“So what do you two think of James’s claims?” I asked as Lance, Conrad, and I are riding back to my estate. We’d agreed to head out to meet the crown prince early tomorrow, and since my mansion was on the way to the castle, we decided to share a ride.

As we loaded into the carriage, Blackwing reappeared and landed on my shoulder, having left Idlewing behind. The two inquisitors had stayed behind at the Mage Guild office. We had all decided to go to work separately for the rest of the night, as it was already starting to get dark. I planned to make at least one or two enchanted items before leaving for the hunting lodge tommorow.

“I think I’d like to throttle him,” Conrad said, “I can’t believe I actually thought bringing in an inquisitor was a good idea.”

"If it makes you feel better, he would have just invited himself eventually," I point out ruefully, "He would have just needed to discredit me first. I think a week is about the most he'd have given me to solve it on my own before stepping in for the "good of the kingdom"."

“He’s a bit too ready to resort to falsehoods,” Lance opined, “Makes it difficult to trust him.”

“I think he was lying about the divination,” I say.

“Oh?” Lance prompts me.

“By combining the efforts of multiple wizards, it might be possible to do what he claims, though it would be ridiculously difficult. But it wouldn’t work on someone wearing anti-divination wards. I’m assuming both princes wear such wards all the time. They work by causing magical interference that would make any attempt to foresee future events like that, impossible. So either both princes are extremely careless, or that was a lie.”

“Why would he lie about it?” Lance asked.

“Perhaps he’s trying to make himself and the inquisitor’s guild look good?” Conrad offered.

“If that’s what he was aiming for, he failed pretty spectacularly,” I observe.

“Perhaps he was aiming to make the inquisitors more intimidating? Spread rumors that they can foresee the future, would deter anyone from wanting to oppose them,” Conrad suggested.

“By telling us that his diviners failed at their job and didn’t take into account a possible dungeon break? If anything, he just made the inquisitors sound clumsy,” I point out.

Lance thought for a bit, then his eyes lit up, “You think he was trying to share information without revealing where it came from?”

“Yeah, I bet he’s absolutely right about what the eldest prince is doing right now,” I said with a sigh. “Everything after that was just his way of hiding how he knows that. Against anyone who isn’t a trained wizard, that lie would sound believable, but if you do actually know how divination spells work and know that the royal family live their entire lives wearing every type of defensive ward known to man, it doesn’t make much sense.”

We were silent for a bit, then I spoke up again. “Blackwing, can you lie with your soul? Against an active truth spell?”

“Can I?” Blackwing asks, “Yes. Can you? No,” she said, adding a soft caw afterward as a chuckle.

“James told me trained wizards with familiars can deceive active truth spells.” I clarified, “Is that true?”

Blackwing shrugs, “Is possible. Would take training. Test of skill. Better soul magic wins. I win against humans. Can’t deceive me.”

“But if I tried it…”

“That human, better soul magic. He could lie.” Blackwing affirmed.

“Why would he warn me about that?”

“Well, it did make you choose not to do it. He must have not wanted to risk it, perhaps?” Lance suggested.

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“But I wouldn’t have known he was lying, I’m not that good at soul magic.”

“Sharpclaw would know.” Blackwing observed, “Sharpclaw might tell.”

So James was worried that his own familiar would spy on him? “Does that ever happen? Familiars telling you things their partners would rather they not?”

“Could happen,” Blackwing suggested, “If I ask.”

“I would have asked him if he really intended to start a civil war,” I said quietly.

“That seems like a dangerous question,” Conrad said somberly, “but one I’d really like to know the answer to myself.”

“Welcome back, Jason, how was your day?” Primrose asked politely. She’d shown up as soon as I stepped off the carriage at my mansion. Lance trailed behind me, but Conrad was on his way back to the palace.

I glanced at her, “Fine, I guess. All things considered. No one’s died yet, so that’s good.”

Primrose quirked an eyebrow at me, “Are people dying something you think is likely to happen? Should we take precautions?”

