Search for traps and treasure

[aestrix]

There is a library.

It is actually an excellent example of one: it has books on history and philosophy and astronomy and science and languages and even a little modest section for storybooks, tucked in a corner against the wall. These books are all easy to pick up off the shelves and read, like ordinary libraries.

The books on magic, on the other hand, are behind locked and spelled glass, with their position signatures scrambled and constantly shifting so they can't be teleported away, each one built to set off a silent alarm that'll alert the owner if touched, and to turn completely blank if opened without permission. And then burst into flames if someone tries to force it to show what it's hiding or tampered with in the wrong sort of way.

Just another day in Kystle. Stealing peeks from books in a mage's library is not recommended for the casual reader.

Comments

[pythbox]

"...true," muses Tierval. "Paper stores really densely, though. And if I shoved a whole libraryful of books onto, I don't know, a coin, because lugging around a library of coins would be a pain, I'm not sure how that would affect speed and mana cost and how much of a pain it would be to pull them out again afterward."

"Maybe Savril has a guess about that," says Serin.

[all_too_familiar]

"I am sometimes clever," agrees Savril sagely. (His sister raises an eyebrow, he ignores her. She doesn't comment further.) "But seriously, it doesn't seem very hard at all actually. You can make it so that if a certain thing happens - it doesn't even need to be physically possible - then it will display the copied text in an illusion on its surface. Then you can just grab it later with another spell."

[pythbox]

"Why in the world would I bother making it display the text in some unlikely and inconvenient way when I was only going to copy it out later anyway? That's just a complete waste of my time and mana," says Tierval.

Serin starts giggling helplessly.

...Tierval looks at Serin with the expression of one who suspects he might get the joke but isn't totally sure.

[all_too_familiar]

"Well forgive me for trying to lead you down the rabbit hole, next time I will just throw you in," says Savril mildly. "But you get my point."

Is he going to be upset about a ten year old easily outsmarting his fourteen year old self? ... Nah. Nah this is fine.

[aestrix]

Kavet just looks confused.

[pythbox]

Tierval manages to pick up from Serin's giggles that he does, in fact, correctly understand the joke. He totally just trash-talked Savril's book-stealing method. Oops.

"Sorry," he says, grinning. "Anyway. So putting a bunch of books on the same coin, or whatever, wouldn't confuse the poor thing?"

[all_too_familiar]

Savril doesn't look offended; he snickers, himself.

"Not if you do it right, no. There's - actually you know what, do you want to just see mine?"

[aestrix]

Kavetnia has connected the dots!

She opens her mouth, then closes it.

"... Normally families don't have this many books, do they."

[all_too_familiar]

Savril just grins.

[aestrix]

"Right. Okay."

[pythbox]

"Sure, let's see yours," says Tierval.

Serin finally manages to get ahold of himself.

(Orion, over there reading a book, looks amused.)

[all_too_familiar]

"This way," says Savril brightly.

Out of the library he goes, and to Lady Larivias's office.

"Hey mom! The little genius brigade figured out my terrible terrible misdeeds! They want to judge my work and find me wanting!"

[aestrix]

His mother opens the door.

"Ah," she says, deadpan. "Well at least now they can appreciate the irony."

She glances at Kavetnia before doing anything else, to judge how she's taking this information. ... Okay for now, but she'd like to have a talk with her while the boys geek out.

"I will appreciate discretion," she adds, opening a drawer and removing the false bottom and retrieving a smooth, flat stone. She tosses it to Savril. "If you wouldn't mind."

[pythbox]

"Of course," Tierval assures her seriously.

[aestrix]

"Thank you," she says. "Kavetnia, may I borrow you?"

Kavet nods, and smiles a little.

[all_too_familiar]

"Thanks mom."

He hands the rock to Tierval.

"Back to the library, so you can judge my work and find me wanting. And probably test it out."

[pythbox]

"Absolutely," says Tierval, studying the rock in fascination. "This thing's pretty neat."

He glances at Serin, and there is a very very brief Triplet Conference. (Orion is still back in the library with the bookpages.)

"Which doesn't mean he won't ruthlessly critique your mana expenditure," says Serin.

"I like efficiency!" says Tierval.

[all_too_familiar]

Savril cracks up.

"Sure, critique as you like. I can make a new version." Pause. "... This is actually version five, by the way, it took me ages to realize the illusion thing was a waste of mana. I think I just liked the idea of having a rock that could spit out illusions."

[pythbox]

Tierval giggles.

[all_too_familiar]

"Mom was of the opinion that if I was going to break into houses I should do it right. You know. Along with the general exasperation," he says conversationally. "And then she got annoyed with formatting and pompous writing styles, and it was a good idea to not have the books be written exactly like the ones I copied... So, long story short I dragged both of my parents into a life of crime. I regret nothing."

[pythbox]

"That's amazing," says Tierval.

Serin glances at him, and they exchange a Meaningful Look.

"...Can we help?" asks Tierval hopefully.

[all_too_familiar]

"I mean. Yes and no? Obviously you are excessively talented in magic, information gathering, and general sneakery, and probably would be better at it than I am, but there's a difference between going to go do a risky, possibly stupid thing myself, and then bringing other people along for it. So - yeah, feel free to help with brutally critiquing my form, helping me case places, and turning the rock-books into book-books or the like, but I can't in good conscience go, 'Yeah sure come along and be hooligans with me,' you know?" Pause. "Also I have met you, and I can only imagine what your parents are like, from what little I know I do not want to get on their bad side."

[pythbox]

Tierval snickers. Serin grins.

"Yeah, that's fair," says Tierval.

"What if our parents say we may?" wonders Serin.

"...Would they?"

"They might."

[all_too_familiar]

"If your parents say you may... we can give it a shot, I guess?" shrugs Savril.

[pythbox]

Tierval beams. Serin laughs quietly.