Chapter 35 - Debts

The first half of our walk to Town Park consisted of Olivia hissing a long and tedious lecture at me about how one does not have to reveal everything one knows to other people. Really. It felt like I was getting chewed out by a snake.

The lecture ended abruptly when Jacky told her that she might want to hold off until she knew if my "lack of reticence" was a good thing or a bad thing.

The second half of the walk was filled with a huffy silence.

It was a huge relief when the canopies and banners came into view.

Even though it was early, the festival was already warming up. All of the booths and merchants were ready to go. There were bright colors everywhere, and trickles of people were gathering into small crowds. Some of them stopped to huddle around the gas fireplaces the town had set up. There was laughter and flickering flames. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The contrast made it easy to spot Nylah. She didn’t look like she was having a good time. She wandered from booth to booth, looking around and occasionally referencing the small tablet she was carrying. While we were moving through the crowds to get to her, three different people flitted up to her side, conferred with her for a moment, then disappeared.

I leaned close to Olivia. “What’s she doing?”

“Oh, she probably volunteered to take over some of my mother’s duties in yet another attempt to become her clone.”

I was distracted by the commotion around me, so it was with notable thoughtlessness that I muttered, “So she’s helping?”

I heard an angry tsk sound, and focused in on Olivia. The edge of her upper lip was twitching in a half-hearted sneer.

My stomach sank.

After what Rall had said, I started nurturing the hope that Nylah might be more open-minded than she had been before. But I knew that the chance was a slim one, and I had a sneaky suspicion that it would go from near-zero to zero in the time it took for Olivia to lose her temper.

I drew myself up as I walked. “Olivia Oliversen, you owe me.”

Olivia and Jacky both stopped. I noticed a step later and turned back to see what had happened. Jacky’s skull was inscrutable. Despite all common sense, I was getting used to seeing emotion in it, but this time, it looked like nothing but an inert bit of bone. Fortunately, Olivia’s face had enough emotion to make up for it. Unfortunately, that emotion was made up of rage and indignation.

It was Jacky who spoke. “Emerra, you can’t know what you’re saying, so it’s forgivable—”

“No,” Olivia said. “It’s all right, Mr. Noctis. She’s right. I asked her to come, and she came.” She glared at me. “I admit my debt. What do you want from me?”

Well, crap. I wanted her to listen to me, but she wasn’t supposed to be all serious.

But I knew she was listening. And I didn’t want to waste my chance. I stepped close to her and looked right in her eyes. I saw them widen.

“I’m asking you to give Nylah a chance,” I said. “That’s all. You don’t have to like her—just go in there with nothing but your questions. Don’t assume anything. Don’t anticipate anything. Try not to be rude. Can you do that?”

Olivia stared at me for an extra second, then scoffed and turned her head. “That’s what you’re asking? You really have no idea what you’re saying, do you? You open that mouth of yours and stupid comes out.” She raised her eyes to meet mine. “Fine. You’ve asked, and I’ve accepted it.”

She stormed past me. Big Jacky came up to my side.

“What did I put my foot in this time?” I asked.

He glanced down at my boots. “Mud.”

“Jacky!”

“Oh. You meant that metaphorically.” He put his skeletal hand on my shoulder and turned me around so we could follow Olivia. “Witches aren’t an honor-based society, but they have a number of similarities to them. When a witch gives you her word, it’s as good as a contract. And they care a great deal about the concept of debt.”

I put a hand to my forehead. Of course they did.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I grumbled. “I just didn’t want her sabotaging this with her attitude.”

“I know. It was a reasonable and wise request. Only your phraseology was regrettable.”

“My phraseology?”

“To tell a witch, to her face, that she ‘owes you’ is considered a savage slur and a shameful accusation if accurate. Witches will quietly remember those that owe them favors and call on them when needed, but it’s considered impolite to remind a witch that she subjugated herself enough to ask for your help.”

“Subjugated,” I repeated in a flat tone. I caught myself rolling my eyes and wondered if it was proximity to witch culture that did it. “If you ask me, they have an unhealthy obsession with independence.”

