Through the small gap between the wardrobe doors I could see into the room. It was night, everything shadowed in darkness, and even the twin moon peaking from between the clouds, visible via the open window, couldn’t illuminate the insides. But the outline of the bed and two people sleeping on it was still visible.

The boy was awake, looking towards the wardrobe with wide-open eyes as if we could see anything. Somewhere deep inside I knew he couldn’t see me - if he did it all would end way too earlier.

The boy's hand reached to the other person laying beside him and started shaking. “Nam? Mam?” he begged in a tiny whisper. Never leaving the wardrobe out of his sight.

Finally, the other person stirred awake. The woman moved on the bed sitting up and leaning on the wall. She reached out to the night table and snapped her finger. Immediately a single candle started to burn, its flame lighting up the small room.

The woman was an elf, a redhead with just as orange, burning eyes. She wore a simple white shirt that did not hide the outline of blood-red tattoos on her arms. The boy by her side was human, maybe in his tens not much older, which straw-colored blonde hair and piercing green eyes.

Elf hummed as she gently stroked his head. “Why are you waking me up?”

The boy sat up as well, fitting comfortably by the woman's side. “There’s something in the wardrobe,” he said in a monotone voice. As if to try not the betray how scared he was.

“A monster?”

“No… Yes?.. I’m not sure…”

“Well let's see then,” she murmured as she stood up and approached the wardrobe. I cursed her in my mind, but I had no way to spot her from touching the dark wood and opening the door just so as to peek inside.

Up close I realize her eyes have vertical slits instead of round pupils. That her smile is in fact predatory grimace. She looked at me without fear or surprise.

Of course, something like her wouldn’t be scared of the nightmares-

“Alvin,” she said. “Is your monster big?”

“Yes,” confirmed the child, Alvin.

“Does it have big fangs?”

“Mhm, and very long tongue.”

“Dark fur? Long claws?”

“Yes! Yes!” I hear rustling and creaking of the bed, maybe the boy stood up on it. “Nam, do you know what this is?”

The elven woman turned to the boy smiling sweetly. “Of course I do.” She opened the wardrobe doors all the way and I hold my breath. “It’s you, my dear. Did you forget there’s a mirror in the wardrobe?”

The boy standing on the bed looked at me in shock. His mouth formed a perfect “o”.

I turned around, to see what was behind me. There was a mirror, hanging from the back wall of the wardrobe.

There was nothing there. Only darkness. Hungry and making me feel like only now I was being noticed. The surface of the mirror morphing and reaching out toward me, as if it wanted to consume me.

I stumbled out of the wardrobe and fell backward, just out of the reach of the dark, glass claws.

I awakened with a jump.

The cart I was laying on had to pass over a larger rock, bringing me out of the dream. I was already late morning, maybe even early afternoon, judging by the position of the sun above. But I wasn’t sure, not really. The road was running through thick, green woods.

I really liked the descriptions of saovine fauna and flora that was in the book. They seemed familiar enough to feel like something I might actually know, recall from childhood or old dream, and at the same time magical. Everything in Saov seemed somehow magical…

Even people.

Reyc, whose life and body I ended up inhabiting, was a Gate. While anyone could become Enchanter or Arcanist, all they needed to do was study long enough, to be a Gate one had to be born that way. It seemed to be equal parts a blessing and a curse.

 「 “The difference lays in the energy.”

“What do you mean?” Reyc leaned his way. Sweet smile on his lips as if he really was so obvious, as if he really had no idea what he is.

“You can’t create something out of nothing.” And yet, Jacques de Aspen was indulging him. “To cast a spell, any spell really, you have to use up energy, even a tiny bit. Everywhere else, outside of our beautiful Saov, they have schools that teach that to young mages - to draw living energy from the environment. But you can also draw from yourself. Or other people.”

“From the blood.”

Jacques de Aspen laughed.

“Precisely,” he said bringing his golden cup to his lips. It was not the wine that left a red stain on them. “But Gate… Gate opens up a rift in the world. Between this world, between Mist, there’s still something out there and it’s filled to the brim with pure energy.”

“How then can a person be a Gate? Wouldn’t this amount of energy rip them apart?”

