Dereniik had given Kyd a full hands breath head start. Both having restricted mobility was a huge disadvantage, but Kyd was slower, and faced additional challenges.

Dereniik felt a surge of bittersweet excitement once again arranging the soft folds of his Nisayaan skin kilt, cowl and donning the epilates denoting his rank and team insignia. He hadn’t worn the complete official kit in ten months and a slight stale odour tickled his nose. The test run yesterday before a polished bronze plate had been more about reassuring himself than airing the garments, but served a dule purpose and the musty aroma has somewhat dissipated. With difficulty he attached the Xianees throwing blade, safely stowed in protective sheath to a purpose-built grip vine belt. He had never perfected throwing with his left hand so as a range weapon it was now useless, if he used it at all it would be as a tool. But the weight was a familiar comfort. On his other hip a length of grip vine rope was curled.

Reaching the intersection where he had found the Rustepheen fibre Dereniik stowed his crutches behind the Welcoloon statue. Controlling the rising anxiety with minimal interruption to his plans. No scheme was perfect, and he considered leaving the crutches a significant flaw, but again, not a lot of choice. All he could do was hope some over enthusiastic individual would not see them and decide to return them to the Healing Hall. As expected, the tunnel was desolate, his actions unobserved. Statistically, with the small number of people using the tunnel the chance of his crutch’s discovery was slim. Leaning against the statue he took the gripe vine from his belt. With confident familiarity his hand slipped through the looped handle, tightening the strap around his wrist with his teeth. The free end fell to the ground.

He had chosen to infiltrate the Armoury on the ninth day in the hope that less men would be working, but the schedule was not uniformly adhered to among all the Coalition departments.

Dereniik inhaled sharply, held the breath deep within himself and pulled into his centre behind the sternum. In a single heartbeat he shimmered out of sight. His clothing and equipment, designed and selected to accommodate his changed state, disappeared with him.

Residual pain faded as his vision dimmed and his brain took a further few heartbeats to adjust. The world reappeared as he began receiving information from an entirely different set of senses. Although the process was well documented Dereniik still lacked the vocabulary to explicitly describe the awareness that replaced sight. Vigorous pulses charged living organisms. Air currents stirred, like restless lapping waves, while inorganic substances often emitted dull glows. Gods Fire vivacity danced, by far the brightest component of the vista.

It had taken rotations of practice, but Dereniik was starting to be able to recognize the subtle variations that helped differentiate one person from another. More experienced Commanders spoke of being able to recognize faces and very rarely even colour. Hearing was replaced with an ability to feel vibrations. His current level of expertise recognized sounds of lower pitch but high noises were distorted buzzes, hums or impossible to detect. Like a newborn babe it had taken practice and patience to interpret and understand speech. Expressing sounds while invisible was not possible but training had revealed some substitute for other senses.

Invisibility restricted how a person’s body interacted with the visible environment. It was more than not being able to see your limbs move, recruiting muscles with your eyes closed was simple. But everyday normal activities needed to be relearned with a body functioning just different enough to require re-mastering basic skills. Walking became not about taking steps but learning to glide, maintaining contact with a visible surface. Dereniik had struggled with fine motor skills, only just mastering doorknobs before the catastrophe at the beginning of the rotation.

With the first mental adjustments complete Dereniik pulled on his second centre, this one behind his navel and invisible mobility became easier. This skill set was called Drifting and according to folklore and legend some variation had once allowed men to Fly. Unfortunately for Dereniik, and every other Commander with the skill, knowledge of the process necessary to activate flight had long been lost. Dereniik could, by controlling the procedure that substituted for breathing while Invisible, make himself lighter and heavier, moving his body vertically through the air. Drifting up and down. More experienced Commanders could manipulate themselves to turn, but Dereniik considered himself rotations from mastering that skill set.

Every Deputized Operative Commander Dereniik had ever met could become Invisible. A team didn’t graduate each rotation, not even every second rotation, and many people in the population were unaware the Invisibility family of talents still existed. People with the lilac family of talents came under the jurisdiction of the Directives Committee and the lilac fractals were only ever awarded to trainee Commanders who were seen as honourable.

