Random 70

He put on a very innocent expression. "Maybe the third, too," he said, keeping up the expression. "But how do you mean, educational?" Sebastian asked as he measured the artifact and the cylinder. Yes, they fitted together. He reached out a hand toward the artifact, but didn't touch it before looking at Sylvie questioningly.

"Many little things, I have no quick answer for that."

At his look she said, "Should be safe." She crouched for a close look at the base of the artifact, deliberately brushing the glass with her fingers. She felt a slight itch even though she was not trying to sense magic, but nothing more. "It's standing on a metal plate. Probably a lid."

Just for the sake of it, he glanced at the front of his pants, frowned, then shrugged and hid his smile. He had no idea if Sylvie even noticed, seeing as he was busy grabbing the artifact and trying to gauge its weight. "Probably the lid itself, yes," he said, glancing at the cylinder. Having made his decision, he grabbed the cylinder and lifted, upturned it and placed it over the artifact with a grunt.

Then he waited, glancing at Sylvie.

She quickly ran a hand down the cylinder and around a stretch of its bottom edge, and when she felt not the slightest itch or tingle repeated the same actively feeling for magic, slower and more thoroughly around the bottom edge.

She sighed and smiled. "Good and tight. Nothing's getting out of there."

Sebastian stood stock still again for a moment, then let out a long, long breath, relaxed and wiped sweat off his forehead. He hadn't even noticed it up until now. "Well. That... that's extremely good." Having said and drifted next to Sylvie he tapped her shoulder with two fingers, waiting for her to turn around.

Sylvie had gotten up and rested her hands on top of the metal cylinder, trying to not think for a moment, particularly about the other two. At the touch she half turned, looking over her shoulder.

That was quite enough for him to steal a kiss, or perhaps kidnap one. At least it was payback for something taken from him.

As far as Sylvie was concerned, he gave her something she gladly returned right there.

He chuckled, eyes closed and hand on her shoulder. His eyes blinked open, rememorising her features. "All right, I'm sorry, but you deserved that much at least. Now, being a killjoy... we ought to leave this here before we find transportation, I suspect?"

She chuckled at the first half of that, and answered the second, "Right, can't think of how we could drag it around the city."

"I could think of one. The Saba carriage at Kord's place, but it might be best to just hide this somewhere in this building for now," he said, teasingly touching her cheekbone with a finger -- also to wipe off a bit of mud, but all the same. "Next place?"

"Yes. Let's lock up and hope nobody else breaks in."

While they hurried through Canyet again, Sebastian hoped the place they'd hid the box and the cylinder in the first location would be passable. He had no idea if hiding the cylinder under a bed and the box underneath the stairs would buy more time in case someone went to check in on the house, but even so, it couldn't be helped now. Time was of the essence, and he didn't even mind his boots getting caked in mud or getting wet when he stepped into a puddle far deeper than he thought.

No, it was time to hit the tanneries. Even in the rain, the rank smell of tanned hide and rotting meat wasn't hard to sense, though he wasn't sure if that was mainly because he had a slightly -- slightly -- better sense of smell than most people. Having two brains to figure out where to go was much better, although they once had to stop to ask for direction, but even so, they finally found the house they were looking for. It was next to a stream going through the city, and smelled even worse now that the rains had flooded it into what almost seemed like a river.

No wonder there. Tanneries needed water. If not for anything else, then for bathing after toiling away in the stink.

Just like most of the city, the house in question was more or less devoid of onlookers. A rowdy cacophony of noise drifted away from behind the corner from the drinking place just around the corner, but again it appeared the place had been chosen for its relative seclusion.

Sebastian stoppd to regard their surroundings, and it took a minute for him to nod, nudge Sylvie and give her the thumbs up. They were alone, alongside a house that had two floors -- one on the ground floor and one that went down a slope. It looked worn and old, ready to collapse -- and that was just what he was worried about.

Sylvie meanwhile tried to readjust. She couldn't ground the charge of the trap like before, worrying what anything ground-shaking would do to the sodden slope, but did not want to experiment much. With a look towards the direction from which the noise came, she prepared one of the simple moving patterns that scaled well. If anyone sees this... she pushed that thought away, and reached out for the door. No fear. This will work. You're better prepared this time. Sinking deeper, she felt for the trigger of the trap, more carefully. Again before she could get a closer look, it broke, but this time she could partially hold it together, channelling the released energy in a more controlled manner into the prepared spell.

For a few seconds, the rain around them fell upwards.

During those few seconds, Sebatian stared up, twitched as he realised the rain was coming back down and sheltered his eyes by looking down again. The look he shot at Sylvie was obviously impressed, further evidenced by the grin he had on his face. Squinting at the door, he began to fish for the key he thought looked suitable in dimensions.

She returned him a rather nervous smile, again rubbing her hands and forearms. "Best I could think of in a hurry. Messing with rain right now does not seem wise."

He noted how she rubbed her arms, making a mental note to ask about that in detail later, then nodded. "Improvisation in dire circumstances is key," Sebastian said warmly, lifting the key to the door for her to see and then opened the door, again allowing her to go in first. "You don't have to comment on what might be wrong about it, though," he said more quietly once they were inside, his eyes tracking dust motes and evaluating the insides of the house. It stank to high hell inside.

She was pretty certain he was deliberately working to reassure her, but appreciated the effort.

The stink made her swallow bile, and the creaking of the wooden floor every time she shifted her weight was not exactly reassuring. She kept close to the wall. The only good thing to find was that the building had only one room. The floor on the upper level did not reach the far wall, which had a row of open windows near the top, so it war merely gloomy, not dark.

Sebastian gave no indication if it was deliberate or not, more interested in keeping his eyes closed for a moment as he tried to get used to the stink. Someone he knew would have left the house through the wall if let in, leaving behind feathers and a wrecked building. Thankfully his sense of smell wasn't quite that good, and then -- he had some experince in sewer-crawls and entering places through the privy.

Finally, he swallowed, opened his eyes and tried to blink away the tears. One step, another, a third. Instinctually, he walked a circle, trying to gauge the humidity again. For once, he wasn't seeing too well.

Since there was not much in the way of clutter on the top floor, Sylvie headed towards the edge of the floor, looking for a way downstairs. She started shivering; trudging through the city had at least kept her a little warmer with the exercise.

When Sebastian reached the point closest to one front corner of the room, the floor very nearly squelched.