I followed Seth out of the carver's shop and wondered where he was going. The school wasn't this way. I shrugged and trotted behind him, looking for an opportunity to jump on his shoulder. If he was heading somewhere other than to dinner, he could carry me.

He wandered aimlessly around the market square. Most of the shops were closed and the street lamps were lit. The mountain breeze was frigid and the stone street was cold under my paws.

Abruptly, Seth turned to look at me. "He has to know. An affinity bracelet doesn't need stabilization. He knows."

The familiar link was a riot of emotions. Shock, confusion, worry, guilt, anger, hurt, disbelief, and more were shifting so rapidly I doubted Seth knew what he was feeling.

Fair. The kid was coming to grips with the fact that the guy he trusted knew about the stolen talent. And had done something to make the stolen talent stick.

That sounds to me like ol' Benny Boy was involved in the theft. He might not have done it himself—Seth had said Benjamin wasn't present—but he probably arranged it.

I had no emotional attachment to the asshole, so I was fine with him being first on the shit list.

Seth had to sort out his head, though. That kind of betrayal does more than just sting. It can cut pretty deep. And hurt people get angry.

And now Seth was picking up speed. Sheesh. I'm just lil' cub here, making me run after your ass. I don't like working this hard.

I loped after Seth as he ran down the streets away from the Magic District.

Shit. I recognized where we were going. Seth was going to confront Benjamin right now.

I meowed at him, but he ignored me. How bad could this go? How dangerous was Benjamin really?

Murder was unlikely, I decided. No one was dead that I knew of. I take that back. Seth's Dad had been killed, but the guy who did that was also dead. So still, Benjamin wasn't likely to harm Seth.

Me, on the other hand, I was just an animal. There would be no crime in killing me. And Benjamin might do just that to punish Seth.

I slowed down. Maybe I didn't want to be present when Seth had his tantrum.

On the other hand, if Seth had the ability to blow this all open, and sick the authorities on Benjamin, then silencing Seth would just make sense. And that mercenary had been perfectly willing to kill the kids.

Fuck it. I'll shred the guy if he touches me or Seth. I sped back up.

It didn't matter much. I was a slow poke. So, I sprinted. All out, everything I had, and caught up. Then I had to walk as I caught my breath and Seth got far away again.

When I caught up to Seth, he had ducked into an alley and was watching Benjamin's house. Palace guards were outside with a carriage. A moment later, an older man who looked like a noble left the house, climbed into the carriage, and headed up the street away from us.

"Do you think they know, Mau?" Seth asked quietly, never taking his eyes off the carriage. "Does the Palace know what's going on?"

Actually, no I don't. No respectable authority would let this shit run around unchecked. And how the fuck am I supposed to answer you when you won't look at me? We do sign language, you turnip.

I climbed up the front of his clothes.

"Ow! Mau!"

'Listen,' I signed. 'Dangerous.'

Turnip brain wasn't paying attention. He dropped me onto the ground and marched up to the front door as soon as the carriage was out of sight.

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I gazed around at the surroundings. I didn't see any spies or eavesdroppers.

"I'm here to see Benjamin," Seth said when John answered the door.

"Ah, of course. He's out of town presently, and will be for the remainder of the month. You had mentioned being concerned for Saben, so the Master rearranged his schedule to spend time in Vernar. One moment." John partially closed the door, and a moment later handed Seth a sandwich wrapped in paper, and a letter. "This arrived for you, and this should tide you over until you return to school. Good night." The door clicked shut.

Seth stared in confusion at the sandwich, the door, the letter, and then at me. I dunno, I was intrigued by that sandwich.

I shrugged. Honestly? This was the best outcome. Seth could process the betrayal and confront Benjamin with a cool head. We also needed more than circumstantial clues.

I didn't know what was up with the sandwich, though. It smelled tasty, so I jumped up on Seth's shoulder and tried to snag a bite. Good luck getting me off now, sucker!

"Stop it, Mau. This is serious," Seth said, reflexively jerking the sandwich away from me.

I head butted his cheek. I made plans to snag the sandwich when his guard was down.

