A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

It was late at night before we got back to our dorm room. Our roommate, Isaac, was sound asleep, so Seth had an opportunity to read Saben's letter. He climbed up into bed and pulled the covers over him before lighting his amulet.

I scooted under the covers with him and tried to get him to read it to me, but he just kept shushing me.

Unacceptable.

I was still considering what my vengeance would be when Seth heaved a big sigh.

"He's all right," he whispered to me. "He's been in the Below with his team a lot, and got all my letters at once. He told me not to talk so much, he's busy."

That sounded like code to me. 'Secret,' I signed to Seth. 'See.' I thought it pretty obvious that Saben didn't want Seth blabbing shit in his letters.

"I know to be careful, Mau." Seth scowled indignantly at me.

I wasn't so sure and I flattened my ears. We stared at each other. Finally I tilted my head in a 'really?' type look.

Seth's scowl twisted. "You think Be– someone is reading my letters."

Yes. Yes I did. So did Saben.

"I haven't put anything we were doing in there. Just little things about school and classes and stuff. I'm not stupid, Mau."

Seth reread the letter. "I'm writing him a reply."

Now? Doofus was going to wake up Isaac. I did not want to deal with that cranky bastard. Not only that, I did not want Isaac pretending to sleep and listening in on Seth's ramblings to me.

Actually, that brought up another thought. Somehow Benjamin was keeping tabs on Seth and it was more than just reading his mail. According to Seth's recounting of the conversation, Benjamin even mentioned that Seth's plans to infiltrate the Skull Gang hideout needed more work.

That plan was in the early stages, and had hardly been discussed between the kids. That meant it wasn't a spy that informed Benjamin. It had to be magic of some sort, probably a device.

And what things had Benjamin given Seth? The first to come to mind was the bracelet. The bracelet that we'd already determined made recordings of Seth's mana usage. It wasn't a stretch to think it might record other things.

Actually, Benjamin had only 'retrieved' from it once, and that was before we started planning the Skull Gang heist.

While I was thinking about that, Seth tossed the covers on top of my head, climbed out of bed, and sat down at the desk. He dimmed his amulet as low as it could go and looked at what was on the desk.

It was covered in Isaac's homework.

Rude. The desk was shared. The asshole could at least clean up after himself.

Seth didn't care. Instead of bumbling around in his trunk to pull out his own paper and ink and risking waking Isaac, he just pulled out a blank sheet and ink bottle from Isaac's stuff. I approved.

I hopped up on the back of the desk chair and leaned over Seth's shoulder to see what he was writing. I was getting better at puzzling out written work, but everything still needed to be translated in my brain. Eventually I'd know the local language.

Anyway, Seth's letter was brief, and just acknowledged Saben's letter, told him everything was all right and that he wanted to see him in person soon, and then he drew a picture.

At the bottom of the page, Seth made a series of dots, and then connected them. It took me a minute, but I realized it was a constellation. He made a couple of other notations on it, specifically a couple of letters and dots that weren't connected to the constellation. Below it, he wrote 'Happy Birthday.'

I had no idea what that was about. So I hopped onto the desk.

'This,' I pointed with a paw, and then flicked my ear for 'Tell me more.'

"Careful, don't smudge it," Seth whispered and shot a glance at Isaac.

'Tell me more. Tell me more. Tell me more.'

Seth ignored me and blew on the paper to dry the ink.

Boy left me no choice. I dunked a paw on the inkwell–my paws were way too big to fit inside, but there was plenty of ink on the rim–and then I touched my inky paw to Seth's hand. When he just glared at me, the next pawprint went on his face.

He stared death at me. I wasn't impressed. He glanced meaningfully at Isaac, and then stared even more darkly at me. I lifted my inky paw. Dark stares make for dark faces. I was just helping.

And I was abruptly scooped up one handed, ass end up. With his other hand, Seth capped the ink and put the desk back to rights. Then he snatched the letter he'd written.

"What are you doing?" Isaac grumbled, annoyed.

"The cat is being a pain. Go back to sleep. I'm going to take her outside."

"Stupid familiars."

I wasn't dickish enough to smear my inky paw on clothes, but for Isaac, I considered making an exception. Or, I would have, if I wasn't ass over teakettle and getting summarily manhandled out of the room.

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Seth hauled me to the washroom and dropped me on the sink. "What are you doing? You woke Isaac up! I don't want him asking questions about what I'm doing or him trying to read my letter!" Seth glanced in the mirror. "You got ink all over my face! I'm of half a mind to dunk you in a barrel of ink too. Let everyone think you're some weird panther instead of a leopard."

Oh ho? An impromptu dye job? I wonder how well that would last. Would it do better than the ridiculous color illusion that combat class does? It had to. Ink was colorfast, wasn't it? I wouldn't fade to green or something stupid, would I?

"Why did that make you happy? I meant that as a punishment, Mau. Not a reward. I can't believe you're thinking about that like it was a great idea."

It was a nice distraction, but you ain't off the hook, kid. I pointed my inky paw at the letter. 'Tell me more.'

"It's a star chart. I did these all the time with my dad."

'Tell me more.' I knew there was more to this.

Seth wouldn't look at me, and went to fetch a washcloth and soap. Then he studiously scrubbed at the ink on his hand while ignoring my demands for an explanation. So I planted my butt in the most inconvenient spot I could find. On his hands.

"Mau!" Seth dropped the cloth. "Fine. I don't want to say it." Then to my surprise, he did a pretty good sign for 'code'.

"It's happy birthday from Dad," Seth said aloud, and signed 'code,' again, then added, 'secret.'

I nodded. Seth had mentioned once before that his dad had a code. It would make sending messages safer, for sure. But why not do the whole message in code? So I asked him that.

