LMS VII: I am going to finish Loosely Lawful dangnabit

1012 words

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Obviously, though, Sera’s brain was ready to think about them now. Despite the jostling of the crowd and the tight grip Avon had on her arm, her mind raced. She could amend the NDA she’d cast on the translation team and ask them to send in written statements. If they could go to a notary, then all the better. And really, if the North Wilds Company decided they wanted to duke this out in the court of public opinion as well as in real court, then giving the linguists permission to go around publishing might be an effective countermeasure in certain circles.

They turned off of Adventurer’s Lane, down one of the many side streets that would take them towards the temple. And as the noise of the crowd grew duller and duller, she stared at Benvolius’s back, barely taking notice of the way his dark green vest wrinkled at his waist while he walked. He kept beaming up at Kyle, oohing and ahhing at all the right moments as Kyle recounted their siren job.

Avon twisted around and rolled their eyes. “Cerene and Savidge, you’re ridiculous. Fine, walk and talk with me! Whatever.”

Sera blinked up at them and wrinkled her nose, doubtful.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“Well,” she said, as Avon tugged her past a rickety balcony hung heavy with someone’s laundry, “I was just thinking how to argue for a physical search as part of discovery.”

Avon wasn’t looking at her, but she could see the arch of their eyebrows and consternated expression anyway. “Er. Are there requirements you have to meet? Standards, or whatever you lawyers call them?”

“Only reasonable suspicion that a party is likely to hide evidence that should be turned over in discovery,” Sera replied.

“You don’t think an NDA would physically prevent members of the Wilde family from turning over that kind of thing, do you? We could test it, even. On Ben.”

“What, like have him write something down away from the group and then try to bring it to us?”

Avon shrugged, which probably meant she’d guessed right. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“You might even be able to demonstrate that in court,” Sera muttered. She hoped Hauli and Wilbert had submitted paperwork to get a neutral third-party with magic sight into the courtroom. Kaliko might deride other wizards, but the court had mages on retainer who could fulfill such a request. Sera just wasn’t familiar with them, since it hadn’t been her focus.

Avon continued pulling her along in silence, and they eventually emerged onto the wide, open thoroughfare where the temple sat just a few more blocks away. Here, Kyle’s bellowing laugh floated away into the night instead of echoing off the tight alley walls. Sera felt suddenly exposed.

Kyle, Kali, and Benvolius were a good distance away, just far enough that she might have trouble throwing up a shield spell were something to happen. Not that anything would. Few people were idiotic enough to jump pedestrians so close to Librata’s domain.

She almost didn’t hear when Avon spoke again. “Obviously a lot’s going on, but I’ve been wondering…”

Sera snapped her gaze to Avon’s fiery red hair, tied back into a loose braid with a once-yellow ribbon. They didn’t turn to face her as they spoke.

“When are you going to be ready?” they asked. “It doesn’t have to be today, you know. But I’d like a timeline so I’m not just waiting forever.”

A part of Sera wanted to ask, “ready for what?” but she knew what Avon was asking about, and it wouldn’t do her any favors to be so facetiously ignorant. She instead said, haltingly, “I could– maybe. Say part of it?”

At this, Avon did turn back toward her, their face slack with surprise. “What, like tonight?”

They were a block from the temple now, and Sera looked helplessly at its firm, strong lines. The white columns glowed perfect white in the moonlight, straight and unyielding. Librata was silent in Sera’s chest, as if the goddess were holding her breath, waiting until Sera acted to pass divine judgement.

“Sure,” Sera said. Gods. Her voice was shaking. That was embarrassing. “We can… sit under the colonnade.”

Avon scoffed. “You and Kali and your big, fancy words. I clearly have a type when it comes to roommates.”

“She’s probably a better roommate than I was.”

The two of them turned up the steps. The other three were already at the top, and Kyle shot a questioning glance over his shoulder as Kaliko moved to lead them all inside. Sera waved him on.

“She’s a hell of a lot messier than you,” Avon laughed. “And a worse a cook! Let’s just say there are pros and cons.”

This was easy. Bantering was easy. Why couldn’t they just be like this all the time without Sera having to do the difficult, scary thing? “If Kali’s a poor cook, does that mean she gets to eat your meat pies more than I did?”

Avon smirked.

“Ugh!” As if there weren’t enough things to be jealous of Kaliko for! “I dream about those, you know.” Mostly when she was feeling a lot of self-pity, but now that she’d said it, Sera really did miss Avon’s cooking. Wherever they’d come from, they cooked with an entirely different flavor profile than the one she’d grown up with in the Kavarn mountains: sharply earthy and medicinal from all the cold-resistant plants and mushrooms.