“If you ask me,” Big Jacky said, “I would agree with you. But Iset has explained how their history led to their culture, so I try to be understanding.”

“That’s kind of you.”

“Is it?”

“Since you’ve got that well in hand, I’m going to be pissy and judgmental about it.”

We worked our way through the crowd until we were within hailing distance of Nylah. Rather than call out to her, Olivia crossed the last few feet of open ground and tapped her shoulder.

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I arrived beside them as Nylah turned around. Her expression’s near-instant transformation from polite and friendly to cold and serious would’ve been impressive if it hadn’t been so tragic. Olivia’s expression didn’t change at all. She had walked up to her sister already looking like a funeral director confronting an inconvenient body-snatcher.

But Olivia was true to her word. She didn’t say anything rude. She didn’t say anything at all.

Nylah was forced to break the silence. “Yes?”

Oh, good. That was good! No insult! We might actually get somewhere.

Olivia’s jaw clenched for a moment, then she swallowed and said, “Can I ask you some questions?”

“What about?”

If I’d had a seat, I would’ve been on the edge of it. Could they get through a whole discussion without arguing? Was it possible?

Come on, Olivia! You can do it!

“Are there any wards inside ARC Hall?” Olivia asked.

Nylah’s face changed again. The coldness switched to fear. She scanned the people around her, then took her sister by the arm and drew her closer. She leaned over and spoke in a hushed tone. “Keep your voice down.”

Olivia’s eyes had widened when her sister took her arm. The only statement she could manage was an “um.”

Nylah folded her tablet’s cover over the screen, turned back to her sister, and motioned for Olivia to follow her.

Olivia glanced at me. I shrugged. We all followed.

Nylah led us between two booths. Behind them, a small channel ran the length of the two out-facing rows. There was no one around. Nylah raised her hand and swirled it over her head. A curtain of blue light fell over all of us, making a bubble. The noise cut down by half.

I tried not to stare at the magic, in case Nylah got it into her head to notice what I was doing. That didn’t seem likely. She was too focused on her sister.

“Is this about that shopkeeper?” Nylah asked.

“His name is Nolan Kirby,” Olivia said.

“Your friend?”

“Yes.”

I thought I heard a hint of challenge in Olivia’s voice, but most of it was caught behind her grit teeth. She was trying so hard—bless her, I was getting choked up, just watching it.

Nylah sighed through her nose and raised one hand to rub her forehead. “Olivia, you’re not supposed to ask questions like that.”

“About the wards? Why not?” Olivia demanded.

“Because you’re not supposed to know enough to ask them. You’re an apprentice.”

“How many wards are there in ARC Hall?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Olivia raised her voice. “Why not?”

“Olivia,” I said.

She glanced at me, then looked away. I saw her chest rise and fall as she took a deep breath.

She turned back to her sister. “Is…is there anything that you can tell me? Please?”

It really was a magic word. Nylah blinked, and her shoulders relaxed—but she kept her voice hard. I don’t know. Maybe she had a reputation she had to protect. Heaven forbid her sister might think she was nice.

“I’m allowed to tell you that there are active wards inside ARC Hall,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many there are because I don’t know. I’ve only acted as a wardsman for two of them.”

“Do you know if there are more than two?” Jacky asked.

Nylah’s eyes darted over to him. She looked momentarily surprised, as if she’d forgotten he was there. “I know there are more than two, I don’t know how many.”

“May I ask how you know?”

“I saw the roster once—for all the active wardsmen. There were too many for just two wards.”

Jacky folded his arms. “Interesting.”

“Do you know what areas the wards cover?” Olivia asked.

“Not all of them.” Nylah rubbed her eyes. “Olivia, look. You don’t get it yet. You can’t get it.”

When I saw Olivia scowl and open her mouth to say something, I politely, but firmly, grabbed her arm above her elbow and squeezed.

She clamped her mouth shut.

Nylah went on, oblivious, thanks to her closed eyes. “They only tell you as much as you need to know. You go in there, and they expect you to obey your instructions and not ask any questions. What do I know? Not much. But I know there are places in the library that I’ve never been, and that to get there, you have to have special permission from one of the two heads.”

