So, I'm still very much in a recuperation phase, and trying to take things as easily as possible. I was going to continue A Wolf In The Mundus -- and I will, later, when I have time and energy -- but for this morning I'm going to do something I haven't done here in a while: I'm going to put up some music.
Matt Bomer:
So after yet another round of Wait-How-Long-Have-I-Been-This-Burnt-Out? culminating in a serious case Overdoing-It-At-The-Worst-Possible-Moment, I'm back trying to get myself in order. I spent last week being a fountain of mucus with a low-level cough that got progressively worse, until I finally went went to see the doctor on Friday morning for what felt like it might be a case of swimmer's ear or a straight-up ear infection.
This was sort-of mostly almost correct. Diagnosis: negative for plague (though it's possible that there was some sort of milder Head Crud that kicked this off), positive for a massive sinus infection that was generating all that mucus (and thus causing the cough) which was now trying to push its way in to take over my middle ear (ears, really, but the left side was very definitely worse).
Dr. B prescribed some antibiotics and a pack of anti-inflammatories and told me to keep taking Mucinex. (I'd tried both Nyquil and Theraflu, but they both dried things out -- less mucus flowing out of me, sure, and they did help me sleep, but I think that was actually making the infection itself worse.) I'm writing this on Sunday morning, and the difference is absolutely night and day: I'm still a little stuffy, but the cough is mostly gone, I've been able to sleep without feeling like I was drowning or waking myself up to cough/swallow every few minutes, and most importantly I'm starting to have some energy again.
...Which leaves me feeling like I should be waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I'm doing my best to ignore that. Pretty sure it's not a rational assessment, just my body being unprepared to feel well after feeling that crappy for that long.
Anyway, Spring is in the air -- actually that's mostly oak pollen, but I'm doing my best to ignore that too -- and it's time to be extra-nice to my health. (At this point, I don't think my body is going to give me a whole lot of choice.) What I'd really like is some clean living and violent exercise, but I don't frankly think I'm up to violent exercise yet (despite the dreams I was having last night) so it'll be clean living and gentle exercise for the next little bit. Also slow exposure to daylight, so that when I do have spend a bunch of time in the sun my body isn't completely unprepared for it.
And sleep. Body wants lots and lots of sleep, the really deep kind with the good rapid eye movements. Which, y'know, I can do that. I used to be pretty good at it. Clearly I should try doing it more often.
Meanwhile, by the time this goes up we'll be heading into the eclipse. I feel like that ought to give me vast supernatural powers, or mark the end of the world, or both... but it probably won't. I'm trying not to set my expectations too high here.
Right, well, one more cup of tea and then back to it. Onwards and upwards! Nothing but good times ahead.
Lithos Foundingstone watched as his brother Archibald's head swiveled to track the attractive young dwarf as she passed in front of them. Archibald was human, but he didn't seem even the least bothered that the young woman's shoulders were broader than his own. Nor did the young woman seem bothered by his attention; even without the ability to grow a proper beard (and the consequent nickname of Uncle Baldy), Archibald was charming.
And they were dwarves now -- dwarven citizens, anyway. In theory they could court and marry other dwarves. That might even work for Archibald, but Lithos knew that it would never work out like that for him. For all that he'd been raised as a dwarf and accepted as a dwarven citizen, he'd been born a goblin and that was what most dwarves saw when they looked at him. So, to fend off any attempts at matchmaking and other, equally awkward discussions, Lithos had one day announced that he was "saving himself for magic" -- as if chastity were any sort of prerequisite for wizardry, as if wizards never fell in love or married. It was just a way to avoid talking about it...
...Or at least he'd meant for it to be a way to avoid talking about it. Everybody, including his siblings, had been so charmed by the announcement that even the ones who knew better (or had known better at one point) had gotten caught up in it. On the one hand, it was kind of embarrassing: Lithos didn't really enjoy being looked at as the cute wee goblin who didn't understand how all this worked.
(It wasn't like he didn't have his own copies of Ariana Virtue's The Misadventures of Lady Willing in the Lands of the Heathens or the even more scandalous The Adventures of Lady Ariana in the Vice Dens of Sol Povos, author ostensibly unknown. It certainly wasn't as if he hadn't read both volumes repeatedly, and committed certain sections to memory.)
