Random 69

A cat, that was all that he saw moving in the rain -- a very unhappy one, no doubt. Whilst considering some scenarios and keeping an eye out for some sort of surveillance, Sebastian sensed something was a bit off.

Though utterly inept at using magic or even understanding basic theories of it, he was a bit better at sensing currents of it -- but never really knowing what it did and what for. What he had felt behind his back caused him to turn around, eyes wide, just in time to see the mud splatter. His first instinctual reaction was to rush toward Sylvie, placing his hand on her upper arm, worriedly. He ignored the door and instead asked: "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Key." She wiped mud out of her face and took a step towards the door. "Inside, in case someone heard that."

Obediently, he took the key he judged -- with an expert eye -- to fit the lock of this particular door, unlocked the door and let her in first, slipping in deftly right after her, stiletto close at hand.

It smelled rather damp inside, and, as Sebastian decided to comment in a soft voice: "Too quiet for my liking." He took a few cautious steps around the empty shop, considering the upper floors. For a moment, he was almost certain he felt a kind of buzz of magic, but it seemed to fade into the background.

Sylvie spat and wiped her lips. I so need a bath when this is over.

Inside she leaned her back against the next wall and closed her eyes, trying to get back on track. She wanted to think about four things at once, and felt downright giddy.

"I'd love to know how Langoll did that. Or if that's... no, Montmore called him a genius. Bloody waste. If--" She realised she was babbling and cut herself off with another deep breath.

Sebastian was thinking about four things at once, but only two of them really mattered to him, and the first of those got his full attention. Satisfied that it was indeed quiet and nothing had exploded, he took Sylvie by the shoulders and examined him in a cursory manner for any signs of damage other than wracked nerves. In the end, he put on a smile. "There, just give it a moment. You did good."

She leaned her forehead on his shoulder, twitching with a stifled chuckle. "Just a moment, yes." He had no idea how close to going really bad that had been, and now wasn't the time to tell him, if ever. There was still work to do. She wiped her hands on her trousers, visibly calming down. The next two should be easier, now that she had a better idea of what she was dealing with.

She could hardly see, having let her night-vision spell fade when they'd left house Crow to look a little less conspicious. Rubbing her hands slowly, she asked, "Upstairs next?"

A good sign, that, Sebastian thought as he smiled and wrapped an arm around her, gently patting and rubbing her back when she leaned against him. One might have thought he had an inkling as to how shook she was. He certainly sensed something had made her utterly nervous, and that babbling...

Still, his gleaming eyes turned away once she had more or less composed herself. He made an affirmative sound and, offering one hand, began to creep through the building toward the stairs, his steps soft but not entirely silent. He dearly hoped there were no summoned guardians, or mortal ones for that matter, and thus kept his steps to the very edges of the stairs in order to minimise any sound he might make.

Sylvie took his hand and followed closely, as quietly as she could. She audibly had less practise sneaking around other people's houses. From her left hand she felt ahead, less exclusively focused on magic to help with not running into things, but mostly to be able to spot any additional magic traps.

And indeed there was a slight itch. She squeezed Sebastian's hand and breathed, "There's something at the top of the stairs. Let me check." He stopped.

As Sylvie sunk deeper into concentration, more slowly, more carefully trying to sense the shape of the spell, she smiled when some parts were very familiar. Keyed to react when an animal or person crossed them. But doing what? It was faint, there just wasn't enough energy to do anything much. Taking a mental step back and feeling around the edges of the barrier, she found a line leading off. When she followed it as far as she could, she found no end even though she was quite sure that point was outside this house. The line was swaying, like seaweed in a gentle current. It was very thin, and the barrier itself had felt a little ragged. Hm.

"I think it's something that alerted Langoll if someone crossed that threshold. No trap here. It's fading, and doesn't seem connected to anything." She frowned. "Wish I knew for certain if tricking it was worth the effort."

