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"Hey, puss," Augustus greeted with a smile. "Happy Blood Moon."
Athanasius was not in the mood for pleasantries. "Be careful with my granddaughter, sorcerer. Mara has a big miracle building in her, and if you make her waste it, gods and saints won't save you from me," the cat replied.
"What big miracle?" Augustus asked. "Is she okay?"
"She is for now. A miracle that size can kill a Corvo, and I don't want Mara dying for you. She deserves better after everything she's lived through. God, I don't know what she sees in you at all." Athanasius's tail flicked irritably. "She's only ever wanted to be loved. Her mother couldn't give it to her, so be careful what you offer up to her. A saint's love is a sacred thing."
Augustus didn't get a chance to try and decipher the cat's cryptic comments because his magic flared hot, and there she was.
If Augustus still harbored any doubt that Mara was a saint, it was now obliterated. Augustus stared at her not because she was full of miracles but because she was one.
Mara was wearing a black velvet dress with intricate patterns embroidered in gold thread and beads. Black shimmered on her eyelids, and gold sparkled on her red lips.
Her pale silver hair had been braided and pinned up in an elaborate crown and had black crow feathers decorated with ruby eyes stuck into her braids to form a halo. She looked like a living Byzantine ikon.
"Saints…" Augustus whispered.
"Thank God, you're dressed up too," Mara was saying. "I thought I overdid it."
Say something clever and charming, his brighter half demanded of him.
"I have a sword cane," he said out loud, and his brighter half threw its hands up in frustration. Augustus cleared his throat and tried again. "You look like a saint."
"I know. This is what my mother used to dress me up in when we toured in bigger cities. It helps to look the part. You said there's no hiding your true nature on a Blood Moon, so I thought it was appropriate." Mara looked up at him. "You don't think it's too much?"
"Not at all. You are quite possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he admitted honestly.
"High praise coming from a sorcerer," Mara said, lips rising in her sphinx smile. "I'm glad I'm going as your date tonight and not your friend, Augustus."
"Oh, please. You two are going to make me throw up my dinner," Athanasius complained.
"You're still here?" Augustus took a small toy fish from his pocket that had been stuffed with magic-infused catnip. "Here, go eat that and stop ruining the moment, you grumpy old thing."
He tossed the fish, and Athanasius caught it mid-air. With a final hiss, he scampered back into the store.
"Alchemists and cats! They are all the same," Augustus complained. He offered Mara his arm. "Shall we, little saint?"
Mara locked the shop door and slipped her arm in his.
"I'm nervous," she whispered.
"Me too," he replied, and they both laughed.
"It's good to know we are on the same page. Tell me, sorcerer, how does one find a bar that only exists on a Blood Moon?" Mara asked.
"By looking for the right door."
They roamed the East End, their formal attire garnering glances from curious onlookers.
Humans, as a rule, generally didn't notice the magical amongst the mundane, but a sorcerer and a saint walking together were striking enough to make even the most unromantic human pause and smile.
Augustus's fingertips tingled, and they turned down Hosier Lane. Bright graffiti decorated the brick walls on either side of them, and Augustus paused, tasting the magic in the air.
"There's a door close by," he said, releasing a tiny spark of magic into the air.
The silver star shivered and stretched and became a glittering stag. Mara laughed as it cantered in the air around her before it raced towards a blue and black skull with a red moon painted on its forehead.
The stag charged it with its antlers, and a section of the wall slid sideways.
