Hellena glared at the door, then at Seth, before stalking further down the hallway.

"Lady Hellena," Seth said, "the washrooms are this way."

"I came from that way. You are mistaken. Show me to the one down here."

The way she wanted to go was restricted. Honestly, neither of them were supposed to be in this hallway at all.

"I apologize, my lady, but there are none that way. Please follow me."

Lady Hellena swore under her breath. She stared at the now concealed vault, where Princess Lily remained, for a moment and then conceded.

"Fine," she said curtly and waved Seth ahead.

"If you like, I can introduce you to one of the wizards here. They can easily dry your clothes for you," Seth offered. Blaise had never bothered with that. She never stayed dry long enough for it to be worth the effort.

"No. I want to be shown to a washroom."

"As you wish," Seth said. "Do you have a change of clothes, or would you like me to fetch some for you?"

"Mind your business, servant. Just take me there already and be on your way."

Seth forced a smile and made no more attempt to engage her. He had her name. That would have to be enough to get more information about her, but none of that would come from the woman herself.

At the bottom of the stairs, the guard was across the Great Hall instead of standing at his post. Seth noticed a fair bit of water on the floor in the area, and wondered what Hellena had done to get the guard to leave.

Seth watched her enter the washrooms and debated waiting outside to see where she went after, but decided against it. He still needed to get Mau out of that room.

No, he didn't. He could sense her out in the garden already.

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I ain't waiting for Booth. I'm out before the Princess comes back.

I slip out and scoot in the opposite direction of the voices. Seth was having a casual conversation. Bastard. He was going to leave me hanging in a locked room while he shot the shit with some rando.

It didn't matter. I was out.

Now I need to figure out how to get this ring on Lord Thurstan, and get one of the kids to notice it and steal it from him.

Sigh. Complications. And more complications. The party looked like it was breaking up.

My flour bomb was a successful disturbance, and now the guests were disturbed. The Professors and Palace Wizards were casting all sorts of spells over there trying to figure out what happened and how.

Physics baby. No magic at all. Maybe that was chemistry? What was the difference? Fuck if I knew. Hell, fuck if I used to know. I don't remember it anyway.

I needed this ring on Thurstan's finger. I was thinking I could just leave the ring on a table near him. The guy would be curious, and probably take it, maybe even put it on. Who doesn't like a gold ring that's just lying around? And if the guy does know what the ring is, he'd take it for sure.

The problem with that is if the guy is actually honest and leaves the ring or turns it in. He might even be savvy enough to not take the bait. I think the chances of that are near null.

So, once he's got the ring, I needed the kids to get it. Get Duvessa to greet him? I thought she might have done that already. Trip him so he falls into Booth or Seth? Maybe. Get him standing under the ice wyvern and then drop the statue on him? I liked that plan. It sounded the most fun, even if it was stupidly convoluted.

I'd need to make some cuts in the ice statue so it'll shatter and fall when I want it to. Timing will be crucial.

A flaw with that plan was that most of the wizards were near the wyvern trying to figure out what caused the flour bomb. Someone will figure it out eventually, but hopefully we'll be long gone by then.

But until then, the wyvern was a bit too trafficked to make it easy to drop on one specific person. And that person was nowhere near it. I didn't want the guy to leave before I can frame him with the ring.

Suddenly Seth grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, and turned me so he could stare at me. "How did you get out of that room? It was locked."

Whelp. Oh icy effigy of Chicky Chicky, you shall survive this party after all. I wished to destroy you, but I've been found out.

I plunked the copied ring into Seth's hand.

"You did find it. Why didn't you tell us?"

'Busy.'

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Who was busy, you?"

'No.' I looked over towards where Blaise was. Seth followed my gaze and understood.

"You got it while we were dealing with Blaise's thing."

I nodded.

"Who did you take it from? Who had it?"

I look over at Thurstan. He was in a crowd though.

"I don't know everyone over there." Seth sighed and started running through the name list of those he did know. Thurstan was pretty high on that list.

"Thurstan." Seth frowned. "You were inside then, and Thurstan was near Lady Hellena. How did you get it from him?"

'Before.'

Seth considered that. The timing didn't really work well, but it was possible for me to have snatched it from Thurstan before getting in position for the flour bomb.

"All right. I'm sorry I got suspicious of you, I should have known you were still on the job." Seth put me down and gave me some pets. I kinda felt bad for lying to him. Not bad enough to come clean though. I wanted to keep my ring. "I'll get this to Booth, and then we wrap up here. Stay out of trouble while we finish cleaning up, okay?"

Whew. I guess sometimes simple is best.

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"I still don't like it," Booth said. "We're going to be cutting it close."

