, it did get a bit difficult at the end, though it’s always hard to know what it’s like for someone who’s seeing the magic from the outside. At the end of the weaving process there’s a moment where you set the color into the material. That’s the trickiest bit, kind of like when you set the duration on an enchantment.”

“And that step in the spell was harder than usual?”

“More than that, it actually felt kind of dangerous. There was a moment there when I thought that I was going to lose control of the whole spell. I felt scared, and realized that I didn’t know what was going to happen if I did lose control. But I didn’t; I kept the spell moving and managed to smooth out the rough edges, and we were okay. Still, for a moment I felt like… I don’t know. It was strange. I felt like the magic was going to draw something out of me, as if it was going to pull some essence out of me that I didn’t want to lose. Normally, if I messed up the color set at the end of a spell there would be a flash and the color would fail, and that would be all there was to it. This felt more like it would have really hurt if I’d got it wrong.”

Cal took the fabric from Jason and looked at it closely in the light of the lamp. He was disturbed by the things that Jason was saying. Happy as he was to have found a way of getting color into the fabric, he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk his friend’s safety to do so.

Jason, however, seemed unconcerned and was keen to continue. “You said you had another couple of samples?” he asked.

Cal looked at him. “Yes…” he said, feeling dubious.

“Well, come on then, hand them over! I’ll dye them both as well, and then we can go and see your friend Maddie Turner. She’ll want to know about this as soon as possible, no?”

“She will. But are you sure? I mean, you said you felt the magic was dangerous. Don’t you think that we should wait, hold off a bit, maybe rest up and try the others tomorrow?”

Jason shook his head decisively. “I can handle it,” he said firmly. “No problem. I said it felt a bit dangerous at the end there, but it’s fine. I managed to keep the spell going. I’m not worried that anything will actually go wrong. I just need to be careful. Now that I know what the risk is, it’ll be fine. Come on, give me the samples.”

Cal shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “So long as you’re sure. After all, you know what you’re capable of better than I do. It’s your magic, so I’d best defer to your judgment!”

“That’s the spirit!” Jason said with a slightly manic grin. He took the two plain samples in his hand when Cal held them out. “We’d best go back in there,” Jason added, nodding in the direction of the secluded rose garden. “We don’t want to attract too much attention, and the magic is pretty bright.”

“And loud, too,” Cal said as he walked with Jason back into the rose garden. “I never knew color weaving to have such a powerful sound.”

“Yes, it was intense, wasn’t it?” Jason said. “Usually I’d expect that kind of volume when I’m stone singing on some heavy task, but not color weaving. There’s some powerful magic going on, no doubt about that.”

Cal’s doubts surged again at these words, but Jason was set on continuing, so Cal let him take the lead. When they got to the middle of the rose garden, Cal again kept watch while Jason worked. Nobody came near. Once, a heavily-built fellow who looked like he might have been an ork passed on the main path and glanced briefly in their direction, but that was all.

The second time Jason worked his magic, the process was smoother than it had been the first time. There was no discordant note at the end and Jason was able to set the color easily.

“See?” he said proudly, holding out a newly dyed fabric. “No problem.”

Cal held the new piece up. In the light from the lamp at the entrance, he could see that it was a bright yellow.

For all Jason’s confidence, it turned out that the third time was a different matter. This time, the discordant note came back with a vengeance when it came time to set the spell. The discord was louder and more strident than it had been the first time, and Cal was afraid that Jason had pushed the magic too far.

He remembered the two large glasses of strong ale they’d consumed before heading out, and wondered if they hadn’t made a serious mistake. Everyone knew that drinking could make people take risks and act irresponsibly. Doing magic while under the influence of alcohol was never a good plan, and Cal could have kicked himself for not being firmer and stopping Jason from over-extending himself.

It was too late now, though. There was nothing he could do. The spell was in full swing, and the only thing that Cal could have done to make it worse would have been to try to interfere. Jason was on his own.

The discordant weaving song clattered around the rose garden, and Jason’s fixed expression and tense shoulders were lit with the chaotic, flickering light of the spider webbing. Sweat dripped from his brow as he focused his whole being on bringing the magic into line.

Then, suddenly, the discordant note shifted, and a beautiful single, clear tone rang out like the clang of a silver bell, cut short in the middle of the stroke. The fabric shone out bright red for a moment, and then flickered and went out.

Jason groaned and collapsed unconscious to the ground.