“Who are they?” I asked.

“The head librarian or the head of the coven,” Nylah said.

Jacky said, “So if we asked you if someone had successfully broken past one of the inner wards and stole something, you wouldn’t be able to tell us?”

“You can’t break past those wards.”

“Humor me.”

Nylah looked as if she had a witty and scathing retort jump into her mouth, but since she was talking to Jacky, it died on her tongue.

“No,” she said, “I wouldn’t know. Depending on which part of the archives they were trying to break into, there might be only two or three people who would know.” Nylah said to Olivia, “Mother is one of them.” She nodded toward coven headquarters. “She’s in there.”

Nylah flicked her wrist, and the bubble of magic faded from the top down.

“Now,” she said, “if you’ll excuse me, I’m afraid I have a lot of work to do. If you have any other questions, you’ll have to come find me.”

Nylah only made it two steps before Olivia called out to her.

She turned back.

“Why are you willing to help me?” Olivia asked.

It was Olivia’s tone that mucked it all up. She sounded slightly confused and slightly sad. It was too honest.

The fact that Olivia was confused by the idea that her sister would help her hit Nylah like a nail through the heart. I saw the instant of pain, and then the anger she used to spackle over the wound.

Nylah spat out, with all the venom of a cobra, “The sooner you find him, the sooner you go back to wherever you came from, right? Then I can get my perfect life back.”

She left.

I sighed.

Jacky said, “Olivia, I have only one witch living in my mansion. She maintains one ward.”

Olivia wasn’t ready for the abrupt switch in topic. She glanced up at Noctis, then her face fell back into a glower.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Under what circumstances would it require more than one witch to maintain a single ward?”

I blinked and turned to Jacky. Olivia’s face cleared.

“What?” she said.

“Nylah said that she saw the roster which included a list of wardsmen. ‘There were too many for just two wards,’” Jacky said. “I would’ve thought that three would be too many for two wards, but I think I’m misunderstanding something.”

Olivia pulled a lock of her hair over her shoulder and played with the ends of it. When she spoke, her voice was musing and slow.

“If the witches maintaining it were weak, they might try to pool their power.”

“Would the coven use weak witches?” I asked.

“No,” Olivia said, “but if it’s not that, then the only thing that makes sense is if keeping the ward up drained a lot of power. If it did, they’d have to take the ward in shifts.”

“Does that mean the coven keeps those wards up twenty-four-seven?”

“That’s what it sounds like.”

Jacky said, “Size and strength are the primary factors that determine how much power it takes to maintain a ward, correct?”

Olivia nodded.

“Since they’re no larger than a building,” Jacky murmured, “we can assume they must be very strong.”

“No wonder Nylah was so sure that no one could get past them,” I said.

Jacky hummed, then said, “And on initial embarrassment, Olivia couldn’t imagine how someone could be invisible without leaving any trace of magic.”

“What on earth?” My nose crinkled. “What does ‘on initial embarrassment’ mean?”

“It’s a phrase.” Jacky didn’t sound too sure of himself. “It means ‘when you first encounter something.’”

Olivia said, “Did you mean ‘at first blush?’”

Jacky hurried on, “The point is that Nylah’s certainty that the wards are impenetrable can’t be relied on. If we're going to try to figure out what the thieves are up to, we need as much information as possible, so we need to know what, if anything, was stolen from ARC Hall, and only two or three people would have that knowledge.”

Olivia’s face went pale. “So?”

“I think we have to talk to your mother.”

“She said nothing was stolen.”

“She may know better now.”

“She won’t help.”

“You said the same thing about Nylah.”

Olivia’s face twitched, neck muscles clenched and unclenched, then her mouth jerked open. “Fine!” she yelled. “But I don’t want you there, Mr. Noctis.”

Jacky’s shoe slid back a few inches. In all my second life, I’d never seen Big Jacky take a step back from anything.

“But—” Jacky started.

“Not you!”