I paused, stopped in my tracks. “What sort of precautions would you take, if I were to tell you there’s a risk of a dungeon break happening soon?”

Primrose paled a bit, “There are steps we can take, perhaps an evacuation drill to prepare your staff should that occur? Perhaps you’d like to take the time to reinforce the mansion’s magic defenses? They’ve been in a sorry state since Reginald left us. It would be nice gesture if you took the time, sir.”

“You sound so formal,” I observe as we walk in the front door and start up the stairs, “Any particular reason?”

Primrose looked down, “I’ve started to think you might actually be good at your job,” she admitted, “I was looking down on you before, but seeing how hard you’re working, and hearing a report about how Sir Conrad deferred to your judgment. I’m starting to think I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Even if you didn’t want this job, you do seem to have some talent at it.”

I frown at Primrose, “I've been thinking I’m pretty hopeless at this,” I confess, “So far it feels all I’ve been doing is reacting to events as best I can. Nothing seems clear to me, and I have no idea who to trust…”

“That’s pretty normal, I’d say,” Primrose says with a chuckle. “But what matters is, people are putting their trust in you. That means they believe in you, even if you don’t believe in yourself. That’s a good start.”

“Hmmm... if you say so,” I reply doubtfully. "Thanks for the encouragement. I'll look at the mansion's defenses a bit later, I want to check in on Lily and Rebecca first."

I open the door to my workshop to discover Lily, Rebecca, and Idlewing had been burning something because the stench of burnt cloth fills the air.

“Umm, what have you three been up to?” I ask.

“Oh! Hi master Jason! We were just testing out fire resistance wards…” Lily says.

“I was trying to make one,” Rebecca admits, “using a runic pattern Lily drew.”

“And it caught on fire?”

“Yep,” Rebecca says with a sigh. “Idlewing said he could make it work, but my mana… it’s not suited for it.”

I frown. “It should be possible for a pyromancer to make a fire-resistance ward...”

“It is,” Idlewing affirms, “I purify mana. Remove fire affinity with soul magic. But too much,” Idlewing tries to explain.

“... but, you’d need to do it backwards.” I continue, ignoring Idlewing’s comment, but I file it away as interesting information I should ask Blackwing about sometime later.

“Backwards?” Rebecca asks.

“You’d want to create a void pattern, fill in the empty spaces around the runic thread, leave only the threads untouched. Picture it like making an inverse image, filling in everything on a white page, except where you want to form white lines to draw the shape.”

“Would that work?”

"Well, not with this pattern, since normal cloth won't hold mana, something with a solid grid of gold threads with careful gaps maybe?" I ponder. "I don't think it's ever been done before, not on cloth, but it should work."

"Magic works something like vision does, it requires contrast… Spells can’t work in an area that is already fully saturated with magic. That’s how dispel spells work, they flood an area with magic so that the patterns of spells fall apart, like spilling a bottle of ink on a letter. I don’t know how to better explain it, but void patterns are especially useful in creating anti-magic wards; spells designed to prevent other spells. In this case, your ward would be useless against normal fire, but would block fire spells… it would especially be effective at blocking your own fire spells, which is what I assume those burnt gloves were meant for. It would create a hole of sorts, into which your fire spells would be absorbed,” I explain.

“Huh,” Rebecca said thoughtfully, “I guess you do know your stuff,” she adds with a chuckle.

“Yeah…” I pause in thought, “You know, this gives me an idea of how to make layered enchants work with cloth. I think I could use a void pattern layer between each layer of enchantment.”

“That’s not how they do it with magic rings?”

“No, magic jewelry relies on insulation. So long as each layer of gold runic script is separated by a solid layer of silver, it will work. The silver doesn’t let the magic seep through. But a void pattern could be an insulator too if it’s primed to nullify any mana from the person who makes the other enchantment layers…”

Excited by my new idea, I begin to sketch out the pattern I want Lily to make so that I can test it. We plan out how to make self-cleaning, fire-resistant, gloves with a void pattern, null-magic layer in between so the enchantments don’t interfere with each other.