On the other hand, it was still a convenient fiction now and then... and every once in a while it was hilarious.
So, "Did you need to talk to her?" he asked Archibald, doing his best to look wide-eyed and innocent.
"I, ah-- well, it's more a possible opportunity than an actual need." Archibald looked slightly pained; they were supposed to be on their way to the market to renew the Shattered Golem's supply of eggs, which formed the basis of many regional dishes throughout Silvergard.
The young woman glanced back at Archie, and he offered her a smile which she returned.
And they think I don't know anything about it... Lithos kept his face smooth and managed not to giggle as he hesitated, dangling his older brother along for one full breath. Then: "I can place the order; I'm sure old Ironbender would loan me his dog-cart to get everything back safely."
"Would you?" asked Archibald. "I'll... I'll try not to take too long."
"It's fine," Lithos told him, still looking as innocent as he could possibly manage. "Take all the time you need."
We are standing in an L-shaped hallway. There is an armoire sitting at the bend of the hall; there is a doorway on the right slightly before it. We use the ten foot pole to check the floor. It sounds like there are three creatures crammed into the armoire. Amergin uses Produce Flame to aet the armoire on fire, and the doors flip open; a rectilinear zombie with three heads sits there and burns until it collapses. As they finish burning, each has black onyx for eyes; we grab all six.
We turn to the nearer door; Whisper checks it over for traps. The door is unlocked. Amergin opens it, and we behold a small graveyard with a small room back in the right corner, behind another closed door. Amergin uses Detect Magic and detects some from the small locked room.
We carefully enter the room, with Amergin scouting; nothing bas happens. One of the headstones says, “Indra – fuck that guy,” Another says, “Vecna, what a bitch.” The coffin on the left says, “madness and wisdom” while the one on the right says pain and treasure. That one rattles when James pokes it. He thinks there’s more than one thing in there.
Whisper defaces the tombstone insulting Vecna, There’s also a note that says “Stand before thy reflection to begin" on one of the other tombstones.
Whisper opens the Pain & Treasure coffin, and four kobold zombies pop out. James goes after them with the pick, hits one, and does a little damage. They appear to be annoying little sacks of hit points. Whisper withdraws and gets his crossbow out. He takes a shot, though the kobolds have cover from the gravestones. He misses.
They swarm around James, and he swings at one but misses; they attack him and miss. Lithos realizes that we’re in combat and starts throwing acid splash; he actually hits. James swings again and misses. Baldy moves up behind a gravestone and attacks with his rapier, flanking with James. Whisper reloads and fires again, missing. Amergin also sees an expensive-looking blue gemstone in the coffin. Lithos throws another acid splash for a teeny bit more damage.
James swings, misses. Baldy attacks with his rapier: “Have at thee, stort-stuff!” and misses by a country mile. Whisper reloads and fires off another shot. They flail at James again and miss. Lithos throws more acid; he’s not doing much damage, but he is at least connecting. James swings at the wounded one but misses. Archibald: “Will you hold still, you scaly little son of a bitch!" Whisper fires again, misses.
The zombie between James and Baldy tries to rear back, and just…stabs itself on Baldy’s rapier and kills (well, destroys) itself. Lithos throws more acid. James swings and misses. Archibald swings around and stabs another kobold zombie. Whisper fires off another crossbow bolt. One of the zombies trips. Amergin stabs one with a spear. Lithos throws more acid.
Baldy: “I’ve done it once, I can do it again!” He stabs another zombie. Whisper puts a crossbow bolt in the back of one’s head.
Lithos continues throwing acid; he’s melting them a bit at a time. Archibald finishes a zombie: “I am unstoppable!”
Whisper hits with a crossbow bolt. The fallen zombie stands up, takes a stab from Baldy on the way, and swings at James but misses. Lithos throws more acid, hits again. There is one zombie left. James swings and hits, doing a bit of damage. Baldy and James shift to flank the zombie, but Baldy misses. Whisper fires off another bolt, Amergin hits the thing, and Lithos finishes it with acid.
