Stevie Sanity's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Stevie left the ritual circle and walked until the ground turned soft. He needed a witness who could hold a rule in place while he tried to remember one. He needed Sam. The owlcat kept a purple tent pitched under moonlight for exactly this kind of visit, and Stevie ducked through the flap before he could talk himself out of it. Sam was inside, tuning the strings on a guitar carved with clockwork sigils. A brass owl sat on a stump beside him, eyes ticking. Sam did not look up. "You lost it." "Most of it," Stevie said. He sat on the mat. "The logic of chaos magic. It's draining. I have maybe a week before I can't recognize the shape of it in anyone else. Including my soul twin." "Djinn." "Djinn. Same blood. Still carries what I sold. If I forget the pattern before I find them, I walk right past their spark and never know." Sam set the guitar down. "Show me what you still have." Stevie held out his palm. A small flame lifted off it, yellow shading to white. It flickered in a pattern he used to be able to name. He watched it and felt nothing click. "A year ago I could read this like a sentence. Now it's just heat." Sam leaned in. "Describe the heat. Don't name it. Describe it." Stevie tried. "Faster on the left. Skips every third pulse. Warmer when I stop trying." "That's the rule," Sam said. "You still know it. You forgot you know it." Stevie stared at him. "Time trick," Sam said. "Cheap one. I hold the description in a loop. You feed it back to yourself later, when the memory is gone. It won't be understanding. It will be a handle." "A handle isn't the loophole." "No. But a handle finds Djinn." Sam picked up the guitar again. "After that you need them, and Nicola, and Sophia. Djinn for shape. Nicola for current. Sophia for the old words. You can't do this alone. You already tried." Stevie flinched. "Nicola went upstream. The dark water." "I know." "And Sophia doesn't answer summons." "She answers songs." Sam struck one chord. The brass owl's eyes stopped ticking and locked on Stevie. Sam spoke three sentences into the guitar's body, quiet, the description of the flame. He closed the sound hole with his paw. "Locked. I'll hand it back when you can't feel it anymore." Stevie closed his fist around the flame. It went out clean. He could still feel the skip on the third pulse. For now. "Go get your twin," Sam said. "Before the handle is all you have." Stevie stood. He had traded understanding for a rope he could not read but could still pull. It was not the loophole. It was enough to start walking toward Djinn.