In the sitting room, Saul took up a whole loveseat, reclining on it longways. Instead of trying to read translated magical theory with a headache, he had opted to grab the Thief record. Thief wasn’t a common soul idol for humans, the death icon forcing most combinations into assassin instead, like his father’s pair of dark and dance. The woman in question had used the skill icon, as rare or rarer than the element icon, to force the issue, giving her a combination of death, dark, and skill.

Three of the woman’s abilities allowed her to use the powers of others, though the third hadn’t done so until her soul pooled. That ability had been from the dark icon. The initial fragment had been mirror, giving her the ability to neutralize an ability in an opponent. At pool, she had used a hunger fragment and gained the ability to use the neutralized power. The other two abilities were from the skill icon, one using a mirror fragment, the other also hunger. The mirror ability allowed her to use a power herself that someone near her had just used. The hunger ability allowed her to use one ability from someone she was touching.

Requiring constant contact was a significant downside, but it was also the only of the three abilities that allowed her to use passive powers of others. This was consistent with the handful of other examples of power stealing abilities that Saul had found. The majority only worked on abilities that could be activated to some degree. The only other ability he had read about that could take passive powers had required the death of the target.

The door to the sitting room opened and his father entered, followed shortly by a servant bringing Saul his bottle of peppermint tea.

“You look tired,” Joel said, looking down at his son as he sipped the tea, “did you figure out your peon’s abilities?”

“Speed and blunt fragments,” Saul answered, looking up slowly, “for Into Harm’s Way and something I’m calling Waterlog until I check if there’s a record for it anywhere.”

“Did you try to keep up with him when you tested his speed?”

“I’m not physically tired, I’ve just had a headache for the whole evening. Since I used the Mark on him.”

“That does take a lot of focus. Where is the Mark? You didn’t leave it in the meeting room.”

Saul tapped his pouch, “once I get over this headache, I want to practice with it. I’ll make sure to leave it in my rooms when it isn’t on my person.”

“Hmm.” His father crossed his arms, “I don’t like that, but I do like the work ethic. Fine, but you had better not lose it.”

“The hardest part was actually getting the mark onto his soul, is there any way to practice that part? Could I mark him more than once?”

“Absolutely not. We are not cruel. You can try to mark some of our attuned animals, but it will be even worse for you. They have something like a soul, but won’t let you affect it.”

“Understood.”

After a fashion, Junia joined them. Seeing Saul’s position, she gently patted him on the shoulder, and joined them in reading quietly. As the hour grew later, the two parents became concerned.

“They’re on another duty, right?” Saul finally asked, “were they supposed to be back tonight?”

“Yes, some kind of burrowing mammal monsters,” Junia said, “Joel, are they almost back?”

Joel stood and paced around the room for a minute with his eyes closed.

“They’re still outside the city, it’s hard to say how far,” he looked at his wife for a long moment, “I’ll check on them.”

He was out the door in an instant, slamming it without a sound. That was the difference between him and his brother; Uncle Nathan was the fool you saw, while Joel was the assassin you didn’t. They worked very well together.

“You sent them after another burrowing monster?” Saul asked, “wasn’t the one yesterday able to swim through the ground?”

“It’s the same reason we had them fighting flyers for a while,” Junia said distractedly, “Michah’s figured out an effective strategy, but Cherith isn’t there yet.”

They were silent for a long moment.

“Is it alright if I head to bed? There isn’t anything I can do if there is a problem, and I think my headache is getting worse again.”

“That’s fine dear, get some sleep.”

Saul got ready for bed with his eyes closed as much as possible, sealed his sleeping chambers, and lay there nagged by pain for far too long before sinking into sleep.

The next morning when Saul dragged himself down the stairs for training, he found Cherith looking worse than he felt. She wasn’t physically injured, but she was standing like her body was a leaden marionette. It soon became clear that Michah wasn’t coming, but his parents forestalled questions until the room was locked. They were sidetracked when the simple fragment Joel inserted into the podium for the morning fizzed and disintegrated rapidly, the environment of the room jumping up then rapidly declining.

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To Saul, it felt like dripping water on a dry sponge, but the sponge was his brain. When the fragment was gone about a minute later, he felt mostly better. There was still an ache behind his eyes, but it was worlds better.

“It worked, Mom, I feel a lot better,” he said, then noticed his parents staring at him. “What?”

“That’s why your mother doesn’t stay when we raise the room to pool,” Joel said, “she does something similar, especially when she has a headache like the one you were complaining about yesterday.”

“Maybe what you’re feeling is the same thing,” his mom added, “but you didn’t use a power stronger than the environment. That’s what I always assumed caused the pain.”

“Stronger than the environment of my body maybe?” Saul suggested, “when does the rest of it go away? I’ve still got a bit of pain sort of in the front of my head.”