And thinking of home, of course, brought her right back to the thing that had made her leave Avon in the first place.

Her heart, somehow, both froze and kicked into overdrive. Her legs felt leaden, and her steps slowed as she trailed Avon up the stairs. They still made it to the top, though, and Avon wandered into a dark corner of the colonnade before dropping down to sit.

They patted the stone floor next to them. Sera wanted to crawl out of her skin. Like an insect stuck in sap, she slowly, jerkily lowered herself to the ground.

----

Haha I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere again instead of being stuck in the court-preparation loop. AT LAST.

1076 words!

Maybe if I put [LMS] in front of the chapter titles for anything written during LMS, I'll feel less bad about how unpolished the pacing is haha.

-----

Then she stared for a long time at the brick building across the street. It was a stately thing, with pretty coursework and arched window lintels and perfect symmetry. Avon drummed their fingers on the ground next to her. Despite their not saying anything, she could hear the “Any day now” that probably threatened to spill from their mouth.

Why was this so hard?

Obviously, Sera knew why. Most people didn’t irrevocably hurt their best friend and then expect it to be easy to do the whole explain-apologize-make-up thing. What if Avon thought she was making excuses? She sort of was, a little. Two years too late.

Avon’s finger-drumming grew faster and louder. She sighed.

“I. Um.” She fidgeted. “I had a full scholarship. For law school.”

“Oh?” Avon said. Their tone was unreadable. Probably, if Sera was brave enough to look, their face was unreadable too. “How full, exactly?”

She gulped. “Full enough that all my adventuring money went to my parents.” And sister, she didn’t say.

Gaville was never truly quiet, but Librata’s temple stood in a neighborhood that went to bed promptly at eight, and was far enough removed from the trains and trolleys that it muffled the sounds of the city. With nothing to focus on, the silence that stretched between Sera and Avon felt like forever.

Then, carefully, Avon spoke. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of deal a university gives just for being a good student.”

“No,” Sera said, with a laugh that she thought would come out dry, but came out horribly, embarrassingly wet.

“So…”

“I attended school on the Kavarn family scholarship.” There. She’d said one small part. How much would Avon nitpick over it? Maybe, if they got mad, this would all end, and she could storm off back to her room and bury herself under her blankets and never come out.

Avon thought for a moment. “The same Kavarns that own and mine an entire mountain range?” They finally turned to look at her, then. “Didn’t you specialize in environmental law?”

Sera just pulled a face, and Avon pinched the bridge of their nose with a sigh.

“Don’t tell me you ditched me because you thought I’d… what? Be mad you were getting money from one of the founding families? That you were selling your soul to keep yourself out of mining work? We’ve all been there, you dolt.”

“No! No. I”- That hadn’t really been a concern, at the time. Mostly, Sera had just needed a way out, and she’d grabbed the only lifeline that she could think of. Obviously, she’d started this whole thing in the wrong spot. Scrubbing her hands over her face, she shot Avon a miserable look. “Can I start over?”

They just made a ‘go ahead’ gesture.

“The Kavarn family opened a new refinery in my hometown when I was… seven? Eight? I’d have to look up the official start of operations. It was under construction as long as I could remember until then.” Sera could see it in her mind’s eye, even, imagine the towering smokestacks and enormous chutes as they hemorrhaged out sludge. She’d grown up under the swinging arm of the cranes that pieced steel together far overhead. She had skirted the haphazard barriers they put up after a beam fell once, when she was six.

She gulped. She could say the thing. She was going to say the thing. “I don’t know that she was the first, necessarily? But my sister came along less than a year after operations started.”

“You have a sister?” Avon interrupted.

“Um. Well.” Sera made a constipated face, which Avon returned.

“Nevermind, go on.”

“Right, so. No one thought anything was wrong, you know, when she was born? But it was obvious by the time she turned one that something wasn’t quite right.” Sera twiddled her fingers together and stared down at them. “She was sick a lot. I thought if I could get a job like a lawyer or a doctor, then I’d make enough money that I could get her treated.”

“Sick a lot” was an understatement. Adina was never hungry and couldn’t stomach much food. She tired easily. She’d had trouble learning to walk and talk, and for the brief period she was in school, she’d had trouble with that, too. She couldn’t hear very well. She’d always been small, too, never even close to reaching the same marks as Sera on the doorframe where they measured.

And then the seizures started.

