Lilliana Centes watched her father brush past her without so much as a cursory glance. She frowned and rolled her eyes. ‘He saw me,’ she mused. ‘Is he that pissed at me that he won’t even acknowledge my existence?’

Well, no matter. She had more pressing concerns. Like maintaining her business, her passion project, afloat.

“Paper!” she yelled into the crowd. “Paper with News! Only one silver piece!”

She waved a piece of parchment in the air. A small stack of identical parchments lay on the stone steps that ascended to the building behind her. She stood facing the busiest section of Safehaven, the City Center, and Godknight Tower.

Her long, curly brown hair was mostly pinned up, with a pair of long braids framing her face. She preferred it that way; up, and out of the way. She was prettier than she appeared at first glance, but such things held little interest to her. Much to her father’s dismay. But so much about her dismayed him.

Despite her lack of effort, her underlying, natural beauty was hard to miss. Deep, expressive brown eyes complemented her hair, while her full lips and smooth, clear skin seemed to convey a latent, unexplored sensuousness. She’d turned away more than one boy with hunger in his eyes back in her school days, preferring to focus on less tedious activities. Like learning, exploring, questioning.

A pair of elderly women stopped in front of her. “What’s this?” the smaller one with the frizzy gray hair asked.

“It’s the Paper,” Lilly replied enthusiastically. “With news!”

“News?” Frizzy Hair asked. “I don’t understand.”

“May I see, dear?” the taller, plumper one with the cane asked.

“Of course,” Lilly responded, reaching down and grabbing a fresh parchment from the stack next to her.

Tall and Plump held the parchment close to her eyes. Despite the proximity, she squinted hard. Frizzy Hair stood on her toes next to her, practically bouncing up and down, straining to see what her companion was studying.

“Interesting,” Tall and Plump commented. She looked at Lilly. “So this happened here? In the city?”

“Yup,” Lilly confirmed. “Just two days ago.”

“May I see?” Frizzy Hair asked. She sounded like a frustrated child whose mother wasn’t giving her the attention she desired.

Tall and Plump continued to study the paper, completely oblivious to her partner’s pleas. “Hmm,” she mused.

Frizzy Hair grunted with frustration. Tall and Plump glanced down at her, as if noticing her for the first time. But she didn’t hand the paper over. Instead, she began reading the words aloud.

“It says ‘The Paper.’ Here, at the top.” Lilly thought she sounded more than a little patronizing, but was charitable enough to assume Frizzy Hair’s eyesight was even worse than hers, and she was providing her partner a service. “Beneath that is says ‘Young Farm Boy Confronts Godknight!”

“Ohh,” Frizzy Hair responded. She clasped her hands together and ceased bouncing on her toes. Tall and Plump finally handed it to her.

“So you, what?” Tall and Plump asked Lilly. “Witnessed this?”

“Yup,” Lilly said. “Happened just the other day.”

“You spend a lot of time in the city, do you?”

Lilly nodded and smiled. “I’m here all the time. Just sellin’ my Paper.”

“And you chose to write about it?” Tall and Plump asked. “This… confrontation?”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

Lilly grinned. This was her favorite part. Pitching the bare-bones concept of her project to potential customers.

“People are naturally curious. I mean, we all like to gossip a little. Am I right?” she winked at the pair. Frizzy Hair grinned and nodded; Tall and Plump chastised her with her eyes.

“They want to know what’s happening,” Lilly continued. “Especially the stuff that’s new. So I go out, find what’s new. Then I record it here, on paper. Then I share all that, the ‘News,’ with the people.”

“Ohh,” Frizzy Hair responded again. She sounded absolutely delighted— and slightly puzzled—by the idea. “Can we get one?” she asked her companion.

Tall and Plump reached into her coin purse and pulled out a silver piece, handing it over to Lilly.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“It’s certainly a novel idea, dear,” Tall and Plump commented. “Do you only sell them here, in the city?”

“I’m afraid so,” Lilly admitted. “For now. It’s a lot of work making just the one, and I do it almost all by myself.”

“Hm. Well, we’re just visitors to the city, dear. But if you should ever make your way out to Springwater, I’d love to see more.”

Lilly smiled broadly. The notion of expanding across Brightholme had long intrigued her. Hearing even a single person express interest was promising.

