"I've been meaning to ask actually," Olivia said. "If you're sure you don't mind helping, well. I was hoping I'd get a chance to pick up some trinkets along the journey, but I haven't found anything yet—"

"Do you want to borrow one of mine?"

"No—maybe, maybe the bell?" Her words rushed together. "If we don't find anything better? But what I meant was," she slowed down, "that if the opportunity came up, I'd like to go and look for something. I was hoping you'd come and help?"

"Into a House? Like The Spire?"

"No, no. Not a House. My mother would kill me, if we survived. No. But there are other places."

"Oh, of course. I'd be happy to." Hina meant it—and there was a good chance that wherever they went would have something for her as well. "I'm sure Mica would be too."

"Uh, only," Olivia stammered, "it would be better if he didn't come. Like, this time, at least?"

"Oh?"

"These places—sometimes they react poorly to non-practitioners—it can get dangerous. It would be better if we went alone."

"Oh, really? I didn't know that. When we went into The Spire it didn't seem too dangerous."

"You are almost certainly wrong about that," Olivia shook her head. "If you weren't in serious danger, you were extremely lucky. It's more likely that you were in great danger and didn't realize it." She took a deep breath. "But that's not the point. It's about ambit strength. Too low and it's a problem, too much variance between the members of a group, and that can be a different kind of problem. And, uh. You've actually only just reached the level where it makes sense to go together."

"You can see that?"

"Not see, exactly. It's more like a feeling. You get a sense for concentrations of power after a certain point. You should be near it now, I should think. Maybe after a few more months of practice."

"Oh." Hina remembered how it had felt, the pressure in the back of her mind when Hina had last paid attention to Olivia performing a working. When she'd put up her ward, before the huld had found them. "I guess that makes sense."

"So it would be better if it was just the two of us," she said. "This time. Maybe—maybe we can bring him along another time? If it goes well?"

"Okay," Hina said. "I guess that makes sense. So what are these places you have in mind?"

"So you'll really do it? You'll come with me?"

"Of course."

"Really really? It could be dangerous. I must be completely clear about that."

"Really really."

"Oh, thank you. Thank you so much." Olivia's eyes were shining. "This is wonderful. It could be just the thing. What a relief. I'd been worried that I would have to go alone, or do without entirely."

"So where are we going?"

"Uh, well, I was thinking—you know it's faster to get to the city by going north and catching the train, right?"

"If you can pay for a ticket, yeah." And if you aren't on the run from the authorities. "I considered it, but." She threw her hands up. "It's expensive, and then there was everything else."

"Right, of course." She looked sheepish. "But the main thing is that there are a lot of old ruins and temples and even a couple of dead houses between Blandmanch and Modmin, and further into the hills. Modmin in particular is popular with explorers since there are so many good sites nearby." She shrugged.

"You're saying that that's why you came this way, rather than catching the train to the city?"

"One of the reasons, yes. The main reason. Other than it being traditional, of course."

"So we'd set out from Modmin? And go where?"

"Only if we don't find anything suitable sooner."

"Wait, so you want to leave the caravan and go exploring?" Hina wasn't sure that she liked the sound of that. "What if we don't make it back in time?" She didn't want to be left behind. She hadn't had enough money to join the caravan in the first place.

"I don't think that will be a problem. Some time tomorrow we should start passing by the first of the ruins, and if we can find a likely site near our campsite, we can explore for a few hours in the afternoon and evening after we stop, and continue with the caravan in the evening. I don't intend to risk being left behind."

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"Okay, that sounds reasonable. We'll have to tell Mica, though. I can't agree to keeping it a secret."

"Of course. When he gets back for dinner."

"How do we know where to look?"

"Well, actually, I've got a map of the sites around Modmin. There are three that we should be passing near over the next couple of days. Here, I'll show you." Olivia rummaged around in her satchel for a few moments, then pulled out a folded piece of paper. "It's a little old, but it should be good enough."

Hina took the map and unfolded it. It was a simple sketch showing the hills and valleys around Modmin, and some of the twisting road that connected it to Blandmanch in the north. There were five locations marked with simple crosses. "Where did you get this?" she asked.

"My father gave it to me. I don't know where he got it from. Some old friend, I think."

"And you're sure it's accurate?"

"No." Olivia shook her head. "It's unlikely that it's accurate now, if it ever was. There's no guarantee that any of these sites are accessible, valuable, or even there at all. This is a map of places that might be worth investigating, not anything more certain than that. If we don't find anything, we can ask around in Modmin. Someone there will be able to guide us in the right direction—it's one of their major industries."

