Within the Hollow Crown by Daniel Antoniazzi

her hand quickly, but the sensation was so relaxing she couldn’t help but keep her hand there.
    And then the glow just subsided and went away.
    “Umm…” Calvin said. Vye looked up to him. “Umm…” he repeated.
    Vye rotated her shoulder. There was no pain. There was mild stiffness, but there was no pain in her ribs.
    “What, exactly, just happened?” Calvin asked.
    “I don’t...” Vye said, “My ribs are better now.”
    “How?”
    Vye paused for a few seconds, thinking this over.
    “Magic?”
    Vye didn’t like that answer. There had to be another explanation.
    “Well, I know it was magic,” Calvin said, “But…how?”
    “I don’t know,” Vye said. “I didn’t think it was possible.”
    “It isn’t, as far as I know.”
    Vye’s mind twisted and turned. She was experiencing one of the universal facets of humanity. She had encountered an event, a series of events, that didn’t fit into her worldview. And her brain was working overtime to make it fit. She had trained with Tallatos in the Hilwera Mountains. If she forgot everything else she ever learned in all her life, she would always remember one thing: There is nothing but steel.
    And magic wasn’t steel. So there had to be a mistake.
    “You’re right,” Vye admitted. “It’s not. I think my ribs were never broken in the first place.”
    “You were in a lot of pain before,” Calvin pressed.
    “Must have pulled some muscles in that fight. Good night’s rest was all I needed.”
    “Your hand...”
    Vye’s brain hadn’t yet accounted for the glowing hand. That one was a doozy. But in typical form for someone clinging desperately to a belief, she was going to make it fit rather than consider what it truly meant.
    “I must have had some... you know, they doused me with perfume for the wedding. I bet it just caught fire for a second.”
    Calvin looked skeptical. Vye felt skeptical. But her brain had set things right. She could go back to being the best sword-fighter in the County, and the world would keep turning, as it always had. Vye gave Calvin some orders, setting the standing army on ready alert and calling up some of the reserves. Then she headed for the basement.
    “Julia!” Gabriel exclaimed when Vye burst into his room, “What are you doing up? Your ribs are broken.”
    “Actually, I don’t think...”
    Gabriel approached Vye to within a very uncomfortable distance. If Vye had any reasons to suspect him of ungentlemanly behavior, he would have been dead four feet earlier.
    “Even if they were set by an expert, you couldn’t… What happened?”
    Gabriel was pressing his hands against her ribs, feeling the ones he remembered to be broken.
    “Stop it, that tickles.”
    “Julia, your ribs aren’t broken.”
    “I know. I think it was all a mistake.”
    “Julia, I was with the healer when she was caring for you. It wasn’t a mistake.”
    “You know what’s funny, is Calvin thought that I somehow healed them magically.”
    Gabriel paced in a circle. He was like Vye in many ways. His brain, too, had tried to make all the facts fit into his neat little world view. The one where magic wasn’t a real thing. But he was too smart for his brain.
    “Did you?”
    Vye was flustered.
    “Master, I... I don’t even know... I wouldn’t know how...”
    “You were the only one who survived the fight with the Turin. He arrived in Deliem using magic. He almost defeated our entire Castle with spells. And, according to your own account of events, he killed the Prince with a flash of light.”
    “Yeah, but that was... Look, I’m sorry to bother you.”
    Vye spun around, striding for the door as fast as she could go and still technically be walking. Just before she could leave, though, Gabriel spoke again.
    “It’s dangerous, Julia,” Gabriel said, very calmly. “Obviously this magic comes from some dark source.”
    “How can you be sure?”
    “Nothing that powerful comes without a price.”
    Vye left, letting Gabriel have the