There was one book in Tauram's mountainside cottage that was written in the Latin alphabet, bounded by blue leather and embossed with golden spirals. It was that tome that Esmera had been poring over for the last hour since lunch, turning the pages carefully so that the gold leafing didn't slice into her fingertips. It seemed too expensive, too precious to be sullied by even the cleanest of hands, but Esmera had no choice.

Her auditory memory allowed her to understand Milatanuran, but she couldn't read the language if she saw it on a page, written in its original script. She had tried. Even when it was written in the alphabet she was familiar with, she had to sound out each word, muttering the story for her understanding and Jammas's enjoyment.

She had thought she was merely gifted at languages when she learned Spanish so quickly at school, but it had been her auditory abilities, helping her through life before she even knew they existed, before she even realised there was such thing as magic.

The page cracked against the air as Esmera turned it, transfixed by the beautiful words used to describe a sharp-eyed sparrow who found a big bean at the edge of the path. She had travelled into at least ten different eras by now. She had been an elephant, a peacock, a tiger, a beetle, and so many people, and now she was a little bird trying to secure his lunch.

She clucked her sympathy when the sparrow in the story lost the precious bean he had found and looked so forward to eating. Jammas shared her and the little bird's sorrow, stirring in the nest he had made of her curls.

It was only when the sparrow gained the ant's help and thus that of the elephant, the king, the minister, the captain, the soldier, and the carpenter and finally found his bean that Esmera's eyes detached from the book, and she noticed Tauram sitting beside her. His quick, dark eyes flitted from her face to scan the page while Lundas rubbed himself against his legs, staring up at Esmera with luminous, unsettling eyes.

Tauram leaned back into the couch, draping his arm across the back of it with his familiar half-smile. "Are you busy?"

Esmera gazed at Tauram and sent a pointed look towards the book.

"But you've finished the story, haven't you?" Tauram may be able to fool others' eyes with his invisibility, but nothing could fool his.

He had probably paged through this book more than once, maybe even marvelled at the beauty of the font and the elaborate sketches spreading over the ornate pages enough times to know that the end of every short story it contained was marked with an asterisk.

Esmera nodded.

Tauram cocked his head. "What did you learn from it?"

Esmera took a moment to consider that, setting the book on her lap with both hands. She had been reading for the sake of enjoyment and curiosity, not expecting that someone would plonk himself down beside her and ask her to take a lesson from the story, although she should know Tauram well enough by now to expect anything from him.

Esmera sat back on the couch, pushing a stray curl away from her eyes. Jammas flapped his wings as if trying to give her the answer to the Prince's question, and the loose lock of hair fell over Esmera's eye again.

She didn't bother to move it away, instead peering past it at Tauram. "I learnt that even the tiniest beings have power. The sparrow would've never found his bean without the ant's help. We assume power is allocated according to size, but it's not. It depends on spirit and smarts."

"Very good, Esmera." Tauram nodded his approval. "That was the first thing I noticed about the story when I read it as a child. It's important to remember now that we're facing Ruagu."

Esmera was the ant and King Ruagu was the elephant, and just like her counterpart in the story, she would have to overpower him, if not with physical might then with mental prowess.

Esmera nodded, but she didn't think Tauram noticed her. His eyes were too distant, looking into the past or the future, she couldn't tell.

"But what did you think about the ant's methods?" His gaze found her again.

Esmera managed to keep her voice and her thoughts steady even as her breath caught in her throat. She frowned. "Honestly, I thought the ant was going to get the job done with kindness, maybe offer the elephant a favour in return for his help with finding the bean. Instead, he surprised me by threatening the elephant, which started a chain of threats that led him to his goal."

It had been strange, the opposite of any other fable Esmera had read, but it was somehow more realistic too. What had softness, kindness, and gentleness earned her? It had only gotten her walked all over. She might've been able to protect herself if she was harder, more ruthless, if she had struck back and taught Stephan that he couldn't get away with hurting her the first time he ever tried it.

Tauram's eyes were still on her, bright with expectation. Lundas stretched out across his feet, gazing up at Esmera with a nearly identical expression.

Esmera cleared her throat. "I guess it shows that we sometimes have to resort to less-than-charming means to get things done. Sometimes the easy or diplomatic thing isn't effective or helpful."

"That's something else we must remember when we challenge Ruagu." Tauram nodded again, his eyes fixed on Esmera even as he picked at the grey embroidery decorating the blue cushion sitting against him. "Are you up for learning something else?"

Esmera traced her fingernail along the crisp corner of the book. Part of her wanted to remain here, cross-legged on the couch while she explored her motherland through the stories woven into its history, but there was no denying that Tauram had intrigued her.

Only after committing the page she had stopped on to her memory did she close the book. "What something?"

Tauram grinned, shifting closer to her until his knee rested against hers. She tried to divert her attention from the point of contact, looking up at him even though she was all too aware of where their bodies touched. She did so with little success until he spoke words to anchor her in something more solid than whatever this was she was feeling.