"I can't believe he would do this. To me. To Saben. He was my dad's friend, Mau. Why would he ruin Saben's life like this?"

Because he was an asshole?

Nah, I knew the guy was up to something and had for a while. Now, so did Seth. We'd already figured out he was fishing for something. I wondered if Seth was the primary bait, or Saben.

We needed to know how he did this so we could undo it. And I doubted that guy would just tell us how he performed that particular trick.

How do I say this? Here we go. Charades time.

Seth watched me. "Is that a bar? Poke? Move? More like move. Bend? Lever? Leverage? We need leverage? Before we talk to Benjamin, we need leverage." Seth thought about that. "We need to be able to force him to tell us what we want to know."

I nodded.

"Right now, he'd just lie. He'd probably deny everything, and convince me I had the whole situation wrong. He's done that to me already, hasn't he?"

'Yes.' He sure has, kid. And you believed him because you wanted to believe in him. You thought he was a good guy and your friend. It's not bad to trust your friends, kid, but don't be blind about it. I couldn't say all that, so I rubbed my body across his face.

"Blech. I don't want to eat your fur, Mau."

That's okay. I managed to sneak a bite of that sandwich. Roast beef!

"I'm going to drop you on the ground again." Seth sighed and turned towards school. He looked at the letter.

That was purple wax on the seal. Damn, that looked like an invitation. To the Palace. And that bastard Seth shoved it in his bag without opening it. I was going to die of curiosity.

So what if he was still holding a sandwich and didn't want to get meat juice on the pretty paper. I wanted to know what it said! Fine, fine. Stay on target, girl.

'Talk Duvessa about Thurstan. Get whole story.' My signing while riding on Seth's shoulder was sloppy, but he got the idea.

"Right. I forgot she was doing that. Do you think Benjamin works for him?"

'No know. We guess.'

"We guess? Yeah, you're right. We only have guesses." Seth looked at the bracelet he'd put back on. "I wanted to believe he was just trying to help me. But now..."

I wasn't sure why he'd put it back on. I supposed it was stabilizing his power. And not wearing it might tip off Benjamin.

I snagged another bite of Seth's sandwich and let him figure himself out more on the way back to school. We'd talk later and make a real plan. We needed to put Benjamin in a position where he'd have to tell us, and that the risk to life and limb for both of us was minimal.

Benjamin wasn't the only player in this game too. There was the mysterious 'Mom', and whoever her kid was. Thurstan, maybe?

I would have thought that message was for Benjamin, but if he doesn't have a mom, then there are at least three players involved. And possibly more than one mystery.

I think Seth is right though. Someone is fishing with the talents as bait. The regalia might be another form of bait or might be from one of the other players. That, of course, was assuming what was in that box was a piece of regalia. I thought so. It felt right.

And what was the connection to 'Mom'? She certainly was taunting them. Would 'Mom' be interested in talents? Or were they competing with her for the regalia, and this was a separate issue?

Ugh, I'm going in circles. A person with a stolen talent was looking for something, and 'Mom' got it first. That's the only hard fact we had about that.

We got back to school in time for the end of dinner. Whooee, I was worried we'd missed it. Seth was preoccupied and not feeling hungry, but dammit, I was a growing kitty. I had like a half ton of growing to do, and just eating the meat out of his sandwich wasn't going to cut it.

"Yay! Seth!" Duvessa called, waving her hands as she walked out of the dining hall. "Meet me in my room after you eat. You can see my updates!"

"Updates?" Seth asked.

Yeah, that baffled me too, until I remembered her wall of crazy. Updates, indeed.

"I'll show you! Come quick!" Duvessa said.

"I'll come now," Seth said.

No! I threw myself to the floor and cried. I staggered like I was dying and lay boneless.

"Your cat is weird," Booth said, watching me askance.

"Uh, I'll be right there after I feed Mau," Seth changed his answer.

A few minutes later I perched on Seth's shoulder as he was on his way to Duvessa's dorm room. He held a chicken leg up to me and I gnawed happily on it.

I was excited for what Duvessa found out. That conversation should tell us if Benny-boy was a peon or a co-conspirator.

And then we had to figure out what we were doing this weekend.