It was nice to be getting lunch finally. I rode on Seth's shoulder as he trotted down the dorm stairs, with my tail tightly wound around his neck. I'd been really patient with Seth while he angsted and woed about all his troubles for a bit. I deserved some nice compensation for that now.

To be fair, I did not see him having his brother's stolen talent coming. I mean, yikes. I knew he had trouble with his talent. It didn't work consistently for him, and the amount of power he could use tended to vary pretty wildly. But I didn't really give it much thought. I figured mastering his talent was part of the reason why the kid was in magic school.

Getting worked up about that, especially as a kid, was perfectly normal. Him wanting to be like his brother, also normal. Him trying to be his brother, eh, not so much. I'll get that shit trained out of him, and I won't let him dwell on it either.

I thought about my training methods and rubbed my tongue over one of my teeth. I wondered when I'd be losing my baby teeth. I didn't know if they'd get wiggly first or not.

Anyway, the kid needed to realize he was not his brother, and his brother wasn't him. He needed to figure out who he was and what he was good at and stop using his brother as the blueprint for success.

And he needed to realize Benjamin was dirty.

I know, I know. The kid was loyal. It was actually one of the things I liked about him. He wasn't going to turn on someone he considered a friend without hard evidence, and he didn't know everything I knew.

The biggest thing he didn't know? Benjamin did transport something that could steal powers, just like Arnold said. Me.

I just needed to keep Seth from doing anything too stupid until he figured it out. And we needed to expand our vocabulary. I want to learn how to ask for specific types of fish or poultry. You know, the important stuff.

Duvessa and Blaise were waiting outside the dining hall.

"You made it!" Duvessa cried as soon as Seth was close enough, she grabbed him into a quick hug and shoved him back so fast he nearly fell. Not me though, my balance was perfect. "I was sooo worried when you didn't show up to class. I was afraid they'd killed you both. Is Booth alright? Why did you miss class? Did you only just get back? What happened? Did you need to get healing? Have you seen Owen? Well? Are you going to answer me? Oh! I have so much to tell you!"

Most living things need to breathe. Except for Duvessa. She didn't take a single breath in all of that, and she was still talking.

Booth and Owen joined them moments later, and as soon as Seth asked where Selendrith was we saw her with Professor Laur. She nodded firmly to whatever he'd told her and they separated. She spotted us and came right over.

"We have so much to discuss!" Duvessa said. "We should grab sandwiches and go to our training corner. It's a nice day, and we shouldn't talk about this inside."

"What did you guys do that we can't talk about it inside?" Selendrith asked suspiciously.

"Exactly! We can't talk about it here. I wonder if I can find more tuna sandwiches." Duvessa marched inside.

Owen was looking from Duvessa to Blaise and back. He was more reserved and awkward than usual. I nearly laughed myself off Seth's shoulder thinking about what kind of moment he'd had with Blaise last night if he was now confused about both Blaise and Duvessa. No, Owen, you are not the protagonist of a harem story, nor am I foreseeing a ridiculous triangle here. The girls like you, but neither of them are at the like-like stage.

Teenagers. Such a riot.

The grab'n'go table in the dining hall was small. I was sorely disappointed in the offerings, and they didn't have tuna. Seth got exasperated with my pickiness and finally chose a mystery package that smelled like poultry for me. I wasn't keen on it, but I was hungry so, whatever.

Duvessa didn't have a blanket with her, so everyone crowded on the two benches in our little corner. The boys on one bench and the girls on the other. As they started their rundown of events Selendrith was horrified to learn they'd gone to the Palace.

"You said you wouldn't snitch," Booth said. "We won't tell you anything else, now or ever, if you start causing trouble. If this is how you're gonna be, walk away now."

"I'm not too wild about it either, Selendrith," Blaise said. "But we found the person who stole my power."

"We found the person who has your power," Seth said. "We don't know if she's the thief or the customer."

