Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty - Mystery Box

    "Do you have any idea how little mana I have left?" the man groused.

    Sometimes it wasn''t hard to sense that someone didn''t want to be very helpful. Like this guy. We had met him just outside the Property Deed Archive - the building Booksie and I had been holed up in while we waited for the wedding to start. Apparently, it had been commandeered as a warehouse for wedding presents. All the desks in the communal office had been shoved aside and all the gifts had been piled up in a heap.

    The room was now split pretty much down the middle. To one side, the gifts, to the other, the gift.

    "I can hold on to this shield forever, it''s costing me less mana to upkeep than my regeneration rate, but it''s also requiring a lot of focus, and I''m only contracted to work for another hour," the man said.

    He was a rather short grenoil wearing a reddish robe with a rather small wizard''s hat plopped atop his head. The badges pinned to the front of his robes marked him as an active member of the Mages Guild, which was probably why he was here maintaining a magical shield around Rainnewt''s likely-very-bad gift.

    "I''m aware of the inconvenience," Amaryllis said. She didn''t sound all that sincere, or apologetic, but she was trying. "This situation is exactly why the Guild was hired as part of the security for this event."

    "You expected this?" the grenoil wizard asked, or maybe accused.

    "We took appropriate measures to ensure that if something like this happened, sufficient security would be in place to prevent any malfeasance," Amaryllis replied rather tersely.

    "I''m sorry that you have to keep that shield up," I said lightly. The shield was a sort of half-dome, stretching across the room and slipping under a box atop which the gift sat. It hummed, even in my limited magical senses.

    I couldn''t tell exactly how much mana the wizard was pouring into it, but it felt like a lot. I could only barely see through the shield, and it looked like it might actually be several thinner shields layered atop each other, each one a tightly woven net of mana, like glowing wires worked into a complex pattern.

    "Did you want us to get you anything? There''s stalls outside with like, cakes and snacks? Maybe something to drink?"

    The wizard eyed me, but then he shrugged. "I wouldn''t say no to a glass of something," he said.

    I didn''t end up having to fetch that. As it turned out, the maybe-a-bomb had attracted a lot of attention, and there were a couple of members of the Exploration Guild here, as well as a guard captain and some people from the city. Amaryllis and I, as well as Desiree, were the only members of our group here. The others were waiting outside. Caprica wanted to be here, but her own guards almost had kittens when they found out. Calamity and Awen were keeping her company for now.

    Amaryllis leaned in closer to me. "We barely have this situation under control, and that''s only because we have momentum. We need to come up with a solution and quickly, before this turns into a committee and then we''ll never get to the bottom of anything."

    "Okay," I muttered back as I tried to keep my own voice low. "So, what do we do, then?"

    "I daresay we ought to investigate how dangerous the box actually is," Desiree replied.

    Amaryllis nodded. "Good idea. Afterwards... I do have some talent with magical strings. I could manoeuvre some closer and open the box from afar, without disrupting the shield."

    I twitched my ears a little. There were still some firecrackers and such going off. In fact, the entire city seemed to be in a party mood. Another pop wouldn''t be noticed... but I still didn''t think it was right.

    "If they can funnel out the fire and an explosion, then there''s no reason we shouldn''t open the box carefully from afar," I said. "We still don''t know if it''s a bomb for real."

    Amaryllis grumbled, but then she nodded. "Let me talk to a few people and get things coordinated."

    It took another half hour, a rather boring one, but by the end of it we had a plan in place, if a simple one. Amaryllis crouched down next to the double shield, a pair of Exploration Guild members flanking her. They both had neat skills that would let them tank any incoming damage for an ally, and were a lot tougher than either of us. The rest of the people in the room were pushed back to behind a third shield, kept up by a junior member of the Mages Guild.

    Amaryllis carefully stretched her magic out into a long sort of wire, then she pushed it through the magical shields. They snaked and waved about, then moved gently forwards and towards the box.

    I found myself chewing on the tip of an ear as her magic reached the gift and plucked the ribbon off the top. It came apart, and then Amaryllis had to carefully move her magic wires to tug the wrapping off of the back, peeling it away until she could get at the box itself.

    It opened and... nothing much happened.

    There was a bit of nervous laughter. But we weren''t in the clear yet.

    Amaryllis stretched her fingers, then dipped her wires into the box and wrapped them around the mechanical device.

    She smoothly gestured upward, and it came out cleanly. Her wires set the device down on the floor.

    "That''s... a clock," I said.

    "Looks like it," Amaryllis replied.

    One by one, she pulled everything out until each item was laying on the ground separated from the rest, then she pulled her mana back. "Looks like... that clock, a letter, a book, and some slightly dried out flowers," Amaryllis said.

    Desiree frowned. "Does Rainnewt yet toy with us? What possible reason could that scoundrel have for gifting such ordinary items?"

    "I don''t know," I said. "But I bet that letter will tell us."

    I was so curious to read it that I was almost tingling.

    ***