The memory came before Sera could even try to shut it down. Her baby sister had been on the upswing, able to come with her to the meadow near their house. The weather was warm, the air heavy with the smell of wildflowers. Sera picked her gloves off, one finger at a time, and traced over the inside of her palm where Adina’s hands had fit in hers. Her arm remembered the feeling of swinging back and forth. She could still feel the way her face heated when Adina had asked to hold hands. Sera had been a teenager. Of course she hadn’t wanted to hold hands with her baby sister.

Maybe Sera’s memory had tricked her, or maybe the mountains really were that idyllic, but she could see in front of her the deep, lush green of the meadow grass and the pine trees behind that. The sky was all at once jewel blue and vivid cyan. Bees buzzed through the lupines and penstemons in a happy, droning hum.

Ten steps from the meadow entrance, Adina collapsed. Sera could recall with bone-deep clarity the yank on her shoulder and the thud on the ground. Her throat tightened and her heart raced just thinking about the panic. She hadn’t known what to do. She’d shouted herself hoarse trying to call for help, too afraid to leave Adina lying on the ground, shaking and unresponsive.

“Earth to Sera!” Avon said, and she broke free of the memory with a gasp.

“Sorry! Sorry, I”-

“No, it’s fine.” Avon reached out and placed their hands on Sera’s shoulders, turning her to look straight at them. “Obviously this is hard. Do you want to stop?”

She couldn’t stop now. She had to get through this and make her big apology and then never think about the past again. “No, I can keep going. I just- Thanks for getting me back on track.”

“Sure.” And then they took their hands away.

1044 words! I am realizing now it's been like 6 years since I was in a law class... and all we covered was the law as it relates to my real job. Which is very different from actually being in a courtroom!

-----

It felt almost as bad as Kyle releasing her from a hug. Hunching back in on herself, she tried to get the rest of it out in one go.

“Anyway! That’s where all the adventuring money went. My sister. And then my parents sent word that she’d passed away, and I sort of had a big freak out.”

Avon lifted an eyebrow. “A big freak out?”
Cringing, Sera pulled her feet up so she could curl into a ball. “I guess. Yeah.”

With a sigh as heavy as an elephant, Avon rubbed their temple and looked to the heavens. “Okay. Whatever. If that’s how you want to describe it.” They pinched their eyes shut. Clearly, Sera wasn’t out of the woods yet. “I can sort of guess, I think, what you mean by ‘freak out.’ And just so you know, I still haven’t forgiven you, and you still have more you need to explain.”
Ugh. Would her torture never end?

“But I don’t think I’m getting a whole lot more out of you today, so let’s just turn in.”

It stung that Avon didn’t believe Sera could get through this tonight, but calling her crisis of faith, crisis of life plan, and abandonment of Avon a ‘freak out’ did not speak well of her ability to explain, apologize, or make-up. With a mumbled “fine,” she stood up after Avon and led them back into the temple.

-----

Harrowingly, the Wilde family pushed their first day in court to the day after the next. Sera and her senior clerics did not like this timeline, because most people didn’t get court dates so quickly.

“We are prepared,” Hauli said, straightening his robes out as the rest of the party followed behind, “but I’m worried that this means the Wildes have some undue influence.”

Wilbert peered at the paperwork with her usual stoicism. “The court has at least approved the request for a third-party mage on hand.”

At this, Kaliko wrinkled her nose and flapped her vestigial fins. She was the best-dressed of them all, in a flouncy blouse and perfectly-pressed slacks. Sera had on her temple robes, same as the other clerics. As for the other three… well. Benvolius’s few sets of clothes were looking less and less pristine–the temple laundry evidently disagreed with his fabric choices. Kyle had chosen to forgo a tie and leave the top several of his shirt buttons unbuttoned, and Avon simply did not own court-appropriate attire and refused to borrow anyone else’s, despite being able to adjust to fit any wardrobe they chose. They’d dressed in the same ratty adventuring garb as always.

Hauli popped open the plaintiff’s door to the courtroom and gestured everyone in, wincing as Avon and Kyle passed by.

Sera had been in Gaville’s civil courtrooms before, possibly in this very one, when she served her internship for the Kavarn family’s lawyers. She’d thought she might even have a little panic at being in the space again, but upon seeing the room’s dark, wooden trim and raised judicial dias, her heartrate actually slowed. Librata’s spirit pulsed in a calm, soothing rhythm, as if welcoming her home. The high, stamped ceiling was like being in the temple meditation space. The pilasters reminded her of the columns in every large temple room.

She saw Hauli and Wilbert, too, breathe easier the moment they settled at the counsellors’ table. Wilbert soothed a hand over her heart in silent prayer.