“Maybe Gate is not the best term… It’s like with doors, they can be opened and then closed… 」

And a person born with the Gate inside of them had full control over it. Or in Reyc’s case none of it. Apparently, he was stubborn all his life, claiming he doesn’t need any teacher or mentor, another mage to help him learn how to control this. And so he ended up as Jacques de Aspen’s prisoner. 

It was mentioned at a different point in the book that Gates would often screw in the direction of a particular element or magical aspect. Sometimes it happened after their gained some control over themselves, sometimes before.

Reyc was a Dreamer. Every night he would unconsciously open his Gate ajar and wander in the dreams created by other people.

Briefly, I mourned my dreamless nights back in Birka-

“I’m not lying! We work for the Queen of the Night.”

“Yeah, sure you do.”

It was Gael and Fela. They sat together at the front of the cart, almost casually, talking and sharing a jug of wine, if not for the fact that Gael’s hands were bound with the rope.

Actually so were mine.

“Hey, listen!-

“No. You listen,” interrupted him Fela. “I frequent the House of the Night. Who are you trying to bullshit that guys like the two of you work there? You look like a wet weasel.”

“Well… Some people are into ‘wet weasels’...”

Fela just grimaced at that.

“Your sleeping prince's friend, he maybe would find some work there, but I doubt.” Fale turned to look at me in the back and noticed that I was awake. “Speaking of the devil…”

With grunt I raised up and sat a bit closer to them, leaning on the side of the cart. “We don’t work for the Queen,” I said. Lying now wouldn’t take us far anyway.

“Reyc!”

“Then who are you?” asked Fela looking at me sideways.

“Who are you?” I returned the question. Technically speaking I still shouldn’t know her name, and I didn’t want to accidentally reveal too much.

She laughed and with a brilliant smile pointed at herself. “I’m Felicia Zaleglowicz! Child of Fortune! Born on Friday.”

“And I’m Hubert Reyc.” Not for the first time cursing What’s Left of The Night, the author of Seventh Lord of Mindsna for giving one character name almost identical to my own. “Born on Wednesday, I woefully believe.”

We both looked at Gael, waiting for his turn. He rolled his eyes and with a theatrical bow said, “Gael. A single child, so you don’t even need my saint’s name. Born on the day of Nerprun.”

At that Fela snorted with laughter. “Smartass.”

TL NOTES

Hello, dears! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o It’s me again the LibraryCat, translator =￣ω￣= I hope you have as much fun reading as I do translating ο(=•ω＜=)ρ⌒☆ I can’t wait for JdA to actually appear (★‿★) those small snippets are just not enough for me (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Felicia Zaleglowicz - Felicia is of course feminine form of Felix, meaning “luck, fortune”. Zaleglowicz is a bit hard to translate but could be understood as ‘someone who falls behind a lot’. Making Fela a bit of a slacker, but a lucky one.

Agnomen - I wondered if I should call it titles or nicknames or maybe something else completely, but agnomen seemed the best here. Titles can be inherited and nicknames are more something other people pick for us, while agnomen has to be gained by the person. It seems like a bad choice considering that the first character we see with such is Fela, and hers is the “Child of Fortune”, but it makes sense with all others.

“Nam? Mam?” - Just so there’s no confusion, I think it’s good if I reveal now that ‘Nam’ is a diminutive of a particular name. And ‘mam’ is just mom. But when you say both one after the other they can sound the same. I think it’s a neat little detail 

day of the birth - So it’s a fun tradition in Saov to believe that you can predict child’s future based on the day they were born. Here each character is referencing a different tradition. Fela’s is a very old folk one, children born on Friday are believed to be very lucky - that’s also why she believes she’s the Child of Fortune. Hubert’s refers to a nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child” where “Wednesday’s child is full of woe”. Gael however isn’t just telling the rest weekday he was born, but a date according to the Revolutionary Calendar that was used for some time in Saov. In this calendar, every day has a corresponding plant or animal, or tool. Gael says that he was born on the day of Nerprun, so that means 4th of September. Revolutionary Calendar isn’t very popular and is used almost only by scholars so thats why Fela calls him a smartass.

Saint’s name - As I said Gael doesn’t use his first name, but he was named after one of the Saints - st. Stanislava