Dereniik had been identified as inherited Drifting within the first nine day of arriving to train as a Commander. He’d been able to pull and hold his navel centre without a lilac fractal after only a couple of lessons. Others of his team had been able to become Invisible but needed a darker lilac fractal to Drift. Invisibility had alluded him until the light mauve fractal between his shoulder blades had grown to the size of his thumb nail. The lilac fractal had been bestowed after he had risked his life to save a fellow trainee in his second rotation training. Dereniik had caught up, often exceeding the skills of his teammates before graduation.

Dereniik initiated counting heartbeats. Head brushing the ceiling at seven, by eleven he had unfurled grip rope and cast. It took his second cast at thirteen to secure the tip around the next pillar, gripping barbes along the extremity of the rope swinging back to wrap around themselves. By twenty he had pulled himself to the pillar, twisted the grip rope to disengage the barbs, and he started the process again. Dereniik found a rhythm, working his way towards the Armoury along the tunnel ceiling.

He halted horizontal progress at two hundred heartbeats. Drifted to the ground and shimmered back into sight.

As a child Dereniik had read about the Heroes of old shimmering out of sight and performing gallant deeds. What the books failed to mention was the rotations of training spent learning even basic skills, and the massive limitation. Casualties occurred when people Drifting lost focus or the strength necessary to maintaining their centre and fell.

Invisibility clamed victims insidiously. Pulling the muscles up and under the sternum activated the talent. Releasing the muscles while Invisible required knowing how to reverse the process with a body that had physically changed. Not an intuitive process. Under careful supervision trainees were instructed to shimmer in to and out of sight within the same heartbeat; before the change was complete. Building up the time spent Invisible one heartbeat at a time.

Dereniik had lost a teammate who had inherited Invisibility and been unable to reverse the process on his first attempt. He had become stuck, imprisoned forever without the skills to move or the ability to communicate. Trapped in the Void. Conscious, but unable to interact with his new world or the one he had left behind. Defying logic a person in this condition could live for an extended time. Dereniik’s team had investigated a couple of missing persons who had also suffered this fate. People who had unknowingly inherited the talent and accidentally activated the ability.

Dereniik’s current level of expertise gave him three hundred and fifty heartbeats. Declining health limited opportunities to practice and by nature being cautious he erred on the side of safety. A second stint of ceiling swinging and he met up with Kyd.

They Drifted to the floor together. Dereniik slowing his decent to not outstrip his teammate. Kyd had sustained a massive lower gut wound during their flight from the drug cartel and it was impressive he had maintained any Drifting ability. While Invisible Dereniik could identify Kyd’s personal pulse, or shimmer shadow. Shorter than most, he appeared to lack the lower half of both legs and was locked in an almost foetal position, only his arms moving freely. Being knocked out while Invisible and exceeding his time limit Kyd was now permanently trapped in the Void. His continued survival, despite the injuries and the current situation, raised questions about what they had been taught as irrefutable facts.

Before losing his lower leg Dereniik had become skilled at gliding. Pushing against a stability leg, sliding the other forward. While working a case high in the mountains of Xiaan during the coolest months of the rotation he had seen a similar method used to move over snow and ice. Without that option Kid and he had developed an alternative method of propulsion. After a brief break for Dereniik to shimmer in and out of sight, re-setting his internal count they headed for the door to the Armoury.

With the grip rope between them Dereniik stabilized himself, Kyd became light and swung forward. Then it was Dereniik’s turn. Kyd becoming the fulcrum around which Dereniik rotated. Not a rapid mode of locomotion, but faster than Dereniik on crutches or Kyd crawling. When they reached the door Dereniik shortened the rope to send Kyd through the middle, his teammate made the appropriate adjustment for Dereniik to follow a few heartbeats later. Locating a place Dereniik could use to shimmer out of sight unobserved well under three hundred heartbeat he re-appeared behind a stack of boxed.

