Page 39 of Elemental Truth (Mysterious Fields #3)
39
MAY 27TH AT DINAS EMRYS
“ W e appreciate the time.” Thessaly had just settled in the chair when Vitus spoke. Cousin Owain was hosting. This was the sort of matter that required privacy, but going to the Council Keep might be noticed. They were up in Cousin Owain’s sitting room, the same one they’d used previously. Though this time, Emeline was downstairs having a couple of tea, rather than guarding outside the door. "I gathered from Thessaly that you’ve been exceedingly busy."
“Yes, far more than usual for the season.” Magistra Hereswith inclined her head, spreading her skirts out a little with one hand as she sat down. “But you implied you had important information.”
“A week ago, Laudine and Dagobert consulted Vitus on the creation of a talisman. The details, of course, are confidential, the usual sort of oaths, but he was permitted to tell me that much. And we’ve been discussing it since.”
Magistra Hereswith nodded. “And you have something specific?”
“Yes, and no.” Thessaly pulled her notes closer, though they were cryptic to the extreme. “First, I heard this morning, they sent a note round first thing, that Laudine and their newborn son are well and recovering. So, whatever else, we may reasonably assume the family will have other occupation for the moment. Distraction.”
“The remaining family.” Cousin Owain said it quietly, but it was what they were all thinking. “What do you think of her, Thessaly? Of both of them, actually.”
Thessaly inhaled. “Laudine was more honest with me, and more helpful, than the rest of the family put together, I think. Though it’s tremendously difficult to weigh that, given the number of secrets that weren’t shared. Sigbert was trying better, before.” Her voice broke off. “They asked Vitus for help, and I think that shows some degree of good sense.”
“You are biassed.” Vitus sounded almost amused. He’d been nervous about this meeting. He was far less used to talking in this manner. Thessaly wasn’t a great deal more experienced, exactly, but she had learned from Aunt Metaia that Council Members were also people. Some of whom she liked, and some of whom she did not.
Now she smiled at him. “I am, but it is a measured bias. May I ask, Cousin Owain, about the quality of the problems you’ve been keeping busy with? Something with the Fatae, with the land, something else? The broad category? You’d said that the Fatae were ill at ease in your ordinary negotiations.” She was trying to feel her way through what to say next.
The two Council members exchanged glances. “The Fatae are unsettled, in ways they have not been able to describe. It is nothing that is yet an abrogation of the Pact, but it feels like it might come to that. Or it has. It does not seem to be entirely localised, which is part of the confusion. We have had a range of odd events. Bright blue roses popping up.” Blue in that hue was an impossibility with ordinary flowers. Even those of Albion, without help from illusions or charms. “A swath of a beach turned to shimmering mother-of-pearl, and then it washed away. Rumours of black beasts on the moors— oh, those are common enough, but these sounded like ancient elk. Possibly also sightings of bears and a pack of wolves, maybe a lynx.”
“It’s more usually large cats or hounds, isn’t it?” Vitus asked.
“Oh, yes, and we have checked the usual reason for that, and come up with nothing.” They didn’t explain it, of course, and Thessaly filed that into Council business not discussed with outsiders. Cousin Owain glanced at Magistra Hereswith and added, “The timing does not seem to fit any ordinary ritual cycle, not in aggregate. A few points do match up with specific events, including the last two solstices. Others do not, especially more recently.”
Thessaly nodded. “And has the frequency increased or changed, or whatever the useful measure is there, I’m not sure what?”
They exchanged another of those glances. Magistra Hereswith said, slowly. “Increasing frequency until recently, the last month or so. But we’re not sure if there are what you might call ripple effects.”
“A change sent out into the world continues to create change,” Vitus said, speaking up. “The amplitude may change over time, the strength. Sometimes things get stronger.”
“Just so, ” Magistra Hereswith said. “You’re asking questions with a particular purpose.”
Vitus cleared his throat, and Thessaly let him speak. “I have suspicions about something. I cannot discuss them, as things stand. I may be able to investigate and get additional information. This past week, some other relevant discussions suggested a way to look at some of the notes that Thessaly’s Aunt Metaia left.”
“What sort of suspicion, in a broad sense?” Cousin Owain leaned forward.
“Thessaly and I have observed, though not observed in use, a device that is intended to manipulate magical fields and possibly others. Electrical, magnetic, but in ways that aren’t the usual sort there. The space in question was visibly designed for ritual use to some degree. It may be entirely within bounds, it may not be. And I strongly suspect that anyone who knows what it actually does can’t speak of it.”
Thessaly and Vitus had sorted that wording out. He had argued, given the oaths they’d had him take, that Dagobert was sworn not to speak of whatever the devices were. Lady Chrodechildis couldn’t even if she wanted to, that much communication, that nuanced, seemed beyond her. And there was no one else left, more than likely, who knew. Alexander might have, but he’d been at school until the middle of June. It wasn’t as if they could ask him directly for some time, whatever he knew.
Logic had winnowed down the options. Logic and a series of deaths that, stacked together, seemed tremendously telling.
“That makes it difficult to investigate.” Magistra Hereswith’s voice was dry. “I presume it’s well warded, whatever you suspect?” Vitus nodded, though Thessaly had wondered about the warding. It had been Lord Clovis and Sigbert who had given Vitus permission. They were dead. It would depend how the warding was designed, how lasting it was. On the other hand, while it wasn’t on the Arundel estate proper, it was within steps of the boundary, and that counted for quite a lot if Dagobert exerted himself.