"Nope," Booth said. "Not another word. Either all of us are in, or we ain't. If you want to walk, do it now."

Selendrith glared at Booth. "Did you steal?"

"I'm not answering that."

"That means yes." Selendrith stood up and looked around at everyone. Finally she looked at Seth. "Are you fine with this?"

"I'm not really fine with it, Selendrith," Seth said. "But for some of this stuff, I don't really see what else we can do."

"But you voluntarily helped them?" she asked.

Booth snorted. "It was his plan."

Uh, excuse me. It was my plan. Mostly. But I am a gracious kitty and will share credit. Though, to be fair, the getting jobs in the Palace thing was all him.

Selendrith was silent for a long moment. "And you think you found the talent thief?"

"No, we didn't. We found a person that has Blaise's stolen power, and we confirmed it using Blaise's mana signature from the school Administration Office," Seth said.

She considered some more before deciding. "All right. I'll be in. Stealing talents ruins lives. I think it's more important to find them than to worry about the less damaging infractions, and those people were in my home too. I will promise not to snitch. I won't tell anyone here in school or any guards what's going on, without permission," Selendrith said.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Oh, about that," Duvessa said. "I told my grandmother all about what we discovered in the Palace."

Booth face palmed, and Seth sighed.

"Yeah, I wrote my brother Brand about it too. I did that last night, but he hasn't answered me yet," Blaise said.

"A letter would get there already?" Owen asked.

"I have the twinned ink bottle," Blaise explained. "I write a message, it makes a copy where he is. He writes a message, it makes a copy where I am. I just leave the bottle open next to some paper in my room. I'll check it after class."

That was a neat trick. It was the Copy spell in a bottle. I wondered about how else I could use that. If you could bottle the Copy spell, what else could you bottle?

"Why don't you tell me the whole story then," Selendrith said.

Most of the lunch break was bringing everyone up to speed. There were a few things I didn't know that they talked about. Like Seth meeting the Princess and discussing the regalia of an empress from a few hundred years ago.

That sounded like some fancy bling. That was in the vault I'd had a peek at. And I'd apparently left the door open? Whoops. I guess the ring doesn't always shut doors behind me.

And that Hellena woman was very interested in the regalia.

"If she's interested in that, could we bait her with it?" Blaise asked. "You said what was in the vault was fake, right?"

"You mean bait her with rumors and make our own fake regalia piece?" Booth asked.

"Well, yeah. Does she know the Palace vault only has fakes?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know how much of the conversation she overheard," Seth said. "She might know, she might not."

Blaise nodded. "I'll talk to Brand when he gets back, and work something out. What about that Lord Thurstan?"

"Oh, I already started on him," Duvessa said. "I asked my grandmother to invite him to tea. I wanted to invite Hellena too, but Nana said that would tip our hand too much. It would be too obvious we knew what they were up to and that they were working together."

That was actually brilliant. I wondered if I could attend that tea party. I bet it would be entertaining.

"How did things go last night?" Owen asked. "You both missed class this morning, I was worried. And you didn't show up for our morning run, Seth."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll be there tomorrow," Seth said. He gave them a brief rundown of what the Skulls had them do.

"Why would someone want the mana tree pictures?" Owen asked.

Duvessa gasped. "To know who to steal from! Whoever hired the Skulls is organizing the thefts!"

"Think it was Thurstan?" Blaise asked.

Heh, Seth thought it might have been Benjamin. I looked over to see he was frowning and shifting uncomfortably. Good. You should doubt Benjamin more.

"It had to be! He's a stinky fish!" Duvessa was on her feet. "We need to know who's next ourselves!"

"Bad fish! Bad fish!" Reginald the Second shouted.

That fucking bird. At least he wasn't dropping rocks on me today. I ignored him.

"You should see if you can get your grandmother to find out what his connection is," Seth suggested. "Anything she can learn could be helpful."

"We should search his house," Blaise said.

"No, we should not," Selendrith said firmly. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Let Duvessa's grandmother talk to the guy first."

