When we got to Duvessa’s room, Booth, Owen, and Blaise were already there. Blaise let us in and then headed back to Duvessa at her desk. Duvessa didn't acknowledge us; instead, she focused on whatever she was writing, with her tongue barely touching her top lip. Booth sprawled in an overstuffed chair, and Owen sat on the velvet couch.

Reginald perched on the stained glass lampshade by the chair. Well, perched might not be the right word. He was actively working on balancing there. It was a pity the lamp used glowy rocks and not oil. I thought it'd be funny if the bird brain lit his feathers on fire.

"We haven't started yet," Duvessa said as she looked up from her paper. "Is Selendrith coming?"

"No, she's staying with her grandfather this weekend and working in the shop," Seth answered. He put his bag on the floor next to the couch, but instead of sitting down, he headed to Duvessa's evidence board, her wall of crazy. He looked at a new picture, one with the ink still wet.

I was happy that Seth was feeling calmer. Most of what I was getting through the familiar link was determination with an undercurrent of anger. I decided spite was good for mental health.

"So what happened at tea today, Duvessa?" Seth asked.

"I am so mad about that!" Duvessa declared.

Blaise, who was about to sit next to Owen on the couch, paused. "What happened? Did he admit it was him?"

"No! Actually, I wasn't allowed in the room! Can you imagine that? Nana said I'm too easy to read, and he'd figure out I'm on to him," Duvessa replied.

"I can see it," Booth said.

"No you can't! I'm great at keeping secrets. And I can be sneaky! Nana was so unfair."

Blaise paced around the room. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"If that dog's gone, then someone else needs to watch the sheep," Owen said.

"Nope! That dog is not gone. I listened. I hid in the dumbwaiter and listened to the whole conversation." Duvessa looked around expectantly.

"That– that was amazing and quick thinking, Duvessa," Seth stated, somewhat unenthusiastically. "What did you find out?"

Duvessa beamed. "So much politics! Thurstan thinks regular people, non-nobles I mean, shouldn't have talents at all. He wants only people born to noble families to have powers. And he wants to repeal the law that prevents mages from holding a title," Duvessa said.

"We knew that," Seth said.

"The difference is, he doesn't want to allow mages to become nobles, he wants to turn nobles into mages," Duvessa said. "And he wants to make it illegal for common born people to use magic at all."

Blaise stared at her. "Nobody's going to accept that. It would cause a war. The amount of abuse that magical and entitled nobles could cause to the common people is absurd. That law's been around for centuries. We don't need another age of wizard-kings like before the Flower Empire."

I thought about that. Someone with magical and political power could effectively do whatever they wanted. Who would stop them? The only people that would have a shot would be other magical and political people, and that would never happen. It was like asking the rich to vote for taxes on themselves. You might get a few votes from the honorable and civic minded people, but most humans were selfish creatures.

Also, I didn't see any circumstance where the people without magic gave up their political power voluntarily. Sure, there were plenty of noble families that had mages in the family. Duvessa's was a perfect example. But I couldn't see some uncle surrendering a title to his mage nephew just because dear nephew had magic. Could this be what the thefts were about? Give the unmagicked nobles magic? There would be a line out the door.

And under no circumstance could I see common born mages surrendering their magic. Unless it wasn't intended to be voluntary.

"Why hasn't anyone shut him down yet then?" Booth asked.

"He said he's being quiet. He told Nana that he's being careful and only telling people when he needs their support. Nana was very interested in how he planned to give people powers, but all he would say is that he's got a plan, and in a few months he should be able to grant anyone powers," Duvessa said. "Nana stalled him and didn't make a deal, but did agree to think it over and talk to him again."

"He's not half as quiet as he thinks he is if we know about it," Booth said.

"That's admitting to the thefts," Blaise said. "He's definitely involved in this."

I agreed with Blaise. Dude was involved. The question I had was if he was the mastermind or the peon. Booth was also right, he wasn't being quiet at all. Seth's bait idea felt dead on here. If Thurstan was the mastermind then he had to be after something higher, and probably more personal, than political upheaval.

