Transparency

She didn’t need to study the spell in a grimoire, or learn it from a back-alley conjurer… she had it in herself already, and she found it easily enough.

The spell is subtle, a glamour of invisibility in plain sight. When he first sees her, it’s because she opens her obscurity and lets herself be seen. When they meet behind the stables, she drapes her magic over both of them, a bit of manufactured privacy.

Some weeks later, when their discreet meetings have become more frequent, he makes a suggestion: why not leave the market behind? Get out of the shadow of the tower, and find a place where her magic can rest, because the spell isn’t necessary?

So they go to the curve in the creek, outside the city’s restlessness. And there they let themselves be visible, and talk out loud.

And that’s where they find something… something in the water, reflecting the afternoon sun.