After escaping, Nema and Antonia had traveled toward the sea, hoping to find a boat out of Romanov. Antonia had yet to decide where she wanted to be. If there was a chance her family was still alive... she needed to find them. Would her mother and Trajan have left the country?

Antonia stepped out of the hostel, keeping her head low as she ventured cautiously through what looked to be a market. It was nothing like the market outside the castle that sold everything from expensive cheeses and fish to fine dresses. The stalls were smaller, and people much less friendly as they bitterly held their hands out for payment whenever anyone drifted too close to their merchandise. Antonia felt her stomach churn, hunger settling in now that her mind had slowed down long enough to register it.

When was the last time she had eaten? Her legs felt numb at the memory of the cooks making plum pudding back in the palace. They had food at Lord Savoy's castle, of course, but it wasn't nearly as lavish.

Antonia looked down at her hands. Could she...?

Octavia would be horrified. Even if Antonia could make food from her magic, she would tell Antonia not to dare try such a thing where others could see. Antonia doubted she could create such a miracle anyway. Her magic felt like a moving thread she could never fully grasp. Something powerful could be at the end of it, but it always slipped through her fingers before she could reel it in.

"BREAD!" a woman called, holding up a steaming loaf. "FRESH FROM THE OVEN! THREE COINS!"
Antonia wanted to cry. Three? She licked her lips and inched closer. The smell of wheat rippled over to her. Her magic almost reacted instinctively, the black smoke twisting in her palm. 

Antonia clenched her fists, though not before noticing it slipped away from her, zipping into the merchant's eyes. Antonia blinked. The woman kept calling out, offering bread, but as Antonia drifted closer, she didn't seem to notice her.

"Hello?" Antonia tried. The woman kept shouting. When Antonia looked at her, black smoke filled her gaze, unaware of Antonia's presence. Interesting. She reached forward, plucking a piece of bread from the pile and backing away. The woman didn't notice. Tucking the bread in her skirts, she held out her hand. The smoke zipped out of the woman's eyes, moving back into Antonia's palms.

"BREAD!" the woman shouted again, and this time when Antonia walked forward, she waved at her. "Need any bread, darling?" she asked. Wordlessly, Antonia shook her head and the woman turned to someone else.

Antonia mulled over the interaction as she continued to weave through the market. How did it work? Did Antonia turn herself invisible? Had she blinded the woman? Did her magic merely react to her hunger? None of it made sense.

Chewing a piece of the bread, she let the warmth flood her mouth as she walked up to another stall. This one wasn't filled with food but with necklaces. They weren't as nice as the black pendant around Antonia's neck - the one thing she had refused to sell - but a golden pendant looked a little similar. It reminded her of Nema. Then again, almost everything pretty did. Absently, she picked it up, running her fingers over the gold.

"Ten coins," the merchant told her. Antonia nodded, opening her palms. Black smoke flew out, going directly into the man's eyes. Grinning, Antonia pocketed the necklace and stepped away. 

"Hey!" the man snapped when she turned away. "I said ten coins-"

A hand closed around her arm. Antonia jerked away, alarm settling in her stomach. He had seen her? But she had done the same thing with the bread-

It didn't matter. Her lack of magical knowledge failed her again. Not waiting for the man to drag her back, she jerked herself free and ran. Shouts followed her, and footsteps began to pound against the cobblestones behind her.

"THIEF!"

"Grab her-"

"-move!"

Antonia weaved through stalls, sprinting out of the market and toward a bustling pier. She ducked under a plank of wood two men were carrying, trying to catch her breath. She had never needed to be fast before, and it was clear these men would easily catch her. Sure enough, she only made it two more steps before someone grabbed the back of her dress.

"Pathetic attempt to escape," the merchant grumbled and threw her to the ground. Antonia tried to crawl away, but he stepped on her skirt, pinning her in place. "Give it back." Antonia scowled, and the man rolled his eyes, kneeling to yank the necklace from her. She tried to pull herself away from him, but a sting snapped over her cheek. Antonia bit her tongue.

He had hit her. Humiliation trickled through her chest. The pain was secondary as she felt anger rise. She opened her mouth, but what could she say? There were no Royalists here to obey her orders.

"You know, by law, I can take your hand," he said.

Antonia spat at him. "That is not the law for stealing in Romanov."

The merchant rolled his eyes and grabbed her hair, heaving her back up.

"No. You're subject to a fine... which I assume you can't pay if you're stealing. Another one of the idiot king's laws that the Revolutionaries haven't fixed yet," he added under his breath. Antonia tried to twist away to no avail. "But you do have two hands."

"Watch how you speak of the king," Antonia hissed and stamped on the merchant's foot. He didn't even flinch.

Instead, he dragged her back towards the market, muttering, "he's dead. Unless his spirit is in this market, I don't think he cares."

"Let me go!"

"If I'm not taking a hand, then I'm at least branding you as a thief so the others know to watch you-" the merchant informed her flatly. Antonia felt her throat tighten at the idea of a hot metal pressing against her skin. She tried to reach for her magic, but before she could, a gruff voice stopped them.

"Let the girl go, Marco. I'll pay the damn fine."

Antonia risked a look upwards to see a woman crossing her arms over her chest, eyes amused as she cut the peel off an apple perched against some barrels.

The merchant wrinkled his nose, hand still carded in Antonia's hair. "You."

"Me," the woman agreed and put the apple to the side. She reached inside her pocket and threw a fistful of coins at his face. "That should cover your bleeding fine. Let the girl go."

A long pause followed, but Marco did let go of Antonia, fixing her with a cold look before scooping up the coins from the ground and counting them. The woman raised a brow at him, looking almost amused as she picked her apple up and cut herself off a slice.

"Is she one of yours?" Marco finally asked. The woman shrugged. "You pick the worst lot. All of you go against nature." Antonia didn't know what that meant, but the woman only smiled as Marco stomped away with a few more grumbled curses.

Antonia stood awkwardly for a few moments. The woman kept eating her apple, a silence settling between them.

"Um, thank you," Antonia finally said. The woman glanced up at her before pulling out the necklace Antonia had stolen from behind her back, and tossing it. Fumbling, Antonia grasped it from the air, staring in awe. "How-?" she began, lips parted in awe.

The woman laughed. "I'm from the Occult," she said. 

Antonia's mouth popped open. Almost instinctively, she stepped back.

Her mother used to tell her horror stories about the Occult. It was some secret group that went around experimenting with magic. They did things against nature, mixing different elemental magics together and even messing around with necromagic. Antonia had always pictured Occult members as creepy old men with skin melting off from all their experiments. This woman seemed perfectly normal to her.

"The Occult," Antonia repeated, placing her hands behind her back. The woman smiled. "Do you... know a lot about magic then?"

It was a stupid question, but the woman put her hand out, showing a palm that wasn't any of the elemental colors Antonia knew but a strange gray. Only when Antonia looked closer did she realize there were green and purple lines across her palms. Somehow, she had managed to absorb both earth and air magic.

"I know some," the woman said, wiggling her fingers. A few rocks flew into her hand. "There's always more to learn."

Antonia bit her lip. Was this a potential answer to her own magic? Perhaps the Htraehean prophecy they whispered about was a mistake. Maybe the answer to why Antonia had been born with this magic was something only an Occult member could answer. Antonia looked over her shoulder back toward the hostel. Nema would probably be asleep for another hour or so. It didn't hurt to try and learn more.

When she turned back, the woman was still waiting.

"Can you show me?" Antonia asked.

The woman lowered her hand and tossed her apple core over her shoulder. "Of course," she said, smiling wryly. "Follow me."