Astar [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/01_34_asheader.png]

Unease swept through the audience when the sky went dark. Moments before, the crowd was ready to cheer for the downfall of the traitor. The joy seemed to twist, turning over on itself into a sense of fear.

Astar saw it come over the privileged in the Pulvinus. Their shoulders tensed in celebration, then ratcheted into terror.

It didn’t reach into her like the others. She had been horrified since Kanna took the sands, holding out hope that there was some way she could figure out a way to get her friend out of this. Her existing dread somehow shielded her from what the others were experiencing.

A single scream ripped through the crowd, setting off a cacophony of joining ones. The bodies began to surge towards the back of the Theatre, people shoving and stepping over each other as they tried to reach the narrow stairs.

Hautman grabbed his nearest loa guard, forcing the man to slide away the secret passage beneath the Pulvinus. Hautman dove through first and the others shoved each other to follow him.

Her father had never been one to face consequences.

One of the last guards tried to shove Astar ahead, but she wouldn’t move. She wasn’t sure what she would do, but it was the chance she needed. Preoccupied with his own survival, the Keeper made little effort to contain her before diving into the tunnel to escape.

Astar scanned the crowd. It was even easier to find Yassen now. He was the only person not trampling others to get away.

Leaving the safety of the Governor’s box, Astar pushed against the crowd. But it was a monster of its own, and it tried to pull her back to the exits.

“Yassen!”

He turned, squinting through the crowd and spotting her. He left the front row of the stage grudgingly before shoving his bulk through the mass of people. Astar felt him take her hand and he jerked her toward him and out of the panicked flow.

Astar felt herself being effortlessly towed against the hysterical swarm as Yassen made his way back to the edge of the Theatre’s stage.

“We have to get down there,” he said, pointing below when they broke free.

“Wait.”

Astar grabbed his wrist and pulled him short from leaping to the sands below.

People were tripping, crushing against each other in order to escape. Beyond the walls, long peals of screams descended as people toppled over the sides of the exposed stairwells, falling to the unforgiving stone ground.

Stolen novel; please report.

“We have to do something about this, first,” she said.

“Why?” Yassen asked, waving his hands at the back of the crowd. “They were cheering for Kanna’s death just a minute ago.”

Astar gaped at him. Yassen’s tone was bitter, his eyes hard. Even on the sands, when he fought for his life, there was a kindness in him.

“I know.” She placed a hand on his arm, forcing him to look at her. “But can you really do nothing?”

Yassen grit his teeth together. He looked up to the steadily darkening sky. “What could I do?”

Astar heard the screams, felt the air cooling the stone beneath her feet.

Then she knew.

“It’s rock,” she said.

Yassen followed her eyes to the ground.

“Even I know that.”

“This whole place,” Astar said, sweeping out her hands. “It was formed by loas.”

He squinted at her. “So?”

Astar bit her lip, resisting the urge to shake the man. “So then reform it. You’re a loa, or did you forget?”

“I barely know what I’m doing,” Yassen said. “How am I supposed to change an entire building?”

“I don’t know!” she snapped. “But you can try. At least widen the stairs outside or something so they can get down.”

Yassen rubbed the back of his head. “Fine,” he said, “but no promises.”

Yassen knelt, placing his hands against the stone. He shut his eyes.

At first, nothing happened. Astar bit her lip, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

It started with a low growl. There was a tremble in the stands and she felt something shift in the rock beneath her feet as if it was being stretched. The walls that circled outside the sitting area folded back, the open air Theatre losing a floor of its height.

She could hear a steady thunk as the earth formed stairs to allow the crowd to escape.

Yassen rose and rubbed the dirt from his hands on his pants.

“Did that work?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Astar said, stunned. “It worked.”

He turned his back, heading toward the edge of the stage. Even though she had prodded him, she hadn’t expected him to be able to reform the Theatre so easily. Most of the loas she had seen had to use their entire bodies, straining just to move the simplest of things.

Astar looked to the fleeing backs of the crowd as they escaped. It would be easy to join them. She could hide in her lavish quarters, practice her crafts, change outfits as many times a day as she liked and never wear anything twice.

The world would continue outside the walls of her home. Even if war came to their door, she could stay ahead of it, and it would never even touch her.

Instead, she turned to the stage.