A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

"Benjamin," Seth said, at a complete loss to say anything more intelligent. His arms reflexively clutched as if Mau were still there, but he'd put her down to drag Ned inside the barn. He needed the comfort of her presence. Things were spiraling too quickly and he needed some sort of stability to figure out what to do.

Instead she was unconscious on the floor near the ladder up to the loft. He hoped the scorpion venom wore off soon. This was too much for Seth to handle alone.

The lantern on the floor near Owen cast the barn in eerie shadows. The outside light from the warehouse across the way backlit Benjamin and his two employees.

Benjamin looked up from the doll he was holding and looked over the children. He gestured to the coachman. "Go check the warehouse. I'd like to reassure the custodian that we checked it thoroughly."

"Custodian?" Seth asked.

"Yes. The man was quite distressed and searching for a patrol. When we encountered him, I assured him I would handle it. Regardless, we probably only have a short while before the authorities arrive." Benjamin stepped past Selendrith and glanced around the barn, his gaze paused on the unconscious Owen, and moved on to the deceased Ned. He walked up to stand next to Ned.

"It was an accident," Seth said.

Benjamin chuckled. "No, it wasn't. But don't worry, I'm sure he had it coming."

"Bet your ass he did," Booth muttered. "He was gonna kill my sister."

Benjamin turned to Booth, who was standing on the other side of the body. "You were the one who killed him then? In self defense, of course."

Booth scowled and didn't answer. Benjamin smiled, tapping the doll in his hands absently.

"How do you know this man, Seth?" Selendrith asked. She was standing behind the open barn door, only a few steps from Owen. Her hands were clenching the hem of her shirt.

"Of course, forgive me," Benjamin said. "We are in a hurry, but we do have a few moments. I am Benjamin, a merchant out of Vernar and Rosia. I am Seth's guardian and a friend of his father's. Seth, won't you introduce me to your friends?"

Seth thought the situation was surreal. Standing next to Ned's body, covered in splatters of blood, Seth introduced his friends as if they'd all met on the street on a normal day.

He was aware he wasn't thinking clearly. He knew he couldn't trust Benjamin, yet here he was doing exactly that. And he believed Benjamin would handle all of it.

"I am pleased to meet the people important to Seth," Benjamin said. He hardly looked at Booth or Hayfield, but studied Owen for a moment. Finally, his attention landed on Selendrith and stayed there. "Selendrith. Have we met?"

"I work in a shop in the magic district. I'm pretty sure you've done business with my grandfather." Selendrith leaned back a little under the scrutiny, and looked away. She was twisting the hem of her shirt so much she might tear it.

Seth watched as Benjamin's eyes cataloged Selendrith's clothes, rings, braid, and earrings. For some reason it made him uneasy. Selendrith too, as she took a tiny step backwards.

"Lovely pearls, my dear," Benjamin finally said, and offered her the doll. "I don't see the child this belongs to. If she's here, why don't you return this to her while I handle this incident for you."

Selendrith wordlessly accepted the doll and scurried up the ladder.

"What do you mean, 'handle'?" Booth asked. "You gonna turn us in?"

Benjamin gave Booth a smile and turned to the footman. "Fetch one of the sealable sacks, would you. The biggest one," he said to the footman. To Booth he said, "Of course not. I don't think ruining promising futures over street trash is a good bargain."

Booth stiffened. While Seth wasn't sure if Benjamin meant just Ned or Booth also, Booth clearly thought the barb was meant for him.

"We'll need to clean up the blood. There's a water barrel outside. Seth, I know it's early in the semester, but have you learned any cleaning spells?" Benjamin asked.

"I have not, sir. I do know a water cantrip, Flow."

Benjamin hummed in disappointment. He glanced at Booth who shook his head. "Well, at least they're back to teaching first years a variety of cantrips. We'll have to make Flow work. Come."

Seth followed Benjamin outside. "The cantrip Flow is all about moving water, or I should say, liquid. Since what we want to clean up is also liquid, we will use the spell to move it, too. What you want to do is pour water over all the blood, and whatever that is, ink?"

Seth looked at the remnants of a scorpion. "Yes, water, shadow, smoke, and other things. The summons was very inky."

"A summons? Well then, that will dissipate on its own relatively quickly, but perhaps not fast enough for what we need. I want you to make about a bucket's worth of water flow out of that barrel, and flow over to here. Water likes circles, so make it flow in a circle over here, and have all the blood and ink move to the middle of the water. Then have it flow down the storm drain in the gutter over there. When it flows, don't let it leave water behind. The stones should be dry when you're done. Do you think you can do that?" Benjamin asked.

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Seth gauged the distances between the barrel, the ink puddle, and the blood stain. What Benjamin was asking him to do was pretty hefty for a cantrip, but with the right intent and focus, it could probably be done. The cantrip was about moving liquid, and that was all he was trying to do. There was enough water in the barrel for more than one attempt, too. The trickiest part would be not leaving any water behind. Seth hadn't thought something like that was possible with the water cantrip.

"I think I can, yes," Seth said.

"Good. Don't disappoint me." Benjamin said. The footman arrived with a large sack that looked like a grain bag. "You'll need to clean up inside the barn, also, so make sure you have the water and mana to do so."