On the other side of the room, the North Wilds Company team filed in.

Sera should have expected they would look as they did: buttoned up, in three-piece suits and trim pencil skirts, their shirts so starched she could see their collars digging into their necks. Their faces were stern, eyebrows set in flat lines, and they stepped so in sync they might as well have been a military unit. When they settled in at their table, everyone waited for their lead lawyer to nod before sitting as one.

Next to her, Hauli and Wilbert took in deep breaths.

The judge, high upon the dias, began proceedings with a firm tap of the gavel before glancing down at the papers on his desk. “Ordinarily,” he started, “we would allow discovery to proceed without interference, but there is ah… Some concern from the plaintiffs that the defendants would be unable to comply due to magical interference.” He adjusted his glasses, which were tiny, end-of-nose spectacles that might have come from the last century, and peered at Sera’s party. “Plaintiffs, if you would please state your case.”

They had rehearsed this yesterday, but no amount of preparation could make Sera feel calm as Hauli stood up with a flourish of his robes and began their arguments.

She had never actually acted as co-counsel for another cleric before. Sera expected the same stern, severe act that she’d seen come out of the principals at her internship, but Hauli smiled serenely at the judge, then at the stenographer, and then at the court wizard standing awkwardly in the corner of the room. “Thank you, Honorable Judge Greave. As stated, there is cause to believe the North Wildes Company cannot adequately participate in discovery, not that they would intentionally withhold necessary information, but that magical and physical forces that long predate the current generation are a play that would prevent their compliance.”

As planned, Sera urged Benvolius to stand next to her as Hauli gestured for the court mage to step forward.

“As stated in our brief, the Wilde family, and thus the North Wilds Company under their purview, are under magical contract, a key part of which includes a broad non-disclosure agreement that prevents the Wilde family from disclosing information that may be critical to their business decisions.” He pulled Benvolius towards him and walked with him into the center of the speaking floor. Sera’s eye caught on the way her senior steadied Ben with a comforting hand over his shoulders and the cheer-up grin he offered before turning back to the judge.

Hauli probably said something important, after that. Actually, he definitely did, because Sera had been in the room with him and Wilbert as they drafted it, but it was different to be there, in the courtroom, watching him actually be a lawyer.

1067 words! I have a business trip this week so. rip me.

-----

Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Hauli requested the court mage cast magic-sight in whatever was his standard practice. He stood with his back straight, still smiling with quiet confidence. Next to her at the plaintiff’s table, Wilbert eyed the scene critically. Then, as if noticing Sera’s staring, the other cleric turned and leaned in to whisper to her.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no. I just. Didn’t know you could smile in court?”

Wilbert made a complicated face and subtly rolled her eyes, though when she was done with that, she shot Sera a look both pointed and amused. Her eyes sparkled, even as she kept her lips in a straight line. “That’s just Hauli. I certainly don’t smile like that.”

This, though, begged the question: what would Cleric Wilbert look like in action, instead of as co-counsel?

“There are many ways to conduct yourself in court,” Wilbert whispered, flicking her gaze back to the dias as the court mage cast the same magic-sight spell on the judge, “so long as you’re respectful.”

Sera didn’t see herself acting like Hauli–all smiles and politeness, just as she’d had trouble slotting herself into the version of “lawyer” that existed within the Kavarn’s on-retainer firm. What would happen if she went back to school and could train under the temple’s lawyers? She could watch all kinds of different trials and types of cases and courtly personalities.

The judge’s shoulders tensed as the spell took effect, and Sera knew he was seeing the same blinding, sickly green text that she’d seen. It would be too much to ask–let alone impossible due to procedure–that he be astounded and immediately slam down his gavel with a decision in their favor. Still, though, Judge Greave’s eyebrows rose high in his forehead as he took in the scrawl of magic on Benvolius.

Then his gaze shifted to Sera. She froze in her seat. Librata above, hopefully the NDA she’d put herself under wasn’t about to blow up her case. Then, after a long second, the judge also stared at the defendants’ table. Actually, Sera wondered if he stared at them longer. She itched to pull magic-sight to her own eyes and see what spellwork might be cast on the Wilde family’s team, but that would be frowned upon in this instance.

After a long silence, the judge waved a hand, motioning for the court mage to dismiss the spell. Hauli gave Benvolius an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

“That was an illuminating demonstration,” Judge Greave said, as neutral as before. “Do continue.”

They’d prepared further arguments, but Sera could see Hauli weigh his options. She hadn’t been the only one to notice the way the judge had stared at the defendants’ bench.

