There was a new Masteritsa in their small town. She came rumbling in on her fine carriage, pulled by several strong horses and guarded by several Rytsars with silver wolves embroidered on their cloaks, their swords sheathed by their side and their spears at the ready. They promptly dismounted when the carriage came to a halt, the tallest one of them, wearing a furred hat and an impressive beard, opened the carriage door. Nikolas craned his head further to look at who would emerge. The carriage wasn't decorated, so she couldn't have been from Prebovna, anyone from Prebovna would ride in gold-and-silver carriages, regardless of the cost and feasibility. Perhaps he could tell by her clothes...

"Oi! Watch it!" he snapped, as Felie roughly pushed him aside to take her rightful turn, barely balanced with Ada held aloft in her arms.

"Where's she from?" Felie said, her face pressed to the window. She stood on tiptoes, using her hands as leverage to pull herself up.

Nikolas winced from where she'd shoved him out of her way, "I dunno, what's she wearing?"

"Furs!" squealed Ada, clapping her hands, "Furs and lots of them! Do you think it's from—," she turned to Nikolas, her brown eyes very wide, "a bear?"

Felie scoffed, letting Ala back on to the ground with a thud and rubbing her arms, "You think everything's from a bear! What kind of bear is white anyway?"

"Let me look and I'll tell you!" Nikolas said, pushing Felie roughly out of the way to have a look for himself. 

The Maseritsa was wearing furs, though not as much as Ada had proclaimed. They were decorative, Nikolas thought, looking at the white trim on her gown. If she was wearing furs, she must've taken them off, no one would wear furs down here, not in the summer. 

"She's got a boy with her!" Ada proclaimed, pulling a stool over and somehow managing to climb over Nikolas's shoulders, and stabbing him with her pointy elbows, "a boy!"

"Get off me!" Nikolas yelped, trying to push her off. He barely caught a glimpse of the boy himself before he fell to the ground with a thud, Ada landing on top of him. 

"Do you think you can talk to him while papa's busy talking to the Masteritsa?" said Felie, a hint of pleading in her voice. "Do you think you can ask him if it's really a bear his mama's wearing?"

"I thought Ada was the one who liked bears," Nikolas said, raising an eyebrow. 

Felie stuck out her tongue, and tapped Ada on the shoulder, "Come on, Ada, let's go get some pastries off Cook!"

Nikolas watched his two sisters run off, privately jealous, before hesitantly making his way to his Father's study. Aldeim rarely had patience for Nikolas, and definitely not if he was trying to do business. As he expected, Aldeim didn't even acknowledge his entry, his eyes were on the Masteritsa seated primly next to him, and his mouth was busy smiling and negotiating. Nikolas paused at the door, uncertain. He shifted from one foot to the other, biting his lip. 

"Are you going to just stand there?"

He nearly jumped, before spinning around and looking into the very amused blue eyes of the boy he'd barely caught a glimpse of in the window. 

"You know, grown-ups take hours and hours when they talk about—" here he gave a laugh, and lowered his voice, "grown-up things." Then he straightened, and probably with the manners of any Masteritsa's son, said primly, "I'm Jozin."

"Nikolas," said Nikolas. 

He'd thought that Jozin, being the Masteritsa's son, would wear the clothes to match. But no, he wore quite simple clothing, a long tunic and calf high leather boots. Though Nikolas suspected that the clothes likely had some sort of witch-magic woven in them. Everyone who traveled would think to ask a witch to do so, everyone who could afford it that is.

"Pleased to meet you," said Jozin. His eyes flickered to the door, and he motioned for Nikolas to come towards him, "Why don't you show me around?"

"I… Well," Nikolas stared at the study then at Jozin and the prospect of not having to wait for his father to finish. "Why not?"

He would normally close the door himself, as silently as possible, but before he could reach for it, the door closed itself with the softest of clicks. 

"Come then," said Jozin, taking Nikolas's hand, "I want to see what's so great about Icfeld!" When they were outside he glanced up, hand shading his eyes from the sun before turning and giving Nikolas a mischievous look, "Have you ever gone up the roofs?"

Nikolas had half-hoped that the Maseritsa's Rytsars would have seen them, he wasn't a fan of heights or breaking rules. But sneaking past her Rytsars and his father's guards wasn't a hard task as the Rytsars were busy unpacking or resting while his father's guards only cared if you stole from Aldeim. It was noon, and the town was bustling with activity, the merchant-women were rushing about with their carts, calling out their wares and the local smith was busy with his commissions. It was summer, and from Nikolas had gathered from Aldeim's infrequent cheer, they would have a good harvest. Enough to send one of the children to the academy, he'd said, looking over their family speculatively at dinner. Nikolas had lowered his gaze, knowing that it was definitely not him that his father would spend coin on.

