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Wind shifted. Far above, clouds wheeled over the edge of the caldera. I wiped sweat, smearing tawny residue across my forearm, and moved to the next cluster. The shower in my dorm room was stained brown by the stuff.

Rhythm mattered, cut, scoop, swirl, seal, each motion precise to keep the spores from being wasted. I was halfway to my quota. If I pushed hard enough, I might finish before the dinner service was over. If not, I’d eat the provisions I had squirreled away in my room, saved for the days I just couldn’t do it.

There!Zeph said into my mind.He’s back!

I looked up, my familiar's urgent tug in my mind pulling my gaze across the field.

My heartbeat picked up, skipping a beat before cascading into the rhythm that both panic and excitement shared.

There was a figure silhouetted by the sun, a picturesque picture of a man who was not a man, a masculine form framed by the two huge feathering wings that curved around his body, like the wings of a non-biblically accurate angel. He wore a white robe with gold trim and had a simple gold band around his forehead. Gilded gauntlets adorned his forearms, and there was a sword strapped to his waist.

My hands clenched at my red skirt, stained brown by the dusted layers of dirt, sweat, and mushroom dust. I still didn’t understand why they didn’t give us different outfits to work in the fields. It made no sense to kneel in the dirt in a school skirt, but a lot about this school still didn’t make sense, no matter how long I’d worked here. I’d left my red school jacket in my dorm room. My white shirt had wet circles under my armpits and had the same streaks of brown as my skirt. I was filthy and disheveled compared to him, but what did I expect?

He was King of the Aetheriani, Rí Túath Crystallo, here for his yearly inspection of the spell that kept the field nourished, despite the systematic monocropping.

I was nothing but a mundane, a person transplanted from the normal world to this magical realm, a person brought here on the pretense of a magical education, and instead was put to work in the fields.

I had asked around to find out who he was and why he was there the last time I saw him. I had to piece together the information from other mundanes and the few times I was able to go to the library. His hair was a soft gold, curling around his face, which was familiar. I’d gotten used to seeing his younger brother’s face on the banners that were hung from the domed walls of the commons the week before a game day, but I had seen Rí Túath Crystallo only once before, a year ago. He was doing the same thing he did the last time, stroking a finger along the underside of one of the large mushroom caps, then holding it up to inspect the quality of its spores.

He was alone, just as he was last time.

GO!Zeph swooped down to send a woosh of air past my ear, startling me into motion. I shrugged off my heavy bag, dropping it to the ground, along with my tin.

If I succeeded, I wouldn't need them anymore. I took one step, then another, and then I ran, dashing towards the promiseof an escape. Electricity zapped me, but I ignored it. The shocks were easy to bear, easy to ignore when the only promise of freedom was standing there, waiting for me to ask for it.

All I had to do was convince him to take me.

The Aetheriani turned towards me, his wings spreading slightly before settling back down by his sides as he watched my rapid approach. There was no alarm in his posture. I was nothing that someone like him would be afraid of.

I slowed as I got closer to him, pushing through a row of mushrooms, their caps letting off puffs of dust as I stepped through them to the row that he stood in.

I threw myself on the ground.

My palms pressed into the dirt, and I bent forward, resting my forehead on the back of my hands. I waited, silent. I didn’t know what kind of man he was. If he were anything like his younger brother, he wouldn’t kill me for breaching some protocol I had no way of learning, but I couldn’t know for sure. All I had to go on were the rumors.

“Speak,” Rí Túath Crystallo commanded.

I lifted my head and upper body off the ground, looking up to meet his blue eyes.

A shiver ran through me, a heat that scalded my soul. For a moment, I forgot everything. I forgot why I was there, kneeling in the dirt. I forgot why my heart was racing and my lungs pulling deep breaths in. The only thing that existed was his eyes.

Request the boon! Zeph landed on my shoulder, shocking me out of my trance.

“Boon,” I gasped out.

“So forward. Not what I expected from a mundane at all,” Rí Túath Crystallo arched a golden eyebrow as he stared down at me. He lowered his voice as he looked up, glancing around. “You request a boon? Really?”

Relief flooded me, and I squashed it down. If he didn’t want to honor the boon, he could have just walked away or struck me down. No one would bat an eye if a field worker were hurt. The only reason I’d lasted several years here was because the ‘Proper Students’ rarely came out in the direction of the mushroom fields. There was nothing here that was of interest to them, and so the mundanes who worked out here avoided their attention. It helped that the smell of the mushrooms covered our scents, making it less likely that we would trigger the wrong instincts just from existing. I’d learned not to shower before going to the commons for meals.

“I request a boon!” I said.

“Do you understand what you are asking for?” he said, his voice gentle.

I wasn't sure. My knowledge was based on rumors and whispered words shared between mundanes.

I sat up straighter, leaning my weight back on my heels. “By Aetheriani law, a boon is granted in exchange for a year and a day of service.”

I hoped I was right.