Page Seven

"I've never been too sure. It's either magic - or alive. Or both. What I do know is that it's..." Sebastian reached out and drew a finger across the grooves. The orb lit up. The light was not bright by any means, but it was likely it would create enough light in night conditions to see where one was walking.

The half-elf smiled at the orb and petted its irregular surface. The humming grew into a clearly audible staccato hum for as long as he was petting it - about five seconds -, and the light inside the thing seemed to flicker slowly between both him and Sylvie.

No, I will not drop the thing like a live coal. That would be both silly and rude.

Sylvie relaxed a bit and smiled at Sebastian.

"I'm honoured you'd give something like this to me..." It seemed to be unique. Sylvie was very curious about it, but his initial description and casual manner about it made her nervous. "But can you tell me anything more about it? Do you know how old it is?"

Sebastian narrowed his eyes thoughtfully as he watched Sylvie relax. Then he shook his head lightly and let go of the orb, watching it calmly. "Never say honoured: it's well deserved," the half-elf stated in an insisting manner and smiled his secret smile. "I'm not sure as to how old it is, but orbs like this one were common with a certain higher society class about fifty years ago in a country I once visited. They were heirlooms."

Sebastian turned a glazed stare at the orb. "This one is a fair bit older than those. It's a companion. I'm rather certain the rest were, too, but their owners didn't seem to know that."

"What do you mean?"

Sylvie kept her eyes on Sebastian. She wanted to watch the orb closely, in case it did something suspicious, but didn't have the nerve for it. If the half-elf hadn't been staring at it, she'd have put it back into its pouch for the day.

It's old. He - or someone - owned it before. It's very unlikely to explode or something just because now I have it.

Unless it does have personality, is attached to him and doesn't like me.

If she'd thought about the reason for her nervosity, she might have come up with this: A decade of schooling making sure to drill "Never mess with magic you don't understand yet" into her, aided by old stories of spirit-artifacts which were all capricious and dangerous.

"They thought they were ornaments. Pure and simple. They put them on display next to vases or trophies and had servants wipe the dust off them occasionally. And that was all there was to it. One gentleman even had a collection of these. Pink, blue... I suppose, azure, red, one that was cracked like glass. Most of them were passive, too. Except for the cracked one."

Sebastian smiled at the orb, then looked at Sylvie. "This one, on the other hand, was humming a melody when I first saw it." He knocked on the orb with a fingernail twice, paused, then knocked twice again, causing the thing to make a sound of askance. "It learns new ones as well, which was something of a surprise."

The "complaint" from the orb made Sylvie flinch a little.

"Sorry..." More to herself she added, "I should be used to odd noises."

She sighed. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but, quite apart from making her nervous, it also seemed like a waste.

"Are you sure you want to give it away? I'm not particularly musical."

Meanwhile Nico had come closer and was listening in unabashedly.

"I'm sure I want to. But it's yours to do whatever you want to do with it aside from giving it back to me," Sebastian replied with a shrug, although he had a slightly apologetic and resigned look to him as he flashed another one of his faraway smiles. He always had trouble with people who had to ask for clarification when he was being serious.

The half-elf glanced at Nico, then over his shoulder. "Besides, musicality is hardly what it's for. It doesn't mind being put on a pedestal like a trophy. If that's what you end up doing with it, that's just as well - it will be another expensive correspondent of silver or emeralds in that case."

He shrugged again. "I've never really understood these gift-giving cultures. I thought that is what happens to most gifts one receives, unless they happen to be... temporary," Sebastian said and glanced at Sarina with a barely visible smile. "The items become mere representatives of memories."

Silver an emeralds? Are we a bit vain here? Nico thought with some amusement, but she kept quiet.

"I never collected memorabilia. It just wasn't practical." Her smile grew warmer, and sincere to the core. "But it seems there's a first time for everything." She took a breath to continue, but hesitated. After a moment she just added a heartfelt "Thank you".

The halfie raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, looking tired. Then he bowed his head slightly. "It rarely is. You're welcome, Sylvie. It's a pleasure." But he still didn't feel as if he had repaid a debt, which bothered him more than a fair bit. And so he studied Sylvie's face for a moment longer before he did the same to Nico's - and glanced at the wheel. "Once you solve that..." Sebastian said with a faint smile, "yes, it is real, and that is what I think the wheel was made for."

He looked at Sylvie again, ignoring any reaction his words had caused in Nico. Instead he felt quite awkward and nervous. It wasn't often that he had to disengage from situations like this. Especially when he was being about as normal as he could. He felt naked, as if all the pages of the Book of Sebastian open for everyone to read.

It was a thrilling sensation even though it made him feel strangely... lost. Such a strange thing, as I have been lost for my entire life, he mused and looked down and to the side.

Finally he managed a wan smile and closed his eyes momentarily, then opened them and focused them on a familiar male servant hovering farther away. "I think I could do with some more wine," he said and looked at them both. "Should I ask them to bring more for either of you?"

He really had no need to worry about anyone reading over his shoulder, since the Book of Sebastian is written in a very obscure language indeed.

Iceheart merely saw a man who was feeling awkward around a woman and had forgotten to expect the unexpected where they were concerned. Iceheart had played at that feeling a few times. Just once, and a little while ago now, he hadn't had to fake it...

And that put his slight impatience at being stood up tonight firmly into perspective. (He stroked his dog's head absently.)