"But any site which a guide can take us to is going to be pretty well picked over, right?" Hina asked.

"It's possible. But there are a lot of sites, and they're finding new ones all the time. These hills were full of people a long time ago, and they left a lot behind. It's better if we can find a site on our own, but if we can't, the guide option is likely to work, it just might take longer to find the right kind of place."

"So this one?" Hina pointed to a cross near the top left of the map. "Wait, where are we now? Here?" She moved her finger to a spot on the winding road near the top of the map.

"Here," Olivia said, pointing a little further along. "We're part way around this bend."

"This first site, we'll camp somewhere near it tomorrow? Or just past it?"

"Yes, I think so. If we're quick after the caravan stops, we can get there in time to explore for a couple of hours, more if we don't mind coming back after dark."

"Uh. I'm going to need a way to make light. Especially if these sites—they're going to be dark, right?"

"It's likely, yes. I think..." Olivia grinned. "Well, given that you're helping me out with this, I'd say that it's my responsibility to make sure you can make light independently." She rummaged around in her satchel once more. "Here, you can borrow this for a while. Take notes if you need them, to better understand the working, of course."

Hina smiled and took the card, glanced at the vaguely familiar shapes drawn in dark ink. "Thank you." She didn't really follow Olivia's reasoning, but it was what she wanted, and Hina would take any help she could get. She tucked it away into her pocket.

She'd make a proper copy of it, now that she had a notebook. And she'd write down everything else she could, too.

Olivia went back to her book, and Hina started writing.

First, she copied down the light working, carefully transcribing all of the symbols and all of the text. When she practiced the working later, she'd have to use her own notebook as a reference—that would help make sure that she'd copied everything correctly.

And then, when she was done with the light working, she started on copying all of her other workings and her thoughts about them into the book. Better to have some duplication than to risk losing everything, if something happened. All of them except for the lesser sigil of guidance—that one could wait.

Hina did, however, start on sketching out some of the patterns that she remembered from when she'd used the sigil. She could only remember parts of them—not enough to work with, but it was a start.

Given that the light working had faded from her memory, Hina didn't want to be relying on her memory. Not if she could help it. The more she could record, the better off she'd be.

While she was writing, she remembered the book that they'd found in the spire. It was in Kai's bag, and they hadn't even looked at it yet, which seemed like a waste. What if it was hiding some valuable information? Or better yet, what if it had some workings hidden within the pages? That would be a real find.

Though workings related to ritual sacrifice might not be of much use to her, she supposed. She didn't want to be involved in anything like that.

But better to know than not to know. Once she'd finished writing, she borrowed Kai's bag and pulled out the book and started flipping through it.

Like Kai had said, the title page read "Ritual Sacrifice: A Practical Guide". The author was listed only by their initials, "O. U.".

The book appeared to be a collection of essays, each one on a different topic related to ritual sacrifice. The first essay covered a history of the practice, from the earliest known examples to the present day—though there were no dates in the book, so it was unclear when it was written.

Ritual sacrifice was apparently a common practice in many cultures, and had been for thousands of years, for a variety of reasons. It could be used as a way to appease greater entities, or to provide benefits for a group of people, or as a way to increase personal power.

Hina read on with a kind of horrified fascination. The author of the book seemed to be arguing that it was a practice that should be revived, and that it could be used to improve the world.

The second essay was more practical, and discussed various ways that animals could be used as sacrifices, even going to far as to describe two different rituals and comparing and contrasting the two. Each included drawings and pictures of a working that might be used to facilitate the sacrifice and to draw power from it.

While the workings weren't ethical, or practical for her right now, they were interesting. Perhaps there were principles that she could learn from them, even if she didn't want to use them directly. She read on.

* * *

After dinner, Bean hopped up onto Hina's lap and chirped.

"How's it feeling, little bird?" she asked. "It's about time to change your bandage again, I think."

Bean gave a low croak, but he didn't hop away. The white cloth around his wing had taken on a faintly dirty colour, though he didn't seem to be in any pain.

She sliced through the knot with her knife and unwrapped the fabric.

Bean stretched his wing out, and flapped it slowly. It looked a little stiff, but he seemed to be able to move it.

"Is he better?" asked Kai, looking up his book. He was lying on his blanket, his book held high to catch the last rays of sunlight.

"He looks like it. I'm going to leave the bandage off for now, I think. We'll put it back on if he looks like he's still in pain."

Bean chirruped, and hopped up onto Hina's arm, then up to her shoulder. He leaned in and curled up against her neck.

"Good bird," she said, stroking him with a finger. "Good bird."