As the pair departed, Lilly overheard Tall and Plump say to her companion, “Imagine. All the gossip written down. On paper! Will wonders never cease?”

She laughed, reaching down and grabbing a fresh Paper.

“’Do it all by yourself,’ huh?” a voice said from behind her.

“I said ‘almost.’” She turned to see Windham Rickter Highbloode holding a fresh stack of The Paper. As much as she sometimes hated to admitting it, he did help.

Eagerly. Sometimes uncomfortably so.

She accepted the parchments from him and thanked him. He bowed, extravagantly and dramatically.

“Why, of course, milady.”

She chuckled. She liked him well enough, she supposed. He could be charming in his clumsy self-assuredness. Perhaps they were even friends. He certainly seemed to believe they were.

Did he think they were more than friends? She couldn’t be certain, but the way he occasionally looked at her—leered?—certainly suggested so. Or at least his desire to take it there.

He was a few years older than her, twenty-five to her twenty. His brown hair was combed and styled, his beard trimmed and well-maintained. His silk burgundy tunic, embroidered with gold threads along the cuff and necklines, suggested a station he didn’t actually hold. He was the opposite of her in that way; how he presented himself—and how he was perceived—was very important to him.

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He was rather plain-looking, Lilly thought, and believed he knew it. Perhaps that was why he put so much effort into his appearance. Of course, it could also have been nothing more than pure vanity. He could be awkward, even shy, around her. But she suspected that was a put-on. This was a man with a high opinion of himself.

He was also human with likely a normal lifespan, while Lilly was an Aeonic and might live for centuries. That seemed to bother Windham, but for Lilly, it held little consequence. What did matter to her and was, perhaps, a deal-breaker as far as ever taking the relationship down a romantic road, was Windham’s attitude.

He had always treated her extremely well, almost like royalty. Which was nice. But she’d also seen how he treated others. Superior. Stand-offish. Judgmental and dismissive. He had a chip on his shoulder, she thought, like he was somehow owed more than he had.

“I appreciate you doing this, Wind,” she told him, and meant it. “It takes forever writing all these copies out by hand. I’m lucky to get even half a dozen done. And how long did it take you, an hour?”

“Oh, much less than that,” he said, standing a little taller and puffing out his chest. “It was easy. A simple spell, really.”

Windham was a Service Mage and worked directly for the Elders and the city of Safehaven. Service Mages were capable of small spells, the simplest of magics, which they used to make the citizens of Brightholme’s lives easier. You might see one at dusk walking the streets, lighting the lampposts with a wave of their hand.

“Either way, thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

She fidgeted with the papers a moment or two longer than she needed to. Peeked back over her shoulder at him. He was watching her, smiling.

‘Okay,’ she thought. ‘He’s not leaving.’

She accepted this and moved on, grabbing a Paper and standing up. She waved it in the air and shouted out her pitch. “Paper! Paper with News! Only one silver piece!”

Windham shuffled around awkwardly, hanging out just behind her. He rocked on his heels, stuffed his hands in his pockets. Seemed to be trying to find a reason not to leave.

His eyes lit up; he’d thought of a topic. “I read what you wrote,” he said to her. “About the farm boy. It’s extraordinarily well written.”

“Why, thank you, Windham,” she said with a smile.

There was more silence, save for Lilliana hawking her Paper.

“Hey,” Windham said. “Did you see the Solicitor bringing that guy to be Adjudicated a little earlier? They were waiting for the Godknight and he didn’t show.”

“Yeah, I saw it,” she said. “I know that girl, I think. The Solicitor. Janey or something? I think she’s a Whisperwind.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Windham responded with a shrug.

“My father was there,” she told him. “Walked right by me without a second look.”

“Your father is a very important man, Lilly. I’m sure he must have had important business.”

She let her arm fall to her side and turned to face Windham directly. “You know, sometimes I think you like him more than he likes me.”

“What?” His eyes widened in abject terror. “No! No way. I mean, that’s nonsense. Silly. He’s the High Elder, that’s all. A lot of responsibility comes with that. That’s all I’m saying.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not an indictment of you,” Windham continued. “That he didn’t notice you. Of course, he loves you very much.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

She turned back towards the people in the City Center, heard him mumble something under his breath.

“How could they not.”

“What was that?” she asked, looking back at him over her shoulder.

Windham looked like the cat that ate the canary. “Nothing. It was… it was nothing.”