James looks at the sapphire and James adds it to out treasure. It's 1500 gp worth of Sapphire. Amergin uses his spear to pop open the Madness & Wisdom coffin; a shadowy figure flows up out of the coffin. It’s some sort of phantom creature made of pain and darkness; it alternates between screaming and laughing. It also alternates between being material and immaterial.
Lithos throws acid and manages to hit; James switches back to the flail and cries: “Archibald, is this one of your exes?” He swings, but the flail passes through it without touching it. Archibald takes a step, stabs the thing with his magic rapier, and smiles. Whisper moves up a little and angles where he can shoot without hitting Baldy – which is good, because his crossbow bolt goes straight through the phantom.
It grabs at Baldy but he slips out of the way. Baldy and James start babbling like Crazy Dave from its aura of madness. Amergin is unaffected; he casts Produce Flame and burns it; Lithos tags it with Magic Missile. Whisper manages to damage it as well. This time it grabs at Archibald again, but again misses. Amergin misses.
Lithos hits it with more acid; Whisper puts another bolt in it, and it phases over to Whisper; Amergin burns it as it retreats, damaging it a bit. Whisper avoids its attack. Amergin moves in and touches him with magical fire and immolates it; it dissolves into wisps of smoky shadow as it fades. There's another clue in the bottom of the coffin.
(I haven't been describing these clues very well, but now that we've got six or seven of them: they seem to have a number of dots on the left half, like the face of a die; then a dividing line in the middle; and then an angle or an arrow and/or possibly a number on the right half. So far, this has proven indecipherable; I'm hoping we'll find some sort of puzzle that these provide clues/instructions for, since they don't seem to have anything to do with the maze itself.)
Baldy: “That’s a restroom over there. I need a moment.” He goes over to the door and knocks on it.
Voice: “Is everything dead out there?”
There’s a dwarf in there; he appears to be a merchant. Baldy shoves him out and goes inside to take care of his business. “I trade in the currency of Durest Inglorian: black onyx." Black onyx is well known for being a component for Raise Dead and similar spells. He was a member of the congregation of the priest who built this place ages ago, and he has wares. For two black onyx we can get a pet zombie; four gets us a clue to the treasure; eight was a magic stick; twelve gives us a scroll with a clue to the treasure.
The dwarf has a stick strapped to his back; it’s weirdly shaped, almost like a crossbow without the bow. Whisper considers this. The dwarf adds: “If you defeat the beast at the end of the maze and all its trickery, you will free me from the maze!”
Baldy: “Whew! Much better!” He emerges from the dwarf’s room.
Whisper: “How long have you been back here?”
Dwarf: “Forty or fifty years.”
Amergin: “How many people have been here before us?”
“Seven. Six. I don’t really remember.”
If we were to pull him out of the maze prematurely, he’d be in terrible pain; it's part of his offering to the god. Okay, so what’s at the center of maze? He thinks it’s maybe a zombie… a big zombie? He has no idea what kind.
Archibald has made a bit of a mess on the pet zombie; Lithos cleans it up with Prestidigitation. Archibald: "Wait, all these years and you could just... clean that up? With magic?"
James slips into the room and quickly searches it. The rest of the stuff seems to be on the dwarf’s person, because aside from a couple of dormant zombies there's nothing in here.
Whisper tries to distract him, but he moves away from where James was going to try to pickpocket him. We go ahead and purchase the clue and watch which pouch he pulls it out of; Amergin continues distracting him by badmouthing Indra. (Which, to be fair, Indra kind of deserves; he isn't just a trickster, he's a traitor.)
James attempts to reclaim our onyx through sleight of hand and succeeds; Whisper also goes through the dwarf's room but finds nothing else. Also, the dwarf is disappointed that we opened the second coffin; now we have the second clue that he was going to sell us. Lithos asks him if was planning to just open the coffin and release the mad spirit for twelve black onyx, but the dwarf demonstrates a hidden drawer that would have allowed him to draw the clue out safely.
Archibald starts going off on his horrible standard of zombie care. He goes back into his room to cry.
We argue a bit about whether we should sleep here or head back to the boat; Lithos is concerned that if we go outside, the old dwarf will reset everything; Whisper is concerned that if we sleep here we’ll get turned into undead. We jam his door closed and go back to the boat for a full night’s sleep.
