And if we come up with something better we can do that instead. She sighs. I hate this.

It's going to be a project to cast everything but I can do a lot of it while you're still here.

Run it by my brothers first, see if they think of any loopholes.

Yeah.

Do you actually want this? Of the options we have?

Whatever things would be the right things to do if this were real, and don't give the Enemy useful information, are the right things to do.

Torturing you is definitely not the right thing to do and this is a hex we're talking about. One that might hurt you in a way that I don't actually understand.

I can't see why torturing me would be an exception to that rule.

Well, I do.

If you actually want it, of the options available, that's fine. But 'spend a couple days thinking about things that might hurt less' is an option that's available.

Sure. Let me know if you think of any.

All right.

I'll go tell your sibling, too, maybe one of them will come up with something.

I'm sure they've been thinking about it a lot.

Yeah.

And here she is back with Carnistir.

Hey.

Hey.

Turns out walking is not the actual problem. They'd been talking like there was a way to know if they'd be safe to be around, I hadn't realized there isn't.

It's Maitimo. The Enemy couldn't have broken him.

They want to be surer than that.

Because he's a noble fool.

She bristles, just slightly. Because it matters.

I have an idea but I really hope you can come up with a better one.

What's your idea?

She makes a face. I'm not sure how horrifying this sounds, but probably at least some - I can do a variant on the pinning hex that lets people move a little ways from where they're pinned to, and I can put a bunch of those together to make paths. It'll take a while, but I can make it so they can move around the whole palace - or most of the whole palace, they still shouldn't have access to weapons, they said - but in any room they're in, people can get away from them if anything happens. And other places, too - we're not sure how much space they'll need to not feel trapped, but if it's just that, I can do it.

And remove it once he's satisfied it's no longer necessary?

She nods. It'll be completely removable.

Okay, seems fair enough. I'll ask Maitimo's regent.

All right, thank you.

Macalaure, he's trying to figure out how to come back if he might be rigged to fight us.

They brainstorm a few minutes, then - can you do something triggered by moving too fast, or by picking up a weapon -

Moving too fast, yeah. Moving in certain ways, too. Weapon, no, unless they're all made of something distinctive or something.