“Well done.” Dereniik said. Feeling confident his low voice would not be heard over the raucous mayhem of men, bellows, hammers, and other unrecognizable forging equipment at work.

“Seen, five, men.” Kyd scripted on his forearm.

“There will be more. Did you notice anything that would indicate a records office?”

“No. Check, projects?”

“Yes, later for sure. But there should be record of the projects and they will give us a better idea of what we are looking at.”

“Up?”

Dereniik glanced at the celling. At least twice the height of the tunnel outside and with no convenient pillars within swinging distance of each other. This part of the plan had always been ill-defined, neither of them having been inside the Armory before.

“An overview will be advantageous, enough to get the lay of the land and work out where most of the people are located. Then ground re-cognizance, looks like we will have plenty of places for concealment and for me to switch between states.”

“Better, vantage, left.”

As usual Kyd was correct, there was a platform of sorts to the left overlooking the entire work area. Dereniik pulled centres and they swung themselves to the desired location. Taking refuge behind the wooden stairs granting access to the platform. Dereniik reappeared.

“Speed, being tapped.” Kyd scripted.

Dereniik was impressed, highly developed Invisible senses could identify when fractal powers were being used, he had yet to master any skill in that area, but Kyd was become adept.

“You will have to go through your process with me again. I would love to learn.”

“Someone, come.” Was urgently scrawled on his arm.

Dereniik shimmered out of sight as two men clomped around the corner and mounted the stairs. Had he been noticed? No, the cacophony of surrounding sounds had drowned out his voice.

They Drifted towards the ceiling. A waft of warm air from a furnace caught and twisted Dereniik, turning him, until he faced opposite the desired direction. He lose sight of Kyd. Air currents carried him towards the now inhabited platform. It took a few heartbeats for Dereniik to work out the men were rigging lengths of glowing metal around other duller metal in some sort of pully arrangement. This was a problem, as his trajectory was taking him on a collision course with the apparatus. Decisive action became necessary.

Dereniik swung his grip rope attempting to catch the wooden balustrade. Missed. His next endeavour scraped an unknown structure but failed to find purchase. The action quarter turned him, moving backwards, Dereniik craned his neck and caught sight of the ventilating duct above. Of course, it was one with a fan. Lazy blades spinning. The rising warm air moving towards it.

Where was Kyd?

Dereniik stowed his grip rope, there were no convenient poles or beams to wrap around. He fought the rising air current and ceased his upward assent. Drifting towards the men and apparatus.

Additional vibrations joined the noisy saturated air. The men had activated the apparatus whose motion was now apparent. Lengths of what Dereniik guessed were metal chains gaining impetus. The men stood well back, an indication that avoiding the device was optimal for continued health.

Men could be reasoned with, an indifferent spinning blade, not so much. Dropping his Drifting centre but maintaining Invisibility Dereniik plummeted to the platform. It was not a great drop but landing with only one leg, he stumbled and ended up on his hand and knees.

“You hear that?” One of the men yelled. Dereniik was so close he could have reached out and touched the stiff leather apron covering the man.

“What? Crank shaft playing up again?”

“Don’t think so. An odd noise. Gone now, let’s hope it was nothing, had enough delays and Bursteiin grumpy as a gastropod in heat.”

The second man’s reply was lost to Dereniik as he adjusted some knobs on the side of the device and the vibrations emanating from the mechanism increased.

Dereniik moved with something between a slide and a crawl to the side of the platform. Checking, he couldn’t see Kyd’s shimmer shadow. He’d lost count but estimated he still had a little time. The stairs were beyond the men but that wasn’t an issue. Reaching the balustrade, he pulled himself up. Glancing over revealed a work bench below with industrious men working on their commissioned.

Pulling himself along until he reached a gap between the benches, Dereniik threw himself over.

***

The food preparation area had been set in order, the men departed, leaving only Jess and Isobeel. Viky would have liked to have been alone with her thoughts. Wanted to adjust her plans taking this latest development into account.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Setting someone up to take the fall was a familiar concept. Her parent had explained the sacrifice his team leader had made, making himself the patsy so the others could escape. It had been a noble sacrifice. But Viky was not willing to take the fall for another’s greed.