"Is your house the tallest one here?" said Jozin, pointing up at the roof and gesturing at all the other houses below.

They were next to the chimney and Jozin was eyeing the bricks with the same speculative look as Ada did before taking a cookie for herself. Nikolas decided it was best to distract him from whatever plan Jozin was brewing. 

"Yes," Nickolas nodded proudly, "my mother's the Dvoryanka, she fought with the last Empress in her war against the Stislarians." He waved his hand, as his mother did when she casted her minor magics, "She was very good! She knew how to make the wind move just so!"

"Was?" said Jozin, raising an eyebrow. 

"Well," said Nikolas, "She said, casting magic has uh—" he scratched his head, frowning.

“It has an effect on the body, I know,” Jozin nodded, “my mother told me herself.” He looked Nikolas up and down, then shook his head, “Never mind, do you think you could boost me up?”

Nikolas eyed the chimney, and Jozin's height. He laughed, "How? Even together we can't reach!"

"If you jump, it'll work!" Jozin nodded his head, all confidence, and motioned for Nikolas to kneel so he could get on his shoulders. 

"My father won't be happy if you hurt yourself," Nikolas warned. 

Jozin was slightly shorter than he was, and lighter than Ada, for some odd reason. Or perhaps he just knew not to put his weight all in one place. That was important when loading carts, Aldeim had told Nikolas, never put your valuables in one wagon or overload it. 

"Jump, on the count of three," Jozin declared, sounding all too cheerful.

"What?"

"One, two —three!" 

Nikolas only caught on at three, and he gave a half-hearted jump, expecting they'd plummet down. But they didn't, Jozin's hands caught onto the roof tiles and he clambered up, turning quickly to offer Nikolas a hand. Nikolas was open mouthed, staring at the ground and then at Jozin. 

"You were really good at jumping," Jozin nodded, eyes bright. "Like those horses, my mother said the Empress has horses that can fly."

"They only fly because of magic," Nikolas scoffed. "Once the magic's gone they're just regular horses. And I'm not a horse!"

"Oh, what are you then?" 

"I dunno… I'm going to be a merchant, not a Rytsar!" 

"My mother says never to say you're not going to be something," Jozin was now making his way across the roofs, arms held aloft to keep his balance. "She says it invites the Fates to do things."

"Well, I'm not going to be a Rytsar," Nikolas declared, following cautiously behind, "I don't even like riding."

"Maybe not horses?" Jozin suggested. "Horses are boring, but my mother's Rystars had to ride them 'cause if they came riding on our mounts no one'll let us in Icfeld."

Bears, Nikolas cautiously guessed, unable to contain his curiosity, "Do they ride on bears?"

"Bears?" Jozin shook his head, bewildered, "No one can ride a bear! Well… maybe the witches, but that's different… No, I mean, wolves! They're as big as your horses!"

"I don't believe you!"

"Come to Skapina and see," Jozin said firmly, "They're big! My mother has one, Vierka, she wanted to come but my mother told her no."

"Do you have one?"

"No," Jozin shook his head, sitting back down on the roof with a sigh, "They're very stubborn, wolves. They have to like you, and not the other way 'round."

"So are horses."

Jozin giggled, "Horses won't last long in Skapina, they're stupid and they'll get lost."

Nikolas stared at the ground below him, frowning, "Are you— did you use magic? There's no way I could jump that high!" Then he crossed his arms, "But you can't use magic, you're too young for the academy! Unless — is your mother taking you to one?"

"Oh no, I'm not going to any academy," Jozin shook his head. "My mother said they're a waste of time and money and all you come out with is ah, what did she say, oh yes, inflated sense of self."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Jozin shrugged. "No one in Skapina's ever been to one and we're all doing fine."

"No one? Really? You're joking!" Men had to go to the academy, Nikolas knew. "So what of the men? They can't be witches!"

"They can too!"

"Hmph," Nikolas crossed his arms, sitting next to Jozin. "Skapina is strange." Then he decided to ask Felie's question anyway, "Do they have white bears there?"

To his surprise Jozin giggled, "They say the white bears you see are Baba Zbena's and they'll eat you if you don't give them something that they can bring back to her!"

"You're lying!"

Jozin only laughed harder, hugging the chimney to keep from falling off. When they snuck down later, taking advantage of a ladder Nikolas swore wasn't there before, it occurred to Nikolas that Jozin never did answer the question about Nikolas's sudden jumping abilities.