Why hadn't he taken a power for himself yet? I'd have expected him to grab one if he had access to magical talents. Unless there was a problem with swiping powers? Was that why Seth was protected? Was he a prototype? That would make the recording bead he was wearing make a lot more sense.

"There is a regalia piece that can grant powers," Seth said. "It's supposed to grant temporary fire talents. Do you think they are looking for that piece? Or maybe they already have it and are trying to make it work longer?"

"You think that's why Helena is after the regalia?" Booth asked.

"It might be connected." Seth reached up to touch the red string on the board connecting things together. "How are you organizing the things posted, Duvessa? They don't look chronological to me, and I don't see any other pattern."

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I jumped up on the back of Booth's chair to get a better view of the wall. There was so much stuff here, and it was amazing. Duvessa had certainly put a lot of effort into this. It still made no sense, but I loved it.

"Oh, new bits of information go where the shapes I drew them on match other things I've drawn. It looks better that way," Duvessa said. "If it gets crowded somewhere, then I start new groups where there's room."

Well, I guess that was one way to organize it. I think I just insulted the word 'organize'.

"Shapes, Duvessa?"

"Yes. See? I draw people like this, and places are all like that, so the people are together, and then the places are together, and I know what's what."

"Do you have events listed? What do they look like?" Seth asked.

"Oh! Those are these ones." She pointed to one picture that looked like dancing snakes with little triangles.

"What event was this for?" Seth asked.

I looked at the events. Some were obvious. I could recognize the carriage chase, and she put hyenas on top of a castle–so that must be the party at the Palace. But for a bunch of others, I had no idea.

Duvessa frowned at the event, and then scanned her other posts. Finally she pulled it down to get a better look and sighed. "I don't remember. I know it was important, too."

"I'd like to make some recommendations. I'd suggest putting a summary or title at the bottom of each, um, thing you have up here," Seth said. "So for this one, maybe say carriage chase, and then have who was there, and maybe a little bit about it. It would help other people who look at it know what you meant."

"But it's obvious! You can see the carriage. And that one has hyenas. And that one is the weasels! I even drew their tornadoes and flingy spells."

"Right. But you don't remember that one. I was also going to suggest rearranging these. Probably put them in chronological order. And then use different color string for what we think is going on. Like see here, this was where we met the skull gang, so that should have a black string that then goes to–those guys with the 'X's on their heads?"

"Nope. Can't be black. That string should be white," Duvessa said firmly.

Seth paused with his fingers still touching the tack holding the drawing of X'd guys. "Why white?"

"Because skulls are white, obviously."

"Why are you so interested in her board all of a sudden, Seth?" Booth asked. "Everything up there we know, or is impossible for us to decipher."

"It's not impossible to decipher! Deciphering is what the board is for!" Duvessa said.

"So, about this…" Seth explained his idea that the stolen powers were being used as bait. He suggested using the board to figure out where the bad guys were casting their net, and to figure out what the bad guys were fishing for.

They discussed how to organize the board and what all the clues were for over an hour. While I listened to that fascinating conversation, I perched on the back of the couch and let my tail drop down into Owen's face. He'd pet my tail and move it out of his face.

So, I'd curl it and shove it right back in his face. After doing this for several minutes, Owen leaned forward so my tail couldn't reach him.

My fun interrupted, I hopped over to Booth's chair and did the same thing.

He wasn't as nice a player. "Blech. Cat, get your tail out of my mouth," Booth complained and batted my tail away. I lashed my tail and turned around, but Seth scooped me up before I could instigate anything.

Curses. Foiled again.

The evidence board discussion wound down and Duvessa sighed. "That is so much work, you know," she said. "Those are a lot of details to remember and that's a lot of moving things around."

"Let me know if you need help," Seth said.

I didn't know what he thought he could do. He was scheduled out the wazoo. Running most mornings with Owen, classes, homework, reading lessons with me–I mean Owen, and extra spell practice every day, plus whatever random 'training' the boys got in their heads to try. At least the lessons with Professor Kaban were making those extra 'training' sessions look more like real practice as they repeated the drills and forms they were taught.

