Penny was preparing dinner for the residents of the East wing. On her way through the eastern hall, she saw someone had left a trail of water starting from the interior courtyard and leading up to Mage Cole’s laboratory. She’d need to ensure it was cleaned up before someone slipped on it. She knocked on the door, and when she received no response she went inside. The lab was in a state of only mild disarray, the result of her hard fought battles after the mess it had sunk into after Natasha’s departure.
The Laboratory had an interior connection to the Library, and the two rooms were the best place to find the mages around dinnertime. The eastern small hall was prepared for them, but the mages often preferred to eat in their rooms, especially if they were busy with something. Continuing into the library she was mindful to not trip on any errant jars or a seemingly abandoned walking cane Mage Archibald had used before he left for the capital. She found the door to the library still open.
“Milords? Dinner is ready to be served, will you be taking it in the small hall?”
Stepping into the room, Penny could now clearly hear Tommen and Mage Poetrak having an animated conversation about something. The Metal dog laying down on the couch with Poetrak briefly took her aback, but she was a professional.
“Oh, Penny. Of course. We’ll take it in the small hall, Cole will be joining us shortly.”
“Hi Penny.”
“As you say..”
“Oh and Penny, Please tell the footmen I want squash for my side.”
“Me too!”
“Yes Milords.”
Penny straightened up, ordering squash was code for when Poetrak had foreseen something was about to happen and he wanted knights present. The last time he had given the order to ‘Serve the Baron squash’ they had caught an assassin attempting to poison the Baron’s meal. Tommen was oblivious to this, squash was just one of his favorite foods.
~~~
The letter hadn’t taken long for Cole to write, and it was off on a wing by the time the footman came to inform him dinner was ready. Cole didn’t recognise this particular footman, as they had been increasing the castle’s staff in preparations for the upcoming winter.
“Milord, Mage Poetrak and Tommen will be eating in the small hall, shall you be joining him?”
“Yeah, I will.”
The small hall was located in the opposite direction of his lab, but Cole was sure Poetrak and Tommen had done something to keep the Soulsteel busy. Passing by two guards, a rare sight in the eastern wing, his attention was distracted from their presence as soon as he entered the dining room. A familiar silver dog was curled up in the middle of the blazing hearth, and he realized that it was obvious neither would want to part with it just so they could eat.
“Did you start a proper manafire, Tommen?”
“Yes Master.”
“How many attempts did it take?”
“Only one.”
“Good job, now. How is the Soulsteel doing?”
“It turned back into a dog after I brought it into the lab. It made a new mana structure I wanna show you after dinner. It reminded me of what Natasha had been working on.”
“What about you Poetrak, how’d the scry go?”
“It told me tonight is going to be a good night.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just sit down and start eating before your food is cold.”
~~~
The Wizard had come in not long after I got settled down in the fireplace. The servant that had brought me firewood seemed to be giving me a weird look. However, that might have just been because I was eating red hot coals from the fire, as they had more mana inside if I broke them open before they split on their own. I was basking in the amount of red mana I was able to absorb, and it made me start to feel electric again. It seemed I was slowly getting used to having more mana in me at once, but other than the hyperactivity, I still hadn’t found anything that limits the amount of mana I could possess at one time.
I spent most of my focus on getting back to my ears. With my new silver-gray mana I was overhauling them, starting with a membrane woven of its fibers. Using white and black mana threads, I was able to drastically improve my passive hearing. Now, without focusing, I was able to hear a fork drop on the other side of the room. The conversation of the diners was still nonsense to me, but I could make out laughter, or a raised voice, without having to take time to interpret.
It seemed the dark mana was best used as a discriminator, filtering out superfluous sounds, and white mana worked best as a sensor, feeding me information about what it was ‘seeing’. I expect I could now delegate most of my senses to the white mana, and this in combination with my newfound balance meant I now had much greater dexterity. I had just been gearing up to see about mixing more mana, so I could get started on colored vision, but as I took one last glance around the room. He was staring at me again. A single maid was serving the drinks, a butler was taking away empty plates, and then there's this guy who keeps giving me strange looks, and does seem to be doing anything. When I caught his gaze, he seemed to stuff something into his side pocket, and then started moving towards the door.
I stood up from the fireplace, and when I did the fat wizard stopped eating and stood up from his chair. I focused on the servant trying to leave, and I found his skin was far brighter than any of the other servants, and I could also see whatever he had tried to hide was giving off enough white mana that I could see its outline in his pocket.