"Yes, sir." Seth got to work as Benjamin went inside. He tried to focus, and closed his eyes to listen. He was using the spell in a strictly structured format, so his talent didn't need to be cooperative, but it had been working well for him tonight and he felt like he should be respectful to it.

He tuned out the sounds of the footman and Booth putting Ned's body in the bag. He waited and listened until he was confident he had exactly what he needed clear in his mind, and cast the spell.

It mostly worked on the first try. There were still some blood spatters, but that was due to him not running the water over where the splatters were. The cobblestones were mostly dry.

As Seth cast it a second time, he heard Benjamin asking Booth to use a mark on the bag to seal it. Then Booth and the footman carried out the bag and loaded it into the carriage.

Seth had casting Flow in this specific way down pat by the time everything was clean. When he looked up he saw Selendrith glaring at him. "I'm sorry," he said reflexively.

He thought she might be angry that he was helping to hide the evidence. She never forgave Booth for stealing, not truely, and now there was a death to cover up. She also might be upset at him for letting Benjamin handle everything, but it was so much easier to let him solve it. He also had the means to do so.

She blinked in surprise, her anger vanishing in an instant. "Oh, sorry. It's not… How many times did you just cast that?"

"Four?"

"And how long did you hold the spell each time?"

"I don't know. Some seconds. Definitely less than a minute."

Selendrith nodded. "You're not using a vault, and you were casting during the fight. You have a lot of mana for a first year student."

Seth's stomach flipped over. His power was Saben's, so that of a second year. She couldn't have guessed, could she? He glanced over his shoulder at Benjamin outside. Selendrith knew Benjamin might be connected to the thefts. She was the one that noticed that his name had been deleted from the shop records when Duvessa had raided them. Now she also knew Benjamin was his guardian.

She would put it together for sure.

"Mau is a silver leopard, right? I didn't know you could get mana from them, but you must be getting it from her," Selendrith continued. "It's lucky that you can do that. We need that right now."

"I– ah, no." Relief was making him stutter. She wasn't thinking about his connection to Benjamin, but rather his connection to Mau. He took a deep breath. "I'm not sure what she is. I meant to find out, but there's always something else going on."

The footman and the coachman came in and together picked up Owen. Alarmed, Seth followed them outside where they placed Owen in the carriage. Selendrith was right behind him.

"Why are you taking Owen?" Selendrith demanded, sounding a little panicked. "He is not dead."

Benjamin smiled reassuringly. "Of course he's not. But none of you have the capability to carry him to safety." He gestured to Booth's family.

Alley was there, holding the silent toddler to her chest. The two girls that had been up in the loft had also come down, one of them now clutching the doll. Hayfield was sitting up on the ground with Booth standing next to him. All of the family were weirdly silent. Seth would have expected at least one of the little ones to be bawling. Except for Booth, all of them had tear tracks on their faces.

Booth's expression was hard and blank. Seth felt bad for him. He had to be beating himself up about the condition of his siblings.

"You'll need to carry your brother," Benjamin said to Booth. "You should leave now and get your siblings home. Owen is too big for any of you to carry yourselves and still get everyone off the street."

Everyone stood frozen.

"Go on, off you go!" Benjamin said. "Selendrith, why don't you help them along. Seth, up in my carriage please. You and I need to have a conversation."

"You're not coming with us?" Selendrith asked Seth, looking from him to Booth and his family. She started wringing the hem of her shirt again.

"You need to leave, right now," Benjamin said firmly. "You are nearly out of time."

"Right," Booth said. "Thank you for your help," he said to Benjamin with a polite nod. "Seth, catch up with you at school." Booth hauled Hayfield up onto his back and started off, calling for his siblings to follow. A reluctant Selendrith trailed after the group, glancing back at Seth before disappearing into the darkness.

Seth realized that Selendrith would be walking back to the school in the middle of the night with Booth. That had to make her nervous. Seth hoped they'd mend fences on the way.

More likely, they wouldn't even pretend to be friends anymore.

Benjamin watched down the road in the opposite direction.

"Shouldn't we go too?" Seth asked.

"Not just yet. We'll let them have a few minutes to get well away before leaving ourselves. We would have a much easier time explaining our presence. I own property in the area and regularly do business here."

Seth retrieved Mau and climbed up in the carriage. Owen was slumped against the far window with the curtain drawn. Seth sat next to him, and carefully lay Mau down on the seat next to the other window. Outside, Benjamin was talking quietly to the footman and coachman. It was too muffled for Seth to hear.

After a moment he picked Mau back up and put her on his lap and buried his fingers in her fur. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his thoughts. Ned had first attacked them only about twenty minutes ago. So much had happened and he had a great deal to think about.

Seth realized he was effectively going to be alone with Benjamin. He had so many questions. So many accusations. So many things had happened that he needed answers about.

But he was too rattled to think clearly. He wasn't prepared for this conversation. He hadn't expected Benjamin to return to Rosia for weeks yet. Seth was sitting just feet away from a dead body and he had a part in the murder. He had his brother's stolen power. Benjamin was the power thief and cleaning up a murder didn't faze him.

Seth needed answers to questions that might get him killed. He knew he was going to ask those questions anyway.

A few moments later Benjamin climbed in and knocked on the roof with a cane that had been lying on the floor. The carriage rocked forward.

"You can relax now, Seth. The worst trouble is over," Benjamin said as he leaned back in the seat across from Seth. The warm smile he gave Seth was friendly and looked genuine.