The mouth of the cave gaped wide, the feeble winter sunlight effortlessly swallowed up in its dark gullet. It might well have been a portal to another world.
Sheldrick took a deep breath and clamped his hand over the short sword tucked into his belt.
"For Mairi," he murmured—half a prayer, half a promise.
With his backbone straight and his head high, he charged into the cave.
***
The darkness was almost like a living thing. It blotted out not only sight but sound and sensation. There was a nothingness, a complete absence of stimulus, that soon had Sheldrick at the edge of panic.
Even breathing took an enormous effort. He stumbled, wheezing, and slammed into a wall of rock.
"Ow!"
The tiny exclamation echoed through the darkness, growing louder instead of fading. It sounded as though an army of Sheldricks were advancing unseen, with "Ow!" as their battle-cry.
A blast of cold wind swept all sound away and knocked him to the ground.
"...w h a a a a a t..."
The voice was low but resonant, the word unnaturally elongated.
Sheldrick shivered as he struggled to his feet.
"He– Hello?"
The darkness seemed to swallow his trembling voice.
"... g o ... a w a a a a a y ..."
A chill swept through him, stealing the last vestiges of warmth from his body.
"Please–" He gritted his teeth to keep them from chattering. "Please, I– I can't leave yet. I need to find the Great Master."
Silence pressed down on him like an inexorable weight.
"... w h y y y y y ..."
"My sister, Mairi—she's in trouble. The baron took her away because we're overdue on our loan payments. He raised the taxes on tenant farmers, so we couldn't afford to pay both, but I didn't know he could just arrest her like– like a common criminal."
For a moment, he was glad for the darkness, as it hid both his tears and his efforts to wipe them away.
"... a a a a a n d ..."
"I heard the Great Master will only rise in the cause of justice. I know a couple of tenant farmers aren't very important, but... I thought, maybe..."
The silence that followed was taut with anticipation.
Then something like a sigh emanated from the deepest darkness.
"... f i i i i i n e ..."
Sheldrick shut his eyes as light flooded the cave.
***
After a moment, he ventured a tentative squint. The light had evened out from a blaze to a flicker. Cautiously he opened his eyes.
He found himself in a room—rock-hewn and sparsely furnished, but still clearly fashioned as living quarters. There were bookshelves cut into the walls, candles twinkling from tiny sconces carved into stalactites, and a long low block made up as a bed with myriad blankets and cushions.
One of the blankets moved. Sheldrick flinched, then steadied himself as he distinguished the human figure on the bed.
"Well? You made it this far. Don't get all shy now."
The speaker was matronly, overweight, lounging inelegantly in a dark gray nightgown. She pawed her untidy bread-brown hair out of her face and propped herself up on one elbow.
"You look younger than you sound." She seemed indifferent—at best, mildly amused. "You're, what, twelve years old?"
"Thirteen," insisted Sheldrick, more defensively than he meant to. "–Ma'am."
The woman smiled. Her face was far from beautiful, but there was kindness in her gaze.
"And your sister?"
"Sixteen—almost seventeen."
"Orphans?"
"Yes, ma'am. I don't even remember our parents. Mairi... she's all I have."
He looked down at his feet, embarrassed to meet her eyes.
Fabric swished as the woman rose from the bed. He felt her approaching but did not dare to raise his head.
"Surely you didn't expect the Great Master to be a fat old lady."
"I– I didn't know what to expect, ma'am."
"Good answer."
He glanced up as she shuffled away, occupying herself with one of the bookshelves.
"And why seek out the Great Master, young sir? What stories have you heard that made you think I could help you?"
"They say you slew the tyrant Dagarr."
"Well... 'slew' is a strong word."
"And you saved the daughters of Aphosine from slavery."
"I just gave Aphosine the keys to their fetters. She saved them herself."
"What about the beasts of Hederath?"
"What ABOUT them?"
"Didn't you destroy them utterly from the face of the earth?"
The woman looked over her shoulder at Sheldrick, whose cheeks suddenly felt hot. "Who is telling these stories?? There was only one 'beast' in Hederath—a starving jackal who was trying to get at the tribe's herds. I moved it to a place with more wild game, and everyone was happy. That's the whole truth."
Sheldrick fiddled with the handle of the short sword. "Then... are all the stories false?"
"I'm sure at least half of them are made up from start to finish, and the rest are stretched beyond recognition."
She pulled a book off the shelf and brought it over to the bed, then beckoned him over. He stopped a few feet away.
"You still wanna ask for my help?"
Sheldrick nodded vigorously.
"Please... Great Master..." He knelt down and raised his hands in supplication. "You're the only one who can save my sister."
The woman came right up to him, took him by the wrists, and pulled him to his feet without the least sign of exertion.
"I'll be honest with you, kid: that sounds exhausting."