“At a distance, the contractual magic is impossible to read, so we will now demonstrate the effect as it pertains to our request.” Hauli put both hands on Benvolius’s shoulders now, making eye contact to check again that Ben was alright with the plan. At Benvolius’s nod, the senior cleric continued. “Benvolius Wilde has graciously agreed to help by writing something that he believes would be prohibited by this contract from being shared on a piece of paper, away from our eyes. He will then attempt to share the note.”

And so Benvolius did.

The air in the courtroom was both dead-quiet and electric with tension as Benvolius accepted a piece of paper and pen from a court runner and walked to what, in a full trial, would be the jury’s bench. He wrote still standing, bent neatly at the waist in the picture of wealthy elegance, but Sera noticed the shake of his hands and the bead of sweat that dripped from his hairline. He gulped, so nervous that she could probably see his Adam’s apple bob from a mile away, and then held the paper up at illegible distance for the court mage to make another check for magic. Not that Benvolius would write an explosive spell onto a piece of paper–his spells didn’t seem to work that way, regardless–but they didn’t want to be accused of trickery later.

Then he moved to hand the paper back to the court runner.

His NDA lit up in a spray of sparks. The paper disintegrated in his hands. The judge flinched, and Benvolius gagged on the spell’s silencing affect as it closed up his throat. Sera wanted to run to him, could see Kyle’s hands grip tight on the edge of the table as he grit his teeth watching, but they’d agreed yesterday that none of them could help until either Hauli called them up, or Benvolius made it back to the bench himself.

Ben tore himself from the court runner, hands on his knees, and coughed.

Judge Greave cleared his throat. “Yes, well. That was… also illuminating. We’ll have to have some words about that contract superceding court secrecy somehow, but the effect is clear. Trina, if you would get young Mr. Wilde a glass of water?”

The court runner scurried out, the door closing behind her with a loud, echoing slam.
Hauli waited a moment for drama before closing their argument, and then Judge Greave turned to the North Wilds Company law team. “Your counterargument, if you would.”

As their principal lawyer stood, Benvolius managed to limp his way back to their party’s bench, and Kyle pulled his chair out for him, brow wrinkled in worry. Sera wasn’t sure if she should just tune out the other side and tend to Ben or listen in, but as the question formed in her head, she felt Librata’s spirit tug somewhere in her heart.

The North Wilds Company law team faded to a blur in the background, voices echoing too much in the enormous room to be anything other than a wash of unintelligible sound, and Sera leaned into Benvolius to check him for any further physical damage.

His fingertips were singed slightly from the sparks, so she pulled a tiny thread of Librata’s magic up to cool them, pressing his fingers between the palms of her hands to let the magic flow.

“How are you feeling?” she whispered. Kyle, Kali, and Avon all pulled their chairs a bit closer to crowd around in support.

After heaving a deep breath, Benvolius let out a wry, wettish chuckle. “You know, knowing I was walking into it on purpose made it less scary.”

1005 words this week... I had a business trip... I'm so tired.

-----

“I’m sorry you had to demonstrate it at all,” Sera said. She pulled Benvolius’s fingers apart, splaying them in her palms, and checked that she’d done a good job, then gave him a pat on his forearms to signal she was done healing him.

The opposing lawyers had finished their argument, and the judge sat atop his dias massaging his temples for a moment before he addressed them. “You make a reasonable point,” he said, face pinching. He still had one hand up at his temple, though he’d stopped moving it at least while he spoke. “But without being able to sit down with every single one of the many–and I cannot stress enough that I have never encountered a case so wrapped up in secrecy as this one–contracts that all of you seem to be under, I have no idea what is in these. Some of them are written in a language other than common, which means I would need a licensed translator to have anything admissible in court, and the plaintiff has already submitted reasonable evidence that there is no licensed translator!”

Sera clocked Hauli’s calmly neutral expression and then the judge’s still pained one. She held her breath. Avon drummed their fingers on the table, and Kyle whispered, “Come onnn. Come onnnn!”

“With the demonstration provided, I have no choice but to declare that there shall be a physical search element of discovery. You may all expect my formal written instructions on the carrying-out of such a process to be delivered to your respective offices this afternoon.” And with that, Judge Greave picked up his mallet and gave one single, resounding strike.

Sera deflated like a pig gut balloon, sinking halfway down the seat of her chair. Next to her, Benvolius dropped his elbows onto the table with a loud thunk. Kali whipped a hand out to keep Kyle from bellowing out a “Booyah!” at their victory.