“You think this latest development with the statue is linked with my missing body chains?” Isobeel asked.

Jess was nodding. “Yes, I am sure of it, and I want to reassure you Isobeel, that Viky didn’t know the statue had been put in her house.”

“Oh, I know that. I saw the look on her face.”

Viky was for once grateful that she had hidden her acting skill so well.

“There is something else I need to know, have either of you had other items disappear?” Viky said. “The reason I ask is that Maddie is missing a couple of statues and Sheeli and Shaar have bolts of cloth vanish.”

Jess contemplated the question before nodding.

Frowning Isobeel shook her head, then changed her mind. “When we only been here a couple of months a rather nice shell picture frame disappeared.” Isobeel said. “At first, I thought because I didn’t unpack all my trunks straight away, it was still tucked away in one of them. But when my body chains went missing, I mentioned it to Jess, and she remembered seeing when we first met.”

“I hadn’t seen delicate little bivalves like them before so looked up more about them up in the library. They only grow in the Great Lake and are quite rare. I thought Isobeel had just removed the frame and picture from her reception room to display it somewhere else in the suite.”

“There might have been other things, my mother has been collecting items for me for rotations, it was difficult to always share her enthusiasm.” Isobeel finished.

“And sometimes things just go missing with perfectly logical explanations. River used some of her beautiful Jiuliing crockery for Maddie’s parents memorial, afterwards two plates were missing. I found one of them amongst my crockery and returned it just yesterday. It's easy to have things misplaced accidentally.”

“Maddie also mentioned one of her friends had something stolen.” Viky continued. “A clever thief could get away with stealing a lot of items from women of the Collection.”

“Your right, in all the confusion and excitement of leaving home, receiving lots of presents from family and friends, coming to the capital, selecting a life partner and making new friends, a few gifts going missing may not be noticed. I didn’t even bother to unpack everything until we knew we were staying for our second rotation.”

“You enjoyed leaving home?” Viky had to ask.

“Well, I always knew I would, so there was not point in not enjoying it. All Commanders second daughter’s, in every city, are gathered for the Contribution.” Isobeel replied.

Viky shook her head. Was about to say, ‘not in the Rifts,’ but stopped herself. Needed to think about it on her own. Find out if what Isobeel said was the truth.

“Didn’t your parentals explain this to you?” Jess asked.

“Maybe they didn't know, l didn't. But Isobeel not unpacking until later confirms my point. With the short time many women of the contribution are in the capital any items noted as missing may not be put down to theft.”

“And once you're assigned to another city or region would be difficult to chase up.” Jess noted.

“Yes, you wouldn’t know if it had just been lost in transit, Nisayaan can become invisible you know. I always wondered if other things have that ability and somehow get stuck in that state. I have so many sets of nine-pins that mysteriously overnight become sets of only seven or eight.”

Viky could see no evidence that Isobeel was joking.

“That's an interesting thought. I know that Maddie's first statue went missing just after little Llyghaan was born, and at least one of the bolts of cloth around the time Shaar was in confinement. Not everything that's gone fits your theory, and we don't know if all the thefts are related, but some may have been.” Jesses logic was sound.

“And for some reason, it was suggested we were going to leave as soon as I was pregnant.” Viky continued. “The thief could have thought the Body Chains wouldn’t be missed in the confusion of our departure.”

“They wouldn’t have been missed except I wanted to wear them to Maddie’s Parents memorial.” Isobeel reminded them.

Viky frowned, focused on trying to fit the diverse information into a pattern. Thoughts consolidated.

Viky hesitated. “This thought is divergent to our current theory, but I think we need to talk to Sheeli.”

“Why? What does she have to do with anything?” Isobeel asked.

Viky winced. “Possibly nothing, but the cloth she is weaving on her double loom has a stylized version of the pattern on your Body Chains. It may not mean anything; I copied the pattern from a picture in the library. But it took me several hands breath and Sheeli doesn’t strike me as a manuscript sort of woman.”