He looked up with a half-formed objection already on his lips, but his voice died away under her steady gaze.
The corners of her mud-brown eyes crinkled.
"Look, I'm not leaving this cave. It's just too complicated out there." She held up a hand before he could respond. "What I'm going to do is give you the means to save her yourself. Would that be enough?"
"Yes—yes, ma'am! I'm ready to fight for her freedom!"
"Easy now, kiddo. You're liable to hurt yourself if you rush headlong into danger."
She led him over to the bed and leafed through the book she had retrieved. Finding a blank page, she rested her fingertips on its pristine expanse. Words bloomed into being as though the ink had been waiting just beneath the surface.
"All you need is a bit of subtlety. Silent steps, shadow form... and an extension for your sister..."
Sheldrick jumped as the woman ripped the page from the book.
She tore it into three pieces; one piece she held up to a candle until it caught fire and turned to ash, the second she tucked into her bosom, and the third she folded until it fit easily into the palm of her hand.
"This should do it." She pressed the folded paper into his hand. "Now I need you to listen carefully, because magic is a funny finicky thing, and it won't do you any good to do things slipshod.
"The magic will be activated when you place the spell on your tongue. It might feel weird, but it shouldn't hurt at all. It'll last as long as you keep your mouth completely closed.
"While the spell is in effect, your feet won't make any noise wherever you walk or run, and no one will be able to see you. You won't be able to walk through walls or locked doors, though, because... well, let's just say that's too complicated for a spell, and leave it at that.
"You should be able to sneak past any guards, steal any keys you need, and get to where they're holding your sister. Once you find her, take her hand—and don't let go until you reach a safe place. So long as you hold her hand, she'll have silent steps and shadow form as well. –You should be able to see each other, but don't be alarmed if you can see right through her.
"Rescuing her won't be easy, I'm sure, but the fact that you made it in here means that you've got enough guts for it. You just have to keep your mouth shut the whole time, and keep hold of your sister's hand.
"Any questions?"
Sheldrick shook his head. The woman patted his cheek and ruffled his hair lightly.
"Good lad. Now you just need to walk out in that direction–" She pointed toward a doorway that he was sure had not been there before. "–and you'll end up right outside the cave."
"Thank you—thank you, Great Master!"
"You can thank me by not telling anyone you found me. Now scoot. I'm going back to bed."
He started for the doorway, then took a last look back at her as she set the mutilated book on the floor and burrowed into her nest of blankets.
"Sleep well, Great Master."
Her arm rose up to gesture vaguely at him. "Begone!"
***
The rescue went almost unbelievably well, right up until they reached the courtyard of the manor.
One of the baron's hunting dogs caught their scent, started barking at them, and even began to pursue them. Mairi, terrified of dogs, let go of Sheldrick's hand and promptly became visible. The hound targeted her; trying to distract the animal, Sheldrick yelled at it, and the magic paper dissolved on his tongue—and that was the end of the spell.
The baron's guards captured them immediately and brought them to the lord for questioning. Sheldrick refused to talk until the baron put Sheldrick's confiscated short sword to Mairi's throat; then he confessed everything, from finding the Great Master to using the magic spell.
Magic! The baron had an avaricious gleam in his eye. He offered to forgive the orphans' debt to him in exchange for the location of the Great Master's cave.
When Sheldrick hesitated, the baron nicked Mairi's throat with the blade. Helpless and filled with shame, the boy agreed to lead the way.
***
Cast into the cave alone, Sheldrick fell to his knees and cried out:
"Great Master!"
The darkness pulled tight around him.
"... s e e e e e r i o u s l y y y y y ..."
"I'm sorry—I know I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but–"
"... e n o o o o o u g h ..."
He cringed at a sudden burst of light.
***
"Come on, off the ground." Strong hands guided him upright. "I figured the odds were four to one. Don't worry your woolly head about it."
He stood quietly as the woman looked him over.
"A little worse for wear, I see. Is your sister all right?"
"For now." He could not stop his tears. "He– He said he'll kill h– kill her if–"
The woman hushed him with a nod of understanding.
"This is why I live in a cave, you know. Barons, taxes, death threats... It's all so tiresome."
"I'm sorry," Sheldrick quavered.
"I know, kiddo." She used the sleeve of her nightgown to dry his tears. "It's not your fault, really. The world is just such a hideous mess. –Do NOT blow your nose on my sleeve, thank you."
The boy blinked up at her hopefully. "Is there anything we can do?"
"You? Nothing constructive. Me? I think I might be able to pull something together."
"Like what?"
"Like never-you-mind, you little bean sprout. Just stay in here for a few minutes."
"Can't I come with you?" Sheldrick cowered at her look of disapproval. "...I'm sorry, ma'am. I'll do as you say."