He’s banging on the door to be let out when we come back. “I just want to be able to wander around the dungeon a little bit.” We let him out: “Remember! When you find more black onyx, come back!” The magic stick shoots magic missiles; it is actually a Formorian arquebus. (These are magical artifacts that showed up in the previous campaign; it fires off one Magic Missile per round, which isn't a lot of damage but it's self-targeting, good for twenty shots a day, and may still be functional in situations where most magic isn't.)
There second door is set up like the outer door was: a latch handle in the center, and then a lever that opens the door but also brings down a wrist-severing blade. This one has a hand still stuck on it; we go to pull it off, and parts of it are still stuck. We stick the remains of the severed hand on the handle, and it sticks again. We look at this again, because nobody wants to be stuck to that thing and lose an arm, and weirdly nobody keeps a rag or a pair of gloves or even a spare cloth pouch on their person.
So we go back and purchase the pet zombie for two black onyx and then we have it open the door for us. The zombie is Roberta – Rob for short. She grabs the handle and pulls back, and Whisper attempts to disable the device; he jams a bugbear bone in there to hold in in place, and then we yank most of Rob’s hand back off the handle. We open the door.
We see four ghouls coming towards us. They can paralyze you; Lithos fires off a Magic Missile, then the first one lumbers forward and bites Whisper. He is not paralyzed, fortunately, nor is he infected by disease. We send Rob forward; she slips past the ghoul and blocks the other three in the hallway beyond.
Amergin drops Entangle, to hold the ghouls where they are; the ghoul at the back is the only one who isn’t affected. James moves up and kills the nearest ghoul. Whisper slides over to the side-passage, takes shelter behind a treasure chest, and gets ready to shoot. Archibald uses Flare, and Lithos blows a second magic missile; Rob punches a ghoul and ends it.
Amergin slings a stone, and Whisper pauses to inspect the chest that he’s using for cover. He doesn’t find any traps, but it’s locked. He attempts to pop the lock, and sets off a Color Spray trap; he’s out of it. Baldy uses Flare, and Lithos goes back to throwing acid; the two remaining ghouls try to escape and get themselves tangled even further. Rob, meanwhile, rips loose and moves forward. Amergin slings another stone; James throws a spear; Whisper is out cold; and Baldy casts Flares again, dazzling a ghoul; Lithos throws more acid.
The ghouls try to break free and fail; Rob the zombie attacks and kills another ghoul. Amergin slings another stone and does a teeny bit of damage to the last one. Baldy Flares again, and Lithos finishes the last ghoul off with Acid Splash. We find Whisper next to a large chest that has been opened; there’s a slightly smaller chest inside. "Well," says Lithos, "I guess we wait until it wears off."
Once recovered, Whisper checks the smaller, inner chest. It has two traps on it: grease followed by burning hands. He looks for some way to open the lid without being in front of it. We could have Rob do it, but we’ve decided we like our zombie. The rest of us hide, and Whisper attempts to discharge the traps without being caught in them. The hallway fills with fire for a few seconds, and then it burns itself out. We go look at the next chest, and there’s a small chest inside that. It has a small trap. It’s a Sleep trap.
We all move back well out range; Whisper opens it and sets it off, and Amergin collapses. Centipedes come out of the chest, and Whisper hauls Amergin away. The centipedes go for the ghouls, and Lithos picks them off with acid while they’re eating.
There’s a teeny wee chest inside. Lithos then pulls out the tiny box using mage hand. He opens it. There’s a ring of protection inside; James claims it.
There’s also a treasure pile. We poke it with the 10 foot pole. A Ghast crawls out. Lithos: “Ghasts are like ghouls, but meaner and stinkier.” We get ready for combat.
It steps in, and claws Whisper. He is paralyzed. Baldy uses Flare again, but it shrugs it off; Lithos hits it with acid. James moves up, and is sickened by its scent. He swings and misses the thing. Amergin grabs Whisper and hauls him away. Rob comes shambling up and attacks, but misses and falls down.
The ghast attacks Rob, hitting twice and doing some damage. Baldy takes a shot with his crossbow. He misses. Lithos throws more acid, hitting. James, dry-heaving because of its stench, swings and misses again. Amergin heals Whisper. Rob stands up (the ghast misses) and attacks and misses. It claws Rob twice again, tearing her up further.
