Bella stood and started to turn toward the staircase but stopped. She turned back to Kiri, and it took everything Kiri’s father had taught her about strength of will to bear up under the weight of Bella’s gaze.
“You’re rather proficient. Just be sure you always use it for the right reasons,” Bella said before resuming her walk to the staircase.
Oh, yes…she certainly knows, Kiri thought as she followed Bella.
Once Lillian and Kiri were inside the Restricted Section, Lillian turned to Kiri, asking, “What was all that about down there?”
“All what?” Kiri asked as she walked to the shelves containing the volume with all the diagrams about creating the slave brands.
“What was going on between you and Curator Roshan, Kiri?”
“Oh…uhm…well, I sort of told her Gavin asked me to investigate what records the Library had about the creation of the slave brands for him.”
Lillian stopped cold. “Gavin doesn’t know anything about this. Does he?”
Kiri held Lillian’s gaze for a moment before looking away and shaking her head. “No. I haven’t even seen Gavin in over a week…not since the announcement of Marcus’s death.”
“Oh, Kiri…what have you gotten me into?”
Kiri placed the thick tome on the table with a heavy thud and turned back to Lillian.
“Gavin won’t care, Lillian. All will be well.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t see what he did to those Fifth Tiers who were hazing the new students a couple months ago.”
“Gavin is such a sweet guy. It couldn’t have been that bad.” Kiri opened the cabinet of writing supplies where she’d hidden all the notes she’d compiled so far. After placing the notes on the table, she returned to the cabinet to acquire more parchment and ink as well as a stylus.
“Not that bad? Kiri, he turned their loincloths into wreaths of holly branches…for a week, and that wasn’t all.”
“Where’s the harm…” Then, Kiri remembered the needles on holly leaves. “Oh. Couldn’t they have just not worn a loincloth for a week?”
“Yes, except they’d get hives all over their bodies if they didn’t wear a loincloth, and Gavin said if the hives lasted for more than a day they’d be permanent.”
Kiri worked her mouth to speak for several moments before the words finally came. “That’s…that’s almost cruel.”
“The hazing stopped, though.”
“I believe that.”
Kiri stood in silence as she tried to reconcile what she’d just heard about Gavin with the Gavin she knew. She couldn’t really picture Gavin doing something like that. Yes, he humiliated Rolf Sivas by killing him with a tomato, but Kiri didn’t see that as the same thing.
“Kiri?” Lillian said.
Kiri blinked. “How long was I standing there?”
“Not too long. I don’t think I have gray hair yet. So, what did you need my help with?”
Kiri opened the book on the table and turned its pages until she reached the first diagram and pointed at it.
“Can you help me understand that?”
Lillian pulled out a chair and eased into it as she pulled the book in front of her and traced the diagram with the fingers of her left hand. The diagram was a series of four circles, each circle enclosing runes which encircled a smaller circle enclosing still yet more runes all the way down to a core of five runes in the smallest circle.
At long last, Lillian spoke. “Kiri, this…this is very sophisticated work. I learned to read using my grandfather’s spellbooks, and I’ve never seen anything like this.” Kiri watched Lillian turn her head to face her. “This transcends even the best artificer work into the realm of artistry…no pun intended.”
Kiri pulled out the chair beside Lillian and sat, watching her friend turn her attention back to the book. Now that the book was describing how the slave brands had been created (beyond the mere blacksmithing required to make the physical form), the book shifted into a different format. The left page contained notes and explanations of whatever diagram or magical equation that occupied the right page.
Lillian turned the page and smiled. “See here, Kiri? These next pages break down the diagram into its component parts, and it starts with those five Tutation runes at the core.”
Lillian’s voice trailed off, and Kiri assumed she was reading the text on the left page. Suddenly, she leaned back in her chair and shook her head.
“That crafty, old bastard.”
“What?” Kiri asked.
Lillian pushed the book over to Kiri and tapped the left page, saying, “You didn’t read far enough.”
Kiri pulled the book closer to her and read, “‘The work of creating the slave brands was a quagmire of defeat and desperation. The king was demanding a solution every day, and over fifty arcanists-so far-had lost their lives to mishaps trying to deliver what the king wanted. We had all but given up on there ever being the type of slave brand the king desired when the Black Robe wizard, Marcus, entered our laboratory. He placed a sheaf of papers on the table before us, saying, ‘This will save still more of you from dying in attempts to bring that fool’s dream to fruition.’ He turned and left without another word. Everyone crowded in to see what Marcus had left, but I-as Project Leader-claimed the papers.
“‘Immediately, I saw that it was a ritualized composite effect, which astounded me by itself, because I had never heard or read of anyone ever ritualizing a composite effect before. The core of the ritual was a powerful Tutation effect that I realized would protect all wizards from ever being branded as slaves, once I deciphered it. The other effects that would produce everything the king wanted the slave brands to do all depended upon that core.’”
Kiri didn’t even examine the diagram of the core Tutation runes on the right page before turning the page to the read the next annotations.
“‘We spent three weeks trying to deconstruct what Marcus gave us to remove that protection for wizards-as the king very much wanted to be able to brand wizards, too-but all our work was for naught. Somehow, Marcus had woven that core of Tutation throughout the entire ritual, and the ritual was wildly unstable without it. Kayla’s hair being turned purple during one of our failed attempts was the least of the mishaps. Poor Bran’s nose was upside down for four months, until the Magisters of Tutation and Transmutation finally managed to turn it right side up again, and I don’t think the Magister of Divination ever located Darvis’s right leg. It was the forceful and sudden relocation of Darvis’s leg that convinced us we should leave well enough alone and use the ritual as it was.’”
Kiri pushed the book away and looked to Lillian. “So…Marcus made the slave brands.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Lillian said. “He just showed the team already working on it how to do so without anyone else dying.”
“Do you think he knew how to remove the slave brand?”
Lillian nodded. “The man ritualized a composite effect to create the brand in the first place, Kiri; of course, he knew how to remove it.”
“Then, why didn’t he?” Kiri fought to hold back tears. “Why did he leave me like this?”
“We’ll never know.”
Kiri took several deep, calming breaths. She still felt almost betrayed somehow, but the shock of it was passing.
“Where do we go from here?”
Kiri watched Lillian, looking at her in silence as she waited for her friend to reply. Finally, Lillian shook her head.
“Kiri, I have no idea how to begin deciphering this diagram. Considering the source, I doubt the Magisters-or even my grandfather-could decipher it, either.”
“Where does that leave us?”
Lillian sighed and shrugged, saying, “You’re going to have to take it to Gavin. I can’t think of anyone else who even stands a chance of making sense of this.”