Ignatius Varian wanted to collect on both of the deals he had made tonight, but he couldn't be seen with the Sunyin Aura campaign.

All night he ran around with Exequi Marius's people pretending to help Portia Nero snare Laio Cytheria, and running from Ilan, wasting both of their time making it look convincingly as if he wanted to elect Marius — all of which threatened his deal with Aura and likely hurt her campaign.

When that thought occurred to him he panicked, pulled aside Mariana Olus and Vivian Rex, two of Solin's firmest supporters, and convinced them both to vote Aura, which they didn't plan to do until he got persuasive. He may have done some fear-mongering. Then he impressed on them that they shouldn't under any circumstances talk about the election for the rest of the night. He couldn't have Marius hearing that he was campaigning for Sunyin Aura— but he would let Aura know he had contributed those two voters to her cause personally.

Six months ago, Sunyin Aura took a seat across from Ignatius Varian outside his favorite cafe the same way Lucian Acario had trapped Ignatius this morning with rules of social etiquette that said it was rude to get up and leave the second an acquaintance sits down across from you at a little round table for two. Aura had said almost the same thing as Lucian.

In fact, it was so long ago, Ignatius couldn't remember exactly what she said, but it amounted to the same as Lucian's words this morning, so that was what Ignatius remembered her saying: "I think I've found a way to ensure you never waver again, particularly not at the most critical moment in our empire's history."

Acario hadn't been particularly concerned at the time, since he agreed with Sunyin Aura's political views. "Will that really be necessary?" he asked.

Or at least that was how he remembered it.

"Yes, my friend, it is necessary," was what Aura said, or something like that. "I plan to win the election for the company presidency this year."

"How is that possible? No one ever votes for you — or with you. Myself included. You might have four steady supporters on a good day." He had called Aura out immediately.

"This year the vote will be significantly split. Intentionally. Marius intends to take nearly half of President Solin's supporters, so I have come up with a plan to take a few voters from Marius, a few from Solin — all I have to do is come out best in a strong three-way split. If Alma Valerian can secure a few electors, dividing the board up further, I may not need very many votes at all. The winner in a three-way even split would only need seventeen votes out of fifty. If the fourth candidate, Valerian, can secure even four votes from Solin or Marius, I can win with as few as sixteen, theoretically. The more electors she wins, the better — so long as they're not my supporters. And as I said, I have a way to ensure supporters like you don't waver.

"Marius will figure it out soon enough, and if soon enough is before the election, it'll mean trouble, but I've been overseeing a small research team in the experimental applications of magic department who have uncovered an incredible new use for magic. And since I got to them first, I was able to benefit from their research and convince them to keep it quiet; they will delay revealing the results in exchange for extra funding allocation to their department for said research by yours truly.

"These researchers linked the intent necessary to conduct magic with language.

"Not magic words — spoken words are not necessary to create links or fire a gun. But language use inherent in thought and consciousness is necessary to communicate the intent to use magic. The energy from stars turns that intent into reality.

"Which suggests, as this research proves, that magic is the practice of turning words into reality."

Ignatius had been left a little bit confused by Aura's speech, and in the half a year that had passed, he had repeated much of the theory over in his head and thus felt that he remembered the lecture clearly after having gone over it in his mind every night before bed for approximately 184 days. If he was being honest, he remembered saying, "I don't follow," embarrassing though it was that her explanation went right over his head.

"For a link to open, you must consciously think in your head that you want one to. The stars provide the power source to make the words you thought into reality. Therefore, magic turns words into reality, and the research shows that a promise made with the intention of turning words into reality will by definition make the promise come true."

"What?" was all Varian could think to ask.

"If you promise to vote for me, the promise can be made binding with magic; it has to come true, there can be no other outcome."

That part made sense if Aura said so, but Ignatius had a follow up question. "But why would I?"

"You'd be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams."

"I don't really need anything."

"You said you supported me."

"I did. I do. But I would like the freedom six months from now to vote however I choose. What if I don't like you in six months? What if Solin cooperates with your initiatives? I see no reason to unseat her, particularly in a risky play that could allow Justin Marius to take President Solin's office. That's a ludicrous risk."

"Think of it this way," said Aura. "Soon enough Marius will learn that he can force his supporters to promise to vote for him. Then he'll get promises out of people he bribes. Or worse. I promise you that between now and the election, Marius will come to you with an offer you can't refuse. It will be interesting to see whether the offer takes the form of riches beyond anything you can imagine — or a threat that will cast you into despair beyond ... you know ...

"Take the deal I'm offering today, and know that when Marius's goons come for you, nothing they can say or do can make you vote for that man. You'll be invulnerable; you'll have immunity from anything he can do to you. All you have to say is that you're magically bound to vote for me."

"Absolutely," said Ignatius, "Where do I sign? I want the riches too, please."

Aura had sighed. "Not so fast. Promise to vote for me no matter what. The reward is yours when I win. If you campaign for me."

The trouble was, when Marius cornered Ignatius personally in a corridor of the Constellation's levitating north tower and directed him with hushed tones and aggressive body language to back into a nearby empty office, and offered him a reward beyond anything he could have imagined, Ignatius had no intention whatsoever of telling Marius he was going to vote for Sunyin Aura, was magically bound to vote for Sunyin Aura, and therefore had no interest in anything Marius had to say.