Hopefully they’d find what they were looking for at the Wilde family mansion.

-----

Discovery day dawned early two days later. The Wilde family mansion sat an hour-long cart ride from the northmost station on Gaville’s commuter trolley line, and because Judge Greave’s words had ordered that “the plaintiffs be allowed one day, from sunrise to sunset, on a day of their choosing” for their in-person discovery efforts, here they were, disgustingly early in the morning, on a bumpy cart slowly rolling up the Wilde family’s long, long driveway.

“They don’t make public carts with very good suspension, do they?” Benvolius commented, voice wobbly. They were all wobbly. The suspension really was terrible. Sera’s butt already hurt.

“Upgrades are prioritized for routes with higher usage rates,” Kali answered.

The sky was blood-red with the light of early morning, turning slowly yellow, then green, then blue toward the horizon. A sparse handful of clouds streaked between the tops of the surrounding pine trees, and Sera was sure that if the cart wasn’t so damn loud, then she’d be able to hear birdsong. It would be idyllic.

“You must have grown up being able to see the stars every night,” Avon said, leaning halfway out the cart, obviously excited to finally be somewhere other than the temple.

Benvolius pursed his lips. “I guess? We were mostly kept inside studying.”

“Brah, how long is your driveway?”

Turning to check their surroundings, Benvolius considered it for a moment. “I think we’ll see the gate once we make that turn up ahead?” How he managed to wayfind in this forest, Sera would never understand.

He was right, of course. The cart rounded the bend a few minutes later, and the ornate, wrought-iron gates grew out of the forest ahead of them, black against the light of the rising sun. Well, they were probably black all the time, but it was very dramatic this early in the morning, with all the red in the background. She couldn’t see the mansion behind the gates, which meant they still probably had a ways to go.

The gates opened as the cart rolled within several paces of the boundary–Sera would probably see some neat spellwork if she had magic-sight on–and then slowly the landscape began to change.

The trees thinned over the next few minutes, and flowers and ferns began to pop up in the spaces between the canopies. Sera spotted a horse path in the distance that swooped in and out of view, and the image popped into her head of a young Benvolius in a pressed, perfectly white shirt and the crispest riding pants known to man, and those silly tall boots, sitting astride a horse with a braided mane, probably doing rich people things like fox hunting.

Actually, no. He was probably out counting trees, even at that age. Sera couldn’t imagine Benvolius fox hunting.

From there, the treese thinned further and further, until they were spaced at even intervals. And then came flowerbeds and a criss-cross grid of gravel pathways, which eventually turned into a full, elaborate, old-continent-style garden. Tiny, white pavilions dotted the lawn, surrounded by rose bushes in full bloom. Even in the early hours, with dew still wet on the ground, the smell of flowers descended like a suffocating blanket. It must have taken an army of gardeners to tend the whole thing, gods above.

Kyle whistled as they passed a particularly impressively-trimmed topiary of a man in old explorer garb, holding up a telescope. Benvolius let out an embarrassed chuckle.

“Ah. Yes. That’s Flavio Wilde. All of the family heads have topiaries somewhere.”

Sera let out an involuntary snort as she imagined a topiary of Benvolius.

“There’s a hall of busts, too,” Benvolius added, and Sera snorted again. She made eye contact with Avon across the cart, and they also maybe found the idea amusing. If she was reading them right.

“No doubt the family mansion has copious self-aggrandizing artworks,” Kali said, pulling her glasses out of a pocket to slip them daintly on her nose, “but perhaps our time would be better spent reviewing the plan.”

1008 words!

-----
She produced a notebook from her bag and flipped it open. “Benvolius and Sera will spend the morning separate from us, in case the non-disclosure clause allows them privileged access. The Wilde family will have minders observing us, so us three remaining shall play it safe as well. Ask to see offices, archive rooms, etcetera.”

She flipped to the next page and continued on. “And I assume no one has lost the tape measures we procured?”

Sera fished into her pocket and held up her tape measure, as did Avon and the boys.

“Excellent. Draw floor plans as best you can whilst we search. We’ll require the insights gleaned from that exercise for part two.”

They all had larger notebooks in their packs as well, for just this purpose. Sera was not confident in her plan-drawing ability, but she supposed as long as she wrote down the right numbers, Kali would be able to glean something from the exercise.

“We’ll reconvene at lunch. Sera, please try to formulate some hints for us, out of what you and Benvolius are able to uncover, or what he already knows. Then we’ll combine floor plans and deduce if the mansion has any hidden rooms.”