Isobeel and Jess exchanged glances.

“Let’s go,” Isobeel stood.

Jess bit her lip but nodded and Viky followed. They left together, Viky making sure her front door was well fastened.

***

Dereniik pulled his lower centre and activated Drifting, slowing his decent to land with a manageable level of discomfort. Less jarring as he was able to use his hand to grasp the edge of the bench and reduce the impact on his knee. Ducking down below the lip of the bench he shimmered back into sight, relieved the transition was smooth.

His senses were immediately assaulted. How did men work in such a noisy environment? Taking stock of his situation with visible sight, and transitioning back and forth a couple of times to identify objects and the differing sorts of material while invisible. The workers used a lot of iron, and invisible it was a dull silvery glow. Copper shone rather than glowed, emitting not just reflecting whatever his invisible senses could pick up.

A D’char, arms laden with supplies approached the work bench and one of the men. Dereniik shimmered out of sight and using his grip rope as a fulcrum around the leg of a bench, headed away from the workers.

Kyd’s shimmer shadow crawled into view, heading towards him.

Behind a massive anvil Dereniik reappeared.

“Found, office.” Kyd scripted. “Empty.”

“Do you know how many Commanders we are dealing with?”

“Seen eight.”

Dereniik was disappointed, was the team down a man? Or was one man unaccounted for and would turn up unexpectedly and surprise them?

“You worked out what they are working on?”

“Six Scythes, two at benches, don’t know.”

“I saw those projects briefly, didn’t understand what they were either.”

Kyd led the way to the office. Not elaborate, an oblong structure, with desks, files, and parchment work visible through an open window.

“I’ll, watch.” Kyd volunteered.

“Thanks, that would be great.”

There wasn’t much he could do in this situation. Kyd’s fine motor skills while Invisible had been less advanced than Dereniik’s ten months ago and since then, although he had been forced to use them exclusively, advancement had been delayed.

After checking for shimmer shadows Dereniik hoisted himself upright, became visible and opened the door. No alarms or people shouting warnings appeared. Still and quiet, noise from the work outside muffled further as Dereniik slid to his knees and crawled inelegantly into the room, drawing the door almost closed behind him.

Two closed doors presented themselves on the wall opposite. Four desks spread around the room with a few shelves running along the side wall completed the picture. The first desk contained parchment work in relation to this rotation’s scythes. Input and output, quantities of materials, weights, production dates. Interesting, but not relevant. The second desk was clear but the stationery in the drawers indicated it was in use. The third one contained an extensive file with shipping information. Each city and region had its own colour coded segment. This desk had been visible from the window, Dereniik kept low and shimmered out of sight while taking individual files, inspecting them while sitting at the fourth desk tucked in the corner behind a screen.

Dereniik had always been proficient at discerning discrepancies in parchment work but after going through the files for three cities he noticed a single sheet sild between two files and found at least part of the job had been done for him. With meticulous care someone had recorded inconsistencies in the number of packages leaving the Capital on route to Amaraanth. Specific dates, weights and the names of the merchants, animal handlers, and members of the team of Commanders receiving the goods were detailed. One name, a Commander’s, stood out. The only individual involved with every transaction.

Dereniik had been involved with breaking up enough smuggling rings to know some sort of contraband was regularly being moved out of the Capital, but this information didn’t tell him what it was. Were illegal goods being made in the Armoury? Or smuggled into the city and the Armoury was just a distribution point. He also didn’t know how or if this information related to his Rustepheen web. Someone was already investigating, Dereniik committed the information to memory and rose to replace the parchment.

In his peripheral vision the door into the room swung open. Dereniik shimmered out of sight.

With heavy footfall the man went to a shelf, selected a flask, took a drawn-out swig. Dereniik hadn’t moved, balanced on one leg, he hoped maintaining the position for an extended period wasn’t going to be necessary.

Even without the ability to recognize facial features Dereniik noted the change in posture as the man turned and perceived something amiss with the desk with the missing file. Dereniik had been careful to close the draw, but the chair had been difficult for a one-armed man crawling to pull in and out, he had left it out. Evidently a mistake. Cautiously the man approached the desk, replaced the chair to its correct position, glancing round the room to see if anything else was amiss.