Baldy uses Flare again, and Lithos uses acid. James manages to stab the thing. Amergin manages to move up and stab it with a spear, doing more damage. He is not sickened by the stench. Rob hits for a bit of damage.
It tears Rob apart and moves up. Archibald casts Dancing Lights and attempts to distract the thing. It’s mildly distracted. Lithos tags it with another acid splash. James swings and misses; Amergin stabs with a spear and misses.
Rob is destroyed and the ghast is distracted, so neither of them do anything.
Archibald moves up. James swings and misses. Whisper snaps back to movement. He attempts to tumble past the ghast, which doesn’t manage to attack him. He attacks, but misses.
The ghast attacks Amergin and misses completely. Baldy moves up. He stabs but misses. James swings, misses, and hurls his flail down the hall. Whisper attempts to stab, misses; Amergin attempts to attack and misses. The ghast attacks Amergin and hits him twice. Amergin is now paralyzed. Baldy drags Amergin away and cures him. Lithos zaps the ghast with more acid and it goes down.
We grab the pile of silver and gold totalling 250 gp, a scroll of scorching ray which Lithos immediately claims, 4 more black onyx -- two from the ghast, two from Rob the zombie -- and a masterwork light crossbow. We hand the scroll to Lithos and the crossbow to Archibald, then go back to buy the magic stick. We hand that off to Whisper for the moment, since Lithos can do almost that much damage and almost as reliably with his acid cantrip.
The dwarf is offering to sell us a second zombie, but it’s the last one. We buy it, and fail to steal the onyx back from him this time.
We have also noticed that there are more inscriptions on the wall. We tap our way down the ghoul corridor, using our standard marching order for trap-finding: Whisper, James, Amergin, Lithos, Archibald, and Sherry Moon Zombie. We tap the last square, and a hidden door opens up and a big old boulder comes rolling towards us.
Lithos shrieks, turns, and runs.
Amergin casts Entangle, and the others make an orderly retreat while the boulder is restrained. We wait, and eventually the boulder rolls past us and shatters. We have gained another clue. So, at the end of the side-passage there’s a broken door that James could probably wriggle through; there are eight skeletons that start tromping down the corridor towards him. He retreats back through the door. Four of the skeletons had bows and four four spears. The passage was narrow, and the archers at the back were firing through the spear-skeletons at the front.
Going back the other way, at the end of the ghoul tunnel there’s a door with a viewer; Whisper takes a look. Inside are two ghasts and a bunch of skeletons with bows. There’s a rug on the floor, urns, a sack, treasure pile, a couple of more inscription clues, a torture chair, and a shrine to Durest complete with depiction of his shadow staff. There are also piles of skulls, and probably a few other things.
We back off to make plans.
When Chris finally got out of the shower, he found Morri sitting next to Elyssa on the love seat. He tilted his head, and she said: "Peter asked me to come join you for a while."
Chris shrugged. "How are you with casual nudity?" He knew Elyssa wouldn't care, but he didn't really know Morri.
"Completely in favor," she said. "Bring it on, wolf-boy." Her grin was predatory.
He sniffed in amusement, grinned, and dropped his towel. His bag was still on the bed; he fished out a fresh set of clothes and pulled them on. When he turned back, Morri was still grinning and had raised an eyebrow. "Not bad," she said. "I was hoping you were going to stay like that. Not planning to make a move?"
Chris shook his head. "I'm not ready for that," he said honestly.
"Is he always like this?" she asked, looking at Elyssa, who shrugged.
"For as long as I've known him," Elyssa confirmed.
Morri frowned. "Wait a minute, aren't the two of you...? I'm so sorry."
Chris hesitated and Elyssa shook her head. "No, you're not being rude. We're not really a thing, we just... cover for each so we don't have to explain to anybody else."
Morri took a moment to think about that. "That could be handy." She looked at Chris again. "Any particular--" She cut herself off, cleared her throat. "Would it be an intrusion to ask why you aren't interested?"
Chris found a chair and sat down. "Pettibone," he said simply.
"Pettibone?" asked Morri, raising an eyebrow. "You were...?"