Blaise stood next to Seth examining the wall. "You want to find the net. You want to know where and who is caught in it." She shook her head. "We should just be focusing on Thurstan. We know he's connected, so we should follow that lead and not get distracted by all this other stuff."

Seth glanced at her. "There was a third name on the list from Selendrith's shop. There was Thurstan, my guardian Benjamin, and another merchant named Samuel. Benjamin could be just an employee of Thurstan. The other merchant might be the same, or something else. The more we look and the more we find out, the more things are connected. There has to be someone in the center. I want to be sure we're finding the right person." He reached out and touched the paper that had the hyenas on it. "Why were they blamed? Why is Helena being so obvious with the power? Is this just about the regalia, or are they looking for a person too?" He touched the stick figures with x's on their heads. "How are the Skulls related to this? The way they use and take powers is different. Are they working for 'Mom', for Thurstan, or themselves?"

"And who is 'Mom'," Booth piped up.

"Oh! I forgot," Duvessa said. "Nana asked about his family, and Thurstan doesn't have any living relatives. So, 'Mom' is not his."

"So, not Thurstan, not Benjamin, not Helena. There have to still be connections we haven't found yet," Seth said.

I thought about 'Mom' being a code name, but dismissed it. If it were a code name they'd have used 'Mother'. 'Mom' is much more personal.

"So what do you think we should do about this?" Blaise asked, waving at the evidence board. "I still say we should focus on Thurstan."

I knew Blaise might be more willing to listen to Seth's ideas if she knew Benjamin was just as involved. But we weren't going to tell her that.

"First we need to make some choices," Seth said.

"I already know what string colors I plan to use," Duvessa said.

"No, I mean, choices about how we work on this," Seth said.

"What choices, then?" Blaise asked.

"The first choice, is do we ask for help," Seth said.

"What is with it with you always wanting to snitch?" Booth said.

"I'm not suggesting snitching," Seth said. "We are in so far over our heads, any one of us could have been killed already. That mercenary could kill any one of us next time we see him. I can't beat him, can you?"

"He got me dead right," Owen said.

"Tsh. We don't have to be chasing that asshole," Booth said.

"I did!" Duvessa said. "Reginald picked up my summons from a restaurant by the lake. The mercenary hangs out there a lot."

I walked from the back of the chair to Duvessa's desk. If she had interesting intel like this, I wanted a look at her kindergarten art in progress.

"No inky paws, kitty," Duvessa scolded and dumped me to the floor. A travesty. I'd have jumped up again, but now Reginald was giving me a side-eye. That lamp was delightfully wobbly.

"Okay," Seth said. "That's good to know. We still need to decide if we ask for help, and if we do, who do we ask. A professor? Some other adult? Upperclassmen?"

Booth was shaking his head. "I say we don't ask. Last thing I need is some busybody telling me I can't see my sibs or can't leave campus."

Blaise was shaking her head, too. "We know at least some professors have been compromised. I don't think we should tell anyone what we think is happening."

"Didn't you already tell your brother Brand?" Seth asked.

"That's different," Blaise said. "He's supposed to be back tomorrow, but he's meeting with my dad. And Dad isn't talking to me still, so, yeah. I'm not talking to them right now either."

"Nana knows," Duvessa said. "She told me to stay away from Thurstan, and not to come by the next time she has him over. She's going to string him along and see what his plans are."

"I don't know nobody that could help," Owen said.

"We need some type of help," Seth insisted.

"What we already have is fine," Blaise said. "We don't need to ask adults for help, beyond those we've already talked to." She stopped pacing in front of the wall and gestured at it. "What's our next move?"

I wondered if Seth would keep to the group consensus and not ask for help. I figured he would keep quiet. There weren't many options that felt safe to him, and anyone he reached out to on his own might be compromised.

But more importantly, I just found Duvessa's yarn basket. I knew what my next move was.