Aster’s shoulders stiffened. “Tch, stubborn old…” she tapered off.

  “What was that?” Inga formed her hand into a funnel around her ear.

  Aster's face grew red and she cast about for a distraction. Her eyes landed on the wooden cat. “Where’s Kristinn?”

  “Dead.” Inga’s expression darkened.

  “But— but, his cat—”

  Inga bit off Aster’s words with her own. “I take care of Alf now.” She turned her head to the cat perched on her shoulder and pet him.

  Aster glanced towards the pyre and the shape atop it. “Is that..?”

  “It’s not him,” Inga said, stomping her staff on the ground. “My husband died four months ago.”

  “Inga— I’m so so—”

  “Enough!” Inga shouted. The sudden outburst made Isaac’s heart jump. Aster slipped into a fighting stance. “Now what do you want, girl.” The venom in Inga’s voice made Aster flinch. “Hm? Out with it.”

  Aster straightened from her stance in one slow movement, as if to pretend she’d never been startled in the first place. She gestured to Isaac with a nod. “I need you to use your power on him.” Her voice sounded cold and calculated, not at all like someone asking for a favor.

  Inga angled her head to one side. She both acted and sounded like a cat. “Now why would I do that?”

  “I— I’ll speak to Tejahl on your behalf. Make her send some guards.”

  “Come one now, girl, don’t be so naive. Tejahl is done for. Both of her squads wiped out in two days.” Inga barked a short, bitter laugh. “Tejahl won’t ever help us now, because she can’t help us. No one can. We will face Kin Tao’s golden soldiers on our own.”

  “If Chaaron joins with Kin Tao, there’s—”

  Inga took three short steps and before Isaac could blink she stood almost nose to nose with Aster. “If Chaaron dares come here again I’ll tell her the same thing I told her last time.”

  Aster looked very pale all of a sudden, but her voice didn’t let on anything but supreme confidence. “If what you say is true and Tejahl really is done for, then I will go to her, defeat her, and take back my key.”

  Inga’s eyes widened and a hush fell over the crowd.

  “Once I have my key back I’ll return to you. I’ll help protect you.”

  A smidge of something Isaac thought must be respect showed in Inga’s expression. “How could you possibly win against Tejahl.” Despite her words Isaac heard more hope than challenge in Inga’s voice.

  Two white discs of resonance formed from each of Aster’s hands, she angled the disks down and her feet left the ground for a second before she let the discs dissipate. “I know I can. The only reason I haven’t done so sooner was because Ronan and Chaaron always made sure they were present whenever I met with Tejahl.” Isaac had to admit, it was a very impressive display, and judging by the crowd, the theatrics had worked.

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  Inga looked Aster over for several seconds. She glanced once at Isaac. “Deal.” She held her hand out to Isaac. “Give me one of your keys.”

  Isaac ruffled his hair. “Eh, well, about that—”

  Aster broke him off. “We’re not really sure how it happened, but he has a strange golem that has swallowed both of his keys.”

  Many in the crowd laughed, even Inga smiled ruefully. “You fool boy, don’t you know to never give your familiar all of your keys?”

  “Ehm, I— well that’s to say, it happened by accident.” Isaac felt dumber by the second.

  “Well? Where is it?”

  “He’s waiting outside the gate.”

  “Call it here.”

  Isaac yelled for Dwayne and he could hear the giant of a gargoyle moving towards them. He hadn’t realized just how loud Dwayne was, he would have to remember that. Aster had calmed a bit. Seeing that made Isaac relax, so it seemed they had succeeded in getting what they had come for. Aster had agreed to fight this Tejahl woman and Isaac would probably have to come along for that too. Perhaps he could convince Aster to steal the key back rather than fight for it.

  “What are familiars, Inga? I’ve never heard of them before.”

  Inga snorted. “No, you wouldn’t have. They are exceedingly rare. I only know of three people who have one, my husband and that wretched Kin Tao.” She spat the last two words out as if they were a curse. A realization came over her and her voice grew solemn. “Well, my husband used to have one, I guess I should be counting myself from now on.” She peered at the wooden cat with a destitute longing in her eyes.

  Aster brushed hair away from her face. “Kin Tao has one?” Inga nodded. “But, if Kristinn is dead, how is his familiar still here?”

  “A familiar carries a part of your soul, when you first use the familiar key it takes after half of your personality and soul to grow into a creature based on its aspect.”

  “But what do they do? Seems to me they are more trouble than they are worth. Isaac’s creature swallowed his key and now we can’t get it back.” Isaac nodded in agreement. He could see Dwayne round the corner and he heard gasps from the crowd. Someone shouted. Perhaps he had been right to make Dwayne wait outside after all.

  “Oh, they can be a source of weakness, that’s true, but they can also be your greatest ally if you use them right.”

  “How do you use them right? And you said you knew of three people who had one, yet you’ve only named two, who’s the third?”

  Inga’s face soured and she waved her hand through the air and opened her mouth as if about to tell her off, but then her eyes widened and her staff clattered to the ground. “By the gods!” She cursed a long string of what sounded like obscenities in a language Isaac couldn’t place. Dwayne moved into the courtyard, he seemed wary of the reactions to his entrance. Inga’s voice caught and she staggered, clutching her chest.

  She whirled around and faced Isaac with an icy stare. “You!” she said, steel in her voice. “Where did you find this key?”

  Isaac felt a creeping panic set in as if he was locked in a small room and the walls closed in on him. The pyre with the cloth covered shape atop it seemed to grow in his mind, larger and larger out of the crowd until it filled his whole line of sight. “I— uh— that’s to say, I found it.”

  Inga screamed. “WHERE?!”

  Isaac jumped. “I— I— in the river, I found it in the river.”

  Inga didn’t listen. She started wailing and staggered towards Dwayne with her arms outstretched, muttering “my child, oh my dear child!” through sobs. She reminded Isaac of a toddler crying out for its mom.

  Isaac bumped into someone. He hadn’t realized he’d been backing up. He turned and found the large man with rock in place of skin standing there. The man flexed his arms and he shouted at Isaac. “Did you kill it? Did you kill his familiar?” He had a very strong scandinavian accent.

  “No! It was just a key! It called out to me!” The dots connected in his mind through a sudden rush of inspiration. The pyre, the small shape, the voice in the rain, the rock aspects of Inga’s other children. “Your son called to me!” he shouted at Inga, ignoring the brute in front of him. If he could convince her, perhaps they could survive this.