He remembered with vivid clarity every word of that conversation, including every detail of that unoccupied office, the quaint size of the varnished desk in front of the quaint window, the walls smothered by filing cabinets and a bookshelf; it was as if he could see the titles of a hundred corporate texts on the spines, perfectly preserved in his memory along with the way Marius explained excitedly and without a hint of malice that a research team had uncovered a method to return the dead to life, and with sincere elation promised to return Julia to the land of the living — those were his exact words. "I promise to return Julia to the land of the living," he had said.

We wouldn't have to live forever in mourning any more, as if forever ended early, while simultaneously it was as if forever would continue on, though vastly improved now.

Ignatius remembered too exactly what he said and how he said it. "Absolutely, thank you, I will vote for you. Where do I sign?"

Marius, it seemed, at the time did not yet know how to evoke a magically binding promise, or, possibly, that such a thing was even possible.

"Let's not leave a paper trail," Marius joked. "How about we shake on it?" He held out his hand.

Marius could never know that not only was he going to vote for Sunyin Aura, he would try to have Sunyin Aura elected president of Constellation. Not because Aura had promised him the kind of reward that would allow Ignatius and his second wife a life of riches and luxury, not to mention security and comfort for Julia as she grew up in a new Solari Empire — but because Justin Marius was a mad man and a duplicitous liar who claimed to want to slow down magic development but was secretly toying with forces of life and death beyond anyone's wildest imaginings.

Justin Marius was even more radical than Sunyin Aura and Alma Valerian put together; neither of them would dare bring the dead back from the other side. After Julia was returned to him, Ignatius would dedicate his forever to ensuring that magic never be used again to restore life to the dead.

After Julia was returned to the living.

On his way to find Aura, her warning of bribery and worse rang in his ears. Ignatius had a funny feeling that Marius had strings attached to dozens of board members.

It would be devastating if at crepesculum he were elected president of the company.

Claudia was feeling a little bit impatient by the time Angelus came back to retrieve her from the billiards room, but she wasn't about to become petulant.

Portia greeted him with a raised beer stein and challenged him to a game before he could apologize, but cue in hand, he remembered. "Sorry to abandon you with Portia, I hope she wasn't dull."

Portia smacked him and Claudia laughed politely.

"After this game, we should get to business," he said, and then he broke terribly, leaving most of the balls in a clump, many of them not far at all from where they started.

"What business?" said Claudia.

"Justin Marius would like to meet you before the election." He watched as if distracted as Portia did a better job of breaking up the cluster of balls and by sheer luck it seemed she somehow sunk a red three.

Angelus winced as she circled the table to where she would line up her next shot.

"He wants to meet me?" said Claudia.

"That's right," said Angelus. Portia's shot went in easily, and the cue ball came to a rest almost in the middle of the table, leaving her several options for a third shot.

"Why?" asked Claudia.

Somehow Portia bungled her next shot and Angelus gave a sigh of relief as a green solid connected with the rail instead of sinking and rebounded off into the middle of nowhere. He glanced up from his next move to say, "He wants to thank you for your vote."

Claudia smiled flirtatiously even though he was intent on his pool cue, lunging low to take a shot, and she said, "I haven't voted for him yet."

Angelus straightened, looked right at her, abandoning the shot he had been lining up. He cracked a grin though and said, "But you're going to. Right? You're on our side. Unless you're mischievously holding out so you can make demands. Is that what's going on here?"

"No," she denied. She was enjoying being teased.

"So, after this game, we'll meet with Justin so he can have the opportunity to thank you. And you can have the opportunity to tell him you're committed to voting for him. He'll appreciate it if you promise ahead of time. That way he knows his odds going in. Will there be a problem with that?"

She smiled big back at him and said, "Not at all."

Ilan Potestas was by the windows watching everyone — hundreds of people — ready to pounce on his next target. "Sir, the guardia are here," said a voice from a hole in the room in front of him. Ilan's breath caught in his chest. He needed to move. Now. Or risk being arrested.

But there was work to do. He looked around him. Twelve out of Solin's fourteen invincible supporters agreed that Sunyin Aura was an acceptable, if lamentable, replacement for Gaia. Even without securing the last two, Ilan felt good about the odds, as long as he could take the puppet strings attached to Donato, Solari, Solace, and Laio away from Marius. And pull on them himself.

Tony Solari was alone at the bar to Ilan's left. The boss went to take the empty seat beside him. The two men hadn't spoken before, though both attended board meetings. Usually.

Tony looked up at the boss and said, "I hope you're planning to vote for Sunyin Aura, boss. Not sure why I'm even asking, you couldn't be stupid enough to let Justin Marius take over the company. You wouldn't be stupid enough to let that man blackmail you."

The boss smirked and said, "Maybe not, but if I'm not smart enough he's going to kill me. And he'll get away with it. And then I'm terrified of what he'll do — even if I'm not alive to see it. I have an idea, Solari, if you're interested. How about we make a pact to vote for Aura, both of us, and seal the deal with magic. I apologize in advance if I die before I can fulfill the promise."