Another few moments passed. One of her regulars, a burly carpenter named Bem Devuv, stopped and chatted with her briefly. He paid his silver piece, tucking the Paper under his arm and continued on his way.

Lilly reached for a fresh copy. Windham already had one in his hand, handing it to her with a smile.

“Thanks, Wind.”

He’d do this sometimes. Just hang around while she worked. Sometimes it was a little much. A little creepy, even. But she didn’t have the heart to tell him to go. He had his flaws, some of them more concerning than others. But he was, to her, thoughtful and considerate. And smart, in his own way. Capable of the occasional complex thought and conversation.

And then there was the fact that she didn’t have many friends. Growing up the High Elder’s daughter came with a lot of perks. She tried to be grateful for what she had, but, not so deep down, none of it was what she wanted. Or who she wanted to be. The other children of the Elders, the ones that she had grown up alongside, didn’t share her feelings. Or her hopes and ambitions. They were perfectly content to be Princes and Princesses.

Which they weren’t, really. There was no royalty here. Nothing official anyway. But that didn’t stop them from being entitled brats. And that was something Lilly simply could not tolerate.

“The Paper’s doing pretty well,” she said to Windham between shouting pitches, deciding she might as well engage him since he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I know,” Windham said. “And it should. It’s very unique. Ahead of its time, if you ask me.”

“Thank you. Have I told you what I’ve been working on?”

“No. I’m sure it’s very interesting. What is it?”

She stopped what she was doing and gave him her full attention. “You know I’ve never believed all the horror stories about the world outside of Brightholme. I mean, there has to be some good places out there. Right?”

Windham opened his mouth to speak. Lilly kept going.

“Lately I’ve been tracking down some of the new arrivals. Asking them what it’s really like out there. Why they came here and where they came from.”

“Have you?” Windham asked. She’d clearly piqued his curiosity. “And what have you learned?”

Lilly took an excited step towards him. Windham seemed startled and flinched a little. She didn’t notice, already fully absorbed in her story, her words coming faster and faster.

“Well, for most of them it was bad out there. That’s why they came, to escape something else. And a lot of them had kids, which changes stuff for them, I guess.”

She paused, stared blankly at the ground.

“What, Lilly?” he asked. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” she said, twisting her lip. “They wouldn’t all talk to me. And those that did weren’t willing to talk about anything specific. They just wanted to leave it all behind and move on with their new lives. But I got the sense they were afraid of something. That there was something in particular they were avoiding talking about.”

“What do you think it is?” Windham asked.

She gave him a serious look, glancing around to make sure nobody was listening. As if she was about to reveal a big secret.

“Something’s coming, Wind,” she told him, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t know what. Or who, maybe. They wouldn’t say, but—”

“You’re imagining things,” he interrupted. He never interrupted.

She put her hands on her hips. “I most certainly am not imagining things.”

“Nothing is coming,” he insisted. “We’ve got the Godknight to protect us. Remember?”

“Why are you so insistent?” she asked. “Like you’ve ever been a big fan of his.”

“It’s got nothing to do with that, Lilly. Like him or not, nobody would be crazy enough to attack Brightholme. There’s nobody, in here or out there, that can stand up to him.”

Lilly frowned. “But how do we know?” she asked. “We’re all just… stuck in here. Nobody really knows what’s out there. Or if they do, they’re not talking about it. What if there is something that can stand up to him? Something new?”

“Lilly…”

“An invasion.”

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious.”

She shrugged. “Maybe I’m not. I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”

“You need to stop worrying about things like that,” he said. He waved a hand at her dismissively, treating her for the first time in the ugly way she’d seen him treat others. “Nothing like that could ever happen here.”

She bristled at that, felt a surge of heat in her face.

“I gotta get going,” he told her matter of factly. “I’ll see you around.” He walked briskly away, without so much as a goodbye or smile or longing look over his shoulder.

She watched him go, a little stunned by both his dismissal of her and the way he had just up and left. It was completely out of character. Had she scared him that much? Or was there something else going on?

She tried to brush it off. She had mixed feelings about the man. A few minutes ago she was hoping he’d leave; now she was upset to see him go. Especially the way he had gone.

She sighed and shook her head. No matter. It was a feeling, nothing more. A potential story to investigate further. But for now… she had some Papers to sell.