The single sheet of parchment lay on the desk behind the screen, partially visible from the man’s point of view. Without making any sudden movements Dereniik slid his hand to where the parchment lay. The man pivoted, examining the room. Tense heartbeats passed as Dereniik drew the parchment to himself. Would the man notice?

As a child he had read a story where the hero, who had possessed the power of Invisibility, had needed to hide something. He had considered it a major ploy hole that he hadn’t just slipped the item under his cowl. Anything covered by invisible Nisayaan skin couldn’t be seen. But invisibility didn’t stop sounds from being detected. The parchment would need to be folded to slip under his cowl, and although it was noisy outside, whatever rustling the parchment made while being folded could be heard, and the crease would alert the next reader to the parchment’s being handled by someone else. Another consideration was his fine motor skills, or lack of them. Picking up a single sheet of paper while Invisible and holding the fine parchment between his fingers was possible, but with Dereniik’s level of skill, not guaranteed.

A third consideration was weight, not a problem with a single sheet of paper, but a consideration for the hero in Dereniik’s story. Just as it took an infant many rotations to build the strength necessary to lift a heavy object, it took commanders well into their middle rotations to gain the skills lifting heavy items required. Dereniik faced the additional issue of needing to use his hand to help him balance. Still stewing over his dilemma, the man turned and moved towards the closed doors at the end of the room. He gave the desk behind the screen a cursory glance on the way past. To Dereniik’s relief, moved on without stopping.

Opening the first door the shimmer shadow figure checked the interior. Dereniik took the opportunity to swipe the parchment off the desk, as it floated to the ground, he fell to his knees. As the second door opened and the interior scrutinized, Dereniik pushed the parchment out of sight well under the piece of bulky wooden furniture. The man, satisfied with his inspection, took an object from one of the shelves and left the room, firmly closing the door behind him.

Dereniik shimmered back into sight. Waited a few heartbeats for his breathing and pause rate to normalize. After extricating the parchment with considerable care, it was returned to its place in the file.

What was behind the two other doors? Possibly only more office space but it would belong to the most senior staff members and would have the potential to hold secrets. He had come this far; it would be a pity to miss something. The only object of interest in the first office was a large safe. Firmly locked with a dial mechanism on the front. A wave of unrequited grief washed over him. His teammate Torgoo had been a master at unlocking all sorts of devices. Thinking of the mischievous man with his ready smile and casual grace was unproductive. His corpse had long ago become forest fodder in an unnamed valley in the unclaimed hills of the Wild Water region.

Objects scattered on the desk behind the second door merited more detailed inspection. Paperwork first. A requisition from Flagsteen with the schematics for a viewing device. More paperwork detailing the manufacturing process. Several unique tools and different moulds that had needed to be constructed to facilitate the process, and diagrams for their construction. More information and purpose-built equipment for making and grinding the glass lenses. Two progress reports detailing failures, one describing a partial success. Equipment, experiments, and examples littered the desk. The paperwork was detailed, but there was nothing that required Rustepheen fibre.

Dereniik found himself fascinated. Once operational the device would magnify objects and by adjusting the length of the tubes give a clear resolution at different distances. Dereniik could see the value with applications across many fields of research. Engaged in his examination the outer door opened without detection, the soft footfall of approach unnoticed. Dereniik did hear the door to the room with the safe close, and shimmered out of sight. Without a heartbeat to spare, as the door to the room he occupied was pushed open.

The man stood at the entry, hesitant. Unsure if he had seen the motion, Dereniik slid from the chair and crawled as the man cautiously walked to the desk. With the desk between them they circled each other, Dereniik keeping as silent as possible. Circuit completed the shimmer shadow raised its arm, scratched its head. He came back in the opposite direction stopping in front of the project, and counted the pieces. They were so close Dereniik could have touched the man’s skirt. Content everything was accounted for after a few more moments he left the room. Dereniik waited a further hundred heartbeats before changing states.