Elyssa nodded.
"Both of you?"
Chris nodded.
"Well," said Morri after a moment, "you must've been on the right side of things if the Ministry let you in after that. Was it as bad as they say?"
"Worse," said Chris, wrestling with the realization that he both did and didn't want to talk about it. Elyssa nodded and met his eyes, then looked away.
"Okay," said Morri. "Yes. Let's... um..." She fumbled for the remote on the end table. "Maybe a movie?"
The TV on the wall was more than large enough for all three of them to watch, and after a bit of scrolling and discussion they settled on Noises Off, a movie amusing enough to coax some laughter even out of Chris. He was still sitting in the padded chair when the movie ended, but he was so much more relaxed.
It felt strange to simply sit and enjoy himself. That probably wasn't a very good sign, he thought, but he'd enjoy it while it lasted.
Morri stood up from the love seat reluctantly. "I'm heading back to my room," she said. Then she hesitated, looked around the room, and said, "Be discreet while we're here."
So Morri's worried that House Hargrave is watching us too. Chris wasn't surprised. Elyssa nodded. "I should go too," she said. "I'll see you in the morning."
Chris swallowed. "Thank you," he said. "This was... I needed this."
Chris had just decided to start a shower when someone knocked on his door. He paused, shut the water back down, and went to open it.
"May we come in?" asked Antoinette, with Elyssa standing beside her.
Chris shrugged and stepped back. "Of course, magus," he said, looking around suspiciously. This whole house was positively soaking in the Grey, and doubtless the magi were using their connection to keep the wards and structures fresh and strong. He hadn't tried to look at the manor's magical defenses; there was too much risk of being noticed and giving himself away.
Instead he simply assumed that he was being watched at all times.
In retrospect, he shouldn't have been surprised. Antoinette had promised him that they'd discuss it later. But when she opened with, "That fight you had with Morri..." he froze.
She smiled. "You were hoping I'd forget, weren't you?"
Elyssa punched him in the ribs, and he wheezed. "You scared the life out of both of us," she said. "Sit down."
Chris sat. It was cross-legged on the expensive foreign rug, but that didn't seem to bother them either: Elyssa dropped down beside him, and Antoinette sat down across from him.
There was a long, awkward moment of silence.
"Chris... do you want to keep working with me?"
He hesitated, and Antoinette's expression froze.
"Yes," he said quietly, and then made himself meet her eyes. "Yes, I want to keep working with you."
Antoinette studied him for a long moment. "All right. Then I need you to take care of yourself. I need you to stop thinking that you're equal to every single danger we run into. I need you to actually work with me, not just hang around and try to protect me. I need... hokey as it sounds to say it, I need you to be part of the team."
Chris said, "I..." and then trailed off as his mood collapsed. "I don't know if I can do that. You've seen what I'm like."
Antoinette said, "I've seen somebody who's deeply unhappy, and doesn't much care if he lives or dies -- but still cares enough to try to help other people out. I've seen somebody who can do amazing things. I don't want to see you assigned to another magus, but I also don't want to watch you die."
"I'm not going to--"
Elyssa squeezed his shoulder. "You're strong. I know that. But if you keep putting yourself in front of the moose, sooner or later you will get gored."
"You've never worked with an Antean before," Antoinette added immediately. "Did you know that they're practically invincible as long as they're in contact with the earth?"
Chris sat back. After a moment's thought he said, "No, but I knew that Morri wasn't going to kill me. Hurt me -- maybe hurt me a lot -- but not kill me. And I don't mind getting hurt."
"That--" Antoinette swallowed. "Chris, she nearly took your head off."
"No," he said. "She didn't. She knocked me out, that's all. No different than a boxer in the ring."
Elyssa put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe that's right," she said carefully, "but a hit like that would have killed me, or any other wolf I know. Antoinette's wasn't wrong to be scared."
Chris considered that, then nodded. He reached up and squeezed Elyssa's hand, then released it.
After a few seconds of silence, Antoinette conceded. "All right. I'll try to remember that you're tougher than you have any right to be, but I still need you to work with us. We can start training as a team when we get back, you stubborn ass."
"All right," Chris said. "All right, I can do that."