"Saben," Seth said aloud. Understandable, Seth didn't have a tail to make the sign for Saben. 'Small, know,' he signed.

So Saben didn't know the whole code. How short sighted of him. Because having your parent murdered and needing a secret code to talk to your brother without tipping off your sus guardian was totally something every kid should expect and set up ahead of time.

All right. This code isn't going to be a way around finding the spy device. Let's see if we can eliminate the device.

'Off,' I signed to Seth, and touched the bracelet. 'This. Off.'

I could feel the spike of anxiety through the familiar link as Seth stared at the bracelet, though the kid looked calm. After a few moments he took it off and laid it on the rim of the sink.

"I can see why you think it might be this. But some of the facts don't line up. He knows about our plans for the–um, I don't know if I should name them."

Yup, I was thinking that just a few minutes ago. Great minds think alike and all that shit.

"Right, you know what I'm talking about. He knows about them, but that started after he did the calibration thing. And we had it checked after that, and Selendrith's grandfather didn't say anything about it recording what we say or anything."

I shrugged. This was crazy magic land. Who the fuck knew what anything could do. Because 'magic'.

Seth lowered his head and took a long, deep breath before looking back at me. "It's a stabilizer, Mau. My talent has been getting so much easier to use lately. My casting times are actually close to normal now. If I take this off, then what happens if the talent becomes more unstable? What if I can't cast properly without it?"

That was a damn good question. The bracelet was the most obvious culprit. The fact that it was obvious made it less likely. But could we really afford to ignore it?

On the other paw, Seth's talent was wonky. I thought about his casting when I'd first met him. Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to tell good casting from bad back then because it was all fucking magic. He had tended to stick to unstructured spells, and they only worked the way he wanted about half the time.

Spells that only work half the time while attending magic school was a recipe for flunking out.

On the other, other paw, he knew structured spells now. If he avoided the unstructured stuff until he got used to his unstabilized talent, that should work, right? Could an unstable talent stabilize on its own?

Hell if I knew.

At that moment another student banged the door open and grunted at Seth as he shuffled sleepily to the latrine.

Seth grabbed me and stuffed my inky paw in the basin and started rubbing soap on it. I hadn't noticed I left paw prints all over the sink.

I put up with getting my paws scrubbed until the other student left. Then I wiggled loose.

Seth, surprisingly, didn't fight me on it and just let me go. "Do you want me to rinse your paws off? Oh, wait, you got ink on my face too, didn't you?"

Seth proceeded to rinse his face and hands, but didn't scrub like he did me. He seemed lost in thought, staring at the water pouring down the drain. "May as well see how it goes," he finally said.

He straightened and closed his eyes. And, as far as I could tell, did nothing for nearly a full minute. Do you know how long a minute is when you're just staring at someone? Wicked fucking long! I think I was about to expire like old milk when Seth finally started casting.

He cast Flow. He cast it really slowly, and completely structured. I could tell in my whiskers that the spell was ever so slightly unstable. But honestly, if I wasn't looking for it I wouldn't have noticed. Seth used the spell to pull all the soapy water, and all the ink, off himself and me, and sent all of it circling down the drain.

Hot potatoes, I was impressed. Kid got every drop. My fur, the sink rim, and Seth were bone dry and inkless.

Seth exhaled and opened his eyes. "That was harder without the bracelet, but not by a lot. It feels like the bracelet was suppressing the talent. There's something else suppressing it still, but it's not as heavy. I don't know what it could be though. I've never noticed it before."

Huh. Stabilization by suppressing? Heavy, like a weighted blanket? I suppose that could work. That also implied that a talent was a thing that could be smooshed. Not a far stretch considering a talent could be stolen. If true, that could be a relevant detail somewhere down the line.

That something else was still doing it was another mysterious piece to the magic mystery.

Welp, that was decided then. I snagged the bracelet and jumped off the sink. I was half way out the door when Seth scooped me up.

"What do you think you're doing? Where are you going?"

'Hide. Secret. Stash.'

"I don't know that last one."

Of course you don't. I just made it up. I blinked at him innocently.

"I'm still on probation, Mau. I'm supposed to meet with Professor Rebecca this week and hopefully all that will go away. But right now you need to stay on good behavior."

Purple pansies, the kid was right. Fine. 'Follow.' I'll show you the secret stash. I've got something to hand you anyway.

Seth was annoyed I made him leave the warm dorm building in just his pajamas. So I trotted faster so he couldn't grab me and head back.

I led Seth to a dilapidated corner of the campus. Well, as dilapidated as it gets when you're at a fancy magic school. It was the backside of an unused building with lots of 'spare equipment'. And by that I meant large rocks, bits of metal, bones, and other things that looked like spell manipulation material. There I dug up where I'd hidden the two listening stones, and dropped the bracelet in the hole and covered it back up. I nudged the two stones over to Seth.

"These are the stones you stole. One from the Wind Tower that you puked up, and the other at the Menagerie that got you all wet. You moved them out of Isaac's mattress?"

Yuppers! Magic loot. And you bet I moved them. Look at me, being all kind and benevolent, I am going to give them away. 'Booth,' I signed, and 'this,' indicating the stones. 'Listen. Selendrith. Magic.'

The kid needed a way to stay in contact with his family. Magic walkie talkies should do it. Because Booth's situation was very slightly my fault, and I felt just the tiniest bit guilty he was in the pickle he created, and since I was benefitting from his misfortune, I figured I should help him out a smidge. I was happy to share the stones I couldn't figure out how to use. Selendrith was sharp, she would figure it out and show Booth how to use them.

I wasn't giving up my ring, though. I wasn't feeling that guilty.