At the end of the party, once alone in my room, I called Cherub, my guardian angel.

  “Hello, friend, I need you to explain the rules of soulfeather.”

  They went through an explanation which felt exactly like reading the leaflet of a new board game. Good enough to get an idea, but nothing replaced actually playing the game.

  Soulfeather was only played on special occasions, on a field previously blessed by a priest and enchanted by sorcerers. There were two teams of five players, and a feather that wasn’t just a feather, but rather a ball decorated with feathers. First, it had to be located, and then, each team had a secret safe zone where they tried to bring it.

  Magic was strictly forbidden during a game. More precisely, no player could cast a spell or use a natural power. However, the field itself was infused with magic which made it changing and unpredictable, hence soulfeather was considered unique and exciting despite the apparent simplicity of its rules.

  When Cherub was done, I thought I grasped enough to avoid the worst mistakes, but I was eager to actually walk the field. I awoke early, so, by the time a servant knocked on my door, I was already up and dressed in the most comfortable clothes I could find.

  I followed the servant out of the outbuilding, across the courtyard and into the chateau.

  During breakfast, which was mostly fruit and cheese, Lord Gurvan introduced me to the rest of his team: Arnias Torsin, a thin elderly gentleman with an eyepatch, Yumel of Felerban, a tall and strong man in his late twenties, and Otiric Lumaris, a black-haired sixteen-year-old. It made me the only woman in the team, called in at the last minute to replace another woman who’d stepped down for health reasons.

  Arnias had chased the feather twice in an actual game. The others had seen soulfeather games and trained before the event, but they were new to the real thing. As we planned our strategy together, I could tell they were as excited as I was. As the most inexperienced player on the field, my role would be to watch our opponents, and to share whatever information I could find while no one watched out for me.

  The feather would be hidden in the scenery, and we weren’t allowed to conceal it, or even to carry it for more than five steps. Pulling it out of an opponent’s hand was forbidden, too.

  “Does the feather bounce?” I asked.

  The four others looked at me wide-eyed.

  “Of course not,” answered Arnias before going back to more serious subjects.

  Too bad. It means I can’t subvert the rule by dribbling.

  In a nutshell, getting the feather anywhere was a hassle. It couldn’t be carried, it could be thrown but its trajectory was unpredictable… However, the most important thing was to trust the magic that saturated the place, and the blessing called upon it before the game. The field chose its winners, according to Gurvan.

  Then why do we even bother planning anything?

  A coach picked us up in the courtyard, and we rode away from the city, along a road that overlooked the coast. It was another warm summer morning, but the wind brought clouds from the west. By the time we reached the field, small shadows ran across the hills, drawing moving patterns over the rocks and high grass. A priest, along with Senior Magus Malin and a few other sorcerers, gave us a quick tour.

  Stands were built around a rough rectangle that looked like everything but a sports ground. It was uneven, overgrown, colorful, full of hiding places and potential traps.

  Stan would love this place for one of his paintball sessions… Why am I thinking of my ex-husband now? He’s out of the picture. I’m gone forever, and I have someone else, now.

  I sighed, thinking of Catalin who’d probably never watched soulfeather in her whole life, and who wouldn’t be there on my first game.

  “Don’t try too hard to remember the set-up,” said Arnias behind me.

  I looked over my shoulder. “Why not?”

  “Because it will change. Remember, the field chooses its winners. Trust the feather, trust your soul, and you might win.”

  The priest showed us our safe zone. If the feather was brought there, and all five players were back before it was taken by the other team, then we’d win. The place was a recess behind a rock, marked with yellow and blue dots. Since there were patches of color across the whole field, the area looked rather inconspicuous.

  As I’d learned during breakfast, it was best to keep the location of our safe zone secret. If our opponents didn’t know where we were trying to go, they’d have a harder time preventing us from getting there.

  The feather itself looked like a tennis ball disguised as a yellowish green comet, with feathers glued to its surface, forming a long tail.

  By the time we ended our tour, Princess Jilu arrived, stunning as always in a snugly fitting bodice and pink rolled-up pants, with a team of four strong-looking Foleshian men. She hardly spared us a look in passing, blatantly ignoring Gurvan.