***
Mairi had been having a very rough day. It began at dawn when the baron's men seized her for failing to make the latest payment on the loan that was the enduring legacy of her late parents; it middled with a bizarre rescue attempt by her inexplicably invisible younger brother; needless to say, she was not feeling particularly optimistic about how the day would end.
The baron would not let her follow Sheldrick into the cave, no matter how much she begged and pleaded. The darkness frightened her, but not as much as the thought of losing Sheldrick to that darkness.
When a figure came out of the cave, Mairi nearly forgot the blade against her neck in her fervor to reach Sheldrick. Her heart sank as she realized the figure was much taller and rounder than her scrawny half-starved brother.
"Good..." The pudgy woman in the dingy nightgown looked thoughtfully at the sky. "...evening. Would his lordship the baron be so kind as to identify himself?"
The baron called one of his men over to take up the vital task of threatening Mairi, then approached the woman with measured tread.
"Are you the one they call the Great Master?"
The woman shrugged. "They call me a lot of things. I'm the one who gave the boy the spell, if that's what you want to know."
Mairi swallowed carefully, feeling the tip of the blade press into her flesh.
"I would like to do business with you, madam. Your magic is potent, and I would pay you well for your trouble."
"Trouble?" She grimaced. "I don't care for trouble. It interrupts my sleep."
Her statement seemed to confuse the baron. He put on a smile Mairi had never seen on his face before—though she saw it often enough on the faces of his lackeys as they flattered and cajoled him.
"Surely this cave ill befits a lady of such great power. If you would work with me, I am prepared to give you my own manor house, and much more besides."
"Really?"
His smile was increasingly strained. "Really."
"What's with the girl over there?"
It took a moment for the baron to recalibrate. "Her? She's the boy's sister. He wouldn't cooperate without her... help."
"Okay. Just wanted to make sure."
"Of what, madam?"
"That you were as big of a creep as they said you were."
She snapped her fingers.
Mairi's guard shouted in surprise to find his hand suddenly empty. The short sword that Sheldrick kept stubbornly carrying around had vanished, only to reappear in the woman's hand.
"Have you ever wondered why magic is so rare?" She tested the edge of the blade with her thumb. "Why there are no mages working for the gentry, nobility, or even royalty?"
The baron just stared at the sword in her hand.
"Magic doesn't care about the hierarchy of human power. It has its own rules—arbitrary and absurd, but absolutely inviolable."
She dropped the sword, which, rather than falling to the ground, instead bobbed gently as though floating on an invisible stream.
"And, frankly, dealing with people like you is not remotely worth the effort. I just want to stay in my cave and sleep."
"Madam–"
"No. You know what? No. I'm bored with you already." She reached into her own cleavage and pulled out a crumpled bit of paper. "I'm gonna give you a little piece of magic, and then you can decide if you still want to offer me your lousy manor or whatever."
The baron's eyes lit up. "I'll gladly accept anything you give me, madam."
"You won't enjoy it at all, I promise you."
"Nevertheless, madam..."
The woman looked over at Mairi with a look that indicated how much she wanted to slap the man in front of her.
"This spell will start working as soon as you touch it. It will give you the experience of limitless power." She waved the paper over his head. "Last chance to back out, my lord."
The baron seized the paper in both hands.
For a moment, there were no human sounds at all—only the thrum of nature, busy with itself, indifferent to men and magic.
Then the baron choked and staggered back, eyes wide, knees knocking. The woman watched him with no expression on her face.
After a moment, just as the baron's men reached the point of being mostly resolved to take some sort of action, she stepped forward and plucked the paper from the lord's shaking hands. He fell to the ground, gasping, clawing at the dirt.
"I did warn you." She held up the spell; it dissolved to nothingness. "And now I'm sick of looking at you, so go away."
She gestured strangely, and the baron was suddenly slung over the saddle of his horse like a sack of potatoes. His men made a nearly immediate and clearly unanimous decision to withdraw, leaving Mairi behind.
The woman said a word that Mairi did not recognize but thought might be an expletive.
"M– Ma'am–" Her legs felt very weak. "My– My brother–"
"He's inside." She went to Mairi and hooked a flabby arm around the girl's slender waist. "Come on, let's go see him. He's probably frantic by now."
***
Sheldrick was definitely verging on frantic. He nearly collapsed in relief when the woman brought Mairi into the room.
The siblings hugged each other for a while, neither wanting to let go until the other stopped trembling. They could hear the woman swishing around the chamber and humming to herself.
Mairi was the first to let go, but only to check that Sheldrick was uninjured. She looked sadly at his skinned knees and elbows, while Sheldrick stared in horror at her lacerated neck.
"Okay, okay, that's enough blood from both of you."
The woman's hands, soft and warm, pressed down on each of their injuries in turn. Every place she touched became whole, the skin tender and pink as though it had only just finished mending itself.
