"Did you really just agree to break into some poor sob's house and rob him?" Blaise asked. "Why would you do that?"

Seth thought it strange that Blaise was fine with murder but objected to theft. Though, the person Blaise wanted to murder was a thief. Mau apparently thought that was funny too, because she finally stopped squirming.

Seth didn't dare loosen his hold on her. If she shredded Ned, there was a chance none of them would be walking out of this house. As satisfying as making the asshole bleed would be, walking out under their own power would be better.

Booth glanced from Seth to Owen, and then to Ned. Seth understood and gave a tiny nod. Mau also nodded. Owen's brows furrowed. Booth must have signed him something because Owen's eyebrows lifted in understanding.

Jimmy had been studying Blaise. "There's a shop near here, I'll show you. You're going to retrieve a chest on the second floor. I don't care if you take anything else," he finally said, deciding to ignore Blaise.

"Why us? I'm sure you've got people who can pick locks just as well as he can," Seth said, nodding at Booth. "What can we do that you can't?"

"There's an alarm spell on the building. That ring you were supposed to fetch has the property of granting the holder permission to enter. It bypasses locks, silences alarms, and grants access. Without that ring, you get to deal with whatever the alarm is."

"What do you think the alarm is?" Booth asked.

Jimmy shrugged. "It could be a tracker. Or it could be just noise. Or it could be something I've never heard of. We just know it's there. So, you get to turn over the ring, or you get to deal with it."

"So, I bust in this place and get you the chest, and you leave us alone for a month, or I hand over the ring, and you leave us alone for good. That sound right?"

Jimmy nodded. "That's the deal."

"No. This is wrong, Booth," Blaise insisted.

"You don't have to go," Ned said to Blaise. "You could always stay here." He couldn't quite take the sneer out of his smile.

"Shut your mouth," Owen said.

"Or what?" Ned was openly sneering now.

Owen's fist shot out. It was a fast uppercut that should have put Ned on his ass, but instead it was stopped by a magical barrier that flashed into existence just inches from Ned's face. Owen cried out and grabbed his fist.

Ned laughed. "Convenient that." He watched Owen dispassionately as Owen cradled his hand and then Ned jabbed his fist sharply into Owen's stomach. Owen doubled over, wheezing.

Seth cried out and let Mau leap from his arms. She didn't aim for Ned. Instead, she landed on a wall sconce and ripped it from the wall. It crashed to the floor and shattered, sending glass bits and dozens of weak glow stones spilling all over the floor. Mau then pounced on the desk and slid across, scattering everything on it. She gazed calmly around the room, looking for the next thing to destroy.

Both Jimmy and Ned dove to grab the cat, but missed. She knocked over the chair behind the desk, darted through their legs, and then leapt up to Seth's shoulder and started crying.

Seth grabbed the cat. "You're scaring her!"

"Enough! Enough! It's fine," Jimmy said to the goons that arrived seconds later. "Outside. All of you," he said to the kids. "Especially that fucking cat. Ned, get someone to clean this mess."

Blaise helped Owen up and followed Booth and Jimmy. Seth was the last out and glanced back at Ned. Ned had circled the desk and righted the chair. Then he sprawled in the boss's chair with a smug smile and put his hands behind his head.

"Hang on a second," Seth said once they were out at the street. "Blaise, you don't want to be involved, so you should go home. Owen, you should take her." Seth leaned in towards Owen and whispered, "The fewer of us here, the better."

Blaise glanced up at Owen, who was breathing normally again. Owen looked like he would refuse but conceded when Booth shook his head, too.

"It's fine, let them go," Jimmy said to his goon. "We don't need them. Let's go." He lead the way through the dark streets.

Seth whispered to Booth, "Did you get it?"

"No. I couldn't find it on him."

Mau growled softly.

"Your cat did great. The bastard must have stashed it on the way in. He probably thought Jimmy would search him," Booth said.

Mau grumbled and shifted on Seth's shoulder.

