“How is Delia getting around the vows?” Lifen asked. “If she's using administrative magic, it won't help outside Excelsine.”
“Patrick gave her something to skirt most vows. Don't ask what,” Olivia said grimly. “We all need some plausible deniability in case any part of this insane plan gets uncovered.”
That led to a spirited discussion (argument) on the insanity involved.
No one wanted to outright say, though, that if at least one of us didn't go to prison for life after this, then all of us were dead.
I wandered over to where Axer was stretched out at a table in the corner, his hooded gaze staring at the tendrils of Kaine's captured shadows—the ones Kaine had been trying to infect Axer with every time they fought. The shadows swarmed in malevolent swirls inside the nullifying jar.
There was a book stalking around the table in a brooding, irritated way. It was just far enough away that I couldn’t read its title.
I sat across from Axer and he gave me a brief smile before his focus was back on the shadows, as if they would do what he wanted from will alone.
“You can't really think planting those back on you is a good idea?” I asked, grimacing. “There's got to be a better alternative.”
“There's an alternative. I just don't know that we want to take it.” He looked at me.
I winced. “Raphael seems better, but what would those even do to his mind? His trustworthiness is still questionable.”
“Quite.”
I frowned at the malevolent shadows and shuddered. Who would want to touch them? It wasn’t like they were… I blinked, looked at Axer, and bit my lip.
“I can’t wait to see what you are about to reveal.” He leaned back with hooded eyes and a smile, like an entertainment was set to unfold.
I sighed and called my cloak over. Looking furtively around, I saw everyone's heads deep in books, projects, and plans. Fishing out the container I'd put there, I brought it into the light. The shadow winced, then when it noticed its surroundings, the edges of the tendrils did what I could only describe as a jump for joy, swirling happily around the glass.
“It's okay,” I whispered. “I didn't leave you there.”
The shadow pressed its tendrils against the glass, like small webbed fingers searching for contact. I touched the glass, and it pressed a smudged tendril against the same part.
“So that's what you took.”
“Hmmm?” I asked, watching the pure joy in the little shadows' movements.
“In the Basement. That's what you took,” Axer said.
I looked over at him and winced again. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“You know, Ren, I long ago decided to trust your instincts.” He uncrossed his legs and removed them from the table, then motioned for the jar. I put it in his hand. The shadow shifted anxiously to the back of the glass as soon as it was placed in his hand, but then slowly crept forward and pressed a tentative shadow toward him. He tapped a finger gently against the glass. The shadow stared at his tapping finger, then did a little backflip swirl and started tapping back eagerly.
He played with it for another minute, then set it down.
Placing the jar next to Kaine's shadows caused an interesting reaction. The shadows in Kaine's jar frantically started leaping at the little shadow like they were compelled to get to it, and the little shadow fled to the other side of its jar in terror.
I snatched the jar with the little shadow and tucked it in my elbow.
“They weren't doing that in the Basement.” I sent Axer the memory. I had excised it from the memory dump to the Bandits...for reasons.
“Maybe those weren't Kaine's.”
A book started creeping down the table. Not unusual in our present circumstances, so I ignored it.
I bit my lip and looked at the jar. “How old are you? What do you eat?” I hesitated. “Not people, right?”
It flew around, forming various shapes.
“What are you two doing?”
I jumped and pulled the jar straight into my midsection, hunching over the top. “What? What do you mean?”
Olivia was standing behind me, hands on her hips. “You were talking to something that you were holding.” Olivia's gaze was flat, not even attempting to play at misdirection. “Are we doing this?”
I sighed and untucked the jar, reluctantly scooting it into view.
Olivia stared silently at it for a full ten seconds, before looking at me flatly. “That's why you didn't include that in your debriefing. What else did you touch in the Basement?”
“Nothing! Just this. It...it ended up in my hands?”
She looked at me, eyes judgmental. “It ended up in your hands?”
I waved them at her, then waved them at the jar.
“Is that supposed to be some magical jar call?” she asked.
I slumped. “I felt bad for it. It didn't belong. I couldn't leave it there.” And I had known I'd be in trouble for taking it.
“It looks like a shadow. Part of what makes Kaine.”
“But it's not Kaine. It's innocent.”
She stared hard at the jar. “How do you know?”
I waved my hands again, pantomiming that I just did.
She sighed. “Pick up a jar in a basement of horrors. What could go wrong?”
The book that had been stalking the table, then creeping toward us, was suddenly next to us, and I finally got a good look at the title of the book as it bent down to peer into the jar, finally willing to be part of things.
Shadow Magic.
“No, no, absolutely not.” Olivia started swearing as the little shadow cocked its shadowed head and pressed a tendril against the glass to the book. “We aren't releasing that thing in here! Ren.”
And Axer... Axer leaned back, crossed his hands behind his head, and smiled.
*
Shadow Magic firmly and malevolently waited for another turn, while Axer was discussing something with Tactics and Trickery in a Slippery Age and Patrick was trying to use trickery to gain access to Planning Your Heist for Maximum Bloodshed.
An actual drop of blood was dripping down its cover.
Waiting for my glass film to set, I meandered over to where Constantine and Olivia had been working together for five hours. Or, working alongside each other. Guard Rock was sitting on the edge of their table, legs slowly rocking back and forth as he watched the room.
A book perked up and fluttered its pages as I drew closer—Universal Motes on its cover.
I blinked at it. “You know everything?”
It flipped its pages and I could see building blocks of stars and planets and comets. Molecular components and compounds. “I...I want to read you. A lot. But I'm not certain you are in the four-day plan. We aren't going to space.”
“We're already in space, darling.” Constantine hefted Guard Rock, who began stabbing his palm immediately. “Every rock is a space rock.”
I smiled, and Guard Rock flipped to the table and scooted over to make room for me.