"Thank you, Great Master. I... I'm sorry I failed before."
"You're young. You have plenty of failure ahead of you." She tousled his hair. "I, on the other hand, am the opposite of young."
"Why did you help us?" asked Mairi quietly.
The woman regarded them for a long quiet moment.
"I guess I just felt like doing it."
"That's it? There's nothing special about us?"
"Define 'special'."
"Did you know our parents? Are we related to you? Did you swear an oath to our bloodline?"
"Doubtful, impossible, and not bloody likely, in that order." The woman sat down on her stone bed, holding a book Sheldrick recognized from earlier. "I'm the most powerful being in this world, as far as I know. I do what I want."
Sheldrick felt that this answer made sense, but Mairi seemed unconvinced.
"What do you want from us?"
"Hmm? –Oh, you mean in exchange for helping you?"
"Yes. We don't have any money, and the fields we till are not our own."
The woman wrinkled her nose. "That idiot baron might be okay with extorting children, but don't go thinking that's what I'm after. I didn't do this for a reward."
"Are you sure?" Mairi's voice quavered, but she held her chin up with fierce pride. "I– I'm willing to work to repay our debt to you."
The Great Master gazed at her, gently but inexorably, until Mairi looked away.
"There is nothing I want that you could give me."
Sheldrick had never heard anything as solemn and sorrowful as that single sentence. Without meaning to, he grabbed Mairi's hand.
The woman gave them a halfhearted smile. She opened the book to a blank page and let her fingers spider across it, leaving a strange cobweb of ink with every touch.
"Let's not drag this out. I'm not keeping you here, and I'm not taking responsibility for you out there, so you'll be on your own from now on. Do you think you can manage?"
"Yes."
"Wait–" Sheldrick squeezed Mairi's hand. "What if the baron comes back for us?"
"Good question. What do you think?"
"I'll kill him," declared Sheldrick, but his hand in Mairi's shook badly.
Mairi put her arm around his narrow shoulders. "If I must serve the baron, so be it. I'll do whatever is necessary to protect my brother."
"And this is why I like you two." The woman tore out the marked page and ripped it into unnaturally tidy halves. "You're good kids, doing your best for each other. It's adorable."
The first piece she folded into a strange streamlined shape, then aimed carefully and sent it gliding across the room, through the dark doorway that seemed to appear and disappear at will.
The second piece she folded like the spells she had given Sheldrick and the baron. She held it out to Mairi, who stared at it suspiciously.
"What does that do?"
The woman grinned. "Smart girl."
She tossed it in a perfect little arc. Mairi caught it, then flinched.
"It's harmless in and of itself. Its real power is that we three are the only ones who know that."
Mairi's guarded look gave way to one of astonished delight.
"You mean... the baron will know it's a spell, but not what it does."
"Exactly. After what I put him through, I doubt he'll risk another bite of the apple."
Sheldrick nudged Mairi and gave her a curious look. She stroked his hair in a way he usually pretended not to like; he decided to let it go, just this once.
"We can use this to make the baron think we have something to use against him. He won't try to take me away or hurt either of us as long as he knows we have it."
"Your sister's right, kiddo. It's not foolproof, but it should be enough to protect you for a little while—enough to sort things out for yourselves."
Mairi curtsied. "Thank you, Great Master."
"All right, that'll do." She waved them away. "Now go home. Take care of each other, and don't come looking for me again—and I mean it this time, boyo."
They were almost at the door when Sheldrick planted his feet and stopped Mairi. He looked back at the woman, biting his lip uncertainly.
"Fine. I'll answer one more question, but that'd better be the last I hear from you."
"The piece of magic you gave the baron... Was it really limitless power? Why did it hurt him?"
"Two for one, eh? Clever boy. Lucky for you, one answer will cover both questions."
She paused long enough to make him start sweating.
"The spell didn't give him any power at all. It only gave him the experience of limitless power." There was a peculiar sadness in her smile. "For a few seconds, he knew exactly what it was like to be me."
Before Sheldrick could respond, she half-turned and flung the book towards its shelf of origin. It slotted neatly back into place. With a grunt of satisfaction, she lay down and tucked herself in.
"It's been real, kids. Take care. See you never."
"...Goodbye, Great Master. Thank you."
"Scram!"
***
A week later, Sheldrick found an opportunity to slip away from Mairi's watchful care and went back to the cave. He found the entrance utterly collapsed, beyond the ability of an undernourished boy to even begin to excavate.
As he turned to leave, something caught his eye. He looked up to see a strangely-folded piece of paper gliding in lazy circles overhead.
He watched it for a little while, then experimentally waved at it.
The gliding paper twirled gracefully before continuing along its flight path.
Sheldrick grinned. He waved goodbye and scurried away to get home before Mairi missed him.
**************************************