"Yeah," Owen said. "If we're going to search houses, we should probably start with those Skull guys. They've got the magic ring and something that lets them steal shadows, right?"

"I haven't lost any more shadows," Duvessa said. "I've been keeping better track."

"You've been keeping them away from those guys though, haven't you?" Seth asked.

"Of course. You told me to be careful, so I did," Duvessa said.

"Then that's why you haven't lost any more," Booth said. "That doesn't mean they're not stealing them, just that they haven't recently."

"The house of a street gang is even more dangerous than that of a minor lord," Selendrith said. "You all need to be so much smarter about this."

"What else could we do?" Owen asked. "The gang stole the ring from Booth, and then told Booth to return the ring. I don't know how else he can do that."

"At this point," Seth said to Booth, "even if you return the ring, they might not leave your brother alone. If Hayfield wants in the gang, you won't be able to stop him, either."

Booth nodded. "I was thinking about what you said, about blackmail. I think the best bet is to get them out of the city, or at least somewhere else in the city, and away from the East Side. That's gonna take money. A lot of it."

"When we look into how the Skulls are taking Duvessa's power or getting the ring off Ned, it'd probably be best to do that after your siblings are safe," Seth said. "That way if things go wrong, we won't need to worry about them."

They'd decided to let Duvessa's grandmother talk to Thurstan, and possibly Hellena at a later time. Blaise was going to talk to Brand about baiting Hellena with a regalia piece. And Booth was figuring out a plan to get his siblings moved.

They chatted a bit more amongst each other as the lunch break was nearing the end.

Seth stood up and approached the girls' bench as Duvessa gathered all the sandwich wrappings into the basket she'd taken from the dining hall.

"Selendrith, could you tell me exactly what this is? I was told it was an affinity bracelet." Seth took off the bracelet and handed it to her.

Selendrith examined it for several moments. "It is an affinity bracelet. It has an extra bead on it, but it just has a good luck symbol on it."

"Is it possible for it to be something else?" Seth asked.

"Do you think someone tampered with it? I suppose that's possible, but not likely. It looks normal to me. If you want, I could have my grandfather take it apart and give it a thorough examination."

"I would like that, thank you," Seth said, and left the bracelet with her.

As they headed to class, Booth asked Seth and Owen to hold up a moment.

"I didn't want the girls to hear this," Booth said. "I've got some stuff I need to sell, and I need to do it outside the city. Some of the stuff is going to be difficult to move."

"Like that magic whistle from the hyena woman that let her control them," Seth said.

Oh? This was something I hadn't heard. A magic item that made animals obedient? That gave me a nervous shiver. I hope Seth doesn't try to convince Booth to keep it.

Then I wondered if I counted as an animal. If I did, then would humans count as animals, too? Could this whistle make humans obey? That was super creepy.

Booth nodded. "If I'm going to move my sibs, I need to pay for housing for them, and any travel expenses. I can't have the little ones walking to Lilandrium or Vernar. They'd need a wagon or something."

"You don't have to send them to a city," Owen said. "Blue Ridge is a small farming village. That'd probably be pretty comfortable for them."

"That's a good point. And Blue Ridge isn't that far from here. I'll have to work that out, but either way, I need money, and to get that I need to move this stuff. Would either of you be willing to go with me out of town?"

"How far out of town?" Seth asked. "I don't want to miss class if I can help it. It's bad enough I missed Laur's class this morning."

"Don't worry about that," Owen said. "You can already cast the barrier we're working on."

"It's the point," Seth said. "I don't want to miss class."

Booth shook his head. "A little village nearby isn't going to be able to afford what I need to get for some of this stuff. And a professional fen– ah, the right type of merchant isn't going to hang out there."

Owen rubbed his chin. "You have a whistle that commands animals, right? It was used on the hyenas?"

"Yeah. We think it's how she controls them," Booth said.

"I have an idea," Owen said. "Meet me at the school gate after classes are over."