The three boys were in a hired carriage returning to school. Owen had worried a bit about the expense, but they were paid enough to cover the costs of rides both to and from the Palace with some left over. Seth saw that as a gain.

"It's our best chance to get into Administration and test the gulliant. Once we turn over the ring, we won't be able to get in," Seth said. "We still have time before sundown."

"I know. I agreed. I still don't like it."

Seth didn't want to bring up the next topic, but it needed to be addressed. "So, what do we do if they don't stop the blackmail?"

"What do you mean?" Booth asked sharply.

"Yeah, what do you mean? We did it," Owen said. "We got the ring. They've got nothing else on us, right?"

"They got us to break into the Palace for them by threatening Hayfield," Seth said. "Who's to say they won't do that again? Or one of Booth's other siblings, claiming it's different?"

Booth was shaking his head. "They won't. They can't. They said they'd leave him alone."

"Do you think they will?" Seth asked.

Booth thought about it. "Jimmy will. He's always dealt straight. Matthius though," Booth's expression darkened. "Guy's a slimeball."

Seth nodded. "He'll be out eventually. And probably pissed off too. And that's the thing about blackmail. It doesn't go away," Seth said. "They still have leverage over Hayfield."

"No they don't. He just has to tell them no," Booth said.

"Would they leave it at that?" Seth asked.

Booth punched the seat. "I don't know. Fuck. That stupid moron. I told him to stay away from the gangs."

Mau made the motion for 'plan'.

Seth agreed. "When we return the ring, we should get a promise that they won't bother your family again. If that gives us some time, maybe we can get your family moved somewhere else." Seth couldn't think of anything else they could do to guarantee the gang left Booth's family alone.

Booth shook his head. "My mom won't let us move. Her cousin owns that building. Anyplace else we'd need to pay rent. We'd be on the street within a year. I've worked too hard to keep my siblings out of the workhouses or getting locked into a servitude contract to just end up in one anyway."

"We don't need to come up with a solution right now," Seth said. "But if we think about it for a bit, we might be able to come up with something that'll work."

"We better not need it," Booth said harshly.

They lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride back to school. Seth wondered what things they might be able to do for Booth's family. With his siblings so young, there wasn't really a lot of options. Maybe getting Hayfield a job somewhere would be enough to get him out of trouble, and if Hayfield was working, he wouldn't have time or be available to the gang to manipulate.

But Booth was right. Workhouses and people looking for domestic servants were generally the only places that would take children. And once you were in a place like that, it was really hard to get out.

No inspiration struck Seth before they arrived, so he shelved the problem.

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Blaise was leaning against the wall of the Administration building when they arrived. "What's the plan?"

"We keep it simple," Seth said. "We go in and walk to the offices near the back. That's where they stored the signature jars during the gauntlet, so they should all still be there. The ring should let you just walk in. Owen and I will wait outside, and make any distractions we need. You two find your jar and dip the gulliant in it. If it's black, it's a match. If it's white, it's not. White can also mean it's been contaminated."

"Let's get to it then," Blaise said. She marched into the Administration building.

The main room had a circle of semi private booths, the same ones that they had done their assessments in. The Administration side of the booths had stacks of books and papers on top of filing cabinets, filling the interior of the circle. The student side of the tables were mostly clear, with a couple having stacks of blank forms. Seth didn't see any of the scales that they'd used to take the signatures.

There were no other students but there was a professor sorting a stack of files. She looked over at the group and sighed.

Seth walked up to one of the booths and looked through the forms. Finding what he was looking for he, held up the form to the professor.

"This is the familiar packet," Seth said. "I'll go over it with you guys. Let's go over here so we're not disturbing anyone."

The professor smiled and waved them off. "Ask if you have questions!" she called after them.

"Why did you pick the familiar packet?" Blaise asked quietly.

"Because it's long and complicated," Seth answered.

"It is?" Owen asked. "I was thinking it might be nice to have a smart familiar."

Mau meowed at him and rubbed between his legs as he was walking, making him stumble as he tried not to step on her.

"Pets are so nice," Booth said as he snickered.

"This the right place?" Seth whispered to Mau. She was the one who'd been exploring in here. Mau walked up to a particular door and sat down.

"Okay, Blaise and Booth, find the right jar. Owen, you and I will stand guard and distract anyone who comes by," Seth said.

A moment after Booth opened the door and the two went inside, Blaise stuck her head back out into the hallway. "We need you too, Seth. There's no way we can find it quickly without more help."

Seth looked in the room. The room was easily twice the size of the main room and lined with thousands of tiny jars on dozens of shelves.

"We don't have time for this," Booth complained.