"Something like your auditory powers."

Scepticism raised Esmera's eyebrows before she realised it. "And you're going to teach me?"

"Are you sick of me already, Esmera Finnaaz?" Tauram smirked.

Esmera bit her lip. No, she didn't have a problem with spending more time with Tauram—in fact, she liked it a little too much—but she did doubt his qualifications to teach her.

She fidgeted with the shimmering bronze bordering her tunic. It made it easier to gather her thoughts and say no to Tauram than it would've been if she was looking him in the eye. "You're a visual sorcerer. My powers are auditory. I'm just not sure you're the best person to train me."

"You underestimate my knowledge, Esmera." He leaned towards her, his hand resting almost mindlessly on her knee. "I watched your brothers being trained, and I have a fair amount of knowledge about śradūgara. I would have approached a professional trainer, but we need to keep your presence a secret until we're sure you're safe from whoever killed your family. We need the Finnaaz weapon to defeat Ruagu, and I don't know if you will need your power to wield it. I know we don't have a lot of time, but if we can make you a little stronger, it might just be enough to win our battle against Ruagu."

Esmera stared at Tauram, transfixed by his words. Only when he raised his eyebrows after a long silence did she realise he was waiting for her reply.

She let out a breath. The fact that Tauram had accepted it was going to come down to a battle terrified Esmera. The fact that it may depend on her enhanced hearing was even more preposterous. It sounded like one of those make-believe games she used to play with the other orphans in that lonely hour after lunch when they had no lessons and no visitors, but it was the reality of her life.

That realisation gave her the push she needed to accept Tauram's offer. It wasn't as if they could hire another trainer, at least not for a while, but Esmera needed to be as ready as possible to match the king with the deadly touch. She needed all the help she could get, even if he was as annoying as he was helpful.

His gaze was expectant on Esmera as if he could read her thoughts and knew that they favoured him.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm in."

"Excellent." Tauram squeezed her knee. "Let's go to my studio where it'll be a little quieter."

Esmera blinked. "Studio?"

Tauram raised his eyebrow. "I'm an artist, remember?"

It was easy to forget the depth of the worlds he portrayed on the canvas with his silly jokes and superficial smiles, but Esmera would never forget the man who had lent her his coat in the Himalayan exhibit of the art museum and talked to her about family, and she certainly would never forget when he told her that he had painted that lark who so reminded her of her daily visitor.

"Of course I remember that." Esmera nudged Tauram. "I just didn't realise you'd have an actual studio in your house."

"The privileges of being royal." He grinned, once again the superficial prince that was as much him as the sensitive artist Esmera first met. "Now, come on."

Esmera frowned as she stood with Tauram. Surely more noise was better for an auditory sorcerer to train, but then again, too much sound was overwhelming to her. She followed the prince. She had more faith in his judgement than in hers.

Quiet was probably better for her to focus, to work hard to access her power so she could learn to control it.

Tauram led Esmera past the photographs of mountain streams lining the passage then up the stairs illuminated by the skylight to the end of the house she had never wandered to before. She had never considered what Tauram's room looked like, but when he opened the door, introducing Esmera to the earth-brown leather couches, the fireplace at the centre of the room, raising its chimney to the ceiling, and especially the smooth white bedspread and the vivid, painted landscapes mounted on the walls, it looked exactly as she would've imagined.

Taking hold of her shoulders, Tauram steered her around a cluster of glossy wooden trunks to a small side door. It opened into a room that was enchanting despite having no literal magic that Esmera could sense.

The midday sun illuminated the half of it nearest to the window while the other was in shadows, the posing statues and elegant objects it contained obscured.

Before Esmera could appreciate each of their forms, Tauram was clearing away his easel. He propped it against the wall and gestured for Esmera to replace it at the centre of his studio.

"Stand straight."

Esmera sensed Tauram behind her before she felt him. His hands were warm against her skin as he pulled her shoulders back. She let out an involuntary sigh that she hoped he hadn't heard.

He must've, judging from the smile in his pebble-smooth voice. "Close your eyes."

Esmera did, despite the heat flooding her cheeks, and the world went dark. She would've felt lost in the faceless realm if it wasn't for Tauram's solid hands still on her shoulders, steadying her as they always seemed to be.

"Deep breath."

Once again, Esmera did as Tauram asked, inflating her lungs and emptying them again. Jammas went still where he nested in her hair as if he sensed the seriousness of what she was about to do.

"Focus on your breath."

Esmera repeated the action until it flowed through her with a steady rhythm.

"Now, focus on your heart."

It raced, filling Esmera's ears with its soft thump-thump as she allowed her awareness to fill with nothing but it.

"Now my breath." Tauram was calm where he stood behind Esmera, his breaths much slower as they brushed against Esmera's skin with an intimacy greater than that of a magic instructor and his student.