"Yeah, I think he's up to something within the gang too. I don't see it having much to do with us," Seth said. "We're just collateral damage."

"We'll collateral him right back," Booth said darkly.

"What are you punks whispering about?" the goon demanded.

"We were talking about that barrier," Seth said, saying the first thing that came to mind. "I've seen it before. What is that, an item?"

"Yeah. We just got a hold of those recently," Jimmy said, proudly. He studied the left turn of a cross alley for a moment before continuing. "Pretty neat, huh? The town guard use them all the time. They're a game changer for the gang."

Seth gazed down the alley as they passed, wondering what Jimmy was looking for. He couldn't see anything in the darkness. "That's really impressive," he said. Let's butter this guy up and keep him talking. "I didn't see Ned trigger it."

"They are speed activated. Relatively cheap to make, and good for several uses. They only trigger when something is about to hit you fast, like the fist of a farmboy." Jimmy smirked at the boys.

"So slow actions don't trigger it, like shaking hands, or someone touching you," Seth said.

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"Yeah, that's right. Be real inconvenient if every time something was going to touch you they triggered. They'd not be useful for anything then."

"Is there a spell for that, or does it just work from items?" Seth asked.

"I don't know," Jimmy said. "You're the magic student, you figure it out."

Seth nodded. That was the fourth type of barrier he'd come across lately. In class they were teaching a shield type barrier. It was hard, blocked everything, and only lasted as long as you concentrated and fueled it. It also was a decent size, and could be used to connect with another nearby caster, literally creating a shield wall.

At the party earlier that day he'd seen someone cast a full body shield. It was flexible and moveable, but could only take a limited amount of damage.

There was also the bubble barrier. It blocked everything, including air and sound, but was completely stationary.

And now was this barrier. Seth liked the possibilities with this one. He also wondered if the other types could be attached to items also.

Selendrith probably would know about all of these. He'd have to talk to her about it.

"That's the place there," Jimmy said, coming to a halt across from a row of businesses. The street was just a footway, too narrow for a carriage to fit. "It's just a shop, no living quarters, so the guy won't be there. You two go in, get the chest, and bring it here."

"And if things go to shit?" Booth asked.

"Not my problem," Jimmy said.

"Let's just get it done," Seth said. "We'll start around back."

They had to circle the block to get to the back of the shop. The alley was even narrower than the footway, so narrow their shoulders touched the buildings on either side.

"This one," Booth whispered. He created a light stone and they examined the building.

There was partially concealed door into the alley, similar to the carver shop. It was tall for two storeys, and they couldn't see the thatch roof in the darkness.

"What do you know about alarms?" Seth whispered.

"Not a lot," Booth whispered back. "I haven't done much housebreaking. I've always stuck to pickpocketing."

"I was thinking about what Jimmy said, about alarms not tripping if you have permission to enter. Like during business hours or something."

"It ain't business hours."

"Of course not. But I'm thinking of circumstances where we'd have permission. Like being invited. I was wondering if there is some way to trick the alarm into thinking we belong here."

Mau rubbed her face right against Seth's. "Ack, I don't want to eat your fur, Mau."

She gave a signal for 'wait' then positioned herself right at the wall. Then she leaped nearly to the roof, and climbed the rest of the way up the vertical wall.

"She's climbing under the thatch," Booth whispered. "That's right, an alarm isn't going to trip every time a mouse or rat goes in or out. I bet she could open the door for us."

"And if it opens from the inside, we are invited, right?" Seth whispered.

"Should I pick the lock?"

"Would that trigger the alarm?"

"Probably."

"Then let's give her a few minutes," Seth whispered.

The boys waited in anxious silence until the door opened and Mau stood there, looking smug.

"I take back every mean thought I ever had about you, Mau," Booth whispered. "Good job."

"One second," Seth said softly. He closed his eyes and cast Detect Mana on Mau. After a few seconds he said, "I don't think this is sensitive enough for me to know if the alarm triggered."

