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Two sheets of paper folded, in an envelope. We're outside of the dining hall, finished up lunch early. The easiest time of day for me to brace him about paying off his debts to me. Yheta glanced them over, and put them back in the envelope, and the envelope into the deep square pockets of his navy-blue peacoat. "Seems simple enough," he said. "Don't suppose you've got any tips that would pay off faster? My folks like doing favors for people that have already made money for them."

Even after weeks like this I still need to immerse the essence of clay to slow my temper. I let out a tense exhale, unclench my jaw.

"Yheta, this is part of our deal. After you killed my cousin. You're just delivering your side of the bargain."

"Itwasanaccident," he pointed out. He still sounded very put-upon. He spent days cringing like a kicked puppy because I was mad at him, but now that I need him to pay off part of his debt he's acting like his guilty conscience has already paid his share.

"A seat at the table, and connections to your connections," I said, holding his eyes with a glare. He tried to glance away nonchalantly, and I moved back into his eyeline, and this time I let the daggers show in my eyes. "We've already had a deal. You already owe me. Don't ask me to sweeten it further right now."

He huffed, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Surely you've gotsomekind-"

And he was right, I did. I knew allkindsof information that could strike huge profits for his network of smugglers, thieves and culprits. Butallof them come at the expense of Meadowtam and its citizens, so that's ahardno.

"This pays dividends next year," I told him. "That's not long. Your uncle's associates are very used to putting in investments that pay out after a calendar year."

He sucked his teeth, and tried to glance away again. "Sure.Theyare. For him. But I'm not him, and I'm still establishing myself. I can't really ask for anything without giving something."

"You could set up a hit against my family but you can't get storage depots moved?"

And he's looking uncomfortable again, ducking into his collar. "I lost a lot of clout over how that went down. I took the blame for those mistakes."

They were his mistakes. Also, he still hasn't figured out why he was wrong to even try to kill my family members.

"Are you telling me that I need to help you get your clout back before you can set up these depots?" I asked, keeping my voiceverylevel,verycalm.

"Well, I'm saying it wouldhelp..." he hedged.

Unbelievable."Yheta, I'm going to help you." He brightened up. "I'm going to make you solve your own problems this time." He sagged dispiritedly. I did not stop. "I'm not going to prop you up. This needs to be something you solve on your own, with your own hard work and talent. I think that you won't get your confidence back until you are able to stand on your own accomplishments. That's the biggest favor I can do for you right now."

[ Quest Failed: Clout of Sorts. ]

He sighed deeply.

"You've got my map, and my list," I told him. "Just get those supplies moved, and you'll be the hero this time next year."

"Fine," he sighed.

"Good. I'll see you at dinner bell, all right? But I've just spotted someone else I need to talk to."

He wished me well, I said goodbye, and then I whisked up alongside my next appointment. I fell into step alongside the girl. "Gala-" I started.

"HOLY SHIT," she yelled, quite unnecessarily, leaping away from me. Her bookbag thudded to the ground and she gasped for air, palms pressed to her chest. I'm having all the worst conversations today.

"Very funny," I said, and levitated her bookbag back up so she could take hold of it again. "I need some more work from you. Not a big rush, but I wanted to get to you early before it becomes a rush."

"Lady Natalie," she said, still not quite standing up straight. "Ah, ha, what- you're- ha, what do you need?"

"I need measuring tools," I said. "Something to find stone density, and something else to find the distance to solid surfaces. High precision, if you can get it."

"Sure," Gala said. "How?"

"How?"

"Yeah, how would you like that to work?"

I was slightly taken aback but not much. "Um, like a wand or something that I can point in a specific place and it would light up a display that tells me what the distance is?"

She grimaced. "I can get the sigils to to define that distance or that density. But communicating that back? The main way to get information from sigilry is by having them light up. Like your thumb ring. They're good at doing stuff- warded walls, mana blasts, helping crops, killing insects, warming or cooling. But you want me to make something that... I dunno, lights up thirty times if it's thirty inches away?"

"Maybe one set of ten sigils for the ones place and another set for the tens-" I started. I'm pretty sure that programming the sigils to do that would be unreasonably hard because her eyes went wide open like I'd just jumpscared her again. "Or, not," I suggested.

She shuddered. "Why don't I just do something simple, like make a pair of wands that light up when they're exactly twenty feet apart from each other?"

"Make it fifty feet and you've got a deal," I told her.

She blew out a relieved sigh. "That's much better. The kind of work you'd be asking for..."

"So I guess there's no sigil that takes information from another sigil and modifies it?" I asked.

She shrugged. "How would we know if there was? Not the kind of thing anyone would discover on their own."

"Wait, sigils are ... discovered? Not created?"

She didn't actuallysay"Duh?" but her face did the job for her.

So the power of sigils is something that just... occurs, if you use the right technique. And you can't design new ones. Looks like funky magic writing powers are not going to replace computers in this setting. I was kinda looking forward to some cool magitech stuff.

But ultimately, I guess that's what magic is. It does its own thing in its own way and it doesn't need your understanding or permission. It's just gonna keep being magic.

Speaking of-

"Oh, and Gala?" I paused. "Is there a way to store mana and access it later?"

She snrrrked a stifled laugh. She wiped her eye and suppressed a laugh. "Sorry, that's one of the oldest jokes in sigil-working, there's always someone who claims that they've found a way to replace mana potions and it's always a hoax or a delusion. Funny that you just mentioned it on your own."

I sighed. "Dammit. I really wanted a way to bank my mana for when I need it. How hard is it to make a mana potion?"

"I'm in sigils. Find an alchemist to yell at you when you ask them that question."

A few more questions in: No, there's no alchemists on campus. No, there's no alchemy classes on campus. Yes, the reason is exactly what you think. It would be criminally irresponsible to have such a thing in a boarding school. I sent her on her way, and I went on my own.

She's okay. Sometimes snarky, sometimes dorky, sometimes helpful. She never really seems to settle in any kind of reaction, and I can never really get a read on her. Still, I'm gonna be really disappointed to lose her help when I murder her mother. But, some things just really have to happen, and Grade Kralcit needs to die at my hands.

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