  There really must be a tradition of sorts preventing Jilu and Gurvan from interacting before the engagement. It doesn’t make much sense, as they’d be free to talk if they weren’t supposed to marry in the future, but who am I to judge? As long as no one gets hurt.

  We put thick purple fabric braids around our heads, while Jilu’s team wore green ones. The public arrived. Unlike the boat race where the whole city had flocked to, this event was further away, thus attracting fewer spectators, who also looked wealthier. The best seats in the grandstand were reserved for the duke, the king, and a handful of Foleshian dignitaries, including Arez with the dog Kian on her lap.

  Jilu is a third princess. I didn’t expect her parents to come all the way from Folesh for the engagement. They might show up at the actual wedding. But it’s strange, no one from her close family came along. She traveled with lesser nobles and a bunch of servants. Is it a normal thing in this world? Letting a kid leave like this?

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I had no time to ponder. The priest claimed that the soulfeather game was beginning.

  “May the Almighty’s light shine on your souls!”

  Jilu and Gurvan sprang forward from their respective positions. So did the other players. All searched for the feather in this wild patch of ground invaded with spots of color. As instructed by Arnias, I was the only one who didn’t run. Instead, I walked around the field, watching everyone jump and crouch in the scenery.

  Someone shouted behind me. I jumped around.

  A rock was rotating slowly, breaking the earth around it, and bushes sprang from the cracks. I narrowed my eyes, looking for the glowing symbols of a spell, but I saw nothing that could help me understand what kind of magic was operating. My young teammate Otiric stared at the phenomenon wide-eyed. I held out a hand.

  “Is everything all right?”

  He nodded.

  “Yes, thank you, Al. I knew how much magic there is in here, but I was still taken by surprise. Let’s find this feather, shall we?”

  We split and walked forward, a few feet apart, looking everywhere. Jilu stood on top of a flat rock, a hand shielding her delicate face from the sun, her green headband and fuchsia hair making her look like some kind of flower fairy. She frowned, then jumped back to escape weeds trying to grow around her ankles.

  The public cheered.

  Is it what they’re here for? To see this magic-infused nature try and make us trip? As long as it’s not dangerous…

  I climbed on the trunk of a fallen tree. Jilu and two of her teammates were combing the center of the field, while the last two remained a little closer to an edge. Perhaps they were guarding the green team’s safe zone. Or were they trying to lure us there, away from their real safe zone?

  Did it even matter? The feather hadn’t been found yet.

  I jumped off the trunk just as it rotted into the ground, replaced by soft grass. I was close to the grandstand and the wind carried voices to my ears.

  “Make Sottarn proud!” cheered Duke Irmel.

  “Win the game for Folesh, Your Royal Highness!” encouraged Lady Arez in another language.

  I observed the players and the public again. It was exciting to feel the field vibrate under every step, but was it fun to watch? Didn’t we just look like a bunch of drunkards trying to retrieve a lost contact lens?

  Then there was the faintest feeling of something. It felt yellowish green more than it looked like anything, but it resonated with my soul for a heartbeat.

  Is it why this game’s called soulfeather?

  I still didn’t know where it was, but it was teasing me. I fought the urge to run, merely walking instead. Of at least, I tried to. Instead, my boots slipped.

  Mud? It wasn’t here a moment ago, and just as I’m attracted to the feather, something makes me trip. Are we playing soulfeather, or is the field playing with us?

  I still moved forward, slower than anticipated. On my right, a rock turned into sand, surprising the Foleshian team. But there was a semblance of structure to the changes. The moving landscape respected imaginary lines running from here to there, and in the center of it all stood a dry bush. I sped up.

  “She’s up to something!” shouted a man.

  I broke into a sprint.

  That’s what I thought. The guy who looks like a quarterback is running right at me. But you’re not getting my feather, you know!

  I sprained my ankle on a small rock, but I clenched my teeth and didn’t slow down. One dive forward… I could make it. I jumped headfirst into the bush, eyes closed to avoid hurting them. More than anything, I trusted the feather, and I trusted my soul.

  My hands closed on a soft ball with a silky tail. Got it.

  The public literally roared when I ran out of the bush with a robust young man hot on my trail. I had five steps.

  “Over here!” called Gurvan.

  He was three paces away from me, so I didn’t take time to think. I threw the feather at him. Now, how could we bring it to our safe zone? A tree grew between Gurvan and his friend Otiric, and then died almost instantly.

