“Is this a bad time?” Zoey said.

“Not at all.” Rune took a step back and welcomed his landlord’s daughter into his mother-in-law apartment. She had a stack of linens in her arms.

“Mom thought you could use these.” She handed over the linens and pushed her spectacles up to the bridge of her nose. “Said you’d probably prefer plain white bedding to the yellow flowers. Those were my Grandma’s. We just never bothered to change ‘em out.”

“Either are fine,” Rune said. “Thank you.”

“So, I guess you’re staying here a little longer?” Her voice was bright, hopeful.

“One step at a time,” he said. “I’m seeing somebody tomorrow about a job. Someone from…back home, I suppose you’d say.” Zoey was the only living soul who knew that Rune wasn’t from here, that technically speaking he wasn’t exactly human. So far, she had adjusted to that news surprisingly well.

“A friend of yours?”

“We’ve never met, but I’m told he’s well connected. If the wind blows right, I’ll be able to pay this month’s rent. After that, who knows?”

“Well, you know you’re welcome to stay as long as you want, right?” She bit her lip. Her eyes never left his face.

“Is something wrong?”

“Huh? No.” Zoey’s face warmed. “It’s just…funny how the wind seems to blow through your hair. I mean. Here. Inside, where there isn’t any wind.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” He pulled his ponytail tighter through the leather barette that held his hair in place. “Please thank your mother for the bedding.”

“Sure thing.” She didn’t turn to go. “Are you…okay, then? Anything else you need?”

Rune sighed. He was on the run, low on supplies, and in possession of stolen property that could get him killed. He still had a half-healed stab wound in his side and a phantom pressure on his throat from where his cloak had tried to kill him. What didn’t he need? “I’ll be fine.”

“Is there anything you miss? Something to make this place a little more like home?”

He clenched his jaw. “I don’t suppose you could do anything about the stars?”

“The stars?”

“Back home, the night sky was filled with them. Thousands of them. Here, you can only see a few dozen.”

“I see.”

Rune wasn’t sure she did. “The stars… It’s hard to explain. They’re constant. Ancient. Inscrutable.”

“It sounds like you’re talking about living things.”

“Maybe I am. They’re connected to everything else in the universe, products of the same elemental forces that surge within all of us. They may not possess life or intelligence, but they reflect it.”

“I never thought of it like that.”

“It may be something your people lack,” Rune said. He noted Zoey’s frown and continued, “No offense. Maybe it’s because you don’t have magic, but you don’t seem to be aware of all the life and energy around you. Do you even know what phase the moon is in tonight?”

“Uh…”

“In Saynim, everybody knows. It’s the little things. We feel the pulse of elemental chaos. Maybe that makes us more attentive. When I look up at the stars, the moon, it reminds me that I’m part of something bigger than myself.”

He lay the bedding on the arm of the sofa in his small sitting room. “I’m sorry. I should have offered you a seat. Would you like something to drink? I have…water.”

“It’s okay.” Zoey took a seat on the sofa.

“I’m not a fit host, I’m afraid. Back home, we had servants to…” He trailed off when he saw Zoey’s confused and suddenly withdrawn expression. “Well, anyway…” He found a plastic tumbler in the cabinet of his tiny kitchen, dropped in a couple of ice cubes from the refrigerator, and poured it full from the tap in the sink.

“Thanks,” Zoey said when he offered her the drink. She took a sip. Rune sat down on the other end of the sofa.

“Rune? What do you see when you look at the night sky?”

He thought for a second. “Beauty,” he said. To his own surprise, his voice cracked a little. “Stillness. Rest.”

“Seems like your life hasn’t had much stillness or rest lately.”

He sighed. “And that’s why I miss the stars.”

* * *

The shadow falls October 1.