Kyle gleefully pulled a wax paper-wrapped sandwich from his bag. “The temple made us BLTs!”

“Right.” Kali flipped pages again. “This is the point at which we consider distracting our minders to allow Avon a chance to escape and transform, particularly if our morning investigation turns up no leads.”

With a devilish smile, Avon cracked their knuckles.

“I would prefer it not come to that, but sometimes needs must.”

Sera would also prefer they didn’t have to rely on spider-Avon. The Wildes might argue about improperly-acquired evidence if Avon came back with something juicy that the minders hadn’t seen.

“We shall have to improvise a great deal today,” Kali concluded, tucking her notebook away, “but does anyone have any questions?”

Kyle raised his hand. “Can we ask the Wilde family chefs to make us a snack? The temple didn’t pack us snacks.”

Sera kind of wanted to say no right away, but then she imagined the kind of snacks a private chef for the Wilde family might make. Could they make croissants? Macarons? Maybe a chocolate-cherry cake with sherry in it. Though hopefully it wouldn’t be too boozy, because then Sera wouldn’t be able to eat it.

With a grimace, Kali flicked her gaze to Benvolius.

“We could always ask,” he said with a shrug. “Chef Emira is super nice. She used to sneak me cookies after archery practice.”

Kyle pumped a fist, and Sera’s mouth watered. She looked down the driveway to see if they were any closer and spotted the roof of the mansion peeking over a hill in the landscaping.

The house came into view slowly, panning down as the cart climbed up the little hill. The roof was red terracotta tile, which shone blood red under the sunrise, and underneath that rose shallow triangles with deep shadows and highlights from what Sera could tell, even at a distance, were intricate friezes. An ungodly number of columns stood below that, holding up three stories of palatial white walls. Windows sat crammed together in a row on every floor, so close together that the walls between them almost disappeared. That must have been outrageously expensive.

“Can you tell us when the house was built?” she asked Benvolius.

He thought for a moment. “The original structure would have been approved with the original charter, but…”

“You can’t tell us about the renovations or additions,” Kali finished, with a disappointed sigh. “Shame. If we’re lucky, settlement differentials will make it obvious, but who knows what quality of craftsmanship the Wilde family demands of its labor.”

They passed a few more person-shaped topiaries and even more flower bushes before finally rolling up to the large, gravel circle at the front of the mansion. A marble fountain, not yet running due to the early hour, sat in the middle of the carriage drop-off, colored blush pink by the morning light.

Their wooden cart squeaked to a stop in the middle of a grand entry staircase, and Sera tipped the driver as they all hopped out. “Be back an hour before sunset?” she confirmed, and the driver nodded before jolting the horses’ reins and setting back out.

They all stared up at the grand house for a moment, listening to the crunch of the cart’s wheels on the driveway. It was hard to see through the treetops, but Sera was pretty sure the bottom edge of the sun was almost up over the horizon, and that someone would let them in soon, but the suspense of waiting made her heart pound anyway. She heard Benvolius gulp next to her, and Kali mouthed numbers as she counted up windows.

“Would it be bad form to turn into a bird and get an aerial view?” Avon asked, once the cart had driven far enough away that they could no longer hear it.

“Probably,” Sera said, “though I’m tempted to ask you to do it anyway.”

Avon shook out their shoulders, as if flexing wings that weren’t actually there. Then they slumped and changed to a normal stretch, lacing their fingers together and pulling their arms forward. “I hate waiting like this. Someone tell a joke.”

Kyle opened his mouth, but then the mansion’s front doors swung open, and out walked a man who could only be Benvolius’s grandfather.

They looked remarkably similar: same nose, same eyebrows, same lithe build. For a man who must have been well into his sixties or seventies, the family patriarch seemed in remarkable shape, standing ramrod straight, chin lifted, and not yet wrinkled enough to start looking old old. His full head of hair was still in its salt-and-pepper stage and not full white. Sera had no idea if it was Benvolius’s mother or father who was originally a Wilde, but if it was his mother, then he might be very lucky about the whole going-grey process.

1047 words!

-----

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted him biting his lips and wringing his hands together. Actually, he was maybe too anxious to survive into old age with dark hair.

“You’re early,” said Wilde Senior, not dropping his chin a sliver.

“Miser,” Avon muttered under their breath.

“You’re not obligated to allow us in until the sun is up,” Sera said, much louder. She clasped her hands together behind her back and intentionally bent her knees so she wouldn’t tip over while they waited.

