a very muted-looking rakela brought us some bad news this morning
a member of the "king's lanterns" – breland's special investigators? – saw everything that happened last night and witnessed to the brelish military
we wouldn't have taken the job if we'd known what it really was and rakela understands but it still looks very bad for us
we have enough problems without the brelish authorities thinking of us as the jerks who helped out a war criminal
unlike back home we can't just explain ourselves and expect to be believed
rakela's plan to salvage the situation means we'll have to travel to arcanix – already our next destination! – and wait for further information there
i know it's for good reasons but i hate being kept in suspense!
after she left we said our thanks to the wayfinders and then zer' teleported us to the circle in the arcanix public library
teleportation is very disorienting for gryphons so we took a minute for medya to recover then headed toward the "witch's wand public house"
on the way we saw the arcane congress
nobody told me that it exists as four huge floating towers in constant motion with a web of bridges that shift to maintain connections
i reluctantly admit that it's even more impressive than the school of magic in viljatown
the roads in arcanix are a tangled mess which also reminds me of home but in a less convenient way
we passed a public portal with a sign claiming it to be "reliable" which was reassuring at first but less so the more i thought about why that sign might need to be there
also distressing was the focus-wrecking sensory assault of flashy magic that nearly every shop and cafe and inn uses to lure folks in
good thing the witch's wand had a ward to keep the sound outside
while we waited i worked up more detailed plans for medya's gauntlets
i'm glad i have bell's help with the engineering because compared to my boots these will have so much more articulation and so much less physical material to hold it all together
and because it's all fine filigree work i can't use modeling clay to sketch it because that collapses too easily so i've been using stiff wire
which reminds me of my dad's beautiful jewelry work
rakela showed up after a few hours to reveal her plan
leali still has helpful contacts in the arcane congress so despite her previous experiences there she'll be visiting tomorrow to help us get in so i can publish!
... and also because the plan involves finding emmer sykes there and luring him away from aundair with the promise of a full pardon if he agrees to work for breland
but once he's there they'll arrest him instead and hold a public tribunal
i'm not comfortable with that method but if rakela's commander sees enough wisdom in it to allow her to try then it'll have to do
it's not that i'm concerned for sykes – he's dismissed every opportunity to be something other than despicable and now he must be brought to justice before he can cause more harm
but as my great-grandsire "cartwright" (dream in harmony) loved to say
truth built on a lie is like a bridge built on sawdust
from outside the arcane congress there's no scrying to find where sykes is within
even inside it'll take heavy effort but leali's specialty is in understanding magical language so she can recite the witness that brelish informant gave and then use that as a scrying focus
when she arrives tomorrow
tonight's plan is to get a good meal with medya then triple-check that all my notes are properly sorted and sorted and then maybe – just maybe – get a full night's sleep