"Ayan! Ayan, are you ready?" Leo knocked on her bedroom door.

"Coming!" Ayan finished braiding her hair and smoothed out her new cream-colored dress. It was the first thing she had made since she had been released from jail. She may have been caught trying to steal the Antaran princess's jewelry, but it wouldn't have helped the royal family's image to keep a ten-year old locked up for any reason, so when they got no further leads, she returned to a hug from her brother and a bolt of new fabric from Altiane. She had saved the new dress for temple.

Leo wore pale blue trousers and an orange button up shirt. Altiane was less formally dressed in an orange floral sarong and a white collared blouse, but she did have shoes on. Ayan and Leo put on their own shoes and they walked to Temple Avenue.

Ayan had been down Forgecard Falls' main street only once since her release--to the monthly Xurguwi meeting to resew buttons. When she walked in, everyone froze. By then, Ayan's escapade had flooded the news. She was no longer Ayan the tailor, but Ayan the thief. Silence reigned in the temple walls until one of the leaders stepped in and said, "condemn the law breakers only you who have never broken the law." Ayan had heard it once in a reading from a Xurugwi text, but she knew it was also a reminder that a century of Florarovan law declared the Xurguwi practice of wearing the bones of their dead illegal--the law this meeting was designed to break. After that, the congregation decided they could not condemn Ayan without knowing her reasons and welcomed her back.

Now, as Ayan, Altiane, and Leo entered the Yub temple, they were met with a similar hush. It seemed strange that so many people could recognize her in the dark, candlelit room, but she could feel their eyes on her. Ayan would barely have been able to see anyone else if they were not wearing pastels, but anything darker had important significance in Yub traditions. Green was unlucky, and brown was a requirement for criminals, so they could be easily seen. The priestess, cloaked in blue as deep as the ocean, passed almost invisibly as she approached the trio.

"I see you've come back." She addressed Ayan directly. "That's a lovely dress. Did you make it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Pretty color. Like dry sand. Though I think something darker would suit you beter." She walked away without stopping to see if Ayan caught her meaning.

"Did she just tell you to wear brown?" Leo muttered.

Ayan was too surprised to speak. Even their mother had not worn brown after she had been sent away from the temple. Ayan suspected Altiane would tell them not to make a scene, but she didn't care. She couldn't spend another minute here. For a moment, she wished she did have a brown dress. Or a black one. Then no one would notice her leave.

Ayan Tyeen woke in her bedroom in Forgecard Falls. It was strange to be home, after a semester at Faraday Academy of Magic, and a year with princess Audeni Deneen before that. Her room felt like a slightly small sweater.

She looked out the window. All down the street, the orange, white, and blue of the Antaran flad hung in shop windows as people hurried down the streets, making last minute preparations for the Messengers Day holiday. No matter how much time she spent away, she was Antaran through and through, and the sight of the flags made her giddy.

Ayan had arrived in Antarand via transport station the previous day with Audeni. After spending a day with her patron, which included everything from tea with her language tutor to purchasing wool for her latest project, Ayan returned home to her brother and foster mother. Though Altiane had greeted her warmly and asked about school, Leo had barely looked at her before insisting he needed to go to bed. Ayan had been too excited to think about it the night before, but she worried now how the morning would go.

Ayan procrastinated in unpacking her things, not that there was much to unpack. All Ayan brought with her were books and Messengers Day gifts for Altiane and Leo. The last was the most important. It was one of the most difficult projects Ayan had worked on, and she had completed it in eight short weeks. She had made the quilt in the Pelan style--with scraps of fabric gleaned from other projects and pieced together to form different styles of stars. She hoped deperately that it might allow her to bridge the ever growing rift between herself and her brother.

Ayan had also saved the candies her roommate, Miriam, had given her. She hoped these, also, could unite her Faraday family with her Antaran one. She dug them out of her backpack and faced the door of her bedroom. With a deep breath, she opened it.

"Good morning!" A single glance would tell anyone that Altiane was not Ayan and Leo's birth mother. Where Ayan and Leo were both pale in the face with jet black hair and green eyes, Altiane had warm brown skin and brown hair with a hint of red in it due to sprite ancestry, which was also responsible for Altiane's short stature. She was a bit young to have teenage children, but after a few years together, no one had questioned their little family.