From up close, she noted there was another half-sunk level beneath the three she’d clocked earlier, with a moat and filled-in windows matching the actual windows on the higher stories. It looked kind of like the original builder hadn’t thought out the foundations enough, and the house had maybe sunk as it settled. The grand stairs she could see had slightly different coloring from the rest of the house, and would have been quarried at a different time.

Ha! Even the Wildes weren’t perfect.

They all fidgeted and stared at each other for another few minutes before Kaliko checked her timepiece and cleared her throat. “I believe it’s time.”

-----

Benvolius claimed the third and fourth floors. He didn’t say it out loud in front of the others, but the moment Kyle’s shock of white hair disappeared beneath the stairs, the explanation came rushing out. “Grandpa’s study is on the third floor,” he said, pulling her up the grand staircase. “Maybe we could start there before the house staff has any more time to try and clean things up.”

The inside of the house was no less ostentatious than the outside. Green tapestries hung in every bay of the pristine, white-plastered hallway. Gold leaf glittered from every bevel, trim, and door frame. Sera knew–probably because she’d heard Kaliko rattle off a factoid about it–that gold leaf didn’t actually translate to that much gold, because the goldsmiths could make it impossibly thin, but it still struck her as an absurd amount of wealth. Even the temple didn’t bother gluing gold onto so much stuff.

She was leaving dirt tracks in the plush, emerald-green carpet laid down the center of the hallway, which would absolutely be a pain for the house staff to clean up later, and Sera wondered if the family would be able to tell exactly what objects she touched in every room, purely from the dirt on her hands.

“Here we are!” Benvolius said, gesturing to a door that looked very much like all the other doors. Sera peered behind herself and sized up the watcher that had been assigned to them. They were clearly another Wilde, but in Benvolius’s parents’ generation. The family resemblance didn’t run quite as strong, since this woman had mousy brown hair and very different cheekbones, but the nose was sort of similar.

The woman kept a carefully neutral face as Benvolius reached for the doorknob and tentatively twisted it. He breathed out a sigh of relief when it didn’t shock him. Then he let out a nervous giggle and held the door open.

“I don’t know why I was so nervous,” he said, also holding the door for their watcher. “Grandpa has a whole sitting room that you have to go through before you can get into the office. Also, hi Auntie Amelia.”

Auntie Amelia pursed her lips and did not reply. Rude.

Sera would have brushed it off and gotten straight to rifling through things, but Benvolius drooped as he closed the door behind them.

“Is that a contract thing?” she asked, trying to play it casual as she took in the room. As a sitting room, Wilde Senior probably didn’t keep anything vitally important or secret in here, but a framed replica of the original charter document hung from the wall, and there was a bronze topographical cast of the Wilde holdings on the coffee table.

“Is what a contract thing?” asked Benvolius’s aunt.

Sera traced a finger along the topography. Timberheight had a very wiggly coastline. “Not saying hello back to your nephew,” she said.

There was a long silence as Benvolius reached for the handle to his grandfather’s office door. He poked it first, and when nothing happened reached out to fully wrap his fingers around the knob.

“He’s no longer considered a part of the family,” said Amelia Wilde, “so not my nephew.”

Benvolius turned the handle. Some part of Sera expected it to be locked, or for the shock to not hit until he actually pushed the door open, or for a wall of knives to fly out from a hidden panel, but nothing happened. He opened the door smooth as could be and took a cautious step inside.

Well, that was probably more important than needling Benvolius’s family members. She left the coffee table and trailed after him, then froze in the doorway.

Surely Wilde Senior’s office couldn’t look like this all the time. It was… empty. Sure, he had a great, hardwood desk sat squarely in the center of the room (with gold leaf on it, obviously), and a smaller writing desk sat off to the side, and there were a few lamps with stained glass lampshades and golden-bronze pull switches. But the walls were devoid of art or degrees or documents. The writing desk hatch had been left open to show there was nothing inside of it aside from an inkwell and jar of pens.

Sera pulled open the top drawer of the desk. Empty. One-by-one she tugged them all open, to find them all empty.

“Is my family allowed to do this?” Benvolius whispered, though Sera suspected his aunt could still hear from where she was watching them.

Not really, but Benvolius had mentioned only ever making it to the sitting room before, which meant they didn’t have anyone on their side who could testify that the office didn’t always look like this.

“Can you think of where everything might have been moved?” Sera asked.

“Not really,” Benvolius said. He looked around again, taking in details at the corners of the walls, and Sera did the same, in case there was some secret room somewhere, but nothing stood out to her. Then she tugged at Librata’s spirit and looked around again with magic sight.

Nothing.