“I think we should try to speak to her,” Elisa suggested reasonably.
“Except she won’t talk to us,” Rosa remarked. “She’s done something to drive other peculiari away, and since she wasn’t why we were in the area, we just left her to it. For now.”
“It could indicate a serious problem.” Alistair had lost interest in his book. “I’d like to know what has her worried.”
“Send someone who isn’t a peculiari to talk to her.” Nicodemus turned a page in his book to scribble a note to look into this more tomorrow. “Or, if you think it must be a peculiari, send Holt. Or, if she is that suspicious and regards other peculiari as threats anyway, send Bel.”
“Nicodemus, you don’t understand,” Donovan said, not unkindly. “She isn’t going to letanyoneapproach her.”
“I’ve seen Holt and Bel do many seemingly impossible things,” Nicodemus replied. But this was not his area of expertise, so he shrugged and started to return to his formula, only to catch that puzzled, pleased expression on Bel’s face, as if Bel didn’t understand why Nicodemus would recommend him for something more diplomatic than his usual cases.
“Doing the impossible!” That got Donovan excited. “Every time I think I’ve seen the limit, one of you goes and does something almost unbelievable.”
Donovan had mastered making his own Rings on Earth shortly after learning he could.
“I’m convinced trying to learn the rules only makes things worse,” Percy observed, somewhere in the middle of their discussion of each other’s power. Some of them could do one thing but not another. Some could do them but not well, or for long. Nicodemus listened with the interest of someone who could now attempt those things as well, if he wanted.
“The real question is, what is impossible, or what is just very difficult?” Donovan tapped the side of his nose and lowered his voice dramatically. “Like flying on Earth, or trying to find someone in the Realm who does not want to be found.”
“But you can do that,” Alistair reminded him, only a bit snidely. “It’s just close to impossible…for most of us. Belasko is the exception.”
Nicodemus looked at Bel with his brows raised high. Bel was very still; his face suddenly blank.
“Yeah,” Elisa and Percy said together, before Elisa continued. “How do you do it, Bel? Find someone experienced in the Realm who doesn’t want to be found?”
Now, there was a question Nicodemus had also had. Bel did not track people by scent or footprints. Other people could not sense what Nicodemus felt—at least, Nicodemus was reasonably certain they couldn’t.
Bel continued to lounge. “You’re asking me, and my solution might work for you, depending on who, or what, you are searching for. But you would have to understand the heart of the Realm and open yourself up to learn the desires of those who live there.” The room was momentarily quiet except for the crackle of the fire. Then Bel flashed a little smile. “You would be better off asking Nicodemus howhewould do such a thing.”
If Nicodemus had ever wanted proof that they had all speculated about what he had done that night in the Realm with Bel, he had his proof in how all of them but Billy turned to him. Even Rosa. Billy just took Donovan’s remaining cider.
Nicodemus glanced at Bel, confused.
Bel leaned back as if to watch a show. “Well? How would you do it, lamb? How would you find someone in the Realm who doesn’t want to be found?”
He was not teasing. He meant it.
Nicodemus closed his notebook and looked around at the others. “How do you normally?”
He was inundated with answers.
“You don’t.”
“You can, but it depends on how strong and skilled they are.”
“—Or how lost to the Realm they are.”
“True. If there is no trace of their former self, then you won’t find even a scrap. You have to know them as they are now.”
“But we tend not to do that,” Elisa finished, speaking for everyone but Bel.
Nicodemus adjusted his glasses. “And why is that?”
Alistair hesitated before answering. “We’d need some idea of them, a remnant, a trace, to use to look for signs of them. But you have a whole world to search—if they are even still within the Realm. A peculiari—an experienced peculiari—can leave at any time, and be on the other side of the Earth in a blink. A really skilled peculiari can even travel to exactly where they want to go, no matter the distance.”
“Though it will exhaust them,” Rosa added.
“But you can still track them on Earth,” Nicodemus reasoned aloud, knowing it was true because Bel had done it.