The kid and the blue wizard had their backs to me, so they only reacted to the wizlard’s apparent interest. I tried to remember what dogs looked like when they were pointing at something, like when a German shepard found drugs, but the best I could manage was to just look at him with a front leg in the air.
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After they took the shady guy away, I returned to my spot inside the fire. Their meal must almost be done, but I should still have time to try a new recipe or two. With my red mana having been able to start a fire, it was an easy first pick. My second pick was white, as it seemed like the most likely option to give me new colors. When I wove two of the strands together, an orange color started from between the braid’s midpoint, and the thread turned from the low saturation red I’d had before into a proper fiery red.
I started trying to weave the red into the sensors in my eyes, but it seemed that that just turned everything shades of red instead of shades of black. It was only when I separated the pattern, and then copied it to the filter, that I managed to get black, white and red. I figured if white and red gave me a better red, surely white and blue would give me a better blue? I was now on fire in two ways, as that was my second successful guess on coloring. Duochrome vision was disorientating, but apparently this is how dogs would normally see the world. I was not going to settle for two of three, and started trying to work out how to make yellow or green.
Then, in order to aim for green, I started with red-black and blue-black. The red black gave me a brown, but the blue-black gave me the green I was looking for. I made the green light filter thicker, and added some of my new blue mana to only the filter to make it sensitive to only yellow. With this I had achieved my goal, and all before they finished dinner.
~~~
When the living metal started pointing at him, Poetrak knew for certain this was the man who he’d foreseen getting caught tonight. It was glaringly obvious to him now that it was pointed out. A new hire, he had a poor shave, and was obviously far too nervous. The servant began to make a break for it, and Cole was about to respond by casting Bind Gravity on him, but a wave of Poetrak’s hand made him pause.
As the spy opened the double doors, the two knights he’d requested were within arms reach, and it took only a moment for him to have been grabbed by both.
“Perfect job gentlemen. Would you mind getting him set up in the dungeon? We shouldn’t be needing you again tonight.”
“Of course”
“Would it really hurt you to tell me about these things ahead of time?”
“It doesn’t, as long as I foresee myself telling you.”
“You never seem to foresee yourself telling me.”
“A seer does not control the future, he only influences it.”
Cole dropped back into his seat. Poetrak always said he kept his secrecy so as to not inadvertently affect the future he had foreseen, but it always felt like he just enjoyed keeping him out of the loop. His smarmy grin also didn’t help him believe in Poetrak’s honest intentions.
“How long has the soulsteel been keeping warm?”
“About twenty minutes, give or take.”
“What was its mana consumption?”
“I didn’t get a chance to take it before it turned back, but it went through a full bead in about five minutes as a dog.”
“This thing is quite the glutton.”
“Even if this thing was just a normal Soulsteel, I’d still be sending word to Archibald. He always makes time to see any new Living Metal finds for himself, and finding virgin Soulsteel would normally bring him running. However, considering how busy he is, and his network and greater infrastructure in the capital, we should be going to him.”
“We’re going to see Master Archibald and Natasha?”
“Yes Tommen, we will be heading to the capital as soon as I secure the Baron’s permission. Living Metal that falls on his territories would normally be his, but because it’s already Soulsteel the Duke will be paying to “emancipate” it from him. In this case, he hasn’t put any resources into it beyond the reward for recovery, so it should be some quick negotiations.”
“How soon will we get there?”
“If all goes well we’ll be there shortly after the first snowfall, But it depends on if we get bogged down by it.”
“You two should have fun. Not often you get a free pass into the Ducal Estate.”
“It’s too bad you can’t come, but the Baron won’t be willing to part with both his mages at once.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. You two are gonna be the ones trying to keep that thing out of trouble without my gift of foresight.”
“Don’t remind me.”
~~~
Penny was shocked when the new hire, Jerry, had turned out to have been passing reports on the Barony during his days off. She was once again glad for Mage Poetrak’s advice, as it had once again saved her from another less than desirable situation. He would swear up and down he wasn’t using divination, but she wasn’t sure.
“Are you serious? They’re already leaving for the capital?”
“Yes, both the Duke and Mage Archibald must have given the Baron a fair deal and a half to ensure they set out before the snow started sticking to the ground.”
“It was all because of that thing the adventurers brought, right?”
“I’m pretty sure Mage Cole was looking for an excuse to check up on Natasha.”