She didn’t take me far, fortunately. She took me through the halls and then back outside of the building through a side door, into a garden with a hedge maze.
There were fewer people here. Fortunately, none of them seemed to have glowing tattoos on their shoulders. I was very certain to check for that.
Instead, they mostly seemed to be young couples, determined to get lost in one of the corners of the hedge maze.
I realized, of course, that we appeared to be doing the same.
Was…that what this was?
No, there was no way Cecily would be this forward about something like that.
She couldn’t have changed that much, not even after this many years.
By the time she pulled me into a dead-end in the maze, I was reasonably confident that being killed here would be preferable to being in the crowded party, so I just sort of resigned myself to that possibility and started to consider what other options could explain her behavior.
I wasn’t properly prepared for what she said next, though.
That seemed to be a theme in my life.
“So, uh, Corin.” She released my hand, turning to face me and leaning close. “Read any good books lately?”
I stared at her blankly for a moment, processing. “You couldn’t possibly mean…”
She frowned. “I suppose I wasn’t clear enough. I spent so long trying to figure out the right way to sound witty about that, too. Drat. I mean, have you had a chance to look at your messages from Tristan in the last few days?”
My jaw opened, then closed, without any words escaping.
That was more like Cecily, at least.
Somehow, she’d always managed to catch me off-guard.
Cecily winced. “Was that too direct?”
I shook my head. “No, no. And that opening line was wonderful, I just… didn’t expect it. I didn’t expect, well, you.”
“I’m sorry! I can go if I’m bothering you, I just, um, there’s something important…”
I took a deep breath. “No, wait. My fault. I’m being terrible.” I raised my hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I don’t want you to leave, Cecily. You’re fine. I’m just processing.”
She nodded. “Okay. Right. Processing, I understand that.”
“So.” I clasped my hands together. “Before we continue, we’re at a crowded party, and I don’t know how you know about this at all, but we probably shouldn’t be talking here.”
“That’s why we’re in this secluded location!” She gestured all around us. “Also, it’s why I brought this.” She waggled her umbrella.
I glanced upward, paying closer attention.
There were just a few runes on the inside of it, cleverly concealed by the curvature of the cloth.
Silence and anti-scrying, I realized. “Oh.” I blinked. “That’s actually rather brilliant. It’s restricting noise from escaping.”
“B…brilliant?” Cecily took a sharp breath, then stepped back.
Had I said something wrong?
I just kept talking, though. Like I do when I’m excited. “I assume it’s intended to keep anyone who isn’t underneath the umbrella from hearing us?”
“It’s actually a few feet wider than that, and it only dulls the sound and makes it harder to hear, rather than silent. Silence is conspicuous, but just a murmur makes it sound like we’re mumbling to each other. Most people won’t notice a difference.”
I bobbed my head in approval and then pointed at another rune. “And that rune blocks scrying spells, I think. But I don’t recognize the third one.”
“Oh, this?” She pointed at the third rune. “It’s not in the current curriculum; I’m not surprised you haven’t seen it. I’m a little surprised you even recognized the anti-scrying rune, to be honest. This one is a mild observation-blocking rune. It makes us less interesting to anyone who is within range, but not within the range of this other rune,” she pointed at another rune I hadn’t seen, “which lets the people who are within just a few feet of the umbrella interact with each other normally.”
I clasped my hands together in realization. “You’re mimicking an effect similar to the Mesmer attunement.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “I’m surprised you’re familiar with that. It’s somewhat obscure.”
I chuckled. “Believe me, I’m more than familiar with it at this point. But that’s another story.” I leaned forward slightly. “And that broach — that’s an improved shield sigil, right?”
She nodded fervently. “Yes, isn’t that silver bird you’re wearing a variant on that as well?”
“Sure is.” I was wearing the silver phoenix sigil on the right breast of my tunic. It looked better there than on my pants, where I usually wore it. I tilted it upward so she could see it more easily.
She leaned closer. “May I….?”
“Oh, sure.” I unpinned it.
She unpinned her own broach. We traded.
I inspected the runes on her broach. “Four enhancement runes… One for the shield itself, one for capacity, one for recharging. The fourth is connected to a series of knowledge runes… Interesting. Iterative hardening? Something that reinforces the shield in locations where it’s recently been hit?”
Cecily let out a gleeful laugh. “You’re the first person who understood that just by looking at it. Professor Vellum told me no one would ever—”
I laughed. “Vellum says a lot of things.”
“She certainly does.” Cecily ran her finger over my own sigil. “Fascinating. Building regeneration into a shielding device for an all-purpose defensive item. I can see that. And then, this is, what? A defensive rune for the sigil itself, tied to some kind of storage rune? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with it.”
“The two runes together prevent anyone with different mana from my own from tampering with the enchantments. Just a precautionary measure. It’d probably never be necessary.”
Cecily shook her head. “No, I think it’s quite intelligent. I’m not much of a fighter, but I’ve been experimenting with ideas for making items that are designed to remotely interact with other items. An enchantment like that would make it much more difficult, if not impossible.”
That’s…very similar to what I was thinking about doing with my mana threads. But making items for it would probably be easier, if a little less flexible.
I’d stopped talking for a moment, just thinking while I turned her shield sigil over in my hands.
“…You think that’s a terrible idea, don’t you?” Cecily asked.
“Hm?” I shook my head, remembering what I’d been talking with her about. “Oh, no. It was just extremely similar to one of my own ideas. Also, you reminded me about a time I detonated someone’s shield sigil.”
“Detonated? Wouldn’t that be terribly dangerous?”
“That was kind of the point,” I admitted, chagrinned. “But that’s a long story. I suppose you may know bits of it, if you know about the book.”
“Oh! Right. The book. Tristan. Yes. I need to give you a message. Very important.”
I nodded at her. “What’s the message?”
“Uh, well, it’s to make sure you listen to the last thing he sent to you.”
I considered that. “I don’t think I’ve seen that message yet. I’ll take a look later.”
“You should really take a look soon. Like, maybe right now?” She sounded hopeful.
I glanced from side to side. There was no one else in this part of the maze.
Just Cecily Lambert and me.