  I should take the feather back.

  As I edged my way to Gurvan’s side, the strong man running behind me failed to stop. We collided and rolled over in a mess of arms and legs. Boy, he’s as heavy as he looks! My head rang and I struggled to get up.

  “Sorry, madam!” he said.

  I accepted the hand he was offering. “Thank you! Don’t worry, I’m okay. It’s part of the game, I guess.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Where did you learn Foleshian?”

  My heart leapt. I didn’t even realize what language we were speaking. That’s what you get for being blessed with a gift for languages upon your summoning.

  “In a white cloud of nothingness,” I answered with a smile. Then, looking away from his puzzled face, I tried to locate the feather again, only to find it in Princess Jilu’s hand. Jilu herself was standing awkwardly with ivy wrapped around her feet, her pleading eyes looking for a teammate to pass the ball to.

  Our team closed in on her. She shook her head. “I’m not losing now!”

  Yumel of Felerban smiled. “Of course not, Your Royal Highness. The game is only beginning.”

  “And I will win!”

  She threw the feather above our heads, as far as she could.

  Now I knew why soulfeather was exciting. With its erratic movement, the feather couldn’t just be thrown from one player to another, and the everchanging field created random obstacles. Finding the feather was the simplest, and least interesting, part of the game. Getting it where it needed to be was much trickier.

  For a long time, we ran, we jumped, we slipped on uneven soil, and we failed countless passes that would have been easy with a ball. I was thankful for the bottles of water available on the sides of the field. Despite being fit, I just wasn’t twenty anymore.

  “Let us leave the running to younger players,” decided Arnias.

  Following his advice, I slowed down a little.

  Whenever I caught the feather, I felt it resonate with me in an uncanny but not unpleasant way. The rest of the time, I just walked around, watching and listening. Princess Jilu was getting tired, too, and her perfect face glistened with sweat.

  “This is getting annoying,” she told the oldest of her teammates, a tall man with sky blue hair dangling on his shoulders.

  “Should I take action?”

  She nodded. “Yes, please.”

  The language they spoke sounded nothing like anything I’d heard before. When Princess Jilu walked past me, she gave me the calculated polite smile she usually wore on her face. I smiled back in the same way.

  I bet they spoke a different language because I was around. They know I understand Foleshian, so they switched to something more exotic. Nice try, Your Royal Highness, but since I set foot in this world, the only language I failed to understand was used for casting a spell.

  Gurvan had the feather. Our teammates Yumel and Otiric were coming to the rescue, but he had three Foleshian players near him. He looked around for an escape. I should help, too.

  Just as I sprang forward, I heard the echoes of a low voice. When I realized I didn’t understand the words, my heart skipped a beat.

  A spell? Casting a spell is against the rules of soulfeather!

  I waved at the priest, then at Senior Magus Malin who was seated in the grandstand near the king, but none of them reacted. Straight ahead, Gurvan looked confused. He rubbed his forehead, then turned to one of our opponents. Something was glowing, right between his eyes. I couldn’t make out the details from where I was, but I knew it was magic.

  I’m the only one who can see it, I’m the only one who knows the other team’s cheating, and if I use my natural power to go against the spell, I’ll be cheating too! What can I do? I’m not allowed to take the feather from the boy’s hands, either!

  My mind raced as fast as my legs. There was one power I could still use.

  “Cherub, please, quick! I need to make sure Young Lord Gurvan of Sottarn doesn’t stupidly give this feather away. Make him toss it to me instead!”

  “I can’t go against his will, but I can use the wind. Get ready, Al.”

  Just as the teenager threw the feather towards an opponent, a sudden gust made it fall in my direction. It took me a bold dive to catch it. I took the feather, Gurvan shook his head as if emerging from a dream, and I got up on my knees, hoping Otiric or Yumel was close enough for an easy pass.

  The collapsing ground took my breath away. I fell into a crack that wasn’t here half a second before, still holding the feather in my hand. Before I could understand what was going on, the earth closed again above my head, plunging me into complete darkness.

  “Hello? Is this another soulfeather trick? Did my action count as cheating?”

  No answer. My earthen prison was hardly wider than a coffin, and too high for me to reach whatever served as a ceiling. No sound came from above, as if the world outside had vanished.

  I screamed.