"Did you sleep well?" She greeted Ayan with a mother's warmth as she placed a glass of milk at her usual place around the kitchen table. At the center was a cherry almond cake--Ayan's favorite. "I hope you don't mind that we cut into it while you were sleeping."

"I slept great," Ayan said as she pulled her chair out, "and no, I don't mind."

Leo sat across from her, finishing his own slice. He glanced up as she sat down, but said nothing. Altiane took her own place at the table and spoke to the siblings as if there was no conflict between them. "What should we do today?" She looked from sister to brother. Leo bent his head over the morning newspaper, so Altiane looked at Ayan. "Have you done all your holiday shopping?"

"I hope so," Leo said, "shopping is going to be a nightmare."

"Leo's right," Ayan said, "though I would still like to into town today. I don't think I realized how much I missed Forgecard Falls." Ayan saw her brother raise his eyebrows at the paper.

"What if we have lunch at The Lighthouse?" Altiane suggested. "Leo?"

As Leo looked up, Ayan felt like she was seeing him for the first time. She hadn't noticed before how much he looked like their father, with his square jaw and tight curls. Ayan, on the other hand, had her mother's warmer, softer complexion, or so she had been told. Ayan had never actually met their mother, who had died shortly after her birth.

"I'm going to temple." Leo looked pointedly at Ayan. She had not attended temple since the priestess called her a criminal, a fact which had not bothered Leo a year and a half ago, when Ayan had arrived long enough to pick up her sewing machine and return to Audeni's home, where the princess had prepared her for education at Faraday.

"That won't go all day." Altiane was ever the optimist.

Leo waved his fork in the air. "You two can go without me. I'm sure Ayan wants to catch up with you."

Altiane rubbed her temples and opened her mouth to speak when they heard the doorbell ring. "Saved by the bell," she muttered and stood to answer it.

"Are you excited about Messengers Day?" Ayan tried to get her brother to look at her. Messengers Day had never been as important in Antarand as the Day of Refuge, celebrated in the winter, but the siblings had always enjoyed it, nevertheless.

Though Ayan's question worked, she wished it hadn't. Leo's eyes were hard as emeralds. "What are you doing for Messengers Day?" he asked.

"The same thing we do every year? Open presents, eat cake, play dominoes..."

"So you're not going to this?" Leo picked up the newspaper and laid it in front of her. The front page was a story about the Messengers Day ball at the royal home. Ayan didn't want to admit that Audeni had asked her to attend, but her hesitation was enough for her brother. "That's what I thought."

"Well, it's in the evening. I thought I could spend the morning with you and the night with..."

"Your new owner?"

"She is not my owner. And if you came too, you would see that."

Leo walked his plate and fork to the sink. "I don't think that she wants thieves at her fancy party."

"She wants me, doesn't she?"

"You're special, though, aren't you? You're so talented you impersonated her, and that deserves to be rewarded."

Ayan's jaw actually dropped. "Is that what this is about? You're jealous? About Faraday? Send in an application! You're the best access wizard I've met..."

Leo set his plate on the counter so hard Ayan thought it might break. "No, I just don't understand why you like your new family more than us. Or have you forgotten who cared for you after dad died? I stole food for you and made sure no one split us up. And now you're letting them do that."

"You were afraid of the Florarovans. Audeni isn't Florarovan."

Leo stomped back to the table and jabbed his finger at the picture on the front of the paper. "Then why is she flying the Florarovan flag at her party?"

Ayan knew the answer, but she also knew Leo wouldn't accept it. With the king unmaried, his sister took on many of the duties his spouse might have. She was the entire country's muse--setting trends in fashion, holiday celebrations, and even what charities to donate to. This meant she played nice with Florarovan occupiers, in an attempt to encourage peace. But Ayan knew conflict was inevitable. She saw it in the rising hemlines of fashion trends that allowed companires to conserve fabric for blankets and uniforms. But Leo would just argue Antarand had declared itself independent from Florarova nearly a century earlier, and since then, nothing had happened other than political debate.

"Ayan!" Altiane called from the other room. "Looks like you've got a package!" Ayan knew it was her new loom, but she stayed locked in a staring contest with Leo.

"the seventeenth," Leo whispered, "we're taking Minty Hagen's flintlock back from Kovacic. If you really are a part of this family, prove it."