“Yes. And there’s still no conclusive evidence that could be brought to the Penelopes or the Guard. Nothing like that.”
“Or the Council.” Cousin Owain was even more dry, if such a thing was possible.
“We are speaking with the Council,” Thessaly said. “Quod erat demonstrandum. It is possible we, mostly Vitus, might be able to arrange additional information or access or investigation. We honestly don’t know. But if there are techniques we could use, in that investigation, asking seemed relevant. Samples to take, identification charms.”
“We can teach you a few things. Thessaly, you might have an easier time with them, if you can gain access as well. Several of them need a delicate touch with the enchantment.”
Thessaly nodded once. She waited for the two Council members to whisper to each other, and for Cousin Owain to make a few notes. When he looked up again, she said, “I still haven’t sorted out Aunt Metaia’s notes, not the coded ones. But I think it’s possible she was searching for the same thing. I haven’t found anything that disproved it.”
“And yet no proof?” Magistra Hereswith sighed.
“It’s the sort of thing where when— if , when— I figure it out, I’m going to be cursing myself for how long it took, I’m sure. It has that feel of it, like one of her puzzles.” She added to Vitus, “She’d set me scavenger hunts with riddles, and this feels just like that. Why she was doing it in her own personal notes, I don’t know, except that maybe it amused her.”
“Or maybe she was afraid of someone getting access to her notes. Someone besides you.” Magistra Hereswith considered. “You’ve tried looking it as proper cryptography, I suppose?”
“Nothing that simple, that patterned? And I considered some plausible dates. Nothing made sense there. Or, no. There was one encoded bit that basically said ‘wrong idea, try again’. Which was, well, I laughed hysterically for a good half hour. It was late at night. And then I tried something else the next day.”
Vitus had not been around for that, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged. “I tried a lot of things over a couple of weeks?” She then contemplated. “I haven’t actually gone through pigment reactions, or the lore attached to some of them, to chain ideas together. I’ll try that. It’s not the language of flowers, I tried that. Or any of the Powell traditions. Those were the second thing I checked.”
“What was the first?” Magistra Hereswith asked it almost idly.
“Oh, when I was tiny, she gave me an alphabet. Sewn, one of those banners with pockets? And she made stories out of the animals, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t a Powell tradition. It was something she’d come up with when she was tiny, herself.” Thessaly shrugged once. “I don’t know. I keep wondering if there’s something there, but it hasn’t yielded.” She let out a breath. “I’ll try again. And Vitus and I will see if we can find out anything else. Just, it seemed a time to tell you.”
Magistra Hereswith nodded. “We can’t ask you to take the risk. But as you said last time, we can’t stop you. If you do find something concrete, we would very much like to know as soon as possible. The effects we’ve been dealing with are worrying in a number of dimensions.” She rubbed her nose, looking rather tired. “I am pleased to say that introducing Cyrus to his duties has been easier than it might be. He is a quick learner, I’ve found.”
“It seems like it’s been doing him some good? I’ve enjoyed picking up with duelling.” Thessaly did smile at that. “He’s not the best in the salle, and he knows it, and he doesn’t mind. He wants to get better, though, and often in the ways that make a more sensible duel, not always the ones about winning.”
Magistra Hereswith tilted her head at that. “FitzAlan said something similar. I asked him to see about arranging a paired bout at some point, or rather, a sequence of them. I’m curious what Cyrus does when working with a partner.” She contemplated. “I’ve told him this. It’s not a secret from him. I’m training him up on the diplomatic angle and to take that on when his daughter is a little older. Not frequently, for a while. But it’s often helpful to have someone who is presentable in public, easy to get along with. And especially someone who understands how to lose in the moment to win in the end.”
That put an interesting picture on it. She nodded. “I like him. I’ve enjoyed spending more time with him, and with Andie. The rest of society, pah.” She grimaced. “That’s been mostly awful, and even more so since Sigbert’s death. Not that I was getting a great many invitations to start, but even fewer now, and not from anyone I actually want to spend time with. Other than the direct personal ones. The duelling, present company, and so on.”
Cousin Owain cleared his throat. “We are always glad to see you. Though admittedly not exciting company. And we have been rather busy.”
Thessaly stood, coming to kiss his cheek. “You are very pleasant company, Cousin, and we should arrange supper or something sometime. But now, I suspect we should let you and Magistra Hereswith do whatever plotting you need to do. Can you show us those charms here, or downstairs in your ritual room? And Vitus, a walk before you need to go home?”
Vitus took the hint. Of course, they’d discussed that in advance. Part of this was making sure they made their exit before anyone thought of more questions, ones that might be more difficult to dance around. What mattered is that she and Vitus had permission to continue considering the problem, and with any luck, Vitus could get more information.
The charms were in fact fairly quick to learn, though Thessaly did pick them up faster. They were rather like one of the more archaic sequences she’d learned for detecting illusions, and for good reason, they almost certainly sprung from the same source. She’d have to chase that through Aunt Metaia’s library when she got a chance. That was for later. Right now, she wanted a little time with Vitus, before diving back into mysteries.