"Good." Antoinette stood up. "At least you didn't try to get into it with the giant. Or Amelie Hargrave, may the gods preserve us. Elyssa, would you stay here and make sure that nothing else happens with him? I need to go talk to Peter."
Elyssa nodded, and Antoinette turned and went out the door without another word.
"Miss Gillespie, may I have a word with your wolf?" Amelie Hargrave's face was set and unreadable, and Antoinette stiffened slightly before she nodded.
"If you wish. Chris, or Elyssa?"
"Chris," answered the Materfamilias. "A minor matter, but I wish to be clear."
"It might be best if sat with you, then." Antoinette's voice was firm, though something in her posture suggested reluctance.
Mistress Hargrave considered that. "Yes," she said after a moment. "Perhaps it might."
Antoinette turned to Elyssa. "Stay with Peter until we return. You may speak to the other girls, but only if they begin the conversation."
Elyssa swallowed, nodded, and moved away without another word.
Mistress Hargrave waved them into a small study off to one side of the hallway. From the condition of the desk, it might have been where she was working when Peter used her Arcana to contact her.
It was richly appointed, of course: dark wooden walls, perfectly clean; a wide rosewood desk with something that might have been a grimoire on top of it but was probably some sort of ledger; a group portrait of the Hargrave family hanging on the left-hand wall; shelves built into the right-hand wall, holding row after row of identical, hand-bound ledgers.
Antoinette stepped aside and waited, and Chris followed her example, but the lady Hargrave didn't move to seat herself behind the desk. Instead she remained standing, studying Chris as he composed his own expression into the blankness of waiting.
"You are not afraid of me," she said after a moment. "You should be, but you aren't."
Chris hesitated. It would be incredibly awkward to say, I'm pretty sure I could destroy you and everyone in this house if I had to, I just don't want to because it would be extremely inconvenient. Casting around for a different approach, he said: "I know you could make things very difficult for me in any number of ways, ma'am. I'm trusting the reputation of your House, though."
Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head slightly, but she didn't touch the Grey. "What reputation is that, pray?"
"Honor," Chris said simply. "I'm trusting that you won't punish me without provocation, without cause."
It was a hunch, based on what he knew of the Old Families from studying alongside their children. They might be arrogant, high-handed, and even cruel -- but they wanted people to think well of them, to reinforce their view of themselves as the better people.
"A subtle flattery," Amelie Hargave observed, "but well-taken. The issue I wished to discuss is simple in this light: I wish to make myself clear so that you do not offer provocation to my House."
Chris bowed his head. He felt Antoinette shift beside him, not quite sighing with relief but not quite hiding her response either.
"It is dangerous and unnatural for there to be any sort of liaison between a proper magus and an outsider such as yourself. A brief tour of the market with the shadow-walkers is simply an innocent outing, no matter how long it lasted here in the Mundus; it is not worthy of further discussion. But any attempt on your part to... ingratiate yourself with the young miss Carterhaugh will be judged in the harshest terms. Is that clear to you, Wolf?"
Chris nodded. "Perfectly, ma'am." He hesitated, then added: "I don't believe she is interested in any such thing -- her opinion of wolves does not seem even slightly positive -- but I give you my word that I have no such interest myself."
Amelie Hargave turned her head, studying him. "Would you swear it by your tribe?"
"No," said Chris immediately, "but only because they no longer exist."
Her expression went from deliberately inscrutable to something else that he couldn't read; he'd startled her. "As long as you understand me," she decided.
"I believe I do, and would give no offense," he said carefully. "The Ministry has little patience for mischief."
"So I see." Amelie glanced around and said, "Jacques?"
A figure emerged from a corner that Chris would have sworn was empty. He was male, younger than Amelie but not by much, and wearing a swallowtail coat over a button-down shirt and vest. "Here, Ma'am."
"Conduct our guests to their quarters, and see that they're settled. Likely our guest will want to dine with them in the morning, in the company of my daughter and her shadow; I will serve as their chaperone myself. Return to me here when they are in their places."
"If you would, magus Gillespie?" Jacques was almost mechanically polite, but Chris was okay with that; all he had to do now was follow Antoinette's lead.
"Of course," said Antoinette. "Lead the way."