Pain and exhaustion tugged on tired limbs. After meeting up Kyd they left the Armory without further incitant.

***

“This had better be important, my time is limited.” Sheeli grumbled.

“That’s ok, we will be brief.” Jess said.

Isobeel hadn’t lounged, she went to the double loom, removed a cloth covering the handiwork and examined the design. “That is very like the pattern on my body chains.”

“They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Sheeli shifted uncomfortably, didn’t resume the tatting she had in her hands.

“We were wondering when you had the time to copy the pattern?” Isobeel said.

“You said you would get around to letting me do it.” Sheeli blustered.

“You didn’t answer the question.” Viky pointed out.

Sheeli glared, not just at Viky.

“I don’t have them, if that’s what you are insinuating.” Sheeli looked Jess in the face.

“Er, I’m not suggesting anything, but it’s good to know you don’t have them.” Jess gave her a hesitant smile.

“Okay that sorted, please leave, I am very busy.”

“Did you take them to copy the pattern?” Viky blurted.

Sheeli glared at Viky, eyes full of anger. Pursed her lips closed and gestured towards the door. Jess rose, took a step towards the exit.

“Sheeli, Sheeli you know how much I think of your work. Think of how many things I have purchased of you, the women I have introduced to you as clients.” Isobeel closed the gap between them taking Sheeli’s hand in her own. “Please tell us; did you take the chains?”

“I didn’t take them to steal. Just to copy the patten and see if I could figure out how they were made. I swear by all the Gods, old and new, I returned them.” Shelli hung her head, pulled away from Isobeel and put her hands over her mouth and face.

“She’s telling the truth.” Jess slipped back to the couch and sat back down.

Isobeel lifted her chin, eyes alight with righteous indignation. “How could you? How could you do that after everything I have done for you? And I thought we were friends.”

“Friends. You said you would loan them to me to copy, and then kept making excuses.”

“Don’t make this about me. You took them without permission and now they are missing.”

“Wait up.” Viky had to almost yell. “Jess, can you confirm that Sheeli did return the chains?”

“Tell me again, exactly what happened?” Jess asked.

“I borrowed Isobeel’s chains, kept them for less than nine days and returned them. I promise.” Sheeli sniffed.

“That’s the Truth.” Jess confirmed. “But, no it’s the truth.”

“Now tell us the whole truth, the thing you are omitting.” Viky insisted.

Sheeli glanced at Viky. “Do you have some sort of Reading as well?”

“This isn’t about Viky,” Isobeel had tears in her eyes, she reached for Sheeli’s hand again. “What haven’t you told us?”

“I was trying to work out how the chains were linked; it was an accident I promise. It was only a little tear.”

“You damaged them.” Isobeel closed her eyes.

“Not much.”

“They have been preserved in my family for hundreds of rotations, and you ruin them?” Isobeel’s voice rose to a screech.

“She didn’t say that.” Jess soothed.

Isobeel started sobbing.

“How long ago did you return them?” Viky asked Sheeli.

“Only a couple of nine-day ago.” Tears filled defiant eyes.

“I will never forgive you. I trusted you. We all trusted you. You are nothing but a lousy little…”

“Isobeel,” Viky went and stood between the women. “As disappointed as you are in Sheeli’s actions, they are useful. We now have a much narrower time frame for the theft. The chance of recovery has improved as we know the theft didn’t take place months ago. The chains are probably still in the capital. We can consolidate our efforts to finding out who visited during a much narrower window of opportunity.” Viky’s mind was analysing, constructing, and dismissing scenarios.

“That’s true,” Jess took Isobeel’s hand. “We have a better chance of finding them now, and it’s because Sheeli ‘borrowed’ them.”

“I am, the weaving was supposed to be a surprise for you, as a ‘thank you’, we do appreciate what you’ve done for us.” Sheeli said stiffly.

Isobeel took stock of herself, looked to Jess for confirmation.

“It’s true Isobeel, and for what it’s worth Sheeli is very sorry.”

“And I’ll do anything in my power to help you find them.”