Never the Roses

In a world where magic-workers are identified as children, purchased from their families, and bound through a blood geas (a spell tied to the sorcerer's life force), the most powerful spend decades working off debts before being contracted to monarchs. The sorceress Oneira is the most formidable oneiromancer alive, with the power to manipulate the Dream, a collective unconscious realm generated by all living dreamers. She retires after her final devastating assignment in the wars of the Southern Lands, builds a solitary house on a remote cliff between mountains and sea, sets magical wards against all intruders, and resolves never to use her destructive powers again. At the center of the house, she constructs a bier decorated daily with fresh flowers, envisioning it as the site of her eventual death.

In exile, Oneira teaches herself to garden and bake bread, finding peace in manual labor. Over time, three semi-mythical creatures arrive unbidden: a scáthcú (a dread wolf bound to powerful sorcerers) she names Bunny; a kestrel called Adsila, avatar of the goddess She Who Eats Bears; and Lady Moriah, a mythical black cat said to hold all the spells in the world. Their presence stirs Oneira's dormant mind, and she realizes she has been searching for an answer but has not yet identified the question.

Restless and craving new reading, Oneira enters the Dream and locates the dreaming mind of Stearanos Stormbreaker, a sorcerer bound to King Uhtric and her lifelong nemesis, whom she has never met. She puts his castle to sleep, steps physically into his library, and takes the book he has been reading: a rare manual on cultivating Veredian roses, an almost-extinct species whose last specimens grew on the island of Govirinda before it was destroyed. She leaves a substitute, removing her magical remanence so Stearanos cannot identify her.

Stearanos wakes sensing foreign magic and discovers the swap. He leaves a threatening note and sets traps. Oneira travels the Dream and locates an ancient gardener who gifts her three living Veredian rosebushes on the condition she use no magic in their cultivation. Returning to the library, Oneira avoids all traps, writes a teasing reply, and leaves a beloved childhood book along with a Veredian rose leaf. King Uhtric summons Stearanos with urgent news: Oneira has reportedly retired, leaving the Southern Lands undefended. The king orders a conquest alongside Crown Prince Mirza. Bound by his geas, Stearanos begins war research and deliberately leaves books on the Southern Lands as a signal to his thief.

Meanwhile, Queen Zarja of the Southern Lands dispatches Leskai Orynych, a young courtier she has psychologically broken and remade as her obedient servant, to infiltrate Oneira's home. Disguised as a wandering poet named Tristan, Leskai carries a map to Oneira's fastness. The queen's sorceress Yelena, a psychic magic specialist, has crafted Leskai into a tool designed to bypass the overconfident oneiromancer's defenses.

Oneira digs the rose bed by hand as atonement and continues visiting Stearanos's library. On one visit, she impulsively inserts an image into his dreams, an act only an oneiromancer could accomplish. Stearanos analyzes the magical remanence and identifies his thief as Sorceress Oneira. Moriah speaks for the first time, telling Oneira her heart is broken and that suffering is personal and cannot be compared or quantified. Their correspondence deepens: Stearanos leaves book recommendations and a rose he grew himself, its petals tipped crimson like Oneira's hair. Eventually she releases the sleep enchantment, and they share wine and conversation about their respective magical disciplines.

A violent storm delivers "Tristan" to Oneira's doorstep, bleeding from a supposed animal attack. The charming poet's gentle touch stirs Oneira's long-dormant desire, but her three companions show no warmth toward him. Days later, Stearanos arrives by sea, shatters Oneira's wards, and ascends the cliff with fireballs on his fists, demanding his books. Their confrontation shifts from threats to mutual respect. He identifies Moriah and Adsila by name and recognizes the scáthcú by kind, though he does not know Bunny's name. Oneira invites him inside under guest rules. He repairs her wards, and she shows him her Veredian roses, which he confirms are thriving.

On the beach, Stearanos argues they are of equivalent age, power, and experience, and asks Oneira to choose him over Tristan. His kiss blends their magic into something neither has experienced. He departs by ship, promising to wait. Oneira resolves to reject him and send Tristan away, but the horse goes lame. A royal messenger summons Oneira to court; she composes a refusal and sends Tristan as courier. His departure leaves her solitude feeling like emptiness rather than peace.

Stearanos returns, knocking politely this time. His war council secretly wants Oneira at the queen's court as a deterrent: Her mere presence would cause King Uhtric to stand down. Oneira erupts in fury and reveals the truth about Govirinda. It was not a natural disaster. She opened the Dream without restraint to earn enough gold to pay off her debt and annihilated the entire island. She projects the nightmare onto her crystal dome, and Stearanos holds her through the revelation.

Desire overwhelms them on the bier, but Stearanos pulls back to talk about grief and the cost of the lives they have led. They make love for the first time in her crystal dome, where Dream residue spontaneously fills the space with blooming Veredian roses in iridescent indigo, a manifestation of Oneira's unconscious hope. She agrees to return to court, stipulating she will not kill, and negotiates with the queen to pay Stearanos's debts as her price for stopping the war.

At the citadel, she discovers Tristan is Leskai Orynych, sent by the queen to manipulate her using Yelena's psychic magic, a discipline the powerful oneiromancer had always disdained. Despite this betrayal, she plays along for the greater good. Then King Uhtric suffers a seizure, likely engineered by Mirza, who seizes the throne. Far from deterred, the prince is emboldened by the chance to defeat the world's most feared sorceress. Stearanos concludes the only way to stop the war is to remove himself from the equation.

That night, Oneira contacts Stearanos through his dreams, constructing a garden of imagined roses. He first begs her to kill him; when she refuses, he asks her to trap him in the Dream forever. Oneira refuses both, knowing the human mind cannot survive there indefinitely. She reveals she has already arranged to pay his debts, freeing him from his geas. She tells him she loves him, the first time she has said the words, and instructs him to tend her roses. She will eliminate Mirza herself, knowing this final act will destroy her ability to live with herself.

Oneira puts everyone in the palace to sleep and visits Stearanos one last time. She frees the old king's spirit from the Dream, then severs Mirza's connection to his body, consigning his mind to the Dream forever. Returning home, she writes a final note bequeathing Stearanos her house and roses, decorates her bier with the last blossoms, lies down, and steps into the Dream permanently, releasing her hold on her life.

Months later, at midwinter, Stearanos arrives at Oneira's beach. The Veredian roses bloom at last, midnight purple and fragrant. Inside, Oneira lies on her bier, cold and pale, her crimson hair spilling amid withered flowers. Moriah tells him Oneira found her question and answer. Bunny delivers a scarf and her final note, in which she calls Stearanos both the question and the answer and asks him to look for her in his dreams. Stearanos lays a rose on her breast, lies down beside her, and summons all his magic to open a door into the Dream, to find her.