Perry had never been into books to begin with.

Nico's ignored reaction was a chuckle. She suspected he was a bit of an actor, but had no idea which parts of his behaviour were sincere. All things considered, she didn't think badly of him.

At Sebastian's offer, Sylvie shook her head, and Nico said, "Not for me, thanks. But... any chance of you telling us what the cracked orb did?"

Having put the present back into its pouch, Sylvie looked up curiously. She wouldn't have kept Sebastian longer when he apparently wanted to end the conversation, but that was an interesting question.

She had no idea how nervous Sebastian was, let alone why, and would have been utterly baffled if she had known he thoought he owed her something.

He looked at Nico with a pleased smile. He liked curiosity at times. "It watched anyone that went past and came close. And cats liked it, for some reason. Strange creatures. The orb brought to mind an old dog that's silently happy just watching the household go about their business." He paused for a moment. "At night it... painted moving pictures on the wall about the day's happenings." And, sometimes, other things, Sebastian mused, although you had to ask nicely...

"A scary thought that some people used objects possibly capable of feats like that as decoration, without any idea of it," Nico said.

She looked thoughtful, and slightly uncomfortable, but took care not to eye up Sebastian suspiciously. He probably would not have liked her unchecked curiosity.

The tales of thievery he'd mentioned fueled some speculations how he might have come across that nocturnal orb, and she could come up with nefarious uses for such a trinket.

What she wanted was a heart-to-heart talk - well, interrogation - about his past, morals, and what Sylvie was to him, with a bit of help to find out if he was answering truthfully. This was rather surprising, considering that she'd known the young mage only for quite a short time, but still, she worried.

Of course, all that only told her something about her way of thinking, not about Sebastian's past or character. Apart from that it was no business of hers. And certainly such a questioning was not suitable for polite company.

The swashbuckler shrugged. "Those are harmless feats as far as I'm concerned. In fact, as far as I am concerned, these things are delicate pieces of art created with a craftsman's love. They deserve proper treatment. But I suppose they are what you make of them." He studied Nico's face for a while and then looked toward the servant again.

Nico shrugged in turn, smiling. Maybe you needed to be familiar with the concept of hidden cameras to find the thought disturbing.

"Sorry we have been keeping you," Sylvie interjected, reminding Nico of something resembling manners.

"Oh, yes. We don't want you to die of thirst."

"Oh, not thirst. I'm cold," Sebastian said with an amused smile as he walked past them.

Nico chuckled and her gaze followed him for a moment, then she looked outside, resting her elbows on the windowsill. She laid down the disc with some care, and turned her head to watch Sylvie, who was watching Sebastian with an odd part dreamy, part puzzled expression.

When she thought Sebastian was out of earshot, she asked, "And? Learned anything about Mister Mysterious there?"

Sylvie gave Nico a self-depreciating smile and answered with likewise lowered voice, "I'm even more confused..."

The way he talked and acted this way one moment and that way the next... She didn't even know what he thought of her. Some things he'd said to her, like "Never say honoured: it's well deserved," were so over the top she had wondered for a moment if he had been making fun of her. At the point of considering if she did not believe it just because she didn't want to, she decided she was being stupid.

Now, how to find out what he was like without revealing how interested she was?

Sylvie made a sound halfway between a sigh and a snort, and cussed under her breath, which Nico answered, grinning, "Such is life."

She had given up on the disc for the evening, planning to consult some sources looking for the alphabet, and idly dragged her fingertips over the windowsill, where they gathered up a hair. She twisted it around her finger. It was white and bloody long, so she had a good chance of guessing who lost it. hmm

That was rather strange, Sebastian thought to himself with a weak smile as he greeted the servant, and attempted to gather some of his act so he could at least look unpertrubed. The alternative - looking as if he had no idea what had just happened - was not an option. It was the cold, hard truth, however.

He managed to look fairly placid on the outside, but he was painfully aware his act was not going to work very well around those two ladies at least. The rest he wasn't so sure of, but he was also rather convinced they didn't give it much thought. Even if they did... what good did it do them?

Once he had another glass of wine in his hand, he excused himself and set off to explore the Hall. In truth Sebastian was exploring his own mind while his feet explored the Hall, but outwardly it was about the same thing. Farther away from everyone he could finally let his puzzled mind rest and stop trying to be the Fox - the Hat, rescuer of riches -, even if only for a moment.

He felt strangely peaceful doing so, and although he really never had understood these particular gift-giving traditions, the half-elf was content. Sebastian wasn't blind, however, and this caused him to worry a little bit. This, in turn, made him a little sad. A part of him wondered if the silvery webs of Lady Luck were leading to some certain, unknowable direction again.

Nico turned around and had a look over the assembly. Oh, wow, everyone thinking to themselves; what kind of party is this?

She pushed herself away from the windowsill and stalked back to the piano. After stashing her loot behind the upturned box she asked, looking at Perry and Suitov, "And you don't like surprises?"

Sylvie decided to watch from a distance.

Iceheart looked up from scratching Baskerville.

"I was going to let you watch before unstoppering anything, since they're your gifts. All right, well, I admit it: I'll probably need the moral support if - what's the phrase? - 'certain authorities' decide I've been bad too." Taking the smile into account, he didn't really seem all that hesitant or serious.

"I certainly hope they know I've been bad," Perry said, oh so casually.