"Cast it on yourself," Booth suggested. "Then we'll compare after you go in."

"Right." He closed his eyes and then opened them again before casting. "I don't know any Dispels. What do we do if there is something?"

Booth shrugged.

Seth sighed, and cast the spell. Nothing magical about him except his amulet. He stepped through the doorway and cast it again. He got the same result, nothing magical. "Looks like we're fine. I guess Mau's way in worked." He glanced at Mau and shook his head. Cats were such masters of looking smug.

The shop looked like a mixture of copist and artist studio. Shelves held stacks of different sized paper. A long table had bins of ink and paint beneath it. There were jars with dozens of different types of brushes. It was a narrow space, only about five paces wide, and the only access to the upper floor was a ladder.

"I hope the chest isn't too big, or that'll be a pain," Booth whispered.

Seth shrugged and climbed up. The upper floor was entirely storage. Bolts of canvas, cut lumber for frames, jugs of different liquids that Seth had no idea what they were. There were also stacks of boxes haphazardly scattered in the space.

"I hope there is only one chest," Seth whispered. "Come look."

"How do we know which one?" Booth asked once he was up the ladder. "What are we trying to take? None of this crap is valuable. The only stuff of value I saw was the ink bottles downstairs. I think they were all Everfulls."

Seth lifted drop cloths and canvas rolls. Then he saw a wooden box under a table. "Maybe that?"

"It counts as a chest, I guess. It's got hinges. Do we assume it's the right one and just take it?"

"Let's open it," Seth said. "Is it locked? Can you pick it?"

"Yeah, give me a sec."

Mau watched Booth work the lock and lift the lid.

"Paper? What are these?"

Seth pulled out a handful of the papers and shuffled through them. Every single one had a colored tree of different designs on it. Each had a name and date in the bottom corner.

"The mana tree images," Booth said. "This must be that Ollie guy's shop, the one that was making copies."

"Yeah. Why are the Skull Gang stealing all his copies? And why these?" As soon as he said the question, Seth thought he knew. He'd talked to Benjamin just recently about the tree images. Could he be the client? Or could it be someone else, like Thurstan, or Hellena? Or someone they weren't aware of?

"Well, ours aren't in here, Duvessa bought them all," Booth said, putting the papers he'd pulled out back. "This has to be what they're looking for."

"What do you think they want them for?" Seth asked.

"Nothing good. It don't matter." Booth took the papers from Seth and shoved them back in the chest and started relocking it. "This ain't our problem. We've got other shit to handle. Delivering this box gets us time to get the ring from Ned."

Seth thought about what he should do here. If it was Benjamin who'd commissioned the theft, he was likely doing it to protect the people with strong powers. If it was one of the others, then it was likely to steal those powers.

His fingers touched the jar which was still in his pocket. He was now wondering why he thought he somehow got Saben's power. It made sense at the moment, but it was an absurd idea.

"Wait, I want to see if my brother's tree is in there."

"Ugh, I'd just locked it. Fine, but hurry up."

Seth flipped through the pages. They were in order by year, and then by name, so it was easy to find Saben's tree. Seth folded it up while Booth relocked the box.

Together they heaved it down and then outside. Mau shooed them out and then closed the door.

"Can she lock the door?" Booth asked quietly.

"I think it was a turn knob, so maybe?"

A few moments later, Mau leapt down from the roof.

The boys dropped the chest in front of Jimmy. "This was the only one. Done?" Booth asked.

"Done," Jimmy agreed. "We'll be in touch."

"Ned has the ring, Jimmy," Booth said as they walked away.

It was almost midnight when an exhausted Seth and Booth got back to school. They parted ways without a word. Seth didn't bother turning on the light in his dorm room, and navigated by feel. Isaac snored softly.

Seth paused with his chest open, and considered Saben's jar again. Should he test it now? Should he test it at all? What if he did have Saben's power? What if he didn't?

Seth decided these questions were too much for him right now and dropped everything into his trunk to deal with later. He was asleep before he could get under the covers.