Junia considered for a moment, “so do I, I suppose. I’ve just gotten used to it. It only really goes away for a bit if I stay for dedicated training, but that takes away some of the time that could benefit the rest of you.”

“…oh.” Saul said, “I’m sorry you feel like that all the time, Mom. The pain’s not as bad now, but I hope I’m not stuck with it too.”

“Yeah, yeah, enough of that,” Cherith cut in impatiently, “how’s Michah doing? What are we going to do about that douchenozzle from yesterday?”

Joel snorted, and Junia gave her daughter a look before sighing.

“Saul, your sisters were attacked during their duty yesterday,” she explained, “Michah’s leg was blown off at the knee. She’s at the Temple of Death, and should be fine. The assailant used a ranged stone shot, so neither of them saw him or her.”

“It didn’t help that we were fighting that stupid electrified meerkat hydra,” Cherith added, “most of my attacks were less than useless.”

“Wow, that’s blatant,” Saul said, taken aback, “they must have thought the monster would finish you off. How are we responding?”

“We let it be known what happened and that it didn’t work,” Joel said with a smile, “the girls still killed the monster before I got there. If we make the facts known, people will make their own guesses about the culprit, and attacking someone on duty is a very bad look. The only change will be stepping up the guard on the House’s more vulnerable members, which no one would look down on. That will include you, Saul.”

“That’s fine, I figured as much,” Saul agreed, “does that mean you have an idea of who it was?”

“There are two obvious possibilities,” Junia replied, “an earth archer or earth and wind Sorcerer, but there aren’t any at pool in the city that we know of. However, Viscountess Winnell’s husband is a specialist distance archer that has some concealment and elemental arrow abilities.”

“So we just have to hope people make that connection,” Cherith sighed, “fine. Can Michah and I bring a third person for duties when she’s recovered? I don’t want to wait another two months for him to get back,” she jerked a thumb at Saul.

“No, that could be taken as a sign of weakness, and I know you two can handle yourselves,” Joel denied, “speaking of, we do have a reasonable excuse to reassign someone to guard you now, Saul. Your new peon needs training, so I thought you and Toby could start getting acquainted since he’ll be traveling with you soon. Whenever you’re off the grounds for now, you need to bring him with you.”

“Ok,” Saul said, “I had already set up afternoon training with him and Bart anyway. After training this morning, I’ll pray to the Healer and visit Michah. Actually, should I do morning training with them for now? The only benefit I was getting from this room was learning cantrips faster.”

His suggestion was accepted, so Saul left to find Toby. He found him in the small arena that was part of the training complex, sparring with another cousin at high speed. Instead of interrupting him, Saul left a message with an attendant and went to a training courtyard set aside for teens and adults who had no physical improvements. Toby found him there an hour or so later.

“Good morning…cousin?” he said awkwardly, as Saul joined him under the covered walkway.

“Saul is fine, I guess? And I just call you Toby?”

“Ok, that works for me,” Toby relaxed a bit, “what did you need? I know about training with that servant guy this afternoon.”

“Well, there’s been something of a situation,” Saul explained the attack on his sisters, “so for safety reasons, I need to bring you whenever I leave the grounds.”

“That’s not great.” Toby sighed, absently flexing his right hand, “I’m sorry about your sister. I’d be happy to go with you to see her, of course. Beyond that, you go to the Scholar’s Library for most of every day right? I often have social plans around lunchtime and early afternoon. Is there any way we can compromise?”

“I wouldn’t say most of the day, but noon to late afternoon, yes. We could see about you going to do whatever once I’m at the library?”

“Leeeeets not, I don’t want to tell the Viscount my lunch plans are more important than your safety.”

“Ok, then we could rotate?” Saul suggested, “this shouldn’t be more than a few days, so I can live with that. Maybe today we go to the Healer’s Clinic and Scholar’s Library, then tomorrow I go with you for your lunch thing and go to the library after?”

“We’re training with your servant this afternoon, you won’t have time for the library.”

“Right. Then for today, I’ll just swing by the Chapel of the Scholar on the way back. Actually, after training, would you be opposed to going to the Temple of Water?”

“I guess not, why?” Toby asked, “and if we’re going to that many temples, I’d like to go by the Bellatheon.”

“Bart, that’s the new peon, was a fisher. I’m planning to let him visit the temple once or twice a week, and thought I would go along today. I don’t know the last time I visited.”

“I’d like to clean up before we leave, but that all is fine for today.”

When they reconvened, Toby insisted on taking the main boulevard to the temple district instead of cutting through the edge of one of the common shopping districts like Saul preferred. They passed the Temple of Knowledge and followed the slight rise in the road that led to the two largest temples in the city. The second largest was their first destination, the Temple of Death, which somewhat mirrored the Temple of Knowledge in its construction.