"I'd be tempted to say practice is always good," he whispered and began to lead her up the stairs again, not commenting whether or not her steps were too loud. "Langoll, hm?" Sebastian added, scanning the landing quickly, sniffing the air and turning his head left to right. And sure enough, he thought he sensed some more dampness from one direction than another. And as logic dictated... he headed that way, moving in an almost diagonal manner toward that direction. He heard water dripping, and knew they were going the right way.

The spell snapped when he crossed it, sending a pulse through the line leading off, which made that flap wildly, ending up pointing in a different direction for a moment before it faded altogether.

"I guess so. It sent an alarm just now, but it didn't seem like it would arrive anywhere."

He glanced at her momentarily, eyebrows raised as they moved on. "Sometimes I wish I knew how to sense those things."

"Hm," was all Sylvie said to that. She could have talked for hours about sensing things, but not right now.

A moment later she said, "It's behind that wall. There's... nothing on the door here."

Sebastian nodded and extracted his hand from hers, listening to the sound of dripping water for a moment before being satisfied: no footsteps, nothing else but their breathing and of course the aforementioned water. Carefully, he tried the door. Somewhat unsurprisingly to him, it was locked. The key didn't work, so he said: "A moment, if you would."

He fumbled with the lock for a while with the picks he grabbed from his belt, up until there was a satisfying click. All told, it took him about ten seconds, plus the time to put his tools back before opening the door and stepping into a humid, warm room.

The small room really held what they were looking for. Sylvie had to retract her feelers as she approached it, not even sure how far away it was exaclty. The skin of her arms burned before they even touched it.

She smelled mildew, and saw something a bit brighter at the opposite end of the room, angular. Cracks around shutters? "Can we open the window? I'd like a bit of light."

Sebastian sniffed the air, making the same conclusion about mildew. A look at the roof suggested the place might have, if left alone for a few weeks longer, collapsed. Instead of remarking it out loud, he moved deftly through the room, dodging a table, a chair and what looked like a stack of sodden books. At a certain point he felt as though the humidity grew more pervasive, but it passed once he reached the window which he then opened, squinting a bit when the light in the room became a bit stronger. Rain greeted him, hitting his face and then his back as he turned to glance over the room again, categorising everything in it again.

The glass spindle they had expected - this one hip-high and in proportion a bit wider than the model they had found - was to Sylvie's right. Something dark, algae or fungus, had grown on the wall it stood against, and water was trickling down that wall.

The sheer power of the artifact, which she had felt and the made Sylvie nervous. She couldn't very well examine it if doing that made her feel like her hands were being flayed; mental discipline had limits. But then, maybe she wouldn't have to.

Looking around the room - the stack of moisture-bloated books made her cringe - she found the box Brice had described behind the door. And when she examined it, next to it a metal cylinder only a little smaller. It rang a little when she tapped it, and she smiled at Sebastian over her shoulder.

Sebastian tilted his head, mentally rewinded back to how the prototype in the tin hadn't exuded moisture until removed from it -- and grinned. "Looks like they were ready to cart these off. Perhaps pull it off again somewhere else, some other year," he mused out loud as he approached the box and cylinder. The artifact had received a slightly worried look from him, too.

"Hopefully." Her smile widened to a grin. "It reminds me of that prank gift Nico gave you. That screaming bottle?" He had just stoppered it while Sylvie had tried to figure out what to do about it. She turned her attention to the cylinder and rolled it a short way out of the corner on its edge. It was quite heavy. "Spending time with you is educational."

Sebastian actually laughed. "That bottle was worth it, and it put me in my place for a moment." He intentionally stressed that last word, then decided to help with the cylinder. "Educational? That's not what people usually say," came his somewhat amused reply. "I'm more used to 'you're crazy' or 'you're an asshole' or 'should I send for the authorities?'" Pause. "The first two might not be that much off the mark."

Kidnapping, lockpicking... "Only the first two?" slipped out without thought.