She roped in her thoughts, focusing on Tauram and his commands rather than the tangents they could send her on.

"Focus on my heart."

Tauram's pulse was also racing, as fast as a runaway stallion. Esmera frowned, but before she could ask why, he was already giving the next instruction.

"Zero in on one sound you hear outside this room."

Esmera released a breath and drank another in, studying her surroundings with her ears now that she couldn't use her sight.

There was the wind gently sweeping across the sky outside, fluttering against the walls. There were the flowers whispering in the garden beyond the window. There were the people of Parnakshi chatting away across the valley.

Esmera zoomed on them, discarding any sounds that were nearer to her. Someone was trying to sell an unwilling customer a pair of bangles, insisting that they were made from gold. Someone else was trying to sell himself to an unwilling lover.

"Tell me what you hear."

Esmera started, having forgotten that Tauram was behind her even though his hands had never left her shoulders.

"But you'll never find someone who loves you as I do." Esmera repeated the jilted suitor's desperate words a moment after he said them. A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead. Her eyebrow diverted it away from her eyes. She felt it run over her temple.

She wobbled on her feet. Tauram's hands tightened on her shoulders. She might've crumpled to the ground if he wasn't, but she kept speaking anyway.

"But I already have, Diraan. I'm sorry." There was little empathy in the woman's rejection, and Esmera couldn't help but pity this man she hadn't met and probably would never know.

"You're doing very well, Esmera."

Warmth flooded through Esmera at Tauram's praise, but she didn't get to enjoy the feeling for too long before the prince was speaking his next command.

"Focus on the softest sound you can hear."

The black world behind Esmera's eyes tilted. Even so, she nodded, zeroing in on the flowers just outside the cottage. Their murmurs turned to whispers, became mumbles then words she couldn't quite make out. Esmera frowned as she tried to focus on them, to force the meaning out of them.

"Tell me what you hear," whispered Tauram, his voice as gentle as those of the flowers.

"A- bea- da- ev-" The words slipped out of Esmera's grasp no matter how hard she tried to grab at them.

Then everything went black.

Esmera woke up to find Tauram leaning over her, cradling her head in his lap. She groaned, drained as though she had pulled three all-nighters, but she must've only lost consciousness for a few minutes because the bright midday she last remembered greeted her through the window.

Tauram's frowning face came into focus as she blinked.

"You okay, Esmera?"

She nodded as he helped her into a sitting position. She felt fine. It was the strange silence surrounding her that clenched her stomach.

She couldn't hear anything, not the wind outside, not her heartbeat or Tauram's.

"I think I've lost my power." Esmera's voice quivered as a wave of fear crashed over her, flooding her mind with terror.

If she was the last Finnaaz, and she had no auditory abilities, who would wield the weapon and defeat King Ruagu? Who would ensure justice for the family?

It was over for her. There would be no completing Jilhari's quest, no tracking down whoever had murdered her family.

"I don't think so." Tauram rested a reassuring hand on Esmera's shoulder. Her eyes clung to him, wanting to believe him but afraid that he was mistaken.

"Sometimes your power needs time to recharge if you overexert yourself during your early stages of training. I think it's time for a break." Tauram squeezed her shoulder. "You did well for a first-timer, but I think I pushed you too hard. I'm sorry." His eyes crinkled with concern, flitting about her face as she offered him a weak smile.

"In that case, no permanent harm done, Tauram." Esmera got to her feet. "Though I guess the only way we'll know for sure if my enhanced hearing will return is to wait."

She teetered dangerously for a moment, and Tauram rose in time to catch her before she could tumble, his face less than a breath away from hers.

"It will return. It has to," he murmured. "I would never forgive myself if I—" He shook his head, either unable or unwilling to complete his sentence.

Esmera found herself staring at his mouth until he cleared his throat. Her eyes moved up to his instead.

"You must rest now, but you should try to practice this exercise by yourself at least twice a day, and eventually you'll become better at using your powers."

Tauram's instruction made it sound so easy, but Esmera knew it wouldn't be so. She'd feel as though a truck had run over her until she had become strong enough to channel her power without wearing herself out.

"I'll be sure to practice. Now, if you'll let me return to my book." Esmera tried to wriggle out of Tauram's grip, but he didn't release her.

"You just collapsed on flat ground." He frowned. "You can't expect me to let you go downstairs by yourself."

Esmera opened her mouth to argue, to tell him that she had done much harder things in a much worse physical condition, that he or anyone else didn't need to protect her from anything, least of all herself. Before she could get a word out, Tauram was weaving his fingers through hers and leading her out of the door.

She gazed up at him, studying the line of his jaw and the persistent strand of black hair that always insisted on falling over his forehead.

Never had Esmera met someone who would help her to her feet if she fell and couldn't get herself up. She leaned into Tauram, into that feeling, even though she knew things as good as this never lasted.