Page 58 of Elemental Truth


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Thessaly squeezed his fingers back. “You went somewhere else, between?”

“To talk to Niobe, and run through what information I’ll need to ask them.” Vitus swallowed, visibly. “Discretion with clients matters. Both the reality of it and the show of it. I can’t tell you much. Though they said I could tell you I was working on a piece for them.”

Thessaly nodded. “I understand that. It happens with illusion work, too. If I take up consulting, I’m sure there will be commissions I take on I can’t talk to you about.” She saw that hit him, that this was fair, that it was going to be fair going forward. That she certainly wasn’t someone who’d pout and fuss about not knowing everything he did. She added, “I’m glad you went to Niobe, and I like that you tell me that sort of thing? But if you’d ever rather not, I understand that too.”

“I should at least have written to you and let you know when I’d likely turn up. Rather than leaving you to guess,” Vitus offered, grimacing.

“That would be a kindness. I spent the last hour reading the same three pages over and over. Or not reading, as it were. Not the worst hour I’ve spent in the recent past, not even in the top hundred. But I’d rather do other things.” Thessaly patted his hand. “What can you tell me?”

“I’d like to talk out the larger implications, honestly.” Vitus tugged her hand into his lap, cupping both of his around hers. “They asked me to make a talisman for them. Or more than one, probably, for what they want.” He lifted one finger from where it curled around her hand. “I asked why they weren’t having Laudine’s father do it. There’s a matter of oaths.”

“And that’s the part you want to talk about.” Thessaly tilted her head. “Related to whatever is going on at Arundel?”

“Mmhmm.” Vitus looked down at their hands, speaking slowly now. “Dagobert’s curse dates to the night your aunt was killed. Not from her, from others in the family. I don’t think it’s what they intended.”

“And you won’t speak of the details. That’s fair. And the talismans are for some ongoing aspect?” Thessaly added, a little dryly, “People don’t usually invest in your sort of talismans for something expected to resolve promptly. For one thing, there’s the time needed to make the thing. You’ve explained enough of that.”

It made Vitus chuckle. “No, that’s logical enough. Yes, something ongoing.” He considered. “I think they’re concerned about the show of the thing, as well as the reality.”

“That, now, I know something about.” Vitus blinked up at her and Thessaly let her smile broaden. “Illusionist, remember? Our entire art, sometimes, is drawing the eye to one place to do something elsewhere. That’s a lot of what Aunt Metaia did with the protective illusions. I really find it quite interesting.” She flicked her fingers. “Not so interesting I particularly want to hire out to the Great Families. Not any time soon. But enough I might ask about learning more about it, and the places that ordinary people could use a bit of illusion.”

Vitus blinked at her several times, and then leaned forward to kiss her, taking his time about it, one of his hands coming up to cup her neck. She had, in fact, brought them out here so that they would not get too distracted by the physical instead of talking. That, however, did not mean she didn’t enjoy the kiss, want more of it, and looked forward to what they might do when back inside. When he pulled back, his hand went around hers again, warm and right there.

“You should do that. When you’re ready.” Then he flicked a finger. “Anyway. There will be oaths, but Laudine showed me the shape of them. Proper documentation with the Scali and all that. I just made the provisional ones to allow for the planning today. That’s ordinary.”

“Quite.” Thessaly considered. “I suppose you can’t answer anything about if it’s about the mill. Or anything else.”

“Actually.” Vitus tilted his head. “That didn’t come up directly. It might later. They’re under oaths, Dagobert specifically, about what they can and can’t say. And those included not talking to anyone related by blood or marriage. It’s why Laudine can’t consult her father, but she could with me, even if there are parts she can’t discuss.”

“And, ugh. I can’t keep track of this without a chart. They must know you were doing work for Lord Clovis and Sigbert.” Thessaly started there. Vitus nodded once. “And that you’d seen the inside of the mill.” He nodded again and Thessaly went on. “And that you had talked some of it out?”

“Laudine made a point of noting you were not included in the group she could not talk to. Betrothal and marriage being rather different on that point,” Vitus said. “And besides, the betrothal would have broken, anyway.” He shrugged once. “But I don’t see how that helps. I don’t know the way to read the history of magic cast in a space. And honestly, I don’t even know that the Penelopes would get much from it, if they tried.” As he spoke, his eyes widened, like he’d realised something.

“Yes?”

“I explained a Faraday cage to you, I know.” Vitus was leaning forward.

“And then you loaned me a fair bit of reading material, most of which I have looked at it. Some of the details lost me. I have a list of questions in the library.” Thessaly’s training was notremotely designed for complex diagrams of wiring. She was neither a talisman maker nor a ritualist by preference.

“The thing is that it removes a space from interaction with the electrical forces in the room. I could arrange to show you a small one. There’s a common enough experiment.” Vitus wriggled his fingers. “But I don’t know what it does here.”

“Does Dagobert, do you think?” Thessaly asked, chewing on the problem a little.

Vitus stared off over her shoulder, chewing on his lip. “I think he knows what their original goal was. I don’t know how that changed. You said, pardon.” Vitus looked at her, earnest now. “You said Childeric changed once the betrothal happened. Is it possible that whatever they were doing was part of that? I’d have worried that it was something in the research. Only Dagobert made it clear his own problems were a specific curse.” Vitus twitched his fingers. “Or there’s a question of whether there’s a larger curse.”

“I keep coming back to thinking about that. It’s groping around in the dark, isn’t it?” Thessaly shook her head, a bit of hair coming loose and down her cheek. “It’s a hard idea to ignore, at this point.”

“So many deaths out of season. Particular ones. On an estate that you’d think would be firmly set about with all sorts of protections.” Vitus agreed with that. “But it’s a cause and effect problem, perhaps? What was it like, early on? Before your betrothal?”

Thessaly grimaced. “Being around Childeric was tiring, a great deal. More after the betrothal than before, but before we were mostly out together in company. A supper, a concert, a gala. Later,” Thessaly paused, obviously sorting through memories. “I couldn’t tell, at the time, how much of that was him and how much was the situation. But I was going through my notes again earlier today. And I don’t think I had the samefeeling with Sigbert. Or even the days before the funeral. I didn’t care for it. Those days, they were demanding in half a dozen ways. But I didn’t feel faint, I didn’t feel like my knees would give out, or just that I wanted to lie down and sleep.” Just thinking back to those feelings, how she’d made space for feeling awful, gave her a stomachache or something akin to it.

“And you did, with Childeric?” Vitus said. “You hadn’t said.”

Thessaly’s chin came up. “Women put up a with a great deal of discomfort on the average, and we’re expected to do it without letting it show. I thought it was mostly that until he turned awful. And then he was awful. Of course, I felt horrible after that. It would have been remarkable if I didn’t.”

“I do hope you do not feel you must hide any of that with me.” Vitus squeezed her hand. “I suspect not, given your clothing choices at home.”

“Oh, there are uses for a corset and a bustle. And if they fit well, they don’t limit most movement. How you bend, yes. Whether you can, no. Not really. Well, bending sideways is a bit of a trick. You can’t hinge at the hip.” She waved a hand. “Anyway. At the time, I thought it within the expected range. But what if it wasn’t? What if something was?—”